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Very Interesting Battery question :)

I

ibanana

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 23, 2007
400
0
London
I'm wondering whether there is a way to check how much time are left on the iphone battery ? I checked the battery icon but it's not really accurate.
Also under settings > usage i don't understand the "time since last full Charge"
? Who care about that information ?!!
 
ibanana said:
I'm wondering whether there is a way to check how much time are left on the iphone battery ? I checked the battery icon but it's not really accurate.
Also under settings > usage i don't understand the "time since last full Charge"
? Who care about that information ?!!
Click to expand...

The iPhone pops up a dialogue box saying when it's 20% and 10% full. However I ran out of battery on my delayed train yesterday and the two warnings came up not too far apart before the device carked it.
 
ok so nothing else except the pop up at 20% and 10%, no way to monitor more closely.
to be honest i'm a bit disapointed by the battery or i might have an issue with it:
I've turned the phone on this morning (full charge), used internet, email from gmail, 2 pop, hotmail my battery is half empty...
So far:
usage 1h25mns
Standby 1h45Mns
 
Several things will effect battery life.

Make sure you have auto-brightness turned on.

How often do you auto-check for email? Set it for an hour.

Turn off bluetooth if you can.

These will significantly improve your battery life.
 
I was a bit disappointed with battery life to begin with, but I turned off bluetooth when I don't use it, and I also turned off the 'Ask to join networks' option for Wifi - this has made the world of difference.
 
TonyHoyle said:
That's a wierd option TBH.. It's never asked me *anything* and I've had it enabled since day one. Anyone ever had it ask?
Click to expand...

Yeah - it pops up for me when I use Safari or Mail, and there are Wifi networks nearby that don't contain one of the networks I've used before.
 
emotion said:
The iPhone pops up a dialogue box saying when it's 20% and 10% full. However I ran out of battery on my delayed train yesterday and the two warnings came up not too far apart before the device carked it.
Click to expand...

You must be caining it. Maybe we can do an accurate usage comparison. I charge mine once very two days. I leave wifi on during office hours, auto check email every 15 minutes, high SMS, low calls... minimal video, 2 hours music minimum...
 
so basically after 5hours of "usage" the battery needs to be charged ?
do you guys agree with that ? 5 hours ?

also i've noticed the "usage" time is included in the "stanby usage" if that makes sense

say

Usage : 2 Hours 10 minutes
Standby: 3 Hours 30 minutes

means since the last full charge my phone standby 3h30 including 2h10 of usage
 
koobcamuk said:
You must be caining it. Maybe we can do an accurate usage comparison. I charge mine once very two days. I leave wifi on during office hours, auto check email every 15 minutes, high SMS, low calls... minimal video, 2 hours music minimum...
Click to expand...

I have to charge mine every day... ~12-15 hours. Wifi on, auto check 15 minutes (hopefully once iMapIdle gets stable I can remove the need for that), low SMS, low calls, rare video (once every few days), music only in the car (so it's on power and doesn't count).

5 hours of 'usage' sounds about right.
 
just to move slightly off on a tangent, how are you charging in your car whilst playing music? Will iPhone work with other iPod car/dock connecting equipment?
 
My stereo (Alpine) has an ipod dock built in so it charges and had ipod navigation etc.. works fine with the phone.

Very occasionally it won't quite connect and you'll have to unplug the ipod and replug it but that's not really an issue.
 
My battery lifetime seemed to improve during each of the first 3-4 charge cycles. Perhaps I did hammer it with constant fiddling of settings on the first, but the other cycles had consistent use. I think a fresh battery takes a few charge cycles to find its prime. I pretty much had the same power settings (wifi, BT, mail interval, autobrightness, etc.) throughout.

There's a document at Apple concerning the proper care of Li-Ion batteries. They don't require conditioning in the same way as other batteries, and you should avoid repeatedly running them to exhaustion. Note too that while the battery may quickly reach the appearance of a full charge, a Li-Ion cell can take a long while to replenish the top end of capacity. You might want to leave it on the charger overnight to allow this.

Concerning WiFi, there was a detailed study that compared the iPhone to the Blackjack, and they also explored EDGE vs. WiFi effects upon battery life. If the phone is set to fetch email on an interval and you have a WiFi network around, you're actually better off from a power perspective to leave WiFi enabled on the iPhone. EDGE drains an iPhone battery faster, IIRC around 25% or so. If there is no WiFi network around, there is no point in having WiFi or autojoin enabled, and you're better off turning it off.
 
ibanana said:
so basically after 5hours of "usage" the battery needs to be charged ?
do you guys agree with that ? 5 hours ?

also i've noticed the "usage" time is included in the "stanby usage" if that makes sense

say

Usage : 2 Hours 10 minutes
Standby: 3 Hours 30 minutes

means since the last full charge my phone standby 3h30 including 2h10 of usage
Click to expand...

I get about 4 to 5 hrs use with 4 days standby so your getting considerably less from my experience.
 
I was impressed with my first test of how much life I could squeeze out of a full charge: 5 hours 10 minutes usage - 60 SMS sent/received - 20 minutes of calls with lots of keypad use whilst testing an IVR service - the rest surfing over WiFi. 1 day 20 hours standby.

My N800 Internet Tablet was worse than that and it didn't have to constantly stay connected to a GSM network :rolleyes:
 
ibanana said:
so basically after 5hours of "usage" the battery needs to be charged ?
do you guys agree with that ? 5 hours ?

also i've noticed the "usage" time is included in the "stanby usage" if that makes sense

say

Usage : 2 Hours 10 minutes
Standby: 3 Hours 30 minutes

means since the last full charge my phone standby 3h30 including 2h10 of usage
Click to expand...

I think it really depends on what the usage is. I listen to the ipod alot during the day, like 6 to 7 hours with some light phone mixed in and can still get home at night with about a third left on the battery. But no way would you get that kind of usage watching a video or using safari. By the way need it or not I charge every night.
 
I was a little worried about my battery after the first few days but now I just charge it when I'm off to bed. Next morning unplug and I'm good for the day. And one quick point, how can anyone moan about the keyboard. I think its fantastic the auto correct and the double tap on the space bar are excellent and the magnifier is very cool.
And just as I tried to post this message my battery goes in the red LOL
 
I charge mine every night. It's normally at about 50%.

Mine is used fairly heavily. I use it to watch YouTube during class :D (still have good grades, though) and mostly for texting. I use Safari if I forgot about some homework that's due next period that requires a little research, or if I'm just bored out of my mind (alot). It also autochecks e-mail every 15 minutes all day, and I get about 50 e-mails a day.

You can't tell how much battery life is left. It's like my MacBook - it says 5 hours remaining and I get more like 4 (sometimes 6, but never 5).
 
Another thing that makes your battery drain FAST is when your phone is in an area (your pocket, building) with little or NO service. It will constently search for service and your battery like will be gone very quickly!
 
mikes63737 said:
I charge mine every night. It's normally at about 50%.

Mine is used fairly heavily. I use it to watch YouTube during class :D (still have good grades, though) and mostly for texting. I use Safari if I forgot about some homework that's due next period that requires a little research, or if I'm just bored out of my mind (alot). It also autochecks e-mail every 15 minutes all day, and I get about 50 e-mails a day.

You can't tell how much battery life is left. It's like my MacBook - it says 5 hours remaining and I get more like 4 (sometimes 6, but never 5).
Click to expand...


still 50% wow thats mine dead! back on the mac! funny that i'm sitting surfing all nite on my phone and i'm sitting next to a 20 inch imac!
 
mikes63737 said:
I charge mine every night. It's normally at about 50%.

Mine is used fairly heavily. I use it to watch YouTube during class :D (still have good grades, though) and mostly for texting. I use Safari if I forgot about some homework that's due next period that requires a little research, or if I'm just bored out of my mind (alot). It also autochecks e-mail every 15 minutes all day, and I get about 50 e-mails a day.
Click to expand...

That's about what I get... though with significantly less emails... I've gotten it down to a 1/4 doing all that stuff before.
 
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