# iPhone Battery Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 6, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357 "2010-08-06T02:19:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/1 "2010-08-06T02:19:18Z")
0y brother just picked up an iphone. He’s getting less than 24 hours on a battery charge. Generally speaking are there issues w/regard to battery charge length?
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### Author:  [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/2 "2010-08-06T02:24:18Z")
Did you get a new or used iPhone? What generation, and what software is it running?
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### Author:  [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/3 "2010-08-06T02:26:08Z")
All I can say at the moment is that it’s new. Will try to get other info.
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### Author:  [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/4 "2010-08-06T02:28:42Z")
What is your brother doing with the iPhone? Does he have 3G turned on? Is he playing games all day? is he doing lots of web surfing?
This isn’t a problem because that’s why you get an iPhone over a regular phone: It does more. However, that does wear down the batteries. I have an iPod Touch and I recharge it every day because I spend all day playing games and surfing the web.
Under heavy use, an iPhone gets about 10 hours out of a charge. If you turn off 3G and WiFi and only use it for phone calls, you can probably get a day or two out of it.
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### Author:  [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/5 "2010-08-06T02:29:52Z")
If it’s a new, as in, not new-to-you, new from the Apple/AT&T store, then you need to let it drain entirely, charge it completely, and then if it still does it take it to an Apple Store, and they’ll replace it with a new one, with working battery.
Do you keep GPS running in the background? GPS takes up a lot of battery, and should only be used while the phone is plugged in, if you’re going to use it for extended periods. You can check by double clicking the home button, and scrolling through the open apps – Maps, GPSNav, etc are applications which will drain battery, if left open even in the background.
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### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/6 "2010-08-06T02:52:26Z")
And turn off WiFi unless you’re using it. Biggest battery killer there is. With WiFi turned off, I can regularly go 48-72 hours between charges (3G model).
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### Author:  [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/7 "2010-08-06T03:39:30Z")
I get 4 days light use out of my iPhone 3GS. When I go a full day, heavy use, and have sub50% charge when i get home I got Wtf. WTF man?!
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### Author:  [@sharding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharding)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/8 "2010-08-06T03:47:16Z")
I could probably get 3 days or so on my iPhone 4. It seems to last a bit longer than my 3G did, but not dramatically so. However, I charge it every day anyway, so it’s not really an issue. I’ve had a couple of instances of something seeming to go out of control and eat a lot of battery. I could tell because the phone was warm and I could practically see the battery meter going down. Rebooting fixed it. I haven’t had that happen for a long time, though (not under IOS4 or on the iPhone 4).
All that said, I’ve never quite understood why people need cell phones to last a week on a charge. Are you going on an African safari where there’s no AC power available? Obviously, longer is better (and less than 24 hours doesn’t seem right), but it doesn’t really seem like an undue hardship to plug your phone in when you go to bed. Or when you’re at your desk during the day if you have a desk job (that’s what I do).
ETA: One thing that will definitely kill battery quickly is being in an area of weak or no coverage. If he’s spending a lot of time on the fringes of the coverage area, that will definitely hurt battery life noticeably.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/9 "2010-08-06T14:29:25Z")
Does an Oy Brother wear a [Jewfro](http://cm1.theinsider.com/thumbnail/320/436/cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/86/97/jewfro.jpg)?
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/10 "2010-08-06T14:46:32Z")
Also, turn off e-mail push notification. Being notified every 5 minutes that you have a spam e-mail to delete does nothing more than burn your battery and annoy you.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/11 "2010-08-06T15:07:10Z")
Another thing is to keep track of suspended apps. Double click the home button and you’ll see all of the apps that are suspended in the multi-tasking bar. Some of these apps (Skype I’m looking at you) seem to use a shit load of battery even though they’re not doing much if anything. When Skype is running or suspended it chews through the battery at about 20% / hour. Hold your finger down on one of the apps, they will all wiggle with a minus sign in front of them, tap on each minus sign to close them completely (if the apps have a plus sign, don’t tap them, you’ll delete them.)
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### Author:  [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/12 "2010-08-06T15:25:32Z")
Another thing your brother might do is adjust the brightness setting. My battery lasts a lot longer if I keep the brightness pretty low.
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### Author:  [@TheFifthYear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFifthYear)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-battery-question/549357/13 "2010-08-06T16:52:35Z")
If it’s new and he’s like everyone else in the world, he’s running the battery down because he’s playing with it all the time. The screen is the biggest eater of the battery, so the more you have the screen on playing with the fun new gadget, the faster you’ll run it down.
Seriously, wait till the shine wears off just a little and I bet he’ll find he gets anywhere from 1-4 days, depending on how much use it gets.