Battery on iphone 3g s drains very fast.

tigerinroc · Jun 21, 2009

My phone battery drains very fast after a full charge even though I don't

use it constantly. I typically surf the net, check email on wifi or 3g for 5 minutes every hour and the battery almost drains after 3-4 hours.

Anyone has the same problem?

Macjames · Jun 21, 2009

What do your settings look like? Some of the biggest battery drainers are Locational Services, Data Roaming and Push. Switch them off an see how long the battery lasts.

duky · Jun 21, 2009

tigerinroc said:
My phone battery drains very fast after a full charge even though I don't use it constantly. I typically surf the net, check email on wifi or 3g for 5 minutes every hour and the battery almost drains after 3-4 hours.

Anyone has the same problem?

This your first smartphone? If you had the 3G then you would be used to it. I feel like given it's your first weekend with the phone you may be trying things out a bit more than usual. Also, over time the battery on my 3G got noticeably better. At work I would last from 9-5 easily with push enabled, brightness set to half (auto) and bluetooth, location services and 3G all on making a few calls every hour and cheking emails/texting and given the better battery on my 3GS now I'm expecting more. If you think you're not overusing it you could take it to the Genius Bar and see what they say, but 3-5 hrs is certainly not normal

Que · Jun 21, 2009

check your usage v standby times.

i left a few web pages open in safari and even though safari was closed the battery went very quickly and the usage and standby time was identical.

i now close all safari pages before i close safari and the battery is amazing. a full day's use yesterday, using video camera, camera, web over 3g, web over wi-fi.....the lot - still over 50% battery left today.

scotland007 · Jun 21, 2009

tigerinroc said:
My phone battery drains very fast after a full charge even though I don't use it constantly. I typically surf the net, check email on wifi or 3g for 5 minutes every hour and the battery almost drains after 3-4 hours

Anyone has the same problem?[/QUOTE

yesteday I had 3G on for about 5 hrs, checked emails, surfed around and got the 20% charge left around hour 6.

zacheryjensen · Jun 21, 2009

tigerinroc said:
My phone battery drains very fast after a full charge even though I don't use it constantly. I typically surf the net, check email on wifi or 3g for 5 minutes every hour and the battery almost drains after 3-4 hours.

Anyone has the same problem?

There are several facts about lithium ion batteries that many people are unaware of. One which would potentially affect what you're experiencing is this. The discharge cycle of a lithium ion battery is continuous, meaning, it will slowly lose charge even when it's not in use. However, after a few complete usage cycles this idle discharge is significantly reduced.

What this means to you is this. Please use up your whole battery down to about 10%, then, allow the device to charge to 100% all at once, do not unplug it during this time. Repeat this process several times preferably with discharges happening during normal usage. This should noticeably extend the performance of your battery.

Other concerns include high temperatures, and failure to regularly discharge all cells. With high temperatures the contents of the battery degrade and are permanently destroyed. Please pay attention to the listed operating temperatures for your device, these temperatures most likely reflect the optimal temperature ranges for the battery over any other temperature sensitive component of the device.

As for not discharging the battery completely regularly, this will result in portions of the physical cell to become incapable of complete discharge, essentially crystalizing their state. It's important to make a complete discharge occasionally. I'm not sure of the recommended frequency for an iPhone 3GS, however, with laptop batteries it is once per week.

Personally I let my phone drain down every couple of weeks with some hearty adventure gaming or watching a movie or similar. My iPhone 3G battery has withstood repeated long sessions of intense usage and still has good battery performance even nearly a year later. I'm sure you will see your battery life improve over time.

TroyBoy30 · Jun 21, 2009

Actually the battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.

MadDog31 · Jun 21, 2009

I can attest that my 3G battery performance did get better after a few partial discharges (some more than others since it was an upgraded toy at the time from my 2G...haha).

I woke up w/ my 3GS using 3% overnight and topped off the charge when I turned my MBP on. My 3G did this at first also if I recall correctly, but after a while if I went to bed w/ the "plug" icon in the battery, it also showed up in the morning.

citron230 · Jun 21, 2009

I disagree. I used my 3G S all day yesterday. Heavy texting, several phone calls (no call over 10 minutes of talk time), GPS, check eBay app several time for updates on items I'm selling, also checked Movies app for movie times, Family Guy app for some clips. I removed the phone off the dock on my night stand at 7am and it was not returned until nearly 1 am when I got home from the movies. It did not reach the red at all. My 3G would have been on it's last leg when it comes to battery life after usage like the 3G S went through yesterday. I am quite impressed.

DVDxR · Jun 21, 2009

zacheryjensen,

Lithium batteries are similar to car batteries in that they have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles. Each full cycle will shorten the life of the next. Over time these cycles degrade the battery until it's no longer useful.

It's not a good idea to fully discharge Li batteries if you can avoid it. They do not suffer from the memory issues that NiCd/NiMH have. The "let it drain all the way down" advice for those batteries does not apply to lithium batteries.

BullittMustang · Jun 21, 2009

Que said:
check your usage v standby times.

i left a few web pages open in safari and even though safari was closed the battery went very quickly and the usage and standby time was identical.

i now close all safari pages before i close safari and the battery is amazing. a full day's use yesterday, using video camera, camera, web over 3g, web over wi-fi.....the lot - still over 50% batter left today.

Thanks for the tip. I always leave a web page open but close safari. I never had a problem doing this with my 2G. I was looking at the usage on my 3GS and was wondering why my standby and usage were the same. I closed the web page and now my standby is going up. I hope this helps the battery life.

dagomike · Jun 21, 2009

Having the battery life quantitative by percentage, I suspect some people will be more alarmed the discharge rates than normal.

Que · Jun 21, 2009

BullittMustang said:
Thanks for the tip. I always leave a web page open but close safari. I never had a problem doing this with my 2G. I was looking at the usage on my 3GS and was wondering why my standby and usage were the same. I closed the web page and now my standby is going up. I hope this helps the battery life.

no worries.

maybe this is a 3.0 issue? i can't see why it would only affect the 3g s.

any 3g users notice this problem since the 3.0 upgrade?

srl7741 · Jun 21, 2009

Better Battery

My old 3G would be taken off the charger @6:30 am and hit the 20% red zone with a message by 10:00 PM.

My new 3GS was taken off the charger @6:30 am and was at 51% still at 10:00 pm.

I would say that is an improvement.

BulkHedd · Jun 21, 2009

Coming from the Edge iPhone my new 3GS does seem to drain faster than I'm used to. I only got it Friday so I'll give it a few more charges and see how it looks then.

Que · Jun 21, 2009

dagomike said:
Having the battery life quantitative by percentage, I suspect some people will be more alarmed the discharge rates than normal.

i would suggest that maybe the opposite is true.

i feel a lot better knowing what percentage of battery is remaining than using a picture with only a few stages to signify battery life.

how many sections of the battery are there? between 6-8 ish? vs the 100 stages of the percentage life. i'm a lot more comfortable seeing "12%" than the last bar of the battery alone.

Que · Jun 21, 2009

srl7741 said:
My old 3G would be taken off the charger @6:30 am and hit the 20% red zone with a message by 10:00 PM.

My new 3GS was taken off the charger @6:30 am and was at 51% still at 10:00 pm.

I would say that is an improvement.

definitely.

after an initial hiccup with the web pages thing i'm over the moon with how well my battery lasted yesterday.

synagence · Jun 21, 2009

I'm finding the 3GS battery to be quite impressive even tho its only 48 hours old...

Full charge yesterday, usage at 2hrs 31 and standby of 18hrs 33m and its at 61%
Usage has been mainly web, texting, twitter apps, facebook app, and a bit of music.

Asleep the iPhone seems to discharge about 1% / hour

I have push, location services, wifi and 3g permanently on

Gondry · Jun 21, 2009

i've also gone from a 2g to 3gs and thought the battery was draining very fast, yesterday I spent a couple of hours driving around with the Maps open watching my progress as the blue blob spun around, it was brilliant but halved the battery charge.

I charged it again and now looking at usage, I've got 35% battery left, usage 4 hours 50 minutes and standby 16 hours 52 minutes since last full charge. Is this about right?

I'd have expected at least half the battery left on my old phone given what i've been doing. I've now turned off 3G, I can't figure where the location service switch is though.

Coraline · Jun 21, 2009

Gondry said:
i've also gone from a 2g to 3gs and thought the battery was draining very fast, yesterday I spent a couple of hours driving around with the Maps open watching my progress as the blue blob spun around, it was brilliant but halved the battery charge.

I charged it again and now looking at usage, I've got 35% battery left, usage 4 hours 50 minutes and standby 16 hours 52 minutes since last full charge. Is this about right?

I'd have expected at least half the battery left on my old phone given what i've been doing. I've now turned off 3G, I can't figure where the location service switch is though.

The location services switch is under Settings - General.

rushmere · Jun 21, 2009

I've gone from a 3G to a 3GS.

My perception is that the battery is discharging much faster on the 3GS, especially overnight, although I haven't paid close enough attention to check whether this is really true.

However, I've got the % battery indicator switched on which I obviously didn't have with the 3G. I've just realised today that the % indicator looks worse than the battery icon, e.g. the indicator currently looks almost totally green, but the % indicator says that it's only 80% charged. I'm beginning to wonder if this % indicator is just making me think it's worse.

I'm going to watch it more closely over the next few days, and pay attention to how long it is actually lasting!

Gondry · Jun 21, 2009

Coraline said:
The location services switch is under Settings - General.

thanks! it was quite obvious

stupid me

hard-case · Jun 21, 2009

tigerinroc said:
My phone battery drains very fast after a full charge even though I don't use it constantly. I typically surf the net, check email on wifi or 3g for 5 minutes every hour and the battery almost drains after 3-4 hours.

Anyone has the same problem?

Not really.

Right now I've got 3G on, Bluetooth off, Roaming off, WiFi off, Location Services on, Push on, Brightness at about 25%, and my stats are:
Usage: 3h 9m
Standby: 1 Day, 22 Hours
Battery: 39%

The usage was either phone calls, apps, or web surfing via 3G. Haven't listened to any music this charge. That's actually a bit of improvement over my 3G.

tanster · Jun 21, 2009

zacheryjensen said:
There are several facts about lithium ion batteries that many people are unaware of. One which would potentially affect what you're experiencing is this. The discharge cycle of a lithium ion battery is continuous, meaning, it will slowly lose charge even when it's not in use. However, after a few complete usage cycles this idle discharge is significantly reduced.

What this means to you is this. Please use up your whole battery down to about 10%, then, allow the device to charge to 100% all at once, do not unplug it during this time. Repeat this process several times preferably with discharges happening during normal usage. This should noticeably extend the performance of your battery.

Other concerns include high temperatures, and failure to regularly discharge all cells. With high temperatures the contents of the battery degrade and are permanently destroyed. Please pay attention to the listed operating temperatures for your device, these temperatures most likely reflect the optimal temperature ranges for the battery over any other temperature sensitive component of the device.

As for not discharging the battery completely regularly, this will result in portions of the physical cell to become incapable of complete discharge, essentially crystalizing their state. It's important to make a complete discharge occasionally. I'm not sure of the recommended frequency for an iPhone 3GS, however, with laptop batteries it is once per week.

Personally I let my phone drain down every couple of weeks with some hearty adventure gaming or watching a movie or similar. My iPhone 3G battery has withstood repeated long sessions of intense usage and still has good battery performance even nearly a year later. I'm sure you will see your battery life improve over time.

Thanks, zacheryjensen!

I also found Apple's tips on extending battery life here.

It says: "For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)."

ubercool · Jun 21, 2009

hard-case said:
Not really.

Right now I've got 3G on, Bluetooth off, Roaming off, WiFi off, Location Services on, Push on, Brightness at about 25%, and my stats are:
Usage: 3h 9m
Standby: 1 Day, 22 Hours
Battery: 39%

The usage was either phone calls, apps, or web surfing via 3G. Haven't listened to any music this charge. That's actually a bit of improvement over my 3G.

I was about to say "NO F..KING WAY" and then I saw that your brightness was at 25%. At that level, the iPhone is only usable in a cave!

Battery on iphone 3g s drains very fast.

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