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iPhone may not make a good reader: Battery life issue
July 31, 2008 | 12:24 pm
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By Paul Biba
I’ve spent the last couple of days using my iPhone 3G as an ebook reader—trying out all the different software out there. So far the most stable software seems to be Fictionwise’s eReader. The ability to download books directly from Fictionwise, without going the "server" route, is a huge plus over the other products.
A big problem, however, may consign the iPhone to just occasional reading use – battery power. There seems to be no question that my 3G has a lower battery life then my original iPhone. That may not be too bad, but when used in low signal areas the new 3G really depletes the battery quickly compared to the older phone.
I live in a fairly weak AT&T signal area and only get one or two bars, at most, at either home or work. This is an important factor because of the way cell phones work. The output of the cell phone transmitter will vary depending on signal conditions. The poorer the signal, the higher the output of the transmitter will be. Of course this uses more battery power and the longer you stay in a poor signal area the less time your battery will last.
Well, I have turned off 3G on my iPhone and am just using Edge. The WiFi environment is the same between the old and new phones. I find that after 18 hours am down to about 40% battery power on the new phone. On my older iPhone I could easily go for two or three days on a single charge. One day, at most, is all I can get on the iPhone 3G.
Add an ebook reader to this and, even with the screen at a very low brightness, I have definite battery problems. I can’t complete a full day on the phone without anything other than occasional ebook reading.
How this will play out in a strong signal area I don’t know, but I am currently skeptical that the iPhone 3G will make a good ebook reader in terms of battery life. There is a lot to be said for the "unlimited" battery life of my Sony Reader.
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Comments:
Usually 3G-phones will degrade gracefully to 1G gsm when outside 3G areas, but unfortunately it doesn’t work the other way around. E.g., if I run my E61 in “dual-mode” (i.e., UMTS where available, GSM otherwise) I get only half the battery life but still it often switches to GPRS or somesuch non-3G-connection, and if I switch to “GSM-mode” I get twice the battery life but then it never uses 3G-connections even when it’d otherwise be possible.
I wish there was a mode that would use 1G GSM for calls, yet use UMTS for data connections, but maybe the standards don’t support that.
Anyway, back to the topic; the umts/gsm-mode in my phone seems to make a bigger difference then reading or not reading on it has. At 2.8″ my E61′s display is a bit smaller than the one on the iPhone, though.
You can eak out a decent battery life on the iPod touch, as long as you turn off wi-fi (the current version doesn’t have battery eating bluetooth (nor battery eating iPhone cell phone hardware of course)). And stay away from running any graphics heavy apps (e.g. games).
(Also, at one point there was a quirk in the iPhone/touch power management – if you left one plugged into a computer that was turned off/hibernating/sleeping the battery would drain. Not sure if the most recent software update fixed that.)
I also suspect using an iPod to listen to music will use more power than reading an ebook but I haven’t compared those two activities yet.
I suspected as much in regard to iPhone 3G battery life. I keep a keen eye out for available portable power dongles. JK seems to like this one, but his Commenters differ:
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/07/iphone-ipod-bac.html
The best backup dongle I’ve seen is a very simple one from
http://www.turbocellcharge.com/v2/cart.php
The unit uses two AA batteries and I’ve used it with my iPhone, iPhone 3G, Palm TX and iPod. You can get it with a set of adapters that cover all these units, and more and it costs about $30. I’m a big fan of AA batteries. I don’t see much point in a recharger that you have to recharge, because how can you recharge it if you don’t have a charger recharger. You can always find a couple of AA batteries (or even use rechargeable ones). Works like a charm.
I did a Palm Addict mini-review here:
http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2007/11/gadget-report–.html
I came to iPhone 3G from a battery gobbling iMate Jasjar Windows Mobile phone so I am used to charging frequently. I don’t expect to be able to go for days without charging if I use the non-phone parts (apps, iPod etc) frequently. The biggest problem with the iPhone is that Safari and other apps work so well that I am using the device much more frequently, so battery naturally suffers.
I turn off 3G unless I explicitly need it (or am at my desk at work), turn off Location Services and if I am really concerned I might turn off WiFi as well. I did also get a PowerChimp but he can’t charge the iPhone for some reason.
I have read several books on the iPhone using eReader and am delighted with it. It isn’t terribly draining itself (unlike games and other more intensive apps) and was the essential app that needed to be there before I got an iPhone. This does make me biased, in that I want it to work for ebooks and will try to circumvent battery issues to ensure that it does!
Paul: Thanks for that! I have such a charger for my dead Toshiba GENIO PPC. I like off-the-shelf batteries too, although they can weigh more than a LiOn pack.
Every single day I have to recharge my iPod, my cell phone and my Palm Tungsten T5 (has a big screen for reaing eBooks). When I buy an iPhone I’ll have to recharge just one device every day. That will be a big improvement for me.