Battery on iphone 3g s drains very fast.

[MBHockey]

MBHockey seems to be following you around here.

It might be better to try using the tests that Apple did to establish the times they quote.

Yes, I'm following him. 🙄

How about he starts a new thread wanting to compare battery life in some moronic way then comes to these threads and hijacks them with promises of his idea being a good test, when he clearly only wants others to do it for his own benefit.

Gee, I don't know, why don't you just compare your battery with the way Apple tests them when they come up with their figures? It's fully disclosed on Apple's site.

 

[SchneiderMan]

yep my 3gs drains a lot faster then my 2g
Being the 3gs only using 3g, wifi off, bluetooth off, data off, brightness 50%, auto lock 4 minutes, no calls, few minutes of apps, a few minutes of internet.
2g, wifi on, bluetooth off, data off, brightness 50%, auto lock 4 minutes, no calls, 1 hours of apps, few minutes of internet.

my 2g will last a full day like that. the 3gs will last about 5 hours.

 

[apple99iphone]

People, if you're going to post numbers like this, please also include, at a minimum:

1. What kind of signal do you get? How many bars? How does it change as you go about your day? Low bars == less battery life, high bars == better battery life.
   
   
2. Do you have 3G on? 3G is pretty power-hungry, and turning it off will get you better battery life.

Also, some idea of how you used it would also be helpful. People who use wifi a lot will get less battery life than people who don't use wifi much.

Usage: 7 hours, 2 minutes
standby: 15 hours, 8 minutes
with 5 % left

I am in my house where I always use wifi and I have 1-2 bars of edge, But sometimes I have no service. I have brightness at like 30%, 3g off, location services off, push on. I do alot of Internet on the wifi and some other things like facebook and Twitter, aim, YouTube, texting, and some games.

 

[AbSoluTc]

Yes, I'm following him. 🙄

How about he starts a new thread wanting to compare battery life in some moronic way then comes to these threads and hijacks them with promises of his idea being a good test, when he clearly only wants others to do it for his own benefit.

Gee, I don't know, why don't you just compare your battery with the way Apple tests them when they come up with their figures? It's fully disclosed on Apple's site.

It's ok. Since you did not read my thread to begin with, you would know I was not comparing battery life based on my "moronic way". I was looking at a baseline. Again, YOU DO KNOW WHAT A BASELINE IS right? From the looks of it, you don't.

Again, that is ok. We all can't be somewhat intelligent and have common sense now can we? 😉

 

[MBHockey]

It's ok. Since you did not read my thread to begin with, you would know I was not comparing battery life based on my "moronic way". I was looking at a baseline. Again, YOU DO KNOW WHAT A BASELINE IS right? From the looks of it, you don't.

Again, that is ok. We all can't be somewhat intelligent and have common sense now can we? 😉

Inexplicably, you sound proud that you know what a baseline is. Do you really think anyone over the age of 6 doesn't know what a baseline is? You can call it whatever you want; that doesn't preclude it from being a meaningless way to test battery life.

As I suggested, why not test them the way Apple does and compare your numbers to Apple's? Apple discloses exactly how they conduct their battery tests. Although Apple's tests are not exactly real-world scenarios, they are more significant than the crap you dreamt up and called a battery test baseline because if you have worse numbers than Apple in their tests then you have usable evidence to support a replacement request.

 

[AbSoluTc]

God I love ignore 😀

 

[MBHockey]

God I love ignore 😀

I'll take that as a win. Maybe you'll finally stop talking now.

 

[Gatorac]

Guys,

I was having the same problems with my 3GS, battery power seemed poor, i was trying to conserve power by adjusting the brightness, limited my 3G surfing time, bluetooth off, location on/off etc. I normally take the phone off the charger at 5am and by 3pm it's pretty much below the 10% mark.

I took my phone into the Apple store, asked for the diagnostics and he did agree it wasn't quite performing as it should, he tried to brush it off as the brightness, but that day was my first day to turn it up the brightness, normally i am 25% since receiving the phone on the 19th. He swapped it out for a new one and too say the least i am impressed. My other 3GS apparantly had a sticky home button as the new one has a better feel and yesterday taking the phone off charge at 5am and using the regular 3G surfing, listening to Sirius for about a hour and using maps for about 15 minutes, i was still at 30% at 9:30pm last night.

I half contemplated living with the old one and adjusting my phone/surfing habits but heck, i am a new iPhone customer and i just could not believe that the phone was intentially built to provide limited usage for such a fantastic phone.

I am glad i made the change.

I to was having my doubts. I didn't want to believe I was was being whiny and overly critical. How ever I would literally see my percent meter drop every minute or two with some use. I gave it nearly a month, did a few restores, drained the battery, and did full charges. I also had everything turned off except for push email and would turn on other features only when in use, and had my brightness to about 1/3 of the battery. At times I would get 4 hours of usage and I would lose a significant amount of battery overnight (over 1 percent per hour) I thought I would just make do as well. But the last thing I could not ignore was the heat being generated from the battery. My girlfriend and I bought our phones on the same day. Her usage and battery faired far better with the same setup. I gave in when she was using my phone one day and complained about the heat emanating from the phone. I exchanged it before my 30 days no questions asked and I couldn't be happier. I now get close to 7 hours usage with wifi on, push email on, and push notifications on. Today of those seven hours I was streaming pandora and turned everything on for the hell of it and when I was at 30% and I've been listening to pandora for since 7:18 and I'm at 10% now at 9:04.

Time since last full charge:
usage: 6 hours 45 min.
Standby: 19 hours, 59 min.

Some phones clearly have some issues and I think it's more than apple would care to admit, by the same token some of the people on here are clearly being way to critical.

 

[mappyman]

I just got a new 3GS yesterday. I still have my 3G next to me and I have set them both exactly the same.

The 3G has a beast of a battery all day it has sat at 48% on standby and I could get 5 days standby on it.

The 3GS is draing much faster, it went down to 10%.. however its early days.

The only finding comparing the two phones together is that the 3GS never releases the lock on the Wifi network and even when you press the home button it ALWAYS has a wifi lock. If I press the home button on the 3G sometimes it doesnt have a lock and takes 3 second to get a lock.. maybe it's relevant.

 

[sneeks]

In total the battery lasted 4 hours 45 minutes usage. This was the last screenshot I captured.

 

[MooneyFlyer]

One thing I've noticed

It might be worth resetting your statistics after a full charge to clear the "Cellular Network Data" section at the bottom. If those numbers are high, the batter drain is going to be significantly higher in my experience (than wifi for instance). If you scroll a bit you can push the batter % indicator switch off the screen and take a screenshot of the Cell Network Data...

 

[mappyman]

Something is definitely wrong on this new 3GS....

I had 96% so I decided to do a hard reboot (power+home) and then when it rebooted the battery was showing 98% and the phone was not plugged in 😱

 

[AbSoluTc]

Did some more "unofficial" testing last night. I let the battery drain to about 3% and fully charged it via the power outlet (not usb). The last 20% was hanging in there strong. It took many hours for it to finally die which was weird because it seems like the first 20% out of 100% goes very fast.

Anyways, it just showed 96%. It has been in standby ONLY for 7 hours 7 minutes. Nothing else. Everything on as normal except blue tooth.

That's a 1.75% drop every 2 hours. At that rate, my battery level should show a 21% drop every 12 hours. So, in 2 1/2 days, my batter will be dead, maybe less. That is if I never use it and it sits in standby only. Approx 52 hours of standby.

 

[mappyman]

I just did two hard reboots and charged to 100%.

It's looking good so far its been 2 hours and its just gone to 99% now.

I think it's a calibration issue.

 

[TLewis]

I just did two hard reboots and charged to 100%.

It's looking good so far its been 2 hours and its just gone to 99% now.

I think it's a calibration issue.

New iPhones, out-of-the-box, appear to need at least one full 100% to 0% charge/discharge cycle, to properly calibrate the battery meter (don't do this too often, though).

 

[j2innet]

Battery Meter's problem? or the Chemical problem?

i have seen tons of ppl complaint abt iphone's battery, some ppl claim iphone 3gs has better battery life, some said worse... what is actually happen?

i am wondering is Battery Meter's problem? or the Chemical problem?
i did all advice such as drain to 1% and fully recharge back to 100% for twice at least. i did monitor the rate of battery drain, it is quite fast especially the 1st 20% of 100%. from 100% to 80% it is very fast.


i will share my experience with my iPhone 3GS 32GB

1st week, i run my phone in flight mode without simcard, it was full day use and it call red in the nite, this happen in the weekend. at least 2 days is repeatable. until this point, everything works great.

2nd week, i plug in my simcard, battery can't seem to last for a day, so i start to reduce the setting, 30% intensity, disable 3G, disable location, disable roaming, disable push and fetch, disable bluetooth. i only enable wifi whenever i need to surf the net or ebuddy. the battery seems unstable, sometime over the nite without usage, it could drain to 13% in the morning. i really have no idea why it could happen.



well, there won't be anymore argue that Lithium Battery need Full Charge and then drain it to minimum. it is not memory issue, but it is about chemical issue. see this official claim by APPLE !

"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)."
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html



from,
http://j2tech.blogspot.com

 

[AbSoluTc]

Just an update for those that care -

I have been watching my battery for the past few days. I fully charged it and have been keeping track of it. Here is what I have noticed..

- First 20% drains rapidly. Really fast. I don't know why. However, once it gets below that point, it seems to level out and become more accurate.

- The percentage meter is inaccurate or my battery is bad. My phone showed 21% at one point. A few seconds later, it dips down to 20% and I get the warning. A few seconds after that, it hits 19%. I check it again immediately and the battery indicator shows 22% left. I am like WTF??? A few seconds later, back to 21% and then I get the 20% warning again. Now it's back to 19%. This is over the course of 1 to 2 minutes if that.

Question now is - is this a defective battery or is it a software glitch? What should one do? Wait for the 3.1 update or take it back? Other than this glitch, I am happy with my phone and I dread having to go through yet ANOTHER replacement.

Looking for input here. Thanks guys! 🙂

 

[-aggie-]

Just an update for those that care -

I have been watching my battery for the past few days. I fully charged it and have been keeping track of it. Here is what I have noticed..

- First 20% drains rapidly. Really fast. I don't know why. However, once it gets below that point, it seems to level out and become more accurate.

- The percentage meter is inaccurate or my battery is bad. My phone showed 21% at one point. A few seconds later, it dips down to 20% and I get the warning. A few seconds after that, it hits 19%. I check it again immediately and the battery indicator shows 22% left. I am like WTF??? A few seconds later, back to 21% and then I get the 20% warning again. Now it's back to 19%. This is over the course of 1 to 2 minutes if that.

Question now is - is this a defective battery or is it a software glitch? What should one do? Wait for the 3.1 update or take it back? Other than this glitch, I am happy with my phone and I dread having to go through yet ANOTHER replacement.

Looking for input here. Thanks guys! 🙂

If it's the fluctuations that make you think your battery is bad, then no, you shouldn't take it back for that. It's just a meter, which can have some variation. I would think the error would get greater the less battery you have. Others can chime in, but to me, that doesn't mean anything. Also, the battery meter is just a software item to measure the battery %; it's not how good the battery is.

 

[mappyman]

Just an update for those that care -

I have been watching my battery for the past few days. I fully charged it and have been keeping track of it. Here is what I have noticed..

- First 20% drains rapidly. Really fast. I don't know why. However, once it gets below that point, it seems to level out and become more accurate.

- The percentage meter is inaccurate or my battery is bad. My phone showed 21% at one point. A few seconds later, it dips down to 20% and I get the warning. A few seconds after that, it hits 19%. I check it again immediately and the battery indicator shows 22% left. I am like WTF??? A few seconds later, back to 21% and then I get the 20% warning again. Now it's back to 19%. This is over the course of 1 to 2 minutes if that.

Question now is - is this a defective battery or is it a software glitch? What should one do? Wait for the 3.1 update or take it back? Other than this glitch, I am happy with my phone and I dread having to go through yet ANOTHER replacement.

Looking for input here. Thanks guys! 🙂

My theory is that its a software issue.

You could try rebooting the phone (home+sleep). This will clear the phone of any stray processess.

Next do a restore of your phone but SET UP AS A NEW PHONE not restore from backup.

Then charge again. These two things were what caused my phone to report incorrectly and drain fast. In fact even the dev team says to do this.

 

[AbSoluTc]

If it's the fluctuations that make you think your battery is bad, then no, you shouldn't take it back for that. It's just a meter, which can have some variation. I would think the error would get greater the less battery you have. Others can chime in, but to me, that doesn't mean anything. Also, the battery meter is just a software item to measure the battery %; it's not how good the battery is.

My theory is that its a software issue.

You could try rebooting the phone (home+sleep). This will clear the phone of any stray processess.

Next do a restore of your phone but SET UP AS A NEW PHONE not restore from backup.

Then charge again. These two things were what caused my phone to report incorrectly and drain fast. In fact even the dev team says to do this.

Thanks guys!

I think it's a software glitch as well. Everything else seems just fine. I did just do a restore. I wrote down my contacts and made sure to save my camera pics. Did a full restore and setup the phone as new. We will see how it goes.

 

[MBHockey]

I exchanged my 3GS today for poor battery life. It was much worse than my 3G or even 2G. I hope the replacement is better. I'll report back on it later.

 

[MooneyFlyer]

Interestingly enough -- I was out all day with the phone. At about 5pm I was changing locations and the phone was down to 58%. I didn't think much of it other than it was high enough were I could probably make it for the rest of the night.

3G on, Wifi off, push off, location on (occasional use), BT off. (=58%)

I didn't use the phone much after this and got back home around 10pm. It sat in my pocket doing nothing. It's currently at 78% (no charging in the middle..) hmm.

Usage: 1h 20m
s/b: 14h 7m
call: 42m
sent: 2.1MB
rec'd: 19.9MB

... I still think there is a software issue with how %'s are calculated...

 

[wingsabr]

I guess I'm very fortunate to have a great battery life.
Did some of everything on it. Phone calls, iPod, surf 3G and wifi, shot a couple vids and pics, uploaded said vids and pics. Not bad and I did do a full charge cycle twice since I got it and the battery life is awesome now.

 

[WillieG]

Restored as a new phone and got much better battery life today.

-3G on all day
-wifi on, but not connected to a network
-A few very brief (<1 min) phone calls
-4 hours of tethered 3G internet usage (screen was off during most of this) over bluetooth to my macbook
-iPod playing during tethering for about 2 hours
-About 20 minutes of watching Braveheart during study break with brightness all the way up 😛
-Bought a song on the iTunes store over 3G too
-brightness at 50% with auto-brightness on
-1 gmail account fetching every 15 min; also pushing contacts/calendars over the air with Google Sync
-no apps with push notifications, so that wasn't enabled (although I do plan to reinstall beejive soon)
-location services on

overall, much better than the crappy ~3 hours I was getting when I was using the 3GS restored from a 3G backup. I was very, very close to calling AppleCare and asking them to send me a replacement. Hopefully it just needed to break-in a bit, and maybe using a 3GS from a 3G backup is just asking for trouble.

Mb Hockey - I too, did a restore back up and had the same issue. I then restored as new. I'm on my 4th day and doing muh much better. I last charged my phone about 28 hours ago and I am at 36%. with browsing the internet, u tube, email, a few calls... I'm happier now!!!

 

[-aggie-]

Mb Hockey - I too, did a restore back up and had the same issue. I then restored as new. I'm on my 4th day and doing muh much better. I last charged my phone about 28 hours ago and I am at 36%. with browsing the internet, u tube, email, a few calls... I'm happier now!!!

I can't remember the other person who suggested that restoring the iPhone as new is the way to get better battery life, but my question is don't you think it might be just a coincidence? I mean, why would setting up as new give you better battery life? I'm not doubting your conviction, but an explanation as to why this makes it better is needed.