Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

rphunte42 wrote:

 

I think the 'usage' is correct, but then I am not sure I understand just what 'usage' means in this context.  It appears that the phone decides what is 'usage' and what is 'standby'.  Also, does anyone know for sure if these are mutually exclusive?  That is, should I sum usage and standby to see how long my phone has been running since the last charge?  I haven't ever had need to check this.

No, adding 'usage' and 'standby' together will not tell you how long it's been since last charge. They SHOULD but they DONT, at least on my 4S thay don't. I get hours worth of 'usage' reported while my phone is in standby - for every hour it's in standby, my phone will report approx 30 mins usage - even with everything off - Siri, Locations, WiFi, BT, Mobile Data, and even after a completely fresh IOS install with no apps, no contacts, no nothing.

Here's an example:
I fully charged my 4S yesterday evening. Took it off charge at 23:46 and left it in standby all night. When I checked the phone this morning at 08:12, I had the following:

Battery remaining:     81%

Usage:                     4 Hours, 2 Minutes

Standby:                  8 Hours, 25 Minutes

If I added those 2 figures together I would get 12 Hours, 27 minutes and it would have had to be 12:11 when I checked. The Standby figure for me in that instance is correct but the usage should be ZERO.

HAHA knew this was coming, I dont take it personally so no problem there, So 50 million huh, I cannot seem to find that number so thanks for that info I did say GUESS and knoew it was a low #, but that means 80% of 50 million iPhones are defective and Apple keeps delivering them knowing they will have to replace 40 million of them as folks return to the stores (because as you state they are not going to solve it with software) is your belief?

BTW its a known fact that the antenna issue effects ALL smartphones if you stand on your head, provide  a death grip with both hands to cover the phone entirely, while facing northeast while in a closet

When you return your iPhone and get something else give it a try and see if the signal drops.

Standby: everything off (mobile data, BT, WiFi, GPS), display off, no voice, no audio.

Usage: one of them.

Consumption: Standby (basic feature) + usage.

Calculation: the phone decides nothing, every usage is a system mesage to iOS.

You should know that as IT expert.

rphunte42 wrote:

 

I think the 'usage' is correct, but then I am not sure I understand just what 'usage' means in this context.  It appears that the phone decides what is 'usage' and what is 'standby'.  Also, does anyone know for sure if these are mutually exclusive?  That is, should I sum usage and standby to see how long my phone has been running since the last charge?  I haven't ever had need to check this.

Well this is how Apple defines it. Although as mentioned, I had at least 1.75 hrs usage one day when it reported 30 minutes.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1805

rphunte42 wrote:

 

I think the 'usage' is correct, but then I am not sure I understand just what 'usage' means in this context.  It appears that the phone decides what is 'usage' and what is 'standby'.  Also, does anyone know for sure if these are mutually exclusive?  That is, should I sum usage and standby to see how long my phone has been running since the last charge?  I haven't ever had need to check this.

sbailey4 wrote:

 

Well this is how Apple defines it. Although as mentioned, I had at least 1.75 hrs usage one day when it reported 30 minutes.

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1805

rphunte42 wrote:

 

I think the 'usage' is correct, but then I am not sure I understand just what 'usage' means in this context.  It appears that the phone decides what is 'usage' and what is 'standby'.  Also, does anyone know for sure if these are mutually exclusive?  That is, should I sum usage and standby to see how long my phone has been running since the last charge?  I haven't ever had need to check this.

Thanks sbailey4 for clearing that up. So according to Apple the 'standby' time is actually the amount of time since the last full charge:

Standby: Amount of time iPhone has been powered on since its last full charge, including the time the phone has been asleep.

@sbailey4

sbailey4 wrote:

 

HAHA knew this was coming,...

You wrote that the previous post is the last one but it wasn't....

I dont take it personally so no problem there...

Good!

So 50 million huh, I cannot seem to find that number so thanks for that info...

Here it is:

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/10/22/apple-sell-almost-50-million-iphone-4s-hol iday-quarter/

 

BTW its a known fact that the antenna issue effects ALL smartphones if you stand on your head, provide  a death grip with both hands to cover the phone entirely, while facing northeast while in a closet

 

Yes, indeed All smartphones are affected by the antenna issue only that some smartphones are affected more than the others. iPhone 4 is the worse smartphone regarding the antenna issue! I am still puzzled how come the Apple engineers have missed something like this! Also Job was panicking when he lost reception during his presentation of iPhone 4. It looks like Apple can blow it big way from engineering point of view! It looks like it has done with iPhone 4s too!

 

When you return your iPhone and get something else give it a try and see if the signal drops.

I have tried many Nokia smartphones and neither have problems with the signal drops. Even now where I get 3 bars with iPhone 4s I have 5 bars with Nokia phone.

@ rphunte42

Yes but a feature phone is not a smartphone and moreover is not an iPhone!!

The reason why I bought an iPhone after having an android is battery life + ease of use.

The way I use my iPhone is: it will be on standby most of the time until I need it for its smartphone features e.g apps, safari and to a certain extent even the text messaging is easier on an iPhone!!!

Here are my usage results with everything ON except iMessage, FaceTime, iCloud and iTunes WiFi Sync which I forgot to turn on.

Diags & Usage: ON

Bluetooth: ON

3G: ON

WiFi: ON

Location Services: ON

WiFi Ask to join networks OFF

Full 5 bars signal throughout the whole test

Setting Time Zone was on throughout the whole test with the GPS signal on all the time as well!!! This is definitely a bug.

Diags & Usage logged about 150 files.

~1 hr of calls

Lots of YouTube videos and safari searching over WiFi.

Whatsapp and texting.

Probably would have eked out another 10 minutes on the 1%.

Now what I want to know is why my usage roughly the same with the following test results?

WiFi only ON

3G only ON

WiFi and 3G only ON

OK I'll add a few screenshots; most of location/notification/reports/sync off, battery slowly getting better - but also very random - particularily if 3G is on with WiFi. You HAVE to have 3G on for MMS to work (except iMessage).

Hello. Many user are struggling to wrap there head around why the battery life of the 4s seems sub par. This may be due to the fact that The processor and other techniology within the phone requires more power from the battery yet the battery capacity is very similar to that previous iphones. Some tricks i use to preserve battery life are turning of the bluetooth, turning down brightness, and being sure not to leave excess apps running in the backround. Hope this was helpfull.

www.Klamzone.com

Thanks for that insight but the majority of people on this thread would have tried those simple and obvious tricks. Thing is lots of people really are having 'real' issues with battery performance. Mine is being sapped while in standby and the phone is reporting hours worth of usage while left in standby. It's a fresh, clean IOS install with everything turned off, no backup installed and no contacts, mail or calendar set up. The phone manages to rack up 4 hours of usage while left in standby for 8 hours overnight.

I took my wife's iphone 4S to Apple Store(Toronto - Fairview mall) and that representative tried to convince me that this is normal and wouldn't do a thing about it. The phone's usage and standby time is ALWAYS the same even though I left it standby during the night next moring I checked next morining the battary is down from 100% to 70% with nothing on. The usage time is 7-8 hours, which is exactly the same as the standby time.

I asked the rep doesn't that mean there is always running on the background and constantly draining the battery? My iphone 4's Usage time is always just the time I used to make a call, or using apps, sending a text message.

After 20 min arguing over this, she insisted this is not an issue or a defective phone and she recommended to do a clean wipe and re-install OS 5.0.1...so we did and after that we can't really prove if it's fixed the issue or not unless we actually stay at the store for another hour(the phone loses about 3-5% during standby) so we went home.

So we fully charged the phone again and next morning, same thing...on standby it loses 30ish% of battary for doing nothing. Usage time is again the same as Standby.

Did anyone here actually have their phone replaced at the Apple store in Toronto?

My impression is that Apple doesn't even recommend draining the battery down until shutdown but they have dumbed down their wording for consumers.  The main point is to use your device enough so that it equates to 1 full charge cycle per month.  This keeps the electrons moving on a regular basis which is what is most important for Li based batteries.   FYI, all Apple devices with sealed batteries have protection circuitry so that the battery is never fully drained but the device will shut down when it is close to full drain.  Regardless, I do not recommend draining to shutdown because there is no major benefit in doing this.

sbailey4 wrote:

 

Well you are somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect. Li-ion battery have better results charging them before they are too low. Also the charge cycles are not based on how many times you plug it in but rather the percentage. So if you have a battery that drops to 50% and you plug it in, it only counts for 1/2 a cycle, if you plug in again at 50% there is the other 1/2. Same if it drops to 20% then you have used 80% of a cycle. So really not using up your cycles per se.  Li-ion really do not like to be fully discharged although  Apple does recommend once a month and I have read a few other places that this is good for Apples batteries.

thebigDan wrote:

 

sbailey4, we are dealing with batteries, the more you charge them, the sooner the battery dies, because they have a charge life cycle. If you don't need to charge it, you shouldn't. Although on the recommended tips to prolong battery life, they recommend atleast 1 time a month to do a full drain, then charge to full.

sbailey4 wrote:

 

Well you are somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect. Li-ion battery have better results charging them before they are too low. Also the charge cycles are not based on how many times you plug it in but rather the percentage. So if you have a battery that drops to 50% and you plug it in, it only counts for 1/2 a cycle, if you plug in again at 50% there is the other 1/2. Same if it drops to 20% then you have used 80% of a cycle. So really not using up your cycles per se.  Li-ion really do not like to be fully discharged although  Apple does recommend once a month and I have read a few other places that this is good for Apples batteries.

thebigDan wrote:

 

sbailey4, we are dealing with batteries, the more you charge them, the sooner the battery dies, because they have a charge life cycle. If you don't need to charge it, you shouldn't. Although on the recommended tips to prolong battery life, they recommend atleast 1 time a month to do a full drain, then charge to full.

You didn't mention if you have any apps installed. Or if you're sure about your SIM sanity.

You might try cellular data off or airplane mode while you sleep and compare. And - don't laugh - leaving the phone close to a window. Yes, it goes that far with such a phone.

Good luck!

edit: Apple should build a macro command for this phone, which people could use before going to bed with a specific swipe/gesture... along the lines of "close taskbar apps+soft reset+cellular data off+airplane mode".

I take note of the fact that not only the battery indicator is unreliable, but also the USAGE numbers themselves - at least in relation to call time. Furthermore, it also seems there is variation in the indicator reliability depending on charge cycles numbers since first use AND iOS version. That makes it very hard to make intelligent analysis. Although the 7/22 spec or a variation thereof is common your printscreens are henceforth useless, especially at half battery and such. Stopping the test at 1% is useless too - the mark should be when it dies and shuts down.

lolll

Which is why, the only way to do this is to use a stopwatch and take down notes ("just did 42 mins of calls, just did 25 mins of 3G web browsing" etc.) with pen and paper i.e. reliable stuff.

Good luck!