How long does your battery last using Google Sync?

[mplsfalls1973]

I am debating on getting the Samsung Epic to replace my TP2, but am concerned about battery life. I had bought on over the weekend but ultimately returned it due to the poor battery life, but miss some of the features like the seemless integration with Google Voice.(a real money saver) After thinking about it allot, I started to wonder if perhaps one of the reasons for the battery drain was the fact that all android devices are set to sync with Google which basically means they are running a push email service which will drain the battery more than polling occasionally through pop3.

If you could help me on this one I would appreciate it. For me it is not even the 4g features that I want on a new phone, but more the android operating system which now has allot more software being developed than the windows mobile platform.

Thank You