Very frustrated with iPhone 4 battery life...

[THEAnonymous]

TL;DR - Battery life drops about 1% an hour, even with every single setting off or at low.

For the past few weeks, I’ve noticed some very bad (I think?) battery life on my iPhone. Basically, even with every setting off, the battery decreases by about 1% an hour – even with very little actual usage.

For starters, this is a new iPhone 4 (it was a replacement I got from Apple in early November) so the battery itself is pretty new. I’ve also installed the latest iOS patch. I’ve reset my phone and all that good stuff. I’ve also rundown my battery to zero twice before recharging. Even with Wi-Fi OFF, brightness less than 50%, location services off, e-mail completely off, all notifications on all apps off, 3G/data OFF, autolock at 1 minute, very little phone usage, no internet usage, no use of iCloud (haven’t even signed up for that), Bluetooth off – basically everything useful about my phone (apart from the actual phone function) is OFF.

So basically I’d like to know…is this normal?? My understanding is that standby time on the iPhone 4 is ~300 hours, so I would think that the battery would last more than 100 hours even with nothing on except cellular service. I’d love to go into an Apple store, but there isn’t anyone close by (<1 hour away), and there’s no 1-800 support left either.

 

[tardman91]

Does it get you through a day of your typical usage? If it does then you should be good. Just charge it every night.

 

[HeyGreggie]

1% an hour? lmao. Man.. mine goes down about 1% every two-three minutes of usage

 

[Givmeabrek]

Ha, 1% an hour!!!!

That means you'll have to charge it sometime next week!!

Simple solution. Turn off the battery percentage and enjoy.

 

[THEAnonymous]

LOL well I guess 1% an hour doesn't sound like much, but mind you, this is with EVERYTHING off...like what the heck is sucking up the battery by 1% an hour if every bloody function is off??

 

[mattraehl]

LOL well I guess 1% an hour doesn't sound like much, but mind you, this is with EVERYTHING off...like what the heck is sucking up the battery by 1% an hour if every bloody function is off??

Depends on how the reception is in your area. If you keep the phone function on it will always try to maintain a connection to the tower so you can recieve calls and texts. If the signal is 3 bars or lower it could easily explain the 1% per hour in standby.

My 4S drains about 1% per hour at work, that's with everything turned on and three bars.

At home connected to WiFi it's .5-.75%/hour with a 4 bar 3G signal.

My church is next to some huge power lines so the signal is terrible, the phone constantly switches between Verizon's 3G and 1X networks trying to keep a signal, it drains 6%/hour just sitting there in my pocket, I decided to just keep it in airplane when I'm there.

 

[tardman91]

Simple solution. Turn off the battery percentage and enjoy.

This. Ever since I turned off the battery % I no longer obsess over it. My 4S lasts me an entire day with juice left over. I charge it every night and it works great.