David B
On the battery front:
I still use my first smartphone - IPH4 - bought in late 2008. It became my workphone in 2017 when i started working in home care, which requires some minimal data use ( mainly communicating with the office by texting rather than phone calls, plus a web-based app for tracking worker clock-in/out at each client, and managing task performance for each client). I wanted to keep all of that separate from my personal phone needs, so i bought an IPH6 as my private phone, transferred the old # to it and the old i4 got a new number. Today - 2022 - that ip4 keeps on ticking fine. Yes, the charger cord has layers of black tape keeping it together where it meets the big connector but one charge on the battery continues to get me through 2 or 3 non-workdays OR one workday. I partly attribute this to my habit of not updating the ios at the drop of a hat ( more on this below) . It currently runs a 9.x version and even Apple has given up on auto-pestering me for the need to update 🥲 …. that’s one small victory for drew-r kind.
I recently updated ios on the ip6 from 12.x to 15.x. I agree, the update did improve some functionality ( mainly related to group/distr-type texting) but it also worsened several other functions starting with the battery. Prior, fully charged, i regularly got 5-7 days between charges ( battery level below 50%). Day in & out, i use this phone a lot less than the work phone. Now that it’s on 15.x, if i fully charge it and then do nothing with it except let it sit unused on night stand, by day 3 the battery level is below 40% ….. thats one defeat for drew-r kind and a big green $ victory for update-ios-at-drop-of-hat kind but big defeat for new-green-deal-save-the-planet kind.
Both phones operate on Verizon cellular services and on the same bill, same plan. At this moment, the iph6 has 3 bars of “lte” connectivity strength/status and the iph4 has 4 bars of “3G “ status. I find it interesting that the Settings menu for both contain no parameters that explicitly indicate which Gs they support. In the last 3 months, the connectivity strength on the iph4 has been all over the map while sitting here at home. Trust me, if somebody or something wants to make the not-5-g networks look slow or unreliable, they have the technology at fingertips to do so. There are at least 5 of the so-called “ cellphone repeater towers” in view from where i sit at home in small town rural PA. Some may say “yeah but which network operates those towers?” I agree the question might be valid as much as it is a misdirect. Other than Verizon, who’s local sales office is also in view, theoretically, how many other cellular corps not named ATT do you suppose are in bed together “competing for business” in Lumpty Flat rural central Penn?
I remember buying the iph6 in 17’. The young verizon sales agent was already gushing over the coming 5G and was surprised i was not already as goo-goo about it as they. If i understand what @MacMacMac said - no data use of phone - i guess this means i could upgrade to the lowest brand / model that supports 5g something and be legal, able to make/receive phone calls but no browsing, no texting …… yes?
