Gadget Techie

UPDATE: Once you are done reading this post, make sure to go to the homepage of this blog (http://gadgettechie.net) to read the other parts of this series. You can also click on the Apple category on the right of this page.

You can find the other parts of this series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

As many of you know, I have gone through two defective iPhone 3G’s. Now on my third one, I thought I was happy. Not so much.

I have begun to realize that the battery life on this phone is very bad. And by very bad I mean I am getting half the usage time that Apple is advertising. At first I just attributed it to my frequent use of the phone, GPS usage, and email fetching. Now I am starting to see that this is not the case.

I have started running some battery tests. This first test was using the following settings:
-3G off (used EDGE the whole time)
-Wifi off
-Location Services (GPS) off
-Push off
-Fetch manually
-Brightness default (halfway with auto brightness on)

As you can see, I essentially turned everything off. To make sure that the phone had a full charge I left the phone charging overnight.

So how did I test the phone? Well I opened up the AIM application (the only app I know that constantly uses the Internet and does not allow your phone to go on standby) and left it running. In my opinion, this was the best way to simulate usage without having to actually sit there and use the phone.

I took screenshots of my usage page until the phone died. As you can see from the picture, the results are indeed terrible. Apple advertises 5 hours of 3G web usage and 10 hours of EDGE usage. I am getting 5 hours of EDGE! With everything else turned off!

Now before you complain that this experiment was flawed from the beginning because I used a third party app, let me say that I have been getting LOWER usage times when using the phone for real (text, browsing, and calls). So it is not the third party apps. If anything, the fact that I only used a third party app for this test and got better results suggests the contrary. It clearly shows that it’s NOT a third party app that is causing the battery to drain so fast.

However, if you are like me, you would still not be convinced that it’s not a third party app. Because of this I will run more tests. My next test will be the same scenario but with 3G. My third test will then be 3G with no third party apps installed and then EDGE with no third party apps.

I am running out of time (if I am going to return my phone before the 14 day return period) so I need to do so this by this weekend. Hopefully tomorrow I can get two more tests run and see if I indeed have ANOTHER defective phone. And here I thought “third time’s the charm”.

The fact that this is the third iPhone I’ve had with subpar battery life makes me wonder if it’s something else causing the problem. Because of this, I am planning on running the next tests I mentioned without the use of my holster.

Why, you ask? Well remember my post on my holster and how I was worried about the magnetic flap and whether that would affect the phone? Well I am starting to think that it is possible that my holster’s magnet is somehow messing with the charge in the battery. It is very possible being that my holster is the common denominator between all three iPhones.

Only time will tell.