Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

7.15am unplugged 4-day-old iPhone 4S which was charging overnight. Apps running in background: iMessage, eBay, PayPal, Mail. All Wi-Fi, Location Services, Auto timezone etc (per recent press postings) turned off.

Battery: 100%

8.20am Arrive at work after being in tube for 40mins.

Battery: 19%

I've read that the battery life on the 4S isn't optimal but this is ridiculous. I will be taking it back today.

TigerWont wrote:

 

7.15am unplugged 4-day-old iPhone 4S which was charging overnight. Apps running in background: iMessage, eBay, PayPal, Mail. All Wi-Fi, Location Services, Auto timezone etc (per recent press postings) turned off.

 

Battery: 100%

 

8.20am Arrive at work after being in tube for 40mins.

 

Battery: 19%

 

I've read that the battery life on the 4S isn't optimal but this is ridiculous. I will be taking it back today.

Did you lose connection to mobile phone network leading to phone needing to be switched off - on to get it back connected? Is SIM PIN enabled? Bluetooth?

Well, I hope you know it's not supposed to be like that lollll.

The tube is like an airplane but without the wings... so use airplane mode!!! Think different

p.s. hoping to get 5 points for this one!!

Nope... I've been taking the same route to work with an iPhone (3GS) in my pcoket for the past 2 years without any issue. Typically the connectivity just goes to "No Service" when I go into the tube and picks up as soon as I am back above ground. Yesterday I made the same journey (first with the 4S) and didn't lose more than 5% (a lot, but not much bearing in mind battery life seems to be a known issue), but I think the difference today was that I had 4 apps open whereas I usually close them after using them (again knowing that leaving apps open drains the battery).

That doesn't explain 81% loss in an hour with no actual use...

Airplane mode is there to avoid interference FROM the phone...

Nil points.

Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas.  Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls.  To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.

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

What if the 4 apps and other outstanding settings exponentially multiplied your initial 5% drain?

For more intelligent solutions aka config tailoring, look at Stephan, Miless and the ACTM guy posts in the last few pages!

Good luck!

Airplane mode is not the way to go for leaving network coverage...

However your point re 4 open apps and resulting exponential battery loss during a period of "No Service" points to something... I am hoping this is a bug in OS 5.0 as I really don't want to hand over the phone...

Anyone from Apple want to comment?

TigerWont wrote:

 

 

Airplane mode is not the way to go for leaving network coverage...

 

 

However your point re 4 open apps and resulting exponential battery loss during a period of "No Service" points to something... I am hoping this is a bug in OS 5.0 as I really don't want to hand over the phone...

 

Anyone from Apple want to comment?

I am not Apple but Apple have acknowledged that there were bugs in iOS 5.0 and state that a fix should come within weeks. I personally believe that leaving apps open when these use 3G to get data is prone to battery getting drained at the speed of light so I always close all apps I do not use for the time being and set email to manual fetch. When the iOS bug fix is released then I will carefully add other features such as Siri or iCloud that I want to use.

44 hours since last (and initial) full charge and still 52% battery remaining with minimal services as shown in my earlier posts. I was really disappointed with phone # 1 but things are much better with my new unit and some careful use of it before iOS is stable and allows me to use my 4S the way I would like to, hopefully by year end.

And to me setup does not explain everything given that my new 4S was much better than the previous one straightaway and never got hot as the previous one used to. My 2 pennies thought on this.

TigerWont wrote:

 

 

Airplane mode is not the way to go for leaving network coverage...

 

 

However your point re 4 open apps and resulting exponential battery loss during a period of "No Service" points to something... I am hoping this is a bug in OS 5.0 as I really don't want to hand over the phone...

 

Anyone from Apple want to comment?

lolll I'm not making this up, I was quoting their doc if you've noticed.

Most likely what happens is that when they boosted the signal bars following the antenna gate, well they succeeded at fooling their own phone with that and it all bounces and loops etc lollll most likely 5.0.1 will reimplement the normal bars internally so to speak

Stephan says : "And to me setup does not explain everything[...]" - I agree with that. I believe some phones are just plain bad. Figuring this just involves restoring to a new device without apps/mail, turning mostly everything off and seeing if there is substantial drain on standby etc. If so, one should have the phone replaced.

Something I forgot to mention. I don't want to kill my battery and I wondered whether these fast discharges could damage it or not. So decided to take a conservative approach (to my assets and money) and protect the battery as much as I could.

Looks like Apple may not replace 4S's anymore for issues similar to those I faced with my first unit .....

We're on the same page. Roll on the update! Cheers

StephanGenevaCH wrote:

 

[...]

 

Looks like Apple may not replace 4S's anymore for issues similar to those I faced with my first unit .....

They may not "want" to, but I'm afraid the law is the law, even for Apple. A consumer doesn't have to wait further than the minutes a support guy would need to try and solve the issue at the store - I mean they may refuse to replace it but you'd still be entitled to a refund. Internal Apple communication to their staff is irrelevant insofar as consumers are concerned.

Ok, off to work!

Didn't mean to shoot the messenger... sorry.

lolll don't you worry!!! Plus I don't even own an Iphone so I'm a pretty happy camper!

Take care!

Just want to gauge what sort of expectations I should have for the battery... what do we think about the below? (I've done all the settings changes etc. suggested - location, notificiations, bluetooth).  I'm connected to wifi pretty much all day, and it was off when I wasn't at work. (iphone 4s btw)