iPhone
It is, of course, gorgeous but falls into the same old, deep routed problem that is the battery (a subject which is close to my heart as I'm in the battery industry). So off I went to see the ubiquitous dismantling of a new Apple lust object with a particular interest in the battery.
Oh dear. Non user replaceable on a mobile phone means this device is one for the masochists and Apple fanboys only. Using a Sony Li-Ion cell US555143 (5.5mm thick, 51mm wide, 43mm long) delivering, if you're lucky 1500mAh of power. Apple themselves claim 8 hours of talk time and 250 hours standby with all the usual caveats (everything useful turned off, network and location dependant etc). I love the little, very little, warning at the bottom.
Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
Oh yeah? "eventually need replaced"...eventually!??! Yeah, tell me about it, and how do you propose replacing the battery on that thing?
posted by Ricky Dee at
2:09 PM
5 Comments:
I agree it seems kind of daft not being able to change the battery on it. That said all the phones I have owned (three of them) have never needed the battery replaced, they all lasted as long as the phone. So I don’t think it is that short sighted of apple, and wouldn’t put me off buying one if I was in the market. I think as long as you fully discharge (or as close as you can get) before fully re-charging, the batteries seem to do alright. Certainly the battery life does degrade (only get six days instead of seven), but not to the point of being useless and needing replaced.
I think a lot could be done to improve performance if the phones had some software options users could implement to help extend battery life. Like “Don’t recharge unless fully discharged” or perhaps “Discharge battery fully and recharge”, where you could leave the thing plugged in, set the necessary software to work and the phone would do the rest for you.
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Lewis
By
Anonymous, at 06 July 2007 08:25
It could run on a turd powered with pure smellovision and we still know someone who would buy it, and since he hasn't posted a response here yet he is probably queuing for one now!
By
David, at 07 July 2007 23:19
Lewis: Hi, you're alive then, long time no hear from. Fingers crossed these Sony cells don't explode and force a recall like their 18650 laptop cells. That could be eye wateringly expensive. People say the iPod has a built in battery so it's not an issue that the iPhone has the same but my argument is if your battery runs out on an iPod you have no music, if the battery dies on an iPhone you have no comms, a much more serious event in my mind.
David (not Dave): The person of which you speak of does appear to have turned into a fully fledged Apple fanboy but he obviously has the cash to fund his devotion, so best of luck to him.
By
Ricky Dee, at 08 July 2007 13:00
Hello hello. I had to leave that queue just to post here!
I do love my Apple products but I wouldn't really say I'm a fanboy. They have flaws and issues like everything else, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
I'm not a fan of the locked away batteries though. Any issue you have with them and your totally fecked. I was pretty lucky and never really had a battery issue with the iPods but if I lost mp3 playing capabilities I wouldn't be fussed. If I lost ability to call then that would be a bigger issue although I don't know anyone who carries a spare phone battery with them - usually they carry a charger.
As for buying an iPhone...I'll probably be in the queue for Euro launch. I'm a sucker for gadgets and the interface on the iPhone looks to be genius.
By
Ian, at 09 July 2007 16:24
Good grief, I mean really, GOOD GRIEF. Apple have come clean about their iPhone replacement battery plans (after they've already sold 5000,000 units).
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?rss&newsid=18445
Read it and weep. $79 + $6.95 postage + $15 if you want to rent a temporary phone for the 3 day turnaround and you'll lose all the data on the phone. Genius.
By
Ricky Dee, at 09 July 2007 19:58
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