The iPhone 3G S battery: you'd better save it with a proper setup

One week with the iPhone 3G S, by now. Experiencing some concerns, too, as I told in another post. One of the greatest concerns I still have is about battery life. After completing some full recharge cycles, the battery was performing poorly. I mean: still using the factory settings, the iPhone wouldn't last from dawn to sunset. And when I had to make a couple of calls, I charged it twice in a day. Not reasonable.

Turning 3G off

Although I'm not using any push service nor other background applications, the first thing I tried to turn off was 3G. It surely depends on hoy good the network coverage where you live. In my case, at office we've got a pretty bad coverage and 3G seems to improve it very much. Deactivating that option made thing go worse and battery drain was not reduced. This weekend, at home, I turned it off again and here, with a good and stable coverage, things got a lot better.

Turning WIFI off

I noticed that, even if I only connect to a wireless network at home, the iPhone would probably be scanning the networks all day long. Deactivating WIFI when not using it greatly improved battery life. I consider this to be the setting which impacted me most.

Reducing screen brightness

The iPhone's got a relatively big and brilliant screen. That drains a lot of power, too. I reduced the brightness to almost the acceptable minimum (here in Spain the sun is pretty bright, too) and the improvement isn't once more negligible.

Conclusion

Yes, what I said it's pretty obvious and you probably would avoid it, but the sad reality is that the iPhone battery wouldn't last a day with those option turned on. Depending on how much you use the net, you should consider keeping the charger (or an USB cable) with you instead of continuously turning these options on and off. In my case, I'm using the iPhone just like... a phone, and it's not a nuisance to turn these settings off.