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Get the most out of your iPhone battery
A number of complaints regarding the iPhone 3GS' battery have surfaced on Apple's discussion board since the handset's June 19 launch. Given Apple's promises of a faster and longer lasting iPhone, it's understandable that 3GS users, particularly those who have made the jump from the previous models, have higher expectations.
Preliminary battery testing on our iPhone 3GS review model showed positive results, but we won't know the whole story until CNET Labs finishes its tests. Until that time, I can offer tips on making your iPhone battery last. They can be used individually or in combination to best suit your own needs. Some of these ideas are even recommended by Apple and some of them we've mentioned on iPhone Atlas before.
Reset iPhone
In addition to resolving signal strength problems, resetting an iPhone can fix a faulty battery indicator and end applications that are improperly consuming the battery. Hold down the home and sleep buttons simultaneously until you see the white Apple logo indicating that your iPhone has restarted.
Restore with original settings
You can restore your iPhone by launching iTunes and selecting the Restore option on your iPhone's Summary page. This process will erase your iPhone's software and data, including all settings. You can restore them later via iTunes.
Drain the battery completely
Instead of charging it midway through a battery drain, add more juice only after the battery dies completely. A full drain may reset circuitry that prevents a full charge from occurring, despite indication of a full charge.
Force quit applications
If an application quits unexpectedly and you begin to notice poor battery life, relaunch the application, then force quit it by following the directions in this post. This can eliminate problematic or hung processes that might be draining the battery.
Lock your iPhone
Make sure that your iPhone goes to sleep automatically when not in use. You always can press the Sleep/Wake button, but even better is the Auto-Lock feature in the General section of the Settings menu.
Auto lock screen
(Credit: David Martin)
Applications
Apps that keep the display from dimming or shutting off and that prevent your iPhone from sleeping can reduce battery life. This is particularly true for apps that use location services and push notifications. You can turn off Location Services in Settings > General menu. You'll have to deactivate Push Notifications for each app individually, also in the Setting menu.
App Push Notification settings
(Credit: David Martin)
Location Services toggle
(Credit: David Martin)The iPhone 3G's Push functionality for Exchange and Mobile Me accounts also can destroy battery life. Turn this option off in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data before restarting your iPhone. Messages sent to your push e-mail accounts will now appear on your phone based on the global Fetch setting (every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly, or manually) rather than as they arrive. The manual Fetch setting will preserve the most battery life.
Push and Fetch
(Credit: David Martin)Deleting e-mail accounts or turning them off can preserve battery life as well. You can remove an e-mail account in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap to choose an e-mail account, and tap Delete Account. To turn an account off but leave it on the phone, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap to choose an e-mail account, and set Account to Off.
Toggle e-mail account on/off
(Credit: David Martin)
Delete e-mail account
(Credit: David Martin)
Airplane mode
Even it you're not flying, use the airplane mode while listening to music, watching a video, working in your favorite productivity app, or whenever you don't want to be disturbed. Also, since constantly seeking a cellular connection also drains the iPhone's battery, the airplane mode is useful if you're in an area with poor cellular coverage.
Airplane mode
(Credit: David Martin)
Reset network settings
Restarting your phone will delete any stored Wi-Fi passwords, DNS settings, and more. And in some cases it also can resolve signal strength issues. Find it in Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
Reset network settings
(Credit: David Martin)
Turn off Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth
Be sure to turn off these features when not in use. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.
Toggle Wi-Fi
(Credit: David Martin)
Toggle Bluetooth
(Credit: David Martin)Turn off 3G
The iPhone's 3G radio consumes a lot of juice so turning if off will save power. Go to Settings > General > Network and toggle Enable 3G to Off. You'll be able to make and receive calls and access some data while 3G is off, though your iPhone will run on the slower EDGE or GPRS 2G network.
Enable/Disable 3G
(Credit: David Martin)
Adjust brightness
Dimming the screen definitely can extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider left to lower brightness or right to increase brightness until you reach your desired settings. Turning off the Auto-Brightness settings also will help.
Brightness settings
(Credit: David Martin)
Turn off the equalizer
Just like on the
iPod, this feature can reduce battery life. Go to Settings > iPod > EQ and select Off. Yet, since EQ settings in iTunes migrate to the iPhone, you'll have to override those settings and set the iPhone to Flat. Go to Settings > iPod > EQ and select Flat.
iPod EQ settings (Credit: David Martin) |
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iPod EQ options (Credit: David Martin) |
More help
If you're worried about your iPhone 3GS being defective, according to HardMac there is Apple's Procedure for Users Experiencing Short Battery Life with the iPhone 3G S. Also, if you're still experiencing severe battery problems after trying some of these tips, it might be time to take a trip to your local Apple Genius Bar.
Personal experience
So far, my personal experience has been that my iPhone 3GS lasts a bit longer than the iPhone 3G, particularly after I tuned the iPhone 3GS' features to meet my personal needs. Yet, it still doesn't last more than a day with heavy use, unlike other smartphones.
One typically intense day started at 100 percent battery capacity at 5:00 a.m. The battery then dipped to 80 percent at 9:30 a.m., 64 percent at 12:30 p.m., 39 percent at 3:30 p.m., and 25 percent at 6:30 p.m before showing the 20 percent battery warning at 8:30 p.m. With my iPhone 3G, I used to get that warning prior to 6:30 p.m. And after tweaking my iPhone 3GS using the tips below, the battery showed 49 percent capacity after 15 hours of heavy use. That's not bad for smartphone battery performance.
Are you experiencing problems with your iPhone battery? Got some tips to share that might help conserve battery life? What kind of activities do you do on your iPhone that deplete the battery faster? Let us know in the comments.
However, if I get a 3Gs and have to end up turning location services off, or other cool new stuff, why did I get it in the first place? I'm just wondering if the new phone's features will survive a battery-minded fine-tuning...
If you dont mind it being a bit thicker there are bunch of juice pack cases for the iphone that only make the phone slightly thicker, protect it like a normal case would, and add a ton of additional battery life. Take a look, I dont like them because I prefer to not have my phone thicker but for people who cant charge their phone as often its a nice compromise.
Yeah - turn off cellular to stop "contantly seeking cellular connection". A cheap (or free phone) does that for a week without the need to recharge.
Brand loyalty goes really far, I guess.
On the other hand, though, 90% of what I use a computer for is right there in the palm of my hand everywhere I go. (good or bad)
So, what I have left is technology similar to the Motorola V551 I had years ago. And I paid $299 for it. And I'm paying unlimited data.
The *reason* I got the Apple was because there was much discussion of much improved battery, the ability to have push email, to have 3G, to have wifi, and to have Bluetooth. So, having turned off all the reasons why I got the phone to begin with, what I have is a gorgeous paper weight that I can occasionally use to make calls.
*Very* disappointed. I will be making a trip back to Apple on Friday. This was a mistake and I fully regret the purchase. I will return to my Bold and wait for a Blackberry with full HTML that I don't have to charge at the end of every single day and one that I can't even carry a spare battery in case of emergency.
However things have not gone worse since then. I had 2 email accounts one fetch, one push. Today I configured the third (fetch).
I use the wordpress blog app to write my blog while travelling on VTA light rail about 30-45 minutes.
I get about 20-30 mails on the push account on an average.
I play a few games occasionally and I listen to music about 2-3 hours a day.
Average phone usage is about 45 minutes daily.
Occasionally I use the maps and geo-positioning functionality. (But the location service is not turned off).
With all the above it goes down to the 20% mark about dinner time. I usually put it on charge and let it go up to 100% before unplugging it and going to bed (I don't leave it plugged to the charger indefinitely).
The phone tempts you to use it as a computer and honestly if you do so it will drain out pretty fast. As I mentioned in my blog (www.sumitmaitra.com), Apple should probably consider a bigger battery (and slightly bulkier, power user?) version of it sometime in the future (since they have given up on the idea of 'user replaceable' batteries even in their laptops).
All said and done, it's a very nice device and being my first smartphone I am happy with it.
Wireless and Mobile News</a> reports that some iPhone 3GS smartphones are getting too hot to handle. There have been scorch marks showing up on white iPhone 3GS and possible battery over-heating problems.
Another great tip in the article is "Don't leave your iPhone 3GS in a hot car during the summer." Extreme temperatures can degrade battery life.
There is also no way of turning off the new iPhone without touching it which could be hard to do when the iPhone is so hot.
That way, you can actually go the whole day and never even UNPLUG your phone, let alone complaining about the phone's battery. Think of it as your laptop. Are you ever really using it without it plugged in? How often do you do that, really? The only time any of this should be an issue is when you're watching video on a long flight, BUT EVEN THOSE HAVE USB PORTS BETWEEN THE SEATS, IF YOU'D LOOK!
I never get why this is an issue.
really, there are instances in this world when you do not have access to an electric outlet, unimaginagle as that may seem....
and no, I don't ascribe to the idea that in order to have a battery that lasts I must carry a brick around my neck...my previous smartphone lasted *days* with the heavy use I now dare to expect from my 32G iPhone 3G S.
and yes, I do use my laptop without plugging it in..*A LOT*...it's a laptop, it's supposed to be mobile. That's why God created routers, so I could move around with the thing and use it anywhere I wanted to in my house. Or use it on the train. Or at the dining table in a hotel before going on a briefing. But for that I have a battery that I can replace myself...silly me....
I now have all the stuff on you say to have off and use the phone to game and surf more and it lasts the whole day. I am happy with the improvement. Now as far as talk time... I do about 45 to 300 min per day with an average being 160 --- according to ATT bill.
Plus as far as charging in that airport. Ever see the guy with his laptop plugged in hogging the outlet. I carry a small adapter that lets me ask him to share it..... cost about eight dollars at Home Depot. I have even just asked ... to borrow the outlet for 10 mins.
I personally would not want a bigger phone for more batter at this point it works fine for most of us and those of you that live on your phone talking away 24/7 and keep complaining ... get a solution or another phone. Why should most of us have bigger phones so the 10% of you who need the bigger battery be happy? I think the size is perfect as it currently is available. What is funny is talk of the phone going smaller to a nano form factor. I am not sure i could use something that small... plus what would the batter life be like... LOL.
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by katand1111
September 12, 2009 8:04 PM PDT
- Thank you for this article. I still have some confusion:
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(24 Comments)Does it decrease battery life to keep my Iphone 3GS plugged into my computer via the USB port even after the battery is fully charged? Or, does it extend the battery life to take the phone off of charging once the battery is fully charged and then let the battery run all the way down before I charge it again? And, in the latter instance do I have to let the battery run all the way out out or can I just let it go to the lower than 20% mark?