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

Jan 16, 2012 10:35 PM in response to DKay

@DKay



DKay wrote:


Well in that case - what about a batch of dodgy batteries?

No, it looks like the batteries my itself has nothing wrong. The issue looks like is with the iPhone 4s which consumes the battery faster than in specifications!



Is Apple using more than one source as supplier.... because clearly not every user is affected??

Majority of iPhone 4s are affected by the battery life issues and/or static noise issue. The thing is for some people is fine that the battery lasts ~1.5 days and they charged every night. For some people this is not fine!

Also iPhone 4S is obviously a downgrade from iPhone 4. On iPhone 4 one gets 4 days of use and on iPhone 4s one gets ~1.5 day of use with a lot of settings off!


Also, on this forum one can see only the tip of the iceberg because mostly people from USA, Canda, and UK are complaining here about their iPhone 4s battery issues!

Jan 16, 2012 10:39 PM in response to sbailey4

@sbailey4

I mean even if you could get an even swap you still have what you want. Before the 4s the 4 was the same price as the current release.

Why would I swap iPhone 4s with a iPhone 4? iPhone 4 is cheaper than iPhone 4s and by doing this I would loose money!


I want full refund for my iPhone 4s which has a miserable battery life, static noise issues, and unbeliveable bad call quality!!! It is not my fault or your fault that Apple sold me such a bad iPhone 4S!

Jan 16, 2012 10:47 PM in response to sbailey4

@sbailey4



sbailey4 wrote:


HAHA yep. Of course my battery is fine and enx23 dont have anywhere to plug his in for several days. So i may have the slight advantage on that one 🙂

I have always been using my mobile phones as mobile phones! I have not been using my mobile phones as laptops (i.e. wherever I see a plug I jump on it and plug the laptop) or like land-line phones!


I think that a minimum requirement for a mobile phone is to last at least 40 h (24h+16h) so if one forgets to charge during a night to be able to get to the next night! If it is not possible for Apple to build such a mobile phone than it should clearly specificy in its specifications!


Right now iPhone 4S lasts ~200 hours if one keeps Wifi and Cellular Data off all the time which is not realistic! What is the point of buying and super expensive iPhone 4s if one keeps off wifi and Cellular data off all the time? Bragging?


How come that iPhone 4s is so much worse compared to iPhone 4?

Jan 16, 2012 11:00 PM in response to svwvk

@svwvk



svwvk wrote:


ℹ iOS 5.1 Beta 3 does not fix battery issues.


http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/01/16/battery-ios-5-1-b3/


On 6th replacement of iPhone 4S 32GB on AT&T


---


With the iPhone, something happened with the new OS or the new phone, and it just started running through the battery so fast. I’ve had a lot of issues with things I have to turn off just to save the battery life. - Wozniak


This is a very bad news, that iOS 5.1 beta 3 does not fix the battery life on iPhone 4s! Lately I have seen more and more reports like this! Most likely the first reports that the battery life is better with iOS 5.1 beta 3 were due to restarting the iPhones 4s.


So here it is a little bit of iOS 5 and iPhone 4s history:

- iOS 5.0 beta => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.0 => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.0.1 beta => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.0.1 build 1=> didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.0.1 build 2 => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.1 beta 1 => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.1 beta 2 => didn't fix the battery life issue

- iOS 5.1 beta 3 => didn't fix the battery life issue


This looks like it is just not possible to fix the battery life issues on iPhone 4s with software updates!!!


The only ways known to work for saving battery life on iPhone 4s are:

- keep the iPhone 4s off, or

- use the iPhone 4s without a SIM card, or

- use the iPhone 4s with airplane mode on, or

- do not use WIFI and Cellular Data at all!

Jan 17, 2012 12:10 AM in response to Scarface.

Okay this worked for me!!! i let my battery go to 0 every 4-5 weeks....

Also i turn off siri, location services, Even sometimes iCloud coule be the problem but not for me!!!!


And i put my brightness down to a quarter of full brightness...


When i didnt do these steps my battery lost about 10% in 20 mins. But as soon as i did these steps it goes down about 2-4% in 20 mins.....


HEKKO1235

Jan 17, 2012 12:38 AM in response to Scarface.

Well, seems like Apple does have a KB article... "iPhone: Hardware troubleshooting" - I have never seen anyone in this thread post that link... I have never seen that article before. May be useful to some:


http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2802. I extract the "Battery life seems short" section of the document FYI:


  1. Click ( www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html) for tips on how to prolong iPhone's battery life.
  2. Try turning iPhone off and then on again.
  3. Connect iPhone to iTunes and restore iPhone.
  4. If the screen shows a low-battery image, iPhone is low on power and needs to charge for up to ten minutes before you can use it.
  5. When charging iPhone, make sure to leave it charging until it is fully charged.


Of note are the 2 sections in "Call and connection issues" about "Intermittent service" and "No signal strenght" - in both cases, step 4 states this:


"If you are using the iPhone on a CDMA network, ensure that your Preferred Roaming List is updated. Contact your carrier for assistance."


What is this? Just curious because I don't remember hearing about that here before i.e. the "Preferred Roaming List".


Anyways, not that this stuff solves anything really but it can be useful for newbies and I can't believe in over 613 pages I haven't seen this posted here - and that no multi thousand points user attracted anyone's attention to this stuff. So a long time ago I pointed out to the fact that Apple didn't have a document for best practices and all, and even though the document could go further, incorporating more stuff that was discussed here, it is still there and contains the basic stuff like reset/restore etc. So I take back what I had said in that respect. Yet they should make this a "sticky" to any thread in this section of the forum - it should appear at the top of every page. Anyways...

Jan 17, 2012 1:11 AM in response to sbailey4

I just did it with my Mac and it worked. I called my iPhone and as soon as I answered, the red "dot" appeared on the screen and when I ended the call, it turned off. Looks like my Raise to Speak sensor is off while I'm still experiencing battery drainage. I just lost 5% (77-72%) from approximately 10:40AM-12:30PM during an exam I had (wifi, etc. all off). And I lost 11% last night when it was on airplane mode (6:30 hours) from 11:30PM to 6:00AM. I can't turn off my iPhone while sleeping because I need an alarm to wake me up every day of the year.

sbailey4 wrote:


Well you can actually take a digital camera and look through the viewfinder at your phone. You will see the red dot up near the ear piece. If you dont see it then you are good. If its still on after turning off raise to speak, reboot the phone (maybe twice is needed sometimes). If you are not seeing it and still not sure, make a call and watch it through your camera. A call make it come on to turn off display while near your face. So you will be able to tell. In a call should be on, end call should turn off. Siri raise to speak always on when display is on (not lock screen)

rphunte42 wrote:


AliAR wrote:


How can I test to see if the Raise to Speak sensor is on?

Well, one way is to go to the 'home' screen, and raise the phone to your ear. If Siri comes on, it's on. However, it may STILL be on if it doesn't come on. Not sure how you can be sure. Raise to speak was unreliable on my phone, so, not liking it anyway, I just turned it off.

Jan 17, 2012 5:31 AM in response to nicolasvr

Thats interesting info. WhatsApp has been posted several times as causing severe battery drain. Kinda interesting that now its gone. Plus if you have had it the whole time that could be why your phone is not behaving. Actually would be good if you ran it default (after the reset) to see how it performs. That would tell whether your particular device is defective or if its some of the apps you happen to be installing. Let us know how it works now without that app installed.

Jan 17, 2012 5:47 AM in response to enx23

Um because you despise the 4s and are convinced it dont work and wont work. Say you cant sell or return it. You have stated many times that the 4 is superior. And until the 4s came out the price was exactly the same. So I thought maybe this would help you since you stated you cannot get a refund now and seem to be happy with the 4. Loose money, well if you truly have a phone you cannot use you would be a lot better off having one you can use therefore not be loosing money. It was just a suggestion enx. Of course you can keep the 4s and continue to complain about it. Certainly your choice.

enx23 wrote:


Why would I swap iPhone 4s with a iPhone 4? iPhone 4 is cheaper than iPhone 4s and by doing this I would loose money!


I want full refund for my iPhone 4s which has a miserable battery life, static noise issues, and unbeliveable bad call quality!!! It is not my fault or your fault that Apple sold me such a bad iPhone 4S!

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iPhone 4s Battery Life?

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