Is the iPhone 4S's battery life that good compared to Android Devices?

[wplush]

Hi guys, just some background info on me....

I've been an iOS user from the first iPhone and only now switched to Android. My first Android....the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Unlocked for AT&T.

I love the UI, widgets, notifications, and large screen size of the device and software.

My major gripe is the battery life is so much weaker than my iPhone 4S. After both a full charge, and about 1/2 day using both devices the results are.....

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (4.1 Jelly Bean) = 67%
iPhone 4S (5.1.1) = 90%

I had my iPhone 4S for 5 months and the Galaxy for 1 week.

Is this typical of Android devices, I have a task killer to kill background task in hoping to save some battery life. Is there other things I can do to extend the batter? Do i need to constantly turn off the wifi and gps when i'm not using it. On my 4S, I leave all of those on.....

Thanks guys.

wplush

 

[matttye]

Stop using that task killer; they're no good.

There are some things you can do to conserve battery.. turn down brightness, turn off options when you're not using them (bluetooth, WiFi, etc.), you can install apps that turn mobile data off when the screen is off, but it depends whether or not you want to be able to get notifications when your screen is off. Also set auto-sync times to quite long.

Android is much less strict with regards to what can run in the background, so the battery is not going to be as good as the iPhone.

 

[wplush]

Thanks matttye! Wow, that was a fast reply.

Ok, I've been using the "Advanced Task Manager" by INFOLIFE. I guess I'm better off without then.

My screen is on the auto brightness mode so it's pretty dim in general.

I'll turn off wifi, gps, and bluetooth when not using it.

I love the device as a whole and after using it heavily for several days the iPhone iOS seems "boring" I don't know of a better word for it. But after what Apple revealed in iOS6 it was so disappointing. Especially the major improvements that google made in Jelly Bean. Project Butter is awesome. In my opinion, the best feature of Jelly Bean cause when I got the phone, it had ICS installed and speed improvement was obvious.

Several things would make this device perfect.....

1. Better battery life (to match the iPhone 4s)
2. Better integration with 3rd party devices like car audio (I used my iPhone to listen to music with my Kenwood Deck) maybe there's an app for that?
3. I was going to say apps, but a majority of the apps I heavily use on iOS is on the Play Store which is great. I have the Nexus 7 and i hope more "tablet" apps get developed.

Overall, I am happy and looking to get rid of my iPhone 4S. I know the iPhone 5 is coming in probably September or October which will be a beast of phone regarding specs. But it will be only as good as iOS 6 which isn't much different from iOS 5.

 

[Crashdamage]

Task killers are an unnecessary evil. Uninstall it! It actually hurts battery life not help.

Don't worry about running processes or memory use. Android does an excellent job of system management with no help from the user or 3rd-party apps. Just relax and enjoy your phone.

 

[matttye]

You don't need to turn GPS off as GPS only drains the battery when an app is actively trying to get a GPS lock, but Wifi and Bluetooth are constantly searching for networks/devices so it's important to turn them off when not in use.

If you're willing to do some research there's a way we can find out what's using the most battery. Download "better battery stats" from the Google Play Store (costs a small fee) and it will tell you which "kernel wakelocks" your phone is suffering from, if any. If you have a lot of these they can have a big effect on battery life. You'll need to recharge and then discharge the phone after installing better battery stats otherwise it won't have anything to report.

 

[fam]

Yes...the iphone battery life is magical compared to android...but you are talking about a tiny screen...3g..and with not a lot allowed to run in background.

Wife has a 4S, had her on an incredible before that...Ive had a droid1,droidx, galaxy nexus..there are times I will have gone through 3 batteries (very long day and night out ghost hunting...and she will still be on 28% when we get home...its nuts....but...
do you want the honda civics of phones...or do you want something more awesome...thats the real question.