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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

Reply
12,787 replies

Jul 12, 2012 9:27 AM in response to rphunte42

Actually what it comes down to is defective parts. I've had every iPhone except the first and the 4s battery was awful in comparison to the others. I tried everything, disabling location services, keeping wifi off, screen brightness low, restoring with out using a back up file, updates, yaddy yaddy ya well..I swapped out my battery and boom issue fixed. My 4s battery life is now slightly better then my 4 was like apple advertises. I can now get through a whole day. I'm telling you before, I couldn't make it until 2oclock in the afternoon with out re-charging. Interestingly enough I decided to do this after reading an article that stated perhaps only 20% of apples 4s battery's actually meet their standards. I think apple purchased some defective battery's and LCDs (yellowish LCD displays) from their suppliers. I think it also would look better on apples part to own up to something as big as that. It looks like their products are not up to par when its actually defective parts from who apple thought were quality trusted suppliers. Btw, I had my 4s swapped out by apple in November for a yellow tinted LCD issue. That battery was awful as well. The new LCD looked 100x better! I will say I wish I had known about this battery fix months prior and not had to deal with ether issue.

Jul 12, 2012 12:34 PM in response to Italia411

I think what makes it so complicated, is that there seems to be user issues, and hardware issues, and software issues. For me I was able to identify it as software issues, due to seeing that my usage and standby time were running neck and neck even when I was not using the phone. When this was resolved, now I am back to getting well over 12 hours of battery time and plenty of power left by midnight. I wrote about my experience and how it seems I fixed it here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4059874http://


But there are many issues that can be contributing to the same end result of unacceptably short battery life. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Jul 12, 2012 12:40 PM in response to safarionwin

What complicates it, is user EXPECTATIONS. You seem to have a realistic view of how long your battery should last with normal usage and features turned on. Others are unhappy if they can't acheive 4 - 5 days of battery life.


If everyone was satisfied with moderate usage and the ability to get through the day, this thread would be 1/10th its length......... 😉

Jul 13, 2012 1:27 AM in response to Chris CA

I'm recently noticing something weird about my iPhone battery: when it reaches the last 25% it makes sudden drops! It was 24% then I made a one minute call and as I hund up, it suddenly dropped to 17%. It did the same thing last week and dropped from 22% to 11% just as I unlocked the phone!

I'm using iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.1 not jail broken. I always shut the apps after using them andont have anything running in the background. I had the phone since November 2010 and hate to think that the battery is faulty in less than 2 years. Anyone has any explaination???

Jul 13, 2012 4:45 AM in response to Archererlink3

Actually, I've been following this thread for months and have read a significant number of posts...... There is a wide range of expectations in this thread. Maybe YOU should go back and re-read through some of it. I stand by my point.


By the way....... Interesting info:

http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-6454_7-10002704.html?tag=FD.epic

Archererlink3 wrote:


Nobody has expectations anywhere near that high. Have you not read any of the other comments on here? All we want is for our battery to last through the day under light use. We would love to only have to charge once a day instead of two or three.

Jul 13, 2012 6:55 AM in response to Jameson!

^^That's interesting because I have two cousins that have that phone and they both complain constantly about how bad the battery life it. They are stunned when I show them how well the battery lasts on my 4S.


It certainly seems to be a lot about individual users, expectations, and even individual units.

Jul 13, 2012 8:35 PM in response to Weber Baker

When I first got my iPhone 4, the battery would give me around 3 hours of usage and a day of standby before it was closing in on 0%. This was with 3G and location services off, with no heavy app usage.


I restored the phone as a new phone, downloaded the 5.1.1 update on iTunes instead of directly on my iPhone, and hey presto, I now get 10 hours of usage and a few days of standby time before the phone needs a charge. I can very easily charge the phone most nights and not struggle the next day if I forget to. In my opinion, that's fantastic for a smartphone.

Jul 14, 2012 5:14 AM in response to Scarface.

iPhone 4s 32Gb Black - UK Orange.


My first ever apple product and I love the customer service they offer!

Well 2 iPhones later after intermittent calls, dropping of service, poor/erratic battery life, heat issues, re-building my iPhone 6 times and a DFU reset, I called apple as frankly enough was enough. I now have a replacement phone and guess what.....it works great! I can't achieve 14 hours on 2g mind, but here are the stats:User uploaded file

Well done apple.... if you ask them and have taken reasonable steps to rectify your issues (trying all suggested way on forums and on their site) they don't argue they replace. I would like more call time but I am now a happy bunny!

Jul 15, 2012 6:23 AM in response to Italia411

Italia411 wrote:


Actually what it comes down to is defective parts. I've had every iPhone except the first and the 4s battery was awful in comparison to the others. I tried everything, disabling location services, keeping wifi off, screen brightness low, restoring with out using a back up file, updates, yaddy yaddy ya well..I swapped out my battery and boom issue fixed. My 4s battery life is now slightly better then my 4 was like apple advertises. I can now get through a whole day. I'm telling you before, I couldn't make it until 2oclock in the afternoon with out re-charging. Interestingly enough I decided to do this after reading an article that stated perhaps only 20% of apples 4s battery's actually meet their standards. I think apple purchased some defective battery's and LCDs (yellowish LCD displays) from their suppliers. I think it also would look better on apples part to own up to something as big as that. It looks like their products are not up to par when its actually defective parts from who apple thought were quality trusted suppliers. Btw, I had my 4s swapped out by apple in November for a yellow tinted LCD issue. That battery was awful as well. The new LCD looked 100x better! I will say I wish I had known about this battery fix months prior and not had to deal with ether issue.

Because of demand for the 4S, Apple went to alternative suppliers for some parts, and, although they don't admit it, I suspect some of those parts weren't up to their specs. But when you build 50 million of ANYTHING some of them are going to get the combination of marginal (or below) parts in the same unit, and it won't work properly. Mine has been flawless. Just lucky, I guess. I think, judging by the greatly reduced traffic in this topic, that Apple has corrected the problem in most cases.

Unfortunately, there are some users who have unreasonable expectations for what the current battery technology can provide. I am sure we would all welcome a phone that never needed recharging, and drew its power from some broadcast source, or the motion of us walking, or changes in air pressure, or some kind of gravity based generator. Maybe someday...

Jul 16, 2012 8:43 AM in response to Scarface.

LOL: found this on Apple site:


Use iPhone Regularly

For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).



After reading some posts, I don't think that will be a problem, seeing a lot have of people have to recharge once a day :-/

How on earth can you make your battery last fo one whole month ??

iPhone 4s Battery Life?

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