iPhone 0s 3.0 battery issue / testing July 18, 2009

Last Updated: 6.12pm

Well, I got the  3GS and well.. i’m a victim of the speculated low battery life with OS 3.0

It just does NOT last!

anyway, from playing around with it a bit i’ve noticed the battery meter fluctuates between 98% and 100% while charging.
The only thing I can conclude from this is that the battery is not draining as fast but Apple have mucked around with the battery meter and it’s giving a false indication of the true battery remaining.

i.e. the battery meter will show you have 5% remaining, and hence shut down the phone when you might have really 50% or more battery remaining.

Click “more” for a full report + my own testing

Turning off basic features such as 3G, location to save battery is not what the phone is all about. with 3G enabled we should be getting exactly the same time, only a decrease in time when we do use 3G services.

Regardless, 3.1 is in the making so hopefully Apple address this Issue as it is VERY annoying.

If you are victim of this, people have suggested re-installing OS 3.0 / hard reseting the iPhone
and some stupid people have suggested to reduce brightiness (huh?!), turn off 3G, turn off Push, turn off location, turn of MMS) like ok come on seriously.. yes that’ll save battery life but.. come on! you don’t spend a grand on a phone to turn off 80% of its main features to get a good battery life?!

Apple discussion forum post (i haven’t finished reading all of it yet lol) – http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2053758&start=0&tstart=0

Update - 

and here’s something that backs up my statement. Now i’m not sure if this App is buggy or not but it perfectly backs up my statement above that Apple have messed around with battery meter and it gives us a false reading of the true battery charge remainding

98% on the Bar on top
the App shows 100%

Now yes in normal circumstances you would rely more on the default notification and trust that to be more accurate but I tend to rely on this App more than Apple’s reading of the battery.

Why? Cos it all adds up! many people are experiencing the exact same issue. poor battery life, it doesn’t even last them a day! (nor does mine).

People on the iPhone 3G have also experienced this after upgrading to the new OS 3.0.

Update

After another hour and a half  (overall 5hrs) of charging the battery is now at 100% and remains on 100% (i.e. doesn’t drop down to 98 / 99 %

To do the test yourselves…

simply plug in the charger, wait a lil while (10 seconds? ), unplug the charger, and watch the battery meter, unplug the charger and watch if it drops or not – be ware it wil drop to 98% / 99% and go back to 100% really quick ! but this will keep happening until it is fully charged.

- 3.56pm – took the phone off charge

• WiFi enabled
• 3G enabled
• Email App – Active
• Push Notifications disabled
• Location Services Active

update 4.19pm

ok WOW! its been 25mins odd now and ive been texting, music, GPS-ing and my battery is still at 100% on the iPhone indicator and on the app! no idea what i’ve done, mayeb the charging/dischargine has helped?! no idea but so far so good. lets see what happens once the battery meter passes 90%

update 4.53pm

ok here we start the drop, its at 97% now but it dropped from 99% to 97% in a span of two mintues and it was on standby!

update 5.40pm

ok almost an hour later – sent 5 messaages, played a few games. battery at 92%
gonna be browsing using wi-fi now – let’s see how that plays for 10mins and then 3G browsing for the 10mins after

update 5.52pm
watched 2 youtube clips – surfed 5 websites, 12mins – 2%used (really not sure if thats a good thing or not lol )
now at 88%
gonna try 3G now

update 6.06pm (10 mins 3G browsing)
4 websites – 1 youtube clip (2 mins) (MAN it took foreva ti load ! )
battery now at 83%

well as far as I can say is the charging discharging until it was exactly 100% has helped my battery life a litte bit. only 17% in 2hours compared to it being about 20-25% in 2hrs before. Now i’m exactly sure if its just a fluke where my phone decided to use  less battery or not, but still 17% in 2hrs with just that little ussage where the phone was mostly on standby is kinda .. lets just say not up to standards, for now.

There definitely is a battery issue, from where I see it it is the battery indicator falsely reading it but i’ll be researching this more and i’ll update this post as  I get my findings.
Bare in my mind my phone could me faulty as well but i’m assuming mine is on the same lines as the other users i’ve found to have the same exact problem.

Hopefully 3.1 address this, tahts all i can conclude with.

Again, here is proof that the battery indicator isn’t accurate with the BatteryStatus App.
This time the BatteryStatus is app is showing less than the notifcation on top (WHATS  GOING ON?!)

Now, it could be the App is crap (hey that rhyms!) but it could also mean the battery meter is not functioning as it should.
I haven’t found an offical article from Apple addressing this problem, yet.