[Sequenzia]

I just got a 3G iPhone about a week ago and overall I am very happy with the phone but the battery really really sucks. I have not been talking on it much. Maybe 20 mins talk time a day and by mid day I am at less than 20% and have to charge it.

I have read a lot about the battery not lasting but this is really bad. I do use push email (ms exchange) and I have the 3G turned on but I have WIFI and location services turned off.

Is this normal for the battery to be this bad? I really am thinking about returning the phone because it is so bad.

Anyone opinions on this matter would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.

[Mastrap]

Are you using any other applications apart from just the phone? If I use the web browser and google maps I have to recharge the phone every day. My wife, who uses hers mostly to make phone calls only needs to charge every three days or so.

[Big Mac]

Did you calibrate your battery? If you're not getting anywhere near the amount of talk-time Apple specifies, definitely take it in.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

You need to return it. 20 min talk and near dead at noon is not normal at all. It is rated at 5 hours talk and it should do that easily.

[Randman]

Maybe it was my original phone but I get better battery life on my 3G than the 1.0 model.

[LeeG]

I had a first-gen model since the day it came out, and the 3G battery life is MUCH worse (in my experience). I used to sail through a day with moderate use, talking, ipod use, etc. Now, with the same level of use, I am hitting the red line by 5pm. I need to be much more conscious of battery life, and keep a charger at work at my desk, pluggin it in whenever I think of it.

I think I am a fairly good test, since I switched devices, and have not switched usage patterns or locations, having used the first gen, and now the 3G. I have turned off push, GPS, and search for available networks. Battery life is POOR.

I also have a tremendous number of "Call Failed" dropped calls (3-5 a day), and this is in Manhattan, where the 3G service is supposed to be excellent.

At least I love the phone for all the 'non-phone' things it does SO well.

I view the phone as just an app on the device - and one I dont use that often, so I am willing to deal with the annoyances ... but I do hope they improve-

L

[Bearsfan34]

I must concur, the 3G battery life is only nearly HALF as good as the original iPhone.

Like others here, I use the iPod for a few hours a day (audio about 95% of the time, maybe 2-3 minutes of video), talk on the phone about 15-20 minutes per day, and use the actual Mail/Mobile Safari/other apps a few times per day. With the first gen iPhone, there'd be a small "dent" in the battery usage after a regular 8-hour work day; with the 3G iPhone, I'm nearing the "20% battery remaining" warning almost every day.

And this is with 3G turned OFF, Bluetooth turned OFF, wifi turned OFF, and push services OFF. On my lunch break (30-45 minutes), I do turn on either wifi or 3G to use the iPhone on my break, but I turn it OFF before returning to work. I get either "No Service" or 1-2 bars of AT&T service at my desk where I spend most of my time during the day. Same was true with the first gen iPhone, just not much of a signal where I sit...but I *never* had the battery issues I do now as I did with the first gen iPhone in terms of the battery.

This is true of the two 3G iPhones I've owned (thanks to AppleCare, returned the first 3G I had due to a few dead pixels and an at times non-responsive unit), same sorta-crappy battery life compared to the first gen iPhone. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, either.

I'm not "upset" at the battery life, since if needed I can plug in to my Mac mini at my desk, and I have a charger in the car for the ride home. I just hoped the new 3G iPhone would boast at least the same battery life I enjoyed with the first gen. Guess not.

[gradient]

Has anyone suffering from poor battery life relative to their original iPhone tried jailbreaking and switching off 3G to see how much of a difference it makes?

When the original iPhone came out there were mountains of complaints about it not including 3G, with the reasoning being that it would be terrible on battery life. Now we have 3G and worse battery life so I'm don't see why anyone would be terribly surprised.

[LeeG]

No need to jailbreak - there is a switch under

Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G - --> Just set it to OFF

Done.

L

[Randman]

Battery life is better on my 3G than it was on my first-gen phone.

[krove]

Definitely worse here. I used to have Wifi on all the time on my original iPhone. With the 3G, I had to turn it and 3G off just to get a full day's use out of the damn thing. I also get a lot of the "call failed" nonsense. Is this the key message for a dropped call? Maybe I should take it to Apple and get my dropped call % checked.

[gradient]

Originally Posted by LeeG 

No need to jailbreak - there is a switch under

Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G - --> Just set it to OFF

Done.

L

Haha, can't believe I didn't both looking there, though I never had a reason to until seeing this thread.

[CheesePuff]

I keep 3G on and it varies where I am daily from places that get 2-3 bars of EDGE to 4-5 bars of 3G, but keep WiFi and Location Services off and I still get a full days use out of it with 50%+ battery left. This is with a lot of internet use under 3G, text messages, and short phone calls. I'll usually not charge it every night and wait until the morning so it will have 4 hours of use and 20 hour+ standby time and still not have a red battery bar.

[CorpITGuy]

Here lately I keep LS and 3G on, Wi-Fi on and get about 6 hours out of mine before I get 20% battery messages. This is with heavy e-mail use and lots of short phone calls.

[Mastrap]

I've seen a dramatic increase in battery life after calibrating the battery and switching off WIFI.

I went from one day to two days use, with about 30 emails a day, some google map use, some light browsing and some GPS tracker use. And phone calls of course.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Mastrap 

I've seen a dramatic increase in battery life after calibrating the battery

How did you do that (i.e. what method did you use) ?
The three times completely drain and recharge cycle ?

I'm reading all kinds of different advices on re-calibration, and I'm not sure if they all yield the same results.

-t

[Mastrap]

Yes, drain and recharge overnight. The difference is amazing. Today I used it for calls, google maps, some extra apps, email and the battery is still 4/5th full.

[jbleisure]

Yes, drain and recharge overnight.

Do you mean drain it completely once and then leave it on recharge over night?

[xhj2007]

I got my 3g iphone. The battery life really suck. I got an 3G iPhone battery from www.imaxpower.com. The model was called IMP500. It was really helpful. It had 5000mAh battery, which is 5 times of iPhone battery. It works really well. The only thing I don't like is the cable. it has external USB cable come with. But it is still a good buy. I tried get another one. now it was out of stock

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by jbleisure 

Do you mean drain it completely once and then leave it on recharge over night?

That's right. Deep discharge followed by a deep charge. The difference is huge. I now have 2-3 days between charge, at average use. I find that web browsing eats battery, whereas email is negligible.

[mkerr64]

wifi and bluetooth drains quite a bit of better

[CorpITGuy]

Does anyone know of a better way to view battery life than the battery meter on the iPhone in the top right of the screen? It's terribly inaccurate on my 3G iPhone; the iPhone 2G was similarly bad for me. It seems to jump all over the place (and it is really, really small).