My 1st iPhoner: Good battery life?

[MrSingh]

since i've never owned an iPhone before i can't compare my iP4's battery to any past experiences. i'm currently unsure whether i have a good or bad battery. i also know that people's use is subjective, so my question is:

- what is the best way to test battery-life over a period of 24 hours where i won't have time to mess with my iP?

on sunday i will not need to use my phone much. so what i can do is switch-on wifi, blue-tooth, leave 3G on and see how long it lasts after a full-charge. is this a good idea? i guess that leaving all comms switched-on and not using them will allow me to look at what % i have left later that day and then have something to start from.

i will basically have at least a 20 hour period where i will not need to use my phone so i can start with 100% and then 20 hours later see how much battery-life i have left. if it turns-out i've got a lemon, i want to be able to explain to the regent street store staff (who i have found are mostly incompetent the issues and not be fobbed-off.

here's what the site claims:

""
Power and battery*
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter
Talk time:
up to 7 hours on 3G
up to 14 hours on 2G
Standby time: up to 300 hours

Internet use:
up to 6 hours on 3G
up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback: up to 10 hours
Audio playback: up to 40 hours

[* All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors; actual results will vary. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by an Apple service provider. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information. For more details of iPhone performance tests for talk time, standby time, Internet use over 3G, Internet use over Wi-Fi, video playback and audio playback, see www.apple.com/uk/iphone/battery.htm]
""

note the detailed info: http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/battery.html

thanks.

 

[keyofnight]

Honestly, the best way I've found to test battery life is to charge it all the way up and use the damn thing how you want to use it. That's right... figure out how you'd like to use the phone, set it up that way, and use it for a whole day.

When you drop to about 10-20% (or whatever you want, you can usually tell how things are going at around 40-50%), check how much you've used your phone by going to: Settings -> Usage. Do this a few times over the next week, if you want.

I've found that I end up at 50% charge after 3-4hours of usage and 7-8 hours of standby. This seems normal for what I've seen on the forums.

(Edit: Also look at this thread for other experiences: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/954224/ )

 

[MrSingh]

thanks! will checkout that thread later.

iP4 is about to get complete a full-charge so will now note the way i use it and get otehrs' views n the stats if i feel battery sucks.

thanks again

 

[darngooddesign]

Apple posts things like "x hours of video playback" on their site. See how yours compares.

 

[MrSingh]

the problem is finding the time to sit there with it to completely drain the battery in a given way.

here's what i did; i charged to 100% and then applied these settings (the settings were not changed at any point):

location services : on
cell roaming : off
wifi : on
notifications : on
push mail : on
fetch email : every 30 mins
brightness : marker right under the "i" in brightness
auto brightness : on
bluetooth : off
auto-lock : 1 min
passcode lock : after 15 mins
messages : repeat alert on
iPod sound check, eq, volume limit, lyrics : off

the results with 3% battery left were USAGE: 5hours 37mins STANDBY: 17hours 50mins.

here's approximately how i used my iP4 over this period of just under 24 hours:

Phonecalls: 35 mins
Actually read/wrote/sent email: 20mins
Safari: 60mins
Ipod: 60mins (medium volume)
Youtube: 20mins
Maps: 10mins (checked out one route, did a little searching)
Viewed PDF: 10mins
Games - Angry Birds, Drumkit Lite: 20mins
Whatsapp: 20mins (including taking and sending a photograph)
Camera: Took 2-3 pics
Other Apps - Twitter, Tuaw, Sky News, Engadget, Evernote (used apps): 30mins
Downloaded and Installed 2 apps
Sent several texts

this absolutely kills my previous phone, htc touch diamond original, which had an appalling battery (it's not even worth comparing the two) so naturally i am very happy but because this is my first new smartphone in over 2 years, and because i haven't had an iPhone previously, what do you guys think - is this the kind of battery-life i should expect given how i used my iP4 or should it be better? i ask because i hear that there are lemons out there...