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

Dec 1, 2011 2:43 AM in response to miless

It's a real shame. I can't really grasp why they needed this piece of software. I would have thought that the carriers could readily get low level feedback from any device on their network just because it's on their network... and that the carriers actually have theoritical access to all the data comes as no surprise. But why subcontract that to a third party? And then for Apple, well as you alluded to the functions may be less intrusive than on some Android devices but so many people bragged about the fact Apple has complete control over the software and doesn't let the carriers install bloatware on their devices and such so it's nothing short of eerie. For BB it's even more troubling maybe because their whole scheme is based on them securing and controlling the data - and now we read the stuff is sent unencrypted over the web through CIQ from what I understand?? Also eerie is the fact that ONE (small??) company would provide the software for the entire industry basically. And then you look at the geographic distribution and it seems very focused on the USA... and Portugal... and not very much so in Canada??!! One can speculate. What is this really about lollll? And MS stuff doesn't have it? Guess we'll be talking a lot about that CarrierIQ stuff...

Dec 1, 2011 2:51 AM in response to Scarface.

Bought the 4s less than a week ago, have upgraded to IOS 5.01 which was supposed to fix the battery bug but clearly has done NOTHING for my iphone, have also tried resetting the phone as per the discussion on other forums.


I charged my phone all night, took it off charge at 7am. it is not 11am yet and the battery life has gone down to 56%. I have Siri turned off and have been checking FB most of the morning, that is all.


When is this going to be fixed? I am so frustrated with this. I have moved from Android to iPhone and really really regret it now.

Dec 1, 2011 3:13 AM in response to Zafff

I have both types of microSIM, and they both exhibit the battery drain problem for me - seems to be something with TMobile SIMs. Three and O2UK SIMs work fine. Got my TMobile SIM replaced several times now, to no avail. The baseband still crashes and restarts every few mins. BUT my TMobile SIM works in someone elses iPhone 4S. So some batches, at least, seem to work with all SIMs.

Dec 1, 2011 4:29 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

FiniteAffinity wrote:


I have both types of microSIM, and they both exhibit the battery drain problem for me - seems to be something with TMobile SIMs. Three and O2UK SIMs work fine. Got my TMobile SIM replaced several times now, to no avail. The baseband still crashes and restarts every few mins. BUT my TMobile SIM works in someone elses iPhone 4S. So some batches, at least, seem to work with all SIMs.

Anyway, only phantom usage problem is clearly solved

by the new SIM. it works for me from november 12.

3 weeks ago now. At this time, i had reported this solution

here , but no one seemed interested.

This does not exempt to do the different settings explained here

to improve the battery life.

Dec 1, 2011 4:37 AM in response to rogerfromfrance



Zafff wrote:


Yesterday i changed my sim to a new technology one. The chip is smaller than the card which i had before


I lost 3-4 % in an hour in standby. Now i am loosing now 0.5 -1 % in Standby. It helped!


Phantom usage is also gone. I hope it will stay like this.


Try to get a new technology Micro-Sim.

it will ! i did it on november 12 and phantom usage was never back

Dec 1, 2011 4:41 AM in response to G Lam

About the Unlocked iPhone

The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice, such as AT&T in the United States.* The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice. It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. To start using it, simply insert the micro-SIM card into the slot on your iPhone and turn it on by pressing and holding the On/Off button for a few seconds. Then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your iPhone.


Check out more about it here (Note for US users.) https://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s


https://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4/about_u nlocked

Dec 1, 2011 5:43 AM in response to drStrangeP0rk

drStrangePOrk - yes... I am not totally technically illiterate. I started using PCs in 1982 and can do just fine on computers and the Internet. Cell phones.. not so much.. but I'm willing to learn.


I am switching from AT&T to Sprint and I have narrowed the phone choice.. after 2 days of research... to the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S despite all these posts about battery problems. Cost is not the issue... a phone that works properly is my only concern.


As someone above posted (and I apologize.. at the moment I don't remember who that was), there have been 10s of millions of iPhones 4 and 4S sold and they clearly wouldn't keep selling if the battery problem was happening to the majority of owners.


My brother is a total Apple afficiando (and has been since Steve Jobs was working in his garage) and he assures me that Apple will fix this problem. So I shall jump into the iPhone 4/4S community and see what happens. If I have battery issues, I know where to come. I just bookmarked your very helpful "fixes" thread.


Now I just need to decide between the 4 and the 4S. I'm leaning towards the 4S.....

Dec 1, 2011 5:53 AM in response to Scarface.

My 4S seems relatively free of issues w/ battery drain or phantom usage but i discovered a few things:


- once every two or three weeks after fully loaded my iPhone begins to run sth. in background until i make a reset -> yesterday i had 7.5 hours of standby AND 7.5 hours of usage after i took it off the powerline

- while draining the battery my iPhone shows me full 3G network but in fact it hasn't any real connection because SMS and other messages of missed calls just arrived after the reset i did more than 7hours later (i'm using a new o2 micro-sim)


interesting: if i stay at a location without any o2 network connection possible the 4S shows me "NO NET" but does not hurt my battery power anyway


I guess the "phantom usage" must have sth. to do with this new 3G-combined chipset and it's software support within iOS5. It's the only logical explanation why e.g. no iPhone 4 w/ iOS5 aren't suffering such problems.

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iPhone 4s Battery Life?

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