The highly anticipated iPhone 5 is finally in millions of people's hands. Within three days of its launch, Apple had sold a record-breaking five million units And within a year, analysts project that sales of the iPhone 5 will reach 170 million. The popularity of the new device got the team at outlier thinking: how much juice does it take each year to charge a next-generation smartphone? And how does the energy consumption of smartphones compare to that of other consumer electronics?
To find out, the team got their hands on a new iPhone 5 and also a Samsung Galaxy S III-currently the hottest Android handset-then headed into the opower Lab for some testing.
Here's what they found, and their assessment of what it suggests about the energy impact of our increasingly on-the-go digital lifestyles.
