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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

Jan 29, 2013 11:30 AM in response to sbailey4

I agree with him, i have nothing but getting good results on 6.1. at the moment ii'm at 53% with about 3 1/2hrs of usage that could probably reach 4hrs of usage at 50%. so technically i can push 8hrs usage before it reaches zero.. and my standby at moment is 19hrs and 1/2.. I've never actually pushed this results before on a 6.0.1 but it was kinda close to it..

Jan 30, 2013 9:40 AM in response to joegod

i'm holding off my enthousiasm for a few more days but i do notice a dramatic change in battery life since ios6.1... i'm hoping it stays this way.usually after work my battery was down to about 5%,as i am writing this my battery is still at 45% percent and no i have no wifi at work whatsoever so all day on cellular.been disappointed before though so im not getting my hopes up too much.but this is pretty good news imo so lets wait and see if this keeps up...anyone else notice this?

Jan 30, 2013 9:47 AM in response to HwyHawk1976

I'm seeing 18.5 hours standby, 2.75 hours usage at 54%. Keep in mind this usage was on a mix of wifi and 3G (no LTE here yet) and was only checking email and a bit of Facebook. Nothing major and far from heavy. At this stage I'm not worried anymore as my phone is now up for auction on our equivalent of eBay. I do wish everyone luck as, besides this bleeping battery issue I did like the phone or, more to the point, I liked the software available for it. I just hope that whatever I choose will give me as much enjoyment as the iPhone line has over the past nearly 5 years.


Thanks everyone....

Jan 30, 2013 10:59 AM in response to holdrege

I have been so bummed out since I got the IPhone 5 in September, about the battery. I can say without any hesitation that my battery problems are fixed with the new update. It doesn't die in standby and it is pretty consistent with what I was getting with my Iphone 4. Jamison, What happened? LOL I'm just teasing! I see that not everybody is seeing these good results which is weird but, I can say first hand that a software update did fix the impossible that Jamison was preaching. Did yours get better Jamison? Thanks

Jan 30, 2013 11:49 AM in response to iLoveiPhone85

LOL!!! I'm not going to run and hide from the issue.


While it's still early and the jury is still out, here are my observations, remembering that my phones have not had anywhere near the poor performance that many have reported.......


  1. My wifi performance has improved dramatically with 6.1
  2. I notice the signal strength for cellular SEEMS to be slightly worse (both 3g and LTE) in specific locations compared to before the update. One less bar for many locations that I frequent. e.g. I see 3 bars of LTE at my desk, where it was always 4 bars on previous firmware versions.
  3. I have not seen where #2 has made any performance difference, but have not made many calls yet either.


Looks to me that APPLE has tweaked the reception parameters? If that has solved the battery issue for many, terrific! But surprising. I'm hoping that performance won't suffer as a result.


Can anyone report in on LTE/3g voice call performance?


If I was wrong in my claim, I'll surely admit so, happily. Let's just give it a week or two and see if the problem has really been solved.........

Jan 30, 2013 12:12 PM in response to Jameson!

Ha good news everyone fingers crossed. Hey Jameson, maybe Apple still should reduce the size of that BIG map error reporting button and use that space for a tad bigger battery! I bet the rumored 5s means "super" battery. 🙂


Hope this holds out for everyone. So far 6.1 seems to be a decent update. Better battery, wifi resolved for most and folks can use their Netgear routers again. Not to mention that awesome big map error reporting button. Guess Craig Federighi is safe for now.

Jan 30, 2013 12:46 PM in response to Nathan Goldshlag

With 6.1 I am at 79% with 3 hours 3 minutes usage, 7 hours 47 minutes standby. I have an iPhone 5 on Verizon, location services on, wifi on, bluetooth on, ask to join networks off (under wifi). I did a hard reset after the update - hold both buttons down until the apple appears. So I do not believe there is a battery drain problem with 6.1.

iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

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