iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

second full day with my phone and continuing to have the same issues i posted about previously in this thread.

today:

- unplugged phone from charger at 10:15 am with full charge (was on charger over night since 11pm previous day)

- immediatley left home with twitter, instagram, and camera apps open

- did not use any app while out and on 4g/LTE

- returned home at 11:15 with battery at 78%

- put phone back on charger

- unplugged phone at 6pm and went outside to cook dinner

- used twitter, instagram, and facebook apps for approx 2 mins each over LTE

- came back inside at 6:30 pm with 89% battery life

- left apps open but did not touch any and phone is now at 87% battery life at 7pm

the phone also runs hot while on 4g/LTE and i have the same issue with safari bookmark and reading list syncing as mentioned by another user...

i notice also that after unplugging with full charge and remaing home on wifi the battery drainage is similar to how my iphone 4 was with both iOS5 and 6 but that once i leave the house and have been on 4g/LTE even after returning home and using wifi again the drainage is accelerated...

Before anything, I would try disabling Passport back-up in iCloud. It seems to be the current explanation, and I think it worked for me. (although it doesn't explain why my 4 seems fine with Passport back-up on...)

Settings - iCloud - turn off Passport.

I also did the same with Safari, someone somewhere said it could be the iCloud tab sync.

But i read that it's Passport trying to look for a location.(?)

I have recharged the phone from zero power three times now. It has helped, but far from completely. For example, as I write this I'm on hold right now with Apple Customer Service. The call has been going on for exactly an hour and during that time I've lost 22 percent of my battery charge. That's a **** of a lot more than what I'd lose with my old iPhone 4.

As I said, I've been on with Apple for almost an hour to request a replacement phone. I'm currently on my third customer service representative. They all have been exceptionally courteous, but for me it has been far from the speedy process leefromsheffield described on the previous page. They wanted a lot of diagnostic information, and started to request that I do a full restore. I finally said: "Look, I'm not interested in spending any more time trying to repair the phone. I'm currently entitled to return the phone for a full refund. Just let me exchange it for one I hope doesn't have these problems." Right now, they are checking local Apple Stores to see if any have my phone in stock.

update from my experience:

turning LTE off didn't work, so yesterday i decided to DFU and reinstall everything from zero

today unplugged my phone from full charge 1% - 100% overnight and doesn't seem to have fixed the issue as you can see on the first screen shot from usage yesterday before DFU install

similar usage for today after DFU install and full charge

So i guess it didn't work at all, i hope apple has an answer for us on this, 10 pages os posts and no words from apple...

Hi

Does anyone has any problem syncing Safari Reading List items between iPhone 5/4S (iOS6) and Mac and/or iPad?

Would appreciate a response so I'd know if mine is an isolated issue.

Thanks!

Hope this is not hardware faulty so it can be fixed by update software otherwise I will switch to GS3.

Got home ytd and so excited with new iPhone 5. So good with the nice display but I got 2 known issues at the same time:

1. It has scratch mark right next to camera right after open the box.

2. Battery issue like what was happen with 4S before. I have done reset back to default with no apps or anything. LTE off and keep other setting as normal like I have with my iPhone 4 and here is testing result - same result for before and after reset:

- On normal use, I lost 1% every 1 minute.

- On Hot Spot use, I lost 1% every 2 minutes.

- And on stand by, I lost 1% every 6 minutes with no apps running, that mean only 6hrs stand by.

Already contact my provider to return the device. Hoping it is software issue with the battery only not the hardware issue.

Just called apple support,

they schedule a appoitment for me to go to apple genius desk at the store, apparently they will replace my phone... lets see what they say... i'll do full report when i get back...

I have called them too but they said the replacement won't arrive for another 5 weeks.

Just got off the phone with Apple Support, too. First guy had me do a DFU restore, and set up a return call to let me know what to do once the restore was complete. Return call guy made me an appointment at the Genius Bar. That was a waste of time. We'll see what happens tomorrow...

As promised from page 8, I am reporting back.

After a DFU restore, setting up as a new phone, and not restoring from a backup, but setting up as new and manually syncing and organizing my apps.. and only getting my contacts from icloud... my plan was to spend the next day and observe any possible changes.

As mentioned in my previous post I had set up the phone with minimal services / features turned on.

I went to sleep charging my battery and woke up with a full charge.

I unplugged at 9am, got ready for work, drove there while listening to music from the ipod connected to my stereo (not streamed if it matters) I had one 2 minute call on LTE signal from verizon... and a few texts...

Once at work I joined the wifi network there... and my phone only dropped to 99% at 11:20.

Yes, to recap... no battery drain like the days prior... it was actually holding a charge... even in standby, on wifi...

started to look promising. So i made a vow not to plug in for the entire day and use it normally like i would.

by 12:30 i was at 88% after a little scramble with friends and 20 min of wifi web browsing over a few hours...

not great... but not as bad as the day before...

at 1:30pm only dropped down to 86%... it is HOLDING A CHARGE IN STANDBY... (read there isn't a background drain anymore after a proper restore)

2pm... after moderate texting with many large character count, back and forth texts between a friend, it was at 82%...

2:20pm... more heavy texting (on wifi not lte, but not imessage either...) down to 79%...

3:45pm hit 72% after a few calls were made on my lunch break during that time... 30 min of ipod music playing in my car commuting from the office to lunch and back... while on LTE... with texts an notificaitons (read... busy with activity and only dropped 7% in 1 hour 25 min.... not bad...)

4:30pm... hit 68%... it was mostly idle during this time, played a few more scramble games (at work, yeah 🙂 )

5pm... 63% LTE speed testing with a friend who has an at&t iphone 4... there was a hiccup in turning the LTE off and back on again and i restarted the phone...

6:30pm ...57% .. more light texting.... one short call...

7 pm 45%... after I Showed the phone to a friend who hadn't seen one yet. Figured I'd let them play with the phone and features of iOS6. Lots of maps viewing... Lots of you tube over wifi and while syncing facebook contacts in the background. A little angry birds too...

7:35pm... 43%... I started a phone call with an apple care represenative to tell them i had what i thought may be battery issues with either the iphone5, iOS6, or a combination of the two... we talked for 26 minutes... on wifi but with LTE enabled (verizon disables LTE while calling anyways)

by 8:15.... the phone was at 35%. I had been telling the rep it was still dropping faster than i would like it to be while we were talking, however, still much better than before i did the DFU and the fresh start restore.

He was VERY INTERESTED in what i had to say about the battery life, and his story was, he had NOT heard of any known battery problems with the iphone 5 OR iOS6 specifically. He told me he would document the call and that he suggested returning it for an exchange under the one year warranty at an apple store is an option. I said the current usage is livable... and i will wait for a software update, if there will possibly be one soon.

by 10pm... i was at 18% after much texting and several more calls.... streaming a few video clips to my apple TV, and a bit of facbooking...

MIND YOU i've been using the phone unplugged for over 12 hours now... and it did not die... it never got hot... and i wasn't fearful of it dying....

11:40pm... it was finally down to the last few percent... i turned all location features back on... brightness all the way up... played ipod music through the speaker... started opening all apps... and playing angry birds.... it sat at 1% for a long time, at least 5 minutes... then it finally went to sleep on it's own...

CONCLUSION...

go to page 8 and find my other post (user name griffin800)... read the 11 things i did to set up my phone to get what i though i could get the best battery life for testing purposes....

then, im sorry to say... bite the bullet folks and do a DFU iOS6 restore through itunes, but don't restore from a backup... you can manually choose apps to sync and it's a pain in the butt i know... but... i at least had my contacts from icloud so... the phone was a functional phone...

CONCLUSION:

...if you didn't catch the jist of my post... here it is....

i did the DFU restore and used my settings and THE NEXT DAY I GOT OVER 12 hours of normal use from my phone... and I'm honestly happy about that, for now. Yesterday i wouldn't have gotten that much... so... it worked for me...

If the full cycle charge it is getting now helps it any, tomorrow may bring better battery life... and a software upgrade may bring a fix.

I totally think this is software, not hardware... i'd bet money on it now....

If you truly think you have a bad phone... bring it back if you can.

to anyone else reading this... try the 11 steps from page 8 and a DFU new setup...

Good luck... Welcome to being early adopters everyone. 🙂

My phone was 98% charged when I went to sleep. 4 hours later I woke up to 34% battery life. I went into the Apple store that morning and they swapped it out. Since then my battery has been amazing! If you follow the threads, there are not enough people complaining to be a serious problem. There are just a few bad "apples" out there (pun intended). If you're having these problems and can literally watch your battery drain, go have it swapped out. While sitting there with the genius he was even amazed to see the phone lose 5 percent in under 10 minutes.

Try the troubleshooting options first: battery drain, restart, clean install, and measuring the battery life the whole way. If none of those fix the battery life go to the store and they'll swap it out. A 10 page thread for a phone that sold over 7 million units already is nothing. Be smart about it people.

Thanks for the post, I have done the same thing, I don't even sync anything to the phone now. I just leave the phone as out of box condition but nothing has changed. Also what is the point of having iPhone when have to turn off all daily functions. I got same setting on my iPhone 4 and it is always last me one day even I use it a lot.

I want to go to Apple store to swap for new one but 2 problem.

1. Not many Apple store here, I have to drive to other side of City which is >1hr drive to get there. (Melbourne - AUS)

2. They have no stock to swap.

improve the hardware but the battery is sitll less than 1500mah

You're welcome...

Glad at least one person liked my whole day's worth of documenting the darn thing 🙂

I have the same problem as you just mentioned about the distance of the store and the stock issues...... and so will MANY PEOPLE...

apple store is far away (1 hour drive one way for me)

and... NO STOCK TO SWAP...

so... try a work around in the meantime...

I know it makes no sense to have ALL the features turned off... but... if i have to chose between limiting a few things and making it able to use it for 12 hours... (which is plenty of time for me..)

or...

returning it and going back to the... um... the nothing as the other phone I have... (not everyone has a working phone to go back to)

well... I will keep the iphone 5 and see what happens...

my battery life got more manageable with a DFU restore and a few tweaks to the OS to tailor it for what i really need it for...

maybe there are a few bad iphones out there... if restores don't help... then good luck trying to get an immeditate replacement....

I'm going to work like this for a few months until their stocks are up. Then i may ask for a replacement... or at least have a genious check the condition of my battery.

But.. if the majority of people here in this discussion are saying this is truly hardware issues, and not software, and that this issue can ONLY be fixed by a swap out of the phone itself...

then I'd like to ask... what component exactly is to blame here... just the battery itself???

Well, if that's the case... I'm not blaming them if there was a bad batch of batteries...

some things are actually out of apples hands... imho

apple can do all the pre release testing they want to but we're talking MILLIONS of litium ion batteries on a production line... say 5 million... even at 99% perfect quality control rate... that is 50,000 batteries with issues... think about it...

i'm still not mad at apple if it truly is a hardware issue with the iphone itself, and specifically, the battery.

by the way...

There was a recent riot at a foxconn plant in china... where 78,000 people work. I wonder if that will hold up production and stocking the shelves with replacement iphone 5's....

to people who think this is a hardware coverup consipiracy about the battery and are convinced, and are angry and demand a replacement, then i say......for the rest of our sakes...

When you go to the apple store, please calmy ask for input from an apple genious about the condition of the battery before it is replaced. Ask them the Milli amp hours it's supposed to have VS the milli amp hours is actually has. see if they can read the info from the battery and tell it to you. WRITE IT DOWN and report it to... someone 🙂

Can the next person who brings their phone in demand that information?

or Should someone like ifixit.com start gathering and testing batteries from iphone 5's to see if their batteries measure up to each other?

I'm still betting on software problems, call me hopeful 🙂

I really hope it is software problem too. Unlike you or someone can actually turn of those features for the mean time, I can't do that, I'm using my phone everyday as hot spot for work. But as said, nothing much I can do now. I can't blame anyone, just bad luck that is all. And as mention above, 2 known issues are happen same time to me (scratch and battery).

All I can do now is wait for a replacement if that is software issue otherwise I have to consider go back to my previous iPhone 4.