Battery Life: Specs vs Reality

[rui-no-onna]

Does anyone here have any idea where manufacturers pull their battery life specifications from? Is it from a random number generator?

From Phonearena:

[FONT=Courier New]Phone Model              iPhone 4       Galaxy S 4G    Nexus S
Talk time (3G)           7.00 hours     6.50 hours     6.00 hours
Stand-by time (3G)       12.5 days      12.5 days      17.8 days
Capacity                 1420 mAh       1650 mAh       1500 mAh[/FONT]

Frankly, the only phone that comes even close to getting the advertised stand-by time is the iPhone (with very minimal use I've been able to go more than a week without charging the iPhone 4). Meanwhile, the Galaxy S 4G barely lasts 3 days while the Nexus S does last up to 7 days (with little to no use, sync off, wifi off, gps off, screen off, no widgets, excellent reception).

Are manufacturers just pulling these numbers out of a hat or something?

 

[Shocky]

7 days? wow, you must barely use your phone at all.

Longest I've gone is three days because I actually use my phone, so these advertised standby times are meaningless too me.

My phone drops 2% over night with data disabled which seems good too me, don't really see the point in leaving data enabled.

I'm sure theres some standardised testing they use to come up with these figures but to be honest I really don't care, I pay more attention to user reviews and comments.

 

[chanchan05]

Not sure about other manufacturers, but Nokia generally pulls theirs off labs with optimum battery conserving conditions, like max signals, ambient temperature and all that considered.

It could be that other manufacturers are doing the same thing, or using hardware energy usage ratings.

 

[rui-no-onna]

7 days? wow, you must barely use your phone at all.

I have a bunch of phones that I can switch around. Primary use phone is the iPhone 4. The Androids are mostly for experimenting as I try to find a good replacement for the iPhone (right now, the Xperia Ray seems to be winning) and iOS apps I use. As far as mobile OSes go, I much prefer Android over iOS but it's hard to find a phone that suits me as well as the iPhone.

The time I got over 7 days on the iPhone 4, I was home sick and wasn't using the phone at all (aside from it receiving a couple of texts which I didn't read until I got back to work). Was actually surprised the phone lasted that long without charging. I was expecting to find it dead.

The 7 days on the Nexus S and 3 days on the Galaxy S 4G was without any use at all and since they specifically mentioned Standby 3G, I would think that the 3G radio is enabled. I get excellent signal at home and with all unnecessary services disabled, I would think that's as close to ideal conditions as you can get in the real world.

 

[Shocky]

The 7 days on the Nexus S and 3 days on the Galaxy S 4G was without any use at all and since they specifically mentioned Standby 3G, I would think that the 3G radio is enabled. I get excellent signal at home and with all unnecessary services disabled, I would think that's as close to ideal conditions as you can get in the real world.

Might be worth asking in the Galaxy S 4G forum, I have experience only with the international version of the Galaxy S. 3 days with no use just doesnt sound right.