The iPhone 3G battery is shit

Published by Ewan on Wednesday 13th August 2008, 23:26 | Related | Filed Under

My iPhone 3G is behaving like a total dog when it comes to battery power.

I got on the train at 10:11am with full battery, right?

I switched on the mp3 player, I checked some email, I arsed about on Facebook, I located myself a few times, blah de blah. I generally ‘used’ the device for the duration of the 35 minute train ride.

I was down about 10% of the battery power by the end of the journey.

By midday with on-and-off usage, checking email regularly and whatnot, I had just 20% left.

Useless, absolutely USELESS.

You don’t get that with an N95 8GB.

Still, the iPhone 3G is a beautiful device and I do like the applications.

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Krystal 3 months ago 1 point
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And that makes me want to get one? ;)

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trsills 3 months ago 1 point
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So interestingly, I've been jonesing for a 3g but still can't quite get off the fence because of the extra data costs and the nagging concern about the battery life. I'm suffering as it is with the 2g's battery life, so I'd imagine hitting the breaking point with the 3g. Yet, I found myself near an Apple store this evening and felt compelled to drop in...but given an hour wait (a dozen people waiting outside to purchase and activate) and thoughts of your post...I went home instead =D

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tim 3 months ago 1 point
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I would hope that Apple, or someone, would produce an extended battery with a new rear cover to contain the bulk. This has been done many times before. The Motorola MPX was just as bad as the iPhone 3G lasting barely a day, yet Motorola's extended battery would ensure 5 days use. Big battery though.

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Mac Morrison aka mostlythis 3 months ago 1 point
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the cover isn't removable. so thats impossible.
they should of built a battery that slid off like the macbook ones. with the same finish so its a battery and cover. then they could of sold people lots of spare batterys too. about 5 per user ;)

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tim 3 months ago 1 point
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That's not quite true. The iPhone 3G rear cover is removable (not the original iPhone). A rep from O2 suggested that there are plans for an extended battery but that owners would have to get the battery changed over by an Apple Guru.
A higher capacity battery has a significant effect on usability and would not require a pocket full of batteries. I had that experience with Motorola's A925 and would always be charging them up.

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Mac Morrison aka mostlythis 3 months ago 1 point
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looks pretty full of hardware to me:
http://gizmodo.com/5023769/the-iphone-3g-gets-d...
just like the original

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tim 3 months ago 1 point
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I quite agree. So if there is a new battery in the pipeline it will be costly because of the time to replace it, but at least it is feasible and could, in theory, be carried out in store.
It's pointless waiting though, especially as there's the Mophie Juice Pack on the horizon which will solve the battery problem at the cost of size and weight.

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Mac Morrison aka mostlythis 3 months ago 1 point
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well you cant say we didn't warn you
iPhone 3G is a dog, battery and reception suck on it.

it needs a hardware as well as software revision. I'm sure iPhone v3 will be super duper
but this time round AVOID, all those 1st gen users that couldn't upgrade be thankful.

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jonmul 3 months ago 1 point
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Yeah it is pretty bad - it's very similar to the first generation Nokia N95. Starting to wonder if Apple rushed the hardware to market, same as Nokia did last year.

A few things I've found help a bit:

1) If your not using push services (MobileMe etc) make sure the push setting is turned off.
2) If your using Fetch (for Gmail or similar) try setting it to pull mail down every hour instead of every 15mins
3) Turn off the auto brightness setting and set the screen brightness to 50%

I'm also considering buying one of these - http://shop.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_... shouldn't need to really, but it does look a cool way to charge my iPhone on the go.

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AJ 3 months ago 1 point
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I suppose it depends on your expectations - someone commented that it barely lasts a day but how long do you really need a battery to last. Dont you have electricity where you live?

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Richard 3 months ago 1 point
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I had a very similar experience, and found that lettting the battery run to nothing and then fully charging overnight got back to a reasonable battery life.

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Hands0n 3 months ago 1 point
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Try turning off the 3G until Apple work out and fix whatever it is that causes its lousy 3G performance. Everyone knows that a phone, any phone, hunting betwixt 2G and 3G will kill its battery within mere hours. That is what is going on with the iPhone. My iPhone 3G (with 3G disabled) will happily last an entire day being used for Phone, SMS, Google Maps, Browsing, Facebook and Twitter and arrive home with still more than half a charge left. It takes a fair bit to hit the battery hard with the 3G off.

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http://www.talk3G.co.uk

Ewan @ MIR 3 months ago 1 point
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I'll need to try it with the 3G off...

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peter 2 months ago 1 point
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if its new, it just needs several duty cycles, use it til it completely dies out, then fully charge it, make sure u get one good cycle per month...mine was crap at first to, now it easily lasts for 2 days.. google some tips for battery savings

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