New iPhone 4 Battery Issues....

Question

New iPhone 4 Battery Issues....

Hi Guys,

I just got a new iPhone 4 about a week ago and think I may have a bad battery. I used to have a 3G and I think the battery is worse on my 4 than my almost 2 year old 3G. I used the phone today for listening to music (through the iPod app) for about 2 hours, checked the weather once for about a minute, and then I made one 5 minute call, read 3 texts, and sent 1 text and it is at 80%. 2 hours, 16 minutes of usage and 15 hours, 23 minutes of standby.

Am I crazy??? Shouldn't I be getting way more battery life? My 3G would only be at 95-90% after this type of usage. I tried doing a full discharge and recharge of the battery and it doesn't seem to make any different. I leave wifi on, fetch email every hour, and leave location services on too (its actually the exact configuration from my 3G).

Thanks for any help you can provide.

iPhone 4, iOS 4, 4.1

Posted on Sep 16, 2010 4:07 PM

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Answer 1

Injector

Level 1

77 points

Sep 16, 2010 4:14 PM in response to Michael Whelihan1

Sounds fine to me. You still have 80% right??? You've been using your phone quite a bit and it has been on standby a while. The IP4 is more powerful and has more features than the 3G...plus it's also running different firmware, which may or may not affect the battery life.

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Answer 2

Sep 16, 2010 4:24 PM in response to Injector

Yea but at this rate that I would only get like 11 hours of music. Its rated for 40 hours...and I understand that figure is probably from a power-friendly configuration, but come on! Thats like half the time I get on my 3G and a fourth of what they "say" it can do.

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Answer 3

Kwopau

Level 4

1,742 points

Sep 16, 2010 4:37 PM in response to Michael Whelihan1

honestly to get the 40 hours, would be just purely listening to music straight without having to do anything else. If you text, play games, making calls, sure it would short it down a bit or so.

2400 min. of music play time, so you should expect to lose 1% every 24 min. but of course calling someone would cost you 1% at 4.2 min. of a call. etc etc etc.

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Answer 4

Injector

Level 1

77 points

Sep 16, 2010 4:42 PM in response to Kwopau

Yes, to get the quoted figures you would need to have EVERYTHING switched off on your phone and the device in airplane mode. Then you would need to listen to music without ever lighting the screen up. Even then, I expect the quoted figures are optimistic - as all manufacturer figures are.

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Answer 5

Sep 16, 2010 4:56 PM in response to Injector

I figured that was the answer, but this has got me worried for a year or two from now? My battery is going to last for like 4 hours of use....:-(

I'm not gonna lie, I'm really bummed about this and it's got me rethinking if i want to stick with the phone or not.

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Answer 6

HolmanGT

Level 2

205 points

Sep 16, 2010 5:58 PM in response to Michael Whelihan1

Mine:

2 hour usage
6 hour standby

Most of the usage was an hour and half Edge speaker phone call.

I have 86% battery left.

So I am sure this doesn't make you feel better but at least you know we will all be looking for the next model of iPhone before our two year contract is up.

But it is my understanding that the iP4 battery is pretty easy to change out on your own. Some like remove the two screws on the bottom and slide the rear glass off. I may be wrong on this but now you have my curiosity up so when I have a few minutes I will try to search it up.

*OK - check this out. The battery replacement looks like a piece of cake:*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAy3xgdci4s

Message was edited by: HolmanGT

Now I wish I had not seen inside the phone. It looks like I bought a battery not a phone. There is nothing in there except the battery. LOL

Message was edited by: HolmanGT

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Answer 7

Sep 16, 2010 6:06 PM in response to HolmanGT

**** dude...that makes me feel a lot better actually. I'm not usually the type to upgrade early, but a new battery is def doable when this one isnt lasting all day.

Thanks.

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Answer 8

w7sg_599

Level 1

20 points

Sep 16, 2010 6:09 PM in response to Michael Whelihan1

Michael ... run the following test. Fully charge it, then turn it off before bed. In the morning, turn it back on & see if it has discharged. My wifes discharged 1/3 to 1/2 overnight, shut off! She took it back & exchanged it ... new one works as it should. The bad one had to be charged once per day @ her usage, which was very little

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Answer 9

HolmanGT

Level 2

205 points

Sep 16, 2010 6:16 PM in response to Michael Whelihan1

Michael,

Actually it rather warmed the cockles of my heart also. I have always been uncomfortable with the inability to replace the iPhone battery.

I know it could be done on iPhones prior to the iP4, but the potential for cosmetic damage was supposed to be high.

The iP4 looks like something I could do with out having an emotional seizure.

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Answer 10

Sep 16, 2010 6:34 PM in response to HolmanGT

haha yea, it's a little scary taking apart your phone....i've replaced a battery in an ipod before and I accidentally damaged the headphone jack. that made me a little worried about tinkering with the iphone.

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Answer 11

Sep 17, 2010 12:06 AM in response to Michael Whelihan1

If you're running iOS 4.1 on it, then you're not crazy. There is a bug in the upgrade for many phones, not all.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2583845&tstart=30

And for the record, I'm still running on the charge the phone had out of the box when they replaced it for me. That was 10 hours ago and I'm at 89%. Yes, ten hours of configuring all of my apps again, and I'm at 89%.
I'm also at iOS 4.0.2 and will stay there until the bug is fixed.

Message was edited by: Weylin McConnell

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Answer 12

Kwopau

Level 4

1,742 points

Sep 17, 2010 5:43 AM in response to HolmanGT

HolmanGT wrote:

But it is my understanding that the iP4 battery is pretty easy to change out on your own. Some like remove the two screws on the bottom and slide the rear glass off. I may be wrong on this but now you have my curiosity up so when I have a few minutes I will try to search it up.

*OK - check this out. The battery replacement looks like a piece of cake:*

Indeed it is pretty easy to change, and you are correct, that you have to remove 2 screws on the bottom and slide the back glass off. However, i would not recommend a DIY, as it could void warranty, plus the batteries for the iphone 4 are not usually sold by a third party, i.e ifixit.com if they had batteries in stock (which they don't) most likely they will sell it used. The safest place to get the battery replaced is by far at the Apple store, they don't sell them on the shelf, but if your battery happens to be bad, you could just ask for the battery replacement (if they have one in stock), and they will just replace the battery and you are set to go.

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Answer 13

Sep 17, 2010 6:54 AM in response to Kwopau

So what do you guys think I should do? Restore to 4.0.2 and not restore my old configuration? Go to the apple store? I ended up deleting my email account and re-adding it because it seemed like it was fetching emails way more often than at 1 hour intervals.

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Answer 14

Sep 17, 2010 6:57 AM in response to Michael Whelihan1

try the 4.2 beta if you can... maybe

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Answer 15

Sep 17, 2010 7:01 AM in response to Weylin McConnell

I seriously doubt that there is a bug in 4.1 that affects battery life. There is a bug in the upgrade process that can cause the problem, because it has happened with every upgrade over the past 3 years. It isn't unique to 4.1.

Battery Meter/Life Problems with 4.0.2
4.0.2 guzzling my battery. Your's too?
4.0.1 battery life
Battery runs out very quicky in iOS 4.0.1
Battery nearly nonexistant after 4.0 upgrade
Dead battery after few hours on standby using 4.0 software
3.1.3 battery problem
OS 3.1.3 battery issues
3.1.3 upgrade - shortened battery life?
Battery life cut after 3.1.3 update on iPhone 3G
3.1.3 Firmware is a battery killer - how do I back out this upgrade?
Poor battery life with iPhone 3G running 3.1.2
3.1.2 EXTREME battery drain - what gives?
3.1 Battery nightmare
iPhone 3GS with fw 3.1 – battery life gets even worse
Battery Issues with 3.0.1
BATTERY drain with 3.0
upgrade to 3.0 drains my battery
Battery Drain after Update 2.2.1
Battery Life Radically Decreased after 2.2.1 Firmware Update

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