itsmemuffins
macrumors 68040
Yeah, but yours has been plugged in since last charge.
Just for a minute to sync.
Piss poor battery life with iPhone 4...?
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Just for a minute to sync.
Lucky Lacy
macrumors newbie
I charged my phone before I went to bed, it was on standby for about 8 hours. I woke up and it was at 99%. Thats fine.
But then I was on a phone call for only 10 minutes, I get off the phone and that 99% is now 95%! What gives???
But then I was on a phone call for only 10 minutes, I get off the phone and that 99% is now 95%! What gives???
I've been quite unhappy with my iP4 battery life, I can barely make it through a day. I play a few games like Doodle Jump or Solitaire, surf the web mostly on wifi, location & bluetooth off, brightness around 60% with auto off. My 3GS battery seemed better. What do you guys think? I'm still within my 30 days, considering a return.
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I charged my phone before I went to bed, it was on standby for about 8 hours. I woke up and it was at 99%. Thats fine.
But then I was on a phone call for only 10 minutes, I get off the phone and that 99% is now 95%! What gives???
Based on the official "7h talk time on 3G" claims, a 10 minute call should drop your battery by 2-3%: obviously that's under ideal conditions where the phone isn't having to work very hard to get its signal to the base station. If you're not in an area with an optimum signal a 10 minute call could easily use up 4% of your battery.
Lucky Lacy
macrumors newbie
Thanks for the clarification because I was starting to get worried. I'm currently at 86% with some light webbrowsing and twitter/facebook surfing. I'm getting on average 5 & 1/2 usage but I play a lot of ea sports world cup soccer as well. I have about 15 days left to decide to keep or not.
jbyun04
macrumors 6502a
battery life is noticeably better than the 3gs for me.. I played about 1.5 hours of Fieldrunners last night and the battery barely budged. On my 3gs the battery would've drained pretty quickly.
iPhone 4 battery's been staying alive for about 2 days before I have to charge again. 3GS had to charge every night.
iPhone 4 battery's been staying alive for about 2 days before I have to charge again. 3GS had to charge every night.
southernpaws
macrumors 6502
I basically need to charge it each night.
How is that a problem? Ever since my first basic phone years ago i would plug it in every night. it's a habit, and a good one, because you never know when your car might break down or something.
besides that, how many smartphones make it through two days of real usage?
and don't quote blackberries--they have hardly any games that are played as intensely as iphone games, the web browser is not taxed nearly as heavily as an iphone web browser because it's not worth looking up things on the web.
Think about it. how many times do you just look up something on your iphone when there is a full computer in the other room? How many times did you get up to use the computer when you had any phone that wasn't an iphone?
i had the iphone 3g. it would die by the end of the business day. i'd keep it plugged in in my car, toggle the 3g/wifi, keep the brightness at 25%.
with the i4 i keep 3g, wifi, bluetooth, all on all the time. push email on all the time. i use it for work, so heavy email, calling, texting. brightness is at 60%. and i always make it to the end of the day. i get in bed with my phone beginning to hit 10%. for the amount of usage, that's a beautiful thing.
maybe it helps that i have auto-lock set to one minute? that i run a full cycle at least once a month? that i always put my phone to sleep?
seriously. don't do that. put you phone to sleep. the display does in fact use power, and it wasn't intended to just be on all the time. that's pretty normal and it's simply not designed to be on perpetually--so don't complain about the phone doing something it's not designed to do.
Statusnone88
macrumors 68000
So here are two snapshots of my usage. Phone just came off the dock about 2 hours ago so since then it's been sitting on the table with the occasional text every couple of minutes. My brightness is extremely low, Push is ON but for e-mail only.
Now, granted these two shots aren't very far apart but considering I'm on WiFi and I'm no where close to "heavy usage" then 2% drain in that amount of time is ridiculous. When I first got the phone the battery life was stellar. This only seems to be a problem in the past week...
EDIT: Just an added detail... I go into the multitasking bar and kill every single app in there at least every 15 minutes to make sure nothing is draining my battery so this shouldn't even be an issue of misuse of multitasking.
Now, granted these two shots aren't very far apart but considering I'm on WiFi and I'm no where close to "heavy usage" then 2% drain in that amount of time is ridiculous. When I first got the phone the battery life was stellar. This only seems to be a problem in the past week...
EDIT: Just an added detail... I go into the multitasking bar and kill every single app in there at least every 15 minutes to make sure nothing is draining my battery so this shouldn't even be an issue of misuse of multitasking.
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Mostly surfing on wifi, sometimes with pandora in the background but i usually have pandora on alone. Some texting here and there and games as well. It's mostly all Internet. The time I got 8.5 hrs was all of that plus almost an hour of listening to music on the iPod.
Wifi on, bt off, push off, brightness at 50% with auto brightness on.
EDIT: right now I'm at 41% with 5 hrs exactly of usage. About 12.5 hrs standby.
pknz
macrumors 68020
It's an annoyance. I don't really want to carry the USB charged around with me when I'm away. I've used the same phone for the last 4-5years (original battery) and that still lasts longer. Would've expected better.
southernpaws
macrumors 6502
I'd be really surprised if the phone you've had the past 4-5 years gets as much data usage (along with gaming or other apps) as your iPhone. Web browsing itself was so unusable on phones from five years ago that it was only used out of desperation. Comparing the usage and consumption of the two phones then is not sound reasoning.
I would dare say most smartphones do not last two days under normal usage. It's likely that either your phone is defective or your expectations aren't realistic.
Lucky Lacy
macrumors newbie
I think you need to go reread my post a page or two back about multi-tasking. Multi-tasking isn't hurting your battery... mostly because NOTHING is multi-tasking unless you literally tell it to. Fast App Switching is NOT multi-tasking... it's a frozen state that is loaded and unloaded when the app is closed from the screen.
5 hours is probably pretty standard across the board. Some might get a few more hours because of minimal use for small things.
Anyone here complaining about battery life should probably go back and reread my posts a page or two back. If you're getting 2-3 hours or less that is probably one thing. But 5+ hours is probably just about right.
Games drain battery. Wifi Drains battery. Bluetooth drains battery. Think about what you do on your phone every day. Anything stand out? Such as games. Do you leave bluetooth and wifi on all day? Turn them off when you aren't using them.
Biggest one is turn your damn brightness down. I set mine about 10% and get 5-6 hours on my 3GS. I also turn OFF auto brightness. I turn off wifi when I know I won't have wifi for an hour or more. I turn bluetooth on only when I'm using my BT headset.
I still have Location Services on, Push is on for two exchange servers and mobile me, and an IMAP server fetching every 15 minutes.
I don't play games on my phone either. Mostly web browsing, instant messaging via Trillian, lots of Reeder checking, mostly minor things. I expect to get the same if not maybe a tiny bit better on my iPhone 4 when the thing finally shows up.
itsmemuffins
macrumors 68040
SO those that are experiencing poor battery performance, did you set up as new or restore from backup?
southernpaws
macrumors 6502
I had the brightness on my 3G set about the same when I had it. I tell you what...getting the new iphone 4 and realizing that i could turn the brightness up halfway was like a luxury. And I still didn't have to toggle the radios or anything on or off.
I thought the battery performed better with auto brightness on?
Reading through some of the tech blogs reviews of the i4, it sounds like you're right and 5 hours of actual moderate to heavy usage is normal (and lets face it, anyone who has an iphone uses it moderately or heavy.) but it does last longer than the 3GS and it seems pretty comparable to other phones (see: Torch, Droid X) as far as lasting a day but not lasting two days.
A couple other things i found.
Auto-lock helps a lot.
GPS apps. GPS is one of the tasks that will truly run in the background (as opposed to fast app switch). I'm curious to know if Mapquest, Motion X, TomTom, et al cause a drain if you don't close it out of the taskbar.
Auto check fewer email accounts. I haven't thought of this, but i only have two both set to check frequently.
I think this looks good.
phone off the charger at 7:35am. It's 4:35 right now. 9 hours off the charger.
Usage 6 hours 9 minutes
Standby 9 hours
I've used it a lot today. 3G always on and wifi on maybe 1/3 of the time. Played some angry birds and just surfed the internet a bunch (on both 3g and wifi) and lots of sms. My brightness is set to right where the "B" is in brightness. (25% maybe) with auto-brightness on. Only notifications on are facebook ones with no sounds and it is pushing all notifications.
*one question* is the standby time really the totally "on" time? meaning I was only really on standby for just under 3 hours? cause they should reword "standby" if that's the case. but i guess its semantics really.
phone off the charger at 7:35am. It's 4:35 right now. 9 hours off the charger.
Usage 6 hours 9 minutes
Standby 9 hours
I've used it a lot today. 3G always on and wifi on maybe 1/3 of the time. Played some angry birds and just surfed the internet a bunch (on both 3g and wifi) and lots of sms. My brightness is set to right where the "B" is in brightness. (25% maybe) with auto-brightness on. Only notifications on are facebook ones with no sounds and it is pushing all notifications.
*one question* is the standby time really the totally "on" time? meaning I was only really on standby for just under 3 hours? cause they should reword "standby" if that's the case. but i guess its semantics really.
smooth
macrumors 6502
That looks about right. It's supposed to last 6-7 hours talking or using it on 3G. It looks like you had 3 hours of usage and went from 52% to 9% so it seems normal.
I have been watching this thread with some trepidation as I had both a 3g and a 3gs with horrible battery life.
Yesterday though I put my 4 to the test and it passed with flying colors:
1 exchange account on push, 2 gmail and 1 .mac account on 15 minute sync (my normal settings) - an accumulated 4+ hours of navigon navigation, with the screen on the entire time and about another 4 hours of 3g surfing all in rural NC.
At the end of the day (~11:00pm) I still had 18% of my battery left!
I'm curious about those who are having battery problems though. If it isn't all phones what is the pattern? Has anyone collected serial numbers to see if they came from a specific batch? How many of them are jailbroken and have unauthorized apps on them? Have you tried multiple AC adapters (maybe it's not the phones). There has to be a common thread.
I certainly believe something is going on - I won't say it's in your heads because that's what I was told by the Genius' about my previous models. If the thread can be identified then the problem can be fixed.
Yesterday though I put my 4 to the test and it passed with flying colors:
1 exchange account on push, 2 gmail and 1 .mac account on 15 minute sync (my normal settings) - an accumulated 4+ hours of navigon navigation, with the screen on the entire time and about another 4 hours of 3g surfing all in rural NC.
At the end of the day (~11:00pm) I still had 18% of my battery left!
I'm curious about those who are having battery problems though. If it isn't all phones what is the pattern? Has anyone collected serial numbers to see if they came from a specific batch? How many of them are jailbroken and have unauthorized apps on them? Have you tried multiple AC adapters (maybe it's not the phones). There has to be a common thread.
I certainly believe something is going on - I won't say it's in your heads because that's what I was told by the Genius' about my previous models. If the thread can be identified then the problem can be fixed.
I'm going to call ******** on this one. Navigon using GPS would kill your battery in an hour or so easily. On my 3GS i can literally watch the battery meter drop 1% at a time, over the course of 10-15 minutes it drops roughly 10%, you'd get roughly 90 minutes or so before the battery was completely dead from 100%.
So no way in hell you just got 4+ hours of GPS navigation. Thanks for trying though.
I use my phone pretty regularly. I listen to music or watch a TV show on it while running on the tredmill for about 30-45 minutes each day, I play a fair amount of games (about 15 minutes each day), I am currently reading a book (30 minutes each day), I use Safari about a combined total of 30-45 minutes a day, and I talk about 45 minutes a day (on average)....
I seriously charge my iPhone once every 3 days. I uncharge it at about 10-11am and charge it 3 nights later when it dies. I let it die almost every time to keep the battery nice and strong!
Anyways, I hope you get this fixed!
- Joe
I seriously charge my iPhone once every 3 days. I uncharge it at about 10-11am and charge it 3 nights later when it dies. I let it die almost every time to keep the battery nice and strong!
Anyways, I hope you get this fixed!
- Joe
Statusnone88
macrumors 68000
So the better question is... in your opinion is my battery life lower than average? Like I said, push is my biggest standby battery drainer.
2% is hard to judge honestly. Was the device off during those 6 minutes or so? Were you browsing? What exactly were you doing?
It's much easier to judge a full charge to 5% or so. If you're doing casual browsing and app flipping you should get anywhere between 4.5-6 hours I'd say.
The difference in your case is going to be the screen brightness. Lower it and you'd probably see an increase in run time. I'd say the single biggest power draw for people is going to be the screen. GPS being first if you're using it, screen second, wifi, 3g, bluetooth.. in that order.. roughly. 3G may use more than wifi if your signal is low and it's having a rough time maintaining a signal.
Lucky Lacy
macrumors newbie
Chip NoVaMac
macrumors G3
Thanks all that have posted so far....
I am the owner of an original iPhone since July three years ago. Been on the fence about the iPhone 4 (antennagate was part of the hesitatation here - now the only reason I haven't gotten one is that a "source" tells me that in the October timeframe there will be a modified antenna for the iPhones shipping at that time - trust him); but having some screen issues on my current iPhone.
Saw this thread about battery issues, and was concerned. So with the comments made so far I am documenting my battery usage on the iPhone 1g so I will have a better basis to talk with Apple once I bite the bullet in the next couple weeks or so.
FWIW, my iPhone 1g came off the charger at 8:30am this morn fully charged. My email accounts are set to push, wifi is turned on when it can can a network, Bluetooth is off, notifications on, and made no phone calls today. Some light surfing, some dedicated news apps, some emails coming thru (no replying back), a few SMS messages (really a lite user here for the most part). And so far the battery is showing little usage - did not see away to turn on a percentage of usage here on the iPhone 1g.
Here it is 11pm and my usage stands at 1hr, 27mn and standby is 14hr, 11mn. I don't see my usage of the new iPhone 4 changing much since I have an iPad. So will have to see what happens once I can get my hands on the iPhone 4 and keep you posted...
I am the owner of an original iPhone since July three years ago. Been on the fence about the iPhone 4 (antennagate was part of the hesitatation here - now the only reason I haven't gotten one is that a "source" tells me that in the October timeframe there will be a modified antenna for the iPhones shipping at that time - trust him); but having some screen issues on my current iPhone.
Saw this thread about battery issues, and was concerned. So with the comments made so far I am documenting my battery usage on the iPhone 1g so I will have a better basis to talk with Apple once I bite the bullet in the next couple weeks or so.
FWIW, my iPhone 1g came off the charger at 8:30am this morn fully charged. My email accounts are set to push, wifi is turned on when it can can a network, Bluetooth is off, notifications on, and made no phone calls today. Some light surfing, some dedicated news apps, some emails coming thru (no replying back), a few SMS messages (really a lite user here for the most part). And so far the battery is showing little usage - did not see away to turn on a percentage of usage here on the iPhone 1g.
Here it is 11pm and my usage stands at 1hr, 27mn and standby is 14hr, 11mn. I don't see my usage of the new iPhone 4 changing much since I have an iPad. So will have to see what happens once I can get my hands on the iPhone 4 and keep you posted...