In a word - battery life! The 3G network, while being much faster, runs down the battery much quicker. Here is an article with hard numbers in a comparison with the Blackjack:
3G vs. Edge
The article suggests the 3G network impact talking time dramatically, so Apple made the right tradeoff. Comments?
3 comments:
Very good comparison. I think the decision is not really cut and dry. You can get better battery life with EDGE/WiFi but you lose the higher speed where ever you go freedom. The shocker was how 3G on kills the battery even if you don't use it such as phone calls. I would think that Apple did right. WiFi is becoming more and more prevelent with free connections such as in airports. Edge will get you the web page, even if it is like dial up speeds, in a pinch. It is still mostly a phone and battery life rules more there. Browsing is a bonus feature.
And I would add that 3G just needs to mature. Probably within a couple of years I think it will get more efficient in terms of power consumption and price. (I hope!). I understand the current iPhone doesn't even have the chip set to get on a 3G network. Presumably that's for an iPhone generation yet to come!
Gents,
As an owner of one of the first AT&T 3G network phones available, I can confirm that it's hell on battery life. I thought at first that it was just the phone I bought, but I did find out later that the 3G network drains the battery. That has been what I feel is the biggest drawback to my current phone. Also, I do not think that the apps for phones are plentiful enough as of yet to really take advantage of the 3G. Most of the time, I cannot tell the difference between the EDGE and 3G networks - the notable exception is with video - memory intensive video feeds are clearly faster on 3G. But, again, that's one of the few times that the applications take advantage of 3G.
-Le
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