iPhone 3GS Battery life

[Wildfire]

Realistically how long can I expect? I know I'm going to have to charge each day, but at the moment I use it for about an hour in the mornings for music on around 25% volume and then maybe 2.5 hours in the afternoon.

By the end of the day I seem to be on around 20%, with little data usage.

I'm sure something is working in the background, whilst I'm not using it. Is there anyway I can find out what is running?

I've recently disabled facebook and email's push fucntion. Anything else I should switch off?

[dibbly_dobbler]

I always have 3g turned off unless I really need it and likewise Bluetooth

have a gander at this

I find the battery life fine on mine

[off_again]

I typically get about a day and a half out of mine. Stuff like iPod music and video is not the big killer for the batter, its everything else that is. Bluetooth on its own isn't bad, but if you are using it then it will eat the battery. Also other stuff that uses the network will start to eat the battery too - so if you can, turn off 3G (down to 2G which is fine for most simple tasks anyway), turn off notifications and if you have email setup, turn this to manual only.

Also, if you are in an area of bad network signals then this will force the radio unit to boost up the power to keep a lock on the local cell tower. So better the signal, the less battery used. Just got a Sure Signal thing for home and seen my battery life improve as a result!!!

Finally, turn it off when you dont need it. Odd as it sounds, but the 3GS takes virtually no time to start or stop, so why not save even more battery time? I got used to muting mine and need to break that habit!

[audi321]

Full email push on will last me just a day. Without this on, I get 3 days

[Don]

The wife has turned off "push" email.

Because it's not really push email technology it eats battery. Without that setting on it seems not too bad. How bad is it to get your email every half hour or so?

If you need up to the minute email you wanted a Blackberry.

[audi321]

Don said:

The wife has turned off "push" email.

Because it's not really push email technology it eats battery. Without that setting on it seems not too bad. How bad is it to get your email every half hour or so?

If you need up to the minute email you wanted a Blackberry.

Rubbish, this is real time email push! You need a email push compatable account though (i.e. googlemail, etc). Most email providers (i.e. AOL, etc) don't support push so people think the iphone doesn't do it! I had to change my email provider to googlemail to get it working, and it does....perfectly!

[Don]

audi321 said:

Don said:

The wife has turned off "push" email.

Because it's not really push email technology it eats battery. Without that setting on it seems not too bad. How bad is it to get your email every half hour or so?

If you need up to the minute email you wanted a Blackberry.

Rubbish, this is real time email push! You need a email push compatable account though (i.e. googlemail, etc). Most email providers (i.e. AOL, etc) don't support push so people think the iphone doesn't do it! I had to change my email provider to googlemail to get it working, and it does....perfectly!

There is "push" and there is push. Blackberry have a patent on push. It makes their handsets hugely efficient in data in comparison to everyone else: the claim is five times IIRC. A by-product of this is battery efficiency.

But so what? Who cares if email is "push" or push or just pull every fifteen minutes. For almost everyone "pull" email that happens often enough is perfectly good.

..and turning it off makes my wife's 3Gs' battery last longer.

Edited by Don on Friday 5th March 16:50

[AB]

Erm, excuse my ignorance but I presume when hooked up to an exchange server I don't have the option of 'pull'?

[Don]

AB said:

Erm, excuse my ignorance but I presume when hooked up to an exchange server I don't have the option of 'pull'?

Yes. Yes you do. You elect to sync your phone "in real time" or periodically. It's in the email options bit. Couldn't give you exact instructions but it took me all of five minutes to find it.

I am occasionally handed the thing and asked to make it do what she wants...

[AB]

Ah, so I can ask it to just sync to my exchange server every 15 minutes. i.e. I update my calendar and it might not make the change on the server for 15 mins?

[Don]

AB said:

Ah, so I can ask it to just sync to my exchange server every 15 minutes. i.e. I update my calendar and it might not make the change on the server for 15 mins?

That's the sort of thing.

[AB]

Interesting.

[cyberface]

IMAP IDLE - though the iPhone doesn't support it as well as it claims.

Best way to extend battery life on an iPhone (of any variety) is to only have the radios on that you *need*. So for me, I only need the Wifi radio on at home where my Wifi access point is. I don't use random access points out and about. Turn it off when you're not using it. Secondly is GPS - again turn it off unless you need it. DO you need 3G data on the move - or will GPRS / EDGE be quick enough? If you're moving (e.g. a train ride) then the iPhone baseband performs so poorly at handing off between 3G cells that it's a waste of time anyway - stick to GPRS / EDGE. If you're just doing email or low-graphics web then GPRS is fine. If you're doing anything but media streaming, EDGE is fine (and responds faster than 3G). GPRS/EDGE and 3G are separate radios (and amplifiers) - turning 3G off turns off a bunch of chips and saves a load of power. Bluetooth? Do you need it? Turn it off.

This sounds like a pain but it's a simple swipe on my iPhone with Winterboard and SpringBoardSettings. Really extends the life of the battery.

Wandering around town with all the radios on, and the iPhone pumping up the transmit power to desperately try to grab a Wifi signal you're walking away from, is a surefire way to get the lowest possible battery life from any smartphone (this works for ALL smartphones, not just Apple's) and the people that moan on the internet about iPhones, in general, have everything turned on when there's no signal and the phone ramps up power to max to try to connect.

Be smart with which hardware devices are consuming power - the iPhone in particular is *very* clever at *fully* powering down entire chunks of hardware if you ask it to. Apple has patents on this... as shown recently with their lawsuits.

Having an iPhone on 5 minute poll of a boggo email account with Wifi and 3G and GPRS/EDGE radios all running at full blast can eat your battery in 2/3 of a business day - I've tried Using it sensibly can leave you with 75% full battery when you return home at 8pm after a full business day away from a charger...

And yes - my Nexus One, which initially couldn't manage a business day away from a charger, is now starting the day on 80% and finishing the day on 33%... and I reckon I can get it more frugal whilst retaining full functionality. This technique works for ALL platforms, not just iPhones.

Good luck!

[Don]

cyberface said:

Good luck!

Or buy something that is efficient to start with!

[chris.mapey]

Don said:

cyberface said:

Good luck!

Or buy something that is efficient to start with!

Have to say that I get as good a battery performance on my iPhone as on my old BlackBerry, and it's way better at voice calls than the BBerry!

[spants]

cyberface

try sbschedule, you can group sbtoggle settings to turn off/on.... I have a set for home/work/sleep/car

Tony

Edited by spants on Saturday 6th March 09:44

[dickymint]

Or get a Morphie case - doubles the battery. Used one for last 3 months and well worth it.

http://www.mophie.com/

[Ordinary_Chap]

I have an iphone as a tool/test device/gadget and I love it!

I use the Blackberry 9700 for work because 1. It has an amazing battery and 2. It does work stuff better.

I don't think we should be too harsh on the Iphone's battery though with it's big colour screen and in all fairness other phones of the same type also suffer similar woes. The Palm Pre is reputably the worst with about half of the battery life of the Iphone.

Although for amusement value my 9700 that has very heavy usage (several hours of calls every day/200 emails per day and various other text messages/IM) will normally end the day with considerably more battery than my idle Iphone.

I think the worst offender out of the Iphone is it's radio and this is the reason why I couldn't use one full time for work. How many dropped calls or even worse the bloody straight to voicemail calls even in good signal areas!

Anyway I reckon Apple will improve on this with the new device and I'm excited about seeing it this year!

[spants]

dickymint said:

Or get a Morphie case - doubles the battery. Used one for last 3 months and well worth it.

http://www.mophie.com/

I have one of these, they are great but add extra weight. I tend to fit it when I know that I will be having a heavy usage day

[cyberface]

Ordinary_Chap said:

I think the worst offender out of the Iphone is it's radio and this is the reason why I couldn't use one full time for work. How many dropped calls or even worse the bloody straight to voicemail calls even in good signal areas!

This.

OC bang on the money here. This is why probably the biggest Apple addict on PH's computer forum has £1600 worth of iPhone 3GS devices sitting unused and has switched to a Google HTC Nexus One, of all things...

The aggro involved in making the Android / Google environment on the phone co-exist and sync with MobileMe is *less* than the aggro of 'Call Failed' and the legendary 'bloody straight to voicemail' which was plaguing me on a regular basis. For someone in the freelance consultancy business, a phone that sends callers to voicemail and then doesn't inform you until days later (I missed two weeks of calls when Vodafone's Icon Alert stopped working on my 3GS for some reason) is a recipe for losing contracts and reputation. *That* particular episode required a few calls to apologise for seemingly rude behaviour (not replying to calls - calls I didn't know I'd had), and a contract opportunity. If I'd been looking for work (I wasn't, so no big deal) then I'd have been mightily annoyed.

Oddly enough it doesn't happen to my girlfriend on my old 3G, she has a fully Apple-restored system on hers (not jailbroken) so perhaps there's some link between jailbreaking and the poor phone performance... but still, the iPhone without jailbreak is useless to me so I've reluctantly sidestepped away from the iPhone platform.

(it does help somewhat that some of my favourite apps on the iPhone are also available on the Android platform as almost identical ports... including my favourite game 'The Plateau'... finding *that* in the Android Market whilst messing about really cheered me up )