Some days back, the standard fleet of journalists that tend to be given Apple products early to provide in depth reviews, published their thoughts.
Those journalists included Walt Mossberg from WSJ, Joshua Topolsky from Engadget and Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing. All gave positive reviews of the device and all commented on the remarkable length of the iPhone’s battery life.
As someone who’s constantly been frustrated by the iPhone’s shoddy battery, I was ecstatic and immediately wrote a brief post highlighting each of their comments. With Topolsky claiming 38 hours of battery under heavy use, Jardin claiming 4 days on light use, you couldn’t help but believe this was Jobs’ secret little gift to us – his “one more thing”. Something he wanted bloggers and journo’s to be raving about days after the launch. A battery life of potentially 38 hours with the functionality the iPhone brings is mind blowing.
The fact of the matter is, that was those figures were all bullsh*t.
I have an iPhone 4 now and while there *may* be some improvements in battery life, they’re genuinely insignificant, insignificant enough for me to wonder if there are any. It’s now completely understandable why Jobs didn’t include it as a stand out feature of the new phone during his WWDC keynote.
Comments under the original post of ours say it all:
“I’m the same. My 16Gb iPhone is as bad as my old iPhone 3G.
I really don’t get it – as it’s nowhere near the figures quoted by apple or these journos.”
“My phone has all three of the issues I’ve seen discussed-yellow spot on the screen, poor battery life, and the reception problems when the phone is held. It must be a defective unit if reviews show it getting 38 hours with heavy use! I doubt I’d get 38 minutes with heavy use! (slight exaggeration, but maybe not far off!)”
“Count me among those with a very poor battery, or whatever the issue. Way worse than my 3GS. I got mine a day early and charged it overnight. After half a day at work, hardly using it, I was down in the 50% range.”
“I concur, I just got my iphone4 today and with moderate data usage to the battery, its down to 50% in 5-6 hours.”
…and there are many many more.
My personal experience is the iPhone barely lasts 24 hours under light use and that’s with keeping an eye on background apps, few phone calls, 8 photos taken and a 30 second video. Very little difference, if any, to the iPhone 3GS.
Where I’m puzzled is what phone were the three respected journalists using when they reviewed this aspect of the iPhone? What are your experiences with the iPhone 4 battery life, do share below.
Update:
Just to be abundantly clear, I’m not intending to insinuate that either of the three journalists are liars and if it came across that way (which it clearly has to at least one) – I apologise. I am however trying to establish exactly why three journalists I genuinely respect had very different experiences to most when it came to the iPhone’s battery life.
Whilst I do believe the battery is probably as useful as it is on the 3G/3GS, you can’t really comment until you have used it for more than one day.
Get into a pattern that you would normally, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Emails, Photos per day and then comment. I for one would completely rinse out my battery on the first day getting to know how it all works.
I’m getting mine in the next few days, I’ll no doubt come back and complain then.
Honestly, I take have started taking anything claimed by Mac journalists with a grain of salt lately. I have even some basically denying the reception problem just because their phone doesn’t have it.
So you’re assuming then, that there’s no difference between battery life on the 3G(S) and the iPhone 4? Pretty big assumption.
no no, assuming that there’s very little difference.
That’s trash – maybe they just thanked Apple for the review unit with a positive write-up –
So are they also denying Signal issues?
Be interested in the type of battery in it. Some need to be charged & drained several times before actually reaching best capacity. If these journos ran them for a week or so, they might have achieved that – as against many of the other reports in the last day or so, where the batteries haven’t gone through that cycle and are therefore not at peak capacity. Charge and fully drain consistently over a week, then check out the performance.
No, I don’t have an iPhone. No, I won’t be getting one!
And what is the larger questions you raise 1) journalist that are repeating marketing factoids (toids being the things that embellish the facts, 2) a desire for journalists not to upset a valued resource of news because they want to be first to review (completely self serving but hey everybody has to make a living right and us consumers have proven by our behavior that we value being first ahead of being accurate right? )
you’re quite right, there is a larger question here but all three of these guys could have quite easily not said a word about battery life aside from “there is definitely some marginal improvement” but instead all claimed the battery life was far greater than anyone has experienced.
Someone on CNet mentioned that the people getting the most attention with the problems with AT&T and iPhones are tech journalist most of whom happen to live in large cities with lots of cellular users, tall buildings that block cellular signals etc.
MIT Technology Review blog has an article on why smartphone batteries don’t last as long as expect : http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/19323/?a=f
Sorry. I posted the wrong link: How Wi-Fi Drains Your Cell Phone: http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25651/
Thanks Khurt
I am not an Apple fan. I prefer the Evo to the iPhone, but am stuck w ATT.
I owned the 3GS and now own the iPhone 4.
Mossberg’s claims are only a little exaggerated. The battery life is remarkably better than 3GS. I now do the unthinkable: brightness at 75 percent, wifi and location on all day. Under heavy use I still have half a battery at the end o’ day.
Although dissapointed, I’m relieved that Canada only gets it in about a month. Time enough for people to give it a good test run.
So far with all the talks of antenna/signal problems and battery life I’m starting to consider switching to the Android platform with a Nexus One.
I don’t see how this is scientific one day after launch. So far, I’m seeing better life than my 3GS, at this point in my day the meter is at 92% for example whereas normally it would be around 80. This is after a normal morning of running around and catching up with news, etc and returning calls. But I think I need to see how it goes for a few days to really know.
One thing I will say, my Nexus One has very poor and worse, inconsistent, battery life with real world apps. And it has an antenna hotspot just the same as the iPhone does. So Carlos, that may not be a solution for you either.
I’ve done a little comparison (side by side … I have a 3GS (running iOS4), my wife has a 4). What I’ve found (so far) is:
1) the battery on the 4 does seem to be better than that of the 3GS, but not by much. In a 4 hour run time, the 4′s remaining power is about 10% higher than the 3GS. There are more apps running in the background on the 3GS than on the 4, but not many.
2) the 3GS has shown I marked increase in battery usage with iOS4 running (obviuolsy from the multi-tasking).
3) HOW and WHERE the phone is used has a great effect on the performance. For instance, is your eMail a push service or do you need to poll periodically, and if polling, how often do you poll (15 min, 1 hour, manual) and are you connecting via 3G or via WiFi.
I am not a fanboi of Apple, and I am not trying to make excuses for the journos. Just trying to remind everyone of a little disclaimer that comes with every add “your actual results may vary”.
Make sure to setup the device as a new iPhone and don’t take all your junk and problems from your old phone. Do not restore from backup. Restoring from backup brings all your settings etc to your shiny new iPhone 4, but it also brings all your problems with it. Try without restoring from a backup and see what kind of battery life you get :-)
hey great idea, might just try that!
While playing with an iPhone 4 at an AT&T Store, the battery dropped 8 freaking percent in less than 10 minutes. The brightness wasn’t very high, and I didn’t even use any data. My 3G is bad. 100%>35% in 2.5 hours.
Have my brightness set much higher and now running background apps. And I now push email. I’m a heavy heavy user. 16 gigs a month. This bettery is much much better. Don’t know what u expect. Look at the size of it. U people r just ridiculous with what u want. Go get a droid then. Ever see their battery tests. Now that is something to be upset with.
It is nigh on impossible to use 16gb data in one month on any phone. go away.
I am debating whether to purchase myself an iphone 4, people like you stating you are the owner of such a device does no sway me in the slightest
n.b . Many web browsers come with built in spell-checkers. please use one
My battery life is night and day from the 3G I had. Huge improvement.
HOLY SHIT, WHY DO U BLOGGERS INSIST ON TALKING OUT OF UR ARSES FOR A DECENT STOTY
IVE BEEN USING MY iPHONE 4 16GB FOR 32 HOURS OF MEDIUM-HEAVY USE AND IT STILL HASNT HIT THE RED
THIS IS JUST A PILE OF BULLSHIT, IF UR USING BATTERY TO FAST THEN TRY TURNING YOUR BRIGHTNESS DOWN OF TURN YOUR WIFI OFF
TRY USING UR BRAIN BEFORE BITCHING TO STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET
wow, that is one pissed off stranger.
LOUD VOICES!
Umm, I have the exact same settings I had on my 3G and the battery on the 4 seems the a lil worse. I dont know if its b/c its the first day of use or what, but im disappointed :-/
Why do you insist on screaming?
Why don’t I just turn it off then my battery will last a really long time.
I know I could go buy an Android phone maybe that will fix my battery problem.
STORY NOT STOTY
LOL.
Obviously Apple sent reviewers a different battery than what is actually shipping to consumers. It is not exactly unheard of although in the case of Apple it is. Acer did the same thing with it’s original Aspire One. What they do is send reviewers higher mAh batters than the ones that are actually shipped with the product. Gives off false impressions and it makes me have less respect for Apple now.
Good reviews means more Apple advertising dollars. It’s also well know Apple punishes media outlets that put down their products by pulling advertising and access to insider Apple happenings
I am also having battery issues. I have used it lightly for an hour and 7 hours standby. Somehow I am at 70% already. The battery life is almost exactly like my 3G. I have seen other users who have reported that their battery life is wonderful, so this has to be an issue.
Well I am calling them LIARS!!!!
I’m @ 15% now and have used it for 5 hours!!!!
You have two choices: 1) Return the phone; or 2) troubleshoot the phone.
Troubleshoot: 1) Measure the battery life with no apps running. 2) Turn on one app and repeat to find offending app.
If battery life is bad with no apps running, return the phone. If battery life is bad with one app running, return the app.
I’ve had my iPhone 4 for 2.5 days (got it shipped to me early on the 24th). I have a pretty standard routine for use: Surf the web on the train for 45 minutes on way to work, lock my phone away for 8 hours (I work in a secure facility), then use it for another 45 minutes on train home from work. By 6pm on my 3GS, I’d be at roughly 40%. My iPhone 4 was at 35% for Thursday and Friday. No improvement at all. Now granted, while my phone is in a locker all day, it probably uses more power (although the signal is STRONG in the building). But even so, the iPhone 4 should still give me more juice through all if that if the reviews are to be believed.
Bottom line for me after 3 days and exact same usage: iPhone 4 battery is a tad bit worse.
Now, I am intrigued by the “do a fresh install” concept, as I did do a restore from backup when I first received my phone. But if I go through all of the trouble to reset and see no change, I’m gonna be livid.
Oops, meant I got it on the 23rd!
Zee, I respect you even more now as I’m sick and tired of all Apple brown-nosers in the media.
I never upgraded to the 3G or 3Gs. Up until this past Thursday I used the first gen iPhone on the Edge network with a “whopping” 16 GB. I don’t make many calls or consider myself a heavy user… obviously considering I have lived this long without buying a new phone. So far my fist gen iPhone’s battery out performs the iPhone 4′s battery life by 30%, and it’s 3 yrs old. I will try some of the suggestions and see if it helps…I really don’t want to return it. :(
I’ve been searching the web for guys with similar problems seems to be only a few but there are definitely some faulty batteries. I have seen that if you fully charge ie. Below 20% then charge it will eventually improve. I have done this twice and no improvement. I am hoping if I do take the phone back the diagnostics on the genius bar might show the battery use. I also had a 2 year old 3G so was expecting a huge improvement it is definitely worse on my phone. But friends are having no problem and say they are using it much more than I am and having much more battery left than on a 3GS.
It seems to be only a few, which makes me think faulty battery!
It’s about time Apple got a fair go – and not just from “brown-nosers”.
We’ve had years of Microsoft apologists bashing Apple, now it’s Droidists so what’s with the people in the comments bagging Apple for getting a few positive reviews and insinuating corruption and collusion on the part of reviewers? You don’t need to get all defensive and angry just because the status quo is changing/ has changed.
Maybe get your heads out of the sand and rip yourself into the future. Apple gave us a new kind of phone – we’d still all be toting around Nokias if it wasn’t for them – (and probably surviving a week on a single charge!), but now we’re packing devices that can do so much more – all because a little American fruit company had the vision to see something that didn’t exist.
I’m sure battery technology will improve, but you’ve got to expect issues when you’re on the bleeding edge of technology. Maybe email the reviewers and ask what apps they had installed, and what settings they had on their test units if you really want to get to the bottom of the issue
Be thankful for what is available today. Apple phones and non-Apple phones alike and stop whinging!
I have no idea what you’re talking about, my iPhone 4 battery life is absolutely amazing, I’ve had it on been on the internet like crazy 2 hour phone calls, been editing with iMovie, Facebook,
YouTube, FaceTime, I’ve done it all and when I first got it I let it completely die then charged it fully, it’s last me from 10 AM yesterday morning till now the next day at 10:23 PM without any charge what so ever. It is currently at 4%, but I’ve been using 3G uploading and downloading images, phone calls, everything and it’s significantly better, my current usage since last charge is 7 hours and 11 minutes and standby of 1 day and 11 hours, much better than my iPhone 3GS
Obviously I think we have some good batteries and some bad batteries. I’m going to condition it for two more days and if I see no improvement I’ll make an appointment with AppLE.
You are probably multitasking on accident. I had the same problem. In order to quit an app all you have to do is to double-tap the home button and then press and hold on an app, a red minus sign will appear in the top left corner. Tapping this red minus sign will terminate it.
As of yet a way to instantly quit an app without pitting it in the multitasking list has not been discovered.
I am also having the same battery problems. I’m keeping an eye on the background apps(closing them) and screen brightness down to 50%. My 3G lasted awhile at first like any new product should, but this phone is killing me because I have to babysit it all day. Anyway just thought I’d share my probs also.
yes, the battery life on my phone is horrendous. Not sure what is going on with this 4 generation phone.
I have also been experiencing battery issues with my iPhone 4. I’ve been scouring the net for similar issues since launch day with little luck, until I found this article today.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who is seeing less than ideal battery life. I am currently getting only 12 hours on a full charge with little to no use. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is something running in the background that is killing the battery, but I haven’t been able to figure out what it is.
Hopefully, we’ll all be able to see that 38 hour life cycle with a little troubleshooting, although I’d be more than happy with going a full day without charging. Other than that, I’m loving the new iPhone. I just wish I could use it more!
It is NOT a 4th generation device. There isn’t such thing… I would barely call it 3G (third generation). Apple misleading people giving it the name iPhone 4. Video calling is absolutely old fashion in where I am living and it works just fine and to any 3.5 g cel device.. No wifi needed neither not another iPhone 4 user
Sorry graevynheat. It didn’t mean to you
Raevynheart
Hey make sure your double tapping the home button and hold on an app and shut each program down. Otherwise they will run in the background for ever.
Hi, Eric.
Thanks for your response. Do you have any evidence that ‘running’ fewer tasks in the fast app switcher results in significantly better battery life? Whether you have 5 or 50 apps in the dock should not matter. I say ‘should’, but I do admit that there is the distinct possibility that it does.
My understanding of how iPhone multitasks is that only certain approved things can happen in the background (audio, VOIP, location services, task completion, notifications, and fast app switching). For the most part, the vast majority of apps ‘running in the background’ will consume RAM but little to no battery life because, in essence, they are not running at all, but in a saved state that is easy to switch back to. iPhone’s multitasking isn’t like that of Android or webOS or any OS for that matter. I don’t think you should think of the app switcher as a task manager. Here is a quote to support my reasoning:
Q: How do you close applications when multitasking?
A: (Scott Forstall) You don’t have to. The user just uses things and doesn’t ever have to worry about it.
A: (Steve Jobs) It’s like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager… they blew it. Users shouldn’t ever have to think about it.
In sum, I don’t think third party multitasking is causing the battery drain issues at all. I will be posting another message shortly on what I have narrowed down ‘the suspects’ to (at least on my phone :-). For what it’s worth, I have been able to squeeze over 24 hours and counting from my last charge. It’s now just a matter of turning on settings one by one to find out which one was the battery hog.
Let me know if you make any progress, or think my reasoning is out of whack. Hopefully, we’ll all be seeing stellar battery life soon.
Hiya :)
I’ve been having similar issues, I wouldn’t say my battery life is as bad as people has been making out, i.e. Dying with hardly any use after a full nights charge…
I do get a good run at it, normally using my phone from 6 (bright and early) on the way to work with iPod playing, light twitter and safari (30mins) then SMS during the day and a few phone calls and iPod and safari on the way home again… Then a bit of heavy twitter use at night and facebook… This is my normal routine, however, due to it being my new toy… I have found myself using a random mix of the usual – iMovie, video, YouTube etc to … But nothing too heavy or excessive.. All in all every night I’ve have to charge my iPhone at around 6pm due to it being in the red..
P.s… Yes I know how multitask works and how to close apps…
P.p.s… I agree with this post entirely even although I consider myself a complete apple fan boy… I have queued for all versions of the iPhone and iPad… I have got 3of the last 5 macs and I love the brand and the growth it has achieved…
However, I give credit where credits due… And to me… This has been a major f**k up of a launch which tbh makes me doubt whether apple is growing at a health rate…
Mine lasted only 5 hours today after full charge last night and only doing a few web searches and text messages. Didn’t even talk on it and it died after 5 hours. When recharging, it won’t let you make any calls or do anything for the first 30 minutes or it dies. Very disappointed.
My first battery would drain at the rate of about 3% in half an hour on STANDBY. After a couple of calls to Apple and two visits to the Apple Store, I was given a replacement model and, now, after 1:15 of “heavy” use (mostly playing “Chaos Rings” and watching some video) and 15 hours of standy, I’m still at about 83% charge. The difference is astronomical. I’m wondering if there’s a bad batch of batteries out there.
I’ve had my iPhone 4 for 3 days now, and have noticed a definite increase in the battery life. Where I used to be around 8% remaining by 10 PM, I am now around 50%. I think my phone could last 2 days without a charge, while my old 3GS couldn’t make it though an entire day.
Hi, Kory.
Would you be so kind to share some of your settings with those of us who are still seeing poor battery performance? Do you have location services and push notifications on? Are you using push email? If you fetch email for any of your accounts, how often do you do so?
With all of the above turned off, I get great battery life with minimal use. As soon as I start using the phone, though, I see a loss of about 1% every few minutes. Just writing this message has dinged me 5%. Just curious as to how others are using the phone.
One last thing. How warm does everyone’s phone get in normal use? Mine seems to get really warm if I use it for more than 10 minutes. Anyone else notice this?
I played with 3 different iPhone 4′s at various AT&T Stores. All of them had horrible battery life. All 3 lost 10% in a matter of 10-15 minutes. My iPhone 3G is better than that.
Maybe you have to completely let it charge before you start using it for the first time (like the manual says, I think).
Raven, my battery is lasting a little longer when I close the apps. But I do understand and believe your right about having them open. I’m coming to the conclusion that I just have a battery. I drop a percent every 30 minutes. I am keeping all push stuff on manual, but I really believe that you should be able to use the stuff that the phone was made to use. I’m gonna go to apple tomorrow and see what will happen when they plug my phone in. I will keep in touch with what happens.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, Eric. The phone was meant to be used. What use are location services, push notifications, and multitasking if you have to use them sparingly?
I definitely think there is something hardware related going on in mine. After posting the last message here from my iPhone, I hit the sleep button and after the familiar click noise, I was greeted with some sort of reverberating echo in the speaker. At first I thought my iPhone was getting ready to explode, but after repeating the wake, unlock, sleep process several times, I realized it was some sort of strange feedback from the speakers. With the mute on, I was not able to reproduce it at all, so I’m pretty sure it was some strange audio artifact from overheating. I even recorded it for posterity. Is this iPhone 4′s mating call?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXDlDEiTus
Restarting the phone has set it back to normal, if I can call it that. (-:
Hey man that sounds awesome. I hope Apple can fix our phones. They have to know what’s going on. Because I would really like to use my phone to it’s potential. Let me know how your phone makes out. Later
i recieved my iphone 4 on the 23rd by preordering adn the first day it died rather quickly which was dissappointing, however after purchasing the battery doctor app and doing simple adjustments, full cycle charges every other day or so, it now lasts close to 3 days with light use and 2 days with moderate to heavy use. Much better than my friends who have to charge their 3G and 3GS everyday after minimal use.
Add me to the average usage crowd of disappointed users.
I use my iPhone 4 for Facebook, a little texting and a few short phone calls. The battery life drops dramatically. Even with everything killed in the background.
I’ve owned a 3G and 3GS. I can honestly say the battery life is worse.
I’ve had mixed experience. Upon first upgrading from a 3G, I was blown away by the remarkable difference in battery life. On my first day of owning, I was able to get well over 18-20 hours with moderate to heavy usage. Since then however, i’ve seen some very inconsistent battery behavior. For example, yesterday i left my house with a full charge at 2pm. By 5:30pm, I was down to 50%, with the same moderate to heavy usage as on my first day (checking twitter, mail, facebook, and checking for app updates, all on 3G). Unfortunately, this is still significantly better than what I was getting on my 3G (after the same amount of time on my 3G i’d be down to <20%, but it's still far from what I was able to get on day 1.
Last nite I charged again fully, and at 9:30pm left my house with it at 100%. Came back home an hour and a half later, somewhere around 93-94%, went to sleep, and woke up at 8am at about 89%. So it lost at least 4-5% while in standby mode over 8 hours. I guess that's not a big deal, but then when i used it to check my email/twitter/facebook as I normally do every morning, it quickly shot from 89% to 87% in less than a half hour.
Anyone found better luck by doing a restore as a new phone rather than from backup? i hate to lose some of my settings/high scores in some of my apps, but am willing to do so if necessary.
So here is my take: the battery on my 4 is worse than my 3G. I have kept a close eye on background apps etc and the honest truth is…the phone dies way too fast while in standby mode. My 3G could run forever when not being used. I go three hours of nearly no use on my 4 and the bat has dropped like 25%. on top of that I have the “death grip” issues which are not terrible but still very irritating. I am very disappointed and I believe that those who are not either don’t have a “lemon” or are not being objective enough due to their undying affection for all things apple. In short: I’M PISSED!
okay so I did a full restore and setup as new phone, and from my first full charge of usage (battery now down at 5%) here is what I have to report:
usage 5 hr 50 minutes
standyby 19 hours 50 minutes
this is after moderate use, nothing moroe than email/maps/facebook/twitter, and downloading a few app updates.
also, when i went to sleep around 1am, battery was at 23%. When I woke up at 8, battery was down to 15.
So I can report it is significantly better than my 3G, I can leave the house without worrying about where im going to charge my phone in 4 hours, but I still think it loses battery when in total sleep mode all too easily.
I am also having the same problem as you guys, this is my first iPhone. After reading these posts I drained my battery and re-charged. I have also been closing my apps as and when. At first I turned off push but I think it’s ridiculous that I should have to do that, so turned it back on half way during the day. So my usage currently is 7 hours and 16 mins, stand by 1 day and 12 hours with 9 % left. Significantly better than before, is this good enough? I’m fairly happy with this but will continue drain cycle for 1st month.
Hi, Newtoiphone.
I would say that is pretty damn good battery life you are seeing — almost 2 full days without needing to recharge. I’m very jealous. (-:
I seem to have comparable standby time with my phone, but as soon as I begin to use it, the battery life drains like a bucket with ten holes in it. I’m currently at 18 hours and 50 minutes standby and 1 hour and 14 minutes of usage. I have 34% battery life left. It just seems that I can never get more than 3 or 4 hours of use out of the phone per charge.
Over 7 hours of use sounds just about right, although I completely agree that it should be able to do this with push notifications, location services, and mail fetching on. If I put any of these options on, my battery life takes an even greater hit. I can’t seem to isolate what might be causing this.
I admit this might all just be psychological. I might try turning off the percent meter on my next full charge and see what happens. I may have just convinced myself that I have bad battery life, when in reality, it is just that I perceive that I have bad battery life.
May I ask whether your phone becomes noticeably warm when you use it? It seems like if I use mine for more than a few minutes for anything — a call, playing games, checking mail, listening to music, etc. — the area right under the SIM card tray begins to heat up. I’m pretty sure the A4 is right around there, too, but the amount of heat I feel is somewhat alarming. Maybe the glass back just exaggerates it, but I can’t help but think something is wrong when I hear comments from other iPhone owners saying their phones rarely get warm with use. Mine always gets warm.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your new iPhone — I know I am. I just wish that I could use it more without feeling like there is something wrong with it. (-:
Hi raevynheart, well I think I spoke to soon as after battery died I did a full cycle charge and after 1 hour of checking email, safari and listening to my iPod function it had drained 25%! I must admit I did use it more as I don’t currently have Internet in my apartment so have been using my iPhone frequently. I ended up getting 5 hours of usage with 22 hours standby. Not as good as previously!
I did keep push notification on but turned wifi off. In regards to it getting warm, I have noticed after long periods of use it gets warm but nothing worrying.
Currently I’m on 4.5 hours usage and 1 day standby with 45% left. Not too bad, although I know if I’m on safari and checking emails alot this evening this will reduce alot – this seems to be the main culprit.
Hope it gets better for you and do keep us updated.
Hi, Newtoiphone.
I’m glad to hear that yours is still doing well. I think mine is getting worse, though. :-/ Today’s stats:
Usage: 2 hrs. 3. mins.
Standby: 17 hrs. 15 mins.
3G and WiFi are on with email being fetched every hour.
Bluetooth, location services, and push notifications are all off.
I have brightness set to about 33%.
One missed call (unrecognized number) and no texts. Light to medium web browsing, reading news, playing Crosswords, checking Facebook and emails, listening to a couple of songs. I updated one app via the App Store and also organized a good number of them into folders on the device.
Again, mine seems to have normal standby time, but as soon as my iPhone is used, battery life plummets. I estimate losing about 1% every 2 to 3 minutes regardless of use. Interestingly enough, it almost seems like my phone discharges the battery at nearly the same rate as it charges. It takes me 2.5 hours to charge through the wall, and it takes about the same time to run the battery down while being used.
Mine also always gets warm on the SIM card side (where the processor is) within about 2 minutes of use. I could be halfway through a song with the screen off and the phone will go from cool to warm. Further use will result in the phone getting toasty, but never as hot as while I charge it. I’ve never experienced the temperature warning when using the phone, but I’ve seen it twice while charging.
I’m going to give it one more day before I give Apple a call. Hopefully, they can provide some insight into my situation, or exchange my phone if there really is something wrong with it.
Besides that, I still love the phone, although I’m not a big fan of the battery in mine.
Forgot to mention my battery life for the stats above. It was at 11% and dropping.
My suggestion is that the algorithm that calculates the remaining battery life adapts over time. Early reports of battery life were genuine reports of an un-adapted calculation, later experience showed different results. I have no inside knowledge about the battery life measurement so this is speculation, but I know that the MacBooks can get confused about how much battery life is really left.
Very poor battery life, worst than my iPhone 3Gs. I can barely get 24 hrs out of the battery with 3G turned off, just on stand by for most of the day and a few calls a day, light use of maps on edge network. Terrible! Is my iPhone 4 defective or is it normal?
I was wondering about this yesterday. Just got my new iPhone 4 and saw the battery drop to 50% in just a few hours. Thought it was a faulty battery but my friends seem to have the same experience. Not a hair better then the 3G. Very dissapointing.
Hi, Aldert.
Give it a little time. I think it can take a couple of days before the battery and the meter are calibrated. If it doesn’t get any better after a week, set up a Genius Bar appointment and see what they think.
I had problems with mine for almost two weeks. I was experiencing excessive battery drain and overheating with the lightest of use. I still don’t know exactly what was wrong (I suspect the SIM card was seated incorrectly in mine and was brushing up against the logic board), but mine is fine now. No overheating, pretty good battery life (6-7 hours usage, 20-24 hours standby). Still not stellar, but more than enough to get through a day.
So my advice is to try and enjoy the phone for a week and use it as you would normally. If battery life doesn’t improve by then, let Apple take a look at it for you. Let us know how things work out.
I just got my new iPhone 4. Same thing. I was so surprised to see the reviews of engadget and so on, I couldn’t believe it, actually I was about to return my iPhone until I read this post.
After a few complete cycles with long charges overnight, my battery is not lasting more than 12 hours with light usage.
Today for instance, I just took it out of the charger, got on the train and used an RSS reader app for about 35 min and my battery alraedyt dropped to 85%. With games is much worse. I’ve turned off Push email, brightness to 40% and no apps on the background.
I thought that it was due to the multitasking, but I don’t think so anymore.
My old 3G was much better. I wonder how long an iPhone 4 with iOS 2.X would last….
I had the exact same problem. Turns out that the evil culprit was Microsoft’s Exchange. My battery life was awesome when I first received my iPhone. Even with Exchange working and pushing emails. Then I received an Exchange meeting request. I accepted the request but it didn’t go into my calendar. Then BAM, battery drain insanity. My battery would drain in hours. I went into my Exchange account on my virtual PC and accepted the invitation and then deleted it. Then I did a soft reset of the iPhone. It cleared up the problem immediately. All the tips for battery life are helpful, but if you have one process that will not stop you’re going to drain the battery quickly. I hope this helps. Good luck!
Now that I’ve had my iPhone 4 for a few weeks, I’m not exactly satisfied with my battery life. I’m pretty sure that my 3G and 2G gets better battery life… I’ve had it go dead several times while I was in California (the whole Disneyland thing), and all I really did was check email a few times, listen to some music, and browse a few websites.
Sort of annoying, but now that I’m back home, it doesn’t exactly bother me. I’m usually near an outlet so I can keep it charged as much as possible. I also have the Exolife battery case coming to me, so battery life shouldn’t really be an issue anymore.
I just bought a 3gs yesterday my first iphone it was cheaper and I didn’t feel I needed the latest and greatest. Just used it to download a few apps and probably made three very short calls one 10 sec video and about three sms now down to 40% battery what a load of c**p. I had it on the charger all night. I think the phone is pretty good mainly for the apps as wanted some good ones for our trip to Europe in 2 weeks. To be honest if this is the best they can do I’ll give it a week and if it doesn’t improve will ask for money back and stick with my trusty old Nokia.
I have an iPhone 4 that’s only a week old. I can replicate antenna attenuation, but over the course of daily usage, any/all dropped calls have been from the other end of the phone call. No yellow screen, but I do have an issue with my proximity sensor. Hopefully the next update will fix that. However, my battery life has been fantastic. I use about 10% of my battery life every hour of heavy use. That’s 10 hours of heavy usage. As of now, I’ve got 70% of battery life left, and 5 hours and 54 minutes on standby, and 1 hour and 50 minutes of usage. I reach the red zone two days deep into a full charge. My iPhone 3G S would drop into the red within 5 hours of use, so this is a mind-blowing battery life.
My battery life is f’in fantastic. It lasts EASILY two days, typically three. I really don’t understand how you guys have such bad battery life.
Try a couple things for me. For real.
- turn your phone off and back on again. No, seriously.
- charge it all the way to 100%, then run it out. How long was that? Now charge it back up WITHOUT UNPLUGGING. Test again.
- turn off Exchange email accounts.
- make sure you aren’t in an area with terrible signal all the time (ie 1-no bars)
If your battery life with built-in apps is still LESS THAN A 3G (which is absolutely impossible), then return your phone immediately. The 3Gs battery life kicked the 3G’s ass, and the 4 lasts easily twice as long in EVERY SINGLE TEST I’ve done on more than 20 phones.
What the hell are you using your phone for? The only way I can achieve that kind of battery life is to keep the brightness all the way down and just keep the iPod playing some music. OR leaving the thing in airplane mode for a few days.
My signal is usually between 3 and 5 bars (with 3G). I don’t have any Exchange accounts, and keep Mail fetch to Manual.
Oh well.
I actually use my phone for tweeting, video playback, games, productivity junk, and probably won’t get more than 6 hours of usage out of this thing.
Had issues with my iP4 – battery draining very quickly, 50% a day just sitting there and a few basic uses. All wifi, btooth, notification turned off etc. 9 hours standby for an 89% charge reported. Same deal as many people. – Then I read a post that fixed my problem:
- Completeley power off device (hold down lock button for 5 sec or so untill prompted to slide to turn off)
- Wait 3 minutes
- Plug in charger
- turn on
- wait for boot up then leave for a full charge (mine went from 70 – 100%)
Now I have reported 288 hours standby and I loose 2% battery doing the same stuff as above!!
So it needed some kind of factory/software/battery reset or something. Try it!!
I just got an Iphone 4 32gb .. (First Iphone, Im a big Nokia supporter) .. But I’m having serious problems with my iphone .. It charges everynight , all night long .. then in the middle of the day I connect it to the computer .. I’m not sure If I’m doing something wrong (having apps running in the background or something) Cause mine is lasting hours and then it says 50% battery life left ..
My iPhone 4 is around 6 months old and I’m getting very poor battery life now (it was poor when new, but now it’s very poor). A friend of mine got an iPhone 4 a couple of weeks ago. We started texting by both of use texting the other battery life % and in the end we again both texted our battery %. My iPhone dropped 7% while theirs only dropped 3%. I also have everything turned off that I don’t use wifi, bluetooth etc.
IMO, the three authors received prototypes that had super batties that did not make it into production, production models have hardware or software battery issues, or the authors flat out lyed to make apple happy.
Well I just replaced my 3G witha iPhone 4 a few days ago and the battery life is substantially better. I just have to charge it once a day to 100% and with moderate to heavy usage it will last me at least 24 hrs. I have wifi turned off when I’m not using it ( which is most of the time cuz the 3G is just as fast as my wifi) I have notifications on and location services. I occasionally kill apps running in the background. Also another tip is do not let your phone charge all night. It degrades the battery faster. Charge it till it’s full and unplug it.
I just got my iPhone4. And yes the battery on very light use only last <24hours. Though that is not why i write here.
I want to expose a little business "trick" that most electronics manufacturers do when submitting a sample device for review. As i worked in one of the electronics giant back then, we often had to prepare a "special" device to be sent for magazine & web reviewers. These special device looks exactly right the one in the market, except it has been tweaked, or tuned, to be at the best performance. So, the review is always great. I am not saying this is exactly the case here, but it is a possibility.
Seeing as how this conversation is pretty old now and everyone has probably had a chance to step back from their initial anger a little bit, do you guys recommend the iphone 4 still? The company I work for makes so many accessories for it that I really want to buy one now. Are droids better?
Im new to iPhone, so I cant compare the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 3GS, but compared to my previous smartphone (HTC), the battery life of the iPhone 4 is a deal breaker. I get about 15 hours out of the phone with moderate use. It’s just not good enough, not as a business phone anyways. Luckily I upgrade soon, so I don’t have to put up with this phone for much longer.
Im almost certain the Journo’s you’ve mentioned were provided with exceptional phones to ensure a good review. Its not a new tactic, and it happens all the time. There’s absolutely nothing worse than giving a journo a faulty device and asking them to review it. Obviously, this is very different when selling to the general public.