Think you want an iPhone with LTE? Think again. [Updated]

It’s assumed by those who pay attention to Apple rumors that the iPhone 5 will feature a new design with a bigger screen and the ability to access wireless carriers’ new 4G networks, particularly AT&T’s and Verizon’s LTE service. After all, if the Android competition has these features, the iPhone should, too, right?

Well, not so fast. After spending some time the past few days with the Galaxy Nexus, Google’s flagship Android device, I’m not so sure.

To be clear, this is an excellent smartphone. It’s remarkably zippy, its 4.65-inch AMOLED screen is beautiful, and Android 4.0 is much more refined. (You can read a full review in my print column in Tuesday’s Houston Chronicle.) And, of course, the Galaxy Nexus’ use of Verizon’s LTE network means its Internet access is insanely fast. Speeds such as those you see in the screenshot below are not uncommon:

galaxynexusspeeds

The slower speeds on Dec. 16 were grabbed from inside the bowels of the Mighty Houston Chronicle building. The faster ones were captured at my home in the Montrose area near downtown.

As an iPhone user, I drool at the possibility of having these speeds on the next-generation iOS device. But I also am wary of them, because they come at a price.

The battery life on the Galaxy Nexus is abysmal when it’s connected to the LTE network. It’s far worse than the original Sprint EVO, the first Android phone with a massive screen that also accesses a so-called 4G network, and its battery life was notoriously awful. It only takes a few minutes of using the Galaxy Nexus on LTE for the battery meter to noticeably deplete, and heaven forbid you should do any sustained access that involves lots of screen activity.

I watched a half-hour of video via Netflix, starting when the battery was at full charge. Thirty minutes later, it was down by 50 percent.

And I’m not alone in seeing such poor battery stamina. In its review, Engadget found the battery kept dropping when using GPS and LTE at the same while even while the phone was connected to a car charger.

And then there’s the battery life. It’s well known that LTE can put a real hurting on phone longevity and that appears to be the case here as well, our Nexus struggling to hold on to a charge in day-to-day use with all antennas firing. We’ve as of yet had very limited time with the thing, but in our 24 hours of intensive testing we had to reach for the charger multiple times. Using Google Navigation with LTE enabled? The battery drained so fast our in-car charger couldn’t keep up, leaving us unsure of which exit to take off the 101.

Of course, there are other factors at play here. The Galaxy Nexus has a dual, core, 1.2-GHz processor, which can be power-hungry. And as I mentioned earlier, the screen on the Galaxy Nexus is big, and it draws a lot of power, and in fact is the biggest user of the battery based on metrics included in the Android 4.0 settings.

batterylifenexus

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that the first generation of LTE chipsets for smartphones “force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make.” There was some disappointment when the iPhone 4S “only” supported 3G and AT&T’s “Faux G”, HSPA+ network. But anyone who’d been paying attention to Apple’s statements on the matter knew an LTE iPhone wasn’t coming this year.

And looking at the issues with the Galaxy Nexus, we now know why. Other LTE-based Android phones have similar issues, but this Nexus takes the Bad Battery Life crown.

Apple has done a great job at tweaking the iPhone to deliver excellent performance while still providing decent battery life. This is despite the fact that the latest iPhone is as responsive as the latest Android phones, which have processors with much higher clock speeds. ( Yes, some iPhone 4S owners have reported issues with the battery depleting quicker than it did on the iPhone 4, but that’s not universal.) As a result, most iPhone owners can expect their phones to last at least a full day without having to reach for the charger with moderate use. It’s been my experience in testing LTE-based Android phones that those users aren’t as fortunate.

Presumably, if the next iPhone comes with LTE, it will use newer-generation chipsets and Apple will have tuned iOS for battery longevity. But I’m not optimistic. I’m also hoping that any LTE phone Apple offers will come with a setting that turns it off and allows users to drop back to 3G when battery life is more important than raw speed.

Update: Note that you can turn off LTE on the Galaxy Nexus and just use Verizon’s 3G network. It’s buried deep inside the Android 4.0 settings.

Update 2.0: The extended life battery for the Galaxy Nexus is on sale at half price. Good for Galaxy Nexus owners, but that raises another issue with LTE on the iPhone. You can’t swap out the battery on Apple’s handsets, and unless there’s a radical rethinking of the iPhone’s design, you probably won’t be able to do so on the next model, either.