Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Yes, the infrared sensor comes back on constantly after flicking through to the spotlight page, weird!

AliAR wrote:

 

And I think the restore as new phone won't work for some users who have problems on their iPhones. To fix, I believe the solution is to restore from iTunes then erase all data and settings from the iPhone itself, and that is by going to Settings > General > Restore > Erase All Data and Settings. This might fix the problems.

Wow, you would think that restoring as new and erasing data and settings would yield the exact same result. Just curious, what is your iTunes version?

So are you going to load APPS and configure the phone for use to see what causes the problem for you?  

AliAR wrote:

 

I fully restored my phone from iTunes yesterday and then erased all data and settings from the iPhone itself at 7:11PM (local time) when it was 100%. Today, at about 6:51PM, I had 75%. I have a record sheet in which I randomly check the time and percentage on lock screen and write it down because the usage/standby times are not available. So I have gone 1 full day with only loosing 25% battery life and I currently have 73% at 9:57PM (local time). Remember, I have no data at all on my phone. No contacts, music, apps. Nothing at all. So my phone is useless. I received one call and it lasted for less than a minute so it isn't a big deal. I received 3 texts but didn't reply to any. I'm actually loving the results I'm getting. Its not on airplane mode and I didn't put it during this so-called investigation. I am unfortunate that the time since last full charge times are not available or else I would've posted a screen shot. Good luck to everyone who are experiencing battery drainage on their iPhones.

Doesn't that sensor also control the screen on/off when holding the phone up to your ear?   If so, it should be on at all times, or at least whenever the phone is picked up.

Also, an infrared sensor would be used to sense the presence of something near or in front of the phone, as it is a visible sensor.   The Siri lift to talk feature has nothing to do with visible objects, but only motion of the phone.   Something completely different in my view.

Huh? Not sure what you are replying to me on this subject. I posted earlier the statement from Apple regarding what they say is usage and what is standby. Not sure what you mean "you guys logic". Perhaps you replied to the wrong post?

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

 

I don't actually follow you guy's logic. What is the phone not supposed to do in standby that it should be doing when it's not? I mean aside from the screen being off? If during standby the phone polls the network, maintains a 3G connection and can remain paired with a bluetooth device and all, then I fail to see what extra benefit you would expect from it "really sleeping". I mean, as far as I know nobody ever spoke about the phone using a different power profile during standby and all. Finally, if you were able to identify a looping or cpu/power consuming process, could you kill it with a piece of software? It may be your only option is soft resetting the device everytime before putting it on standby for an extended period of time. Or am I wrong.

Um I believe the way it works is with Siri raise to speak function on, the sensor is always on when phone is unlocked  so it will "know" when raised to face to activate Siri. With that off, the sensor only comes on when making a phone call to presumably turn off the display for power savings and disable buttons that may be pressed with your face. (Like the iPhone 4 in essence). What I have read and what I have witnessed in testing.

Jameson! wrote:

 

Doesn't that sensor also control the screen on/off when holding the phone up to your ear?   If so, it should be on at all times, or at least whenever the phone is picked up.

 

Also, an infrared sensor would be used to sense the presence of something near or in front of the phone, as it is a visible sensor.   The Siri lift to talk feature has nothing to do with visible objects, but only motion of the phone.   Something completely different in my view.

Well, my reply is linked to your post where you replied to ricky_tang about that post he saw about the phone not going to sleep properly and the corresponding log about that. So I was commenting that exchange. I could have replied to him indeed but you seem to show some interest for such a theory, so I was wondering why, hence the logic I fail to follow...

That's very interesting. My phone came with 9A405. I will check later if I'm also seeing this.

adrian23 wrote:

 

On my 4s, the infrared sensor was always on, even with Siri turned off. After the restart, the sensor is off, as it should be, until I display the Spotlight Search page. After that, the infrared led bug is back.

IOS: 5.0.1 9A405

I won't profess to be an expert on what the phone should or shouldn't be doing when in standby. However, when I saw battery issues in iOS 5.0 beta, the phone would be warm and the battery drained in during standby.

I haven't done much gaming on my iP4S yet, but on my iP4 the back of the phone would get a little warm during an extended gaming session. This would probably go unnoticed if you are using a case. I noticed it because I was running the phone naked.

1AppleADayNoWay wrote:

 

I don't actually follow you guy's logic. What is the phone not supposed to do in standby that it should be doing when it's not? I mean aside from the screen being off? If during standby the phone polls the network, maintains a 3G connection and can remain paired with a bluetooth device and all, then I fail to see what extra benefit you would expect from it "really sleeping". I mean, as far as I know nobody ever spoke about the phone using a different power profile during standby and all. Finally, if you were able to identify a looping or cpu/power consuming process, could you kill it with a piece of software? It may be your only option is soft resetting the device everytime before putting it on standby for an extended period of time. Or am I wrong.

Not sure who you are referring to here (I can guess tho) but my device works fine and I do not have "everything turned off". I have and use 3 email accts, calendar, notifications and locations, wifi, txt, a few other apps, not really any games, thats what wii is for, Facebook , camera, dropbbox etc. Pretty much what i need to do day to day work and pleasure. I do not have a lot of the other stuff turned on just because Apple included it in the iOS 5 feature set. If I dont really need my time zone adjusting constantly since I am pretty much stationary on the east coast 99.99999% of the time, I turn it off. Just sensable items as that for example. Thats ALL myself and others have said here over and over. Never have I recommended to anyone to "turn everything off". That is just plain stupid advice and I would agree with all you nay sayers on that subject. So for the record:

For anyone new to this post, you can turn off any items you dont really need on to help with your battery life. But PLEASE do not turn everything off because that will make your smart phone like a Motorola Razor flip phone and that is not what you purchased from Apple. You purchased a smart phone so you should be able to do more than just talk on it.

PS: Not any sort of Guru. Just a guy with a little knowledge on how to make your iPhone work better and be more enjoyable and attempting to pass that on to others. Thats all.

Vomgottsland wrote:

 

This is so funny you have these Apple so called guru's that seem to worship Appleand are willing to turn off everything on the phone to get 4 hours battery life just so they can say they have a IPhone 4s. Heck may as well just use one of the free phone everyone offers because when you disable all the I phone functions its no longer a smart phone it goes to being a dumb phone which is what it is now.

No problem just curious. I am 100% not in the know on the whole usage meter deal. My meter totally misreports usage and does not count actual phone calls. So I guess I get way better than reported .. One reason I have stated here to others not to put too much in the results being reported from their usage meter. I would suspect its off the other way too and reporting usage when there is none.

I managed to install the very-very new iOS version and turn off 3G on my brand new iPhone 4S. The phone initially shown some noticeable battery drainage with factory-installed iOS version. So I turned off 3G, cellular data, Bluetooth, automatic date&time, maybe something else. Now after first charge&discharge cycle I've got 12 hours 46 minutes of usage and 2 days 4 hours of stand by. Most of usage was music, random stuff in contacts & menus, few camera shots, ~10 mins of FaceTime, iCloud syncing of contacts & photostream via wifi, about 1 hour 30 minutes of phone calls. I'm wondering, how does it compare to similar usage on iPhone 4? I have a feeling that my old iPhone 3G would still last more, although I didn't use video camera, push or iCloud there. What do you guys think?

For anyone new to this forum here is what I hope to be some useful information for you. I have the iPhone 4s and like many here when I got it, the battery would not get me through the day. Dying around  5:00 or 6:00pm from maybe 8:00am. I was a bit surprised coming from a Blackberry but figured maybe with all the stuff I can now do it just works that way. After a little research I read that Apples brand new iOS 5 had an inherent battery bug causing faster than normal drainage for most users of the 4s as well as iPhone 4 users who had upgraded to iOS5 and that they were working on a fix called 5.0.1 that should help with the issue. Once it was released I applied it and sure enough it helped a LOT. Still not like the older devices but was fine none the less. Then Apple stated that while that patch closed a few of the battery bugs there were still a few  they were looking into and another update would be forthcoming.

Cool cant wait. So after a while I started  thinking and realizing that well I never travel across time zones so why would I have the phone checking  GPS  all the time to see if I am now in central time zone.  I concluded that I didn’t so I turned it off. Saw Facebook posts and all that stuff coming across all the time. Again I thought well I don’t really do facebook constantly  so why wouldn’t I just relay on when I actually take some time to open the FB app to check in and see all that then? So I turned that off as well.  I like to check the weather, just one of those things. Anyway I noticed that every time I opened the weather app it fired up GPS, figured out where I was, and updated the weather for me. Again I said to myself, well if I am in XXX city 99.9999% of the time, why not just add that city to the weather app, turn off Local, so the GPS don’t fire up every time I check. So I did. Anyone get Groupons? Pretty cool but again I get an email when there is a new coupon to purchase so do I really need a notification and firing up my display when one comes in. Umm no not really, I rather read about it when I check email. So guess what, I turned that off.

So with a handful of those types of decisions and that type of logical thinking and making the settings of the iPhone more to how I use it, Calendar, email, talk ( I know right Talk on a cell phone novel huh?)  and with asking myself  is groupon notification more important than my battery lasting I am now able to go bed with 50% to 65% on a typical day. Yes from dead at 5:00pm to having 65% left at 11:00pm just by making a few changes to some fun features bit ones that really were not necessary  (well and iOS 5.01 patch helped too).  I can also on the 65% days say I think I will use that other 65% tomorrow just cause I can. Typically I plug in at night because well, there is no reason not to. So I never returned the device 5 or 6 times, I did not turn everything off just what I determined  wasn’t needed, I DO still have stuff I want to use turned on but with some logical decisions as to what’s more important,  and the iPhone 4s is like a whole different phone from the day I unboxed it.  Same phone mind you.  Of course the above are all examples, for the traveler who crosses time zones daily, keep time zone setting on if you choose. It may help in your particular case,but know that it will cost you in terms of battery life.

Anyway while  I suspect there are some faulty devices out there, some faulty apps causing issues as well,  still an issue with iOS 5 soon to be resolved hopefully, know that with some logical choices and basic conservation techniques most of us can get a lot more battery life out of our devices than with the default settings Apple put in place. I hope this information helps some of you new comers with the well know battery issues on your iPhone.

ricky_tang wrote:

 

I read a post a couple of days ago that sounded plausible. The problem may be the phone not sleeping when in standby. This person examined the diagnostic log and determined that the phone is not going to sleep, basically. If I find this post I'll repost it here.

 

That reminded me of using the iOS 5.0 beta. During one release my phone became warm laying on my desk in standb as if it was in use the entire time. That was fixed (for me at least) during the beta.

 

Users here have posted descriptions similar to my description above. Maybe people should post their diagnostic logs?

That may be true, but how can we tell if it is going to sleep?  It's rather like checking that the light in the fridge really goes off when you close the door, or the state of life of the famous cat in the box.  Maybe someone can point us to an app that does run all the time, and that can monitor the 'sleep state' of the phone.  Frankly, I thought the 'sleep' function just meant that the screen was dark, and the touch sensitive part was inactive.  As far as I can see, just about everything continues when I press that button, or allow 'auto lock' to set itself.  Just what IS 'sleep mode'?

Not shady, just what I am observing.  What, other than being a pain, do you get out of constantly bad-mouthing the 4S, and making outrageous, and unproveable statements about it?  Is that not your social outlet?  IF not, then what it is? 

Yes, some users ARE dumb enough to think the phone is really 'off' when the screen is blank, and that it shouldn't take up battery power when in that state.  Never underestimate the ignorance of the general public.