Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

obviously, this is a real issue that needs to be addressed by Apple. In an article by Mac Life it is suggested that 1, keep an eye on location services. many applications want to know where you are all of the time.

2, Calibrate the battery at least once per month. charge fully, and then drain fully.

3, turn off push notifications. e-mail, texts, news, ect. will check for updates at whatever rate you allow. set this to (less often).

We may be waiting on a software patch or something more substantial

My iPhones's battery life was GREAT until the last couple of days. I have not changes my usage at all. I have actually used it less, and by 5:00pm it is at like 19%. I have a sprint 4S. It's frustrating because I got soo used to not carrying an extra charger with me, because I did not need it when I did...

Dogman24701 wrote:

 

[...]I spoke with a tech support supervisor and their answer after telling me how great this faulty piece of electronics is  was to wait and get a 5. They admitted no fix was in the future. [...]

I just hope for you guys' sake he was just saying whatever to put an end to the conversation. I also hope that the 5 is more than the 4S with a patched OS and a new choice of colors. I guess going for the 4 now could be the sensible choice so I checked but was disappointed to see that Apple sells it at about 100USD less than the 16Gb 4S, but it's 8Gb. I mean it's cheaper but it's not cheap at 549$. If only Apple would do a sale this month, selling the 4 for 300$ let's say... that would make lots of people happy I think.

Looking around for alternatives, I kind of always fall back on the Nokia N8 or N9, but they're not cheap either. So I found a phone I may end up buying. For me to buy a cell phone, it must really be out of this world because I couldn't care less about lifestyle or status, and I'm not into social and personal awareness. Plus there's basically no one I really feel like talking to for more than a minute or so a day.

So enter Nokia C1-01(review here, 90% http://www.reghardware.com/2011/03/02/review_phone_nokia_c1_01/ ) a stylish 1.8" screen candybar feature phone, 50USD or less, rated at 528 standby hours with 10.6 talk hours on 2G. (specs here http://www.nokia.com/us-en/products/phone/c1-01/specifications/ ). Pros: No touchscreen, no bull, numeric physical keyboard, quality mp3 sound reproduction, FM radio, attractive design and superb call quality. Cons: no Siri, lackluster camera. I estimate if I put this on a cheap voice plan, then buying this and using it for a full year costs less than buying an unlocked iPhone - may even cost less than buying a subsidized iPhone if I put it on prepaid and use a few $ a month of calls. Also will make a perfect companion device for the 4S user who wants to save battery life by not talking/texting on his precious!

same on my 3gs 5.0.1

i charged it for 4 hrs and then after half an hour it ccomes to 57% from 100%

Because i believe they can't fix it - i wrote this is a hardware problem and that can't be fixed by software. And only Apple is dancing around telling the true.

Dogman24701 wrote:

 

Why is everyone dancing around the issue of Apple not fixing this problem......

@Tamarillo

Tamarillo wrote:

 

Yeah, in this industry is never a balance - software needs more power, processor power is not used by software, battery life is too long/too short for the processor...hard to find a product with features you need.

Also some manufactures "forget" to update the specifications, especially the battery life section!

I agree with you, dont think this is a software issue. Last night i did a full charge and put my phone on airplane mode. 8 hours later it had consumed 14% battery time. In my case its not related to any cellulardata/3g problem i guess. Basically my theory is that there are a large number of 4s out there which are manufactured with defects. I so disapointed investing 600 euros with phone that is bringing me so many troubles.

! shutting of all major functions

-siri

-wifi

-notifications

-cellulardata

-auto time zone settings

-calender notifications

-disabling ping

even on airplane mode..this is a nightmare.

Hi there (from Czech Rep). I bought my first iPhone about 10 days ago. I noticed the very short battery life at the very first day. I hoped it would increase after a few full chargings and dischargins. I was wrong though. I tried to modify all the setting mentioned, but nothing helped. I have read almost all available forums on the net and I really do not think it is a problem of software. I am so disapointed. My ooold retro Nokia worked five days without any problems :-(. I have just a few days left to return iPhone to get my money back (within 14 days of purchase). What would you do in my shoes? Would you return it and wait for a new version without this bug? Do you have an experience how often Apple releases a new/modified/improved hardware version of iPhone? I really want to have this phone, but not for all costs. However, I do not want to wait for years. Thanks for any reply, Jan

If don't like the iphone like it is give it back NOW. You can buy it again after fixing the problem. Don't forget the problem is known from about 3 Month (Thread started at 15 oct) and there still no solution, except turning off functions (play piano through the menu the hole day). You pay a lot of € to be a beta tester.

Apple newer says anything on bugs or the timeline of solutions....

If a feature phone is what you really want, WHY did you but a 4S?  It is pretty unreasonable to expect a smartphone to have all those extra capabilities with no effect on battery life.  You can't expect a Rolls Royce to have the same gas mileage as a Vespa motor scooter.

However, if a feature phone will serve your needs, there are any number of them available in the US for under $20.  Don't know about prices in other countries.

That's interesting as my wife's 3GS on 5.01 runs all day.  She has been in the habit of charging every night, so she is quite happy.  She spends a LOT of time using her phone for talking (3G), and playing games, taking photos, and using iMessage to send text and photos, and still gets through the day on a charge.  The 3GS has a pretty small battery, and you can probably turn off some features you don't need and save a LOT of battery power.  Or you may have a battery issue.  How old is the 3GS?

Dev1254 wrote:

 

same on my 3gs 5.0.1

i charged it for 4 hrs and then after half an hour it ccomes to 57% from 100%

I am quite sure that SOME of the issues are hardware problems, particularly the problem with 'static', which I suspect is arcing internally, which seems to be supported by those users also reporting excessive heat during use and recharging.  I also suspect that some production runs may have had a bad batch of chips as well.  It appears that a rather significant number of users with serial numbers starting with CN have problems.  If this turns out to be the case, Apple may take a beating on replacing those units.

Tamarillo wrote:

 

Because i believe they can't fix it - i wrote this is a hardware problem and that can't be fixed by software. And only Apple is dancing around telling the true.

Dogman24701 wrote:

 

Why is everyone dancing around the issue of Apple not fixing this problem......

First, it's not fair to compare standby times between a 'feature phone', and ANY smartphone.  They are different kinds of hardware. 

Second, if I were you, I would take the one you have back, and if they offer you a replacement, insist on a short period to see if it has the same problem, and if they won't do that, get a refund, and either wait until some correction has taken place, or you find something that suits your needs better.

{Jackol} wrote:

 

Hi there (from Czech Rep). I bought my first iPhone about 10 days ago. I noticed the very short battery life at the very first day. I hoped it would increase after a few full chargings and dischargins. I was wrong though. I tried to modify all the setting mentioned, but nothing helped. I have read almost all available forums on the net and I really do not think it is a problem of software. I am so disapointed. My ooold retro Nokia worked five days without any problems :-(. I have just a few days left to return iPhone to get my money back (within 14 days of purchase). What would you do in my shoes? Would you return it and wait for a new version without this bug? Do you have an experience how often Apple releases a new/modified/improved hardware version of iPhone? I really want to have this phone, but not for all costs. However, I do not want to wait for years. Thanks for any reply, Jan

rphunte42 wrote:

 

She spends a LOT of time using her phone for talking (3G), and playing games, taking photos, and using iMessage to send text and photos, and still gets through the day on a charge.  The 3GS has a pretty small battery, and you can probably turn off some features you don't need and save a LOT of battery power.  Or you may have a battery issue.  How old is the 3GS?

 

@rphunte42 - i ask you again to be serious. You always accent you are an IT expert, so take a look at this and answer like a professional:

What is a LOT of time? What is the usage?

What is a pretty small battery? You know the term of capacity?

What should do the user if he can't turn off features he needs?

What is a LOT of battery power saving? (if the user turns off features)

Which battery issue can have the phone from Dev1254...? You know some? Which of them? Too much usage? Software bug? Battery has too much load cycles? Antenna or charger is damaged? 

Tamarillo wrote:

 

rphunte42 wrote:

 

She spends a LOT of time using her phone for talking (3G), and playing games, taking photos, and using iMessage to send text and photos, and still gets through the day on a charge.  The 3GS has a pretty small battery, and you can probably turn off some features you don't need and save a LOT of battery power.  Or you may have a battery issue.  How old is the 3GS?

 

@rphunte42 - i ask you again to be serious. You always accent you are an IT expert, so take a look at this and answer like a professional:

What is a LOT of time? What is the usage?

What is a pretty small battery? You know the term of capacity?

What should do the user if he can't turn off features he needs?

What is a LOT of battery power saving? (if the user turns off features)

 

Which battery issue can have the phone from Dev1254...? You know some? Which of them? Too much usage? Software bug? Battery has too much load cycles? Antenna or charger is damaged? 

Well, age of the phone would have a major effect on the possibility that his battery has reduced capacity.

Apple doesnt' publish the 3GS battery specs, but it is physically much smaller than that in the 4S.  What is a LOT of time?  I don't check her usage times since she so seldom lays the phone down that I would have to talk her into giving it to me.  Does that tell you anything?  When she is in the car with me, she is on the phone from the time we get in, until we get where we are going.  I may only talk 5 minutes a day, unless SHE calls. 

If the user needs features he can't turn off, and turning off things he doesn't need doesn't help, then he would have a problem.  When I loaded IOS5 on my wife's phone, the very next day she complained about short battery life, and I turned off some things that defaulted to on, such as time zone checking, and location services on things that really didn't need it, and push notifications on email, and she hasn't mentioned it again.