how many full cycle charge can the iPhone's 4 Battery hold, and when I know that I need to replace my Original Battery ?

Well the iPhone batteries are almsot the same, the only issue is some software thats causing these issues in the 4S. (Apple is to address these issues in an update soon. v5.0.1) But to fully answer your question, the iPhone battery can hold up to 400 full charge and discharge (letting the phone charge to 100% and letting it drain to 0% with normal useage before charging again) charges (up to 80% of its original capacity), but keep in mind this is only for phones that are properly taken care of. This means keeping the phone's temperature at a low, adjust the screens brightness lower, minimize the usage of location services, fewer data fetchings and other things like so. Since the iPhone has a lithium-based battery it is recommended to be used on a regular basis to keep those electrons moving. As said before it is important to AT LEAST once a month do a charge cycle (letting the phone charge to 100% and letting it drain to 0% with normal useage before charging again). Another smart thing is to let your phone breathe a lot. Don't smother it in a case or a cloth when charging because it cuases the battery to heat up more than necessary, when it gets hot take it out of the case (if it is in one) or move it closer to a cooler place.

After all this your phone should keep a longer battery life, but when its time to change be sure to refer here! http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html Or you could do it yourself with a battery from eBay or such and the proper tools.

Hope this information helps! :-)

thats strange?

if my iphone4s battery only has a working life of 400 charges (approx 400 days as i charge it everynight)

why was my warranty only 365 days?

and why is my network provider contract 730 days?

it seems that im being ripped off here by both apple and O2UK?

and i read i have to take my device to an apple store 30 miles away and be with out it for weeks and pay £60+ for a new battery to attempt to fix an issue where my device turns off and will not turn back on with 10-40% of charge when i use the camera, gives me the dead battery animation, but it boots immediately if i connect a charger and shows the 10-40 of charge i knew it had, its done this on all firmware versions since ios 5.0.1, (ios5 was fine, because battery was new?)

through out this forum you will find many threads with this problem dating years back, with not 1 solution from apple, plenty of people giving false info saying update to latest fw, which does not fix the problem

thankfully i figured it out myself and payed £10 on ebay for a new battery will fit it later and hopefully ill have another 400 days use!

You don't understand. Here's what Apple says...

A properly maintained iPhone battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 400 full charge and discharge cycles.

Note the words "80%" and "full". When you charge it every night, that's not a full charge cycle unless you charge it from 0% every night. Also, note that after the 400 full cycles, there'e still 80% capacity left, not zero as you're assuming.

I'm sorry to revive this, but I was browsing around and with much respcect I wanted to correct something and share a bit from personal experience. Hopefully someone can benefit from my observations.

Brad, working the iPhone battery harder and more frequently does not degrade it's charge capacity any faster. In fact, it keeps it healthier. Sure, you might not get as much time between charges, but we're not talking about how much use you can get out of a single charge. We're talking about how much life you can get out of the rechargeable battery.

I once thought as you do, but I have since converted to a new form of iDevice battery-conservation. I used to try to use my batteries very sparingly, figuring that I would slow the battery's inevitable decline into shorter life. But my practical experience has proven otherwise. I have been using my 4S battery like there's no tomorrow and my 3rd Gen iPad battery severely less, sadly. The iPad is 16+ months old and has only 65 battery cycles, whereas the iPhone is only 10+ months old with 397 cycles! Granted, the iPad battery is much larger and typically gets more usage per single charge, but the principle still stands as the iPad battery cells are still seeing a relatively proportional difference in use than the iPhone battery cells, even if the device itself sees more use. After all, we're discussing battery cycles and not usage time. Make sense? So, are you ready for the numbers? Keeping in mind the age and number of cycles, the iPad has lost 6.4% of its original battery capacity. iPhone has only lost 3.3% (yes, I have special jailbreak software that allows me to monitor my cycles and amperage). That means that the iPhone battery has seen 6x more cycles than the iPad battery but only lost 1/2 of the capacity the iPad lost. I run my phone hard (obviously, with 400 cycles in less than one year); I don't baby the brightness, I play videos a lot, my phone gets hot in the sun, and I am totally lost without my google maps. I have reached Apple's "400" cycles and I didn't lose 20%. Wanna know why? Two main reasons: (1) Time. Part of what kills a battery is good ol time. My battery is still young in that respect. Look at my iPad numbers. It has FAR fewer cycles, but it's 6 months older. You see, Apple figured the average user would rack up 400 cycles in roughly two years, so that explains their quote. They weren't saying that your battery will always lose 20% after 400 cycles. Reason # (2) Exercise. Like a muscle in the human body, with routine exercise, it stays fit longer. Without regular use, like a muscle, it atrophies. The more you nurse your battery and try to prevent it from working hard, you are denying it the frequent exercise that those little cells crave. Once again, compare my iPhone battery to my iPad.

Lesson here: use your battery without discretion. After all, it is a mobile device. I used to constantly worry and whine about my battery life, but now I am free and I get out there and use it to the fullest. It was designed to be untethered. If my lifestyle demands heavy use, then doggonit I'm gonna buy me a battery case and get more out of it. In the end, it was always a consumable product, and I've learned to get the most out of it and enjoy it. Just my 2¢.

P.S. I'll update once I finay do reach 80% capacity and well find out just how far these things can go.

Oops forgive the typos at the end. Also, I wanted to update my numbers as the ones I wrote down were slightly inaccurate. At the time that I wrote that reply, here were my numbers.

3rd Gen iPad Wifi: 17 months old, 74 battery cycles, Max Capacity: 10,515 mAh Design Capacity: 11560 mAh

iPhone 4S: 18 months old, 400 battery cycles, Max Capacity: 1,384 mAh Design Capacity: 1,430 mAh

iPad Battery Consumption: 9.1%

iPhone Battery Consumption: 3.2%

This update actually makes my point even stronger. The iPhone Battery is older, but it has seen roughly only 1/3 the consumption that the iPad has because the battery has never seen a dormant period in its usage pattern. The iPad, on the other hand, has seen dormant periods, and the battery has deteriorated almost 3x faster as a result. So, there you have it; proof that the iPhone is not consumed after 400 cycles.

Sorry about mistaking the iPhone age before. I guess I didn't realize how long ago I got it.

I am ********. I forgot that I replaced my phone due to cracked screen. so the phone is actually 11 months old. Not 18. I was right the first time.

No problem. It was just something that I learned through trial and error. However, as for your assumption about the 2-3 or 3-4 years, I thinks it's a bit optimistic and I skeptically disagree. I have seen a lot of older portable batteries, and I think that age is just as potent as a lack of use. While I have effectively proven that frequent battery use is healthy and will help prolong the life of your battery, I still believe that the evidence suggests that age will still take its toll. I think that it is reasonable to expect a battery to lose roughly 15-20% (and potentially more) of its capacity after 2 years. I have a portable battery in my older Mac. It is hardly two years old and it is over 40% consumed. However, the battery wasn't exercised regularly, so I'm sure that contributed to its deterioration, but time will still degrade even the healthiest battery. I would say that a mobile device battery is reasonably useful for 2-3 years max.

One last note: take notice of the current pace of improvement in battery technology. Your assumption that the iPhone 5 battery is roughly 33% more durable than a 4S battery is not consistent with the current pace of battery tech. Batteries are one of the slowest improving technologies when you compare them to CPUs and displays. That's why Apple is focussing so hard on software development in regards to battery life. Battery hardware improvements are just too slow to keep up. I believe the future holds many updates for improved battery life, but I think the majority of those will come from smarter power management. Unless there is a major breakthrough, I wouldn't say your battery will live 3-4 years. I just don't want you to have unrealistic expectations, ya know?

I had assumed you had to jailbreak your phone in order to determine the current battery capacity, as noted in Re: Battery Health monitor for iphone 4

However, i see in log-aggregated-<date>,

com.apple.power.state.pluggedin_charging.count ... 156

com.apple.power.state.pluggedin.energy ... 4318

and the like. Perhaps one can figure out the capacity without jailbreaking.
How did you determine the capacity of your iDevice batteries?
I'm considering replacing the battery, and it would be helpful to figure out if my poor battery life is mainly due to misbehaving apps, poor configuration, or a worn out battery. I'm familiar with the common advice on extending battery life from Apple and others.