iPhone 4 Battery Life: Can a Case Really Make Any Difference?

After having my iPhone 4 for about a month, I was quite disappointed with dropped calls, and battery life.  I would get 4-5 dropped calls in a day.  My battery would last 5-6 hours.  This couldn’t be right.  I called Apple support on more than one occasion, and they informed me of the following:

1. If you restore the phone from  a 3G backup, it is known to have issues, such as dropped calls and shortened battery life.
   Strange, but OK.  The tech. told me to reset the phone, and set it up as a new phone.  But what about all my data in the 100s of apps I use?  No way I was going to do this.
2. You need to reset the phone via settings…
   Really? That didn’t help out one bit.

I was seriously considering returning the phone, that is, until my new case arrived.

After ordering my free case from the Apple Free Case Program, I decided to pick up a cheap one at the mall at one of the many stands.  It was one of those cheap soft rubber cases that wrap around the whole phone leaving the screen visible.  At $12, the case from the mall stand seemed to have no effect on dropped calls or battery life.  At least the phone wouldn’t get scratched up while I waited a month for the free Speck case I ordered from Apple.

I finally received the Speck case from Apple and immediately put it on my phone.  The really strange thing is that now my battery lasts a lot longer.  I went through an entire day, since using the new case, and had my battery drop to only 91%.  Without the case, or with the other cheap rubber case, the battery would be below 10% by the end of the day.  On top of that, my signal seems to be stronger as well. I haven’t had a dropped call yet, since using the Speck case.

So, can a case really make a difference?  Who knows.  There are too many variables to know what really is causing the phone to act differently and perform better.  The change happening around the same time I started using the new case could just be coincidence, after all.

For the record, I’m using a fitted case by Speck, which was offered by Apple in their free case program.
http://www.speckproducts.com/products/fitted/iphone-4/239

I really do like the case.