I may have a lemon.
Or that seems to be the general consensus among my close nerd friends on the Internet. Aside from the camera(s) and retina display, the iPhone 4 is supposed to have ridiculously long battery life. That is not the case with my particular review unit and it's irritating.
No, I'm not having any reception issues or yellow discoloring. I simply cannot get my iPhone 4 to last longer than eight hours after a full charge. I've cycled it twice now and I'm still having battery life issues. I pulled it off the charger at 9:05 yesterday morning and by 4:30 in the afternoon I was at 13%. So what was I doing, you ask?
• One 2 minute phone call in Times Square (did not drop)
• No FaceTime sessions
• 3 Push e-mail accounts (Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo)
• Screen brightness at 50%
• No apps running in the background
• Sporadic Twittering (once every 45-60 minutes)
• Two minutes of the Flood-It! game on the subway
• 5 minutes of video playback
• No music playback
• No video recording
• 10 test photos
• 20-30 minutes of total web browsing
• 5 minutes of Google Maps usage
• 20-30 minutes of Wi-Fi connectivity
• No text messaging
So, yeah, I'm not really sure what the deal is. How's your battery life?
More on Techland:
First Impressions of the iPhone 4, Part II
Unboxing the iPhone 4
 and retina display, the iPhone 4 is supposed to have ridiculously long battery life. That is not the case with my particular review unit and it s irritating. No, I m not [...]&srcURL=http://techland.com){kind=link}
Mine's been pretty much as expected so far. I charged it up in the course of activation ~11 yesterday evening, and have been playing with it (unsurprisingly) more heavily than usual: I'm at 75-80% of full, about 10 or 11 hours later.
I've found that if you do bridge the gap in the steel on the lower left side of the case with your finger or hand, the reception does indeed seem to drop off. If you take your finger away from there, it comes back in 15-30 seconds.
No yellow blotches, but if you have these, I'm told those are unevaporated bonding agent (due to these being stamped out so quickly) and it will disappear in 2-3 days.
stonemirror
Jun. 25, 2010 12:22pm
Some pretty hefty discussion on this here: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/06/25/why-would-three-respected-journalists-claim-incredible-iphone-battery-life-when-its-simply-not-the-truth/
zee
Jun. 25, 2010 12:29pm
My iPhone 4 battery is doing the same thing as yours. I have even turned off my WiFi so it doesn't search for a WiFi hot spot all day long. I love the phone but wish I had a better battery. Have you taken it to Apple to look at?
heatherbsmith
Jun. 25, 2010 12:59pm
@zee thanks for the link.
@stonemirror I'm so jealous.
Peter Ha
Jun. 25, 2010 13:53pm
You really need to get a life and stop worrying about a stupid phone.
turkeyklein1
Jun. 25, 2010 18:51pm
"You really need to get a life..." and stop worrying about people worrying about a stupid phone.
kubricklove
Jun. 25, 2010 19:05pm
The problem is Exchange. Test with it off. I had Exchange for my email and killed my battery, switched to a different account that fetches ever 15 - 30 mins and that solved it. I don't get email pushed - which sucks, but it solved my battery problems.
Lots of others having this problem, see:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?fid=1350d05dc9a18d470004899e57ec9c75&hl=en
evdoguy
Jun. 25, 2010 21:05pm
I'm having the same issue. My first Gen iPhone has twice the battery life as my new iPhone 4.
reik1
Jun. 26, 2010 01:32am
I work in an area deep in a building without WiFi and with very poor reception. If I have my Network setting on Enable 3G, my battery life is reduced. I'm told it's because my phone is spending energy trying to access 3G (like it would if I was on a plane and forgot to use Airplane Mode). Could you be having a similar issue?
sawrad
Jun. 27, 2010 00:21am
Did you make your initial iPhone charge at least 6-8 hours before using it normally? (I know this isn't always possible since AT&T retail reps may need to start up your phone to activate it in-store but as long as you didn't use it intensely before charging it all out). Did you let it discharge completely and then recharge complete, and complete this cycle a few times?
Here's a useful link on lithium ion battery maintenance:
http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/iphone-3g/iphone-3g-battery-guide-and-charging-tips-34725.html
Keep up the nice articles Peter!
masedawg
Jun. 27, 2010 22:06pm
Also, turn off the following if you havent:
Location Services
Bluetooth
Keyclick sounds
Also do not keep the phone in your pants pocket if possible (body heat kills battery life), or use a fashionable silicone case as insulation
Do not charge in a hot location. Remove iPhone from any case when charging.
My phone might be a lemon too considering I need to charge it very frequently - about once a day, but I'm playing games on it frequently too and it seems to overheat alot. Once I get past the novel phase of the device maybe I can get a better depiction of standard battery life on mine too.
masedawg
Jun. 27, 2010 22:15pm
They should codename it like they do for Mac OS X.
"iOS 4.0 Vampire"
"iOS 4.1 Snow Vampire"
cydonos
Jun. 28, 2010 16:31pm
Same problem for me (in France).
By chance, I'm journalist for the oldest french magazine dedicated to Mac computers, and already had in the past some battery issues (iPhone 3G heating my pocket).
So, when I was invited yesterday at the opening of the new Apple Store near the Paris Opera, I showed my iPhone4 et submited my problem to the genius bar... The manager came after 10 minutes of discussion and they just replaced my iPhone4 with a new one that perfectly works with a battery always running after 16hours.
In conclusion, sothere are some bad iPhone4 and you have to prove it to have a replacement.
lclause
Jul. 2, 2010 10:31am
I am also facing similar problem. I charged my battery overnight it was 100%. I switched off bluetooth, wifi, push notifications. only 3G is on. Screen brightness is 20% and auto brightness is off. Still after surfing websites for 5 mins (most of it was text) and making calls for around 10 mins...by battery life is down to 85%. By end of day, though I do not use phone much... it gets below 20%.
With same usage, my old iPhone 3g(not 3gs) use to last longer......
amit4034
Jul. 2, 2010 12:27pm
I had same problem. iPhone 4 battery would not make it through the day on very little use. Went into apple store because I thought I had a lemon. However, they told me that users who backed up phone on iTunes from a 3G (which I did) have been experiencing this problem. They told me to restore phone and then set up as new phone in iTunes(do not back up). I was skeptical that this would work; however, it did indeed fix the problem. I did this and my battery life is great now...much better than my old 3G.
I hope this helps.
gjavidi
Jul. 6, 2010 02:12am
hey I don't know if this site can't help, but it talks about battery life of iPhones.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=10853100#post10853100
geeksmith2010
Aug. 16, 2010 20:56pm
I've used my phone for about an hour and I'm down to 70%. just from web browsing. Bad
nevrwuz
Aug. 27, 2010 12:12pm