>> "if a pager can sit an listen to a signal for 2 - 4 weeks on a AA battery, why can't a phone (smart or otherwise) do the same thing?" They do. For example t

>> "if a pager can sit an listen to a signal for 2 - 4 weeks on a AA battery, why can't a phone (smart or otherwise) do the same thing?" They do. For example the iPhone 6 Plus lasts 16 days on standby. Remember they also have to listen for other messages (push notifications, local notifications, alarms, calendar events etc.). Regarding your dumb phone statement they had about the same standby time as the iPhone 6 Plus I mentioned but they had much smaller batteries and the battery technology (I guess) was much less developed. [1] https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-6/specs/ https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-6/specs/