Thanks for the running review Jay...please keep it up. I am tied to VZW for another year, but may jump to the iPhone when the time is up.
You're very welcome. I still have a year and 2-3 months left on my VZW contract, but my wife is month-to-month. Right now, I'm not too inclined to pay the ETF to VZW just to get an iPhone because it's cool; I want good service too.
FYI, to those following this thread, I'm trying to limit my daily reports to one post per day. Thus, as events warrant, I edit the post for that particular day. This means you'll need to go back and read the day's post next day to be sure you have all the information. Also, one of the things I am doing is naming the post "Day ___" when I start it, but when I finish the post (at the end of the day), I go back and add something descriptive, e.g. "Another Dropped Call and Limited Customer Service." Hopefully, this will help you all know when I have finished my daily report.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
Unfortunately if you are looking for coverage you'll have to switch back to Verizon.
AT$T's coverage is really bad at my house (where I have 3 3G iPhones) and my brothers house (he has 1 3G iPhone). His house is 5 miles from mine and we live one block from the shore in Southeastern CT.
We also live about 5 miles from I95.
We don't turn 3G on at all because it stays at 1 bar and then flips to EDGE.
So we keep it on EDGE to save on the battery but we still get 1 -2 bars and sometimes no service at all with EDGE.
He has reported it to AT$T support and they said they will not send any techs out until they get more calls.
How about AT$T's commercials "More bars everywhere"?.....NOT!
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VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!
Some of the problems with your dropped calls are at&t's network, but the fewer bars is also party the 3G iPhone's problem. Several reviews have stated that it does get fewer bars than some of their other at&t phones. However, judging service by number of bars your phone shows isnt really accurate as they can vary from phone to phone but both have the same level of service. I know my phone always has 1 to 2 bars of 3G service yet i never experience dropped calls or even slow data transfer rates. What does '1 bar' actually equal in signal strength?
Unfortunately if you are looking for coverage you'll have to switch back to Verizon.
AT$T's coverage is really bad at my house (where I have 3 3G iPhones) and my brothers house (he has 1 3G iPhone). His house is 5 miles from mine and we live one block from the shore in Southeastern CT.
We also live about 5 miles from I95.
We don't turn 3G on at all because it stays at 1 bar and then flips to EDGE.
So we keep it on EDGE to save on the battery but we still get 1 -2 bars and sometimes no service at all with EDGE.
He has reported it to AT$T support and they said they will not send any techs out until they get more calls.
How about AT$T's commercials "More bars everywhere"?.....NOT!
Mark, it sounds like you're having worse signal/coverage problems than I am. Are you going to keep your iPhones? If so, why? Isn't one of the primary purposes of a cell phone to be able to make and receive phone calls?
A couple of nights ago, I was talking to a friend who has an iPhone. He said he doesn't get reception at his house so he just forwards calls to his landline. That might be a practical solution, but it just doesn't seem right when I'm going to be paying $160+ per month for cellular service.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
Some of the problems with your dropped calls are at&t's network, but the fewer bars is also party the 3G iPhone's problem. Several reviews have stated that it does get fewer bars than some of their other at&t phones. However, judging service by number of bars your phone shows isnt really accurate as they can vary from phone to phone but both have the same level of service. I know my phone always has 1 to 2 bars of 3G service yet i never experience dropped calls or even slow data transfer rates. What does '1 bar' actually equal in signal strength?
Good point. I've always wondered myself whether the number of bars really make a difference and, if so, what they mean.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
I awoke to an unpleasant surprise this morning. At 9:05 a.m., I picked up my iPhone to check on it--it wouldn't turn on. Turns out, the battery died. Remember, I had it connected to my computer and charging until 5:00 p.m. last night, and I didn't use it very much last night. 16 hours later, the battery is dead. What's really strange is I'm pretty sure that on Friday I used the phone a lot more and the battery lasted a lot longer. So, now--at 10:30 a.m.--I'm going to plug it in to charge.
By way of comparison, I checked my wife's iPhone around 9:05 a.m. this morning, and it showed 10% battery left. Of course, the last time we charged her iPhone was Wednesday night. Could it be that Bluetooth really zaps that much battery that I can't get 16 hours of usage with Bluetooth turned on but my wife can get 10 days and 10 hours worth of usage with Bluetooth turned off?
8:10 p.m.--My iPhone spent most of the day connected to my MacBook today. Around 4:30, I left my house to meet my parents for dinner. On the way to the restaurant, I stopped at the Nordstrom's store at Scottsdale Fashion Square to pick up a suit that was being altered. The Nordstrom's store is in a very populated part of downtown Scottsdale. An AT&T store is located maybe 1/4 of a mile away (if even that) but outside the mall where Nordstrom is located. I got zero reception inside on the first floor of the Nordstrom's store. When I pulled out my iPhone, the salesperson commented on my iPhone. When I told him I wasn't getting any reception, he said that for some reason the only carrier that seems to get reception on the first floor of that Nordstrom's store is--you guessed it, Verizon.
After picking up my suit, I headed to another part of the mall to meet my parents at the Kona Grill for dinner. Inside the Kona Grill, I was getting only 1-2 bars with Edge only (no 3G). Again, this is a very popular mall in the the high-end district of Scottsdale, and very close to an AT&T store. Quite surprising that service was so poor.
After dinner, I went to the parking garage to get my car. I was parked on the first floor of a 3 story or so parking garage. The iPhone read "No Service."
After I left the garage, I had a weird experience. The iPhone, which was on the keypad screen, kept reading "No Service." However, as soon as I went to the home screen, it showed full strength (5 bars) and 3G. This is particularly odd because earlier (between Nordstrom and Kona Grill), I was able to place a call even though the iPhone read "No Service."
So, the service/coverage issue continues to be the biggest negative so far. The good news is that the iPhone itself is functioning very well (other than the battery life concern).
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
I awoke to an unpleasant surprise this morning. At 9:05 a.m., I picked up my iPhone to check on it--it wouldn't turn on. Turns out, the battery died. Remember, I had it connected to my computer and charging until 5:00 p.m. last night, and I didn't use it very much last night. 16 hours later, the battery is dead. What's really strange is I'm pretty sure that on Friday I used the phone a lot more and the battery lasted a lot longer. So, now--at 10:30 a.m.--I'm going to plug it in to charge.
By way of comparison, I checked my wife's iPhone around 9:05 a.m. this morning, and it showed 10% battery left. Of course, the last time we charged her iPhone was Wednesday night. Could it be that Bluetooth really zaps that much battery that I can't get 16 hours of usage with Bluetooth turned on but my wife can get 10 days and 10 hours worth of usage with Bluetooth turned off?
This is getting weird .. Obviously the first step is to put a control on the experiment and turn off Bluetooth .. I assume you can live without it a few days but still it sure sounds like the drain of a device constantly looking for signal. Have you compared coverage on a 1 to 1 basis with your wife's phone ? I know, that would be difficult going around looking for bad reception but it seems you may have a defective radio. I had that with a couple of phones over the years where I wasn't getting reception when someone with the identical phone and plan was getting 5 bars. It also was accompanied by a high battery drain as that is the biggest drain of them all - searching for signal.
Regards,
Kurt
Jay - you are doing a great job keeping us all up to date with your observations. I've considered the switch from VZW myself. I have started with the iPhone 3G (as of Thursday) but haven't ported my number over and my VZW accounts are still active.
I have the same concerns as you do (I am coming from the 6700) - miss voice command and some other features of WM5 (didn't upgrade my phone). Plus coverage is a question. I'm surprised to hear that you guys don't have great coverage. My sister was an over the road truck driver - she had AT&T due to the better coverage country-wide and their data plans available at the truck stops.
I'll continue to watch what you post here to see how you are dealing with the transition. It doesn't seem to be giong very well, though.
Thanks again!
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It's working for me, there must not be anything wrong!
Jay, off the top of my head, since your wife is getting such great -actually unrealisticly good battery life - I am betting that you have your email set to push or fetch on a very quick interval - say 15 minutes - and a combination of that, plus wifi and bluetooth radios being on, plus adding in that you are most likely playing around with the iPhone more than your wife is, all are leading to your limited battery. Also, if your phone is in a fringe area, it may be constantly searching back and forth for 3G to edge to 3G to wifi, etc.
The iPhone3G potentially has worse battery life than the 1st gen iPhones. But two things to remember - First, the first gen iPhone had INCREDIBLE battery life - the only people who ever complained about that were those coming from a regular cell phone, and weren't used to how a pda works. Secondly, all the new radios in the new iPhone - 3G and GPS, in addition to the wifi, bluetooth, and edge - all have to draw power from somewhere.
This is getting weird .. Obviously the first step is to put a control on the experiment and turn off Bluetooth .. I assume you can live without it a few days but still it sure sounds like the drain of a device constantly looking for signal. Have you compared coverage on a 1 to 1 basis with your wife's phone ? I know, that would be difficult going around looking for bad reception but it seems you may have a defective radio. I had that with a couple of phones over the years where I wasn't getting reception when someone with the identical phone and plan was getting 5 bars. It also was accompanied by a high battery drain as that is the biggest drain of them all - searching for signal.
Regards,
Kurt
Of Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, I'd give up the first two before I give up the last. I am so used to using my BT headset and do so much talking in the car while driving that I can't stand holding my phone to talk.
My wife's and my usage patterns are very different, but having two iPhones in the house should make it easier to do some quasi-controlled experiments. If anyone has any suggestions as to a good, methodical approach. I'm all ears.
Right now, I'm thinking I'll keep everything the same through the end of tomorrow. Then, on Tuesday, I'll shut down my Wi-Fi and see what happens to my battery life. I suppose at some point I also should shut down the location service, as well as 3G and Bluetooth. Right now, I'm thinking the order should be first Wi-Fi, then 3G, then Location service, then Bluetooth.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
Jay, off the top of my head, since your wife is getting such great -actually unrealisticly good battery life - I am betting that you have your email set to push or fetch on a very quick interval - say 15 minutes - and a combination of that, plus wifi and bluetooth radios being on, plus adding in that you are most likely playing around with the iPhone more than your wife is, all are leading to your limited battery. Also, if your phone is in a fringe area, it may be constantly searching back and forth for 3G to edge to 3G to wifi, etc.
The iPhone3G potentially has worse battery life than the 1st gen iPhones. But two things to remember - First, the first gen iPhone had INCREDIBLE battery life - the only people who ever complained about that were those coming from a regular cell phone, and weren't used to how a pda works. Secondly, all the new radios in the new iPhone - 3G and GPS, in addition to the wifi, bluetooth, and edge - all have to draw power from somewhere.
Both iPhones are set to Push; neither is set to pull. The difference is that my wife is only set up for our family Mobile Me account, which has virtually no activity (no more than 2 e-mails received per day on that account; often only a few e-mails per week). In contrast, my iPhone is set up for both our family Mobile Me account plus my work Exchange account. I probably receive 3-4 e-mails per hour on my Exchange account (if not more).
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
Mark, it sounds like you're having worse signal/coverage problems than I am. Are you going to keep your iPhones? If so, why? Isn't one of the primary purposes of a cell phone to be able to make and receive phone calls?
A couple of nights ago, I was talking to a friend who has an iPhone. He said he doesn't get reception at his house so he just forwards calls to his landline. That might be a practical solution, but it just doesn't seem right when I'm going to be paying $160+ per month for cellular service.
Yes I'm keeping all three.
When at home people call my cell phone then they just call my home number.
I am on the road away from home Monday morning until 7:00 PM Thursday night and get good service during the week.
I plan on calling AT$T over and over and over again until they come out and test my area. I sugest that others do the same with poor service.
__________________
VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!
Both iPhones are set to Push; neither is set to pull. The difference is that my wife is only set up for our family Mobile Me account, which has virtually no activity (no more than 2 e-mails received per day on that account; often only a few e-mails per week). In contrast, my iPhone is set up for both our family Mobile Me account plus my work Exchange account. I probably receive 3-4 e-mails per hour on my Exchange account (if not more).
Jay it's really not a mystery. You already stated it. Your usage is quite different than your wifes.
Same with my wife and daughter. They don't have BT on or Wifi on and they both keep their's on EDGE (turn off 3G). They both go two days on a charge.
I go one day and I use BT and e-mail fetching and also keep 3G off most of the time.
__________________
VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!
Jay it's really not a mystery. You already stated it. Your usage is quite different than your wifes.
Same with my wife and daughter. They don't have BT on or Wifi on and they both keep their's on EDGE (turn off 3G). They both go two days on a charge.
I go one day and I use BT and e-mail fetching and also keep 3G off most of the time.
Based on my experience with the i730 and the i760, I'm guess that the BT and Wi-Fi burn up the battery A LOT more than than the e-mail. We'll find out if my theory is correct when I turn off Wi-Fi for a few days.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
I left my iPhone connected to my MacBook all night so it would be fully charged when I left for work this morning. My wife's iPhone sat it her purse all night. We charged it yesterday morning, but it did not get a full charge (probably charged about 90%) so we'll see how she does.
Around 8:17 a.m. today, the Current Period Call Time read 1 hour, 6 minutes; the Lifetime Call Time Read 3 hours, 11 minutes; the Cellular Network Data Sent read 579 KB; and the Cellular Network Data Receive read 1.7 MB. At 8:18 a.m., I reset all the Usage data. So, we'll see how today's battery life goes.
Sitting at my desk in my office this morning, I'm getting a solid 3 bars and 3G, which seems stronger than what I was getting last week. However, I also have the door to my office open (my office is on the 2nd story of a 3 story building and has a door to the patio).
Appx. 1:20 p.m.--I call my wife from my parking spot, which is street level of a 2-story parking deck behind my office building. Initially, all is fine. Then the call drops. I pull out of the parking space and move so I'm parked along side of the building. I call her back and 2-3 seconds into the call it drops. I then pull to the front of my building, call her once again, and all is good. After speaking with her for a minute or so, I decided to drive to get some lunch and am able to keep talking while I drive to 16th Street and Glendale. When I get back to my office (appx. 10-15 minutes later), I call AT&T to complain about the dropped call. The CS rep asks me where I am in location to my billing address (within 10 mile radius) and how many bars I typically get everywhere. She then tells me she is going to transfer me to a tech but cannot do so while I'm on my cell phone. I tell her I'll be up in my office in 5 minutes and give her my office landline number. She says she'll call me back in 5 minutes--that was 12 minutes ago. So I wait and eat my lunch.
6:26 p.m.--No one from AT&T ever called me back. No surprise. On the way home, just a short while ago (15 minutes, tops), I was talking to my mom on the arterial street closest to my house when suddenly she said I was cutting in and out and then second later it dropped the call. As I continued driving, I tried calling her back but was unable to reach her due to lack of services. After I drove about 2 blocks (maybe less), all was good again and I was able to talk to her for another 10-15 minutes, including about 10 minutes at my house. The battery icon now shows slightly less than 50% of the battery remaining. Usage stats are as follows:
Usage Time Since Last Full Charge 3 Hours, 27 Minutes
Standby Time Since Last Full Charge 10 hours, 14 minutes
Current Period Call Time 1 Hour, 8 Minutes
Lifetime Call Time, 4 Hours, 19 Minutes
Cellular Network Data Sent 660KB
Cellular Network Data Received 17.9MB
6:43 p.m.--My wife got home and reported that her iPhone gave her a low battery warning (I'm guessing 20% remaining, but it could have been 10%). Her stats read as follows:
Usage Time Since Last Full Charge 8 Hours, 17 Minutes
Standby Time Since Last Full Charge 4 days, 18 hours
Current Period Call Time 2 Hours, 13 Minutes
Lifetime Call Time, 2 Hours, 13 Minutes
Cellular Network Data Sent 660KB
Cellular Network Data Received 19.1MB
Now, keep in mind that although we charged her iPhone yesterday morning, we did not have time to give it a full charge so those stats aren't very accurate.
Oh yeah, on her way home, she called me. Things were great until she got to Pinnacle Peak Road and Tatum. (about 1 to 1 1/2 miles from our house). The call then dropped.
My wife and are off shortly to eat dinner and see a movie. Hopefully, the iPhone will make it until 10:00 tonight.
10:32 p.m.--We're home after dinner and a movie. Amazingly, I did not receive any low battery warning, and I estimate that I still have about 1/3 battery left. Final stats for the day are as follows:
Usage Time Since Last Full Charge 3 Hours, 49 Minutes
Standby Time Since Last Full Charge 14 hours, 17 minutes
Current Period Call Time 1 Hour, 8 Minutes
Lifetime Call Time, 4 Hours, 19 Minutes
Cellular Network Data Sent 719KB
Cellular Network Data Received 18.1 MB
So, I managed to make it a full day without a low battery warning. However, I had at least 3 dropped calls. Oh yeah, on the way to dinner, I tried calling my mom from my wife's cell phone just to see whether it dropped the call in the same spot near my house where I have been having problems. I did NOT. This could have been a fluke. Or, it could have been because I was driving westbound rather than eastbound (and, thus, was on the north side of the street rather than the south side). Or, and this is my personal favorite, perhaps the white iPhone gets slightly better cell reception than the black.
Well, tomorrow morning I'll try turning off Wi-Fi. We'll see whether that improves battery life and, if so, by how much.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
I left my iPhone connected to my MacBook all night so it would be fully charged when I left for work this morning. My wife's iPhone sat it her purse all night. We charged it yesterday morning, but it did not get a full charge (probably charged about 90%) so we'll see how she does.
Around 8:17 a.m. today, the Current Period Call Time read 1 hour, 6 minutes; the Lifetime Call Time Read 3 hours, 11 minutes; the Cellular Network Data Sent read 579 KB; and the Cellular Network Data Receive read 1.7 MB. At 8:18 a.m., I reset all the Usage data. So, we'll see how today's battery life goes.
Sitting at my desk in my office this morning, I'm getting a solid 3 bars and 3G, which seems stronger than what I was getting last week. However, I also have the door to my office open (my office is on the 2nd story of a 3 story building and has a door to the patio).
[More to be added later.]
Wow you get an office?
Mister fancy shmancy pants!
__________________
VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!
One of the benefits of working something like 60-80 hours per week.
__________________
-Jay The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)
Remember, I had it connected to my computer and charging until 5:00 p.m. last night, and I didn't use it very much last night. 16 hours later, the battery is dead. What's really strange is I'm pretty sure that on Friday I used the phone a lot more and the battery lasted a lot longer. So, now--at 10:30 a.m.--I'm going to plug it in to charge.
So I wait and eat my lunch.
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