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Real-world iPhone 3G battery life sucks.

lamina

lamina

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 9, 2006
1,757
69
Niagara
I was in Toronto today, using 3G and GPS to navigate myself there. I wasn't using it as a GPS, with the screen on constantly. The phone lasted about 3 hours before I got the 20% warning. I have calibrated the battery.

I had WiFi off, 3G on, location services on, and bluetooth off. I used the phone for a not-even-5 minute call. I was also listening to reasonably-encoded mp3s on the way.

When I turned 3G off, I found it to last a little longer.

Now I'm going to be in Korea in a about a week. If Korea only supports 3G, I'm going to have to leave 3G on all the time.

Has this been other people's experience?
 
Hahahah wow that sucks. I'll wait for the 3rd gen iphone then. My old jailbroken iphone still gets 7 hours usage with over 24 hours standby before I get the 20% remaining warning.
 
sigh... for the 100th time... the GPS uses a TON of power... Even the handheld tomtoms won't get more than about 4 hours out of battery power....

Unless you REALLY need the Location Services on, TURN THEM OFF. Even if you have the iPhone locked, the GPS is still running unless you go into settings and turn it off.

Turn it off and just pop it back on when you go back to look at the map. With the AGPS it finds your location again in like 10 seconds...

the GPS is the #1 power suck on the device by a WIDE margin.
 
lamina said:
I was in Toronto today, using 3G and GPS to navigate myself there. I wasn't using it as a GPS, with the screen on constantly. The phone lasted about 3 hours before I got the 20% warning. I have calibrated the battery.

I had WiFi off, 3G on, location services on, and bluetooth off. I used the phone for a not-even-5 minute call. I was also listening to reasonably-encoded mp3s on the way.

When I turned 3G off, I found it to last a little longer.

Now I'm going to be in Korea in a about a week. If Korea only supports 3G, I'm going to have to leave 3G on all the time.

Has this been other people's experience?
Click to expand...

Oh btw, you should go nuts in Korea using your 3G phone. It's covered by your unlimited $30 data plan...NOT. Better read the horror stories first.
 
Thanks for the tips. I just turned my brightness down, and turned off location services...which I'm guessing is the GPS. Once a good turn by turn GPS application becomes available I'll turn the GPS back on. Although, one of the posters above stated that GPS is not a battery drain.
 
For reference, my TomTom gets at MOST 2 hours on battery power.
 
Screen brightness and GPS will kill your battery.

The Battery life isn't awesome by any means, but it's definitely good if you use it correctly.

If you need to use GPS in a car, get a car charger.
 
2002cbr600f4i said:
sigh... for the 100th time... the GPS uses a TON of power... Even the handheld tomtoms won't get more than about 4 hours out of battery power....

Unless you REALLY need the Location Services on, TURN THEM OFF. Even if you have the iPhone locked, the GPS is still running unless you go into settings and turn it off.

Turn it off and just pop it back on when you go back to look at the map. With the AGPS it finds your location again in like 10 seconds...

the GPS is the #1 power suck on the device by a WIDE margin.
Click to expand...

Yea I've heard location services on the iPhone suck the battery a good amount.
 
currently,

I am at 2 hours 10 minutes usage (one hour of web browsing, rest using ipod)

I am at 5 hours 55 minutes standby with 75% battery left.


GPS ON, Location Services ON, 3G on. Wifi Off (I just want grab all my data on 3g only).

3G signal = 4 to 5 bars. 1.2 mbps.
 
I will keep the GPS off from now on, unless I need it.

You know what would be really cool? If there was a program like BossPrefs where I can turn 3G, WiFi, GPS, and even EDGE on and off. It should be coming soon I hope, since Apple has opened up the app store eligibility.
 
Running on Edge (no 3G here) my 3G iPhone running push with GPS turned on is getting the same battery life my old iPhone got with IMAP running 15 min checks.
 
gps is a drainer.

I work in a circuit city installing car audio. And many people come in and wanna buy a gps and think they can use it like a phone. charge it for a few hours then take it out for a spin.. And most are very disappointed to find out when i tell them they should leave it in all the time.. I have never seen a gps (Tom Toms, Magellans, Garmins) that will last more than a few hours.. so Im sure the GPS in the Iphone does such a good amount of battery. Btw.. I never thought I would replace my magellan 4000 until i met the new iphone :)
 
JBaker122586 said:
Not even close to true.
Click to expand...

one thing I have found is if you use maps to find yourself and then exit - maps will still track you via the GPS...you need to tap the locate me button so that it doesn't glow blue any more to turn that off. So while other apps that use GPS will turn off when you exit (most likely because there are no background processes for third party apps) apparently maps doesn't

although this has just been my experience and I am probably wrong.

also I believe leaving location services on vs. off means really nothing except that it will ask you ahaint if you want to use GPS in another app and possibly prevent this maps thing
 
Just ran my all day to see how long the battery lasted until it finally shut down. Here is what I got...

Fetch Mail hourly
Bluetooth On
Location Services On
Screen Brightness 1/3 and Auto

Everything else was off

Let a few movies run and only made 30 minutes worth of calls and some txts

Final Tally

6 Hours and 2 Minutes Usage
23 Hours and 40 minutes standyby

Not too bad.
 
4 hours 21 minutes usage (~3+ hours on internet, ~1 hour of playing with gps and using ipod, the rest talking on phone)

10 hrs 56 minutes standby

25% of battery left.

I'm in the process of running to empty to recharge. Battery is lasting longer with each cycle.
 
3 hours internet usage - at the same time as :
3 hours of music
About 10 minutes of GPS
2 hours standby

And I got the 10% battery warning!
 
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