Has Apple acknowledged the battery problem with new 3Gs?

A summary of test results from this thread and the other where the tests started. If I missed you let me know.

*iPod Test:*
Tekksas: 79%
ThisIsANewID: 79%
mac girl122: 75%
sward.dsl: 73% (Didn't do the exact same test, left WiFi on)
Graphics Bong: 83% (Airplane Mode)
allen099: 80%

*Brightness Test:*
Graphics Bong: 1hr = 90% -- 2hr = 78%
ThisIsANewID: 2hr = 75%, 2hr(test 2) = 76%
sidssp: 1hr = 90%
allen009: 1hr = 90%
glassrabbit: 1hr = 75%
mac girl122: 1hr = 89%
Tekksas: 1hr = 89% -- 2hr = 76%
noney82: 1hr = 84%
lookn4wifi: 1hr = 91% -- 2hr = 77% (he was happy with his battery life before taking the test, thanks!)
mikkec: 1hr = 89% -- 2hr = 77%
SpurtSpanker: 1hr = 90% (he did the test twice with same result)

Graphics Bong wrote:
Some of us have been running a simple test trying to compare battery usage, if you're one of those who have no battery issues please participate, we need to have data from the upper end of the spectrum as well. Setup as follows:

Charge to 100%
Turn brightness to 100%
Turn Airplane mode on
Set Auto-Lock to Never
Set Clock Timer for 1 hour
Remove from charger, begin countdown
Post battery percentage remaining on this thread, we're collecting and update periodically
Begin timer again immediately after first test for a second hour if so inclined for better data, and so on

This test obviously discounts wireless drain on the battery but that's the point, it provides a baseline to determine battery health on an even plane for all iPhone 3GSs. Any problems with battery life beyond that can then be determined to be related to how your phone is handling wireless services.

Join the fun. :-/

Remember to turn off Auto Brightness too. Thanks to lookn4wifi for that reminder.

I was just on a phone call. It lasted 7 minutes. My battery was at 90% when I started. It was 86% when I hung up. A 4% drop in 7 minutes? I have a feeling that is far from normal.

Anyone help me out here? Is it normal? Do I need to replace the phone - yet again? Should I wait for the new update to come out?

This is really getting annoying.

the battery life on my iphone 3gs 32gb is absoulutly the WORSE!!!! i have to walk around with a plug!!!!!!

The phone is spec'd at 5 hours talk time. That's 300 minutes, or 0.3% per minute. So 7 minutes should deplete the battery 2.1%. But that's with a very strong signal, meaning that the phone can reduce transmitter power to a minimum. If you had less than 5 bars the transmitter power is automatically increased to maintain a good connection. The scale isn't linear, so if your signal had to increase a mere 3db that would required double the power. So 4% is in a reasonable range for a 7 minute call. You must also consider the rounding in those percentages. 90% can be as low as 89.5+%, and 86% can be as much as 86.5-% so the actual usage could be as small as 3% (or as large as 5%). You would need to make much longer calls (to reduce the rounding error) to get a good idea of how well your phone is performing. And also track the signal strength.

Thanks for the info. I am inside and if I am holding the phone, I get crap signal. Same spot putting the phone on the desk, I get 3 bars. I don't know. Maybe that has something to do with it. Who knows?

Then there's something wrong with your phone. With average use I get through a day easily, and charge at night.

With average use I get through the day just fine. No issues there. As for the signal, it's not the phone. I have had 5 phones - all do the same exact thing. It's the signal from AT&T and where I am located. The whole 1 bar while holding and 2/3 bars while sitting on a surface is a known "issue" with the 3GS. Many threads about it.

I have 1 hour of use, 12 hours of standby and I am at 77% - I guess that's good.

Another update, good participation. I'm not going to post the iPod test results since it hasn't changed.

*Brightness Test:*
Graphics Bong: 1hr = 90% -- 2hr = 78%
ThisIsANewID: 2hr = 75%, 2hr(test 2) = 76%
sidssp: 1hr = 90%
allen009: 1hr = 90% -- 2hr = 77% (he did a second 1 hour test with same result)
glassrabbit: 1hr = 75% (should have better results with the new phone! please let us know)
mac girl122: 1hr = 89%
Tekksas: 1hr = 89% -- 2hr = 76%
noney82: 1hr = 84%
lookn4wifi: 1hr = 91% -- 2hr = 77%
mikkec: 1hr = 89% -- 2hr = 77%
SpurtSpanker: 1hr = 90% (he did the test twice with same result)
DrPerf: 1hr = 91%
javaTN: 1hr = 89% (he posted detailed percentage decreases for the hour)
tntrieu: 1hr = 91%

So far the results are pretty consistent with 1hr average at 90% and 2hr average at 77%. The second hour is more convincing as the battery is in that "drop off" zone. A 3rd hour would be interesting, I haven't been able to commit the time yet.