How to Increase iPhone 3G Battery Life

by Gary on July 22nd, 2008

After picking up my iPhone 3G the day after Rogers’ craptacular launch, I was quite impressed with the blazing speed of 3G connectivity. It’s unfortunate the battery life on the iPhone 3G runs out faster than you can say Jesus Jobs.

My iPhone 3G Battery Saga…to be continued…

The first time I used my iPhone 3G after a full charge via the wall charger, the battery life was extremely dismal. After some light surfing and barely any talking, I received the 20% battery remaining pop up. This was after less than 6 hours of standby time. My usage showed about 3.5hrs and just under 6 hours of standby. Something definitely was messed (my friend’s iPhone 3G had battery life that doubled mine) with my iPhone 3G that was less than one week old.

Soooo…off I go and to dial “611″ on my iPhone to climb the highest mountain known to mankind, what many call Rogers Customer Service. After waiting 20 minutes, I found out the hard way that there is a separate technical support line for the iPhone 3G. After speaking with the CSR about my battery woes, he tried to convince me that my usage was normal. I refused to let him coerce me into thinking that having my 20% remaining pop up around 3pm in the afternoon after light usage was “normal”.

When I told him that the standby time of the iPhone 3G was 300 hours, he responded with “I have never ever heard of that before. Where did you find that?” My response to him (with the iPhone 3G spec sheet in front of me) was “umm…it’s stated on the Apple website.” Let’s just say he wasn’t very pleased with me at that point! Anyways, he finally decided that my situation warranted an iPhone exchange. I was told I would receive a brand new 8GB iPhone in 2 days and that I’d have to mail back current iPhone. Standard procedure right? That is until…

…after a couple days, I got thinking. I realized the company I was dealing with was Rogers Wireless, home of the most inconsistent customer service reps ever (no offense to those that do a great job). So I decided to “follow up” on my iPhone exchange on last Friday. What I found out did not shock me–I was expecting it. Turns out the rep did not actually “process” the exchange, but only left notes. Luckily the current rep quickly rectified the situation and assured me I would receive a new iPhone in 2-5 business days.

I know what some of your are thinking right now. “Why bother returning your iPhone 3G? You should know that 3G drains your battery life!” Yes, I am aware of that. However, when I’ve paid $200 for the phone and signed on for a 3 year contract, I would like my iPhone to last the duration of the contract. No way would I let this slide considering how important battery life is! That being said, here are some tips I’ve used to help increase your iPhone 3G battery life, in no particular order…

How to Increase Your iPhone 3G Battery Life – the Extreme Edition

Turn on 3G only when you need it. I found that having 3G turned OFF saved battery life (duh!). Using EDGE actually isn’t that painful–just think of it as a mildly disfunctional WiFi hotspot!
Turn off Location Services.
Turn off Auto-Brightness. Manually move the slider to 25% or 33% brightness.
Turn off WiFi until you need a hotspot. The iPhone’s WiFi will automatically try connecting to SSIDs it detects.
Turn off Push. Change your Fetch schedule to Manually.
Set Auto-Lock to 1 minute.
Turn off Bluetooth.
Limit GPS use unless you really need it.
Do a monthly battery calibration. According to the Apple website, you should be doing this periodically. Give your iPhone a full charge, then let the battery run out. Recharge.
- Usually with lithium-ion batteries this is not necessary as they maintain no “memory effect”…but it’s worth a shot.
Only use the iPhone 3G connected to an outlet. Find a 100ft extension cable and attach it to your USB cable. Attach USB cable to iPhone 3G. Let extension cable follow you around the house, knocking furniture, pets, and children over. Ignore wife/girlfriend’s complaints because–email, Twitter, and the iPhoneinCanada.ca forums call for your attention.

The bottom line is Apple needs to desperately release an update for 2.0 firmware. When previous updates were made, such as jumping from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1, battery life increased. Let’s hope a new firmware will help increase battery life by a bit.

On top of the abysmal battery life, I’m experiencing constant slowdowns when typing and just navigating around the phone. Throw in some Safari crashes here and there, and I’m about ready to shank someone (well, not that bad, but almost!). Want to save your battery from dying? Turn off 3G–’nuff said.

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Posted under: Tips & Tricks, iPhone 3G, iPhone Rogers

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urimages

thanks for the info..... :)

Kas

My 3G is stuck in contacts I can't get to the main menu or power it off, can move around to other menus throw backdoors but I can't enter the main menu or power off.....some help me out pls

peter

Hey... I have recently read this post which says that a student manages to increase iphone battery life by 12 times... How is this possible... do read it http://www.weekwill.com/a-student-increases-iph...

deniece

I never knew that the battery life shortage was a problem until I read this. I am going to try everything suggested and see if it helps. If not, guess I'll be calling At&t with a complaint.

Jocov

I have to agree that the battery is not the best, however i use my phone constantly all day, often playing music while surfing the web using 3G or playing music and gaming, phone calls throughout the day and lots of emails and texts. I have seen a difference by letting the battery completely die, its only happened twice but seems to make a difference to the life of the battery. Even before the life seemed to get better i was still getting all day usage. You have to understand that a phone with the qualities of the iphone will have a downside, in this case the battery life, but i dont mind charging the phone once a day for the experiance i recieve all through the day.

RichieLassard

Hey there,

I dont have any problems with the battery-life of my 3G iPhone. Maybe its the region i live in: The Netherlands. I surf a lot and use 3G all the time. Also very often connected to a bluetooth headset. No problems. All night charging, in the morning take the cord out. In the evening (like 21.00 p.m.) recharge again. Wich means the battery lives all day long. What i do experience, are a few Safari crashes. Sometimes its that bad, that i have to re-start my 3G iPhone completely.

Well, this was all folks!

Regards, Richie

RichieLassard

Hey there,

I don't have any problems with the battery-life of my 3G iPhone. Maybe it's the region i live in: The Netherlands. I surf a lot and use 3G all the time. Also very often connected to a bluetooth headset. No problems. All night charging, in the morning take the cord out. In the evening (like 21.00 p.m.) recharge again. Wich means the battery lives all day long. What i do experience, are a few Safari crashes. Sometimes it's that bad, that i have to re-start my 3G iPhone completely.

Well, this was all folks!

Regards, Richie

zilly

How do u turn the 3g off???

Mike

So am i understanding Tim Aucoins Comment that you can charge your i phone via the screen

alan

yeh, I was wondering about the Core Location. So by turning it on, does it suck up batteries at all when not actually using it, like on google maps?

Ryan

Core Location isn't really doing anything unless you go into an application that leverages it though right? So wouldn't it make more sense to just use those applications sparingly rather than turn off the option and then keep going back and forth to switch it off and on?

Stephen F

@dmz Lithium polymer batteries, like the one in the iPhone, do not require "priming", like old NiCd and NiMH batteries used to. The battery should have access to it's full capacity on its very first charge.

However, a tip I did read today, was that, as you probably know, a lithium battery has a limited number of charge cycles. Faster charging produces more wear and tear on the battery than slower charging. So it's recommended that, if possible, you charge your iPhone via usb attached to your computer, rather than to the wall socket. Doing this will presumably extend the life of the battery by decreasing the crystalization that limits battery life after many, many charge cycles.

Also, the number one way to seriously damage your battery's capacity is to leave it fully charged in a hot car. Word to the wise!

Stephen F

I completed my fourth charge of my iPhone today since I bought it on launch day (although it was turned off for 36 hours while my BSE cured).

I have under 5 hours of talk time and 56 mb total of data transferred (combined in+out). I'd estimate 25 hours of usage of the device.

Do you guys think this is enough to warrant asking for an exchange? Tomorrow is the end of my 14-day return policy with Fido. Is it earier to go through the cell provider rather than Apple this early in the game?

Chris

My iPhone3G just died and as soon as I plugged in the charger, I checked the usage stats:
Usage - 5:55, Standby - 1 day 13 hrs
I had 3G turned on for most of the time, as well as WiFi. Auto-lock after 1 min. BT off, Location services on. Fetch new data hourly.
Usage included surfing, email, some youtube and checking out couple new apps.
How does it compare to your observations? Is it a good result?

Bart

Some more info on iPhone 3G battery life;

http://gizmodo.com/5025309/round-up-nine-iphone...

Brian

You guys haven't upgraded to the new firmware yet?! I noticed some comments mentioned it. I had heard about it and didn't really want to upgrade. But then the OTB firmware with an application (BoxOffice) hooped my GPS and I had to restore the device.

After restore, the keyboard delay issues and most crashes were fixed. Except for the "Safari crash and reboot iPhone" issue, but that's only happened once (damn TUAW :P ). Battery life seems alright for now.

I can't wait until v2.1 or v2.0.1 firmware to be released officially. Apparently restore is some sort of beta firmware. I dunno, I'm not sure why they aren't pushing it to everyone. Meh.

I LOVE ME iPHONE!

Andrew

@bud he was saying that just restoring the phone will help battery life and the yellow tint but not the lagging. What I want to know is if it is true or not

Bud Colby

That would be the second one

Bud Colby

Can someone translate what t4rdif was trying to say. Sounded interesting, but can't understand the message.

dmz

Uh people... new batteries... calibration... try running it down completely and charging back up at least 3 times before getting excited. It may not solve YOUR problem but overall it will help many cases. Mine has increased from half day to 2 days with this method. (Oh yah that's right, I'm the dumbass if its doesn't work for you.)

And if you're a Rogers rep reading this, wait, what am I saying... do Rogers reps even know how to read.

eason

MAN! THAT STUPID ROGERS SALESMAN told me I CAN NOT turn off the 3G, so that I "NEED" the data plan, or else, if wifi drops, it'll automatically go for 3G, then I'll be charge for that!!! >< Can I sue him for lying to a costumer?

Joker Eh

Can anyone confirm what t4rdif is saying? iPhone Fan, is this true have you tried it?

Joker Eh

My battery life is crap, I charged the phone to full this morning through USB until 7:30 AM, and with some light surfing (jsut to check AppStore to see if there were any new apps) and one phone call, I am down to about 50%.

Now question, what would getting a new iPhone due, would I not expect the same? Any plus due to shortages for 16 GB, I could wait forever.

J450N

@Tim AucoinNo: sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately the electricity demands of a watch is several MAGNITUDES lower than for something like an iPhone.

A watch could run off a charged iPhone battery for decades. I think the natural power leakage of the Li-Po battery (1-3%/month) would be more than the drain the watch would cause.

sylvainp

The battery life is affected by signal strength where the phone is left most of the time.
The output power of the phone is adjusted proportionally to the signal strength it receives from the closest tower. At work I have very low 3g signals and the discharge is way faster than at home where I have the maximum signal.
My tytnII as a small aps showing the battery currant draw that show this clearly I hope to find a similar aps for my iphone 3g when I receive it.

Duc

Hi All,
That's almost exactly what I did after picking up my 8GB last Friday. I turned off all the options which IphoneFan described above and my Iphone lasted almost 2 days with a tiny bit of checking email and GPS until that 20% battery indicator shows up.
Overall, the battery is fair..I wouldn't say good. You'll have to carry a charger everywhere you go and that means a car charger as well.

Jeff

In response to Sebastian's post, i'm having the same issues with my new iphone. I'm having the exact same lag you've mentioned. I know some people will point out the obvious "it's got to buffer the photo's" type thing, but as Sebastian mentioned i'm having the same issues within my contact list which at the moment is only 10-15 as i haven't bothered properly entering them all yet. I have no images attached to these contacts either, just a simple name and phone number or in the worst case scenario 2 phone numbers and an email address! I don't get why this glorious piece of technology can't load a bloody contact when it's tapped. Hopefully this is an issue with the firmware as i've just spent the better part of an hour painstakingly installing an invisible shield and i'll flip out on Rogers/Apple if it's a manufacturing defect with only a few phones.

Rob

ps...i found my iTrip and car kit for my iPod dont work on my iPhone...are there iPhone iTrip (FM Transmitter/chargers) and car kits for the iPhone 3G yet? or will the iPhone 1st gen work on the 3G?

Rob

weird...I had mine in use on youtube and other random websites and stuff for a good 5 hours while my friends played with it the other nite. I also had used it all day at work as an iPod for about 6 hours that day...plus regular talk time and txting throughtout the day...when I left the party at 8am the next day I heard a weird noise from my pocket...it was my 20% battery life reminder noise.

imo...the battery life is pretty good. I expect to charge my phone once a day...and I will never use it more than that day...unless its a road trip or some other reason for extended downtime...but in that case I use my car kit or charge it from my laptop or wall socket.

Sebastian

It's funny you mention the slowdowns. Ive been having a few issues myself with some applications. I dont know if this is common, but the phone lags a little bit sometimes and some programs are not responsive, especially when I want to view photos it would not scroll down at first until a few seconds later, and if I want to choose a certain photo sometimes I have to press on it twice or three times. Same thing with my contacts, it will not respond to my initial touch but after a few seconds later, or Ill have to keep tapping to get a response. Is this a common problem? Do all iphones lag like this?, or should I just contact Rogers?

KNS

I've had similar battery woes - but it's been inconsistent. A couple of times I've had 3 hours usage, 6 hrs standby and the warning goes off. Couple of other times 6 hours usage, 14 standby, still around 20%. For me it appears to be largely driven by phone usage vs. anything else, but it's hard to tell after only a week. Turning off vs. sleeping overnight seems to have helped today and I haven't done a reset, but have read that this may help as well.
I really have to disagree about using "battery saving tips" -- this is a smart phone and is meant to be a communication device of the highest order. I took my Blackberry out behind the barn and shot it for the iPhone, so my expectations from Apple are at least as high as RIM, if not higher. Hope Apple is paying serious attention otherwise they can forget the mobile professional market (and I mean that broadly, as in corporate plus all the small, medium and home-based businesses out there). If they can't get that segment on board in a significant way, it's just a really cool, but very niche device -- a want vs. a need.
Enough of my rant - I feel better now!

Tina

i think that the only thing to increase battery life here that you mentioned that actually makes a difference is turning off 3G. on my first generation iPhone running 2.0 firmware, i've got the same battery life as before.

Tim Aucoin

Looking so forward to (what I read about about 3 months ago) when the release an iPhone (and iPod touch) that charges via (any) light source through the screen. I have a watch that does that and it works amazingly! This is one rumor I can believe :-D

Mike

The lack of battery life in 3G is quite epic I'm afraid. My first gen iphone was so much better. I hear you on turing off 3g services but why dont I just use my old phone then.....

OddyOh

Sounds like Rogers isn't much fun to deal with...glad I didn't reward them for their lunacy by getting an iPhone.

Gary

Mike: Most likely because 3G is absent on the first gen iPhone. 3G just sucks the life out of the iPhone 3G's battery...big time!

Mike Perry

My 1st generation iPhone running the 2.0 firmware seems to have the same battery life as before.

finally got the iphone

hahahah that extension cord.... i gotta admit the iphone's battery sucks alot but with 3G off, it saves alot!!!! O_O

ruffdeezy

LOL @ the extension cord.

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