Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

I'm experimenting with resetting, Ariplane mode, turning on one setting at a time.  You can follow my testing here: http://dave-melkman.blogspot.com/

In summary, phone has been reset to factory defaults via iTunes and with lots turned off still loses over 2% hr.  Now in Airplane mode things are looking better.  Will turn on one thing at a time to see if I can work out what is causing the problem.  All fingers point towards software, not hardware nor battery conditioning.

Zero Diagnostics and Usage Data on my phone...

I had the same problem with my iPhone4s Battery-Life. I nearly lost 10% per hour. I installed my iPhone4s via a 3GS Backup from iTunes and there must be the problem. After i resetted my iPhone4s and installed it from scratch as a new iPhone, my battery holds much longer. Now, its about 1% per hour with my current usage (Mail, Facebook, Twitter and so on)

Okay, I wiped my phone again completely.

This time, on set up, I did not enter an iCloud login at all, and afterwards I did not set the phone up to sync with any other e-mail services.  Basically, no syncing at all.  No contacts.  No music.  No third-party apps.  Nothing.

I shut off location services completely.

I connected the phone to my WiFi access point, and turned off "ask to join networks" in the network settings as Apple says it does in testing here:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html

I then charged the phone to 100% and set the phone down about 10 feet away from my wireless access point and went to bed.

On waking in the morning, the phone states it has been 8 hours 40 minutes since last full charge.  However, it states that usage is 7 hours and 30 minutes.  Essentially, the phone has not really been asleep.  What it has been doing, I have no idea.  Battery shows 76 % remaining.  I think this is much improved to what I was seeing before - where the phone was fully discharged in 16 - 17 hours of no to minimal use.

However, if this is accurate, even with all the services shut off as I have done, battery life should be about 36 hours without actually using the phone for anything.  This is a far cry from the 200 hours standby claimed.

I don't know.  I'm still mulling this over.  Should I return this phone or not?  I'm approaching the 30 day limit on returns here.   If this is not fixable by a software update, then I'm going to wish that I hd returned the phone.  The decision to wait on a possible fix from Apple could be made a lot more easy, if Apple would extend the window for returns unti they can figure out what exactly is going on.  If this is a software issue, then I'm confident it can be fixed.  If it is a hardware issue, then I'm not really 100 % sure.

After reading this, I charged my iPhone 3GS (with IOS5) to 100% and let it sit on the kitchen counter overnight.  In the morning it was 8% charged.

I'd say that this is a piece of evidence in favor of the theory that the problem is with IOS5 and not necessarily the iPhone 4S.  (It is certainly possible that there are problems with both.)

The only programs that were running in the background were Music, Google Maps and Safari. 

According to the information in Location Services Settings, the only programs that have used Location Services in the past 24 hours are Google Maps and Compass Calibration.  I had Time Zone turned off.  Neither Diagnostics nor Location Based iAds have used the GPS in the past day.  I have never had any problem with Google Maps before installing IOS5.  I don't know about Compass Calibration.  I assume that it has been using Location Services with the previous operating systems, but I don't know for sure.

I do have bluetooth and WiFi turned on, as has always been the case in the past.  A solution that involves manually turning features such as this on and off is pretty useless to me.  I want the phone to connect to my car when I get in without messing with settings, so I need bluetooth on.  And I certainly want to use WiFi when it is available without having to press a series of virtual buttons.

I have literally lost 2% of battery life since my last post. I pulled it off the charger when I made that post.

Hi I think i've fixed it, i've only lost 2% of battery while I was sleeping, i turned off ping, and turned off wi-fi and turned off 3g/mobile network thing.

Hope this helps.

So in other words, you pretty much turned off everything thing that makes this phone an iPhone? That's not a fix my friend.

You're right, but in other words turn off the wi-fi when you don't use it until apple fix it

I understand, I was just kidding with you

This is definitely a software issue. I noticed decreased battery life on my iPhone 4 as well. I'm sure Apple will issue a fix. I have a feeling it's the location services.      

In an effort to decode this battery mystery... I have done the following:

1: Set my iPhone to communicate over WiFi

2: Plugged my WiFi router into a monitoring Switch

3: Captured all data transfer from the iPhone to the Web

4: Turned ALL PUSH options to OFF, CLOSED ALL APPS

5: Be amazed by how much info is passed without anything happening on the phone

Firstly I want to know what the heck my phone keeps doing a DNS lookup for NASA!!

www.nasa.gov / www.nasa.gov.speedera.net / nasa.gov.edgesuite are frequently called when the phone is sleeping.

Observations:

1: When the phone is sleeping and I touch the 'home button' the phone sends a lot of data around, email checking and some encrypted stuff - when it should not be doing anything as PUSH is OFF and there is no other reason to communicate the fact I have touched the 'home button'.

2: As an inbound call comes in.. it once again sends a wack of data to Apple..? Are we being call logged?

3: During these moments of random internet communications.. there seems to be a lot of reverse DNS calls that are looking pointless - is there some bad code calling them repeatedly?

4: Once you log into the phone with a pin.. from a sleeping state - the phone has a lot to say to the icloud.. why is that? Cloud PUSH is OFF.. Sync is at 2:30am normally.. why speak to the cloud now? why?

Maybe more people should try observing what their iphone behind the scenes...

Any Apple staff care to comment?

Definately syncs without being plugged in.  Turned my pc on this morning and just checked my itunes it synced at 6:15AM when I turned it on.  Phone was being charged but not plugged into pc.

Do you have iTunes WiFi Sync active? It sounds like you do.

I have had the issues since release date on my 4s. I had ios5 on my 4 and no problems. My phone never goes to standby. Went Thursday to apple store. They did a complete restore said this would fix the issue. Everything was better friday but woke up this Saturday morning and back to high battery use. This morning watch the arsenal game 1 hour since charge 1hour of use. Barely touched the phone.

I am not turning off 3G, wifi, notifications, or any other features I bought the phone to use it. Next thing people here will tell you to turn your phone off when not in use. Here is another idea for you maybe don't use your phone unless it's plugged in.

Yes, I have since disabled the sync.