Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Ok so after a couple of recharge cycles and spending time with my iPhone 4S this is what I've concluded (firmly):

• The battery life with WiFi is fine. It will easily last a day and a half, maybe even two, with normal usage and constant connection to WiFi WITH email push notifications turned on.
• As soon as cellular data is turned on, the battery starts dropping 1% every 2-3 mins even in standby
• Basically, the battery life ***** with cellular data turned on

Being frustrated with not being able to use cellular data (I travel around a lot and don't have WiFi access all the time) I borrowed my friend's factory unlocked iPhone 4 running on iOS 5.0.1. What I saw shocked me.

The iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0.1 has the 3G data toggle switch in addition to the mobile data switch!!

In fact after borrowing my friend's iPhone 4 I actually borrowed another friend's iPhone 4 (who just upgraded her phone software to iOS 5.0.1 from 4.3.3) just to check whether I wasn't hallucinating. And voila, the 3G data toggle switch was present there as well!

So my question to Apple is this: Why on earth can't you give us poor souls who bought the iPhone 4S the 3G toggle switch as well? Please? I'm sure simply turning off the 3G radio is going to ensure I can stay connected to the internet for longer periods of time.

I turned off siri and restarted the phone. At first the sensor was off  when restarted but went on automatically15 mins later.However the sensor indicator is not on while on standby? why would it still affect the battery life?. last night 6 hours on standby it drained 30%. Does anyone know when apple is going to release ios 5.1/5.2?

Purchased my new i-phone 4s 2 January 2012 (my first i-phone) in SA. Very impressed with the phone itself, but the battery life is definately not even close to what Apple shows on the website specs. Gotta be a solution to this!? Otherwise this is definately false advertising. Anyone got some ideas that work?

Check your usage stats (Settings/General/Usage). Does the 'usage' time seem inline with your real usage? it seems that most users with poor battery performance get hours and hours of usage reported while the phone is in standby...

My 4S's battery goes from full charge to auto shut-off in about a day without me even using it. I have all the radios (WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G) on, but with hardly any use it still shouldn't drain that fast. It used to last longer (2-3 days), but the last couple of days I've picked it up to use it and found it had shut off due to an empty battery even though I had fully charged it the day before.

I just checked my usage and it says 8h 39m since last full charge and 13+ hours of standby, which can't be true. I used the phone for maybe a total of 30 minutes during that time, so the phone is apparently constantly working on something in the background, even when I'm not using it. While that explains the quick draining of the battery, I don't see a way of finding out what exactly it is the phone is working on...

One thing I'm trying now is disabling Settings->Location Services->System Services->Setting Time Zone. An article on guardian.co.uk suggests that that might help.

@Tom-Bo-Mac - I disabled the Setting Time Zone when I got my phone back in October - didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference. Are you in the UK and if so what network are you on? Im now strongly suspecting that the problem is between the phone and the SIM, with the SIM causing 'phantom usage' while in standby: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3491623?start=0&tstart=0

How do you tell whether the sensor is on or off?

This is exactly the root of the battery drain problem.   I have seen exactly the same things happening, right from release day one and through the 5.01 update.   I have no doubts that IF Apple can address this 3G data management issue, the battery drain issues will be solved.

kj789 wrote:

 

Ok so after a couple of recharge cycles and spending time with my iPhone 4S this is what I've concluded (firmly):

 

• The battery life with WiFi is fine. It will easily last a day and a half, maybe even two, with normal usage and constant connection to WiFi WITH email push notifications turned on.
• As soon as cellular data is turned on, the battery starts dropping 1% every 2-3 mins even in standby
• Basically, the battery life ***** with cellular data turned on

 

Being frustrated with not being able to use cellular data (I travel around a lot and don't have WiFi access all the time) I borrowed my friend's factory unlocked iPhone 4 running on iOS 5.0.1. What I saw shocked me.

 

The iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0.1 has the 3G data toggle switch in addition to the mobile data switch!!

 

In fact after borrowing my friend's iPhone 4 I actually borrowed another friend's iPhone 4 (who just upgraded her phone software to iOS 5.0.1 from 4.3.3) just to check whether I wasn't hallucinating. And voila, the 3G data toggle switch was present there as well!

 

So my question to Apple is this: Why on earth can't you give us poor souls who bought the iPhone 4S the 3G toggle switch as well? Please? I'm sure simply turning off the 3G radio is going to ensure I can stay connected to the internet for longer periods of time.

How do you tell whether the sensor is on or off?

You might try the app 'cpu activity'.  The write up indicates it will tell  you what is running.  If you see something suspicious, you can post and I will tell you if it is running on my 4S which does NOT have battery drain issues.

What we need is a definitive statement about what constitutes 'usage' to the iPhone 4S.  It appears that those with excessive battery drain are doing SOMETHING, when in standby, and it is something that uses the battery at a moderate rate, but it seems to run most of the time.  Again, if users who have this problem will look at their cpu activity and find anything suspicious, I would be glad to check it against my phone, which doesn't exhibit the problem.  Also, remember to comment on whether you got a brand new SIM card or took one from an older phone.  I suspect this may be related.

@Pete

Pete from Switzerland wrote:

 

@enx23: I hope you are wrong... I really do.

I hope that I am wrong too and I wish that your fix would a real fix!

@Jameson!

Jameson! wrote:

 

This is exactly the root of the battery drain problem.   I have seen exactly the same things happening, right from release day one and through the 5.01 update.   I have no doubts that IF Apple can address this 3G data management issue, the battery drain issues will be solved.

kj789 wrote:

 

Ok so after a couple of recharge cycles and spending time with my iPhone 4S this is what I've concluded (firmly):

 

• The battery life with WiFi is fine. It will easily last a day and a half, maybe even two, with normal usage and constant connection to WiFi WITH email push notifications turned on.
• As soon as cellular data is turned on, the battery starts dropping 1% every 2-3 mins even in standby
• Basically, the battery life ***** with cellular data turned on

 

Being frustrated with not being able to use cellular data (I travel around a lot and don't have WiFi access all the time) I borrowed my friend's factory unlocked iPhone 4 running on iOS 5.0.1. What I saw shocked me.

 

The iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0.1 has the 3G data toggle switch in addition to the mobile data switch!!

 

In fact after borrowing my friend's iPhone 4 I actually borrowed another friend's iPhone 4 (who just upgraded her phone software to iOS 5.0.1 from 4.3.3) just to check whether I wasn't hallucinating. And voila, the 3G data toggle switch was present there as well!

 

So my question to Apple is this: Why on earth can't you give us poor souls who bought the iPhone 4S the 3G toggle switch as well? Please? I'm sure simply turning off the 3G radio is going to ensure I can stay connected to the internet for longer periods of time.

I fully agree that the root of the battery drain is related to 3G! :-) The 3G stuff is managed in iPhone 4S by the Qualcomm  MDM6610 chipset.

On the other hand there is another Apple forum about the 3G issue here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=345&tstart=0

This is what Deggie from Texas wrote about the 3G issue:

==========================================

Here is the thing, Qualcomm radio chips in the past which were mainly CDMA in the past have never included access for an app programmer to manually flip the service or adjust threshholds. As this is a hybrid chip it is probable that Qualcomm did not provide any means for a programmer to access the chip to make any manual changes to the state of the chip and it is hard-coded in firmware within the chip as to when the threshhold is reached to make that change. In other words it is a closed system and the programmer has no access to it.

==========================================

which is copy and pasted from here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=330&tstart=0

Also it looks likethe 3G chipset is the one producing the static noise in iPhone 4s:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3393647?start=780&tstart=0

Shortly , it looks like the 3G chipset which does the 3G stuff is on autopilot mode and the key to the autopilot-mode boxhas been thrown into the sea!!! In other words it looks like the 3G issue can be addressed thru changing the chipset and cannot be fixed thru software or firmware updates!!!!

Also Bennice wrote on 3G forum https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=330&tstart=0 this:

=============================

As has been said several times throughout this thread, it would be a non-issue if 3G was reliable and there was adequate bandwidth. 

There are regular occurrences in which there is 3G signal, but not enough bandwidth to make or receive calls, or send/receive data.  In this situation, the ability to toggle between EDGE and 3G is the only way the device is usable for communication.  The radio will not automatically switch to EDGE when there is a 3G signal even if communication is not possible over 3G. 

This happens often in the Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs areas, and I have personally had the same experiences in other metro areas throughout the country with multiple generations of iPhones.

It may be a non-issue with users in other areas with less network saturation, but it is a very big deal for customers in some areas.

============================

I fully agree that the root of the battery drain is related to 3G! :-) The 3G stuff is managed in iPhone 4S by the Qualcomm  MDM6610 chipset.

 

On the other hand there is another Apple forum about the 3G issue here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=345&tstart=0

 

This is what Deggie from Texas wrote about the 3G issue:

=============================================

Here is the thing, Qualcomm radio chips in the past which were mainly CDMA in the past have never included access for an app programmer to manually flip the service or adjust threshholds. As this is a hybrid chip it is probable that Qualcomm did not provide any means for a programmer to access the chip to make any manual changes to the state of the chip and it is hard-coded in firmware within the chip as to when the threshhold is reached to make that change. In other words it is a closed system and the programmer has no access to it.

===================================================

which is copy and pasted from here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=330&tstart=0

 

Also it looks likethe 3G chipset is the one producing the static noise in iPhone 4s:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3393647?start=780&tstart=0

 

Shortly , it looks like the 3G chipset which does the 3G stuff is on autopilot mode and the key to the autopilot mode has been thrown in to the see!!! In other words it looks like the 3G issue can be addressed thru changing the chipset and cannot be fixed thru software or firmware!!!!

 

If this is true then are we screwed? Because I'm not in the US and I don't have any way of getting this phone back to the States for a refund in the next one week before my refund period expires completely.

Btw, I don't have the static noise issue.

And enx23 how's your refund claim coming along? Is Apple considering refunding your phone or not?

@marc-man: I disabled the Setting Time Zone setting and an hour later, during which the phone was 100% on standby, the battery went from 43 % to 36 %. So that setting apparently has nothing to do with the problem, at least not for me. I'm not in the UK, by the way, I'm in Germany on T-Mobile. I got a new SIM card when I got the 4S.

@rphunte42: I can't seem to find that "cpu activity" app you mentioned...