Is it just me or does Exchange with Push enabled drain the battery?

Question

+*I'm pretty sure that this is obvious to all - I just don't see how everyone is just okay with it.+*
The iPhone battery is generally very good; even when using MobileMe with Push enabled, etc.
BUT; once you add a Microsoft Exchange account & leave Push enabled, you could probably watch the battery drain like a sewer right after a heavy rain storm.
Personally, I keep my Exchange on Fetch every 15 minutes and this provides an enormous difference in battery performance.
*_Why is everyone just okay with this?_*
+Just to explain my theory+ - if you watch the background activity using XCODE's Console, it's a pretty dead giveaway. Microsoft Exchange with Push enabled is not really utilizing the true 'push' technology; rather, it's actually checking in and pinging the corporate exchange server every 7-10 seconds. This allows the device to maintain the 'push' image of receiving an email in 'realtime'. But all of this is at the tremendous cost of the battery life. Personally, when I leave my Push on, I need to charge my iPhone 2-3 times daily vs. once every other day with Fetch.
+Comments, anyone?+

Answer 1

FireFish wrote:
+*I'm pretty sure that this is obvious to all - I just don't see how everyone is just okay with it.+*
The iPhone battery is generally very good; even when using MobileMe with Push enabled, etc.
BUT; once you add a Microsoft Exchange account & leave Push enabled, you could probably watch the battery drain like a sewer right after a heavy rain storm.
OK, what you are seeing is a problem with your phone, not a general problem with the iPhone or any specific release. Most of the time my phone gets excellent battery life with Exchange Push enabled. Occasionally (a couple of times a year) I suddenly see a heavy battery drain with Push on. I've seen it with every release of iPhone software since Activesync was added. I've concluded that something is broken when this happens. An IT admin in the forum posted about a year ago that he saw many open connections to phones of users when they were reporting this problem. He rebooted the Exchange server and the problem went away for a while. As most of us don't have that option I've found a couple of ways to fix it on the phone. One or more of them has always worked for me.
1. Reset Network Settings on the phone and reboot.
2. Go into Mail,Contacts,Calendar, tap on the Exchange account and turn off all 3 functions. Then reboot, go back and turn them on.
If these don't fix it what I do is go into Settings again and delete the Exchange account. I then reboot and add it back. I then wait several hours for the account to resync (it's best to do this with a WiFi connection). When all of my email, contacts and calendar entries have reappeared I fully charge the phone and test battery life again. This sequence has always worked for me, but I have seen posts from owners who say it did not work. But most say it works.