Hi Paul and welcome
The increasing problem of battery life with all smartphones. Early reports for the new iPhone 5 is that it has a poorer battery life than its predecessor, the iPhone 4s. Similarly, the new android platform, Jelly Bean, run on phones such as the Galaxy S3, has many users claiming greater power drain than on its predecessor, the Ice Cream platform.
The marketing bumf Apple put out with the iPhone 4 was 300 hours of life, on further investigation this was for a phone kept in standby, without making any calls or running any applications and kept at a constant temperature of 20°C. In reality I average around 25-30 hrs. Whilst Kate manages nearer 35-40 hrs. mainly because I use the more resource-intensive features such as video and satnav that really drain the battery, in video mode it has been down to 4 hrs.
Other than Paul’s charger, and I am looking forward to hearing how you get on with it Paul, the best option is to try and improve battery life. Apple recommends several usage behaviours to maximize the battery life of an iPhone, and after reading various apple forums these are the measure I employed, they increased my battery life by around 20%
* Keep the phone as near as possible to room temperature, and avoid exposing it to extreme heat or cold; personally I keep in an inside pocket of my fleece when walking.
* Turn off satnav, email auto-check, Bluetooth and other networking features when not in use.
* When out of coverage areas, place the iPhone in Airplane Mode to stop the device from constantly searching for signal.
* Use the dimmest available screen brightness, or use the Auto-Brightness setting.
* Keep the iPhone locked when not in use to turn off the screen.
Lyle wrote:
Note: Rechargeable Li-ion batteries have a cycle life – the finite number of times they can be recharged before no longer functioning correctly – and personally I would replace the battery of a second hand phone.Apple’s bumf again states an iPhone battery to still retain approximately 80% of its original capacity after 400 recharging cycles – the more recharge cycles the greater the reduction in capacity. Yet like their battery life claims many net reports are around half that figure with batteries needing replacing at 600 cycles (the number of times the battery is recharged to full capacity). As with all Lion rechargeable batteries, to minimize the capacity loss, fully drain and recharge the battery at least once every month.
Apple provides a replacement program for batteries that no longer hold a satisfactory charge. For iPhones still under warranty, Apple will replace the battery if it no longer holds 50% of its original charge. Apple performs out-of-warranty replacements for a fee. Other companies also offer battery replacement and do-it-yourself kits, but note using these services will void the iPhone's warranty.
