Apple iPhone 3G "BATTERY LIFE"

How long does your iPhone last?

  • 5-10 hours

  • 11-15 hours

  • 15-20 hours

  • 20 hours or MORE?


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Feb 5, 2008
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I recently got a Apple iPhone 3G 8GB and I must say..

THE BATTERY LIFE S**KS! :cursing:

I'm not sure if it's due to the fact that the guy at the At&t store who toke the phone, turned it on, WITHOUT IT BEING CHARGED FIRST! My dad always told me that for electronics, your always suppose to charge it for 48 hours to expand it's battery life.

How long does your 3G iPhone last?
 
Mine lasts about 1 - 1 1/2 days. I first thought the same thing - wtf is up with this battery? I went to the Mac Genius Bar for something else and the Genius there told me to keep the 3G setting off until your actually gonna surf the web because it saves a lot of battery so I do and it totally made a difference! It used to only hold a few hours at best. I also thought it was weird about the battery but all iPhones come completely charged when you buy it! Hope this helps
 
Here's a "map" of what I mean:

Touch "settings" from main screen
Touch "general"
Touch "network"
First option is "enable 3G" - make sure that is OFF

This will save you a LOT of energy!

When you have it off - you'll see a capital "E" at the top of the phone (in between AT&T and the clock)
 
I just hate it when the battery on my iPhone and iPod go out! I highly recommend the iPhone backup battery from this site: www.RichardSolo.com
The site was created by the same man who started the Sharper Image company, a similar yet smaller version of it.

You just charge the battery and plug it into your iPhone (or iPod) when it is running low on power, and it acts like a charger! It's so conveinient, and tiny enough to fit in my purse or pocket! Three people in my family, besides me, have bought it for their iPhones and have been very satisfied :smile:
 
I'd turn wifi off over 3G. Most of the time wifi is a larger resource hog and has less coverage compared to 3G. I leave 3G on all the time (I have a Tilt though) and my battery is routinely at 80% after 16 hours off charge.
 
Hey Anna! I have the first gen. iPhone, and I usually keep the wifi off to help preserve battery! I have definitely heard complaints about the battery life of the 3G , so you are not alone. :yes: I think the battery power does get better over time - I would let the battery run fully out and then do a full-charge a couple of times.

Also, I've been told that the 3G comes fully charged, since it has to be activated in-store (if that eases your mind at all about the AT&T rep turning your phone on).
 
The battery life on the iPhones bites!

DH has the 3G and I have a regular iPhone. Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G will eat up your battery life. DH is on the road a lot (car/airports/hotels), so he bought a couple of the back up batteries that Deesie posted. We also keep chargers in every car as well as in a couple of the rooms in the house.
 
My battery on my iphone last 2 days for me but I also am not on the phone all the time texting or talking or surfing the net. I do also charge it at night even if the battery bar is 3/4 full just in case and same with my ipod.
 
Mine lasts about a day and a half. I'm trying not to constantly charge it since iPods/iPhones have limited charge allowances over the life of the device.
 
I have the 1st gen, but I am running 2.0.2. Mine lasts all day depending on how much web surfing I do. I have my location services turned off, fetch data off, and manually check emails.

Also make sure to close out of your apps when not in use, i.e. press and hold the home key until you return to the home screen. This ensures the app is not still running in the background and it could cause charging issues etc. I also perform one full battery cycle a month where I let the phone completely die and then charge it fully. HTH!
 
I didn't turn off 3G or wifi, and my battery lasts all day, even if I'm on it a lot. The secret for me was changing the email push to every hour. When I had it on every 15 minutes, my battery was DEAD by 5:00.
 
I LOVE my 3g! If I use it a lot (games, surfing, whatever) it will not make it through a whole day. I heard the same thing about turning off the 3g network, and I tried turning it off, but I would always forget to turn it back on. I do think it helped the battery life though.
Another thing I did was set "Fetch New Data" from every 15 min to hourly.
Settings>Fetch New Data>Hourly seemed to help a bit.
 
Any device that is always searching for a signal will drain quickly. Wi-fi is a huge energy hog, and will kill the battery on most devices in half a day.

As for AT&T turning it on out of the box, more and more electronic devices are charged in the factory. iPods are ready to go out of the box. My Amazon Kindle was ready to go out of the box. Most cell phone batteries will have a limited charge out of the box.

Your battery life should improve somewhat after you've charged it several times, but if you leave the Wi-fi and 3G on constantly, it will always drain much more quickly than if you keep them off except when you are specfically using that feature.
 
Man, you all are doing great...when I had my iphone, I could never get more than half a day out of the battery, and that was with wifi and 3g both off, which I don't get the point of having them if you have to turn the on and off constantly, but that's just me.