Take a look at your iPhone 4 or 4S. It doesn’t seem all that thick does it? Now take a minute and think about how the daily battery life of your device suits you? Does it last an adequate amount of time or do you find yourself continually tethered to a charging cord, wishing for a longer battery life?
If you are, perhaps, one of those people who are eagerly looking forward to the next generation of iPhone (perhaps as an iPhone 4 owner who didn’t take the 4S upgrade), then you may be wondering about how the talk of a new form factor and new features (such as the long awaited 4G LTE compatibility) could impact upon your favorite smartphone. The simple truth is that LTE and battery life do not make good bedfellows.
However, last month Qualcomm released a new generation of 3G/LTE chipsets (codenamed Gobi 4000) which are a new generation of low-power communications chip which can potentially offer manufacturers the ability to incorporate LTE/HSPA+ and LTE/EV-DO into their devices. Given that Qualcomm are the current baseband chip provider in the iPhone 4S, it’s a strong possibility that we will see a Qualcomm chip in the iPhone 5 and, in all likelihood, it will be a low-power Gobi 4000 chipset.
The real question is, however, can Apple incorporate 4G into an iPhone and yet shrink the device to the dimensions seen on some mockups, while maintaining a useable battery life? I don’t know about you, but I use my iPhone very heavily and there isn’t much juice left at the end of the day. While the thought of a thinner iPhone may engender tingly feelings in many a user, the thought of a lower battery life isn’t as appealing.
Can it be done…
Like A Bunny…