I’m getting more and more miffed with my iPhone 4 battery performance, to the point where I think I am going to take it back to Apple to get a replacement.
This morning I woke up with 45% battery remaining on my iPhone 4 after charging it with the Apple supplied charger overnight the previous day. Within 75 mins I was down to 40% after looking at Twitter / ReederApp for 10 mins, no more. At around 08:15am I started listening to music, iPhone 4 screen off, and by 09:00am when I arrived at work I was down to 36%.
Additionally, previous to starting to listen to music on the iPhone 4, I turned off cellular data – which meant the phone could not check email or do any other network data activity via 3G or anything. I could still in theory connect to WIFI, but assume I didn’t as I was mostly on a train.
Now, let’s do the math on that. First off, Apple quote on their iPhone 4 specs page that music playback time is “upto 40 hours”. So how does my little 45 mins of music playback stack up?
(45 mins / 4% = 11.25) * 100 = 1125 minutes (18.75 hours total playback)
So, 40 hours quoted by Apple, Vs an average 19 hours in the real world. That is not good. But is my test valid?
If you take a look at how Apple conduct their battery tests here, they state that there is a WIFI connection, and a few other minor configuration items. My playlist had less tracks, although all are 256kbps AAC encoding – maybe that’s more of a strain? As I said earlier, I had turned off cellular data, there was no WIFI connection, and the screen was off.
I remain unconvinced, either I have a bad iPhone 4 battery, or iOS 4 is not a good battery citizen.
Update
Since writing this article 90 mins ago I’ve lost 3% battery: Sitting in standby, WIFI and cellular data off.
Update 2
I decided to run a test overnight to test my standby time. I fully charged the iPhone 4 with the supplied power adapter for 4 hours, then unplugged. In addition to this, I disabled my 1 mail account (in this case, push GMail), notifications were turned off for all apps. In 8 hours I only used 4% of battery. Previous tests where I did this (but not disabled Mail) I lost around 15% overnight in standby.
4% is still not great though:
(8 hrs / 4% = 2) * 100 = 200 hours standby time
Jury is still out as Apple say 300 hours standby is achievable… I retested my music playback again and got the same result as the above: 4% loss in 45 mins.
Update 3 – iPhone 4 Replacement
So I returned to the Apple Store Regent Street (where I purchased the iPhone two weeks ago). Took it to the Genius Bar who ran a test on it to see how well it was performing between charges. The Genius decided it wasn’t performing as well as it could (as well as anecdotal evidence above), so replaced it free of charge.
After charging fully for 6-7 hours, I did another audio playback test, the results were better:
(45 mins / 3% = 15) * 100 = 1500 minutes (25 hours total playback)
Note, I’ve put 3%, but the iPhone stuck on that % for quite a while as I used apps, 3G and continued listening to audio, so I think I actually could achieve around 28-30 hours.
So, all in all I’ve managed to go from 18-19 hours playback, to around 28 hours. That’s pretty good, and proves that my previous iPhone 4 had a dud battery. I still couldn’t achieve the lofty 40 hours quoted by Apple, but it was better… I’d encourage anyone that thinks they aren’t getting good battery performance to take it back to Apple… it can’t get any worse!
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I’ve had an iPhone since the 3G came out and apart from when I’m away from home I’ve literally stopped thinking about the battery. I drop it in a bedside dock while I’m sleeping, then I listen to music/podcasts and browse the web/twitter on my 45 minute commute (and I’m using a bluetooth headset so it’ll be drawing more power).
Then I get to work and drop the phone in a dock on my desk, hook up some wired headphones and listen to music all day, then I get on a train to go home doing the same bluetooth audio + internet stuff I did on the way to work, leave the phone next to me on the sofa all evening until it’s time to drop it in the bedside dock and snooze.
The only time I ever notice the battery is when I’m away from this routine and I have to explicitly find a wall socket for my spare charger.
I realise this doesn’t have any bearing on whether or not Apple’s quoted times are correct or not, but it’s interesting how my behaviour has changed to get rid of the issue of battery technology sucking. I have noticed that I can hit the iPhone4 battery pretty hard when I’m really using it, which I suspect is because I’m doing so much more at once thanks to the new multitasking. I’m quite often sitting on the sofa running iSSH in the background, streaming music in the background and flicking through the web. That’s way more concurrent work than my 3GS ever did.
There is no problem with the battery. It’s only that the battery bar display is misleading. A fix for that is in the queue
Haha – I’m laughing because I wish it was true…
i feel really lucky – with all of the screen discolorations, antenna issues, and now this battery talk, i can honestly say that i’ve had NO issues whatsoever with my i4. i was actually bragging on my battery life yesterday. completely charged sunday evening, drove about 4 hours away for a concert, used video and various social media apps in the club (heavy use for me), and still had more than half my battery life monday morning without a charge (all 3G service sunday, wi-fi service at my buddy’s place).
granted, all of this is after best buy tried to jerk me out of my reserved phone on launch day, had me standing in line at 3:30 am to actually get what i reserved, AND to only give me a 16gig because they had only one 32gig come in…
maybe the fates are being kind to me after all that bs…?
I’ve been on the iPhone 4 since last Thursday. I can believe the great battery life. I use to have to charge the 3gs several times a day. Not with this one. Perhaps u do have a lemon. Get it swapped out.
So let me get this straight… you charged your phone overnight and it was at 45% the next morning? I’d say you have a problem with your battery. Get it replaced.
No, if you re-read what I said I charged it the day before, so we’re talking 24 hours later at 45%.
Faulty batteries happen all the time, I would give it another shot before jumping to any conclusions.
I’ve just had my iPhone 4 replaced, as I was also experiencing 4-5% battery loss every 45 minutes or so. It cost me £30 to get a replacement though because I got my phone through a carrier and not Apple directly – they’ve also put a £450 hold on my credit card as well until they’ve received my old phone (which is understandable though a little scary…)
WOW that is awful… I’m surprised that they made you pay the £30. I’m on the priority list with Apple to get a replacement retail swap.
I am having very similar problems. I charged my phone overnight and the battery was not fully charged in the morning. I just checked… its been 4 hours and I have 30% battery left and I have made one 2 minute phone call, played Scrabble a couple times and started reading an iBook I had already downloaded (read about 5 pages). I’ll take to Apple this afternoon and see what they say.
Mine sometimes charges to 100 but a few times it seems that after a full charge the charger goes off?? Is this possible
I have the same problem. After checking facebook a few times and playing a game or 2 my fully charged iPhone 4 is at 20% after about 4 hours and ready to go on charger. I preordered from Best Buy, do you think Apple will replace free?
My Iphone 4 has lost 10% in 6 hours. a couple of calls and email checking.!!! not sure if that is good or not.
Plus why do you need to turn everything off. !! thats the point if the phone having email, wifi, 3g and other bits running.
if i wanted to turn the bits off I would of got a different phone. its a pain but still better than my two year old 3G
My wifes new iphone 4 was having a battery issue as well. She started her day at 6:30 a.m. and by 3 p.m. it was down to 20%. I call att (no help) transferred to apple (no help) i was asking if there was a configuration that might be draining. They sent me to a local apple store with an appt. i arrived hour early told the check in guy about my issue. he said it sounded like a real problem. they could not see me earlier and asked me to return in and hour. i did. A different check in guy asked the issue and he immediately said. “HAVE YOU DOUBLE CLICKED ON THE MENU BUTTON TO SEE HOW MANY APPS ARE RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND? NO I DID NOT KNOW THIS. HE DID CLICK AND FOUND 40 APPS OPEN AND SAID THIS WOULD DRAIN THE BATTERY ALOT. I’m a new iphone user and did not know about this issue, neither did 4 other tech people 1st contacted. The way to close the apps is as follows. “DOUBLE CLICK MENU. HOLD FINGER ON ONE OF THE OPEN APPS UNTIL IT WIGGLES. THEN A MINUS RED CIRCLE WILL APPEAR ON THE TOP LEFT OF EACH APP ICON. PRESS THE MINUS SIGN AND CLOSE ALL APPS. Manage this through the day and the battery life should be better.
Is it crazy of me to think that this is still a design flaw if one has to “manage apps” all day to keep the battery functioning properly?
I had the same problem so I took my iphone 4 back.. Apple gave me a new one. Problem is my new phone does exactly the same thing. Everytime it goes to sleep it drains! Last night I charged it to 100% and 7 hours later it was at 42%. What is wrong with it?? All apps are closed. Bluetooth Off… Ahhh.
Yea i got a new phone too after 3 weeks usage.. It was pathetic with less than 4 hrs battery life with no calls, no bluetooth, no wi-fi and got it replaced. The new iphone 4 now on the contrary does the same recorded 5.15hrs battery life today with no wi-fi, no push mail and only 3g, location services on with few web surfing, mails, you tube videos and call for 20 mins. I am shattered with this performance. First time iphone using and cant believe it sucks so much. The % decrease every min makes me crazy. Its like 14 mins to get to 99% and then when u look back its 90% with 40 mins usage and decreases rapidly. How to get like 1 whole day with optimum usage. Any help from the pro’s. Or i am unlucky the second time as i tried everything but it still is shit.
Any help or suggestion??????????
Egad, that’s why I’m enjoying how Android works (controls the closing of apps behind the scenes). Biggest battery drainers will always be ANY program you have running that uses Wifi/3g to do things (pretty much just manually sync stuff). Turn off all of these and you SHOULD see good standby time. Goes for any phone.
@Barbara Saunders Is it crazy of me to think that this is still a design flaw if one has to “manage apps” all day to keep the battery functioning properly?
You aren’t crazy, android does this. It is silly.