Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

sbailey4 wrote:

 

rupunte42, you confuse me sometimes. So you cant get the spec standby time but indicate you can get several days or use per charge other times. Have you figured out what you do get in the different "modes"? Like talk time or wifi internet or 3g Internet, standby?

 

You are definitely on to something with the whole signal thing. I get 5 bars almost constant anywhere I am and 99% of the time I am on wifi. I am on Verizon though not ATT. ATT here is not that great. Crappy coverage areas etc. I typically get stated specs on stdby or wifi internet. Even seems talk time is right where even thou I have not talked for 8 hrs on it ever.

 

Also did 5.1 make your phone worse or better? Seems I read you are worse now.

I am on wi-fi any time I am at home.  Also, when I am at places like Sam's Club, and a few other places that have free wi-fi.  The kicker is when traveling between home, and more remote (from Fort Worth), where signal strengths on 3G (ATT calls it 4G if HSPDA+ is available), vary as I move.  Drain is quite a lot higher at those times.  At home, I get only 1-4 bars, with the average being 3.  As you said, the quality of signal does enter into the equation.   Right now, I am trying to run the battery down so I can do the recommended monthly drain and recharge, and I am at 2 days 0 hours with just short of 4 hours usage, and 21% remaining on the meter.  Since that time started about 1PM on Saturday, it means I will have been on the same charge for what looks like 3 days, and 2 nights, as I measure things.  I would call that pretty good battery life. 

IOS 5.1 update made my battery life just a bit short of what it was before, but the benefits outweigh the loss of about 20 hours of battery life.  I suspect it is an effort for the phone to maintain its 'faux 4G' connection at my home.

CalvinD14 wrote:

 

Hi, took out my old router and tested it out my new router drains the battery faster when its connected to wifi, and other family member iphones. Difference is new router is a N router old one isnt. Any suggestions to what my new router about 3 months old is doing to the iphone connectivity as its draining the batteries when it is connected to wifi. I have Edge enabled which seems to turn on when the iphone is in standby.

 

Any ideas how to stop my router from draining it?

You can set up most routers to use b/g/ or n.  Check your router instructions to see how to set this.  The phone will still connect automatically to g, or even b.

Routers using the n protocol will transmit data faster than b or g, so using more battery isn't surprising.  BTW, there are different 'flavors' of n with different speeds.  Generally range and speed are both increased with n, which I don't feel is a good thing in an urban setting, so be careful with your security settings.

Hanani wrote:

 

Good morning you all.

 

I just had a technician of the cellular company (Orange) and he tested my IPHONE 4S.

 

He dialed into their system and saw in his eyes that a regular call losing 1% per minute ! HE gave me a new handset ! He said I should see if it is better and report.... He said all the obvious things like SKYPE, GPS Camera are eating battery . He also said that the 4S' battery is weaker than the battery of the 4 ! because of the 4S' double processor !!!!

 

SO we will see what happens...

 

For sure - when you see that the time of the USAGE is equal the TIME of Stand BY - then - it means there is a problem !

 

I will keep using the PUSH mail because this is why I need a smart phone

The 4S battery is slightly stronger than the 4 battery, but not significantly.  ANYTHING your phone is doing uses battery, apps, internal processes, cell phone activities to maintain contact, and especially maintaing contact with push mail sources.  I am not sure why you feel email must be push.  Most people, when they use email, realize that it is not like chat, and that there will be some delay in retuning the message.  Wouldn't a 15 minute check be enough for practical needs?  If not, then you won't get very good battery life.  Keep a charger handy.

arpeggi_baz wrote:

 

Hi all,

 

Good day!

 

Is this normal??

 

 

I am using a iPhone 4s running on firmware 5.0.1.

 

Most of the things are on except for Bluetooth.

 

Thank you very much in advance!

It depends entirely on how you used the phone for those 6 and a half hours.  I would recommend switching to IOS 5.1 as it seems to help most people with their battery problems.  If your 'day' is longer than 17 hours, so that you need to recharge during the day, then you might get enough time with 5.1 to make it all the way to bedtime.

waleedhannoun wrote:

 

Hi all,

 

first day after installing the ios 5.1 i had 7 hours of usage & 1 day + 18 hours of standby but after that iam feeling that the battery performance is getting worse.

 

My iphone 4a is showing now these usage

iam on 2G (switched off 3g unlees maybe for 30 min of checking FB,Email,news), used wi-Fi for fownloading a 50 MB app & thats it kindly please if someone can tell if this is normal (ok) or what??

I think it is great.  At that rate, if you started your timing in the morning of a day, you would still have enough battery power to go through a night, and the next day without a recharge.  Some users would kill for those stats.

kj789 wrote:

 

After performing several iOS 5.1 restores (both DFU and normal), multiple hard resets, draining my battery 100% before recharging around 4 times, I still can't get good battery life. My phone is in bone stock condition. No apps, push email, or iCloud account active. The problem is this:

 

The phone's usage and standby time is nearly identical.

 

Something is keeping my phone awake even when it shouldn't be. I thought it was Siri's IR sensor because that stays on even though I have Siri turned off but I can't be sure. I tried going back to iOS 5.0.1 but I can't do that either because iTunes refuses to do that in its infinite wisdom.

 

I lose around 50% battery overnight when I'm sleeping and the phone isn't in use. This has made the phone almost redundant because I simply can't use it. Apparently the iPhone 4S stopped being a "smartphone" somewhere along the way and has now become nothing more than a first generation phone with paper weight qualities.

 

I'm sick of all of this. Have been trying to sell this phone but the first thing people check is the battery time and when they see this bug they back off. Tell me Apple, why would you ruin my life like this? Why?

 

PS: Apple, I was a first time user of your products. Thanks for making sure I never use an Apple product again.

 

PPS: If any anybody has any idea how I can fix this bug, please let me know. Please.

Glad you asked.  If you have been through all the other 'fixes', and you have no improvment, then go to your service provider and request a new SIM card, and have them check the phone is properly 'provisioned' for the network, and that no SIM applications are on the SIM from an old phone.

Abbot wrote:

 

After full reset. 3g and wifi on, emails are on push, location services on, screen block after 5 min. Usage is very light. Music mostly, internet over wifi only, gaming for max of 20 mins.

Well, I can't read the labels, but if that is 1 day 14 hours, then you are doing fine.  To me, any phone that can last through a full day of use before needing a charge is fine.

Your expectations may vary.

My friends I promised to update you so ....

Had same problem after upgrading Friday to 5.1, but today I replaced handset

NEW 4S and now after 6 hours of SB and nearly 2 Hours of USAGE

I have still 67%!!!!

No doubt it was a faulty handset! The usage time was equal to SB Time and after only 5 hours was down to

10%!

Don't try to turn off Apps. Try to replace the phone !

I've found out something what causes the battery to drain:

It's iCloud!

Take a look at the mobile data traffic NOT using a WLAN-Connection. It adds approx. 1 kB of data traffic per second. This drastically reduces battery-life.

Disabling the services (Mail, Calendar.. find my iPhone etc) in iCloud doesn't help!

You have to delete the Account to stop this!!!

Remember to disable WLAN and enable "mobile Data" to cause data traffic to use 3G that you can monitor under "Mobile Usage" / "Cellular usage".

You have to reset the counter to see the kb increase ( you can't see additional kBs if you have already a MB loaded) and move back an forth in the menu to update the screen.

Hello

I purhcased my Iphone on sunday. It has all software updates ETC... I am not at 46% battery life after removing it from the charger at 645 am today... I have my push notifcations off and most items unchecked in iCloud... please let me know if you think I should bring her in to apple and get it wiped and/or a new one... I have only been texting today, I would say one text every hr or so.

Have you restored and setup as new then manually add back your apps without restoring a backup? That seems to be working for others that otherwise cannot seem to get their device to function correctly. Its a little of a pain but if you have a usable phone again its worth it I would guess. You can sync (not restore) with iTunes to get contacts back. I would wait on the apps to see if the phone starts working. Perhaps you have a rogue app causing this issue. You say "bone stock condition" does than mean only Apples default apps?

kj789 wrote:

 

After performing several iOS 5.1 restores (both DFU and normal), multiple hard resets, draining my battery 100% before recharging around 4 times, I still can't get good battery life. My phone is in bone stock condition. No apps, push email, or iCloud account active. The problem is this:

 

The phone's usage and standby time is nearly identical.

 

Something is keeping my phone awake even when it shouldn't be. I thought it was Siri's IR sensor because that stays on even though I have Siri turned off but I can't be sure. I tried going back to iOS 5.0.1 but I can't do that either because iTunes refuses to do that in its infinite wisdom.

 

I lose around 50% battery overnight when I'm sleeping and the phone isn't in use. This has made the phone almost redundant because I simply can't use it. Apparently the iPhone 4S stopped being a "smartphone" somewhere along the way and has now become nothing more than a first generation phone with paper weight qualities.

 

I'm sick of all of this. Have been trying to sell this phone but the first thing people check is the battery time and when they see this bug they back off. Tell me Apple, why would you ruin my life like this? Why?

 

PS: Apple, I was a first time user of your products. Thanks for making sure I never use an Apple product again.

 

PPS: If any anybody has any idea how I can fix this bug, please let me know. Please.

You can try to simply reset all settings if you havent. Settings>general>reset>reset all settings. The phone will reboot. tell it to "setup as new". This will NOT remove your data or apps (it even tells you this) but will default all the settings to iOS 5.1 defaults. Once you run through the wizard (as a new phone) you can reconfigure your particulat settings you want. Worth a try. Its fast,simple and has helped others.

ozflier wrote:

 

Hi,

I have had little improvement with the update but have not done yet as suggested.If I

"restore your device and set it up as a new device. Do not restore from a backup, "

I have been confused by the different ways of restoring the device.

How exactly do I do this ?

I have almost no new apps but would like to retain my contacts etc.

Many thanks

PT Barnum was correct a sucker is born every minute. To pay for these 4s phone the money they cost and then be happy to turn off all the features that you would buy a smart phone for is crazy, then why own one. Apple laughs all the way to the bank and they still do not have the guts to go for a recall or even admit they are problem phones and offer something to the consumer they have sold knowingly faulty phones to. You have 3 or 4 Apple loyalist on here singing the praises of these paperweights and claiming they are happy to have one with all the functions turned off just so they can say they own an I Phone. Get your money back now and get phones that work. The happiest day was when i returned the third one I tried and got a phone that actually works and doesn't need all the functions turned off and can go all day and night on a charge.

Listen, bring the phone to an Apple Store and have them do the diagnostics on it and their firmware restore. Almost every iPhone 4S came out of the box with OS bugs and corrupted firmware, some had more than others, a few had none, and for those who brought files from their previous iPhones, it intensified it, exponentially.

Now, the thing to remember is that the 4S eats battery regardless, it has to, it's a pretty powerful device, and to achieve that power, it HAS to eat battery, so those who bought the "latest & most powerful", guess what, you're gonna have to eat it because that's what ya get, there's a price to pay for power & speed.

My sports car eats more gas, my built motorcycle eats more gas, my more powerful camera eats more battery, I work out daily so I eat more, my iPhone 4S is more powerful than the regular one, so it eats more battery...  more power = more fuel consumption, regardless of the subject at hand.

The diagnostics & firmware fix may not completely satisfy you, however, it WILL correct ANY firmware issues you are having that are draining the battery more-so than it already is.

The aforementioned corrected my massive battery drain, yes I had to reinstall everything NOT from a back-up because that would bring the bug back, but hey, it fixed it most of the way. I now have good talk time, but the second I flip on 4G or WiFi, it eats battery like a fat chick eats cake.

Just bring it there and see if that helps you, it should, and if it doesn't, call Apple and be an a-hole to them, I had a 3G S, which was a bunk device, that they took back (out of return date) because I was persistent and a a-hole to them when they tried to BS me.

Thanks for the responses everyone. By bone stock condition I mean only Apple default apps. Nothing else. It's 7:20 am right now and I went to sleep at 12:00 am. That's when I took it off the charger. My battery meter is currently showing I'm at 51%. The standby is showing the time as 7 hours 17 mins while the usage is showing as 6 hours and 59 mins.

I've tried doing everything. Yes, literally EVERYTHING mentioned in the advices given above! I got myself a brand new 128k sim card, I added apps manually, but then after performing the last restore I haven't added back any apps or accounts.

I can't send it to an Apple store for service or diagnostics because I'm out of the States and the country I'm in doesn't have an Apple store unfortunately. I'm trying to sell off this phone but like I mentioned before, the battery bug scares off potential buyers.

Will try another restore. Because that's the only option I got. BTW, I only use the phone on WiFi, not 3G or 2G. But I haven't even connected it to the internet since the last restore two days ago. I don't know what to do anymore.