Are these the signs of a defective iPhone?

Question

Level 1

11 points

Are these the signs of a defective iPhone?

Just got my phone yesterday finally! Having an iPad and iPod touch I didn't go crazy over newly found apps and have just used the phone for email and texting.

So here's the dilemma, the phone was fully charged up to 100 percent, took it off the charger and within a minute of stand-by was down to 99 percent..Okay, fine.

Then sent a few texts in an hour and the phone is down to 92 percent. Seems a little too rapid to drain that quickly with just a few texts..No apps have been used in this hour just a few texts and checking of the email.

So my question is is it normal that in an hour of being fully charged with no wi-fi on, no apps used, and just text use and email checking use that the battery should be down to 92 percent already? Just seems a little too fast.

iMac, Macbook, iPad, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 11, 2011 5:43 PM

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Answer 1

roaminggnome

Level 10

106,407 points

Feb 11, 2011 5:47 PM in response to nsestarpr

I would spend no time worrying about 8%.

See how long the battery lasts between charges.

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Answer 2

Feb 11, 2011 6:49 PM in response to nsestarpr

The battery will require a few charge cycles to condition. Give it a week and see how it's doing then.
Apple's support pages has some guidelines for calibrating the battery.

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Answer 3

Feb 11, 2011 8:37 PM in response to nsestarpr

I noticed that too, but Apple told me that I should let it run down completely to 0% and it should clear it up. Just like the previous poster said, give it a week. I have had my iPhone since Monday, and it doesn't seem to keep a great charge, but I will give it some time and see if I see any changes. The only reason I was wondering about mine was the fact that I had it at 100% and put it in my pocket, when I got back home about an hour later without using the phone it had lost 3% just sitting in my pocket, with no apps running in the background and wifi shut off. I thought that maybe I had a defective iPhone or something.

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Answer 4

Feb 11, 2011 11:43 PM in response to nsestarpr

No. Your iPhone is not defective. The only issue is that your battery is not fully conditioned. To condition your battery, simply recharge the iPhone to 100% and remove the USB cord and let it drain to 0% and then recharge it back to 100%. This completes 1 Charge Cycle. If the battery still drains, repeat the process until the battery is fully conditioned, but I don't recommend that you discharge it more than 2 times after the first calibration. You might destroy your battery's health.

You can read more here: http://www.apple.com/batteries/

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Answer 5

KC7GNM

Level 4

2,904 points

Feb 12, 2011 12:33 AM in response to Xx1Dustin1Xx

Xx1Dustin1Xx wrote:
No. Your iPhone is not defective. The only issue is that your battery is not fully conditioned. To condition your battery, simply recharge the iPhone to 100% and remove the USB cord and let it drain to 0% and then recharge it back to 100%. This completes 1 Charge Cycle. If the battery still drains, repeat the process until the battery is fully conditioned, but I don't recommend that you discharge it more than 2 times after the first calibration. You might destroy your battery's health.

No you will not destroy your battery's health by discharging it more than 2 times. Whoever told you that is wrong. The only thing it will do is add up the charge cycles faster. Lithium Ion batteries do not hold memory like the NiCd batteries used to and can take a full charge or small charge the same. No where on the site you quoted does it say you might destroy your battery's health after 2 full cycle charges. I wish people like you would stop pushing bad information like that.

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Answer 6

nrau

Level 1

30 points

Feb 12, 2011 6:26 AM in response to KC7GNM

Give it a bit of time. I've had my iPhone 4 for two weeks now(At&T) and this is my second iPhone, had a 3G before. And after doing a couple of the full cycles that people are talking about, my battery is really good. I haven't charged it for about 24 hours and in that time I've sent texts, checked emails, played a game, had about a two hour phone call. Just usual phone usage. My battery right now is still at 60%. You have to understand that the phone is always doing something, fetching emails, etc. So the battery is going to go down a bit quicker.

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Answer 7

sn4p2k

Level 4

1,228 points

Feb 12, 2011 9:40 AM in response to nsestarpr

I believe the genius' at the apple store have a way to check the battery out you can take it in and do that..

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Answer 8

nsestarpr Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 12, 2011 8:32 PM in response to nsestarpr

Thank you all for your suggestions...I drained the battery to 0 and then charged up to 100..I had to do it twice. So far, so good. I sent a few texts and the phone has been off the charger and hasn't moved from 100 percent, whereas before it would already be down to 95 percent with the texts, etc. Hopefully it stays this way...understanding of course that any smartphone's battery is bound to be drained with all the usage of it.

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