Maximizing the iPhone 3G’s Battery
Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.
In your recent review of the new iPhone 3G, you mentioned that it had weaker battery life between charges than the original iPhone, but that you learned various techniques to minimize this problem. Can you elaborate?
The biggest battery drain is the fast, but power-hungry, 3G cellular network, which lessens battery life on all phones. So, when you are able to use Wi-Fi instead for data, you can turn off 3G reception using a setting Apple provides. You will still be able to make and receive voice calls over older networks that won’t drain the battery as fast. The same is true in reverse. If you are using 3G for data, turn off your Wi-Fi capability.
Apple has a Web page with many more battery-saving tips at: apple.com/batteries/iphone.html. Turning these functions on and off, and worrying about battery life, however, is a pain. So if you hate the thought of learning and using these techniques, and suspect your usage pattern might push the new iPhone’s battery to its limits, you shouldn’t buy one. At the least, you might want to wait and see if Apple can tweak its software to squeeze more battery life out of the device.
You mention in your article that the iPhone 3G’s battery is not replaceable. Does that mean that, when it can no longer hold a charge, I’ll have to replace the entire phone?
No. Apple has a battery-replacement program for iPhones. If your battery drops to below 50% of its original capacity during the one-year warranty period, the company will replace the battery at no cost. After your warranty expires, Apple will replace the battery for $86. Of course, in both cases, you will have to do without your phone for however long it takes to complete the battery replacement. More details are at: apple.com/batteries/replacements.html.
In your column, you never mentioned the iPod Touch, which I own and use for email, Web surfing and music. Can the Touch be upgraded to the new 2.0 version of the iPhone operating system, and can it use the new third-party applications?
Yes, but with some qualifications. First, while the software upgrade is free for owners of the original iPhone, it costs $10 for owners of the iPod Touch. This has to do with Apple’s interpretation of accounting rules governing the addition of new features to different types of products.
Second, while most of the new iPhone programs available from the “App store” will work fine on the Touch, some cannot because of hardware differences between the two devices. For instance, voice-recording programs won’t work on the Touch, because it has no microphone. The App store indicates which programs are compatible with which device.
Since the new iPhone 3G includes a GPS chip and a speaker, can it be used as an audible, turn by turn, in-car navigation device?
Apple didn’t build such a function into the new iPhone, but some third-party companies are rumored to be trying.
You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online, free, at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.
Comments
3G is a huge power hog, as Steve Jobs noted when he introduced the first iPhone without it.
There is a good comparison of the battery life of 3G smartphones over at PC World:
http://www.pcworld.com/article.....ivals.html
The 3G iPhone actually has better battery life than most other 3G smartphones -except for a couple Blackberry models- in their tests. The best of a by-nature-and-design mediocre bunch, in other words. More impressive still is that you can talk on the phone and surf the web/use data at the same time- you can’t do that with other phones that get worse battery life.
With 3G turned off, the new iPhone has *better* battery life than the original iPhone.
You can also turn off “Location Services” (GPS) to help ration battery power. This is true for the original iPhone as well.
Posted by Dave Shepard at July 16th, 2008 at 4:51 pmIphone shortcomings
I am an old-time Mac lover and have stood in line for hours to get the iPhone here in Italy, but I have a few complaints that I would like to share with you, about missing features or shortcomings that i have not seen quoted in your reviews, maybe my fault. The limitations I expereinced all seem to stem from some agreement with greedy carriers and other commercial enetrprises who want to make money out of us iphone enthousiast.
1. Bluetooth is armoured against free usage on the iphone. It can only be used to connect to headphones, or speaker systems, everything else is not-available. The good old habit of sending a photograph or a vcard (they don’t exist either!) or any other piece of info to your friend or colleague standing right beside you is gone. You have to use email (pay the carrier). This is very clumsy and not logical. Even to connect to a Mac, you have to use the cable! And use appropriate applications, such as itunes or iphoto: good old “browse device” is gone!
2. You can’t even use Wi-fi to connect to your computer.
3. You can’t use a tune you have on your iphone as a ringtone. Only ringtones that are officially considered such.
4. You’ve pointed out battery life.
5. When the iphone is connected to my Mac, mail goes erratic and often loses connections with pop servers.
6. Let’s not even talk about the contracts available in Italy to use the iphone. As usual we are in an uncivilised marketpkace where telcos rule at their ease, and not only the costs are sky-high, also the kind of contracts available seem to have been shrewdly designed to fool the user into paying outrageous amounts of money without being aware of it. Also the plans have holes in their intricacies and some users – the most loyal users of the carrier, as an example – have no clear option available for internet navigation.
I still love my iphone and I really trust the independent developers community to fill the gaps.
Posted by francesca manfredini at July 18th, 2008 at 2:27 amBut these funct gaps are worth mentioning I think.
Thanks and regards
Francesca, Milano, Italy
Excellent blog Walter! I would add the following:
3G is a power hog and expensive, but you don’t always need it… for example, consider using Maps mostly in 2.5/2G mode…
Regarding navigation cost.. in Italy for example, the two authorized vendors (Vodafone and TIM) only sell data “volume-based” navigation plans (currently 600MB or 1GB data /month) that are expensive if used heavily…
Consider instead less expensive “time-based” navigation plans such as offered by rival Wind (ex 50 hours/month for 9 euros)…. obviously, if you have an unlocked iPhone…
So, while I am happily using my (wife’s) unlocked Vodafone 3G iPhone mostly in 2G mode to save battery life, it is very nice to know that 3G is there when I need it!
Posted by Fabio delle Cese at July 19th, 2008 at 11:08 am