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

HA I have one worse. My battery in my 3 month old phone was lasted only 6 hours max even if it was just sitting there. No texts, no talking.  Apple rep I got to speak with informed me it must be something I had on the phone!! UHM right. she wanted me to run some diagnostics while driving down the road.  If I didn't want to run through her little on the screen in front of her spiel then I should waste another hour on the phone and call back when I had time. Finally I am so fed up I just ask to speak with a supervisor, after waiting like 27 minutes some other bimbo who also doesn't have any way of identifying herself other than her first name!! HUM lets thinks about that for a minute.... right at any rate they replacement 'supervisor' still insists that her girl was correct and that it is something I am doing to the phone. The tell me to take it back to where I bought it. So I do. ATT says **** no we wont do a warranty replacement you have to drive to apple. OK so apple is another hour away. Nope my phone isn't backed up and they cannot change it our either. I can wait another 40 minutes or so and speak with one of there tech people to see if the battery is really the problem. By this time I am really to just nuke the lot of them.  So I leave to go and back up my phone myself. Then I call the Apple rep yet again and say hey instead of me driving an hour or two depending on traffic cant you just mail me one?? No she wants to go through a bunch a crap too. So I patiently listen and do everything she tells me too. yup battery is bad! Wow go figure.

Then I need to leave for a business trip. On the way back I set my phone down on my cart in a Marshall's in Harrisburg PA. Had been in the store over 45 minutes and spoke on it for around 5 minutes. down to 3% when I set it down. Someone there (we think a store employee since they have been having a rash of stolen cell phones) steals the phone even though I have find iPhone on and active and I also have my iPad right there with me. I within two minutes ask my phone to make a sound. NO such luck battery dead!

I certainly hope the thief has better luck with the **** thing than I did. Certainly saved Apple of replacing mine!!

Your welcome, lol I believe you have to drain it out all the time, it's the best way. When I first got my iphone in October 2012 I was getting 12-14 hours usage and almost 2 days standby it was the best. After all the updates during the year up until now it has gone down. My point it's not the hardware I.e battery etc it's actually the SOFTWARE. Hope this helps you to decide.

Apple removed my comment on your situation.  If you can give me your email and I'll discuss it with you. 

<Email Edited By Host>

Tell me about it I'm on my 3rd iPhone 5 the price you pay you should get more something which costs that much should last longer than a year if not apple should cover that!

Is there a way on this board to PM (private message) you?

I do not really want to publish my email address

No. It's a tech support board, not a chat community.

If Apple would simply step up to the plate with these problems they would address a problem which will cause them a tremendous loss of buyers in the future.

No there's no way to pm. 

<Email Edited By Host>

I too think it is the software. I have an iPhone 5 which was working fine till I upgraded to iOS 7. Now it loses a 1% of battery capacity a minute. This is ridiculous. i have tried all recommended settings to preserve battery power but to no avail.  And I am fairly tech savvy.

If I turn off the cellular data then the battery lasts a long time so I don't think it's the hardware. I am really tired of my phone. I could live with the tiny screen but the battery issues is just too frustrating. I think I am going to get an LG g2 next which has a 3000mAH battery and its replaceable too. There is an interesting article on gizmodo or Engadget which basically says with all the smartphones being pretty similar interns of capability , the only thing that matters is the battery life. I agree. What good is a dead phone and who needs battery anxiety.

My phone is plugged 24/7 after i upgraded, sometimes is decent (max 4hrs!!) and sometimes dies in 30 mins and after i turn it on again it has 70%. You have no idea how frustrating this is!!!

i had NOT updated my 5 to iOS7 and it had as bad battery life as agermchi's!! It was just a sick battery. Period. It was extremly frustrating.

My only consolation is that whoever ends up with my stolen phone is going to be angry that they got the darn thing too!!!

Well. After a year of terrible battery life ( since it was new) I never got more then 4 hours usage ever.

I went to the apple store and they tested my device and guess what. The battery said it needed replacing. So $79 later I have a new battery and I can get 6-8 hours.

I have a strong suspicion that the launch phones had poor performing batteries. The qa was probably terrible during the launch and they needed every battery that could be made.

I love being a guinea pig for new hardware. After a year of going everywhere with a power cord because my phone was always dead I can say there is no chance I'll ever buy another apple product.

I'm glad when Apple reached out to me a year ago to help them test the bad battery complaints and then never even helped anyone else. This was obviously hardware related.

P.s. You should offer this as a free service since you screwed everyone.

They are committing product line suicide by not standing behind their product. I refused to pay the extortion price of $79 for a new battery when batteries are available for $10 or less. I bought one that came with a kit for $20 on Amazon. Imagine how much money they are gaining from a defect on their part. Inexcusable.

My next phone will likely be a Samsung. Although they too have battery drain problems, theirs is easily switched to a fully charged battery when necessary. And you don't need a heavy case, with a different charger.

I suppose eventually, as the furor gains from the draining batteries, Apple will be forced to offer a better solution. For now, they continue to gouge their loyal customers.

I'd still buy the iphone even if the battery only last an hour..lol