Understanding the iPhone 3GS
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 7, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
A Testament to Honesty about Battery Life
I follow AMD's Patrick Moorhead on Twitter and recently he's been on a tirade against MobileMark 2007 and those who use it to characterize notebook battery life. Moorehead's complaint is motivated by the fact that Intel performs better on MobileMark than AMD (possibly due to better power characteristics at idle conditions), but it highlights another truth: most notebook makers can't be trusted when it comes to battery life claims.
In my recent MacBook Pro coverage I pointed out that this wasn't true for Apple. Apple claimed that the new MacBook Pro could last up to 7 hours on a single charge under a wireless productivity test, and my own tests backed up that assertion. Apple said its new 15-inch MacBook Pro could last up to 7 hours and my tests showed between 5 - 8 hours of battery life depending on workload.
Apple isn't very specific with the MacBook Pro battery life, you just get an upper limit. With the iPhone however, Apple has gotten much better at indicating battery life. In nearly every single test I ran, Apple's advertised battery life and the battery life I actually experienced were almost identical.
Apple claims that web browsing on WiFi should last you about 9 hours on the new iPhone 3GS; mine lasted 8.83 hours. Apple said on 3G I should get 5 hours, I got 4.81. For video playback Apple said the new iPhone 3GS should deliver 10 hours of battery life, I estimated around 9 (I was at the 5 hour mark with more than 50% of my battery left). Apple also does a bang up job on detailing its testing methodology if you care to read how Apple tests.
While I'll always run my own tests to verify Apple's claims, I will say that I've never been this impressed by a manufacturer's honesty with regards to performance claims. Apple gets praised for its design, attacked for its secrecy but it should be commended for its transparency and honesty when it comes to battery life specs on its products.
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psonice - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
My understanding is that the iphone 3gs GPU is actually a 535, not a 520. At least, this is the current understanding among iphone developers, and there's an SGX535 driver on the phone to support that. The extra power might explain the hit on battery life when playing games.Real numbers are pretty hard to come by, but it seems the 535 is roughly 4x faster than the 520. If so, that's a massive upgrade rather than just a decent one. The 535 also supports HD video decoding where the 520 doesn't - not that apple seem to be supporting it if it does.
I heard too that the palm pre has a 530 GPU, which is 2x faster than the 520. That puts the iphone a long way ahead for graphics instead of behind.
One thing in the article I really disagree with btw: you say that the phone makers should provide detailed specs. I think they shouldn't, as it's not helpful at all for the average buyer. If you go into a shop without having much clue and ask for an iphone because it's the latest thing, and the shop assistant says "well this is like an iphone, but it runs 200mhz faster" you'll end up buying the "better" phone based on the spec sheet, even if it's running win mobile 5.
I was in Japan a while back, and they tend to buy phones based on the spec sheets there. The phones all compete on having the most features. They're all really big and HORRIBLE to actually use. None of that please!
I think apple actually get their commercials right with the iphone on the whole: show somebody actually using the phone to do stuff. If the other manufacturers did the same, that would be a perfect way to compare.
christinme7890 - Thursday, July 9, 2009 - link
I agree with you holistically. There are not many people in this world that even understand the specs. Not to mention when it comes to specs, and the person has no clue, they end up getting the one with the highest numbers. This is bad. I think you are right in saying that the way apple works their commercials is perfect for people. They show people all the great apps that they could use and they say that ALL of these apps can be on one phone.This is why I hate the Best buy MS commercials where the kid goes into the BB and buys a PC instead of a mac. The person always buys the computer with the best specs and care little about the OS, which is what they will be using. Windows, imo after using a Mac for a year, sucks in comparison to Mac. I rarely have a problem with a mac. I sit in class everyday and watch all the pc people have startup errors and os sleep or hibernation errors. I can close my mac and KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that it will wake up totally fine. Not to mention it wakes up seamlessly without load screens or anything. I will not compare the two but for business and usability the MAC gets my vote and I think if Apple does their commercials for the macs just as great. Sure most people are still using MS but that is because MS strong arms people into buying their stuff everytime you buy a Computer (not to mention Apple is very strict with their software and rightly so).
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Ooh, very interesting - do you have any links to discussions on the 535 being in the 3GS?I don't think end users need to be bombarded with specs, but I think there needs to be more information put out about these things. We shouldn't have to play guessing games about clocks and specs; don't market them, but don't hide them either - that's my thinking.
Take care,
Anand
BlazingDragon - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Anand, here it is:http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/25/iphone-3gs-has...">http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/25/iph...has-more...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Very interesting - thanks guys, I've updated the article.Take care,
Anand
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
It should probably also be noted that the MBX-Lite supports OpenGL ES 1.1 as implemented by Apple not just OpenGL ES 1.0. I believe it's Android's implementation that currently only supports OpenGL ES 1.0.It's also been reported that the iPhone OS 3.1 betas include improvements to the OpenGL stack that include additional OpenGL extensions. Whether these are focused on OpenGL ES 2.0 and the SGX or are also for OpenGL ES 1.1 and the MBX remains to be seen. Although on the issue of reducing market segmentation, it'd be great if Apple could implement the OpenGL ES 1.1 Extension Pack although I don't know if the MBX-Lite can actually support it in hardware.
BlazingDragon - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Anand, here's it is:iPhone 3GS Has More Powerful PowerVR SGX 535 GPU?
kelmerp - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
I'm trying to decide between the MyTouch or a jailbroken iphone.sxr7171 - Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - link
JB iPhone vs. MyTouch? They're not even in the same league. Pre vs. iPhone is a comparison.pennyfan87 - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
anand,i love you writing and tech analysis.
but please, drop the fanboyism.
3 articles on such a minor upgrade? please.
more SSD stuff please.