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Tips to save battery life on iPhone 4

K

karansaraf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
231
8
As a new iPhone user, I'd like to find all the best ways to save battery life now rather than find out at a later stage I could have been doing this all along.

What tips would you give me to save on battery drainage on a day to day basis?

When I'm at home and not doing anything the iPhone is charging. When I'm asleep, it is not charging, but lying on my bedside table, in standby mode (as I use it as one of my alarms).

Turn off wifi/3g overnight?
Turn off location services?

Anything else?
 
Push email off. Make it fetch to manual.

Brightness plays a pretty big role on battery life. Put your brightness around 50-60% and auto brightness on auto.
 
Thanks.

If wifi/3g/location services are on, does that drain more battery than if they were off (eg if i just turn them off overnight will I save battery life?)
 
What works for me is to keep 3G off except when I need it. I also turn the phone off overnight since I don't need anyone calling me while asleep. I can usually go 2 or so days without charging.
 
Brightness. I never turn off 3G or location services or anything else, but I do have my phone on about 40% brightness. Two days between charges, quite heavy use (usually says around 7 hours usage when I check before recharging).
 
karansaraf said:
Thanks.

If wifi/3g/location services are on, does that drain more battery than if they were off (eg if i just turn them off overnight will I save battery life?)
Click to expand...

They do drain more battery while on, but you basically need them on to use the phone...
 
If I know I'm going to have a heavy usage day, then I turn wifi off, for sure. You may even turn 3G off. Another tip would be to turn off "Ask to Join Networks" in wifi settings.

I keep my brightness tuned to right below the 'i' in "Brightness". And Auto-Brightness turned off.
 
What I do is make sure there are more places I can keep my iPhone topped off. Cords at work and at home, a Griffin Technology PowerJolt Reserve in my car. This way, if I'm somewhere with no power, the reserve battery can be used.

With power available at one's main locations they are at, battery life is less of an issue, as opposed to having only one charger at home. I highly recommend the PowerJolt Reserve and a couple reserve batteries if one can't keep the phone charged at work.
 
eddiec312 said:
Push email off. Make it fetch to manual.

Brightness plays a pretty big role on battery life. Put your brightness around 50-60% and auto brightness on auto.
Click to expand...

Ya, brightness is the main factor. 60% is good for me. Took a few hours to adjust, now higher seems too bright.
I use to get till noon on 3GS, but with my 4 I seem to get and extra 1-3 hours.
 
Like everyone said, brightness I'd say is pretty huge.

Settings wise. Turn off wifi if you aren't in some.

ALWAYS have "ask to join networks" turned off.

I always leave 3G and location turned on. Never know when you might need it.

Try not to play games when you have a long stretch between chargings.

One things that drives people crazy is having the battery percentage turned on. Watching that number drop can be maddening.

Also, be glad you jumped in at iPhone 4. The iPhone 4's battery murders older iPhones and most smartphones in the battery department.
 
I had the same questions when I got my 3G a couple years ago. I started turning all kinds of stuff off to preserve battery life. Then I realized I spent a ton of money for a really cool phone and then turned all the cool features off and essentially made it a dumb phone. Since then I just keep everything on. What's the point of having such a cool phone if you just end up with a block of glass that doesn't need charged very often? I'd rather use all the cool features and charge a little more frequently!
 
Put it this way, do you come home to the same bed every night, put it on charge every night.

Work out how much your nattery has gone down and decide if you will get another day plus a little spare out of it or just fire it on charge.

I usually use between 30 to 50% a day so I charge it every second night, with all the services that I need and want turned on, its not like its the end of the world if my battery does infact die before I get home, I wold rather use all the features available to me on my iphone.
 
Wow, you all like your screens really bright! Mine is set to before the 'B' in Brightness and its more than enough for me. Anything more and its blinding.
 
I have two Apple cords on my desk at work...one for my iPhone, and one for my iPad that I use as a digital picture frame (which, by the by, KILLS the battery...over 2 hours, I'll see the percentage drop to below 70%). We have one on the bar at home, one by my wife's side of the bed, and one by my side. We also have a charger in my wife's car and I have a Belkin FM transmitter in mine. So we're never without power.

On a sidenote, just for curiosity's sake...why do some folks not charge every night? I usually just plug mine into the iMac so that it can sync at the same time.
 
phungy said:
Wow, you all like your screens really bright! Mine is set to before the 'B' in Brightness and its more than enough for me. Anything more and its blinding.
Click to expand...

How do you use the phone with the brightness that low? It's practically off.
 
Posted in another thread but:

My battery life is shortened up some it seems too:
Usage: 1 hour 3 minutes
Standby: 1 hour 33 minutes
Battery at 85%

All I've done is a little web browsing on wifi, and played with camera + some. Closed multitasking aps and screen brightness is about 75% up

Tried a hard reset (lock & home buttons)
Haven't noticed anything else wrong with the iPhone 4 aside from the antenna issue. Would hate to have to get another one, but my battery was performing better than this a month ago.

After reading through this read, I have turned brightness down some and also turned off ask to join on wifi.
 
Have you tried fully disharging it then charging it for a whole day or night, more than 4 hours.
 
use the hell out of it and don't fret.

yesterday was a great battery day for me. 5.5 hours usage which included iPod, about two hours internet, texting, calling about 45 minutes talk time, and all the other typical things you do in a day. my total time off charger was about 21 hours, and i had 39% battery life left.

absolutely crushes the previous iPhone batteries. i used to be constantly checking my battery % on the 3Gs, but with the 4 i just use away with the assurance my phone WILL last through the day.

settings are, Push ON, WiFi OFF, Brightness 25%-auto OFF. I do have typically 5 bars where i use my phone, so that is a factor, too.

do drain your battery until the phone shuts off about once a month to calibrate, and after doing this 2x, i did notice my phone stays at 100% off the charger for at least a couple hours with normal use.
 
phungy said:
Wow, you all like your screens really bright! Mine is set to before the 'B' in Brightness and its more than enough for me. Anything more and its blinding.
Click to expand...

My eyes must be worse than I thought. That's too dim for me, mine is set under the "e"
 
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