iPhone 2.0 Battery Life and ActiveSync (Bug 29903)

[jjzhuang]

So here at Zimbra we also have different expereince regarding battery life from user to user. For example, my iPhone actually holds battery really well, even though I have push email turned on and I hear beep of incoming messages all day long. Some other users can only last to noon even after they turned off push altogether. I'm not sure if it's related to battery age and remaining capacity. If it's age alone then it doesn't explain why my iPhone is better since I waited in line a year ago when it first came out, and have since charged the device everyday.

[Dirk]

I've now got access to the iPhone 3G's and have begun testing, so far I'm not seeing an issue with battery life but I'll continue investigating it.

[edit: typo that made the sentance make no sense at all !]

[jjzhuang]

I'm sure everyone has seen this:

Apple - Batteries - iPhone

[alexadri23]

I just got mine yesterday. I'm connected thru active zinc. I have the same problem here. My battery was almost dead. I unplug it around 6am and by 12noon it was in 10%. when i was using imap in the old iphone I didn't have this problem. What could be the issue here?

[Jason Hung]

I believe that's the case. I turned off Contacts and Calendar syncing and my battery is now very operational. I've had the phone on with normal usage and have received maybe 10 emails today, and I only have 90 contacts and no events in my calendar and made maybe 30 min of phone calls and little Web usage. However, the same phone that goes untouched with Calendar and Contacts syncing will drain in a matter of three hours receiving maybe 3 emails in that time period. I think we have a real issue hereーdefinitely not my imagination.

[jjzhuang]

Originally Posted by Jason Hung

I think we have a real issue hereーdefinitely not my imagination.

OK, that's possible. File a bug and we'll look into it. Thanks!

[mswilson]

Originally Posted by jjzhuang

OK, that's possible. File a bug and we'll look into it. Thanks!

J.J., there's already a bug filed (see the thread title), but nothing has happened to it yet:

Bug 29903 &ndash; iPhone 2.0 Zimbra <-> ActiveSync Push Mail Does Not Put Phone into Standby Mode, Consuming Battery Quickly

[Jason Hung]

J.J.,

Do you think the non-functional contact photo sync and/or the multiple calendar sync are related to this bug? I have photos attached to my contacts, yet none of them download. Is the iPhone expecting some result that is causing it to keep it in Usage mode?

I've noticed that in a stock Exchange 2003 / iPhone setup or a Mail-Only Zimbra ActiveSync setup will only rise in Usage mode slightly throughout the entire day, while the phone is kept on Usage mode the entire time when Calendar and Contact sync are enabled.

I'll try to run an experiment on a fresh Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 installation and Zimbra NE 5.0.8 and tell you what I find. I'll populate an account with contact photos and one without and see what the results are.

[mporter]

I can personally confirm a significant difference in battery performance with push activated. I had only my calendar and contacts being pushed (more about why only these below). This weekend, my battery last approximately 4 hours during a trip this weekend where nothing for contacts and calendars should be changing.

FWIW, we are suffering from a Zimbra ActiveSync issue for mail. If we activate mail ActiveSync, load on the Zimbra server spikes through the roof.

Just some warnings - not a deterrent from Zimbra. Zimbra has been very forthcoming by stating iPhone support is *not* GA. That should be noted and appreciated.



Cheers,
Matthew

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Matthew E. Porter
Contegix
Beyond Managed Hosting(r) for Your Enterprise

[Jason Hung]

I agree with Matthew. J.J., we're happy Zimbra customers that are just trying to help improve the product. We think there are issues with the beta, and we're just reporting bugs as we see them. I've noticed that Bugzilla has made some changes to the bug I filed.

I haven't got time to run the fresh Zimbra installation experiment yet, but I've tested the iPhone on our decommissioned Exchange 2003 server and can say that ActiveSync works as intended with Exchange 2003.