iPhone 4s Battery Life?

My impression is that Apple doesn't even recommend draining the battery down until shutdown but they have dumbed down their wording for consumers. The main point is to use your device enough so that it equates to 1 full charge cycle per month. This keeps the electrons moving on a regular basis which is what is most important for Li based batteries. FYI, all Apple devices with sealed batteries have protection circuitry so that the battery is never fully drained but the device will shut down when it is close to full drain. Regardless, I do not recommend draining to shutdown because there is no major benefit in doing this.

sbailey4 wrote:

Well you are somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect. Li-ion battery have better results charging them before they are too low. Also the charge cycles are not based on how many times you plug it in but rather the percentage. So if you have a battery that drops to 50% and you plug it in, it only counts for 1/2 a cycle, if you plug in again at 50% there is the other 1/2. Same if it drops to 20% then you have used 80% of a cycle. So really not using up your cycles per se. Li-ion really do not like to be fully discharged although Apple does recommend once a month and I have read a few other places that this is good for Apples batteries.

thebigDan wrote:

sbailey4, we are dealing with batteries, the more you charge them, the sooner the battery dies, because they have a charge life cycle. If you don't need to charge it, you shouldn't. Although on the recommended tips to prolong battery life, they recommend atleast 1 time a month to do a full drain, then charge to full.

sbailey4 wrote:

Well you are somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect. Li-ion battery have better results charging them before they are too low. Also the charge cycles are not based on how many times you plug it in but rather the percentage. So if you have a battery that drops to 50% and you plug it in, it only counts for 1/2 a cycle, if you plug in again at 50% there is the other 1/2. Same if it drops to 20% then you have used 80% of a cycle. So really not using up your cycles per se. Li-ion really do not like to be fully discharged although Apple does recommend once a month and I have read a few other places that this is good for Apples batteries.

thebigDan wrote:

sbailey4, we are dealing with batteries, the more you charge them, the sooner the battery dies, because they have a charge life cycle. If you don't need to charge it, you shouldn't. Although on the recommended tips to prolong battery life, they recommend atleast 1 time a month to do a full drain, then charge to full.

You didn't mention if you have any apps installed. Or if you're sure about your SIM sanity.

You might try cellular data off or airplane mode while you sleep and compare. And - don't laugh - leaving the phone close to a window. Yes, it goes that far with such a phone.

Good luck!

edit: Apple should build a macro command for this phone, which people could use before going to bed with a specific swipe/gesture... along the lines of "close taskbar apps+soft reset+cellular data off+airplane mode".

I take note of the fact that not only the battery indicator is unreliable, but also the USAGE numbers themselves - at least in relation to call time. Furthermore, it also seems there is variation in the indicator reliability depending on charge cycles numbers since first use AND iOS version. That makes it very hard to make intelligent analysis. Although the 7/22 spec or a variation thereof is common your printscreens are henceforth useless, especially at half battery and such. Stopping the test at 1% is useless too - the mark should be when it dies and shuts down.

lolll

Which is why, the only way to do this is to use a stopwatch and take down notes ("just did 42 mins of calls, just did 25 mins of 3G web browsing" etc.) with pen and paper i.e. reliable stuff.

Good luck!

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

You didn't mention if you have any apps installed. Or if you're sure about your SIM sanity.

You might try cellular data off or airplane mode while you sleep and compare. And - don't laugh - leaving the phone close to a window. Yes, it goes that far with such a phone.

Good luck!

No apps installed. Got a new SIM two days ago, just to be sure. I've left Mobile Data off while testing overnight but that makes no difference. I've tried Flight Mode and have had mixed results - sometimes it will still rack up hours of usage other times only about 1.5 hours. Not tried leaving it by a window overnight but it is left in a spot that has 5 bars on 2G. 3G is very weak in my immediate area. In my workplace during the week 3G reception is very good, usually 5 bars, but still I can leave the phone on my desk in standby all day and it will still report hours worth of usage. It seems the only time I can leave it overnight without it reporting any significant usage is with the SIM removed. There's been word of certain phones (DN serial #) not playing nicely with certain SIM cards, and Im now convinced that that is the case with mine.

Glad to know I'm not the only one experiencing such crappy battery life but it's getting out of hand. I purchased my 4s in October and did all the recommended tips to no avail. Ended up getting a replacement phone this last Friday and still encountering the battery life issue, even worse than before! When given the replacement phone, it had 4% battery and I charged it to 100% before uploading any apps. I drained the battery and recharged it, thinking it needed a fresh charge cycle. Still *****. Last night, I went to bed with a 100% charge and when I woke up two hours later, I was down to 86%. I never have Siri or location services on, have mail and calendars set to manual, don't allow notifications of any kind. What's the point in paying over $200 for a new phone if the old phone works best? And what are the odds of having the same issue on two separate devices?

If I didn't have to break the contract to get out of this phone, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I noticed today that the iPhone 4S generates half of the standby.

For example, I took out my phone about 1 hour 20 minutes ago from the charge and this is its readings:

Usage: 40 minutes

Standby: 1 hour 20 minues

(Note: I did not open my phone during standby. I only checked the time once on the lock screen.)

Obviously, 80/2 is 40 so the phone uses half of the standby time, from the readings I got. That is why many people, including me, reported extra usage time when they didn't even touch their phone.

what does your serial# start with - DN by any chance?

Why does all this matter when we bought the Phone we purchased NEW phones. That we are suppose to be able to use just like others before hand. The problem is not the consumer who purchased a defective product but rather Apples who sold them and continues to sell a product they know is defective and has serious problems. Why can't they just come out admit they have a serious problem that they cannot fix....They have had ample time to fix this.....Buy all of them back and offer a deal on the 5's when they come out providing they work correctly......I know of no other manufacturer of phones telling you to turn off all the functions of the phone and do not use this or that to save your battery, which by the way turn everything off you want and you still have the same problem I am just thankful I was able to get my money back for the one I had

i bought my ip4s 11 days ago.i gave it back today and got a new one.

ip4s 16gb 9A406

usage:4 hours and 50 minutes

stand by:2 days and 4 hours

battery 1%

previous ip4s results.

my first ip4s lost 25% battery today in one hour.i hope ios 5.1 is a solution for our problem.

I installed ios 5 on my 3Gs. Everything works fine except battery. Same thing, lasts 4-5 hours even if no telephone calls. Have turned off everything I am aware of that could be draining it.

Before the upgrade I did not have a problem.

Vomgottsland wrote:

The problem is not the consumer who purchased a defective product but rather Apples who sold them and continues to sell a product they know is defective and has serious problems. Why can't they just come out admit they have a serious problem that they cannot fix....They have had ample time to fix this.....

They are releasing updates and trying to fix this... and not everyone's affected so there's no reason for them to stop selling it.

OK, clearly, the standby time is NOT what it implies, but rather 'Time since last full charge'.

And everyone with a smartphone should understand that the phone is always 'doing something'. It checks for incoming calls, checks for contact with the cell, checks to see if you have alarms (each minute), checks to see if you have reminders set by time, and/or location (if location is on), and does other things typical for computers, such as memory management, updates the clock, etc. Exactly what increments this time counting for 'usage' is pretty hard to define. All of this takes CPU action, so it eats some battery power.

Those who have usage numbers equal to their standby numbers should consider having someone check the phone for tasks running in the background that shouldn't be there. My usage numbers are reasonable, given the time I actually have the phone in use in some way, and the aforementioned basic functions. Really high usage numbers should be suspect.

Not all 4S phones have a problem with battery life. It may be that there was a bad run of some chip in the phones, or some other 'production run' problem. Nailing it down may take some time. I am just happy I am not one of the 'victims'. Note that the 4S is not the only smartphone with battery life complaints, the Galaxy Nexus has a problem as well.

OK. As long as the phone is ready when you are, you are happy? Then charge it every night, and you will be pretty sure it will be ready, unless you use it in your sleep. Grin.

owh786 wrote:

@ rphunte42

Yes but a feature phone is not a smartphone and moreover is not an iPhone!!

The reason why I bought an iPhone after having an android is battery life + ease of use.

The way I use my iPhone is: it will be on standby most of the time until I need it for its smartphone features e.g apps, safari and to a certain extent even the text messaging is easier on an iPhone!!!

I wrote you, if you don't have problems (lol not a victim) why do you spam here? Retired - what about some golf? Nobody wants to know about galaxy s battery issues, the users here have problems with the iphone! Accept it!

I am sad to report that there is not new solution to the battery problem with the iphone 4S. Today I visited, the Apple Store and their only response to the problem "we are working on it". To tell you the truth this make me even more mad. I had to leave work, and go to the store for what an answer that I was able to obtain online via the Internet. When you spend so much money on your phone. You do not expect sorry we don't know what is the problem. It is pretty sad that apple only response is we are working on it.The new upgrade in the software did not solve the problem at all. My recommendation to Apple is to recal all the preview iphone 4s, and replaced them with the new model coming soon.