I spend about 2 hours in the car each day driving to/from work with bluetooth connected and the rest of the day it's on but not paired to anything else and see no issues with the battery. BTW, I have WiFi on but not searching and leave my phone on EDGE.
With moderate use from 7AM to 1AM (30min. - 1hr. calls, reading about 50 emails, writing about 10 and using the internet for about 30 minutes), I still have 50% battery life left.
Well I leave My Wifi / Bluetooth / 3g / UMA on all day every day. I'm a heavy user for calls, e-mails and texts. Phone is never off but out the charger about 06.00hrs every morning and by about 22.00hrs its always above half before charging again.
I've had problems with the old bold 9000 on the 5 firmware not lasting the day out but the 9700 has never ever been a problem since I got it, weekends when my usage is less I could easily last all weekend without charging but since I use it as a clock and alarm of a night then its always charged every night.
My phone also has two hours every day connected to my car kit on bluetooth and it radomly connects to my lappy on bluetooth as its paired for sending pictures over.
I dont know why you are getting battery problems by b/t on but you really shouldn't have to turn it off just to get good usage.
If you are home or work with a consistent wifi signal, no it will not.
But lets say you are connected to public access i.e. city of Philadelphia and wifi connects and disconnects, I believe that'll drain the battery faster
I have always kept my BT on. All my BlackBerry's have lasted about a day (5am-10pm) with some phone calls, moderate email and BBm usage, surfing, twitter (20min update), weather updates (hourly updates) and viigo (30min updates). With the 9700 i get the same usage which is surprising since it should have some better battery life due to hardware and software tweaks. I was hoping to get some more out of it.
Everything (BT, WiFi, 3G) on all day, every day. Constantly being used.
Out of the pod at 06:00, back in the pod anytime after 22:00... I've yet to see my battery below 50% at the end of the day.
I have found the opposite. My BT has been on from the day I bought it and have never turned it off. Not only for my 9700 but my 9000 also. It does not kill the battery and pretty well goes to sleep when not in use.
On a basic level i think the more features used the more consumption. I"d think that using bt or wifi even if these are not running will drain more battery.
geez. I don't care about having an excess amount of battery. But I want to have it last all day.
I took mine off the charger at 8:30 this monring.... today i was in meetings all day, so i didnt' use my phone as much as usual..... and at midnight. i'm @ 15% battery left.....
Had I not been in meetings all day, i woul definetly had a battery die on me today.....