Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

I was just about to write the same - i did a few more tests, all basing on the asumption that the battery drain is linked to the usagetime during standby - After a Network reset this went down, so it did not go up during standby - switching then on Mobile Data let usage time and standby time almost increase at the same rate. (NB: No active Mail Accounts, no location Services, no Siri, no Background tasks)

Activating WLAN reduced this again to about 50% usage during standby. After another Network reset I did enable WiFi only and had a about 10% Usage time during standby. So it looks like this is linked. I had never to do this on my 3GS - so it may well be a software bug - or related to a new 3G chip or provider/SIM related.

Switching off Mobile data did not resolve this for me once it was activated, only resetting Network.

Anyway - i do not like this - there is no point in having to turn off mobile data.

Though I've not had the issues most folks have written about, I agree with those that say you should only expect a full working day before you need to charge.  My 4S has been excellent out the box since day one.  Now let me qualify that.  I preordered, so I got one of the first phones and I'm coming from a Droid X / Blackberry view.  If you think the 4S has a battery problem, then you are spoiled, because I think it's great after the DX.  If I didn't charge it at least once during the day, I risked running out of juice.  Now I'm a heavy user of my phone and that could explain why it needed to charge. So often, but when I got the 4S, I didn't have to charge during the day and that's why I noticed it.  I think it's great when compared to other phones.  May not be up to standard for an iPhone, but great when compared to other phones.  County our blessings.

forgot to mention: iCloud was completly disabled for testing as well...

Me and my wife both got the Verizon iPhone 4S 16GB. She got the white and I got the black.  The settings on both phones are identical.  Last night we both went to sleep around 11pm.  Both phones were at 100% charge.  I woke up today at 5:30am and my phone was down to 69%.  I checked hers and it was at 99%.  Does anyone have any explanation????  All of the suggestions here seem reasonable,  but if both our phones were set up the same way, then the only thing I can think of is that the battery is faulty.

There's no better test than that.... but i would do it again, double check all settings and charging time. When charging reaches 100%, before bedtime power down both phones and continue to charge for another 30 minutes, then power up the phone and unplug and check it in the morning upon awaking.

lets us know the results.

I was able to fix mine!  I was having this same problem and was very frustrated.  I went to see an Apple store genius and they suggested a full restore.  They restored it to factory settings and I did a restore from my Icloud backup, this did not fix the problem.  I went back to the Apple store the next day and they did a diagnostic and discovered the Springboard (main home screen) was crashing, and one of my apps was not shutting down properly.  They suggested I do a complete restore and set up as a new phone and hold off on installing any of my apps for a day and test. (I did set up 2 email accounts with push activated and all location based services turned on)  This worked! Battery life is back to being somewhat comparable to my iPhone4.  I went from the phone not being able to last on standby through the night to only using about 10% battery for an 8 hour period overnight with push and all location based services on..  I am assuming the problem was in the iOS5 load due to the Springboard crashes, I will slowly add my apps back and monitor.  I hope this helps.

Woke up this morning at 100%..sent a few iMessages and looked up 3 websites..phone says usage was 22min and Im already at 95%..thats really ridiculous..Im tempted to go to the Apple store and get a new one but I dont really think its the hardware..

Another update.

Last night from 11:27PM I went from 67% to midnight to 57%. All I did was text, and read emails.  Ridiculous.  I'm now going to restore the phone.  But will be in the same city as an Apple store so if it doesn't fix it I'm definitely going to go see if I can exchange my phone.

My phone is downloading an iPhone Software Update in iTunes?????

But it's a 4S.......I'm confused. 

Everyone. My iPhone 4S was draining 10% an hour. I took it to Apple store. They realized there was a problem. They gave me a new iPhone 4s. Now the battery is at 42% and I haven't charged it for 26 hrs  i used it for phone calls, wifii, push email ...Please go to apple!!!! This is a Batterygate they must fix!

It's a software problem. Ever time Apple get out a new iPhone it's the same problem. Wait for a update IOS 5.1 it's a bug management battery problem. Their nothing any body can do till Apple release the new update.

Hi All

After having implemented every remedy recommended I am still not getting 18 hours on standby for the iphone 4s and not even using the phone.

When I checked the usage it was saying that I had been using the phone for 2 hours 48 minutes and the incomming and outgoing data usage was in the 4 - 9 MB range my thoughts were ***, now how im doing that when I had not done anything other than check how fast the battery was draining I dont know.

Now 18 hours is well short of the stated 200 hours on standby quoted at the launch by Tim Cook, they dont however state how the phone was configured to get that amount of standby time.

There was one article about a possble battery drain on iOS 4.3 that I came across which I had not read before (linked here - http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/how-to-shut-off-ping-and-increase-battery-lif e-with-ios-4-3-20110321/) that mentions PING could be a problem and I am assuming here it may be that it is also causing a problem in iOS5.

Now i hate PING at the best of times on iTunes and if i could rip the code out of iTunes I gladly would, so I am going to give it a try with switching it off to see if that helps the battery.

I am more than a little dissapointed with Apple at the lengths MANY people are having to go to try and resolve this issue with no formal guidance or acknowledgment of the issue that many are experiencing short of going to a genius bar.

I am a long time mac user and love the kit they make and how easy it is to use but from a customer experience perspective this is well below the standard they set for themselves and what others attempt to emulate and aspire to.

How could it be JUST a software problem if my replacement iPhone 4S works at least 300% better! Apple is an amazing company but some of the batteries are defective. Has anyone else returned their phone and seen a difference or the same poor battery life?

If you want to feel it is a software problem than sit back and watch your battery life continue to be poor.

Don't make assumptions that ur fix is the fix all for everyone. If you actually went through some of the posts in this thread u would have seen that people did replace the phone and it had the same problem. It is very rare that Apple makes a mistake and releases thousands of ba batteries.. There has to be atleast 10% or more phones with this same problem.. Some people just don't post on forums or even look it up..

Well I am going to exchange the two I have. I have nothing lose. I was emailing a friend and I am watching the battery decrease right before my eyes as I am typing. In less than 5 minutes it's gone from 87 to 84