I love my iPhone 3G because it’s slick, powerful and has endless possibilities. The only major issue I find with this wonderful gadget is the battery life. I only wished it could last one full day without dieing on me. This is where I started tweaking some settings on it and believe it or not, it actually improved the battery life.

Here are my personal recommendations.

1- Turn off 3G and manage to browse with EDGE.

You’re probably thinking 3G is much faster than EDGE so why not use it. I agree to a certain extent. If you’re checking the stock market, the weather, and e-mail or even surfing the net, you don’t really need the 3G connection so just turn it off it will then switch to EDGE automatically. Use 3G if you’re streaming video from YouTube for example.

Turn off 3G: Settings > General > Network > Enable 3G > turn it OFF

Besides the iPhone 3G generates 1.388 w/kg of radiation. They say the maximum allowed is 1.6 w/kg. I’m not saying this will kill you but why not avoid it if possible.

2- Turn off Wi-Fi when not in use

Turn off your Wi-Fi when not in use, you will save power. If you frequently use your iPhone to browse the net, use Wi-Fi. Your battery life will improve by using Wi-Fi instead of 3G or EDGE.

Turn off Wi-Fi: Settings > General > Network > Wi-Fi > Turn it OFF

3- Turn off Bluetooth

If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn it off.

Turn off Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > set Bluetooth to Off

4- Adjust the screen brightness

You can turn the brightness down a little bit. Keep it between 10 % and 20%. Don’t boost the brightness all the way up to use it as a flashlight. There are several flashlight applications available on the Apple Store.

Turn off Brightness: Settings > Brightness > Adjust it

5- Set your Screen Auto-Lock to 1 minute

Sometimes you forget to lock your screen by pressing the switch on the top right side of the iPhone after usage. Set your Auto-Lock to 1 minute to shut the screen accordingly.

Set Auto-Lock to 1 minute: Settings > General > Auto-Lock > Set it to 1 minute

6- Turn Push and Notifications to OFF

Push and Notifications are turned OFF on all my applications. This has dramatically improved my battery life. I also have two e-mail accounts configured that don’t have push enabled since I check for mail often manually.

I personally set my Push to OFF and Fetch to manual. You can set Fetch to hourly if you wish.

Turn off Push: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Turn Push to Off and adjust Fetch to Manually or Hourly

Turn Notifications off: Settings > Notifications > Turn it OFF

Note: If the global Fetch setting is set to Manually, you will not be able to locate your iPhone using the MobileMe Find My iPhone feature.

7- Use Airplane mode

When you are in a low or no coverage area, turn Airplane mode ON. Your iPhone always tries to maintain connection with the cellular network hence; it will use more power in low or no coverage areas.

Turn on Airplane mode: Settings > Airplane Mode > Turn it ON

General Note: The electrons of your lithium-based iPhone battery have to keep moving for proper maintenance. Make sure you charge your battery 100% and drain it down once a month.

Try these settings and write a comment to let me know if you saw improvements with your battery life.