iPhone 3G Battery Life Beats the Competition, Apple's Own Tests

The first iPhone 3G battery test results are in, and it seems it beats the competition and Apple's own benchmarks with an average of 5 hours and 38 minutes talking non-stop on AT&T's 3G network. The closest competitor—only five minutes short—was the Samsung Instinct.

PC World says that the result is remarkable knowing that AT&T's HSDPA/UMTS network is very power-hungry because voice calls use the more battery-demanding 3G band. Apple's own tests give the new iPhone a 5 hour talk time over 3G, so that's 38 minutes more. By contrast, the Samsung Instinct—which runs on EVDO—switches to CDMA for voice, which they say it uses less power. In theory—as the results show.

They also claim that the iPhone 3G's battery performance is lower than the iPhone over 2G, which is true. But that's like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended). They didn't test the latest iPhone's battery life over 2G networks, which Apple rates at 10 hours (the same as the iPhone classic). Also, these tests don't compare the iPhone to some options available elsewhere in the world—like Nokia's—but it gives a good idea of where the iPhone 3G stands against the competition.