Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

I'm seeing this message in my Console a lot: Nov 13 21:59:50 unknown SpringBoard[15] <Error>: mms: queued messageId 999. Anyone know if it means anything?

I've posted a few posts to this board over the past month, demonstrating how the best fix for me was a drain to 0% and full charge up twice.  That was a dramatic improvement for my standby time.  However, actualy usage has continued to be a concern.  A couple days ago, I decided to do a test to validate the strength of the battery.  I charged up to 100% overnight and then turned off network, 3G, cell service, bluetooth.  Basically -- everything that would have any chance of reaching the network.  What I found was that I could get 9 hours and 42 minutes of video, which was closely in line with published specifications for the battery life.  To me, this indicates that my battery itself is in pretty good shape. 

Then I went on a trip this weekend.  I live in Raleigh and went to Berea, KY.  Where I stayed there has always had poor Sprint reception.  This time was no different.  Reception was poor but existed.  And, my battery drained much more quickly in standby than normal.  And, it drained incredibly fast whenever I had any kind of usage.  I pieced this experience together with some other experiences where my reception was less than excellent (e.g. 8% loss in 10 minutes while waiting for my takeout food tonight back in Raleigh and using Safari, and only had 1 bar at the restaurant), and I think the overall networking capability on the 4S has a significant impact on the battery life.  I feel like there is really something wrong with the antenna or something else in the way the phone handles any connection to the outside.  I wonder if this new functionality where the phone switches the antenna back and forth causes heavy power usage.

I know that there are multiple contributing factors to the battery life issue, and I think this is just one of them.  For me, its major.  Phone calls drain my battery severely as does 3G usage or WiFi usage whenever the signal is less than perfect or whenever I am moving (i.e. which would cause handoffs between cell towers).  And, the phone also drains quickly when I am NOT using networking capabilities but the network is still on in the background and I am also in a weak zone.  When I am in a strong zone (full bars), I achieve expected battery life.  The problem is that it takes truly ideal conditions to get full bars, and I rarely see that.

guys,

be sure to go through these steps:

1. Reset all settings (settings-> general-> reset)

2. Go through initial setup steps (lang, wifi, siri, enable location, etc) and choose setup as new phone (don't worry your apps, data, contacts, mail will still be there)

3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd

4. Fully discharge battery

5. Fully recharge battery

In my experience this improves the Standby battery drain issue significantly.  It reduces drain from 2-4% or more per hr to 0.5% or less. It worked for many users now. Check my thread here on the process, settings, etc

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3484755?start=0&tstart=0

simonb40 wrote:

 

From the Daily Mail, the iPhone 4S battery costs £3.68...no wonder they last less than previous models!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2059829/Apples-iPhone-4S-price-H ow-really-costs-make.html

But you forgot about R&D, design, marketing, labor, support, shipping and such - so the battery is worth more than 50$ in reality so it's not a cheap battery - think different

This is my 4s, 32GB, AT&T , iOS5.0.1 after a reset, clean install, drain to zero and recharged to 100% on AC.

Settings: location, bluetooth, siri and auto timezone set to OFF. Brightness set at 50% (auto) and no apps installed.

Usage included using the phone, a few texts and web browsing. The battery percentage remained where it was on standby and I would sometimes loose 1% every minute. Here's a screenshot at 1%.

Is this considered bad, normal or good. I know apple touts 200 hours of standby on the iPhone4s. My only gripe with my device is the battery life (which improved slightly after the 5.0.1 update) and a nasty rattle when you tap the camera lens.

Godot97,

Great observations and I agree with your post.  I see at least 2 major issues with the 4S and OS5.  One of them is exactly what you are describing.  I have a 30 mile commute to my work and my battery drain is accelerated during my drive while the phone is in standby mode.   My guess is that it's related to the tower switching and searching which is increased when you are changing locations.  I also believe there are major bugs in OS5 that are creating uncontrolled background processes that may be terminated through many of the steps that people are recommending.  Nice job!

Godot97 wrote:

 

 

[...]  I wonder if this new functionality where the phone switches the antenna back and forth causes heavy power usage.

 

I know that there are multiple contributing factors to the battery life issue, and I think this is just one of them.  For me, its major.  Phone calls drain my battery severely as does 3G usage or WiFi usage whenever the signal is less than perfect or whenever I am moving (i.e. which would cause handoffs between cell towers).  And, the phone also drains quickly when I am NOT using networking capabilities but the network is still on in the background and I am also in a weak zone. [...]

Hundreds of pages ago there was some discussion about this if memory serves me right. It is quite interesting indeed. This is why I advocate for the return of the hardware 3G toggle. Some have said that immediate availability was required to keep Siri snappy. Others have said that the new functionality you describe goes against having the toggle. And I have speculated the it's related to the Qualcomm chip and the feud with Samsung but I'm known for my far fetched theories... a further one would be the "anti-antennagate-gate" if you know what I mean i.e. over-resilience.

Good luck!

I don't think it's the new dual attena. Because, look at all the iPhone 4/3GS users, they have a battery issue too.

I posted about 300 posts ago after I installed 501 that it cleaned up those roag processes left after an app is closed. My free mem increased and wired mem was smaller after closing an app.

It's been 2 days with 501 and my NON BATTERY ISSUE 4s SINCE DAY 1 has a 1-2% More battery increase. As noted in my posts, I charge every 3 days under ave use. Using 10-12% battery per 10hr work day.

"I don't think it's the new dual attena. Because, look at all the iPhone 4/3GS users, they have a battery issue too."

That statement is inconclusive because of the out of control background process theory. It may be IOS 5 triggers different conditions in different devices... some of them unique to some specific devices i.e. dual-antenna for the IP4S for instance.

I agree, but people make it sound more like the Dual Atenna. I do understand all those other points though.

I am curious after teh update which seems to not have solved the problem for a lot of people, has anyone who had been contacted by apple, heard back from them? Do we think this is it and we have to suck it up and just deal with it till the next iphone? Or does anyone think more fixes are coming down the line? I guess I would be curious to know where they come up with those battery stats..I think most people are noticing they are not getting what was advertised....I guess it would be nice to know what the plan is. Personally, I have updated, did resets, and most of the stuff recommended here. However, I think the battery issue, is not software, its just not a big enough battery for the processor the phone has. Unless they could do something to turn down the power the A5 chip consumes to match the battery, it will never be fixed.

Just thought I would post calulated est. @ 85% charge.

3dmac wrote:

 

I posted about 300 posts ago after I installed 501 that it cleaned up those roag processes left after an app is closed. My free mem increased and wired mem was smaller after closing an app.

It's been 2 days with 501 and my NON BATTERY ISSUE 4s SINCE DAY 1 has a 1-2% More battery increase. As noted in my posts, I charge every 3 days under ave use. Using 10-12% battery per 10hr work day.

But you're a high maintenance type of user with little push/pull mail i.e. that's on your laptop - and you're constantly curing backrgound apps. You're on the phone making 3 mins of calls per hour on 10 hrs on average. If you do the same for web and text, then you're a 1h30-2hrs/day internet/3G call per day with no significant standby drain. So it's still 6-7hrs usage. Your usage is similar to what others drain in standby. I suggest your usage scenario is "light" compared to the average user (looking at your shot I would now say "unorthodox" - heavy audio+non network centric). And therein lies part of the problem.

1-Apple has not trained its user base to "cure" the phone

2-Apple has not accounted for the usage increase of its user base, especially 3G web and all around aggregation (and marketing hasn't profiled the phone for light/average use).

Haha

Actually no Audio (don't listen at work, then ipod on my iHome clock in bed) only 3g web, siri, some mail while at work. Oh and calls from my associates.

But you are right about curing the APP's