That sounds not too far off the mark in terms of power usage. As was mentioned, constant use of GPS receiver and data services will significantly drain the battery. I never drive without my iPhone plugged in.

rsammon wrote:i'm sorry, are you all saying its normal for your iphone to still drain the battery using GPS WHILE it's plugged in?? If that's "normal behavior" the iPhone is worse than I thought lol

You confused me at first. Then I reread the OP and realized I jumped to a confusion. Again.

While plugged in? Absolutely not. I would make sure the charger is really working.

My iPhone4 definitely charges up while running Waze for hours at a time, but it is quite slow. If I enable wifi tethering at the same time (for all those wifi i-devices in a passenger van full of kids), I have seen it charge at 1% over the course of 2 hours.

I've used the Belkin chargers for a while. I've noticed that the dual USB car charger can only charge two devices at 1/2 speed, and when two iPhones are plugged in and I'm running Waze, the battery will drain.

unwallflower wrote:You jumped to a confusion, eh?

Famous for it.

I have an Android phone and I get 4 to 4.5 hours of battery life with Waze running too. A good car charger is worth every penny.

Sorry - I missed the part about it being plugged in as well. I used to have an iphone and it made a difference which car charger I used. The cheap no name charger I got off ebay could not keep up and the battery still drained. Then I splurged and bought an official Apple approved charger and it worked great. All chargers are not created equal.

I always have my iPhone 4 on a charger using Waze. Assuming most wazers use it like I do (as a GPS), you're not only using the location services, but the screen is constantly on, and it is constantly connecting to the internet, which all drain power significantly...

Location services consume a great deal of battery power on mobile phones. Also, searching for network (3G/2G/...) uses large amounts of power (switching 3G off in an area with mediocre coverage will help considerably).

All in all - pretty normal.

i'm sorry, are you all saying its normal for your iphone to still drain the battery using GPS WHILE it's plugged in?? If that's "normal behavior" the iPhone is worse than I thought lol

AlanOfTheBerg wrote: You confused me at first. Then I reread the OP and realized I jumped to a confusion. Again.

You jumped to a confusion, eh?

If you don't have a ton of other power-hungry apps running, I'd be inclined to say there is something wrong with the charger (or your phone!). That's not normal behavior at all.