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iPhone 2.1 battery dramatically WORSE than EVER before

So I left my iPhone on overnight like I usually do and let it go to sleep

Usually before the 2.1 update, the battery would only drain 5 to 10% of my battery MAX

Now the battery has drained down to only 30 or 25% battery life left

How did this happen?! All the settings were left the same!

I had almost a full battery life when letting the iPhone sleep for 12 hours
Now it's drained about 70 or 80% of my battery life in the same period

It says the update had longer battery life, this proved the exact opposite for me

I don't leave EDGE on because I have wifi at home, and I don't have push exchange

Nothing would point to why the battery bar is so low, but what fixes are there to this problem?

17" 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Sep 14, 2008 9:37 AM

Reply
62 replies

Sep 14, 2008 10:06 AM in response to BlueX

I am going through the same thing as you this morning. Before I went to sleep last night, my iPhone's battery was about 75%-80% full. Usually if I leave my phone overnight I typically lose MAYBE 5% of its battery at most. When I woke up this morning, my iPhone's battery had 20% of a charge left. I immediately thought of the 2.1 update as possibly being the reason for this. However, I updated my phone Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning I didn't have this problem. You would think that if the update was the cause I would have had this issue on Saturday morning as well. Very strange....

Sep 14, 2008 12:33 PM in response to BlueX

You know, everyone's battery is different. Everyone uses their phone differently, and has owned their phone for different lengths of time.

I have noticed no real change in my battery life, but my feeling is that the more you use your phone (for whatever purpose) the more you drain the battery and the more you reduce the life and charge holding power.

I also think that people with iPhones use them more that they think they do, so you could just be killing the battery and it's ability to hold a charge...which is normal with this type of battery.

Of course, this is more of a good reason for Apple to use a user replaceable battery. This would not be a problem if they did. On the flip side, I think they are expecting people to keep upgrading as they release new phones (like people do with iPods), so the battery issue won't be such a big deal. The flaw in this logic is the price of the phone. I am not upgrading to the 3G because I spent a tidy sum on the original and used it less than a year. I don't want to shell out more money for a new one, even though I want one. I do keep vacillating back and forth on that, who knows...

Sep 14, 2008 3:08 PM in response to BlueX

I am having the same problem. Battery life pre-2.1 was fine, now its so bad that I need to carry a charger round with me. The battery drains fully over the course of a day, with only light use.

Its useless. I will return the phone if there is no fix and go back to Sony Ericsson - the battery life on my old phone was excellent - I could go two days without charging. Now I can't even go 12 hours.

Sep 14, 2008 4:51 PM in response to BlueX

I am having exactly the same problem. My battery charge decreases from full to 20% in about 8 hours with no activity. All of my phone and sync settings are turned off. I've done no Internet and made/received no calls. Prior to update 2.1 my battery charge under similar conditions would decrease less than 10%.
What is going on? This is deplorable and totally unacceptable for Apple to release an update (promoted as increasing battery life) to discover this happening.
Answers, please.

Sep 14, 2008 7:48 PM in response to BlueX

I'm right there with you. Did the 2.1 update, the battery was nearly full when I started and was fully charged soon after. I went all day in disbelief over the fact that my battery was still showing full after 18 hours on standby and 5 hours of actual phone usage. Then I checked one more time to see that I had made it 19 hours on since my last charge...I though to myself, "what if the battery is really nearly gone, but the battery indicator isn't telling me anything"...then I checked it again to find a black screen with a picture of an empty battery with a plug at the bottom of the screen. I was devastated to say the least. I spent all day bragging about how great this update was simply because of the battery life, spite the fact that apple still failed to put in cut/copy & paste, customization for sounds (like changing the new mail tone) & etc. Apple, PLEASE release a fix to this problem!

Sep 14, 2008 7:59 PM in response to BlueX

The battery life after the 2.1 update is simple horrible. I have not made any phone calls and by the afternoon battery was about 35% done. Usually that would be the case all the way at the end of the day with making 15-20 phone calls and browsing and using the phone a lot. It shut down on me today at about 8pm. It is simple amazing how much they screwed it up. And their big thing with 2.1 was improving battery life. It is unacceptable now not only for a business phone but for a personal phone. I can't do anything at all without seeing battery disapearing right before my eyes. They better fix it soon. My phone also gets hot even when showing full 5 bars on the 3G network.

iPhone 2.1 battery dramatically WORSE than EVER before

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