Poor Battery Life - I have a theory - it's email!

[julric01]

I may be totally off, but I'm starting to think the poor battery life has something to do with the way e-mail has been implemented - even aside from Push.

My home e-mail is on swbell.net, which is now really AT&T - I set it up on my new 3G phone just like I did on my old iPhone - manual - no push, just manual fetch. I noticed that as long as my iPhone is on, I can't access my swbell.net e-mail on any other computer. I get an error telling me it's being accessed by another system. No biggie, but it didn't used to do that.

I also notice that my iPhone runs hot - all the time, even when it's been sitting idle for hours - which is also telling me that something is running - my old one only ran hot or warm when in use for a while.

It seems like something is hanging on to the connection - maybe for all of my e-mail accounts.

There's all this talk of turning off 3G, turn off WiFi, Location service, etc. - done all that and still bad batter life. Today I've disabled e-mail and I'll see if that makes a difference.

Like I said, I may be all wrong, but something is causing it to run all the time.

 

[AustinSTI]

I had the same problem on 2G when I first got it with my SBCGLOBAL.net account. I've since switched providers and no longer use that account; problem solved. It doesn't seem to do it with yahoo, gmail or other accounts...

 

[iNfowarrior]

I may be totally off, but I'm starting to think the poor battery life has something to do with the way e-mail has been implemented - even aside from Push.

My home e-mail is on swbell.net, which is now really AT&T - I set it up on my new 3G phone just like I did on my old iPhone - manual - no push, just manual fetch. I noticed that as long as my iPhone is on, I can't access my swbell.net e-mail on any other computer. I get an error telling me it's being accessed by another system. No biggie, but it didn't used to do that.

I also notice that my iPhone runs hot - all the time, even when it's been sitting idle for hours - which is also telling me that something is running - my old one only ran hot or warm when in use for a while.

It seems like something is hanging on to the connection - maybe for all of my e-mail accounts.

There's all this talk of turning off 3G, turn off WiFi, Location service, etc. - done all that and still bad batter life. Today I've disabled e-mail and I'll see if that makes a difference.

Like I said, I may be all wrong, but something is causing it to run all the time.

FYI: When you simply repeat "bad battery life", nobody can help you because no one knows if you are actually experiencing bad battery life.

The iPhone 3G lasts a day with moderate-heavy use. Period.

Is that bad? Some say yes, others say no.

Point is unless you tell us exactly how long your battery is lasting (and we're talking about full charge to dead, with a real, properly working battery, not one thats never been cycled), we can't help you.

And furthermore, turning off all of the features that make the iPhone 3G worth owning (1. 3G., 2. Push email, 3. Location services, 4. Wifi,........) to save battery life, is about as pointless as it gets. if you don't mind having all that turned off, you could easily get 1 of a thousand motorolla or LG phones that will last 4 days without a recharge.

Just a suggestion

 

[stockcerts]

I read a post earlier and someone felt that you can save battery power by not using the e-mail push system. I do subscribe to MobileMe, not sure if I'm willing to turn off push. I could have my system just check every 30 minutes.

I now keep a charger at work and I typically throw my phone on it during the day. If I didn't do that I would run out of power before the day is over as I use my phone at the gym and watch movies/tv shows while doing cardio.

 

[BrulesThe1]

I mhave to agree with OP, as the "heat" factor indicates services are running consistently. I have experienced the iPhone getting "hot" when checking e-mail in conjunction w/ WiFi on. several radios operating simultaneously = heat generation. A couple of times it was enough to drain the battery in less than 2 hours. Even after I quit the e-mail app it appeared as if it was running since as the network activity icon just kept spinning...