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What is a Normal or 'Good' "Usage" reading?

M

meagain

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 18, 2006
2,571
26
I'm wondering what a proper/average/normal Usage reading might be for when the phone is on the edge of the end of it's charge.

I'm at 3.5 hours with the battery at nearly empty. Doesn't that sound a bit low? I spoke with a Genius about it and was met with an "it's fine" and he complained how he can't even get usage stats on his phone.
I didn't use the entire iPod section or much of safari for that matter. Mostly looking at widgets. I ran a brief snippet of a youtube.
 
Wifi on, Bluetooth off. I just got a warning now. Battery is red.

Does 3 hours 30 min sound bad? Seems it should be better. My husband got 5+ hours on his.
 
I have just topped mine out with 1 day 8 hrs of standby and 7 hrs 57 minutes of usage. I only charge after the phone shuts off and then I charge fully every time.
 
I tested mine out this weekend and did 5hrs use and about 3.5 days standby with combo of safari, texting, phone calls, wifi on, wifi off sometimes, bluetooth off the whole time. that seems good to me.

EDIT: I had about 10-15% estimated battery left after this.
 
Badandy said:
Not a good idea...
Click to expand...

Ditto. Lithium batteries really don't like deep discharge cycles. If you just top off the battery as often as possible, it'll last much longer than if you keep draining it down. Also, the one sure way to immediately KILL a lithium cell is to fully discharge it. The circuitry in the battery will normally prevent this from happening, I just mention it to reinforce the point that you should not be draining your cell all the way down unless you have no other choice.
 
With check email every 15 minutes, no wifi or bluetooth on and turning off email at night, I get about 4 days of standby and 10 hours of actual usage. Usage includes a lot of ipod (both video and music), email, web, and phone calls.
 
Badandy said:
Not a good idea...
Click to expand...

If it's not such a good idea, then why has my usage time increased with each charge? It's not a deep discharge by any means, as it is plugged in as soon as the phone requests it. For it to be a bad idea, there'd have to be days passing between the shut-down and the plug-in.

Who has better stats than those I posted with mainly edge browsing/calls, no bt/wifi and 1/3 brightness with auto on? I'd bet there aren't many.
 
Wow - I didn't even make/receive any calls, just some Safari and mostly just perhaps leaving it on? I think I should get more than 3.5 for this. It shows 2 days something for standby. Anyone agree?
 
dcMobile said:
If it's not such a good idea, then why has my usage time increased with each charge? It's not a deep discharge by any means, as it is plugged in as soon as the phone requests it. For it to be a bad idea, there'd have to be days passing between the shut-down and the plug-in.

Who has better stats than those I posted with mainly edge browsing/calls, no bt/wifi and 1/3 brightness with auto on? I'd bet there aren't many.
Click to expand...

I get the same general stats without waiting for final shutdown. When you say the phone requests it, do you mean 20% left or like 5% left?
 
meagain, I get similar stats w/ wifi on . Wifi is the one thing that kills your battery, especially if you keep the "Ask to Join Networks" on the On position.

(If you look at the Apple website iPhone specs and read the fine print footnotes, their battery usage numbers come from WiFi with the "Ask to Join Networks" switch off. If you leave that switch on then I'm assuming the phone is continuously looking for new networks to join -- that's going to kill battery life much quicker.).

Another note - I'm starting to doubt the battery meter's reliability. For example, after 1 day, 17h of Standby time and ~ 5 hours of usage (mixture of playing with widgets, 3 calls, some Safari and some iPod) the battery icon on the top right reads about 20%. The second I dock it, however, the big battery icon easily reads 50%.

Hopefully all this battery confusion will be fixed with a software update.
 
Doesn't Apple have a policy for iPods and such that if your battery only holds 80% of what it's original charge should be, they'll replace it if it's under warranty? I would think this policy would apply to iPhones as well.
 
The ask to join networks is off on mine.

Oh, and if the big green battery never goes full to the end, that's a common bug and no one is doing anything about it.... is that about right?

I'm concerned about this because 3.5 hours to a red battery icon with not doing much in the phone at all.... I'd never get through a 60 minute video I assume.
 
dcMobile said:
If it's not such a good idea, then why has my usage time increased with each charge? It's not a deep discharge by any means, as it is plugged in as soon as the phone requests it. For it to be a bad idea, there'd have to be days passing between the shut-down and the plug-in.

Who has better stats than those I posted with mainly edge browsing/calls, no bt/wifi and 1/3 brightness with auto on? I'd bet there aren't many.
Click to expand...

To be honest, it doesn't really matter that you have good battery life at this point. Whatever you believe your battery life to be, however superior it is to other phones at the moment, you are NOT violating the basic laws of Li-Ion technology. You should not be waiting that long to charge it, if you can help it of course. You are decreasing the span of your battery at a much faster rate than other people who take care of thehir batteries the right way, that is a fact unless you have a new battery technology we do not know of.
 
Why/how could you possibly wait until the phone shut down due to the battery dying before charging? You know, the thing is a phone... something most people need on all day every day.
I charge mine every night, ocasionally every other night. I've yet to ever reach the 20% warning, and I actually use a considerable amount of EDGE and Wi-Fi.
 
JBaker122586 said:
Why/how could you possibly wait until the phone shut down due to the battery dying before charging? You know, the thing is a phone... something most people need on all day every day.
I charge mine every night, ocasionally every other night. I've yet to ever reach the 20% warning, and I actually use a considerable amount of EDGE and Wi-Fi.
Click to expand...

I do use my phone all day, every day. The only time it's off is for half a minute when it asks me to connect to power, which i do promptly.

Why would this be harmful to the battery? I dont believe it is, as like i said, it isnt totally discharging. There must be one to two percent charge remaining at the point of the "connect to power" message; where does any documentation point towards a "sweet spot" at which point it is most benficial to begin a full charge cycle? I'd enjoy reading such an article, as I've read many articles on battery cycles/maintenance specific to Li-ion cells.
 
dcMobile said:
I do use my phone all day, every day. The only time it's off is for half a minute when it asks me to connect to power, which i do promptly.

Why would this be harmful to the battery? I dont believe it is, as like i said, it isnt totally discharging. There must be one to two percent charge remaining at the point of the "connect to power" message; where does any documentation point towards a "sweet spot" at which point it is most benficial to begin a full charge cycle? I'd enjoy reading such an article, as I've read many articles on battery cycles/maintenance specific to Li-ion cells.
Click to expand...

I am a little unclear here: does the phone actually turn off, or just gives you a final warning? There is a big difference.
 
question fear said:
I am a little unclear here: does the phone actually turn off, or just gives you a final warning? There is a big difference.
Click to expand...

The phone turns off, but that is not to say the battery discharges. There is residual power sufficient for modest backlighting and the message "Connect to Power" with the picture of the battery.

I'd reckon it's a percent or two, and who says regularly beginning a charge cycle at 1-2% is going to rapidly decrease your battery's overall lifespan as opposed to 5%, 10% etc?

I posit that routine battery maintenance such as my approach gives the battery better performance because it uses more of its design capacity with each cycle, but not to the point of a complete discharge (which is to be avoided).
 
dcMobile said:
The phone turns off, but that is not to say the battery discharges. There is residual power sufficient for modest backlighting and the message "Connect to Power" with the picture of the battery.

I'd reckon it's a percent or two, and who says regularly beginning a charge cycle at 1-2% is going to rapidly decrease your battery's overall lifespan as opposed to 5%, 10% etc?

I posit that routine battery maintenance such as my approach gives the battery better performance because it uses more of its design capacity with each cycle, but not to the point of a complete discharge (which is to be avoided).
Click to expand...

i think its a case of personal preference. You are probably right, if the phone is able to display then there is some power left. However, li-ions do not have "memory" per se, so whether you charge at 20% or 60% will not have a significant long-term effect, AFAIK. If your method works for you, great. Doesn't mean anyone elses is less efficient.
 
3hr 5min usage
13hr 22 Min standby
50% batt left

Seems kinda crappy. BT and wifi off btw.
 
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