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Round Up: Nine iPhone 3G Battery Life Test Results

gizmodo.com — The black art of battery life testing takes time —that's why every launch day review had some version of "we'll get back to you"—as well they should. Now, after a weekend of testing, some hard data on battery numbers are starting to trickle in. Here's testing data from 9 major tech sites and publications.

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twoblackeyes 36 days ago, made popular 35 days ago

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Insomaniac24, on 07/15/2008, -10/+3first...I know how dumb it is...I've just never got to do it.
- GliTCH82, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2Try the upcoming section if you really want to douche it out.
tommy0486, on 07/15/2008, -3/+8Time for a car charger...
anglededge, on 07/15/2008, -2/+5I know there are many factors that affect battery life but I've personally found that the battery life of my iPhone seemed really sporadic even with fairly consistant use. Sometimes it will last for days, other times it will drain down by the end of the day.
Tribunis, on 07/15/2008, -1/+18I hate feeling that if I use it too much I won't be able to use it when I need it, and that sucks.
- twoblackeyes, on 07/15/2008, -0/+4Yeah man that's always the dilemma with battery life for anything - couldn't agree more.
  - EtherGnat, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3Except most things (and all phones I've ever used) have user replaceable batteries. I keep spare batteries on my charger at home and work, so I'm rarely far from a full battery. When I am going away for awhile and don't want to take a charger I can throw an extra battery or two in a pocket or bag.
    
    The iPhone lacking that capability is what makes battery life such an issue on the device. If I can't pop in a new battery when I'm low I'd at least need enough battery life to be sure I could use the hell out of the phone for the day and not run low--it seems like that's not the case yet.
    
    Of course everybody has different needs.
- PabloMac, on 07/16/2008, -1/+5That applies to your phone, too.
  - peaceninja, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4that was cute
Wailord, on 07/16/2008, -11/+4"zomg iphone sux no 3g??????? get wit da times"
...
"zomg 3g takes up so much batry iphone is so teribl lol"
- metaboman, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3What's funny is that's exactly what people are thinking right now...I have had a Blackberry and a Treo 750, both have about the same battery lifetime as the iPhone. I seriously don't know why people are bitching so much. A month from now, the battery will get better when people stop playing with the damn thing so much...
estvir, on 07/16/2008, -2/+25Man, if only one of the many phone companies would come up with the idea of user-replacable batteries - I know that sounds crazy but one day in the future it will happen, just you wait.
- waydee, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4It'll be revolutionary, a new dawn in mobile computing and phone technology. I also heard on fanboyrumours.com that Apple are going to pioneer a new way of sending data just like a text message, I can't wait for that one.
- PabloMac, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3I think you're onto something.
- xeomage, on 07/16/2008, -2/+2I don't think your everyday non-tech-savvy 3G iPhone user is really qualified to be removing and installing batteries. That sounds pretty technical.
  - estvir, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2The Apple? It certainly is too hard, it's basically impossible but for every other phone on the market that's been released in oh, the past 6 years or so, it's INCREDIBLY EASY and basically every non-tech-savvy person can do it.
mason215, on 07/16/2008, -11/+4im amazed that this made front page. Who cares?
- TheDeepFriar, on 07/16/2008, -0/+7142 people care (as of 11:18)
- utexas112, on 07/16/2008, -1/+2Typically, people who leaves comments like this don't have, but want, an iPhone.
  - artfuldodga, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1Typically, people who leave comments like yours are smug *****. I along with a lot of other folks are sick of seeing every second story being about the iPhone, there are more important things going on
  - utexas112, on 07/16/2008, -0/+0Typically, anyone who judges someone as a "smug *****" by a reply comment on digg is, himself, an *****. Good'day.
  - chiefbttlwshr, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1Do you know that from your vast experience in market research and polling? Oh no, I forgot--you know everything even before it happens. PENIS
zezerik, on 07/16/2008, -2/+5So... the the battery lasts anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. Very useful data here
- Lazybones, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1Of talk time or mixed use.. Stand by time is way longer.
  For someone like me this is rather long. My HTC Apache only gets about 1hr of mixed use surfing and listing to music, it is pathetic compared to the iPhone.
Badandy127, on 07/16/2008, -3/+16The only valid criticism of the iPhone battery is that it is non-replacable.

For pure battery life on a charge, it compares favorably with other 3G enabled smartphones. Add the fact it has a bright screen that takes up 90% of the front surface area, and I'm pretty pleased with it.
- Aitese, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4"For pure battery life on a charge, it compares favorably with other 3G enabled smartphones"
  
  That used to be true of my N95...it was truly horrible and I had to turn off 3g pretty much ALL the time. It was pointless. 3 firmware update later and not only do I have Flash, A-GPS and free push email and contacts/calendar sync, the battery lasts about twice as long as these tests show with my 3g never off.
  
  (if need be, I can also take my battery out and replace it with another one...I'm just saying)
  
  If the answer is turn 3g off and set push email to fetch every 15 mins...whay are you paying extra for 3g and £100 for Mobile Me?
  - Simplogic, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4I'll second that.
    
    I wouldn't recommend the upgrade from the original iPhone to anyone. It's nearly the exact same phone with a far worse battery life, and if you want to improve the battery life... well, then it becomes THE EXACT same phone.
  - Badandy127, on 07/16/2008, -2/+1100 quid for MobileMe? I'm in the U.S. and I pay about $80. Not $158 or whatever the oconversion is.
    
    Simplogic: I don't see what the problem is. For a 3G phone, it gets good battery life. That is all that is relevent. Considering the size of the screen it is powering and how thin it is, it's pretty damn good. Just because the original iPhone had good battery life doesn't mean the new iPhone is worthless.
    
    I had my 3G on ALL day yesterday and it lasted the entire day just fine.
  - Aitese, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1Obviously there will be some optimizing and firmware rewriting and this should be a minimal problem in a few months. I'm sure Apple will get it done faster than Nokia did...it was 3-4 months of hell with this thing...but we're all good now.
    
    and £100 is actually about $55-60 dollars...so you guys are getting raped.
  - Aitese, on 07/16/2008, -0/+1By chance I just happened to catch sight of my own comment and realised how ***** dumb I am...WE it seems are the ones being raped! Well, anyone who has Mobile Me that is...I get push mail for free.
- gaqua, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2Battery life is one of the three things my iPhone 3G does worse than my Treo 750W. The other two being MMS and copy/paste.
  
  Don't get me wrong - I'm really digging the iPhone, and the apps store is amazing with tons of useful (and some less than useful) applications, but it's so close to perfect that it's almost annoying they don't fix some of the small stuff. (no copy/paste? no MMS? c'mon guys...a software update can fix it!)
  - Badandy127, on 07/16/2008, -3/+0The Treo 750W gets worse battery life than the iPhone 3G.
    
    Make sure to calibrate your battery by doing about 2 full discharge/recharge cycles, then get back to us. It should help a lot.
    
    MMS? That's for 13 year old girls. Copy and paste would definitely be useful though.
  - Aitese, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3It seems to be ONLY iPhone users who are against MMS (the same way they were not that impressed by 3g...until it was offered to them)
    
    Not everyones phone has email...even the one WITH email capabilities almost never get set up for it. My mother certainly would not set it up...yet she enjoyed the pictures my brother sent of my niece immensely. iPhone users assume everyone is an iPhone user.
  - gaqua, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3@Badandy127
    
    Okay, well, if you say so. All I know is that after a full day using my Treo 750W, I still had 1/4 to 1/2 battery life. In fact, I didn't even need to charge it every day, though I did so anyway. The iPhone is about 1/2 dead after only 5-6 hours of sporadic normal use. I don't sit watching movies or TV shows, I use it for email, text messaging, and phone calls. So in my experience, no, the Treo 750W doesn't get worse battery life than the iPhone 3G. Regardless of what the "specs" say.
    
    As for MMS being for 13 year old girls - that's retarded. MMS is a useful way of quickly sending images to people, and more importantly, of quickly RECEIVING images from people who don't have email phones. Which is about what, 90% of the cell phone users out there?
philwalsh, on 07/16/2008, -4/+6I don't know why everyone really makes such a big deal about battery life. Sure it is somewhat important but really not to the extend that everyone makes it out to be.
I charge my phone every day, first thing I do when I get home is plug in the damn thing so it's always on a full charge when I leave the house. Easy.
- MonumentMan, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3i hear that. i charge my phone every night too.
  
  still, many people buy these phones for travel. having a nice long battery means that you don't have to pack that travel charger when you are on a nightly business trip. with the iphone, you better bring your charger . same with my laptop. thing gets like 5 hours of battery life!!! :(
  - subliminalurge, on 07/16/2008, -2/+1I'm sitting here looking at the charger for my iPhone, and wondering what kind of tiny, tiny luggage you must have if throwing that little thing in there is an inconvenience.
    
    I've always taken my phone charger with me when I travel, with any phone.
  - MonumentMan, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2i commute on a bike every day with a laptop and my iphone. i have to bring both chargers. its a hassle. i travel by plane twice a week and have to bring both chargers. its a hassle. always searching for outlets, etc.
- GamingFox, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2Battery life actually saved my ass one time...
  
  Last December, I went to another state just for the night to go ice skating. I got pretty bad concussion from the ice and I ended up at nearby hospital for three days. I am deaf and I had no clue what hospital was it and can't use regular phones.
  
  I had a blackberry 8700g with me at the time. It was left on the whole time and I haven't charge it for four days. Lucky, it got about 1/3 battery left. So I used google map to find what hospital I was in using "my location" feature, and sent messages to my family and friends. My family (500 miles away) called the hospital and sent them all of the information needed and my friends (40 miles away) and I made plans on when to pick me up from the hospital. I also sent emails to my teachers informing them my situation. The blackberry stayed alive well after I arrived back at my dorm on fifth day.
  
  This is one of the major reasons why I loved blackberry. Their battery life is very long compared to most phones and the battery is replaceable. Today, I got blackberry 8320 (still have replaceable battery) and I still love it today.
JSquad, on 07/16/2008, -1/+7Has anyone tried watching video with everything off, as if you were watching it on a plane?
- MonumentMan, on 07/16/2008, -0/+14i tried it but there were too many snakes to complete my testing
- JSquad, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3I get it.
MonumentMan, on 07/16/2008, -3/+4i have the new iphone 3g and i absolutely love it.

from my initial testing, battery life IS the only drawback of the device. the third party applications are, simply put, amazing. and since i'm using the device all the time, i definitely notice that i am using battery really fast.

Remote: allows you to use your iPhone as a remote control to change itunes tracks on your computer. great if you have your computer hooked up to your stereo/home theater system like i do. your iphone accesses your itunes library through your wireless connection and you change tracks, adjust volume as if you were sitting in front of your PC. Simply amazing.

Shazam: your iphone will "listen" to music and identify the song. hold your iphone in front of the radio and it will tell you exactly what song is playing. it's super cool

AOL radio: i get most of my local radio stations on my ipod all for free! sports talk, talk radio, all the best radio stations and of course i am not limited to local stations but can get all radio stations from across the world! much cooler than an integrated amfm radio!

every app i've downloaded is free! it makes the iphone so versatile and fun. i freaking love the thing and i'm surprised that i'm having such an easy time using the software keyboard.
japanesepagoda, on 07/16/2008, -1/+12Dugg for Walt Mossberg managing to make 'mixed use' last longer than talk time.
- lordtyros, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3He's quite literally a sorcerer of tech. You should see him cook! His microwave only takes 45 seconds to cook for a minute!
  - serif69, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3His beard can type faster than you ever will.
heysuburbia, on 07/16/2008, -2/+9- Turn off exchange server when not in use
- Turn off 3G when not in use
- Charge at night/At your desk via USB or dock/Charge in car daily

The end.
- serif69, on 07/16/2008, -2/+2That's what I don't get about the people who bitch about the lack of a user-replaceable battery. I don't care how much you use your phone, you're never going to be actively using it for more than half of your work day. If you are, you're not doing your job, you're playing with your phone. In which case you deserve for it to shut off on you.
  
  If you're really, legitimately using it more than 4 hours a day, it doesn't cost much to buy an extra charger. In fact, you probably already have an iPod laying around whose charger you can use.
  - gaqua, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4Some people's jobs are directly tied to their phones. Real estate agents, for example.
  - incandescent, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1My iPhone 3G dropped to about 25% charge in less than one day even though on that day I made NO phone calls, watched no video, sending only a few emails and briefly browsing a few pages. All because it's continually hunting for O2's pitifully weak 3G signal. And told tell me to switch off 3G - I never had to do that with my Sony Ericsson and it is after all and iPhone 3G, not 2G.
artfuldodga, on 07/16/2008, -6/+1Please, for the love of god digg let us create filters for stories with the text 'iPhone' in them, this is too much... gayness
- milkmage, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1UNCHECK the apple box in your digg prefs.
  - artfuldodga, on 07/16/2008, -0/+1I want to know about other apple related news, so how does that solve the iphone bombardment problem
  - utexas112, on 07/16/2008, -0/+0You sure like to complain, don't you.
utexas112, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1Someone should do an Edge vs. 3G comparison... or perhaps see how long the 3G iPhone will go on an Edge connection. I've got the original and am very pleased with how long the battery lasts. With moderate use including e-mail I'm usually only down to 3/4 or so by the end of the day.
clak, on 07/16/2008, -2/+4I've been using a battery sleeve from Mophie for my first Gen iPhone. It gives me 8 extra hours of talk time, and up to 250 hours of standby time, and it's a lot more convenience than a regular battery because all I have to do is slip it on.

http://www.mophie.com/collections/batteries

I always show this link to Apple Haters and they pretend they can't see it. Anyway, I can't wait for them to make a version for the 3G iPhone. Rock that, haters.
- StanC, on 07/16/2008, -2/+1Right.... Because every other phone on the market doesn't have a user replaceable battery, so they are forced to strap that bulky thing on.
- EvilKaz, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1$100?
marcushe, on 07/16/2008, -1/+1The test results don't show what settings & features were turned on during the use of their iPhone.

3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth all take a lot of battery - so if all three are on, you'll get a pretty short battery life.

If they are all off, well then you have a whole different story.
dorkino, on 07/16/2008, -1/+2That's still longer than the like 2 hours I get on my KRZR
EvilKaz, on 07/16/2008, -0/+2Some of my own observations on battery life. I have the iphone 3G on O2 in the UK. Whith 3G on all the time, BT off, GPS off & wifi off, i get about 2 hours of browsing done during my daily commute (an hour each way). Throw in a bit of texting, a call or two and playing with a few apps during the day, my battery is pretty much close to death when i get home.
This can be extended a fair bit if i turn off 3G when im not browsing. If you can use wifi over 3G for better battery usage. Oh and apps seem to suck battery alot quicker than anything, so look for web alternatives. For exmaple use the Facebook mobile site instead of the app.
Zippo, on 07/16/2008, -0/+1I remember when a day of standby time was considered good. An hour of talk time was awesome. I can remember my family's first digital cellphone - I remember loosing it in my bookbag and finding it a couple days ago and being amazed it was still on.
- incandescent, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1I remember those times too Zippo. 1998 as I recall. Other phone manufacturers have picked up their game since then.
peaceninja, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3third generation iphone needs:

(1) a solar panel on the back
(2) video conferencing
(3) a completely open sdk

then i will consider buying one!!! is that too much to ask?
- bryceman111, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4(4) Toaster
- reformation, on 07/17/2008, -0/+11) pointless
  2) no one uses it
  3) never
supermanred, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Dear Apple:

Please make an addon battery that attaches to the bottom of my iPhone.

Thanks.
cocoze, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0Sure the battery on iPhone 3G is not that great, but what can we do? We want small size phones, powerful features and lengthy battery life.

Just get a backup battery. I got mine from iPhoneck brands. Their new 3G backup battery is probably one of the better looking products in the market. Their website is www.iphoneck.com
- incandescent, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1One of the better looking products? What on earth do the others look like then?
reformation, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Yesterday I totally ran the battery down by about 10pm from a full charge over night.

During this time I had made a few calls, played about an hour of mp3s, used email throughout the day, been online for at least an hour in total, downloaded 3 new apps and played on 'band' and monkeyball for about 45 minutes.
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Round Up: Nine iPhone 3G Battery Life Test Results

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