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subego · Apr 14, 2011, 10:40 AM

I'm wondering what kind of battery life people who really thrash their iPhone are getting. By "thrash" I mean lots of Safari, read the news in Reeder, send some texts, lots more Safari.

I've dropped 34% from a full charge over the last two-and-a-half hours (3%... no, now it's 4%, while writing this post). That seems wrong.

I killed all my apps recently. The only ones which aren't stock apps are Weatherbug Elite, (Apple) Remote, Reeder, and Photobucket. So I'm assuming it isn't a battery hungry app problem.

subego · Apr 14, 2011, 10:57 AM

Just went and made another post (so, 100% Safari usage during that time) and dropped another 4%. Looks like that was 17 minutes ago.

Sonofa...

Eug · Apr 15, 2011, 01:02 PM

Yes, WiFi use for sufing kills the battery.

The same is true for WiFi (and Bluetooth) Personal Hotspot too.

Thorzdad · Apr 15, 2011, 01:48 PM

Angry Birds really drains the battery on my wife's iP4.

turtle777 · Apr 15, 2011, 01:55 PM

Being angry takes a lot of energy

-t

ort888 · Apr 15, 2011, 04:33 PM

Dropped 34% from 100 to 66 or dropped from 100 to 34?

The first one doesn't sound that odd, but the second one does.

Have you restarted lately? Reset the battery? (charge to 100%, use until it dies, then recharging to 100%)

IS the cellular reception bad where you are? When your phone struggles to find a connection it really drains the battery.

DigitalEl · Apr 15, 2011, 09:28 PM

I work from 6a to 4p and always start the day with a full charge. I "thrash" my phone all day. Heavy Twitter and Safari use under 3G, as well as SMS. Few calls, if any, and no videos or music. I'm home now, it's 6:24p... Nearly 13 hours from when my phone came off the charger... And my battery is at 50%. That's about as high as I've seen .. and it makes sense, as I was busy at work today and on my phone less.

Often I'm hitting the 20% or 10% warning. That's fairly typical. There are days -- Apple Special Event or keynote, heavy C.E.S. news days -- when I have to throw it on the charger to make it through the day. Since iPhone 4, I've almost always comfortably gotten through the day without worry. That wasn't the case with prior iPhones.

subego · Apr 15, 2011, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

Dropped 34% from 100 to 66 or dropped from 100 to 34?

The first one doesn't sound that odd, but the second one does.

Have you restarted lately? Reset the battery? (charge to 100%, use until it dies, then recharging to 100%)

IS the cellular reception bad where you are? When your phone struggles to find a connection it really drains the battery.

From 100% to 64%. Have restarted. Do a full cycle every month (it's not that hard considering how fast the sucker drops

). I have a micro-cell, so it shouldn't be a reception issue.

It does sound like I'm overreacting though. If I had to guess, I'm just using my phone a whole lot more than I did in the beginning, but feel like I'm using it the same, so I should still get the kind of time between charges I had out of the box. The iPhone has also, slowly but surely, replaced a lot of my iPad usage.

subego · Apr 15, 2011, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Being angry takes a lot of energy

-t

Which is why I've decided to calm down about the battery and see what happens.

subego · Apr 15, 2011, 09:40 PM

Thanks for the answers, all!

AccessoryGeeks · Apr 19, 2011, 02:42 PM

WiFi, GPS, 3G/4G all drain your battery. Turn all these features off if you want to save battery.

DigitalEl · Apr 19, 2011, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by AccessoryGeeks

WiFi, GPS, 3G/4G all drain your battery. Turn all these features off if you want to save battery.

This guy is absolutely right. In fact, your battery will drain at a much slower rate also if you leave your iPhone at home and don't use it. I tried that yesterday and came home to 85% charge remaining. Score!

Spheric Harlot · Apr 20, 2011, 01:20 AM

I just keep the phone switched off at all times. I get awesome battery life.

Also, where do I turn off 4G?

Eug · Apr 20, 2011, 08:25 AM

Leaving 3G on isn't a big problem, unless you're surfing all the time. It does use a bit more battery than 2G-only, but it's obviously pointless to turn it off unless you're overseas and not using 3G data anyway (because of the high charges).

Leaving WiFi on isn't a big problem, unless you're surfing all the time. If you're not surfing over WiFi, it does use a bit more battery, but it's OK as long as you're charging every night or every second night.

However, I find adding Bluetooth to the above and keeping it on all the time kills battery life even if you're not using Bluetooth. So, I usually keep Bluetooth off. With Bluetooth on, there are rare occasions that the iPhone 4 will be dead by the end of the day. With Bluetooth off, this occurs much less often.