Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I've noticed a drop in battery performance going from 4.0.2 to 4.1 GM on my iPhone 4. I'd get about 1 day and 20 hours out the battery (both standby/usage) on 4.0.2 now I'm getting 1 day 1 hour out the battery on 4.1 GM. Using the same settings, and using my phone like I do any other day. I hope this is fixed in the actual released 4.1 firmware later this week.
 
I installed 4.1 yesterday and have also noticed a big drop in battery life today. From a full charge last night I am down to 45% at midday after only light use. I'd normally be still at 80-90% by now. Something not right. May have to do restore tonight. I wonder if it could be Skype as it threw up an error message when I launched it. "only compatible with 3.0, 4.0" etc.
 
Using iPhone 4...

Having the GM for a little under a week now has allowed me to do a little testing with it. Initially I was lasting less than a day with the new GM but realised I had Push on and Skype running in the background most of the time.

The biggest killer was Skype, turning this off brought me back to about a day and a half moderate usage before charges. Reading the Skype forums this seems to be the biggest complaint with Skype under iOS4 and is due to the fact that Skype is constantly transmitting and receiving to maintain connections with remote machines.

Now with no Push enabled at all (To be honest, 30 minute email checks for me is fine) overnight I lose about 2 to 4% total. Under normal usage now I am getting two days out of the phone before charges.

The push email system seems to take less battery than Skype but I guess that this is due to the way Skype needs to constantly transmit and receive whereas the email system idles most of the time and sends keep alive packets now and again to keep the connection open.

The other major factor in this is also signal strength. Receiving a poor telephone signal will cause the transmitter in the iPhone to also ramp up its power output so that the mast can still receive data from the iPhone. This will dramatically affect the idle power consumption of the phone.

I have been reliably informed a complete wipe of the phone and starting from scratch exhibits the same improved battery performance I am seeing now. This seems to be more effective for iPhone 3G and 3GS users who have upgraded to iOS 4.
 
My battery seems a little better but the update gave me the prox sensor problem when I NEVER had it before 4.1.

: (
 
I took mine off charge at about 7:25 this morning. Have sent about 4 texts and its now 8:41 and its down to 97%

Will keep an eye on it as I upgraded to 4.1 last night as well
 
i4, 16gb, 4.1GM

i noticed yesterday that the battery seemed to be draining unusually fast..
this is with everything turned off except 3g, and no apps running.
-i took the phone off the charger at 1pm, battery percentage read 100%
-sent a couple text messages around 130-145 and bp said 97%
-talked to my mom for a few minutes around 230pm, bp then read 96%
-didn't touch the phone again till i got to work at 330pm, bp read 87% (wtf?)
-when i got home from work at 230am, bp read 26%.
i did notice that the drain seemed to slow down some as it got around 50%.

today, was not the same though. I unplugged off the charger around 130pm, and i used the phone WAY more than i did yesterday and i'm currently as of 325am, i'm at 48%. anyone else have this similar experience?
 
I took mine off charge at about 7:25 this morning. Have sent about 4 texts and its now 8:41 and its down to 97%

Will keep an eye on it as I upgraded to 4.1 last night as well

95% now at 9:35 with no usage at all....
 
No lie - so far it "appears" my battery life is better.

But I don't have a full day to verify yet under 4.1

I base the above on the fact that normally I unplug my phone at 7am and during my commute, I use the Kindle App. My commute runs about 30 minutes and by the time I am at my office, I'm typically down to about 94-95 percent. Today I was at 99 and then Just as I was about to hit the top button it dipped to 98.
 
I seem to be having a less severe battery problem. Norally during my hour and a half commute listening to music and browsing or playing minimally I normally lost 3-4percent but after 4.1 I have lost 8 percent and I'm not even half way through my commute. Although yest I did charge it before it got below 65 percent. That could be another reason. I'll have to observe my batt for now.
 
Now on 90% with a slight app store usage and I re-jigged some apps earlier and another text message.

Think its slightly better but like others dont have a full day under 4.1 yet
 
I used to get five days, now I get under 2. I wasn't sure why....I guess this explains it. I'm kind of bummed given battery was my reason for upgrading :(
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.