i phone 4, just how bad is the battery life

lovelypink11

hi im just new to this please bear with me,

really thinking about buying an i phone 4, i heard the battery life isnt great, honestly how bad is it, like maybe only getting a day out of it?

thanks!!

dazftw

You'll get one day out of it easily. I usually just charge mine every night. I have it since august and not once has it died on me.

KERSPLAT!

Depends entirely on usage e.g apps, 3G, Internet, iPod etc

I use mine a good bit as in facebook, lookin at boards, playin a few games, text pretty much all day and it does me for about 20-25 hours, if I know I can't charge it I could stretch it to 30-35 easily

Dublinstiofán

Its 100 times better than the 3GS

Sad Professor

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

Its 100 times better than the 3GS

Slight exaggeration. It's about 30 percent better.

eeloe

It's not really that bad.

Your going to be using your iPhone MORE than your average phone due to the games/Internet in your pocket/apps/games/iPod.

So don't expect to get your normal 48 hours you might get from your nokia.

seamus

Because I'm a lazy sod I just leave bluetooth and wifi on all the time. I charge it every night and probably use it for about an hour a day between surfing and playing games and checking mails. When I go to bed the battery life is usually down to around 60%.

If you charge it every night, you'll have to be using it solidly all day to run out of power by the end of the day.

jack presley

How does constant charging, even when the battery isn't about to die affect the long term status of the battery?

EPM

I can barely manage a day. It's on 9 percent now (although I did leave home at 6am this morning). I'd use it for Internet a bit but not that much. Bought one of those Kensington power cases yesterday. Ugly and bulky but you can get caught out so easily that it's worth it.

ironclaw

jack presley wrote: »

How does constant charging, even when the battery isn't about to die affect the long term status of the battery?

Seeing as they are fairly high spec lithium battery's, they don't have too bad a memory effect. However I suggest deep cycling (e.g. Total drain, total charge) every week or so.

seamus

jack presley wrote: »

How does constant charging, even when the battery isn't about to die affect the long term status of the battery?

Lithium ion batteries don't suffer from the memory effect that older rechargeable batteries used to.

Around ten years ago, anything using a rechargeable battery advised you to fully charge the battery and then every so often fully discharge it to maximise life.

All modern electronics use Li-Ion rechargeable batteries which don't have this issue. You don't need to charge it for 50 hours when you first recieve it and you don't technically need to fully discharge it every often. In fact, fully discharging a Li-Ion battery will kill it, but all electronics cut off the device when the power in the battery goes below a certain threshold.

The problem is that because the battery charging and discharging is software-controlled, sometimes the software loses track of where it is or otherwise doesn't manage the battery as it should. This is why every so often people recommend discharging a Li-Ion battery and recharging it. This resets the statistics on the device and ensures that you're getting the maximum power out of the battery.

It's known as "calibrating" the battery and in reality only needs to be done once every few months.

The main drawback from Li-Ion batteries is that they have a fairly limited lifespan, no matter how well you look after them. 4 - 7 years would be a fairly typical time for a battery to become completely unable to hold a charge. This makes it suitable for consumer electronics like phones and laptops, but is a major headache if you want to keep using the device after 3 years or so because the battery life becomes so crap.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

I tend to get 2 days out of it beforeit gives me the 10% or 20% remaining. Use it a fair bit for ipod, net and text. Not so much for phone calls or apps.

FakePlasticMan

As a newbie to Smartphones and iPhone 4 in particular I was pretty shocked at how quickly the battery drained at first. But I was used to my iPod Touch which would last for days on end.

Now after a couple of months of use I've gotten used to it, and like the others say, you will get about a full day out of it if you are not to heavy a user. I typically have to charge mine again in the late evening..but I would use it a lot for Twitter/Facebook and even the odd game during the day.

As far as I know it's no different from most other smart phones.

kin9pin

I would suggest doing what I did:

1. Buy an Android phone
2. Lock yourself in a dark room while you try to work out just how the battery died so quickly
3. Spend the next 3 weeks installing custom roms and power saving widgets so the phone would last a day
4. Come to the conclusion that life just isn't worth the hassle of constantly killing tasks, turning wifi off/on, data off/on, monitoring juicedefender
5. Sell the Android at a slight loss
6. Buy an iPhone 4, it just works

Seriously, the Iphone 4 gives me up to two days on a charge with pretty much constant usage......music, facebook, internet, emails, iBooks and phone calls. The only thing that drains it pretty quick is FaceTime, but that's to be expected.

floggg

kin9pin wrote: »

I would suggest doing what I did:

1. Buy an Android phone
2. Lock yourself in a dark room while you try to work out just how the battery died so quickly
3. Spend the next 3 weeks installing custom roms and power saving widgets so the phone would last a day
4. Come to the conclusion that life just isn't worth the hassle of constantly killing tasks, turning wifi off/on, data off/on, monitoring juicedefender
5. Sell the Android at a slight loss
6. Buy an iPhone 4, it just works

Seriously, the Iphone 4 gives me up to two days on a charge with pretty much constant usage......music, facebook, internet, emails, iBooks and phone calls. The only thing that drains it pretty quick is FaceTime, but that's to be expected.

Poppycock.

Yes, the iPhone does have a better battery life than Android, but not significantly. I has an android for the last year and gut through the day no problems on a battery most days. I'd I hit it particularly hard on games etc, might need a top up.

iPhone 4 is better, but still not good enough to get me a second day. Still occasionally need to juice it during the day to get me through if I'm playing games a lot, though less often then android.

Despite the better battery on iPhone I still prefer androids power management options. The ability to automate wifi, Bluetooth, gps on/off was great, as well as other customisations (which didn't require rooting, though there was even better options if you did). The iPhone gives you nothing in that department.

Bow if I could combine iPhone battery life and android power management I'd have a winner.

OP whatever smartphone you get your probably only going to get the day out of it. If a longer battery is a must have for you I'd recommend a feature phone or maybe a nokia which I hear have good battery life.

Otherwise I'd recommend iPhone or high end android and just charge nightly.

JustAddWater

kin9pin wrote: »

Seriously, the Iphone 4 gives me up to two days on a charge with pretty much constant usage......music, facebook, internet, emails, iBooks and phone calls. The only thing that drains it pretty quick is FaceTime, but that's to be expected.

you obviously don't play angry birds...

kin9pin

floggg wrote: »

Poppycock.

Well, obviously not poppycock as you so eloquently put it.

You miss my point, the point that, in MY experience, the Iphone 4 has much better battery life out of the box and that, in MY experience, I usually charge it every 2 days. Androids have better power saving options than IPhone because they need them.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the phone was great, but I just found that I was constantly looking for another app/widget/ROM that could just squeeze another few hours of life out of the battery. Believe me I tried pretty much everything I could find....I think I read just about every thread on XDA.

kin9pin

JustAddWater wrote: »

you obviously don't play angry birds...

You're right, I don't.

Originally Posted by kin9pin
"music, facebook, internet, emails, iBooks and phone calls. The only thing that drains it pretty quick is FaceTime, but that's to be expected. "

jarvis

Those euro2 shops sell retractable chargers for your car for €2. Have that and a charger in the office and forget about battery performance.

dee o gee

You get used to it really, I was used to charging every 3-4 days with my old phone so was a bit of a shock to the system when I first got the iphone and the battery only lasted less than 24 hours.

It depends on what your doing on it, playing games, ipod on and using the 3G runs the battery out very fast. I could probably squeeze 2 days out of mine of normal usage (text quite a lot, the odd short phonecall, playing games once or twice a day, constantly checking email and using apps). Put me on a bus however where Il be listening to music, playing games, surfing the net on 3G etc. and I use up battery very fast.
At the moment I charged it 23 hours ago, have actually used it for 2 hours and 58 minutes since then and I have 55% battery left. I charge it every night however just in case it does die on me.

It is very quick to charge and you get into a habit of just sticking it in to charge every day/night so I wouldn't let it put you off buying one. Iv had mine since Feb and it hasn't died on me yet.

jarvis

^^^what he said^^^

Also, get a docking station and just stand it on it when you're not using it, although, I'm using mine 24/7.... I'm on the loo now, you'll be glad to know. Or maybe you won't be that glad.

Wolflikeme

floggg wrote: »

Poppycock.

Yes, the iPhone does have a better battery life than Android, but not significantly.

I hear people go on all the time about how their Android phone battery isn't significantly bad. You're in denial. Simple as.

I've had 3 Android phones at various stages and the battery would never last a day (not using too much either). Not nearly.

Have an iPhone 4. Use it quite a bit and can easily get two days out of it. Easily.

alexlyons

Wifi, 3G, Bluetooth, location services are all on permanently. bluetooth connected 30 minutes a day music playing for that time. wifi connected 80% of the time
brightness on auto at just over half
heavy texter and talker as well as heavy internet and app user. no games really, maybe once a week at most. ipod used 2 hours a day.

would rarely see it go below 50%, charge it every night.

whiterebel

Its simple really - you can make it as good or as bad as you like. Using location services, GPS, BT, WiFi etc you can drain it really quickly. Using none of the above you could see 2 full days. The idea of the docking station beside the bed it what I use, and it goes onto that every night.