Battery life does get better after a few charges

[ottergal]

I have a quick question on this. I have just checked my Usage and Standby times and they both show the same numbers, i.e. 17 hours and 9 minutes. Does anyone know why this may be. I have push disabled, fetch set to manual and Wi-Fi off. I have hardly used my phone today, it was fully charged this morning at 7:00 and it is about to die (less than 10%). I've used the phone to send about 30 sms messages, and made two phone calls, which lasted about 3 minutes in total. I have also browsed the Internet for no more than 10 minutes.

I can't understand why the battery is being drained so fast.


Edit - location services are also switched off.

That seems weird. I saw someone else on the forum who saw the same thing and it turned out that push was on. I'm not sure what to tell you. There's obviously something running there.

 

[AndyMulhearn]

The lithium ion batteries don't develop a memory like the NiCad batteries used to so I don't quite understand the thought process behind the discharge charge cycle.

My experience has been that while LiOn batteries don't have a memory effect, they do benefit from a couple of full discharge cycles.

 

[Kadman]

I agree that discharge/charge cycles on a new device absolutely help to improve battery life. Yes, I'm aware that they don't suffer from the memory effect, yet I consistently see (and I'm an electronics junkie so I go through this LOTS of times, lol) battery life improves when I let a new device consume the charge to the point where it shuts off, recharge, and repeat 2-3 three times. I'm not sure if it's a chemical property that causes the subsequent charges to improve capacity or possibly the controlling circuitry learning the true range of the battery after a few cycles, but I'm convinced this is real and not just a placebo affect.

 

[e²Studios]

My battery just went dead (got 20% warning) with 3:35 of usage and 6:54 of standby.

Of course to be honest im using the internet, GPS, and app functions quite a bit and I rarley used my Edge iPhone for data other than mail. Seems about right, but I kinda miss the not charging my battery for 2 days with my edge iPhone.

I'm sure once the new car smell wears off the device and im not constantly fiddling with it I will get better time from the battery.

 

[queshy]

My iPhone has been on stand by for almost 2 days with about 3 hours of usage (3G internet, texting, calling, etc, normal stuff), screen on medium brightness, and I'm at like 1/3 left it looks like. Should I be worried?

 

[Kadman]

My battery just went dead (got 20% warning) with 3:35 of usage and 6:54 of standby.

I just want to clarify something. Are you saying that you saw the 20% warning, called it "dead" and recharged? The reason I ask is that those warnings come with MUCH more battery life remaining than did the first generation iPhone. In my "run it dead for the first few cycles" exercises I used the phone for at least 2 hours more after the 20% warning with a mix of browsing, gaming (just a bit), and general toying with some apps.

 

[Kadman]

My iPhone has been on stand by for almost 2 days with about 3 hours of usage (3G internet, texting, calling, etc, normal stuff), screen on medium brightness, and I'm at like 1/3 left it looks like. Should I be worried?

My first reaction is to say that it sounds fine. I will also add that it's tough to judge by the meter. It doesn't seem to be linear at all (nor did my original iPhone for that matter). It's almost like the old gas gauges where, after a fillup, it looked like you were getting about 150 miles per gallon and then suddenly it started to plummet.

 

[queshy]

My first reaction is to say that it sounds fine. I will also add that it's tough to judge by the meter. It doesn't seem to be linear at all (nor did my original iPhone for that matter). It's almost like the old gas gauges where, after a fillup, it looked like you were getting about 150 miles per gallon and then suddenly it started to plummet.

Currently at 4 hours of usage. Just turned location services off and 3G off too.

For the past hour I've been listening to music. Shouldn't I be getting more out of this thing?

And I think you're right about the meter - it's probably just a timer - ie if youre using 3G browsing it starts to drop quickly but when you just listen to music w/ the screen off, it probably takes longer to burn. We'll see. Oh, and I messed up ,it's only been 1 day 7 hours on standby

 

[Bad Wolf]

Thanks for the tip, Ottergal! I didn't even think to change the Push setting, because I won't be using the feature. Hopefully, I'll have better battery life (it hasn't been all that bad anyway)

 

[lakaiordie]

ive noticed it does get better too. right now i have 3 1/2 hours of usage and 11 hrs and 50minutes if standby and i still have more than 50% of battery left.

 

[FearlessFreep]

A couple of things:

1. It's true LiIon batteries are damaged by a full discharge, but you'd have to go a long time (1+ month) to reach that level. The battery suspends itself off long before you reach that point. So in terms of letting the phone die and then recharging, it's perfectly safe.

2. LiIon batteries are not affected by memory effect like the old NiCad, but they DO need calibrating, particularly when first using them (like when you purchase a new phone )

This snippet from TechRepublic explains it fairly well:

"The gauge that measures the remaining power in your device is based on circuitry integrated into the battery that approximates the effectiveness of the battery’s chemical compounds. Over time, a discrepancy can develop between the capacity that the internal circuitry expects the battery to have and what the battery can actually provide. Letting your device run down to zero every month or so can recalibrate the battery’s circuitry, and keep your computer’s estimates of its remaining life accurate."​

The iPhones shipped with a partial charge only. In order to let the battery figure out how much capacity it has so it can report correctly, it's apparent you need to perform a full discharge to the point of device shutoff, then do a complete charge for around 4-6 hours, regardless if the iPhone says it's charged.

I am on discharge cycle #2 and I saw a huge improvement in just the first. Please give it a try before you make a judgment on the battery.

 

[queshy]

Currently at 5:20 usage (the past 3 hrs has just been music though, but edge is somehow on). I have about one green bar left on my battery. 20% warning has not come yet.

 

[WeakAdrenaline]

I noticed that too when I first got it the battery went real quick, but I was using it like I was on crack. I have since slowed down and it's really been quite good. I had it charged fully yesterday morning and have been texting and going on the internet ever since and I'm prob at 75% battery life still. It gets better as it goes on I would think. My Nokia N70 did it too. I just make sure I charge it fully, drain it and charge it again the first few times

 

[queshy]

Currently at 8 hours and 15 minutes. Screen on half bright, been playing music for the past 6 hours. Battery almost dead.

I don't get how Apple can say 24 hours of audio playback.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Currently at 8 hours and 15 minutes. Screen on half bright, been playing music for the past 6 hours. Battery almost dead.

I don't get how Apple can say 24 hours of audio playback.

because its true. I played music for 8 hours and only got 25% drop in battery

 

[ottergal]

A couple of things:

1. It's true LiIon batteries are damaged by a full discharge, but you'd have to go a long time (1+ month) to reach that level. The battery suspends itself off long before you reach that point. So in terms of letting the phone die and then recharging, it's perfectly safe.

2. LiIon batteries are not affected by memory effect like the old NiCad, but they DO need calibrating, particularly when first using them (like when you purchase a new phone )

This snippet from TechRepublic explains it fairly well:

"The gauge that measures the remaining power in your device is based on circuitry integrated into the battery that approximates the effectiveness of the battery’s chemical compounds. Over time, a discrepancy can develop between the capacity that the internal circuitry expects the battery to have and what the battery can actually provide. Letting your device run down to zero every month or so can recalibrate the battery’s circuitry, and keep your computer’s estimates of its remaining life accurate."​

The iPhones shipped with a partial charge only. In order to let the battery figure out how much capacity it has so it can report correctly, it's apparent you need to perform a full discharge to the point of device shutoff, then do a complete charge for around 4-6 hours, regardless if the iPhone says it's charged.

I am on discharge cycle #2 and I saw a huge improvement in just the first. Please give it a try before you make a judgment on the battery.

Thanks for this, Fearless (and to the others who posted about the battery calibration). I was having a hard time understanding why a purge til death/charge cycle would have any impact until you mentioned that the calibrating portion. I can't complain about my battery at this point, but it's good to know.

 

[queshy]

because its true. I played music for 8 hours and only got 25% drop in battery

How did you measure this "25%" - it's kinda hard to read the battery meter with that accuracy.

Anyways, that might make sense. Started playing music after 2:20 of usage and at that time there was 1/3 left. Keep in mind it was on and off of standby for over a day.

The battery died after 9h 31 minutes of usage, meaning that on a 1/3rd charge the battery was able to last through 7 hours of music playback. Do these calculations make sense?

I've come to discover that location services + 3G while in the car with the screen on max brightness really destroys the battery haha

 

[CarlmUK]

I agree that discharge/charge cycles on a new device absolutely help to improve battery life. Yes, I'm aware that they don't suffer from the memory effect, yet I consistently see (and I'm an electronics junkie so I go through this LOTS of times, lol) battery life improves when I let a new device consume the charge to the point where it shuts off, recharge, and repeat 2-3 three times. I'm not sure if it's a chemical property that causes the subsequent charges to improve capacity or possibly the controlling circuitry learning the true range of the battery after a few cycles, but I'm convinced this is real and not just a placebo affect.

From what I know Lithium Ion batterys should not be fully discharged or they will be damaged. So the electronics that use them has to have a "fuel gauge" to know when to shut them off. Basically its not possible to fully discharge the battery. Complete discharge cycles are a way of calibrating this fuel guage.

 

[queshy]

I think people are all testing their batteries wrong. Everybody will use the phone differently. So in view of this you can't compare your internet usage to somebody else's because everyone is different. I suppose the only sure way to test battery is to make a long playlist and let it play and turn the screen off and see how long the battery takes to die. I've been doing that for almost 4 hours and my battery still shows full bars - as it should since according to Apple I should get 24 hours out of it from audio. If I can squeeze out 24 hours of audio from my iPhone I know that my battery is what its supposed to be even if I don't get the advertised 5 hours of browsing.