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iPhone 4 Battery

Under similar conditions, does a fully charged iPhone 4 battery last longer than that of the iPhone 3GS?
Thanks.

iMac Snow Leopard, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 29, 2010 3:21 AM

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Posted on Aug 29, 2010 4:07 AM

According to specs and internet hear-say then the iPhone 4 comes out on top in terms of battery life. I'm getting mine sometime next week, I'll only be able to compare to a 3g but I can give you some figures on general usage eg. texting most of the day with music for a couple of hours, the odd email and a bit of facebook, so basically general use of a teenager.

Not sure if this was what you were hoping for but hopefully you'll find some real-world figures useful, apologies about not being able to give the figures right away, still waiting to get through to t-mobile to get my upgrade :\
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Aug 29, 2010 4:07 AM in response to grsteinberg

According to specs and internet hear-say then the iPhone 4 comes out on top in terms of battery life. I'm getting mine sometime next week, I'll only be able to compare to a 3g but I can give you some figures on general usage eg. texting most of the day with music for a couple of hours, the odd email and a bit of facebook, so basically general use of a teenager.

Not sure if this was what you were hoping for but hopefully you'll find some real-world figures useful, apologies about not being able to give the figures right away, still waiting to get through to t-mobile to get my upgrade :\

Aug 29, 2010 4:37 AM in response to grsteinberg

Quoted from Engadget:

The battery life on the iPhone 4 has been outstanding thus far, exceeding our expectations for longevity during testing. We’ve only had a short time to use the phone, but in the week or so we’ve been carrying the device as our main phone, we’ve had pretty amazing results under normal to heavy use. In fact, we managed to squeeze more than 38 hours — yes, 38 hours — of life out of a single charge using the phone as we normally would. We’re talking calls, some gaming, lots of push email and calendar invites, playing music over Bluetooth in the car, and just general testing (like downloading new apps, rearranging icons, tweaking settings). We went from 10:30AM on a Saturday morning till 1:00AM on Monday without needing to charge the phone. Of course, it switched itself off just after the clock struck 1, but it was thrilling — like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and the car salesman see how far they can get in a car with the tank on E. Sitcom references aside, the battery life seems markedly improved in the iPhone 4, and why not? It’s got a much larger battery coupled with that iPad-powering A4, which has already shown that it can sip rather than gulp power.


Quoted from Mossberg:

Apple claims longer battery life for most functions—seven hours of talk time, for instance, versus five hours on the earlier model. I didn’t perform a precise battery test, but, even in heavy use, the iPhone 4’s battery never reached the red zone on a single day of my tests.

Aug 29, 2010 6:44 AM in response to grsteinberg

I got my iPhone 4 only 1 week ago. Last night, I went from 100% charged to 47% in 12 hours. Guys, I am trying to understand what’s happening in my phone during those 12 hours. Which features get activated, for how long each time, and at what frequency. By the way, last night, before letting my iPhone to get to sleep, I have reset all parameters to the factory defaults. I do nothing exotic with my phone. What is running at night to exhaust my batteries?

Message was edited by: BAL-iP

Aug 29, 2010 7:50 AM in response to grsteinberg

I cannot offer anything in terms of comparing the iPhone 3GS with the iPhone 4, however, I can provide some details about battery life with my daily use.

I have six email accounts setup on my iPhone 4. All of them are set to fetch data manually (push is disabled). Notifications are enabled for only one application. Whenever I am not in the vicinity of my primary WiFi connection, I disable it to conserve battery. I close any open applications if I don't plan on using them for an extended period of time. Left all the other settings as they came stock (i.e. screen brightness, bluetooth disabled, etc). I didn't notice a huge change in battery life using WiFi as opposed to 3G (but I have great signal when using both). I can pull roughly two days with casual use (4-5 hours per day of uptime) before I need to charge it. The first 10% on a fully charged battery seems to diminish rather quickly, but then it discharges much slower after that. There have been days where I have light usage (3-4 hours per day of uptime) and I've been able to stretch my battery life to roughly three days. Personally, I'm very happy with the battery life on my iPhone 4.

Aug 29, 2010 8:04 AM in response to grsteinberg

I understand but it is almost like buying a rechargeable battery spotlight to have some mobility in dark places, but you have to have a very long extension cord connected at all the time because the battery can’t hold its charge.
I understand when a company publishes technical specifications, they are on the high side for marketing reasons but this is ridiculous. The “hold time” specifications for a iPhone 4 and published by Apple is “Standby time: Up to 300 hours” but in reality, you lose all your power in 24 hours of standby, THAT IS RIDICULOUS. Even if you read the fine print at the bottom of the page (in the battery section), that does not explain the difference between the reality of 24 hours versus the 300 hours as marketed!

Aug 29, 2010 6:16 PM in response to BAL-iP

BAL-iP, have it checked at the genius bar. they will scan your battery and will be able to detect your iPhone's battery activity. if its defective they will offer you a swap to a new unit. Apple may not admit it but they have battery issues with the launch units, and i reckon they are dealing with it silently. I had the same problem and they've replaced my iPhone4 on the spot. And same thing with my second iPhone4 unit i've purchased for my partner and they replaced that one as well with a brand new stock unit. this brand new replacement units don't come in with the original white box so don't get paranoid with the replacements. i believe they're not for sale, they're stock units mainly for replacements purposes.

Aug 29, 2010 11:03 PM in response to grsteinberg

Hi,

The issue with the battery can be many things. The battery could be faulty to begin with, take it in and see if they will replace it. Also, I have found that Iphone4 has a flaw with the OS. When pressing the home button to exit the app it does not execute a shut down of the app like on previous OS's. If you double tap the home button you will get a bar at the bottom showing all the apps you have opened, they call this the multi-task bar but in actuality it's more like a POW camp for applications. They are left working in the background w/o your knowledge until you hold and press til the app wiggles(You probably have quite a few running), then you press the red dot with the minus sign to shut the app down. Do this and see if it helps your battery performance, it did mine.

Aug 29, 2010 11:10 PM in response to yokomo

This is not necessarily true and is not a flaw with iOS4, which is by design.

All apps available in the recently used apps bar or dock are not running in the background. The overwhelming majority of 3rd party apps do not run in the background when leaving the app since there is no reason for it or benefit. The overwhelming majority of 3rd party apps will continue to be quit when leaving the app. Some apps such as a game will be suspended with leaving the app so you can return to the game and begin again where you left off. A 3rd party app that is suspended is not using any processor cycles or battery since it is suspended or frozen. Some 3rd party apps - very few will run in the background such as a music streaming app or a GPS navigation app that has been updated for iOS4 to run in the background.

http://whenwillapple.com/blog/2010/04/19/iphone-os-4-multitasking-explained-agai n/

Aug 29, 2010 11:48 PM in response to grsteinberg

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone here is experiencing any iPhone 4 battery related issues?
Not really sure if this is an issue yet or not but...

I got my phone yesterday, plugged in, charged fully (it was at 98% out of the box) so at about 8pm I had a 100% charge.

Woke up this morning and went to work, at about 9am it was still at ~80%, but 3 hours later at noon it was all the way down to ~30%. I didn't use it very heavily to justify that kind of drain.
I'm going to let it power cycle then get a full charge and see how it acts before I take any actual action, but I was just curious to see if anyone saw something similar?

LOVING the phone by the way! THANKS!!

* http://www.ukonlinephoneshop.co.uk/contract-deals.asp?hs=Apple-iPhone-4*

Aug 30, 2010 1:04 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Again, prove it to me that hey do not run in the background? Just because you posted a link to some third party write up doesn't mean that it's true. I could write that the iphone is used by terrorists and people would believe it w/o seeing it for themselves. Regardless, til Apple shows me otherwise I'm led to believe that the apps hanging in that bar are consuming battery power. If they didn't my battery life wouldn't have improved considerably after I learned of this issue and close them via the bar. Like I said a terminal app will settle this debate, it's either going to prove your right, or that you believe whatever is written on the internet that Al Gore supposedly created.

iPhone 4 Battery

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