Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

My 4S now makes it through 12 hours of life, losing approximately 25%, and I have location services on and I'm on 3G

I realized iOS 5 has bluetooth on by default, except there's no notification icon of this in the homescreen, or anywhere other than in the settings.  Here's what I did:

• Turned Bluetooth Off
• Turned the stock app in the notification center off (I don't follow stocks, so don't need it constantly updating if that's what it does)
• Turned the weather app in the notification center off (I aso don't need constant weather updates. When I need to see the weather I'll just open the weather app, besides its always hot over here)
• Removed the calendar from the notification center - I receive alerts only
• Removed the mail app from the notification center - I receive alerts only

Try the above, especially the bluetooth!  Bluetooth kills the battery on any phone.

Cellular Transmission seems to be the problem

I have no cellular data for my mobile plan (told my service provider to cut all cellular data out) my 4Gs battery drains out fast like everyone does. I notice that if I don't switch off Cellular Data, the Personal Hotspot keeps loading forever. Maybe that contribute to fast battery draining issue.

I did battery reset once (drains all battery until it turns off by itself and full charge for 10 hrs). Then hard power reset by clicking the Home button and Standby button at the same time. Battery no improvement--from 9am to 1pm, battery drain from 100% - 51% that's with the phone idle for 5 hrs, 30 min usage, cellular data off, wifi off, BT off, location service off, iCloud backup off .

Then last night did another battery reset. This morning -- 7:30am to 11:30am, battery states at 99-100%. with 5hrs idle and 37 usage, no cellular data, no wifi, BT off, location service off, iCloud backup off. Today battery performance does better than yesterday.

Then I test it with listening to music for 10 mins, battery stays the same.

Then I switch on Cellular data (remembering that my service plan has no cellular data) Personal Hotspot loading icon runs forever and immediately lost 1% battery (98%). I switch off cellular data. Suddnely I received a call from home and spoke on the line for less than a minute, I realize my battery is now 97%. It looks like any cellualar transmission drains the battery.

2 mins of Wifi usage loose 1% battery, my 3G (5.0.1) out perform 4Gs with the same usage.

I also notice how quickly iPhone 4Gs charge up from a wall outlet. I was actually timing it. At 30% charge it took 30 mins, 50% charge took 51 mins, 98% charge 1.5 hrs.

I notice the same thing with Personal Hotspot, I've found that toggling airplane mode makes it stop until you go into "Network" again. Also if you leave it alone for a few mins it will change to Setup Hotspot.

Is there a way to turn off Personal Hotspot so it doesn't run consistantly in the background?

Mine is off unless I turn it off.  I bought mine in France.  If it's always on, that would deplete the battery as well.  I know from an Android device I once upon a time owned

Bluetooth is just on by default, when you switch it off - it stays off.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/16/2565102/smartphone-buyers-guide

Beautiful and informative article... even for those who already have made their choice! Enjoy!

There's no way I'm turning off and on my Bluetooth.  To me that's just crazy.  If that's something that needs to be turned off for battery performance, then a button or switch should be more accessible rather than going into the menu.

Godot97 wrote:

 

I think I'm on to something.  I've had a 4s since the first day they came out, and I've had all kinds of heartache over this battery issue.  I've read about 25% of the posts on this forum, so I've seen the patterns of complaints and the common fixes.

 

Back on page 343 of this forum, I spoke of a theory of a dual antenna issue on the iPhone 4s.  While some agreed with some of my findings, the biggest argument against this was that the problems also happened on other iOS devices. .............................  Maybe iOS 5 tries to boost antenna signal more actively than iOS 4 did...

 

I don't have any solutions other than those already recommended, but I do have these observations, and I just wanted to share what I'm noticing as I experience it.

 

Phone:  iPhone 4S 64GB
Provider:  Sprint
Homebase:  Raleigh, NC

Based on my own observations, I agree with your theory about the dual antenna design with the 4S.  I think there are 2 main independent issues here.

• The first is IOS5 has some bugs or corrupt installs that are creating uncontrolled background processes, runaway apps, or other issues that are accelerating battery consumption in sleep or stand-by mode.  My 3GS without an active SIM card was losing 10% to12% per hour in stand-by after the 5.0.1 update.  After a full restore it will last 60 hours on stand-by.  I believe that the resets, restores and battery drains are terminating these background processes and/or in many cases correcting the corrupt OS. This problem can potentially affect all devices but the 4S seems to be impacted the most.

• The second is the dual antenna design and how inefficiently the 4S receives and manages wireless signals.  I believe all 4S's are affected by this and the differences users are seeing are dependent on location, cell tower, cell provider, signal strength,etc. as well as how they are using their phones. I live in Los Angeles and I have experienced a wide range of battery consumption based on my location and even within the same location I will see different drainage depending on the time.  This may be a hardware design or a hardware/software issue but I do not think a 5.0.x update will fix this.  I hope that I am wrong.

Finally, I think that there is a group of users where their phones are running close to specification but through user error, ignorance or mismanagement, they believe they have a problem battery.

I'm traveling on business and finally had enough today. Went by the local Apple Store and made a quick Genius bar appointment...my phone is about 8 or 9 days old...tech ran a few diagnostics, saw a few things he said concerned him and immediately swapped me to a new phone...updated to 5.01 on the spot and thus far, no battery issues...I pulled it off the charger about 2 hours ago and only turned it on once and it still has 100% charge...He seemed very aware of the issue and instantly ready with a replacement...I'm guessing this is going to be a regular "fix"...

It has definitely to do with wireless signals. After activating airplane mode I had no battery drain at all. But once I had deactivated airplane mode again I could see the battery drain and drain and ... I hope this gets fixed otherwise I'm going to return this phone.

This is the third report (posting here) that mentions clear differences in battery drain based on location. Very interesting observations.

My home received two iphone 4s on the same day.  Both phones installed the OS5.0.1 update.  One phone has been plugged in charging more than unplugged in standby (black with every single service turned off) while the other phone (white with every single service turned on) has only had to charge once.

Why isn't anyone thinking it is the actual batteries that likely are no longer sourced from the same place as before Japan was devastated with an earthquake/sunami?

When will the solution or is proposed to consider new iPhone 4s hardware is modified

Or another proposal, modified to fit the compensating iPhone 4s batteries

Actually, I bought my 4s today and while I was restoring it from the cloud in the store, I noticed IMMEDIATELY the intense battery drain. It went from 77% to 66% in less than an hour...I probably should  have returned it then...and the Genius was busy telling me that it was because of the locations services...they are the same as it was on the 4!!!

I started futzing around with the settings and the ONLY combination that seems to be the most draining: Siri is set to ON for Raise to Speak. Siri is also set to monitor location services....

I also have bluetooth on, and with these two and the location services, I think that might be an intense part of the battery drain.

Bluetooth is always listening for the headset and Siri is always listening for when the phone is raised for speaking or getting a fix on my location.

Granted, there is a proximity sensor but something has to monitor the sensor for when it's next to my head....ergo, battery drain.

I also think that the battery sourcing will turn into a major issue as well since they have had more than one maker for the batteries...I wouldn't be surpised...some phones have the issue and some don't with the exact same settings.

I still have the 4 in a box that I was going to sell on eBay...but if this battery thing is this bad all the time and I have to turn off major functionality or sit next to a charger instead of servicing clients, the 4s will be returned over the weekend...I'll stick to vlingo and use that for now.

And Siri said she won't marry me anyway....*sniff, sniff*....

Message was edited by: MAC-ASSIST