Just picked up a new 16GB 3GS on Sunday

[Entrical]

I opened the shiny new box and checked out my Settings --> General --> About, and lo-and-behold, it was running 3.1.2! Jailbroke it with blackra1n ASAP. I love the phone so far, coming from a Blackberry Curve 8310.

I installed Cydia, SBSettings, Backgrounder, Winterboard, a theme, and I think that's it. A few apps/games from App Store too.

My problem is: BATTERY LIFE Here's my setup

WiFi, 3G, Location, Notifications, Push, ALL OFF when I'm not using the phone. Brightness as low as it can go until it's still visible. Indoors it's usually all the way down. Outdoors, maybe 20%. It's also on standby. I only use WiFi at home, 3G while browsing the net on the go, and location when I'm using Maps. I always close any open apps via Backgrounder before I put my phone in my pocket.

I burn through my battery like no tomorrow just browsing the net. 20-30 minutes of browsing with 3G and 4 bars drains about 15%. Streaming Pandora for 1 hour drains my battery 20%+.

Now I don't know if this is normal, but coming from an 8310 that can last on standby for a week, and can stream 7 hours straight of Pandora while browsing the net and making a few calls, without completely dying, this kinda sucks. I went from a 95% charge when I woke up this morning at 5:30am, to a 22% charge when I got home at 3:00pm.

Is it normal? Do I have a bad iPhone?

Edit: I forgot, here's my usage today.

No phone calls
Light texting, maybe 50 inc/out texts total.
Total of maybe 1 hour browsing on 3G
1.5-2 hours of streaming Pandora on 3G
1 hour of listening to MP3's via 'iPod'

 

[mth785]

If iPhone lasts you most of the day then your phone is fine. I plug mine in every night.
The iPhone will always burn through energy faster than a blackberry.

 

[sufferrar]

That sounds normal. The iphone 3gs eat batteries.

 

[DataCentre]

And from my experience, jailbreaking also eats more of the battery.

 

[Mustang5Oh]

i dont see how jailbreaking could eat more battery. unless you are running apps in the background or doing something that is causing things to always be on then there would be no explanation for less battery life.

i was at disneyland a few weeks ago with 3 other people. my wife and i are both jailbroken and the other 2 people had non jailbroken iphones. i was taking photos of my daughter all day and posting them on facebook, making calls, texting photos and at the end of the looooong day there i was the only one whos iPhone didnt die. so i disagree that jb causes reduced battery life.

 

[big9erfan]

Jailbreaking in and of itself will not use more battery, but things like winterboard, CAN chew through battery more.

Streaming music over 3G will eat your battery alive. Browsing can be pretty bad too depending on your signal strength as well. If you have a very strong signal it's not as bad as if you have low signal and the phone is constantly looking for a better signal

 

[JustinHorn]

If you have a very strong signal it's not as bad as if you have low signal and the phone is constantly looking for a better signal

Yeah, when you have a low signal the phone has to boost it's 3G signal which uses more power rather than if you are standing next to a tower and have good signal.

 

[lungho]

Welcome to The Family. Here......have a glass of Kool-Aid!

All kidding aside, I agree with what others have said. Your usage is pretty close to mine. On average, I make it home after an 8hr day with about 20% batter left. Unfortunately for you, your phone seems to operating fine. No cause for alarm.

 

[LVCIFER]

I'm reading this, laughing.

Why?

Because I charge my iPhone 3-4 times a day. Yes, really.

AND I have the InCase PowerSlider charging case.

AND there's nothing wrong with my battery, or draining. I just literally don't put my phone down during the day.

I use it a lot for work and personal life as well, so it literally rarely leaves my sight.

I WISH I only had to charge it once a day and that it would be enough.

 

[spidermanroach]

Yea i charge mine also maybe a couple times a day to boost it up a little bit, but that sounds very normal.

 

[mysterio]

It's recommended to do a hard reboot after doing the changes you specified. Unless you have a tethered jailbreak unit, in which case you'll have to rerun blackra1n again for your 3GS to boot.