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So you've had 3gs for a couple days now, post your battery experience.

A

Acevesx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
219
29
Hello,

I am curious to what everyone thinks of the battery in the 3GS, IMO I think it last a lot less than the 3G battery. Yesterday my phone was fully charged around 4pm, come 730 usage was at 2 hours and my battery percentag read 46 percent already!

My 3g with the same amount of usage would still display a 3/4 full bar.

Please share your experiences
 
I'm coming from a Treo Pro and I think the battery life is very similar. I can't compare it to the 2G or 3G, but I'm pretty pleased. I went out of my way to not charge the phone at all yesterday just to see if it would last. I do manual email sync, but I probably synced it at least 20 times. I sent about 30 text messages, 30 IM's through beejive, 5-10 emails, 30 mins of talking, and probably about 2 hours of web browsing and I went to bed with 12% battery life left. To me, that is a heavy usage day, starting at 7:30am and going until 11pm. I'm pleased!
 
After cycling the battery a few times since Friday, the battery life has improved on the 3GS dramatically. It seems comparable to the 3G although it’s hard to compare since 3G did not have the percentage indicator whereas the 3GS does.
 
I may have to cycle my battery a couple times, hopefully that will help.
 
on saturday i had 5 hours of usage and 10 hours standby on a single charge and i was down to 18% by that point i felt confident enough that i could have gone further, but i charged anyways
 
got phone yesterday......last night I was on it for 3 hours straight.... downloaded and played a 30 minute tv show , music constantly playing, played some games, a lot of web browsing, some other video , downloaded a few hours worth of podcasts, few texts. Also was on Wi-Fi the whole time and brightness at 100%.

Had about 40% after all that. Compared to my 2G, this is a huge battery upgrade.
 
Guys

Incorrect. Incorrect. Incorrect.

The more you cycle your LI batteries the quicker they will die. Cycling DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Its a myth and if you read any reputable source on the net you will see it as such.

It is much better to charge your battery on partial charges. Use it for the day and its down to 50%? Charge fully.

Any perceptible battery improvement is likely due to different usage patterns.

I say this so that you do not think this is a solution. It is very possible to get a bad battery as it is not uncommon for lithium ion batteries to be bad from the start.

Keep in mind the 2 biggest battery killers besides bluetooth are 3G and Push. The more push email accounts you have the more quickly the battery will die.
 
Mine is very good. Saturday night, I had almost 6 hours usage after watching some videos and listening to music and a few phone calls. Battery life was at about 45%. Woke up Sunday and it was at about 31% and watched some more videos. Finally charged it because I had to go somewhere.
 
Not so good, but tinkering. I'm taking screen shots and if it doesn't seem reasonable by next weekend or the weekend after that I'll drive to an Apple store.
 
dhy8386 said:
The more you cycle your LI batteries the quicker they will die. Cycling DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Its a myth and if you read any reputable source on the net you will see it as such.
Click to expand...

You are correct in what your saying; however, cycling DOES ensure consistent battery drain and synchronization between that battery loss and the meter (in this case percentage remaining). Apple also recommends cycling the iPhone once a month for similar reasons (link below)

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
 
dhy8386 said:
Guys

Incorrect. Incorrect. Incorrect.

The more you cycle your LI batteries the quicker they will die. Cycling DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Its a myth and if you read any reputable source on the net you will see it as such.
Click to expand...

Well for me that myth appears to be more truth. Initially the phone was seemingly draining faster and not having anywhere near the capacity as my 3G was under similar circumstance, after a few cycles, it appears to have now be showing as good if not better capacity then before.

Myth, maybe but I can attest that for me, its working better after a few cycles.
 
yesterday

Yesterday, I did my second test.

05:30-23:30 phone at 10% still

4 hours 45 minutes usage, rest standby

25 SMS, 20 minutes phone, 1 hour web surfing, 35 minutes wifi.
four email accounts, checked all day.

today, I am going to set it to 2G and see what happens.
 
I never worried about battery life anymore. I have a FUEL case by case-mate and with it I have about twice the normal battery life during a days worth of usage. Also remember folks that the iPhone is more of a computer than a smartphone and even the BEST laptop batteries out there don't last all day long without a charge. Given how much smaller the battery is in the iPhone I think the battery life is sufficient for what is gives me.
 
since i got mine, i've charged it every night. but that's it. just every night. aside that, i've never had the need to plug it in. i didn't need to last night though
 
Compared to my 2g is way worse.

Ive had to turn off 3g late in the day so I'm sure my cell will make it...and I don't use it much. Maybe 5-10 texts, surfing 30mins here or there. Location is off but I leave push on, cause well that's why I got the phone to be connected constantly.
 
Not good...

I am so annoyed with the battery life that I have disabled 3G, unless I really need it. My 2G has much better battery life. *shrug*
 
I got about 3 hours and 10 minutes of use last night (mostly WiFi, plus an episode of Jeeves and Wooster), and about 4 hours of standby, and I was at 48%. That's more than I foresee myself doing on an average day, and having been in the iPod ecosystem for quite a while now, I've got chargers both at home and in my car. I think it'll work quite nicely.
 
The battery life is nothing special, but probably equal with what I got on the 3G.

6:45AM 100% - Unplugged from charger to go to work
3:30PM ~20% - Plugged into car charger for the ride home from work
4:30PM ~50% - Unplugged from car charger
11:00PM ~15% - Plugged back in for the night

I use texting and email frequently throughout the day, not much else.
 
It would appear to be worse than my 2G, but I really can't complain considering...

-3G burns more power than Edge

-Since the internet browsing speeds are now acceptable, I find myself browsing the web way more than on my old phone. Doing more music streaming now too

-I haven't tried a full battery cycle yet to calibrate it

So considering usage, it's not too bad. It still lasts most of the day, just not multiple days like the lightly-used 2G. It's a fair tradeoff, and I don't mind since I have chargers at home, work, and in the car.
 
The battery life is much better than my iPhone 3G. I'm getting around 8 hours of usage and 16 hours standby out of a charge. I know that seems like a huge number, but I swear that's what I'm getting! I have 3G on, brightness turned down to 25%, push off, and location services off as well. The 8 hours consisted of some hardcore texting, a fair amount of Internet surfing, a bit of 3D gaming just to test out the phone's new capabilities, and about an hour of ebook reading. I didn't take too many calls - maybe 5-10 minutes on the phone. Anyways, so far I'm really impressed!

I got the 32 GB model too. So much space!!! 5 movies, 600 songs, 2500 photos, and 41 apps and I still have 20 GB left!!!!!!
 
dhy8386 said:
Guys

Incorrect. Incorrect. Incorrect.

The more you cycle your LI batteries the quicker they will die. Cycling DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Its a myth and if you read any reputable source on the net you will see it as such.

It is much better to charge your battery on partial charges. Use it for the day and its down to 50%? Charge fully.

Any perceptible battery improvement is likely due to different usage patterns.

I say this so that you do not think this is a solution. It is very possible to get a bad battery as it is not uncommon for lithium ion batteries to be bad from the start.

Keep in mind the 2 biggest battery killers besides bluetooth are 3G and Push. The more push email accounts you have the more quickly the battery will die.
Click to expand...

I have followed the monthly cycle since day one of my 3G and have had consistent battery usage ever since.... After doing a lot of reading on this forum last year when I first got my 3G, I determined that to get the best battery life I should definitely drain it once a month. I drained it completely (until power off, then wait a few minutes before plugging in) for like the first three nights... waited a week and drained it again... then I tried to drain it about once a month, always being sure to charge it EVERY night no matter what. I reset my usage statistics ever time after I drain it so that I always know what the date was of my last drain.

Started the same procedure with my 3GS... I am getting about 4.5 hours of use with the 3GS, whereas I was only getting about 4 hours with the 3G! I always have 3G on, bluetooth and location both off, two email accounts one push the other fetch every 15 mins! My battery life is without much iPod use... more iPod use means my time goes up more!
 
Battery Life is going to be different based on what you have running on the phone.

Some items to save on battery:

Bluetooth (if you see the logo next to the battery it is on) Turn off if not using.
Location - Turn off if not critical for the apps or map to find where you are.
WiFi Locator - this is always looking for WiFi. Turn it off to save on use.
Email checking - lengthen the time if it is not critical or set to manual.
Brightness - turn it down some to use less battery.

I know my battery life increased when I turned off the bluetooth and the WiFi locator. I had them on as I like having all the things on, but realized I did not need them and they ate up battery.
 
it will be

slpdLoad said:
It would appear to be worse than my 2G, but I really can't complain considering...

-3G burns more power than Edge

-Since the internet browsing speeds are now acceptable, I find myself browsing the web way more than on my old phone. Doing more music streaming now too

-I haven't tried a full battery cycle yet to calibrate it

So considering usage, it's not too bad. It still lasts most of the day, just not multiple days like the lightly-used 2G. It's a fair tradeoff, and I don't mind since I have chargers at home, work, and in the car.
Click to expand...

there is no question that the 3g and now 3gs are worse for battery life, my question is WHY does 3g make for worse battery life? Why does 3g burn more power?
 
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