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

marine8 ,2% per hour standby IS an issue,i've read reactions saying that 100 hours standy time is great,its not.it would be if they told you so before you bought it.on the tech specs it says up to 225 hours of standby.now people can be as openminded about what "up to" means.but compare it like this : if you buy a sportscar in the highest price range because it can hit speeds up to 250 mph,but then in reality it barely does 125 you'd probably burn the f'ing garage down.just my opinion though..so far the worst iphone yet imo,and this is my fourth so...

@Jameson

What are you smoking? 1-2% loss per hour on standby is terrible!

@Marine

My phone was just like yours until I changed the SIM card. Now I loose less than .5% per hour. Unless you have some apps running in the background or some corrupted software, you have a bad phone and or a bad SIM card.

I would like to let you know that I completely apologize for spreading wrong information incase anybody read it and deleted their iCloud account. It seems like I made a mistake whoops!

So I thought iCloud was constantly sending and receiving data but its not(I don't think). I didn't realize that every time you clicked on "cellular data usage" while iCloud is setup that the numbers go up a bit. Its not constantly doing that. It's only doing it when you actually press Cellular Data Usage. Whoops! Sorry I jumped down apples throat for that one and I was wrong. Sorry!

Yikes Marine!!! I need to get my add in order and read thoroughly. I didn't even SEE that you had said 1% per hour NO USE. I am so sorry for being like "what??!?!"

In standby, no other iphone that I have had besides this one has dropped like that in standby.

Sorry! I agree.

iPhone5rocks: before you changed your SIM card, were the reception bars telling you that you had bad service? Basically I'm just wondering if there's any way to know the SIM card is doing this, unless you just change it. Thanks!

This thread has become infected with ranting of the unrealistic!    The folks who can't get 4 hours from their phones have a problem.  Those who worry about 1% per hour on standby are wasting our time.......

But Jameson, what is going on that is making that happen if it never happened on the previous phones? It has to have something to do with why IN USE the battery is so bad.. That's all

B.S.  It's all connected.  The same problems causing the battery to drain that fast in standby are the same things causing your phone to drain fast in regular usage.

Jameson cmon now infected is not the right word. What you saying we are some kind of disease ? Look there are problems simple as that. 4 hours or 40 hours on standby of useage is bad.

My last post was at work on wifi and driving home and with lte using it only at stop light :) it dropped 1% per minute maybe faster. So no 6.0.1 has not solved anything.

What is making it happen?  

1. Basically the same size battery as previous iPhones

2. Much more power hungry processor

3. More power hungry LTE chip

4. Antenna switching to receive both 3G and LTE signals.

5. Constant tweaking, resetting, restoring causing significant background data sync and backup activity.

@AL4A

Apple had given me two replacements and I was searching  for another answer.

There was no way to know if the SIM card was bad except to change it. I borrowed a SIM card from another family member and put it into my phone and my standby problem was eliminated. Then Apple changed the SIM card for me.

@ Jameson, if your phone is loosing over 1% per hour on standby then you may have a bad phone and not even realize it.

And I forgot....   Bigger screen = more power used

Iphone5rocks: when you changed your SIM card, your battery life in GENERAL got better too?

Good point. The new SIM is a new design maybe is causing a problem. Next week ill ask my coworker to swap sim cards for a day to see what happens.

Bud,

If I hit the sack with a full charge and wake up to 92%, I'm sorry, but I'm satisfied.   You guys are becoming hysterical over nothing, if that's what you're concerned about!    What happened to the guys who were discharging completely in 4-6 hours?   Those are the people who should be concerned.....

I have everything turned on.   I have rather expectation that I will get through the day and charge while sleeping.   I get that and then some, so I'm satisfied.   

Would it have been nice if APPLE had made the i5 a bit thicker to accommodate a bigger battery?   I suppose so, but as long as I make the day, I'm happy.....