Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Another iPhone 4S user with battery drain issues (about 4 and a half hours usage today before charging). I've been testing with and without various location services and notification options as well as with and without Siri, can't seem to get much difference in performance.  From my perspective in comparison to an iPhone 4 on iOS 5, it seems to consume battery at a surprising rate when asleep/locked, I seem to lose a good 10% an hour even when just on standby.

I wish there was a iOS equivalent of the OS X console application where you can see errata output of processes, it seems like this must be some sort of runaway process.  I hope.

It'd be nice to see some acknowledgement from Apple on the issue, although I guess we'll see nothing until iOS 5.0.1.

I really hate the way apple just remain totally silent about this even though there's 200,000 views here now, and this likely represents less than 5% of people having problems since most won't find there way onto these forums.

Even with LIGHT usage I'm getting about 5 hours of wifi/talk/checking email + 15 hours of standby before I'm down to 10%.
The irony is my girlfriend is using my 3 year old 3G and getting better battery life.

I know the 3g is meant to have 'more' standby time, but it's not just standby, it's everything.

When a brand new phone can't match a 3 year old phone that's been through 1000 battery cycles, something is seriously wrong.

I haven't had my phone a week yet and after charging at night and me being at work during the day my phone still needs to be charged halfway through the day.

Me again to throw out another observation. 

I currently have everything shut off (notifications, locations, iCloud, mail...)

I keep my Bluetooth shut off, unless I'm testing equipment that I install into vehicles.  I keep wifi on, and by the way  I'm thoroughly impressed with the range. 

Normal day of use did tend to drain battery cosiderably and my normal use includes not using my phone at work unless needed

Today I decided to play music from the iPod.  Battery drainage was actually less than what it normally would be!?!? 

I also surfed the web for a good hour over wifi during lunch.  And now I've been reading some more of this column and now replying all while listening to pandora, again over wifi.  And I'm only at 50%.  It just seemed today, the more I used the phone the less battery drain I had versus the phone in standby and not being used.

Coincidence...?  Possibly?  Just an observation.

P.s.  everyday I start the day disconnecting the phone @ 8:30 am with 100% charge and my time now is 9:30 pm. 

I would also like to say I'd have no problems installing any software as to help Apple diagnose the problem.

I said in my earlier post, I've owned every iPhone to date and this one BY FAR drains the fastest.

Ugh... confident that Apple will make this right, but with my busy schedule and taxing phone needs, I hope its sooner rather than later!

Thanks all here, and Apple - I hope you handle this as well as I confide that you will.

Paul

paulie420@gmail.com

(APPLE ID - paulie420@cox.net)

I upgraded from the 3gs and was very excited about the improved battery life I could expect with the 4s.  From the beginning, it wasnt't there.  It seemed to last even less time than my 3gs, with the same settings, and no push notifications on.  There were some other issues with my 4s and after going to the Apple store, I was given a new one.  I hoped that would remedy the problem but it didn't.  I allowed the battery to drain completely, turned off location services, siri lift to talk and it still drains as fast if not faster than my 3gs did.  APPLE PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so here's my  take on it having just got the device on 28 Oct.

4s batt really ***** (pun intended) compared to the 4.

So i tried something this morning.. charged it overnite till FULL and was on Facebook app.

Usage meter shows 0 for both usage and standby times.

I did not exit the FB app but put the phone to sleep manually and disconnected the phone from the power socket.

Did not touch the phone (not even to see the time) and 1.5hrs later, I checked the usage (exit FB app, went to Settings/General/Usage).

Now it shows

Usage: 1.5hrs

Standby: 1.5hrs

What??? the phone actually thinks that I am on the FB apps for 1.5hrs?!?!? Isn't it supposed to be "SLEEPING"???

iOS5 needs serious fixing.

I am done trying a bunch of work around .... hope that this battery issue will get fixed soon.

The issue you describe probably has nothing to do with Facebook. It is more likely due to one of the system location services running rogue, as has been discussed in a couple different threads including this one.

Much has been made of the Set Time Zone service running unnecessarily. For me, it seemed to be the Traffic service running for no reason. I turned both of them off in Settings > Location Services > System Services, and it has made a significant difference in my battery life.

g.phoria wrote:

 

so here's my  take on it having just got the device on 28 Oct.

4s batt really ***** (pun intended) compared to the 4.

 

So i tried something this morning.. charged it overnite till FULL and was on Facebook app.

Usage meter shows 0 for both usage and standby times.

 

I did not exit the FB app but put the phone to sleep manually and disconnected the phone from the power socket.

 

Did not touch the phone (not even to see the time) and 1.5hrs later, I checked the usage (exit FB app, went to Settings/General/Usage).

 

Now it shows

Usage: 1.5hrs

Standby: 1.5hrs

 

What??? the phone actually thinks that I am on the FB apps for 1.5hrs?!?!? Isn't it supposed to be "SLEEPING"???

 

iOS5 needs serious fixing.

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. It is 100 percent, I charge every 2-3 days.. I surf quite abit and do texting. At the bed of the day I am at 85 percent. When I get home I just have wi-fi on and check emails. I keep it that way till the next morning, at 0600 I check emails and I am at 65-70percent. I love this phone. Much better than my Blackberry.  I have Verizon and I have no battery drain. I am a happy camper.

but that's apple's way, man! i'd bet steve jobs heard the complaints, dropped some acid, chilled out for a while, and ultimately said 'f*ck it -- they'll forget about it eventually.' apple sheep always rolled over and run away giggling gayly.

but the gig is up. critical mass has exceeded the fanboys, and peeps are getting angry.

my 4s has been on for 15 hours and i'm still at 45%, a tremendous improvement over the past week. turn those location services off (except for locate my iphone).

Actually I noticed that I accidentally left my Facebook app opened after I unlocked my phone.   And with that I lost almost 20% of my battery.  I did not check the usage but I definitely noticed the loss of battery. 

Just adding onto my last post.  I'm also running Angry birds along with pandora and now the web.  And again very minimal battery usage.  Also I'd like to add, I took my phone out of its case to see if my phone was warm and it's actually quit cool to the touch.  I'm pretty sure if I used 3G instead of wifi, it would be fairly warm. 

i from singapore having the same problem with my new 4s.....  Tim Cook not doing his job.....if is Steve Jobs i think he atlease will reply his email....

I agree with some of the posts here that this issue may be related to the connection of the phone. At work my 3G is terrible but just enough to connect. In this situation my battery drained like no other . At home on wifi very little drainage of battery.