Better battery life

ardchoille · Apr 11, 2012

I've had 7 android devices, starting with the HTC g1 on release say, and android fans complained of short battery life. I was able to get 30 hours of battery life with moderate use out of my last 4 android devices. Many android users say that the iPhone has better battery life.

I switched to the iPhone 4S, because I felt android was going down the drain, and people complain about the battery life on this device too. Some iPhone users say android has better battery life. The grass is always greener on the other side. I have only had my iPhone 4S for a week but am already up to 22 hours of battery life with moderate use, and that is with keeping Verizon's 3G network on.

The way I am able to get such great battery life is because I don't allow notifications, location services or app refreshes, they're a waste of system resources, especially battery drain. I also turn the phone off and charge it while I sleep, I couldn't answer notifications while I sleep anyway so there's no point in having the phone powered up. People usually respond to that with "what's the point of having the phone?" Well, if you want all the bells and whistles you're going to have to pay for it, in this case you'll pay for it with battery life. Its a trade-off so you need to find your own sweet spot between battery life and data updates.

These phones do a mind-boggling amount of work, if you stop and think about it, it's basically a computer. Battery technology will never be able to fully catch up because as soon as someone makes a better battery the software makers say "hey, now we can throw a billion more lines of code in and make the system work harder." It's a vicious circle.

If you want better battery life then start turning things off. If you're not wiling to turn things off then you'll have to live with less than stellar battery life. People can make arguments all day long but it's just that simple.

Think about it.. how much are you asking your phone to do? Do you have dozens of apps constantly polling for information? One of the things I've done is to ask my friends, if they want to get hold of me, send me an email. Then I can hop on whatever services I need to and have a conversation. But I'm not going to have a jillion apps open and waiting for something.

I love my iPhone and will never give it up. This is the best phone I've ever owned. I'm getting 22 hours of battery life with moderate use on a week-old iPhone 4S and I'm sure my battery life will improve. My methods work great for me, you need to find what works great for you.

I'll step off my soapbox now, have a great day

EDIT: I've attached a picture of the iPhone 4S battery in the phone housing. The battery is actually bigger than I thought.

EWyatt · Apr 11, 2012

Excellent posting, ard........ You're correct in many ways!! Thanks.

Skull One · Apr 11, 2012

I an iPhone 4S, acquired on launch day, and have everything turned on. Bluetooth, 6 Email accounts, Notifications, GPS, Alarms, Reminders, Calendar alerts and probably a few things I have forgotten about.

I get 7+ hours of usage with 18 hours of standby time every single day like clockwork. It would easily hit 24 hours but I always plug it in when I go to sleep and always unplug it when I wake up six hours later. I used to get 8.5 hours on my old iPhone 4, but then that was a single core CPU device so that helped.

It still shocks me how many people complain about having battery issues.

Benson11 · Apr 11, 2012

Thanks for your helpful and nice post. And yeah you are right agree with you..

DRad2003 · Apr 11, 2012

Skull One said:
I an iPhone 4S, acquired on launch day, and have everything turned on. Bluetooth, 6 Email accounts, Notifications, GPS, Alarms, Reminders, Calendar alerts and probably a few things I have forgotten about.

I get 7+ hours of usage with 18 hours of standby time every single day like clockwork. It would easily hit 24 hours but I always plug it in when I go to sleep and always unplug it when I wake up six hours later. I used to get 8.5 hours on my old iPhone 4, but then that was a single core CPU device so that helped.

It still shocks me how many people complain about having battery issues.

I agree. I get around the same usage as you with everything on. Not as many e-mail accounts. I think battery life is based on the user. Thats why it varies as much as it does. I came from Android devices and never experienced the horrible battery life people talked about. People have come to expect a lot and have some weird sense of entitlement nowadays.

ripipemender · Apr 12, 2012

I am a convert fromthe android EVO 4g, and with outh the extra big batery I could not make an8 hour work day before it died. With iphone 4s all day is no problem with all bells and whistles running. Under normal load about 60% rtemains when it goes to charge. to me battery life is more influenced by signal strenght thananything else. From time to time I am in a location with limited to poor signal (who would believe that of Sprint) and that just kills the battery, i can be using phone and watch it drop. just my humble opinion

ardchoille · Apr 12, 2012

Skull One said:
I an iPhone 4S, acquired on launch day, and have everything turned on. Bluetooth, 6 Email accounts, Notifications, GPS, Alarms, Reminders, Calendar alerts and probably a few things I have forgotten about.

I get 7+ hours of usage with 18 hours of standby time every single day like clockwork. It would easily hit 24 hours but I always plug it in when I go to sleep and always unplug it when I wake up six hours later. I used to get 8.5 hours on my old iPhone 4, but then that was a single core CPU device so that helped.

It still shocks me how many people complain about having battery issues.

I think most people don't realize that there is a direct correlation between power use and battery drain, and that this correlation exists on every battery-powered device ever made. The batteries in a battery-powered calculator last a while, but a device like that isn't capable of the amount of work that smart phones are capable of. I often hear "how can such a small device have such a bad battery?" Some folks don't realize the amount of work these phones are capable of. I'd be willing to bet that the iPhone is capable of 20+ MFlops.