Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

I don't advocate turning anything off. I use my phone on almost all default settings. Almost all location services are on. The only exception is Find My iPhone. I double checked my settings and saw that the Diagnostics service is on, which I usually turn off. Siri raise to speak is also on.

I've gone through having no problems, to battery drain problems, and back to no problems.

Time for a reality check!   APPLE will never admit to the problem.   Doing so, with nearly 40,000,000,000 4s phones out there would be suicidal.   It would cause mass hysteria, which so far is limited to a small number of posters in this thread!

I admit to being a huge APPLE fan and don't apologize for it.   I also admit that these is a problem with the 4s.   Maybe it will be better with iOS 5.1 and maybe it won't, but I am comitted to wait and see.    I like iOS, like the interconnectivity with my MACBOOK, iPAD and Time Capsule.   I actually like iTunes, which few others seem to......

I, too, have most everything turned on with my 4s.   The only features OFF are Siri raise to activate and the Time Zone Setting.   Wifi is on, BT is on, Push is on for two email accounts (including Exchange) and fetch for one.   I have wifi sync, iTunes Match, iCloud, photostream all activated and running.  

I replaced my SIM card and saw really no difference in performance.   I restored as new and saw no real improvement.

What I do see is NO battery issues when my phone is connected to wifi, but serious draining when connected via cellular data.   Lucklily, as Ive stated often here, I have wifi available to me most of the day, so I am not suffering as much as others may be.   I'm sure that helps my attitude towrd dealing with this problem.......

Vomgottsland wrote:

 

Apple still has not came out publicly and admitted this 4s problem nor offered any solution. This is very remarkable we are seeing the true color of the big Worm riddled Apple. You have 2 or 3 apple trolls on here want everything turned off and expect everyone to go around with a $400 phone that is no better than a paper weight that can take a call. Was not this phone designed to have its functions turned on? Those on here that think charging the battery so much will not hurt it in the long run need to look at some other forums concerning this problems and other Iphones that had to be charged so much have a battery life of only around 1 year. Apple owes EVERY 4s owner new phones or money back no matter how long you have had it. They knew it was faulty when they sold it to you.   The Apple trolls need to get a life

@Vomgottsland

Vomgottsland wrote:

 

Apple still has not came out publicly and admitted this 4s problem nor offered any solution. This is very remarkable we are seeing the true color of the big Worm riddled Apple. You have 2 or 3 apple trolls on here want everything turned off and expect everyone to go around with a $400 phone that is no better than a paper weight that can take a call. Was not this phone designed to have its functions turned on? Those on here that think charging the battery so much will not hurt it in the long run need to look at some other forums concerning this problems and other Iphones that had to be charged so much have a battery life of only around 1 year. Apple owes EVERY 4s owner new phones or money back no matter how long you have had it. They knew it was faulty when they sold it to you.   The Apple trolls need to get a life

I agree fully with you regarding Apple and iPhone 4s. Definitively there is an issue with iPhone 4s regarding battery life because there are way too many iPhone 4s affected by it in way too many locations over the world and also it is not a software issue because iOS 5.0.1 on iPods and iPads works just fine!

It was really sad to see the hype surrounding the iOS 5.0.1 when everyone was hoping here on the forum that iOS 5.0.1 will fix the battery life issue. Unfortunately iOS 5.0.1 didn't fix the battery life issue of iPhone 4s.

It is even more sad that the hype is repeating again and now here are many people hoping (or are very sure) that iOS 5.1 will solve permanently the battery life issue. I guess that after iOS 5.1 is launched the next hype will be "iOS 5.2 will fix the battery life issue of iPhone 4s"!

I think that there should be some kind of law in USA and EU where the mobile phone manufactures should be obligated to state in specification how long a mobile phone lasts between charges in real life situations and not imaginary/dream situations and be punished if that their mobile phones are not in +/- 10% range of what is in specification. All mobile phone manufactures are "stretching" the truth regarding the battery life of their mobile phones but Apple is the worst offender here with its iPhone 4s! As rphunte42 put it "believing in iPhone 4s specifications is like believing a Nigerian scam email".

ricky_tang wrote:

 

Now you're entering the world of crazy talk. I say I'm getting similar usage time from my iP4S compared to my old iP4 and you asked me to prove it. I post a comment from Anandtech, the site you keep quoting, and you decide to change the subject and focus only on 3D usage time and standby time. Anandtech stated that depending on you usage, battery life may be better, the same, or worse. Do you care to argue that?

I agree that if you remove your sim from your iP4S and use it to browse wifi side to side with your 4, you will get similar or better result on the 4S because the fact that it uses more power is upset by faster loading times. Out of the box though, for the reasons explained in the last 700 pages, this will simply not happen. Most people here know that they've had to tailor many settings on their phone to reach similar usage to what they had on the 4 - that is if they don't have other issues.

To reach the advertised standby time I would to not use my phone for days. I'd guess that everyone here that actually owns and uses a smartphone, unlike you, will actually use the phone and will never be able to reach the advertised standby time. We can only extrapolate our standby battery drain from a short period of time. My battery decreased from 100% to 98% in more than 7 hours last night. Do some simple math, probably difficult for you, and compute how much my standby time would be.

No one wants 6 days or whatever of standby looking at the phone. But 300 vs 200 means 0.33% per hour vs 0.5% per hour. When someone uses his phone a few hours a day, then wants to repeat the experience over a couple of days, then the difference will end up showing, or if someone wakes up on a saturday and spends half a day browsing and wants to make it through the day, such a difference will matter. If you're the type who extrapolates your standby time from a night of sleep without looking at the phones specs, without reading about the inaccuracy of the battery meter and how it will drain in a non linear fashion afterwards and the experience lots of people have had here with it, and you think you're getting less than 0.3% standby drain per hour, well you're dreaming of your old iP4. If you promote the iP4S based on your flaky extrapolation without understanding the concept of uncertainty, your belong with the marketing crowd, not with the "support engineers". Everyone here knows not to trust how the meter behaves from 100%.

As far as "engineers" are concerned, well this is only cultural. Where I come from, the term "engineer" is a reserved title (like MD etc.) and engineers are supervised by a professional corporation. To earn the title, you go to university for 4 years where you study chemistry, physics, maths, computer science, materials, geology, project management, hardware, technical design, drawing etc. There is a further specialization inside the program where you have tailored courses depending if you elect to become a - civil, computer, geology or electronics - engineer. So for me an MCSE is no engineer and in fact they don't have the right to call themselves "engineers" where I come from - certifcations or even a computer science bachelor doesn't make you an engineer here. The "engineers" where I come from rarely do support - they lead projects and design and implement solutions.

Now move on.

@ricky_tang

ricky_tang wrote:

 

I don't advocate turning anything off. I use my phone on almost all default settings. Almost all location services are on. The only exception is Find My iPhone. I double checked my settings and saw that the Diagnostics service is on, which I usually turn off. Siri raise to speak is also on.

 

I've gone through having no problems, to battery drain problems, and back to no problems.

Could you be more explicit what do you mean by no battery drain problems! Is it ok for you that you have to charge your iPhone 4s every evening even that you your usage is very light? Are you aware that with the same moderate/light usage the iPhone 4 lasts 3-4 days?

Yes!

1. There are many apple trolls here trying to convince everyone that is all is well.

2. The 4S battery performance especially on 3G is poor. I have never reached even 1/3 of the battery specs. Even with 2Hrs of light use, I have never reached 2 days or even dreamed of 3 Days rofl. I am engineer by profession, I know what I should be getting in terms of performance in relation to published specs.

3. Many consumers don't know what performance they should be getting, they appreciate anything which is not critically poor. The 4S battery is not critically bad but it is poor. This is below Apple standards and certainly not worth the high cost of the 4S.

4. Apple silence is disappointing.

5.I don't want to charge my phone every evening/night. This is why I didn't buy other brands of smartphones. Some people here are advocating for this as though it is some form of solution. We pay high prices so that we can get the best services and products. The products should work for me not me to work/adjust my life routine to suit it.

I'm well aware of an iP4's battery life. I used an iP4 since launch day and I recently gave it to my soon-to-be wife. Where did I say that I need to charge my phone every evening even with light usage? The battery drain issue that I recent saw on my iP4S, which I also briefly saw on my iP4 during the iOS 5 beta, is significant battery drain during standby. During an 8 hour period I could lose about 1/4 of battery power.

enx23 wrote:

 

@ricky_tang

 

 

ricky_tang wrote:

 

I don't advocate turning anything off. I use my phone on almost all default settings. Almost all location services are on. The only exception is Find My iPhone. I double checked my settings and saw that the Diagnostics service is on, which I usually turn off. Siri raise to speak is also on.

 

I've gone through having no problems, to battery drain problems, and back to no problems.

Could you be more explicit what do you mean by no battery drain problems! Is it ok for you that you have to charge your iPhone 4s every evening even that you your usage is very light? Are you aware that with the same moderate/light usage the iPhone 4 lasts 3-4 days?

Are you aware that my wifes ford focus goes further on a tank of gas than my Ford F-250 truck? Perhaps there is a Ford F-250 forum I can go to and tell all the users there how their truck should be returned to Ford because the Focus lasts longer on a tank so therefore the truck is faulty. Probably a bad computer chip with static causing it from the "looks of it".

enx23 wrote:

 

Are you aware that with the same moderate/light usage the iPhone 4 lasts 3-4 days

I bet the F-250 WILL go further on a tank of gas, as it likely has a much larger tank!  

sbailey4 wrote:

 

Are you aware that my wifes ford focus goes further on a tank of gas than my Ford F-250 truck? Perhaps there is a Ford F-250 forum I can go to and tell all the users there how their truck should be returned to Ford because the Focus lasts longer on a tank so therefore the truck is faulty. Probably a bad computer chip with static causing it from the "looks of it".

enx23 wrote:

 

Are you aware that with the same moderate/light usage the iPhone 4 lasts 3-4 days

And some people think coming to a forum complaining and stomping their foot will somehow yield better battery life than plugging it in. Hmm wonder which works better, the charger or posting complaints on a forum telling those with tips how they are wrong. My money will be bet on plugging it in. Just sayin.

snif123 wrote

 

5.I don't want to charge my phone every evening/night. This is why I didn't buy other brands of smartphones. Some people here are advocating for this as though it is some form of solution. We pay high prices so that we can get the best services and products. The products should work for me not me to work/adjust my life routine to suit it.

BTW it is some form of solution. PLUG IT IN.  I dont want to fill my gar with gas weekly much rather do it once a month, maybe on the 1st would be great, but I have to because thats the way it is. OR i could ride the bus or get a moped. Guess that is an option too now that i think about it. Hmm options, options, options. To bad there are not any options when it comes to mobile phones.

Agree with me about removing the SIM card? When the **** did I mention removing the SIM card? You want to compare Wi-fi performance of a iP4 and iP4S? Go back and re-read the Anandtech review.

I'm comparing overnight standby drain from starting from 100%, but I've seen the same performance throughout the day. But you don't own or use a smartphone right? Measuring the standby performance at night is probably the best time to do it: the phone isn't being used. Massive battery drain during standby at night should signal a battery drain issue. Duh.

Engineers are supervised by a professional corporation where you come from? Do you come from Soviet Russia? Only in the mind of a troll would only civil, computer, geology or electronics engineers be considered engineers. Tell that to the software engineers at Google.

All engineers are being asked to do more. Gone are the days when an engineer knows only piece of his or her company. Maybe in Soviet Russia your engineers can get by stuffing a round peg into it's companion hole, but in the rest of the free world engineers are expected to have communication skills. Communicating with customers is part of the job.

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

I agree that if you remove your sim from your iP4S and use it to browse wifi side to side with your 4, you will get similar or better result on the 4S because the fact that it uses more power is upset by faster loading times. Out of the box though, for the reasons explained in the last 700 pages, this will simply not happen. Most people here know that they've had to tailor many settings on their phone to reach similar usage to what they had on the 4 - that is if they don't have other issues.

I agree that if you remove your sim from your iP4S and use it to browse wifi side to side with your 4, you will get similar or better result on the 4S because the fact that it uses more power is upset by faster loading times. Out of the box though, for the reasons explained in the last 700 pages, this will simply not happen. Most people here know that they've had to tailor many settings on their phone to reach similar usage to what they had on the 4 - that is if they don't have other issues.

 

To reach the advertised standby time I would to not use my phone for days. I'd guess that everyone here that actually owns and uses a smartphone, unlike you, will actually use the phone and will never be able to reach the advertised standby time. We can only extrapolate our standby battery drain from a short period of time. My battery decreased from 100% to 98% in more than 7 hours last night. Do some simple math, probably difficult for you, and compute how much my standby time would be.

No one wants 6 days or whatever of standby looking at the phone. But 300 vs 200 means 0.33% per hour vs 0.5% per hour. When someone uses his phone a few hours a day, then wants to repeat the experience over a couple of days, then the difference will end up showing, or if someone wakes up on a saturday and spends half a day browsing and wants to make it through the day, such a difference will matter. If you're the type who extrapolates your standby time from a night of sleep without looking at the phones specs, without reading about the inaccuracy of the battery meter and how it will drain in a non linear fashion afterwards and the experience lots of people have had here with it, and you think you're getting less than 0.3% standby drain per hour, well you're dreaming of your old iP4. If you promote the iP4S based on your flaky extrapolation without understanding the concept of uncertainty, your belong with the marketing crowd, not with the "support engineers". Everyone here knows not to trust how the meter behaves from 100%.

 

As far as "engineers" are concerned, well this is only cultural. Where I come from, the term "engineer" is a reserved title (like MD etc.) and engineers are supervised by a professional corporation. To earn the title, you go to university for 4 years where you study chemistry, physics, maths, computer science, materials, geology, project management, hardware, technical design, drawing etc. There is a further specialization inside the program where you have tailored courses depending if you elect to become a - civil, computer, geology or electronics - engineer. So for me an MCSE is no engineer and in fact they don't have the right to call themselves "engineers" where I come from - certifcations or even a computer science bachelor doesn't make you an engineer here. The "engineers" where I come from rarely do support - they lead projects and design and implement solutions.

 

Now move on.

Interesting reading for all :

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/07/improving-power-efficiency-for-app lications.aspx

2 birds with 1 stone: Learn about MS's take on power states for apps in the upcoming Win8 - seems like Apple's take on iOS/Lion - plus get a reminder from a link inside the blog as to what happens under iOS. Multitasking is dead and once and for all there is no multitasking on the iPhone. Enter suspended apps and "brokered by OS" tasks and such. Well written and quite interesting...

Oh and no one is trying to convince anyone about anything. Just offering information to users who come here asking for such. Contrary to your and a few others beliefs, not everyone is having issues with their 4s, others had issues that have since remedied by following some of the tips posted, some by iOS 5.0.1 others by optimizing their settings. Yes a few have had to return faulty devices (so it appears) and have since be resolved. So no, not all is well, not all 4s's have issues, some 4s's have issues still, YES there are options that help most folks who are open minded enough to try. And yes Apple themselves have had a document about optimizing your device for better battery life available for a while now.  Some folks still think for some reason they shouldn't do that.  So as for me, I am not attempting to do anything but offer suggestions. If you hate your iPhone return or sell it and get something else. Simple

snif123 wrote:

 

Yes!

1. There are many apple trolls here trying to convince everyone that is all is well.

 

enx23 wrote:

 

I think that there should be some kind of law in USA and EU where the mobile phone manufactures should be obligated to state in specification how long a mobile phone lasts between charges in real life situations and not imaginary/dream situations and be punished if that their mobile phones are not in +/- 10% range of what is in specification.

Great idea! I wholeheartly support it! Go ahead and as an EU citizen insist on it's implementation.

Of course, it has to be symetric, so should also include provisions for users who are not following the manufacturer's instructions (like this one http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html) to not collect $200 and go directly to jail!

PS: In the EU, you have two years unconditional warranty for consumer products. Why are you keeping your poor iPhone 4S and not returning it for refund? There is actually regulation in force that let's you return anything that does not conform to it's stated specifications. Of course, you need to own the thing first.

Interesting, I have asked that several times myself. He seems to love the iPhone 4 and its cheaper so I suggested he exchange for that since he is convinced that the 4s is not fixable at all. Still nothing.  You may be on to something.

dkalchev wrote:

 

Great idea! I wholeheartly support it! Go ahead and as an EU citizen insist on it's implementation.

 

Of course, it has to be symetric, so should also include provisions for users who are not following the manufacturer's instructions (like this one http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html) to not collect $200 and go directly to jail!

 

PS: In the EU, you have two years unconditional warranty for consumer products. Why are you keeping your poor iPhone 4S and not returning it for refund? There is actually regulation in force that let's you return anything that does not conform to it's stated specifications. Of course, you need to own the thing first.