Q: iPhone 5 battery life is way worse than iPhone 4

I've been dealing with these non-caring people at Apple.  Jason Cupps had me do a battery profiling log and telephony log.  The battery one we did twice.  I have found over 100 bugs so far in iOS 6 that Apple is blatantly ignoring.  You want to know why the battery life stinks?  I'm going to tell you all why.

Apple has combined WiFi and Cellular into one, like they had the option for in the Beta version.  The bug is that when you are on WiFi it is still trying to do things over cellular.  How do I know this?

1)  Often I can't send texts or e-mail when on WiFi and have cellular enabled.  I have to turn off wi-fi, then turn off cellular, then turn on cellular, then turn on WiFi just to be able to send an e-mail.

2)  I just checked my Sprint data usage page and it's a good thing Sprint is unlimited because it shows I've used 145GB of data this month.  145GB of data on my iPhone 5, in one month????  I never used 145GB over cellular or Wi-Fi on my iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3, and iPhone 5 combined in their entire lifetimes!!  I use my iPhone on the average of 10-20 minutes a day, if that, and mainly for browsing the web or texting.  Rarely do I even make voice calls, and if I do they are in the car over bluetooth.  I've used 170 out of my 450 Sprint voice minutes this month, and normally I only use around 50 voice minutes a month.

This is why your battery is draining.  I have advised Apple of this repeatedly.  All they would have to do is disable the Wi-Fi + Cellular option that is built into iOS 6.  Why haven't they?

Want some more bugs?  Go to your tether data.  I don't even have tethering options on my iPhone.  Hit reset statistics over and over.  It will change at random.  One time it will show "1.0KB", another time it will show "144TB", another time it will show "-303498934820349..." or some other crazy long negative number, another time it will show "(null) EB".

These are just a few of at least 100 bugs I've reported to Apple, and they have done nothing.  NOTHING.  Is it any wonder their stock is sinking like a rock?  This will be the last iDevice I ever purchase.

I have reset all my settings on the phone, reset it to factory, restored from iTunes as new, tried everything, nothing works.

Also, Foxxconn workers have rioted twice this week stating that "the iPhone 5 is a flawed design and they cannot possibly build it to Apple's specs."  An undercover worker revealed factory work conditions, too.  Apple lost it's visionary.  They have no more vision left in them.  I personally have prevented 6 people (family members and associates) from purchasing the iPhone 5 after sharing my experiences with them.  That's $4000 in sales I cost Apple.

Even worse is that you think Apple would compensate us testers in some way by offering us a free adapter or cable, but no.  They expect this of us because we need a working phone.  This should have all been working before the public release of iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 went on sale.

I've been an Apple/Mac user since the Quadra 840AV and have probably spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 - $40,000 with them over the years.  I thought the iPad 3 charging and heat issues were the final straw, but I gave them one last chance.  This will be the last product I ever purchase from Apple unless they SERIOUSLY, and I mean SERIOUSLY get their act together and make amends and sincere apologies for all the garbage they have put us through.

I forked over $924 (tax included) for this iPhone.  I expect a working product, not a piece of garbage.  I received the latter.

Bellatone:

I cannot argue with anything you just said.  Everything you said is spot on......Spot.....on.

Iphone5rocks:

I haven't ran that test yet, but I think Bellatone just summarized the issue quite well.  I still haven't ruled out a hardware failure of some sort.  Whether its an actual piece of hardware that is malfunctioning, a solder trace that's too deep inside the waferboard, interference/conflict caused by RF or other signal output, I DON'T KNOW. 

What I DO KNOW IS....there is A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE IPHONE 5.  Jameson's phone IS THE ONLY PHONE I've seen that can produce total times over a full day.  Everyone else is putting out numbers like mine AT BEST, and think there phone is "just fine".  IT'S NOT.

This is coming from good people like my friend who finally bought an ipad 3 about 4 days ago.  He immediately updated to iOS6.  His battery lasts for up to 21 hours.  My ipad 3 on iOS 5 lasts for 7 days.  Another friend just texted me his screenshot of his numbers....He thought his phone was "great".  I texted him back my wife's iphone 4s screenshot....and he was irate.

I think the iOS 6 is 90% of the problem but not the full problem.  I forgot to mention that.

I think the new LTE radio they are using is part of the problem as well.

And what about the dust under the lens cap cover of the camera?  Or the purple flare?  This is exactly why the Foxxconn workers said the iPhone 5 is a flawed design.  Tolerance of 0.02mm must be met, and how can they when they expect these workers to do tasks such as paint 4 precise dots on the aluminum backplate every 3 seconds, and a total of 30,000 backplates in a 7 hour period with no break?

The whole system stinks, and this is why Apple had a failed product launch.  The Maps fiasco was just the beginning.  Google is the up and comer.  They even have rolled out gigabit internet services and free internet in certain areas.

You're making me feel like I need to run out and buy a lottery ticket!

Others think, like I do, the LTE radio could be a major source of the issue and it could lie within the 5 gHz and not in the 2.4 gHz radio portion of the chip.  We really can only speculate, but losing 1% of battery every 2 minutes while in use is not normal by any stretch, and losing 15% while in standby in 3 hours is not normal either.

The iPhone 4S had battery problems too when it came out but they solved that and they were never as severe.  My iPad 3 and iPhone 4S could go a whole day on standby and only drop 3%.  Seeing my phone drop 15% in 3 hours is just pathetic.  Where do they come up with 225 hours of standby?  Or 8 hours of talk time?  Or 10 hours of Wi-Fi use?

Bellatone,

How do you explain that folks like jameson are getting good results?

I can't.  I have another friend in Oklahoma who was initially getting bad battery but now he says it's okay.  I think it's a combination of faulty software and faulty hardware.  For faulty hardware they will have to do a recall and if Apple did that they might as well close their front doors because their stock would plummit so low the company would be virtually worthless.  I think they will first issue a patch for iOS 6.  Then, in about two or three months, we should return our phones and get new ones, once the hardware issues are fixed and put into the newer manufactured phones.

What network is Jameson using?  My friend is using AT&T.

I am on Sprint, and I know Verizon people have had issues too, so it could be a CDMA related issue.

I'm not an engineer, but I'm a pretty good troubleshooter and very good at finding bugs.  So I could speculate as to why this is happening, and perhaps I'm correct, but since I'm not in the labs testing the components I can't say with absolute certainty what is causing the problems.

P.S.  You know Samsung and Google are laughing their ***** off right now.

I'm on AT&T as well.

Bugs can do a variety of things that cannot be explained easily.....even top end software engineers cannot get to the bottom/find resolution to nasty bugs.....it's why they call them bugs. 

Sounding famiiar....http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/apple-admits-software-bugs-hurting-batt ery-life-in-iphone/

Well then I'd say there's part of the answer.  It seems like people using GSM are less affected than those of us on CDMA.

Troubleshooting 101.  Apple should try it some time.

If you've read most of these 86 pages of posts, you'd realize there's no silver bullet.  Everything is inconsistent.  It seems like all carrier phones are experiencing battery problems, though it could be because of different reasons.  For example, some people are complaining about exorbitant data usage while on standby mode, while my iPhone does not display the same bug.  That doesn't mean I don't have a battery problem - 5% drainage every hour in standby mode. 

I just charged the replaced phone for the first time to 100% and I have BT, LTE on with all Push off.  Someone mentioned about Gmail draining battery, so I didn't set that up.  Oh, and no exchange server acct, either.

I'll report my status later on.  If this one tanks before Apple announces a fix, I'm done with iPhone.

No, most of the people here with the battery problem, including my own is on AT&T.  So there goes that theory

Bellatone wrote:

 

Well then I'd say there's part of the answer.  It seems like people using GSM are less affected than those of us on CDMA.

 

Troubleshooting 101.  Apple should try it some time.

I didn't say it was an OVERALL affliction, just that GSM might be less inclined to have issues.   And no, I stopped reading every post after about the first ten pages or so and devoted my time working with Apple to try to get to the bottom of this.  Apparently the battery logging alone didn't give them an answer, so the next step was to simultaneously install battery logging and telephony logging.  I haven't heard if they've made any progress, but my guess would be no.

What we can all agree on is that we didn't pay good money to become beta testers.  This is Apple's sixth generation phone.  iOS 6 looks virtually the same as iOS 5.  No upgrade to design, no major improvements.  If anything, just degradations.  You'd think by now they would work out these issues before the product launch, but no.  We have to pay to suffer.

Yuni, you might as well pack it up....LOL.....I just had another friend stop over and show me his new phone.  Another bad one....

Bellatone: I asked for the same thing from Apple for my post release beta testing....a charging cord.  I received the same response.  My logs have been uploaded and hopefully thy do something with them, as my 30 day window closes in 3 days for returning the phone.