iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Well a full reset sometimes fixes underlying issues with corrupt settings and rogue apps. This also tells you whether you have faulty hardware. If it runs like it should in this state then you add back some current apps (preferably ones updated to work correctly with iOS5) and do so a few at a time until you find a particular offending app. It could also allow you to put all back with no issue if it were corrupt firmware or other setting.

Actually the 4s is not "empty" from the factory. You have mail, calendar,photos,youtube,music,phone and lots of standard items that the typical busy person would use. Sure Angry Birds is not on there 🙂

Also is saves from returning 5 and 6 iPhones to Apple only to have the exact same issue cause you restore corrupt settings and apps back on each one.

Jameson! wrote:

So let me get this straight.... You have a completely empty phone, with all "vanilla" settings and nothing loaded on it? And you consider that a potential solution? Please tell me what I'm missing here?

AliAR wrote:

This may, I'll say it again, may be the solution to the drainage and again, I didn't investigate it fully but I'll tell you what I did. I restored my iPhone as a new phone and didn't install any third-party application, music, videos, or contacts so basically, my iPhone is 'fresh' or 'clean'. I then noticed a huge battery drainage, possibly 3% in less than 30 minutes and I then checked every single setting in settings to see if anything's wrong.

I went to [Settings>General>Restore] and then Erase All Data And Settings. So that's all. I think this is the fix. I will check my phone tomorrow morning, it's 10:52PM local time now.

(To make it clear: I restored as a new phone from iTunes, then erased all data and settings from the iPhone.)

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

rphunte42 wrote:

Well, power off would probably get you there. Of course that severely limits useability....

Ah, the theoretical limits of meaninglessness. I thought there wouldn't be much a difference between standby time and off time but I guess I'm wrong. Someone should test it. Then Apple can add it to the spec sheet - 600hrs off!! I hope in iPhone 5 they add a tiny liquid crystal display so that you can still use it for time/clock when it's off... further value!

Actually, there is a LOT of difference between standby and power off. It is the nature of a smartphone that they are ALWAYS doing something. I have the iPhone running two apps right now, and it lists over 30 programs running in the background. Probably most of them are just waiting, but some are consuming CPU time, so the battery must keep the processor running, and the radios are always on, checking to see if anything is coming in, and the alarms (if any are set) much be checked each minute.

Your expectations might be more reasonable if you really understood that smartphones are just very small computers.

Note that since all smartphones I have seen have electronic power on sequences, that is at least SOME chip has to watch for you to press the button, they will still draw some battery power even when 'powered off'.

Jameson! wrote:

[...]This panic has caused everyone to put logic and common sense aside and run wild to any possible answer.

I disagree to some extent. In the case of AliAR, if he can confirm his theory, this would only point to a further bug in iOS, even when it's barebone i.e. basic encryption overhead or corruption... because of this: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2110 - I guess we'll see and I speculate. It wouldn't be surprising to find another problem vector to complete the full circle 360 degree "arc".

rphunte42 wrote:

[...]

Your expectations might be more reasonable if you really understood that smartphones are just very small computers.

[...]

You do miss your engineering days it seems lolll. Don't worry about my expectations, for I have none. I don't have, nor plan on having a smartphone anytime soon. I don't want a "little computer" in a phone form factor that can't even do excellent call quality. I have a real computer and that's enough. I no longer own a TV, and I haven't had cable or any such thing for a decade now. I'm never buying a blu-ray player. I'm never going back to social networking. I'm analyzing the possibility of going internet-less now and relying on hotspots for "just in time" access lollll. I might try the Nokia C1-01 because I can appreciate call quality engineering and low cost prepaid for casual use. Less is more.

LOL Thats funny, However I will have to say I do know where I am most of the time but may still like to know the particular weather forecast in a city I may have traveled to by simply opening the weather app. Its a nice feature really but if not traveling there is not a lot of need for GPS to tell you that you are still at home/work. I believe even with your old flip phone you can probably dial the local news station if you wanted (as long as no one is around, I know how you feel about using a phone with others around.) 🙂 and ask about the forecast.

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

Yep, the other day my gf wanted to make my life easier. So using a Kinect sensor, and openkinect, she built a system which automatically raises the toilet seat when it detects me entering the toilet, all developed using the Processing language.

But somehow it seems to me some things are better left off relying on people's brain and basic knowledge. Plus the advantage must be weighted against energy efficiency - clearly - and that's really what this is about. It may be one day people rely on GPS for figuring out where they are as their cluelessness trumps all and they can't even select their city name in a drop down list let alone write/read it right. I hope I'll be dead by then.

You are not really Grisley Adams are you? haha. No TV really? Wow. Ever thought about trying out for Survivor? Oh wait, thats a TV show and u go to an island in the tropics with a group of people, compete and vote each other out for 90 days and the winner get 1 million bucks! May be right up you alley, no TV no smartphones. Just a thought.

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

You do miss your engineering days it seems lolll. Don't worry about my expectations, for I have none. I don't have, nor plan on having a smartphone anytime soon. I don't want a "little computer" in a phone form factor that can't even do excellent call quality. I have a real computer and that's enough. I no longer own a TV, and I haven't had cable or any such thing for a decade now. I'm never buying a blu-ray player. I'm never going back to social networking. I'm analyzing the possibility of going internet-less now and relying on hotspots for "just in time" access lollll. I might try the Nokia C1-01 because I can appreciate call quality engineering and low cost prepaid for casual use. Less is more.

Okay....I am annoyed and to some super natural level.....I tried all kinds of stuff....Switch off and switch on....Settings, restore, drained the battery 5 times and topped it to 100 and nothing is doing the job...And I even removed the sim and kept the phone on standby so it can stop accessing the network, instead sleep quietly...But it just could not give me what Apple has specified....

I used my 3G for a while and it had this stats.... 3 days stand by and 22 hours of usage and the battery still looked like it had 30 to 40 percent juice in it....

My 4S stats....13 hours standby and 6 hours usage and the battery will die in few minutes.....
I dont know why apple is not addressing this issue any further from what they did a couple of months back and I do not know why the customer care or the apple care ask me to observe, drain, restore, switch off all network related options again and again....I mean isnt that evident, a battery that claims 20percent better life than 3G is not even kind of 20 percent of 3G....

Hope Apple speaks to the public and gives us something to wait for instead of just invistegating the problem....

There are reports that there are people who are already at their seventh iPhone 4s!!! Yes, seven!!! What is the probability for one to get 7 bad iPhones 4s in a row? I can tell you is really small to get that by chance. Also is clearly nit a software issue because plenty of iOS 5 updates and betas have been released which didn't fix anyhthing.

There are also reports of stores which have boxes filled with returned iPhones 4s!!! Even Wozniac referred to the poor battery life of iPhone 4s!!! Also the last 7 updates of iOS (betas included) have not fixed any battery life issue and any static noise issue. What proof one needs more that the majority of iPhone 4s are affected by the battery life issues and static noise issue?

If one believes that iPhone 4s is the best phone ever then one should realise that believing in something equals religion. I guess that this orum is not about religion.

Of course that out there are also smartphones which have as bad battery life as iPhone 4s or even worse but those smartphones are much cheaper and nobody pretends/lies that they are the best smartphones!

Clearly, after so many posts here still here is no permanent solution for fixing the battery life issue of iPhone 4s! I do not consider a solution something which contains "turn off...." or " kill...".

The funny part is that here are plenty of laughable posts which try to convince the iPhone 4s owners that they do not need many settings on and that they should turn them off!!!

The sad part is that here are plenty of religious posts which try to convince the iPhone 4s owners that they imagine the issues of iPhone 4s and that they should believe that iPhone 4s is the best phone ever!

sbailey4 wrote:

LOL Thats funny, However I will have to say I do know where I am most of the time but may still like to know the particular weather forecast in a city I may have traveled to by simply opening the weather app. [...]

I hear you and understand the "convenience" thing. But I consider such functions encourage stupidity as in not training one's memory, and as in not learning about geography and all. But that's me lolll. You are right about my disliking of using a phone around other people, as I consider my voice to be something private, and even more so the stuff I would say using it. Only when you have not been brought up with a phone and you haven't been using it can you feel like this.

Thanks for the Grizzly Adams info - I had never heard about him. He has a quite interesting story. But no, in fact I'm a very modern type of person living in a big city and I have no real abilities as a ranger or any such thing for the deep outdoors - I'm just old school and I think different loll. Don't worry, I still know about Survivor, as my friends do have TVs and I'm unfortunately exposed to pop culture. But some times I feel entirely vindicated just as when Anna Nicole Smith died and I didn't know who she was nor had ever heard of her or when even today I confuse Justin Timberlake with Trophy Grace ("that was Timberlake in Spiderman 3 right" lolll), or people talk about Friends or other sitcoms and I have to admit (proudly) to never having watched any of them - but I do know about the Cosby Show though and I remember when Michael J. Fox was on day time tv. hahah.

As a closing comment for today that sums up pretty much what I think about knowing the weather in advance and such trivial things as smart phones I would quote this:

"There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking."

And a good day to you all!

enx23 wrote:

There are reports that there are people who are already at their seventh iPhone 4s!!! Yes, seven!!! What is the probability for one to get 7 bad iPhones 4s in a row? I can tell you is really small to get that by chance.

Exactly ! Now you are getting it! Why a lot of us here say its software issue.( BTW so does Apple) You put same config on and prob will have identical issue in most cases (not all clearly)

enx23 wrote:

. Also is clearly nit a software issue because plenty of iOS 5 updates and betas have been released which didn't fix anyhthing.

Plenty? There was 5.0.1 and ...... ummm........ well there was ..... oh wait thats all that was released so far. Hmmm. And you have 5.1 Beta 1 -3 right? Also you do realize Beta software is "test" software not release right? BTW your rant posts of ALL the 10 whatever releases is just bunk. You cannot with merit include a brand new iOS betas before even released and quote problems with it. Good grief. OR the betas of a patch before released.

So I will give you this iOS 5 had a battery bug =YES

iOS 5.0.1 RELEASED version- fixed a lot of peoples phones (not enx23 tho) and a handful of others.

iOS 5.1 has not been released yet so you cant state that it did not fix anything.

Of course that out there are also smartphones which have as bad battery life as iPhone 4s or even worse but those smartphones are much cheaper and nobody pretends/lies that they are the best smartphones!

Speaking of, how is the return/exchange of the 4s coming so you can sell it and get one of these cheaper ones you mention or even the iPhone 4? You are aware you have a 1 year warranty yes? And Oct to Jan is not a year remember? Just curious.

Pavan, If you restore phone and setup as new and do not restore a backup for an older device and still have horrible issue, i would recommend you send back for a replacement unit. However if you do the above and try it "out of box" so to speak, then I would say there is some app or two in addition to some lingering iOS bugs that is causing your issue. That can be resolved by not installing the offending app(s) and waiting on Apple to release an iOS update to address the lingering iOS5 battery issues. Of course the other obvious items like turning off junk you dont need due to the way you use your particular phone.

My analysis:first ip4s 16gb 9A405

usage:4 hours and 48 minutes

stand by:1 day and 5 hours

battery 1%

worst result!

usage:4 hours and 50 minutes

stand by 2 days and 4 hours

battery 1%

best result after restore

second ip4s 16gb 9A406(one week old)

usage:6 hours 14 minutes

stand by:1 day and 8 hours

I´m testing this for the last time. usage; 1 hour and 15minutes

stand by 22 hours and 40 minutes(4 hours at 100%)

battery:67%

i know that the results are not good.

Looking at phone 1 according to the spec you have used 52/200 = 26% std by 4.83/7.5 = 64% wifi/3g so 100% - (26+64) =10% So you are 9% off of Max spec. Of course that is way variable because the second figure is assuming avg wi-fi/3G data usage. If you add some phone calls usage etc in it can change further. However that does not look too bad without really knowing the type of usage. Phone 2 does not have % remaining but you can do the math and see where you stand there. Not sure what you are trying to achieve but if it were me I would not chance getting a different unit and going through all that when that close to the max stated spec but that's just me. Dont know a lot who get that kind of numbers, 5 hr use and 2+ days of stdby. Again a LOT variable on the usage so you need to document the type of usage and plug in those numbers to get closer estimate. Looks pretty good! I know a few here who would like to buy that one from you 🙂

RZGO wrote:

My analysis:first ip4s 16gb 9A405

usage:4 hours and 48 minutes

stand by:1 day and 5 hours

battery 1%

worst result!

usage:4 hours and 50 minutes

stand by 2 days and 4 hours

battery 1%

best result after restore

second ip4s 16gb 9A406(one week old)

usage:6 hours 14 minutes

stand by:1 day and 8 hours

I´m testing this for the last time. usage; 1 hour and 15minutes

stand by 22 hours and 40 minutes(4 hours at 100%)

battery:67%

i know that the results are not good but i don´t want a get a third ip4s.

I had this issue when I got my iphone 4. But what I did I turned off the Bluetooth off as well as the wifi and I used to close all the applications that are running in the background and the battery life starts to be better when I downloaded the new update which is ios 5.0.1. However, If you play games on your iphone that will drain the battery life quickly.

ALiAR \

this is the same way which I've made.

See my post and screen shot on page 602.

My try with "do nothing test" shows that my iPhone 4s can by on for 8 days!

(For some users I am a liar but I don’t care. They won’t to believe me.)

These are the results: 0,2 - 0,3% per hour in standby

Normal using = 3 days and I am really happy with it.