My 3GS was purchased back in August of 2010 and is still under Apple Care for another few months. I've noticed that the battery life has really started to go flat the last few weeks. Its a tiny bit better with iOS 5.1. But it still runs down very quickly.

I notice if I'm texting or using Safari I can see the battery l;ice go down 5% or so in the span of a few minutes! The charge hold well if I'm not doing anything in standby. I haven't changed any of my usage habits in a very long time. I have push turned off and it set to only fetch new data ever 30 min or so.

I do notice that since I started to use iTunes Match the battery runs down fast as it downloads new songs. But even if I already have played that music file, it still runs down just as fast.

So My questions are; is there something I'm not doing right? What will Apple do if I take my phone into the Genius Bar? Is it time for an upgrade to the 4S because the 3GS is just that old and can't handle all the new awesomeness that is iOS 5.1 and iTunes Match?

My wife and I have similar issues with our 3Gs too. She is still on 3.1 and I am on 4,0.1 (I am jailbroken and unlocked).

My wife plays Solitaire, occasionally listens to music for an hour or so, very rarely browses for something. Her battery gets chewed up PDQ.

I use my phone for email, occasional browsing, and that's it. My battery too gets used up PDQ.

Plus, my phone has become verrrrrrrrrrrrry slow. Anything I click on takes quite long to respond.

I am guessing that it is probably just time to get a new phone. I am just holding out for (a) my contract to end; and (b) for the new iPhone to come out, sometime this year I am hoping. I do not want to do an HUP, I want to buy one unlocked so that I do not have to settle for a jailbroken lower OS version.

Cheers

I'll see what I can do through Apple. But I'm not feeling too happy that my phone is running up o date iOS so poorly. If the phones are not capable of running the software adequately; then they shouldn't be able to run the software. I'd really hate to upgrade to a 4S and have the next gen phone blow that out of the water!

My wife and I have similar issues with our 3Gs too. She is still on 3.1 and I am on 4,0.1 (I am jailbroken and unlocked).


that does make me feel better .. i was always under the impression that the updates killed the battery. If you guys are running 3.1 and 4.0.1 and im on 5.0.. seems like its just the phone itself over time not an iOS update. For me, push off has really really helped. love the feature, but fetching every 30 min or so i can live with atm.

Again it's good to see I'm not alone in this. If anyone has any success with Apple taking a phone in lets keep this thread updated with any info!

I'd be totally fine if they just handed me a refurb iPhone 3GS. At least then I would have a "like new phone" until the fall...