3GS - incredibly poor battery life

I've had each generation of iPhone since they were launched in 2007, and upgraded from my 3G to the new 3GS a week ago on the day of its release. My experience with the battery life has been really, really poor. So bad that I sought out this forum yesterday and decided to run the battery down to zero just to see how poor its life was.

Here's what happened:

Yesterday I kept it plugged in and charged at 100% until 6 PM. I used it for ~2 hours of reading using the Kindle app and quick view of 1-2 web pages. This morning I woke up and read the news using a news reader app for ~1 hour before it turned itself off when it reached 1%.

Stats were 3 HOURS and 7 MINUTES of usage to drain the battery to ZERO. That was without calls, without video, without iPod use.

When I'm using it I can literally watch the power meter (which I've turned on the numeric percentage readout for) drain about 1% when I actually take any action on the device. I feel offended and mislead by Apple because the 3GS was supposed to have improved battery life. My netbook has better battery life (6 hours with extended battery while running its built in 3g mobile broadband service the whole time), and that's a full computer.

If you've had similar issues I'd like to hear about them and would certainly welcome any solutions that don't involve tweaking so many settings that the device doesn't work in it's default mode.

I'm recharging from the zero mark now. If the same cycle happens after another charge I feel like I'll have to return it to Apple after wasting a lot of time and simply move back to my 3G.

Given the amount of traffic on the forums about this issue, I think Apple had better speak up or they are going to experience a lot of damage to their brand.

iPhone 3GS, iPhone OS 3.0

Posted on Jun 27, 2009 6:49 AM

380 replies

Jul 21, 2009 7:00 AM in response to ahawkinson

i too would like to chime in on the battery life issue.

i've literally charged it up to 100% and gone to bed only to come down in the morning to a phone that has 23% battery life. what? it hasnt even been used! its been sitting there with the screen off for 8 hours! how is that possible?

one thing i've noticed--and maybe this has been addressed in this thread already--is that it periodically drops the wifi connection and then doesn't/can't pick it back up. this has happened at home and at work. and its at these times that i see my battery life drain like a motha. i'm assuming its because the iphone is sitting there pinging the 3G network constantly, so even when its not being used and the screen is off it is still wasting away. if i power down the phone and bring it back up, all is working normally.

has anyone noticed similar issues?

should i visit my apple store and get a new phone? i can't really function with a phone that has sporadic battery life. obviously, it doesn't alert me when it drops a wifi signal. its not like i can be proactive and reset the phone to pick it back up whenever this happens. and i dont really enjoy my new hobby of periodically waking the phone and starting an app that uses the network to make sure its still connecting to wifi. i find myself often times in the middle of the day with 40% life left and hoping i can make it home (or at least to my car) before it dies.

just wondering if we think this is a software issue that will be fixed in 3.1 or a hardware issue that i need to rectify NOW!

Jul 21, 2009 8:05 AM in response to Tekksas

Tekksas wrote:
@ Brightness test:

everyone who did the test for 2 hours, did u all get a 10% drop from 100-90% and then a 12-15% drop the 2nd hour?

I run the test now, got to 89% in first hour, stopped, and started it 1 min later again without charging, the second hour it stopped @ 76%.

Yep, 90% first hour, 78% second hour. That would suggest the battery life is not linear.

One hour to go on the audio test with 86% left. Double checked when I woke up to make sure the audio was playing correctly and sure enough the dude was still jabbering on about Tocqueville. I actually listened to the lecture, pretty interesting stuff in light of recent political Change.

Chiron1

Level 1

5 points

Jul 21, 2009 8:19 AM in response to Chiron1

Okay, doing the restore was good, but my timing was bad. Don't do it the day before you take your iPhone in to be checked by the Genius, since it erases all the logs, and they have nothing available for them to check and see what your iPhone has been up to.

That said, since I've done a restore on my iPhone 3GS, it has retuned to what I would consider to be acceptable battery life. The battery is lasting all day (although I haven't been back to work since I did this, and since I get up 6 hours earlier...). When I talked to the Apple Genius, he advised that one of the things a restore does is to re-calibrate your battery.

So before you make that Genius appointment, try a restore. If that doesn't fix it, give it a few days to repopulate the log files so they can see what's happening.

Jul 21, 2009 9:40 AM in response to Graphics Bong

Sorry for the delay, at work, test finished more than an hour ago. Final result - 83% at the end of 8 hours audio. I was in Airplane mode, volume = 50%, Apple headphones, brightness 50% (not an issue).

Can't explain my better results, Airplane Mode?

Jul 21, 2009 10:58 AM in response to Graphics Bong

Yes, airplane mode probably helped - it ought to save a few percentage points of standby loss. Some of it might also be due to inaccuracy in the battery meter; I've sometimes seen the battery reading go up by 2-5%, so I don't think it is entirely reliable. Still, an 8 hour test ought to be less affected by small measurement errors.

Jul 21, 2009 12:16 PM in response to little orange man

I had a great talk today with Apple. I am replacing mine for two reasons.
He told me that even if the battery is marginal and I could live with that, (and mine is not good but not horrible) I shouldnt have to. And he said I wont get the battery LIFE EXPECTANCY. Between the annoying recharges and that news well, nuff said.

When I asked if the one I get as a replacement is just as bad, he said as long as we are in that 90 period it too can be replaced. THEY would prefer I have a good phone which is up to specs. THEY ARE OUT THERE many people are enjoying them as I type. But some are bad.. there is a REASON this topic has almost 21,000 views.

He also said that a new OS is due out soon, they are working feverishly on it. But in the meantime, he recommended (and I agree), getting a new phone is the best thing for TODAY. fingers crossed.

Jul 21, 2009 12:46 PM in response to glassrabbit

I guess the question is what is acceptable? The tests we're conducting here are among folks who suspected that our batteries may not be up to snuff, but I'd like to see some results from people who think their battery is fine.

I'm still on the same charge from last night's 8 hour audio test. I've got 3G on, WiFi on, Push for Mobile Me, and Location. I've surfed the web, used Bluetooth for a couple calls, checked and answered some mail. I'm at 70% with 9hrs 20min usage and 11hrs 32min standby. Sounds fantastic, but I had to shut off all services for 8 hours to get those numbers. On the other hand, my audio test translates to over 47 hours of playback - much greater than Apple's specs. (edited my math : )

So actually my more normal usage is that 1hr 20min that wasn't part of the test, so the battery usage was 13% if you don't count the 17% used for the test. Still seems pretty good to me, but I'm curious to see if anyone out there is getting better and how much.

Keep testing guys, I think we're giving people some good data to go by.

Message was edited by: Graphics Bong

Jul 21, 2009 1:30 PM in response to Graphics Bong

Graphics Bong wrote:
I guess the question is what is acceptable? The tests we're conducting here are among folks who suspected that our batteries may not be up to snuff, but I'd like to see some results from people who think their battery is fine.

I'm still on the same charge from last night's 8 hour audio test. I've got 3G on, WiFi on, Push for Mobile Me, and Location. I've surfed the web, used Bluetooth for a couple calls, checked and answered some mail. I'm at 70% with 9hrs 20min usage and 11hrs 32min standby.good data to go by.

Holy heck! my Phone NEVER lasted over night. I could only get 31/2 hours simply surfingin wifi, and everything else off. and it was deader than a door nail. If I used the smule ocarina or even dared to check out the Maps, and I was done in 2 hours. I never did a standby test. I sure hope I get one like yours!

Jul 21, 2009 2:25 PM in response to glassrabbit

I have to think that you've got something going on in the background that's using power while it's in standby. Notification, Push, something. Or it's just a bad phone. Apple Store should be able to hook you up, they aught to have the ability to just diagnose it on the spot without any hassle.

I hope your new one kicks ***. Do the tests again and post your numbers.

Jul 21, 2009 2:43 PM in response to Graphics Bong

I'm actually reasonably happy with my battery life; as I posted, it seems to match Apple's specs, when I test it the same way they did. And the real-world performance seems similar to my last phone. I follow this forum thread mostly to see if there are any tips that can improve my battery life still further.

Jul 21, 2009 2:51 PM in response to ahawkinson

Restore as new. If that doesn't resolve your issue and it lasts less then 4 hours. You have a problem and need to either replace your phone, or take it in to an Apple Store.

noney82

Level 1

0 points

Jul 21, 2009 3:06 PM in response to GiovanniL

iv just done the brightness test, eveything was off, 100% brightness used 16% off power. doesnt sound good does it?

Jul 21, 2009 3:15 PM in response to ahawkinson

Im not sure if it is just my phone but I believe the 3GS incredibly poor battery life is mainly due to the more powerful applications as well as the higher performance compared to the iPhone 3G. Just imagine having a device that works twice the performance and speed but still using the same old battery. Im sure you definitely have to compensate something and unfortunately for iPhone 3GS, we have got to bear with the poor battery life.

This is even worse when we are streaming videos and using the speakers at the same time.

I hope Apple look into this and produce a longer lasting battery that is equally as good as its speed and performance.

Frances
Loss Fat Diet

Jul 21, 2009 3:27 PM in response to noney82

noney82 wrote:
iv just done the brightness test, eveything was off, 100% brightness used 16% off power. doesnt sound good does it?

Was that 1 hour?

Jul 21, 2009 3:37 PM in response to Graphics Bong

A new summary of test results:

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)

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%

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3GS - incredibly poor battery life