Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Charles F. wrote:

 

I am reposting on this thread to keep the battery discussion in one place:

 

I use iOS 5.1 (9B179), and I have the same problem. I have to go through at least two full charges every day, even when I do not use my iphone much (I have a corporate blackberry Touch).

 

I deleted my gmail accounts (I kept my icloud and lotus accounts). Changed from push to fetch, and only manually. Turn notifications off. Turn location off. Turn wifi off. Turn roaming off. Siri off. Bluetooth off. Etc....

 

Same incredible fast drain -- 1% every 5 min. When plugged on a USB port, the phone's battery (in standby mode) barrely charges.

 

There is one interesting fact: the iPhone does not show 'Time since last full charge' in the Usage menu (under the battery usage button), even after the phone has been fully charged -- as if the battery never was actually fully charged (despite the 100% battery percentage).

 

 

iPhone 4S Model MD241X

Serial number: C39GW9BBDTD6

Modem Firmware: 2.0.10

I think you should consider getting that one replaced.

iPhone 4S Model MD241X

Serial number: C39******TD6

Modem Firmware: 2.0.10

Tonight, the usage time was shown for 3 min after I charged to 100% and disconnect the iPhone from the charge cord -- then iOS crashed. After it restarted, I cheched 'Time since last full charge' in the Usage menu -- the 3 min had disappeared and the time is now replaced with '_' signs.

Crash report identified crash of the SpringBoard process at 11:00pm right when the time disappeared and the phone crashed. EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) and KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000000.

I note that my phone has many LowBatteryLog crashes related to the 'enableidlesleep' springboard process -- or 'Enable Idle Sleep.' I transcribed excerpt from the log below:

EnableIdleSleep === 255, held for 01:40:20

....

PreventUserIdleSystemSleep === 255, held for 00:00:03

....

Awake Time: 00:00:00 (0)

Standby Time: 00:00:00 (0)

Partial Charge: 1

Capacity: 0

Voltage: 3429 mV.

There is definitely a correlation between the iOS SpringBoard crash and the disapearance of the 'Time since last full charge' information. EnableIdleSleep crashed one to three times a day, but was apparently not the direct cause of the above mentioned crash and subsequent disapearance of 'Time since last full charge' in the Usage menu (??).

Apple, any idea what that means?

<Serial Number Edited by Host>

A crash always resets the Stats. Just plug it back in and remove the plug and you will see the numbers and I believe everything else will be erased too like the total call time and data uploaded and downloaded. Just plug the phone for a moment when its on 100 % and remove it and you can see the stats back.

I cannot believe this phone i upgraded 2 days ago from the 3Gs to a brand new 4s the battery life is useless compared the the older phone. Got the phone charged it overnight before i used it uaes my Macbook and a backup to restore and thought what a great phone this only lasted a few hour then the battery warning. What is the point of a new super phone if the battery does not even last a full working day. I am scared to use it for phone calls when i am out incase the battery drains talking of drain it seems to drain sitting on the shelf.

For heavens sake Apple what have you screwed up on this phone is it doing something in the background that is draining the battery so fast. Turned off wi-fi even 3g and siri is off but it still drains faster then my bank account on shopping day.

Apple i hope to see a software upgrade that sorts this out fast and whatever you have running in the background probably keeping an eye on us turn it off. A mobile phone is suposed to be mobile this bloody thing you cant go far because you need the mains to charge it twice a day ....

Dissapointed from the UK

Pavan Kulkarni wrote:

 

A crash always resets the Stats. Just plug it back in and remove the plug and you will see the numbers and I believe everything else will be erased too like the total call time and data uploaded and downloaded. Just plug the phone for a moment when its on 100 % and remove it and you can see the stats back.

Pavan,

I do not know where you got that a crash 'always' resets the Stats. Would you please clarify the source of the information?

In fact, none of the 'Stats' (but battery usage) are being deleted and replaced with '-' symbols (this is not a reset to 0). Call time and cellular network data stats are not being reset.

A process crash merely causes the iOS to reboot. If you were right, the stats would reset each time you turn your phone off and back on (iOS reboot). It seems more likely that a battery manager process crashed, causing the loss of battery usage data and the reboot of the iOS.

I brought the battery to 100% charge, then immediately disconnected it from the charge cable.

• Yesterday, the phone crashed after 3 min and the usage stats disappeared ('-'). I used a timer to check the battery: it was draining at the 'standby' rate of 1% every 5 min.

• Currently, the iPhone has not crashed and the usage stats have not been erased for 24 min. Battery charge now at 99%. Then it lost another 1% after 18 min (1% every 9 min). 97% after 21 min (1% every 7 min). 96% at 24 min (1% every 6 min on average),...

• Now down to 79% (-21%) in 97 min, or 1% every 4.6 min in standby mode (at that rate, standby battery life will be 7.6 hours). No crash as of yet.

So, it seems that the crashes that the iPhone regularly experiences have nothing to do with the poor battery life.

Back to square one. There is a huge difference between 200 hours and 7.6 hours standby time.  Either:

• (1) the battery performance degrades rapidly due to faulty manufacturing or design,
• (2) the battery is not actually charged to its full capacity due to a faulty battery manager, or
• (3) a mysterious process drain the battery.

Or the 'up to 200 hours' standby time is misleading advertising. I am quite surprised they have not added a note stating that 'actual' standby time might be substantially less.

Pavan Kulkarni wrote:

 

Yes. Its a great phone and by the time the battery loses its capacity, there will be two models. But I guess, Apple made a masterpiece with iPhone 4S. It is so ideal that I love to hold it and keep meddling with it all the time. Its been three months and 4S obsession has not faded away. I was back to normal within a week or two after the purchase of any of my phones and iPhone 3Gs but this is something extraordinary. I may buy the iPhone 5 but I will not like it if its any bigger in order to completely kill the brands making 4inchers (Samsung and others). 4S has been the best product Apple ever invented.

"I love to hold it [...]" lollll. I love to hold my girlfriend. But with crackers and beer on a Friday night, your post made for some entertainment. With ICS on newer devices, and At&T rolling out the Lumia 900 for 99$ on contracts or even free for new customers, or Huawei releasing amazing devices quite soon, or the Galaxy Note filling the gap between tablets and phones, the iPhone won't be "completely killing" the other brands anytime soon, despite it being a good device, more importantly the only iOS phone. Please don't hesitate to post more often, especially if you make a poem about the iPhone or something along those lines!!!

I just recently bought iPhone 4S.

I was amazed with its capability, but then realized that there's a significant battery issue with this phone. Then I start with the battery fix suggestion (e.g. turn off some location services, PING restriction). It was better, the battery is reasonably achieve 30 hours standby (around 4-6 hours usage time). Well, problem came last week, where suddenly my iPhone starts heating up, even sometimes shows message of overheating (I am currently at tropical region, where ambient temp is around 27 - 32 C)

It's been several days tinkering with this battery issue. I finally try shutting down everything (ALL notification, ALL location services, no 3G, no data, no wifi, no bluetooth)

Narrowing down the possible cause where my phone suddenly heating as it like.

FYI, it comes out of the box 5.0.1, now DFU restored to 5.1, using itunes 10.5.3.3 (was using 10.6)

Now my latest experiment was to compare between 2 SIM Cards.

One has dual line, and the other only single line.

I notice this when I put the SIM Card into old mobile phones, Sony Ericsson M600i, where you can switch between lines.

When I put the SIM Card with dual line, the backside of the iPhone gets warm and then hot, and the battery drain so fast. (remember, all set off -- notification, data, wifi, etc --)

Now I put back the SIM Card with single line, then it cools down, and it's quite normal, 2 - 3% per hour battery drain.

Put back the dual line SIM Card, confirmed, it's starting to build up heat again. Since it's a roaming SIM Card, I can't confirmed if this is the root cause. I'll have to check again once I'm back in my home country.

I'm not sure if in US, you normally have multiple lines or not, but hopefully this information can help identify what's the root cause.

pr1uk wrote:

 

I cannot believe this phone i upgraded 2 days ago from the 3Gs to a brand new 4s the battery life is useless compared the the older phone. Got the phone charged it overnight before i used it uaes my Macbook and a backup to restore and thought what a great phone this only lasted a few hour then the battery warning. What is the point of a new super phone if the battery does not even last a full working day. I am scared to use it for phone calls when i am out incase the battery drains talking of drain it seems to drain sitting on the shelf.

For heavens sake Apple what have you screwed up on this phone is it doing something in the background that is draining the battery so fast. Turned off wi-fi even 3g and siri is off but it still drains faster then my bank account on shopping day.

Apple i hope to see a software upgrade that sorts this out fast and whatever you have running in the background probably keeping an eye on us turn it off. A mobile phone is suposed to be mobile this bloody thing you cant go far because you need the mains to charge it twice a day ....

Dissapointed from the UK

Reset phone from settings menu, then do NOT restore it from iTunes, just sync it.  What you did was the root of my user's problems.  It is trying to be a 3GS.  Tell it you have a NEW phone, and then sync your apps, and promptly check the app store for updated apps made for your 4S.

Charles F. wrote:

 

I brought the battery to 100% charge, then immediately disconnected it from the charge cable.

 

• Yesterday, the phone crashed after 3 min and the usage stats disappeared ('-'). I used a timer to check the battery: it was draining at the 'standby' rate of 1% every 5 min.

 

• Currently, the iPhone has not crashed and the usage stats have not been erased for 24 min. Battery charge now at 99%. Then it lost another 1% after 18 min (1% every 9 min). 97% after 21 min (1% every 7 min). 96% at 24 min (1% every 6 min on average),...

 

• Now down to 79% (-21%) in 97 min, or 1% every 4.6 min in standby mode (at that rate, standby battery life will be 7.6 hours). No crash as of yet.

 

So, it seems that the crashes that the iPhone regularly experiences have nothing to do with the poor battery life.

 

Back to square one. There is a huge difference between 200 hours and 7.6 hours standby time.  Either:

 

• (1) the battery performance degrades rapidly due to faulty manufacturing or design,
• (2) the battery is not actually charged to its full capacity due to a faulty battery manager, or
• (3) a mysterious process drain the battery.

 

Or the 'up to 200 hours' standby time is misleading advertising. I am quite surprised they have not added a note stating that 'actual' standby time might be substantially less.

Read it again, it says 'UP TO 200 hours'.  That would be under perfect conditions.

As for you battery problem.  Try reseting settings and data, and the plug into the computer, load iTunes, and add the phone as 'new', and then SYNC, don't restore.

firnue wrote:

 

I just recently bought iPhone 4S.

I was amazed with its capability, but then realized that there's a significant battery issue with this phone. Then I start with the battery fix suggestion (e.g. turn off some location services, PING restriction). It was better, the battery is reasonably achieve 30 hours standby (around 4-6 hours usage time). Well, problem came last week, where suddenly my iPhone starts heating up, even sometimes shows message of overheating (I am currently at tropical region, where ambient temp is around 27 - 32 C)

 

It's been several days tinkering with this battery issue. I finally try shutting down everything (ALL notification, ALL location services, no 3G, no data, no wifi, no bluetooth)

Narrowing down the possible cause where my phone suddenly heating as it like.

 

FYI, it comes out of the box 5.0.1, now DFU restored to 5.1, using itunes 10.5.3.3 (was using 10.6)

 

Now my latest experiment was to compare between 2 SIM Cards.

One has dual line, and the other only single line.

I notice this when I put the SIM Card into old mobile phones, Sony Ericsson M600i, where you can switch between lines.

 

When I put the SIM Card with dual line, the backside of the iPhone gets warm and then hot, and the battery drain so fast. (remember, all set off -- notification, data, wifi, etc --)

Now I put back the SIM Card with single line, then it cools down, and it's quite normal, 2 - 3% per hour battery drain.

Put back the dual line SIM Card, confirmed, it's starting to build up heat again. Since it's a roaming SIM Card, I can't confirmed if this is the root cause. I'll have to check again once I'm back in my home country.

 

I'm not sure if in US, you normally have multiple lines or not, but hopefully this information can help identify what's the root cause.

SIM card problems can cause overheating.  You should get a NEW SIM card with the 4S, not one from an older phone.

Another setting that may/may not also help save battery life is the CARRIER setting.

If you look the default is set to Auto which means your phone searches through available networks each time.

Tturn it to OFF, wait for the list of networks to appear and then select your network, now it stays fixed to your network only and will never search for others.

If you roam on different networks, then obviously leave this set to AUTO.

rphunte42 wrote:

 

Read it again, it says 'UP TO 200 hours'.  That would be under perfect conditions.

 

Please define 'perfect conditions' and 'up to.' I am not that bright, you know. I learned to read in law school. If you are on Apple's payroll, I would suggest you intern at Zappos.com. Their customer service is fantastic and attitude-free. 

One interesting trend: the more I complain, the better my battery life. Maybe more relevant: I did not use my iPhone and left it in standby, no app running, no calls, constant temperature (24 C) -- perfect condition? The iPhone has not crashed yet and battery life has increased from about 6 hours to 22.4 hours.

I am now reaching 'up to' 10% of the 'perfect' battery life. Way to go, rphunte42! If the battery physical condition has not degraded and the charge manager is not defective, then the issue lies with the iOS and a rogue process. This seems to be confirmed by rphunte42 recommendations - aka reset and perform a clean install.

My bettery life:

7-8 hours USE

1 day 20 hours stand buy.

1.5 hour talking

Is it ok ???

But - No 3G, No Push, No Geo, No WiFi, No GPS and almost no games (((( Hate - I have to turn it all off !

Does seem a shame that you can have the best phone in the world but can only use it if it is plugged into the mains. Unplug it and you have to turn everything off to make the battery last all day