Level 1

0 points

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 7:16 PM in response to ahawkinson

Well after yesterday deleting all of my purchased apps, at the same point today I ended up with 78 percent charge as opposed to 49 percent charge with a bit more use than the previous day. Moderate internet and email. So I feel confident that in my case its one or more apps running in the background even though I've quit out of everything.

Also, I purchased a Mophie Juice Pack today. I can't believe the amount of money I have spent on cases over the past month. First a Marware CIO then a Power Products (?) clear shell for the back which still fit nicely in the Marware case. The Mophie is pretty cool but now I need to find a case for the ****** thing with the Mophie attached! Yeah, I know. The Mophie IS a case, but I like a wrap around with a belt clip too.

This evening I sat out on the porch enjoying a cigar and watching "Anchorman" on the iPhone, NO Mophie attached, started at 100 percent with everything off except 3G network (accidental actually). The entire movie watched at a little more than midpont on brightness and full volume on the mono speaker left me with 84 percent on the battery indicator. Not bad.

Try deleting some or all those apps guys! I'm hoping its just a matter of bug fixes in the OS for us all. Keep up the great work on your testing. As I said before, very admirable. I just can't do that myself with work and all. Thx!

Jul 21, 2009 8:15 PM in response to ahawkinson

According to the apple specs of battery life, I should be getting 9 hours of web browsing on Wi-fi and 5 hours on 3G. What if my wi-fi download speed is actually slower than the 3G speed? Should I still get as much as 9 hours or closer to 3G times?

allen099

Level 1

30 points

Jul 21, 2009 9:58 PM in response to trentsize

trentsize wrote:
According to the apple specs of battery life, I should be getting 9 hours of web browsing on Wi-fi and 5 hours on 3G. What if my wi-fi download speed is actually slower than the 3G speed? Should I still get as much as 9 hours or closer to 3G times?

Yes because 3G attempts to connect to satellites in the sky whereas a wifi connection needs to only hit your router which is only a few feet away. Those satellites are miles away 🙂

noney82

Level 1

0 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:43 AM in response to Graphics Bong

yeah was 1 hour with timer running in foreground

Chiron1

Level 1

5 points

Jul 22, 2009 5:31 PM in response to sward.dsl

I've seen where the battery suddenly dropped 20%, only to regain it minutes later. Even today I checked it at one point and it was 54% and about 15 minutes later it was 65%. Very odd.

Given that the "Restore" fixed some major issues for me, I have high hopes for the next rev of the iPhone OS

Jul 22, 2009 6:02 PM in response to Chiron1

That happened to me too. Seems like it stores an extra battery storage?

I have been using Google Maps heavily the night before, which was a great way to drain your battery. Then I left my phone at about 33% before I went to bed (after it jumped from 22%). The alarm turns on few minutes in the morning and that was 20%.

Went shower and get on the train. It was dead! It only takes about 1 hour before that 20% died. Without any calls, apps running, or messaging whatsoever.

Is this even normal?

Jul 22, 2009 7:06 PM in response to jsoetandi

jsoetandi wrote:
Went shower and get on the train. It was dead! It only takes about 1 hour before that 20% died. Without any calls, apps running, or messaging whatsoever.

Is this even normal?

It might be if you have Push on with a few email accts. and WiFi sniffing for hotspots on the way to the train, and maybe 3G too?

Maps will slam your battery on 3G. I can watch mine tick off by the minute almost.

chOO.

Level 1

75 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:11 PM in response to Felix Leiter

OK, I didn't do any of the tests here but here's my observation which I deem as normal usage:

- Full charge last night. (through MacBook's USB)
- Disconnected, put on standby for 7 hrs when I slept. (3G off, Wi-fi off, no push, fetch mail)
- Woke up 7 hrs later, batt is at 98%. Wi-fi surfing for 15 mins. Batt drops gradually to 91%. (3G off, Wi-fi on)
- Commute to work, pushed Maps 3 times, fetched mails 3 times. iPod music for 20 mins. Batt dropped gradually to 71%. (3G on, Wi-fi-off)
- Got to office. Batt at 69%. (3G on, Wi-fi-off).
- Phone on standby for 30mins. (3G on, Wi-fi-off).
- When I checked batt meter again, it went back up to 83%.

I got a feeling that batt meter fluctuations has always been happening, just that we are noticing it now that there's a figure to it.

But then again. A fluctuation back up after a rest with prior moderate to heavy usage is acceptable. I have had 2 cases where it dropped steadying from 80% to 30% then back up to 60% and to 20% where it eventually refused to start up after I attempted to reboot. All in 3 hrs of moderate mail fetching, gaming and smses.

allen099

Level 1

30 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:12 PM in response to Graphics Bong

I got 4.5 hours today with about 15 minutes of Maps use. It was awful. I've already run the screen test, and tonight (overnight) I'm going to run the Tekksas' audio test. Let's see what happens here.

allen099

Level 1

30 points

Jul 22, 2009 8:14 PM in response to chOO.

chinnian wrote:
I have had 2 cases where it dropped steadying from 80% to 30% then back up to 60% and to 20% where it eventually refused to start up after I attempted to reboot. All in 3 hrs of moderate mail fetching, gaming and smses.

That seems a little too weird. From 30% up to 60%? I know they fluctuate, but they will do that within a few percentage points, not a whole thirty percent. That sounds like bad calibration to me.

allen099

Level 1

30 points

Jul 23, 2009 6:32 AM in response to Graphics Bong

Graphics Bong wrote:
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%

Completed Audio test overnight. 8 hours exactly yielded 80%. My settings were:
-3G, Wifi, Location Services, Push Email/Notification = off
-Email = Fetch every hour (normally I keep it on 30 mins)
-Headphones in, audio at 50% repeating lecture mentioned on page 15 or 16

I guess if I were to read into this, that would match Apple's specs; exceed it even if the pace continues at 20% every 8 hours. Obviously this isn't practical, but it's good to know the results are somewhat consistent with at least 2 of the other results (Tekksas and Thisisanewid).

tokatta

Level 3

869 points

Jul 23, 2009 7:43 AM in response to allen099

allen099 wrote:

trentsize wrote:
According to the apple specs of battery life, I should be getting 9 hours of web browsing on Wi-fi and 5 hours on 3G. What if my wi-fi download speed is actually slower than the 3G speed? Should I still get as much as 9 hours or closer to 3G times?

Yes because 3G attempts to connect to satellites in the sky whereas a wifi connection needs to only hit your router which is only a few feet away. Those satellites are miles away 🙂

I hate to nitpick, but 3G does not connect to satellites in the sky, it connects to towers on the ground just like Edge. GPS connects to satellites, but it receives only, no transmit.

As for speed, Wifi radio uses less power then 3G radio, so you get better battery life using WiFi to web browse then 3G. Slower WiFi will not improve battery life, but less data transferred will.

Apple never discloses how they test, but it could be that their WiFi numbers are based on screen brightness low, airplane mode, BT and GPS off. We don't even know how much data they transferred over WiFi to get 9 hours - I doubt they were streaming youtube for 9 hours. Traditionally, manufacturers turn everything else off but the thing they are testing. Standby mode for many cell phones is calculated with the phone in airplane mode and screen off.

It would be nice if Apple actually defined the test cases to get these performance numbers.

allen099

Level 1

30 points

Jul 23, 2009 7:58 AM in response to tokatta

Sure, towers, satellites...my point was that neither are as close as the router and the data has to travel farther to make a connection than wifi.. But you are correct Tokatta. Thanks 🙂

As for testing, I think someone on these discussions found that Apple used "default settings" for testing, so I guess 3G was on, screen was half-brightness, etc. The results clearly differ from what we get in the real-world, but I think by now, people take any company's battery claims with a grain of salt.

**Actually, found the testing scenarios here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html

Message was edited by: allen099

Jul 23, 2009 4:40 PM in response to Graphics Bong

Did the brightness test, on a partially-charged battery (so it should be similar to the 2nd hour results from other folks). The battery dropped 14% in one hour.

Jul 23, 2009 5:54 PM in response to sward.dsl

sward.dsl wrote:
Did the brightness test, on a partially-charged battery (so it should be similar to the 2nd hour results from other folks). The battery dropped 14% in one hour.

That sounds about right if you started at around 90%, the battery seems to lose charge faster as it depletes so your results may be better than you think. I'd try the test from 100% when you get a chance.

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3GS - incredibly poor battery life