Apple gave us a battery that was supposed to be 50% better. We're seeing mixed results, with some having their phones heating up like crazy. 3-5 months from now, I'm sure any hardware problems will be fixed, but we might be stuck with this same 3GS for a while. I'm sure Apple is hard at work on 3.0.1, but will this update fix the battery problems?
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iPhone 3GS battery problems: Hardware or Software?
- Thread starter SephirothXR
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It seems that most of the complaints here about battery life (except for a few, of course) are people who stream audio, use google maps for 30 minutes, and then complain that they only have 3 hours of usage.
So I'll go with:
C) User ignorance.
So I'll go with:
C) User ignorance.
I'm just worried about the heating issues, people have reported they are not normal (white case turning brown for instance). Looks like mine doesn't have these issues, I'm almost at 7 hours usage (1 day, 19 hours standby) with 15% remaining for my first discharge. I'm going to discharge it more often, but I'll be happy to hear if 3.0.1 fixes the heating issues, specifically the extreme heat ones.
I don't see what everyone's problem with the battery is, I've let it run down completely 2 times and take it off when it gets to 100 til I break it in, and my battery life is great.
It's got to be the software because when you install 3.0 on the old 2G or 3G phones their battery life goes to ***** too.
Im going to say software as I have pointed out, in multiple threads, the battery life does get better with cycling which leads me to believe the indicator on screen its accurate until the battery is cycled a few times. This result has been confirmed by others.
Perhaps E) all of the above. I love how some people just claim user ignorance. Since they don't see problems with their 1 device everyone else must be wrong. That, to me, is ignorant.
I've had an iPhone since the beginning and got the 3GS on the first morning and I am having battery life issues. The problem seems to go away for me when I disable wifi. If I have wifi on, the "Usage" and "Standby" times seem to go up in unison and the battery drains amazingly fast -- to the point where I wouldn't make a full day (without much activity). With my old phone this was never a problem.
It could be hardware, it could be software, and, yes, it could be user error / ignorance. The jury is still out. My vote is that there is some background process keeping "usage" increasing when I'm doing nothing (like a ping to keep the wifi alive or something)...
In any case, please don't claim we are ignorant without all of the facts.
I've had an iPhone since the beginning and got the 3GS on the first morning and I am having battery life issues. The problem seems to go away for me when I disable wifi. If I have wifi on, the "Usage" and "Standby" times seem to go up in unison and the battery drains amazingly fast -- to the point where I wouldn't make a full day (without much activity). With my old phone this was never a problem.
It could be hardware, it could be software, and, yes, it could be user error / ignorance. The jury is still out. My vote is that there is some background process keeping "usage" increasing when I'm doing nothing (like a ping to keep the wifi alive or something)...
In any case, please don't claim we are ignorant without all of the facts.
my battery is fine, I went to work at 7am on a full charge battery, I then came home at 4am the next day, my battery was just hitting 20% warning.
3G on, brightness at about 50% location services and push i think can't remember.
I think the 3GS is amazing though.
I think the 3GS is amazing though.
I'm not sure which to choose. I just replaced my first gen iPhone (which had a great battery, even now) with a 3GS and the battery life is totally crap.
I charge over night, and by lunchtime I have half life left having only sent a few texts and browsed a few sites.
So much for improved battery life!
I charge over night, and by lunchtime I have half life left having only sent a few texts and browsed a few sites.
So much for improved battery life!
Why are you worried if yours doesn't have these issues?
From what I've seen, it looks like most people don't have these problems either. Anyone who does should just take the phone in to Apple. They do replace them if the battery isn't working properly.
Yup, I'll agree with this.
There are some people who will have dud batteries, butt that's so with any battery-operated device.
Most of the complaints I'm seeing on here are people who have 15 hours of standby, 3.5 hours of usage and "only" 45% battery remaining or something absurd like that.
I'm beginning to think I have a bad battery because my battery performance is not as good as my 1st Gen iPhone. Sure, on the first day I was all excited about the phone and used all the features and such, but it quickly became just my phone. I'm totally back to using my phone like I've always used it and I am constantly finding my battery at below 50% after a daytime of little use. It's not so bad that it's causing me to be without a phone, but it's definitely not lasting as long as my 1st Gen.
I came from a Touch Pro and a Palm Pre - and my 3GS is probably 40-50% BETTER than either one of those. I am really impressed with it so far (bought it on Saturday). Now, I have excellent 3G coverage, so maybe that has to do with some of those who are draining faster than usual? I have also yet to have extended phone calls, so that might be a factor. But with both the TP & the Pre, if I did 60-90 minutes of calls, it was dead by the afternoon. The 3GS is lasting my until 9-10PM.
I also have no heat problems - again, I had a Pre, so the 3GS is an ice cube comparatively.
I also have no heat problems - again, I had a Pre, so the 3GS is an ice cube comparatively.
Nope, it isn't I put a qualifier in accounting for defective batteries or software issues ("except for a few, of course"). Besides that, I've read dozens of threads of those supposedly having problems because their battery has discharged 50% (not even a full charge to see if the indicator is accurate!) in 2 hours while using.....google maps, pandora, playing games, downloading apps. I didn't call you ignorant, please stop being defensive.
I posted this on the other battery thread, but again, my 3G-S went from fully charged, then I powered off for the night and when I powered it back on this morning I had a completely drained battery redline. Obviously, nothing to do with apps etc, which all push, etc. is turned off anyway.
Call it what you want -- the point is that a number of us are seeing some anomaly. Perhaps it isn't a real problem, perhaps it is. In any case we should try to understand what is causing that to happen.
For those that post beyond this, please include information about your setup so we can figure out if we are comparing "apples-apples" (ugh).
I agree completely. The first step, though, is isolating the affected users. That's difficult when 80% (estimate based on what I've read) of the people complaining about battery problems don't have any. Those with usage times longer than they've used their device is a problem and should definitely be checked out.
Agree. I'm in the process of wearing out the battery and recharging fully for the 3rd time. I had a good day today with 3G off (I'm currently in a place that doesn't seem to have it anyway) and wifi off. Location services were on but I didn't use the mapping functions... Tomorrow I'm going to try it again with wifi on and see what the change is.
Same here, I think I notice it more because of the percentage number is right there so, before what I thought was a good amount I realize now it not.