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

iPhone 4S on left (-95 DBm) and iPhone5 on right (-103 DBm).

Side by Side, same network, both on 3G.

Sorry for the horrible photo quality, it's taken with an older iPod Touch.

I don't see any unusual process running on background except MobilePhone and MobileMail which I had fixed earlier on.

Not a large enough delta between the them to provide any meaningful difference.

www.tested.com/tech/smartphones/510-cell-phone-reception-explained-what-the-bars -mean/

I called the apple store and asked when exchangingy newly purchased iPhone 5 if I would be getting a new phone and not a refurbished, they assured me that I was gonna get a brand new phone.  Mind that mine is less than 2 weeks old, but I assume this would apply for any iPhone 5, since its all less than 2 months old.

I find it amusing that you're recommend people turn off services without knowing exactly what they do. How does the phone sync the time for example, or know which tower to connect to? 

Just sayin'

I'm glad you find it amusing...instead of finding it "amusing" why don't you tell me that I am wrong so that there is no miscommunication?  What i'm saying is that when those processes are running FOR ME on MY PHONE, the battery gets hot and drains rapidly... Does webbookmarksd dermine which tower to connect to?  Does DataAccessd? Maybe geod does... Why don't you correct my errors, instead of going out of your way to be rude? Thanks

Whoa ;).  I was making a point that neither you or I for that matter know the full extent of those services do. Turning them off might cause more harm than good.

As to what's wrong? Well, actually nothing. It's pretty well documented I'm this thread that turning off all cellular functions allows the phone to behave as expected. This means the drainage issue lies with the cellular service.

Like I've said, Apple along with every other handset maker engineer the phone to industry standards, so in the most ideal environment you'll see the best performance. The challenge for ALL manufacturers is how to deal with aging & crowded networks. They can either design a thin and light phone or one with a bigger battery, each with the resulting trade offs.

I got you. Thanks

I also have had the same problem with my iphone5, but not with my iphone 4.  Both are upgraded to the latest version of Ios6, yet my iphone 5 drains about 1% every 2-4 minutes with very little use.  It's absolutely terrible!  I have turned off icloud and notifications etc- though, these features were the reason I got the phone in the first place!  I have just done a complete restore and am going to try again from ground zero.  Very dissapointed.  I like the idea of the iphone 5, but it is not nearly as good as my iphone 4.  Sadly, I gave up my unlimited plan to get this phone and even if I revert back, my plan is still gone.

I can verify again,  I was at the apple store in Burlington MA and played with 4 different iPhone 5's on display, everyone of them on wifi had a 1% drainage per every 2-3 minutes of usage give or take so this seems to be the standard on how the iPhone 5 will drain during usage.  So for those who feel like they have a hardware issue as in defective battery and your phone performs the same way, 2-3 % drainage while browsing or using a feature of the phone while the phone is active ( not in standby mode ) , your battery is fine.  There is no way that the 4 iPhones I played with along with my own all have battery issues.  If your phone does not have standby issues or get extremely hot, draining 1% every 2-3 minutes of constant usage is normal. 

I felt like the battery drained too fast as well, performed all the restores, resets, full cycle charges...but it seems like the standard performance on all iPhone 5's will be this way.  If you are draining on standby then you may have a problem.  As I type my usage reads : standby 1 day 1 hour and usage is 5 hours and 7 min... With 46% remaining... But if I am on the phone either browsing or just having it on messing with settings or emails, it will drain 1% every 3 or so minutes...

Hopefully this puts a lot of people as ease who feel like their battery is draining to quickly.

I have an iphone 5 and the battery has been draining very quickly. I mean 15% every 30 mins without any usage and all apps turned off. Also, I have never been able to send pic messaging. I've contacted sprint and they blaim apple and apple says nothing is wrong on their side. I paid full price for this phone and I'm kinda dissapointed. My iphone 4s was so pefect compared to this.

30 min without usage is defintely a problem.  How long did you own he phone.  There shouldnt be a problem with returning or exchanging it. 

MikeSil wrote:

 

Something I don't understand with the way the usage and standby minutes are calculated.  I kept noticing that my usage and standby mins have always remained very close, but lets say I unplug my cell from the charger at 7am by 1pm I am seeing approx 6 hrs of usage and 6 hrs of standby time listed in the usage statistics.  Am I missing something shouldn't the usage and standby hours added together equal no more than the total time it has been unplugged (7hrs)?  I have attached to images that demostrate my point.  They were taken on the same day roughly 1 hr 10 mins apart.

@MikeSil

I don't know whether anyone has replied to you yet but click here (http://www.apple.com/uk/batteries/iphone.html) for a definition of Usage and Standby. Basically Standby is the total time since the last full charge, and usage is the time the phone is in use (but not necessarily by you with the sccreen on).

If Usage = Standby, or is close to it, then unless you are listening to music or podcasts non-stop you have a "rogue" process which is causing the phone to think it is being "used".

HTH

Tim

LEECK78 wrote:

 

By the way, someone mentioned somewhere in the forum that disabling "Ping" will help to improve battery life. However, it was not in the restriction menu.

 

I remembered I did saw this "Ping" in restrictions menu, but when I tried to disable, it disappeared.

 

Look up "Ping" on my old 3GS (IOS5.1.1), it was there.

 

Weird IOS6!!

In the words of Monty Python, Ping has slipped its mortal coil and gone to meet its maker, so it won't appear anywhere any more...

Tim

I had the same problem.  Did a hard reset, erased everything, and set up as a new phone.  Now it is great.  I did a retire fom iCloud and itunes after setting up as a new phone.  Works wonderfully now