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iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

I just got an iphone 5 and I restored a backup from my iPhone 4 so I have the same settings. But the iphone 5 drains way faster than my two year old very well used iPhone 4 which is running 5.1.1. Is it because of IOS 6? Just leaving it sitting overnight lost about half the battery. My iPhone 4 hardly uses any battery while it sits overnight.


Or do I have a bad battery on my new phone?

Posted on Sep 22, 2012 1:41 AM

Reply
3,614 replies

Dec 25, 2012 3:33 AM in response to marktattoo

I share some of your feelings, but wanted to go wireless, and after trying the 3 android sets, I came back to iphone. The 5 uses more energy than my 4, and gets shorter battery life.


However, I don't think they screwed anything up to cause the problems you and I see.


Perhaps, if we had both read the very thorough CNET review, we would have been forwarned about the overheating and short battery life when using all the bells and whistles.


For my money, I intend to stay with it, because it"s still better than the competition available at this time.


BTW, the other thread on this seems to be locked.


regards,

Dec 25, 2012 4:07 PM in response to coolkenny13

There's no mention because it doesn't exist. 6.1 beta 4 does nothing to improve the battery at all. It might even be worse. I can't even tell anymore. The phone is a battery draining machine. I understand that being the case on LTE but the fact that it is just as bad on 3G is what makes me so angry. Basically, there is absolutely no way to have anything close to the previous iphones in terms of battery life unless you shut off cellular data ... really helpful, right? I can't believe so many people just let the issue go and went on using their battery draining phone. This says to Apple: "they aren't returning them. we can get away with this" - - - awesome! what a great company!

Dec 25, 2012 4:15 PM in response to holdrege

Yup, apple locked that thread and its kinda hard to find it unless you really search for it. I'm assuming it was locked because it started taking a wrong direction and discussed downgrading to 6.0.1.


I thought apple would've released 6.0.3 before Christmas Day knowing that there were now EVEN MORE users with horrible battery life after upgrading their software. This obviously wasn't the case and they still can't fix this problem.

Dec 25, 2012 4:24 PM in response to holdrege

Even in airplane mode the battery is draining fast.


Really, the only time I notice a little better battery life is when I'm connected to Wifi all day. As soon as I leave a wifi signal and 4G/LTE takes over the battery suffers tremendously.


I'm hoping after today, with all the new iPhone 5 users, more people will notice the battery drain and speak up like all of us here.

Dec 25, 2012 4:33 PM in response to cocktail5555

Guys.... It's not going to change with 6.1. Make a decision to:


1. Carry a charge around and get a car charger.

2. Trade the phone in and head in another direction.


Hand wringing and whining about it are just a huge waste of time. If you can't live with the battery life, go buy a RAZR MAXX and see if that OS will make you happy. Personally, I still prefer iOS and the seamless way that APPLE products work with each other.


For now, I'll keep my i5, charge it as much as necessary and enjoy what it does so well. Maybe APPLE will come to its senses with i6 and increase battery capacity to Mach the power requirements of the phone!

Dec 25, 2012 6:30 PM in response to tikvenik

You're dreaming. It's not a bug, it's a design flaw. The dual antenna used to manage LTE and 3G, ***** the battery power down. The i5 requires more power to operate in cellular mode, but Apple chose to make the phone thinner and keep the same battery capacity, instead of leaving the thickness alone and sticking in a bigger battery.


You can moan and groan all you want, but battery and power physics are what they are. 6.1 is not going to fix the problem. That'll be the third firmware version dropped into the i5. How many more will it take for you to believe it is not a firmware issue?

Dec 25, 2012 6:41 PM in response to tikvenik

Ummmmm... iPhone 5 is the FIRST model to utilize LTE.


THE 4s also had terrible battery life as was evidenced by a thread larger than this one when that phone was released. On top of that, iOS 6 has the dual antenna management issues, even in those older version phones.


Now you can talk like you know what you're talking about all you want, but the proof is in the fact that 6.1 is in its 4th beta release and nobody is seeing better battery life. Do you think if there was a firmware fix to be had, that the most valuable company in the world would not have come up with it after 6.0, 6.01, 6.02 and 4 beta versions of 6.1????


Give us a break, ok? The iPhone needs a bigger battery. Period!

Dec 25, 2012 7:02 PM in response to tikvenik

Last try to get through to you..... Apple did not "intend" anything of the sort. They released a phone with a serious design flaw. The battery capacity is insufficient to power the phone and achieve the claimed battery life specs.


The phone required more power than previous versions. The battery capacity is the same as previous versions. On top of that, iOS 6 includes the dual antenna management code, regardless of what phone model it is in. The phone is underpowered.


So, we can argue back and forth all we want, but I'll still be here after 6.1 is released and the problem still exists. What will you be doing then?

iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

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