3GS battery life

Breezer

I'm considering getting an iPhone 3GS once my current contract on a Nokia E51 expires. I've heard mixed reports about the battery life, and I was hoping some people who've had the device a while can help me out.

My typical daily use, based on what I currently do with my E51/5G iPod combo would be:

- 20-30 minutes on the train in the morning listening to music and browsing the internet

- During the day, checking a fact or two online, and typing up a few very short notes

- Sending and receiving maybe 10-20 texts

- Making one or two phone calls, usually less than 5 minutes long

- Checking my email maybe 5 times a day

- The big one I guess: Nimbuzz/Fring (one or the other) running all day over 3G, and getting a decent bit of use for IM. I'd want push notifications on for this I guess, since I just leave them on in the background on the Nokia

- Another 20-30 mins on the train listening to music and browsing the internet

With that usage pattern, I rarely have to recharge the E51 before I go to bed, unless I've gone a bit nuts with Nimbuzz and web browsing, in which case I'd get about 6 or 7 hours out of it altogether.

I can't really see myself playing games or watching movies during the day, and YouTube would only happen a little more often.

Would an iPhone 3GS's battery manage this?

strecker

I hated previous iPhones, but I'm quite fond of the 3gs - mainly for the great copy/paste implementation, the surprisingly good uber-simple cam, and, jailbreaked, the class TV-out for videopodcasts etc...

The big battery killer on the 3gs is data traffic! And for the serious stuff I still have my E71!
On 3g/wifi the 3GS's numeric battery indicator is like a countdown timer - you can watch it tick down real fast...

Having said that: w/what you describe you may just about make it through most of a day! Games and iPod use are actually not such drainers. But any data use, man... I use twitter quite a bit, and if you tweet and open links etc, after 2 hrs itS good bye!
I did a side by side comp betw e71 and 3GS - doing exactly the same stuff online: when the E71 had used 1.5mb data and appr 25%battery, the 3gs had used almost 10 mb(F*ck Safari) and was on low battery alert! Consider that the e71's browser supports full flash!!!

But again, imho you shouls be ok. Worth remembering though, that the iphong's batt isn't user-replaceable. More charge cycles=shorter relative life!

strecker

PS: put it this way: just took 3G S off charger - 100% - visited www.forums.ixplora.com , clicked 'todays' new posts, clicked chat threat, made one short post. Closed browser. Battery now: 85% (wifi/bt/3g/location OFF! Screen brightness appr 25%...)

spoongibbon

Strecker, there is something wrong with your battery if that's the case, and you should get it replaced. OP, you shouldn't have any problems lasting a day with your usage, listening to music doesn't hit the battery hard, but browsing the internet does. And playing games (particularly processor intensive 3d games) will also do the job nicely. I think the general rule of thumb is whatever involves having your screen on for extended periods of time is going to hit your battery. If you're using IM a lot, turn your brightness down and switch to the edge network, and you should be ok.

cojomo2

strecker wrote: »

PS: put it this way: just took 3G S off charger - 100% - visited www.forums.ixplora.com , clicked 'todays' new posts, clicked chat threat, made one short post. Closed browser. Battery now: 85% (wifi/bt/3g/location OFF! Screen brightness appr 25%...)

As another poster pointed out, this is not normal. I have a 3gs and if i was to do what you mention above, my battery would only go down to about 97-99%

dmcg90

Happens me after a bit of usage, although the battery % does go up after

cojomo2

I took my 3gs off charge at 8am this morning. I used it to check the Dart times on the way to work , and made a call for about 3 mins..I turn 3g off while in work as there is little to no 3g signal here. My battery is currently at 99%:D

vinnycoyne

I blogged on the 3GS battery life shortly after I got it:

"I recently had to travel to the USA for work-related purposes and figured it'd be a good time to put my shiny new iPhone 3GS to the test.

I loaded up some of my 32GB with a good selection of music, a couple of movies, and the entire first season of The Wire.

We were flying out of Dublin Airport, so we had about 2.5 hours of a drive before the flight. I switched off 3G, WiFi and location services. It was pretty early in the morning, so I didn't have any calls, but did send a few messages (via EirText) and compulsively checked Twitter using Birdfeed ever few minutes. Don't worry, I wasn't driving.

The iPhone remained in that state for approximately another two hours, during which time I checked & sent email, EirText'd and Tweeted. I switched it to Airplane Mode before boarding.

After watching a couple of in-flight movies (not on the iPhone), I popped into the iPod app and listened to an hour or so of music. After that I got stuck into the first three episodes of The Wire (each episode is just under an hour long). The flight was about ten hours long.

After landing in SFO, we had a 30 minute drive on our hands. I'd previously purchased data roaming with O2, so I switched to T-Mobile (EDGE only, AT&T was suprisingly scarce), and mapped our drive in the Maps app (with GPS/Location Service enabled), using Maps, GPS and compass to track our route.

Upon arriving at our hotel, I made sure to take note of the battery life. The phone was still alive, with 10% battery remaining. Not bad!"

elvis jones

lackofcolour wrote: »

I blogged on the 3GS battery life shortly after I got it:

"I recently had to travel to the USA for work-related purposes and figured it'd be a good time to put my shiny new iPhone 3GS to the test.

I loaded up some of my 32GB with a good selection of music, a couple of movies, and the entire first season of The Wire.

We were flying out of Dublin Airport, so we had about 2.5 hours of a drive before the flight. I switched off 3G, WiFi and location services. It was pretty early in the morning, so I didn't have any calls, but did send a few messages (via EirText) and compulsively checked Twitter using Birdfeed ever few minutes. Don't worry, I wasn't driving.

The iPhone remained in that state for approximately another two hours, during which time I checked & sent email, EirText'd and Tweeted. I switched it to Airplane Mode before boarding.

After watching a couple of in-flight movies (not on the iPhone), I popped into the iPod app and listened to an hour or so of music. After that I got stuck into the first three episodes of The Wire (each episode is just under an hour long). The flight was about ten hours long.

After landing in SFO, we had a 30 minute drive on our hands. I'd previously purchased data roaming with O2, so I switched to T-Mobile (EDGE only, AT&T was suprisingly scarce), and mapped our drive in the Maps app (with GPS/Location Service enabled), using Maps, GPS and compass to track our route.

Upon arriving at our hotel, I made sure to take note of the battery life. The phone was still alive, with 10% battery remaining. Not bad!"

Thats not bad at all. I'd be very happy with that.

Breezer

Thanks for the replies guys. It's sounding OK, not much better or worse than my E51 really, and I've managed for over a year without that ever driving me mad.

One thing I need to ask, though:

cojomo2 wrote:

I turn 3g off while in work as there is little to no 3g signal here.

Does the iPhone not have a dual 3G/EDGE mode, where it'll switch to EDGE if 3G signal isn't available? Do you have to do this manually? Now that would drive me mad, dropping signal all the time.

JoeA3

Breezer wrote: »

One thing I need to ask, though: Does the iPhone not have a dual 3G/EDGE mode, where it'll switch to EDGE if 3G signal isn't available? Do you have to do this manually? Now that would drive me mad, dropping signal all the time.

Yeah, mine is always switching from 3G to E (Edge) and sometimes to "o" (GPRS?)

Breezer

JoeA3 wrote: »

Yeah, mine is always switching from 3G to E (Edge) and sometimes to "o" (GPRS?)

Phew!

keith_d99

Just turn 3G off until you go browsing on the move
Also turn off location services until you need GPS

Crackity Jones

keith_d99 wrote: »

Just turn 3G off until you go browsing on the move
Also turn off location services until you need GPS

best thing I ever did was turn off location services. battery life much much better since.

Breezer

keith_d99 wrote: »

Just turn 3G off until you go browsing on the move
Also turn off location services until you need GPS

I don't care about location services (not currently anyway), but I wouldn't be happy about having to constantly toggle between 3G and EDGE to save battery. I've seen this sort of thing suggested in a fair few places, turn off this and turn off that, and I'm left wondering what the point is in buying an iPhone if I turn off everything that makes it an iPhone. I'd be better off sticking with my Nokia and saving myself money and hassle if that were the case.

Do most of you find yourselves constantly turning things on and off just to keep the phone alive then?

cojomo2

Breezer wrote: »

I don't care about location services (not currently anyway), but I wouldn't be happy about having to constantly toggle between 3G and EDGE to save battery. I've seen this sort of thing suggested in a fair few places, turn off this and turn off that, and I'm left wondering what the point is in buying an iPhone if I turn off everything that makes it an iPhone. I'd be better off sticking with my Nokia and saving myself money and hassle if that were the case.

Do most of you find yourselves constantly turning things on and off just to keep the phone alive then?

You dont have to but it makes a huge difference to battery life. If i need to use google maps, i simple turn on lacation services, when im finished, i turn it off. I dont need 3g or wifi on to make calls, so i only have one of them on when i need to surf the net. It was a pain turning them on /off, but I downloaded an app from cydia called SBSettings, it a quick toggle screen that drops down when u swipe your finger over the top of the iphone screen, you can turn these setting on and off without having to go through the menu..takes a secon..no problem.


My battery has come on leaps and bounds since doing this. Currently, i have 73% battery remaining, and its been 26 hours since my last recharge...ive made about 30 mins phone calls, sent about 10 texts, used the internet over wifi for about 40 mins...so its worth it..

Biro

Breezer wrote: »

I'm considering getting an iPhone 3GS once my current contract on a Nokia E51 expires. I've heard mixed reports about the battery life, and I was hoping some people who've had the device a while can help me out.

My typical daily use, based on what I currently do with my E51/5G iPod combo would be:

- 20-30 minutes on the train in the morning listening to music and browsing the internet

- During the day, checking a fact or two online, and typing up a few very short notes

- Sending and receiving maybe 10-20 texts

- Making one or two phone calls, usually less than 5 minutes long

- Checking my email maybe 5 times a day

- The big one I guess: Nimbuzz/Fring (one or the other) running all day over 3G, and getting a decent bit of use for IM. I'd want push notifications on for this I guess, since I just leave them on in the background on the Nokia

- Another 20-30 mins on the train listening to music and browsing the internet

With that usage pattern, I rarely have to recharge the E51 before I go to bed, unless I've gone a bit nuts with Nimbuzz and web browsing, in which case I'd get about 6 or 7 hours out of it altogether.

I can't really see myself playing games or watching movies during the day, and YouTube would only happen a little more often.

Would an iPhone 3GS's battery manage this?

I have both an E51 and 3GS. The E51 battery is crap, the 3GS battery is definitely a good bit better.

Edit : I should qualify this by saying that the E51 is set up for push mail from my work account from 8am to 6pm, so constantly making connections for e-mail. It gets very little useage apart from that, my work phone, never call or text from it really, and rarely connect via wifi. The iPhone gets far more useage and connected to wifi 24 hours a day. I've turned nothing off on it, and it still lasts almost as long as the E51 with constant useage.

strecker

Biro wrote: »

I have both an E51 and 3GS. The E51 battery is crap, the 3GS battery is definitely a good bit better.

Edit : I should qualify this by saying that the E51 is set up for push mail from my work account from 8am to 6pm, so constantly making connections for e-mail. It gets very little useage apart from that, my work phone, never call or text from it really, and rarely connect via wifi. The iPhone gets far more useage and connected to wifi 24 hours a day. I've turned nothing off on it, and it still lasts almost as long as the E51 with constant useage.

A previous poster may have been right about my iPhone's poor battery performance being 'not normal, and that I should have it changed', HOWEVER: this is way funnier!!!

There is no way that a 'normal' e51 has a worse battery than any iphone! There is sth very, very wrong with your e51 LOL

Biro

strecker wrote: »

A previous poster may have been right about my iPhone's poor battery performance being 'not normal, and that I should have it changed', HOWEVER: this is way funnier!!!

There is no way that a 'normal' e51 has a worse battery than any iphone! There is sth very, very wrong with your e51 LOL

Nothing wrong with my E51! Another two people have them and same thing. They have a very poor battery life. Nokia as much as admitted the same by the statement boasting about much improved battery life on the upcoming E52.
Compared to my last phone, a K800i which lasted a week easily on a charge, the E51 is very poor.

Eire Go Brach

@Biro I have the e51 and found it to be great with battery life. But I did not use it like you did in terms of push. Its one of the best battery's of the Nokia smartphones.

I used it as a phone very rarely surfed on it, when i got my itouch. But i did turn on my windows life app as soon as i got home on wifi. It would have been on all evening. (In fact its so handy i still use it for that)

I was on Meteor, 3g symbol was always up i would get 2.5 to 3 days out of it and never had a problem with reception/call quality.

But hey with iPhone 3gs on = crap reception/call quality and crap battery maybe 24 +-2 hours.