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iPhone 4s Battery Life?

My iPhone 4s battery seems terrible! Almost equivalent to my 3GS and it's terrible battery life. When I got my iPhone yesterday and restored from backup I noticed nothing really changed with minimal usage and standby! Is this normal or should I consider setting it up as a new phone because maybe something is running in the background that's causing it to drop a percentage every few minutes under light usage? Input would be great!

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 7:14 AM

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12,787 replies

Oct 19, 2011 4:41 AM in response to Adriandiego

I been using this phone since launch day, noticed the battery drain, but thought it needs times to calibrate like any new battery + i've been rinsing all it's features an Siri integration.


But this moring I'm a little concerned. took it off charge at 6:45 (100%), returned to the phone 20 minutes later and it was at 92% !


I did nothing in that time, the phone received no emails/text or any other notification.


It's almost lunch time at work(12:29), ive been using the phone lightly, 4 texts and recieved about 10 emails through google that pushed to the phone with wifi on and my battery is already at 62%.


If I was using my originaly iPhone 4 I could go from 6:45am to 6pm an my battery would be around 75%

Oct 19, 2011 5:17 AM in response to Scarface.

After trying many of the fixes listed here and elswhere to tame the power beast within my phone, I've found a solution that works - at least for me.


My problem seems to have been in the email fetch as well. Here are the steps I went through, battery is great now.


1. Under settings/Location Services - turn off relavant services you don't need running. At bottom of same page under System Services turn off relavant services you don't need running.


2. Settings/General/About/Diagnostics & Usage - make sure Don't Send is checked

3. Settings/General/Bluetooth - off

4. Settings/General/Mail,Contacts - Fetch new data = Off, Push Off, Manually - checked. At bottom of page click Advanced, and make sure that is manual as well.


Battery is great now. Hope this helps.

Oct 19, 2011 5:29 AM in response to Scarface.

I got the iPhone 4s on Friday. On Monday night I let the phone drain all the way down until it shut itself off. I trickle charged it all night. Battery indicator only got to 97% - plugged in from 10:30PM to 6 AM. Tuesday night the battery was down to 13%. I again charged it from about 10:30 until 6:45 - again only 97%. Anyone else experience this? Is this a battery or software issue?

Oct 19, 2011 6:05 AM in response to Scarface.

Hi guys,


first off thanks for all sharing these great insights. Some stuff make me think about how I use the phone and what could be the cause of the faster battery loss. I got it to a point where it doesn't use much when on standby. 1-2% for 3 hours.


Changes made


1*Deleted both email accounts
2 Turned off bluetooth
3*Added back Mobile me + my private domain


Than:
WiFi » On
Notifications » Manual
Location Service On for » Maps, Siri and Weather
Brightness » Auto
iCloud »*Everything ON except DOCUMENTS & DATA + iCloud Backup
Mail » Fetch New Data Off ( I like to check it when I want, not that it beeps all the time)


----


Than I charged it over night. Started at 5:30 am and lost 1% until this post, which is 8:52... I can live with 1% loss in 3 hours, while having the phone on sporadically.


---


I will experiment with putting now selected features back on / one at at time to see what will happened.


It may be DATA & Backup with iCloud. Or may be the long charge over night re-calibrated the battery. I do use use BOOST MAGIC app to tickle off the charge. Good app. But who knows for sure beside Apple.


Hope this helps.

Oct 19, 2011 6:07 AM in response to Scarface.

I've tried all the suggestions in this forum and still have pretty crappy battery life. The only thing that actually worked was turning my phone off. I will try to call APPLE again this evening after work. Last night they just gave me suggestions similiar to those in this forum. I hope there's a fix before my 2 week return time ends.

Oct 19, 2011 6:48 AM in response to Scarface.

I'm sort of curious about why the phone wants the GPS on for "cell network search." I also can't think of any reason why "setting time zone" needs to be done by the phone's GPS when it's likely to be done automatically by the cell network provider (if the setting for using network time is selected). I also don't see any benefit to _me_ by having the phone run the GPS to deliver "location-based iAds." Those are easy.


I also reviewed location services by app. Some, like navigation apps and restaurant-finder apps, obviously benefit, but there were a lot of apps that I can't imagine needing to know geographical location (book-type apps like Bible and Our Choice) and I turned all of those off.


Finally, I did turn on the status bar icon setting for the GPS. Until I get more familiar with iOS5, I want to monitor when the GPS is being turned on because, based on my experience with fitness and navigation apps, having the GPS on makes a big difference in power consumption.

Oct 19, 2011 7:47 AM in response to Scarface.

Two calls this morning and I'm down to 77%...all by 9:44am. This is after a complete drain of battery yesterday and full charge overnight and after turning off wifi and most location services.


Apple, we have a problem. First osx Lion kills the MacBook Pro battery life (I *might* get 2.5 hours off on battery with minimal usage) and now the iPhone 4S (dead by the end of the day with consistent but very basic phone and email usage).


Apple, now is not the time to lose this one important competitive advantage Apple has almost always enjoyed.

As a mobile professional, I can no longer just grab my phone and Macbook and go anywhere for a few hours without also having to pack up both power cords. Really very disappointing. Very.

iPhone 4s Battery Life?

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