Any iphone experts around?

[primusl0l]

It's my girlfriends time for her plan to be updated to the 4GS and she needs to get rid of her 3GS 16gb. But there is a problem, she used the phone while charging it (a lot). So since I've been messing about with the phone, it seems it doesn't hold a charge very long...so I assumed it needs a new battery.

I formatted the phone and recharged it again, now it's held the charge about 95% for 3 days now....where as before on standby it die after a few hours. Could the apps she had on the phone be causing the battery to die out as fast as it was before? She didn't have that many applications on the phone.

I am not sure what I should list the phone as needing a new battery or not because it seems to be able to hold a charge now since it's been formatted...but as I said before I formatted the battery was dying after a few hours on standby, but now it's lasted 3 days on standby at over 95% charge.

Should I keep testing it for a week or so or just go ahead and list it now as needing a new battery?

I sold my old 3G for $250 on ebay, but I am just worried about selling this 3GS as "needing a new battery" if it actually doesn't.

[Deleted]

an old ip3gs is know to have issues with the battery and you should not list that as it is the buyers responsibility to ask/know about the product they are buying
and having been a iphone user since the first one (jailbreaked since release also) i have experienced that if you never reformat the phone and just update on update the daemons(kinda like startup programs that run in the background, services if you know what that is on windows) the daemons can fall short and request a lot of information
that the cpu cant handle, which results in a slow battery degradation and a fast depletion, i cant post links on the forum yet but google for iphone 3gs battery issue, and you will see that its a common issue that was fixed on the newer models of 3gs, not just that phone and a new model battery in a old model 3gs will result in a worse experience, screen flickering etc, known from own experience

edit: and iirc iphone 4s should have atleast double the time of life as an 3gs, and mine lasts aprox 6-7 days if not used much, so no you deffo dont need a new battery

[Raggamasta]

I'd say the phone probably had things like wifi, 3g and gps turned on all the time. Combine that with automatic mail checks and constant app updates in the background and the battery goes flat very very fast.

I personally keep all those things turned off and only activate them when I actually need wifi, 3g etc. Usually it lets me use my iphone 4 for about a week without recharging.

[Deleted]

Did you update the phone while formattin it? Or did you just erase it and tested?

Some updates have improvements to battery lifetime, so that could be why it last longer now than before.

But don't list it as "needs new battery". Sell it as a normal 3gs. :-)

[dojie]

perhaps she had applications loaded up even if you just open it once they stay running in the background

also as previously stated the older the model the worse the battery capacity is, but still I would just list it as Used and that its bought as described.

edit

also, i would advice against buying the 4Gs, The next iphone is possibly getting announced in the near future and will most likely be hitting the shops before the end of the year.. if there's nothing wrong with the 3gs I would keep it then perhaps either recycle it or sell it on ebay (whichever you think is best/most convenient) then upgrade.

I have 3 iPhones, 3gs 4 and 4gs I gave the 4 and 4gs to friends because of circumstances and don't miss them really. (biggest reason to upgrade is camera really and cpu if you play games/utilize multiple applications) but if she just uses it as a phone I would advice to wait with the upgrade.

[Primernova]

Old phones always tend to get this and yes, it is the battery.

[Deleted]

Old phones always tend to get this and yes, it is the battery.

care to elaborate that? iphones does have the best battery standard on the phonemarket so i really do not understand what you mean
unless you mean old by battery charging and decharging degradation of the battery, then that does not happen until approx 4000 charges with a iphone 4
3gs i dont have the info, but i can assure you there is no battery issue with her phone at all. it was just a combination of background daemons and maybe old updates/old carrier infos, iphone 4s had an issue where battery would lose so much power drop at some point that the sim card voltage was too much
and a carrier update from all carriers fixed that, and 5.0-5.0.1 had huge battery issues, it was drained by a day sometimes, then 5.1 released and reviews has proven much better battery life, tho im jailbroken and wont update til there is an untethered jb for A5 cpus at 5.1

[Deleted]

care to elaborate that? iphones does have the best battery standard on the phonemarket so i really do not understand what you mean
unless you mean old by battery charging and decharging degradation of the battery, then that does not happen until approx 4000 charges with a iphone 4
3gs i dont have the info, but i can assure you there is no battery issue with her phone at all. it was just a combination of background daemons and maybe old updates/old carrier infos, iphone 4s had an issue where battery would lose so much power drop at some point that the sim card voltage was too much
and a carrier update from all carriers fixed that, and 5.0-5.0.1 had huge battery issues, it was drained by a day sometimes, then 5.1 released and reviews has proven much better battery life, tho im jailbroken and wont update til there is an untethered jb for A5 cpus at 5.1

Care to show an example of how iPhones have "the best battery standard"? Besides all the issues with the iPhone 4s battery that is....

Oh and here is a review of smartphone battery life http://www.pcworld.com/article/24324...artphones.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/2719-11288_7...?tag=page;page Get over Apple, they're good, they're not perfect.

[Maharishi]

Could be a range of issues. Doing upgrade installs of os's can lead to odd issues, it's usually good to wipe and restart if things come up. iOS 5.1 resulted in some drain issues for devices that a reinstall solved.

If an app is constantly asking for push notifications, forcing the 3g array to stay on, it can cause heavy drain.

[aztr0]

Push notifications from mail and apps will kill your battery. Old phones' batteries will lose charge easier, its just how it is.

[Deleted]

If you have very CPU intensive apps open in the background such as a video player or games with very good graphics, in my experience that can kill the battery quite fast. Also make sure bluetooth isn't turned on when you're not using it. And push notifications can also have an impact.

My iPhones 3GS is like 3-4 years and and still working without problems. It's a bit slow compared to the iPhones 4S or the newest Android phones, but I'm ok with that.