You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

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 26, 2012 8:16 AM in response to Jameson!

No, I am not suggesting it is a hardware problem, I am suggesting it is a software problem. Why would it ever be hardware related, would Apple just decide to add in some bigger capacity batteries into some random phones?

I for one have seen some screenshots of good battery life on cellular (but i have been through the ENTIRE thread).

Now my claim is 100% trust worthy as I have been sent screenshots and have also swapped phones for the day including my SIM card. They also get 1 bar of reception and I get 3 - 5. And to clarify, these people I know are my friends who have lent me their phone to experience the battery life they get and it is absolutely amazing.

Now im wondering, what else can you disagree on? I will also try and pull screenshots from them again to prove it.

Jameson! wrote:


Using your logic, the cause of the problem would more likely be a HARDWARE problem. If two i5's on the same OS version yield very different results, there must be some component that is malfunctioning. If that's the case, you can definitely forget about a software fix coming from APPLE.


BTW, if I go and sit by an LTE tower, giving my phone a full strength signal, my battery drain disappears on cellular data as well. Those people "you know" may well be in a very strong signal area for most of their day, yielding such good results.


BTW.... NO such people have posted usage screenshots here with outstanding perfornace using cellular data only, so I'm not sure how trustworthy your claim is, regarding these people "you know"........

iPhone4Lyf wrote:


This statement or opinion is completely false. You say compare the iPhone battery with a smartphone with the same mah battery and they will be no better or worse. This is entirely false as I know people WITH iPhone 5's with 10 hours of usage. And no, these usage times are not from WiFi usage but 3G usage alone with no listening to music. Just browsing the web, messaging people and using facebook. This itself has disproven what you think is correct as some people who have the same phone as us all here complaining, have superb battery life.


Dec 26, 2012 8:52 AM in response to holdrege

i for one would love to spit on the face Tim Cook. I refuse , i REFUSE to turn everything off on the iphone 5. I did that with the iphone 4s and somehow lived with it peacefully. But to spend over 900 $ on a phone and again to turn everything off is a big crime. I have gone ahead and turned everything off just so that i can hope my iphone 'works'.


No Timmy , it just doesn't work ..


This is disgusting. I love the iphone and the entire ecosystem of apps. But i know my next purchase is definetly not going to be a iphone if i dont see a fix anytime soon. I rather bank on competition than suffer ..

Dec 26, 2012 9:01 AM in response to iPhone4Lyf

just ignore jameson,i've been doing so for quite some time.if he is happy with his phone let him be happy.he's ignorous to the fact that a lot of people do have great battery life,do they have different hardware??no! if the phone works great on wifi and not on cellular,its not hardware related.i have poor battery life but for a week i had fantastic battery life,and then it went back to ****.did insomehow magically change my hardware?no!people who are willing tonfind answers should post here,people that are happy with their phone should go to iphone 5 is wonderfull thread.simple!

Dec 26, 2012 9:18 AM in response to Keja3600

Keja

I think you are some kind of an idiot,an apple employe,or just an idiot

Im on the forth ip5,and the problem is still the same.i tryed turn off everything,DFU,no backup...the lot,and guess what?

i have the problem only while im on 3G.in any other circumstancess,the phone is ok

But if u make 2 10 min.callsand one of them is on 3g i loose 7% of battery,when the call is not on 3g,i loose only1-2% of battery

Then i play a game,something like Rage HD,and in an hour,i loose 10%(3g off by the way),then i go surf about with 3g on for an hour,20% gone easy

So jameson is right.apple have a hardware problem,and its not gonna be fixed

Oh guys,belive in that,no ios update will fix your battery issue,and we either gonna have to spend another£600-700 on a phone,or just move on.Me,ill move on

Dec 26, 2012 9:46 AM in response to holdrege

Adding my two pence to everyone's battery frustrations. So to clarify on my first charge my usage was 5HRS and standby 8HRS. I then employed all the battery saving remedies advocated here and in other forums: resetting networks; switching off notifications/locations; switching mail to manual, running the battery to 0% etc etc. This is my best usage:


User uploaded file

It's not the worst, but this was mainly wifi and only browsing activity, what I would call light usage, not videos or games or music. My two friends who are similar in their activity (fb web no games/video etc) showed me usage of 22HRS usage/ 1day standby at 30%. The other 20HRS usage again at 50%! :O I was shocked, even if I just did the bare minimum of activities that required the least battery energy my iPhone would never get near that... while in use I see it use 1% every couple of mins.


Since my last charge to 100% I decided to try heavy activity; I am watching videos, youtube, listening to music, texting/calling a (8min call took 10%), playing Avengers Initiative (this took 2% a min!). I am at 25% having 5hrs of usage and 1day of standby. I won't achieve my last usage. So every activity drains battery at different rates, playing music drains battery but not as fast as playing games obviously. If I spent a few hours on that game my usage would be terrible.


So I want to ask, is this average? It's my first smartphone (I had a Sammy Tocco for 7yrs). Apple say you can get video usage of 10hrs, 200+ of standby which I don't believe...

Dec 26, 2012 9:41 AM in response to Ca1eb

LOL, that'll be my next test.


I'm still following the comments and trying to learn whether there is any value to asking for a replacement phone.


You're one of several who have had multiple replacements with no improvement. That makes me want to stay with the phone I have. But, I also believe it's not software, so that leads me to be in the "put up with it" group.

Dec 26, 2012 9:49 AM in response to iPhone4Lyf

Did you consider the possibility that there is some other component, in some percentage of phones, which is causing the battery drain problem? A bad chip? A Bad antenna component? Anything? Maybe some marhginal component that causes problems in some handsets, but not others?


If it is firmware related, how could two identical phones, on the same firware version, in the same location, acheive radically different battery life numbers? Sorry, but your argument just doesn't add up to a problem that APPLE is going to fix with a firmware update..

iPhone4Lyf wrote:


No, I am not suggesting it is a hardware problem, I am suggesting it is a software problem. Why would it ever be hardware related, would Apple just decide to add in some bigger capacity batteries into some random phones?


Dec 26, 2012 10:37 AM in response to Jameson!

No i didnt consider it and now that ive thought about it, I still do not believe you are right. Youre telling me that Apple got thousands of faulty / bad parts? Oh i forgot to add the replacements people have been getting with the same issue.

I do believe it is firmware related but no iPhone is identical, we are all running the same firmware number but what if there is a bug present in some and not others? There was already one confirmed with some iPhones not being able to update OTA and mine was completely fine with that. I read a few peoples posts here that they went to their Apple Stores and got theirs restored there and some of them are saying that the Apple Store firmwares are "100% bug free" (dont remember how they phrased it but thats basically what they said).

Also, why do some peoples iPhones get great battery life for a few days / weeks and then it all goes downhill? Did their "faulty chip" get better but then go bad again?

Oh another few points, have you read what people have said to get their iphone battery life normal? Some people have had significant improvement when restoring their phones from DFU mode and some people have had to delete mail accounts and icloud accounts and then readd them to get good battery life. This cannot be hardware related.


Jameson! wrote:


Did you consider the possibility that there is some other component, in some percentage of phones, which is causing the battery drain problem? A bad chip? A Bad antenna component? Anything? Maybe some marhginal component that causes problems in some handsets, but not others?


If it is firmware related, how could two identical phones, on the same firware version, in the same location, acheive radically different battery life numbers? Sorry, but your argument just doesn't add up to a problem that APPLE is going to fix with a firmware update..

Dec 26, 2012 10:58 AM in response to Jameson!

Im arguing because of some of your stuck up beliefs you are having about the phone and I came on here to disprove you and so I could stop the arguing. I have your comments on screen, would you like me to go through them and disagree once again? 😝

How about we both leave it.


EDIT: forgot to add that I have hope that it will be fixed but due to jobs being gone, i see this as opportunity completely gone

Dec 26, 2012 11:07 AM in response to iPhone4Lyf

LOL!!! OK then! Your view is different than mine so I need to bow down and believe that you are right? Are you a stand-up comic in real life?


Yeah, let's just leave it.......... 😍

iPhone4Lyf wrote:


Im arguing because of some of your stuck up beliefs you are having about the phone and I came on here to disprove you and so I could stop the arguing. I have your comments on screen, would you like me to go through them and disagree once again? 😝

How about we both leave it.


EDIT: forgot to add that I have hope that it will be fixed but due to jobs being gone, i see this as opportunity completely gone

Dec 26, 2012 11:17 AM in response to Jameson!

Jameson,i have a question

Why are u arguing with a brick?

Dont u see that those apple fan boys with nothing more than emptiness in theyr lifes,and being so dull to try something else cos of a fear of failure have nothing more to do then come on the forums,and defend a cause that they are not sure about,

Ask urself,how did they get here?they obviously googled"iphone5 battery problems"and they end ip here

But why would they do that if they have no problems with battery??

Strange ai?

iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.