Continued 2.1 Battery Problems

[djpfine]

I bought my iPhone last week with 2.1 already installed and it's had horrible battery life. First full charge and I barely made it to 3 hours of use with 5 hours of standby. I did a fresh restore and power cycled twice and now am seeing 3.5-4 hours of use with 12-14 hours standby by the time I'm at 20%. This sounds pretty low compared to a number of others out there. I'm not doing anything too hardcore with maybe 10 minutes of calls, a few texts, emails, light browsing, and music playing.

3G - on
WiFi (no auto join) - on
Location Services - on
Bluetooth - off
Gmail fetch account at 1 hour intervals
Exchange push email, contacts, and calendar
Brightness at 10-15% w/ auto on

Does this qualify for an exchange from the Apple store? Will my battery improve after a few more weeks of use? It's disappointing when I have a phone that barely lasts a work day yet others here are squeezing 2-3 days of standby with similar usage patterns.

 

[AHDuke99]

That's better than what I'm getting. Mine died after 3.5 hours of usage and 15 hours of standby.

 

[rotobadger]

Based on what you're saying (3G on, Location services on, Fetch once an hour, and Push) I'd say 3.5 to 4 hours to the 20 percent mark is about right if not decent. You'll get about another hour from 20 percent to shut down which sounds about right. Maybe a tad low but not terrible IMO. Turn off Location services and I'll bet you see a dramtic increase in battery life.

 

[firewood]

Have you calibrated the battery gauge by doing a complete and full charge/discharge/charge cycle?

Do you spend a lot of time in areas with weak/bad/zero 3G reception?

Do you have any apps running (Map?) when the iPhone goes into standby?


.

 

[djpfine]

I've seen others post-2.1 with 1-2 days of standby and 8 hours of use, which is what has me concerned. From all of the posts I've read through, it appears as though I have standard battery life for pre-2.1 phones. Basically, my phone is one that did not see am improvement with 2.1.

I have calibrated twice (meant to say that instead of power cycle). I've also tried turning location services off in the early days but didn't notice a big difference. I have excellent 3G reception at work and have also tried turning WiFi off without noticing much difference.

My hope is that the battery life continues to improve as time goes on, since my phone is only a week old. Is this at all possible, or a figment of my imagination/a result of me using it less and less as the newness wears off?

 

[rotobadger]

I think you need to take reports of battery life with a grain of salt. Keep in mind, those that are reporting 8 hours of battery life may also have 2 or 3 hours of listening to music on the ipod. That uses FAR less juice than 3G web use for example. Look at Apple's specifications. They rate the phone at 5 hours talk time with 3G on. You are hitting 3.5 hours to 4 hours at the 20 percent mark. Granted, your usage may be different than other people but, over time, you can get an idea of where your usage/battery life really are. Again, your reported battery life sound pretty much in line with what Apple published.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

With everything you have turned on, your battery use sounds about right.

Have you tried calibrating the indicator by fully charging the battery, completely the battery down until the iPhone turns off, and then charging to full again?

 

[djpfine]

Yes I have tried calibrating twice. Just for kicks, I turned off everything last night (3G, Wifi, location, etc.) and so far am getting about the same usage/standby stats...maybe a bit better, but still in the ~5hour usage/15hr standby window.

So now I'm thinking Exchange push is what's causing my subpar battery life? It really doesn't make sense to be getting near identical battery times with the different configurations...