Battery life issues?

[Manchild Pr0digy]

Not impressed so far at all with the battery life. I woke up this morning with a full charge, have used the phone moderately (no music, videos, etc, almost all location services off, wifi disabled, good reception area) over a span of 2.5 hrs and I'm down to 65%. For another example, I left the house last night at 6 pm with over 95% after pulling it off the charger and it died at 9:30 pm. Again, no significant usage and all location services were off, both email accounts switched to fetch, etc.

I switched to this phone from a Thunderbolt 4G with the main goal of increasing my battery life, so far I'm pretty disappointed. It's already had multiple full charge cycles through it. Possible defective battery?

It sure sounds like the battery may be defective. I hate to keep saying that, but that kind of battery life can't be normal.

 

[BiG BaLLA 923]

Are you in an area with good network coverage? Reason I ask is that if your iPhone is trying to hold on to a signal or constantly switching between a 2G/3G/HSPA+, it can drain your battery more quickly.

Yeah, I am. That was a problem back at home. At school, where I am now, I always have 4-5 bars of 3g. I never run into issues where I have a low signal.

 

[IndoX]

I have about 6 minutes of use and 44 minutes of standby and I'm still at 100%. The 'honeymoon' phase from getting a new phone is already over for me so I'm down to my regular usage (which is barely none with the exception of high data usage). I'll be starting work in a few hours and I have an 8 hour shift, so I'll be able to comment how the phone did for a regular work day (which is whats most important anyways). Hopefully I'll be pleased with the results.

 

[Jacoblee27]

I am under extended network (roaming) most of the time where I currently live with Verizon. Would this be the cause? I don't see how it could make this much of a difference. I cannot get good service without being on extended, so I can't turn roaming off. Any tips?

 

[Premium1]

I am under extended network (roaming) most of the time where I currently live with Verizon. Would this be the cause? I don't see how it could make this much of a difference. I cannot get good service without being on extended, so I can't turn roaming off. Any tips?

Yes that can cause battery drain more if you are in extended service or poor service area. Try dialing *22899 for the prl update that should help with service.

 

[nj1266]

Turn wifi off when you sleep and I bet it wont discharge again while on charger. My i4 use to do that. Once battery is fully charged, it doesnt charge again until down to 90% and wifi some how cause it to drain in stand by.

I leave my wifi on all the time on my iphone 4 and it does not discharge while on the charger. It has never drained while on the charger.

 

[nj1266]

I do need to get my e-mails at night, even when I'm sleeping, yes. I wasn't really complaining, just adding in my observations, and stating I may need to go back to my Android. Some of you iFaithful need to notch it down.

There is something wrong with your phone. I am on wifi almost 95% of the time, when at home and at work, day and night, plugged or unplugged. I have not had my iphone 4 discharge while on the charger and wifi on. Never, ever.

 

[nj1266]

Is this also true for the iPad & iPod? I charge my iOS devices overnight and they're always at 100% in the morning. I always leave wifi on.

I have the same experience as you do.

 

[Kylazin]

There is something wrong with your phone. I am on wifi almost 95% of the time, when at home and at work, day and night, plugged or unplugged. I have not had my iphone 4 discharge while on the charger and wifi on. Never, ever.

Well that sucks. I'll be taking it back to Sprint I guess. Very disappointed in Apple.

 

[DrewBear]

Didn't complain, stated what was going on with my phone like every other person on this thread. I also have no intention of returning the phone. I've also read the battery tips. I would like to congratulate you on ignoring all the other posts that basically said the same exact things and calling me out.

I've read that iCloud could be causing a problem. I'm going to try turning it off and seeing if that helps.

Sure sounded like complaining to me. Again, for a first post it sounded troll-like. My apologies if I offended you. Far from ignoring your concerns, I did post suggestions. I did not mention iCloud because I do not think we should have to turn that function off in order to obtain acceptable battery life. Certainly turn off the parts of iCloud you don't plan to use, but I doubt that Apple posted their battery life claims with the caveat that iCloud must be turned off.

 

[Rex_Suggs]

i charged my up to 100% last night took it off charger and it was @ 69% this morning.
on my iphone 4 the lowest it would ever be would be around 89% and most of the time it would still be in the ninety's

 

[DrewBear]

But also, at night or when not in use, turn off things like location services(gps), data(3g/other), bluetooth, and wifi. That should help with battery life.

I do not intend to spend time constantly monitoring what services are on or off. I know which functions I need (even if it's only once per day) and want those available when I need to call on them. I charge my phone overnight so that it's fully charged in the morning. I expect the battery to last through a normal day.

If you are a very heavy user of services that require GPS or push notifications, then you may need to tweak certain settings.

 

[barbee865]

I unplugged my 4S last night at midnight and went to sleep. Its now almost 2:00 pm and I still have 50% left. Heavy use from 9:00 am until now.
Very good coming from an htc incredible

 

[DrewBear]

Mine was 98%, I went to bed, and when I woke up it was 56%. I turned off a lot of stuff too. I'm starting to worry...

Not impressed so far at all with the battery life. I woke up this morning with a full charge, have used the phone moderately (no music, videos, etc, almost all location services off, wifi disabled, good reception area) over a span of 2.5 hrs and I'm down to 65%. For another example, I left the house last night at 6 pm with over 95% after pulling it off the charger and it died at 9:30 pm. Again, no significant usage and all location services were off, both email accounts switched to fetch, etc.

Neither sounds normal. Call Apple and start a service/complaint file.

From the overall 'net chatter, it sounds like iOS 5 may have something to do with sub-optimal battery life. I just don't know why there is such a huge variance in experiences.

I've had my 4S on for 4 hrs. (turned on timer when I unplugged) this morning. I've used it quite a bit in that time, including listening to ~1 hr. of music & podcasts. Battery level is at 89%. I ended a 16 hr. day yesterday with over 30%. I've tweaked the settings minimally.

 

[Kylazin]

Hearing this makes me really think that I have a bad phone or something. I'll take it to Sprint tomorrow. If I don't use it at all, I'm draining about 10-15% an hour. I turned off my location services for most things and am always on wifi.

 

[boomhower1820]

I unplugged at 0430 this morning. Im at 13% left. Probably a good five hours of sucking down pandora and pumping it back out through Bluetooth plus location services, and push notifications. So I'd call it very heavy use. Not great but I can live it.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

 

[DrewBear]

I unplugged at 0430 this morning. Im at 13% left. Probably a good five hours of sucking down pandora and pumping it back out through Bluetooth plus location services, and push notifications. So I'd call it very heavy use. Not great but I can live it.

Sounds right if you're on 3G; not quite normal if you were on WiFi. Did you have the screen on during those 5 hrs.? Was Pandora playing in the background while you were doing other things on the phone?

"Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi"

 

[Jacoblee27]

Neither sounds normal. Call Apple and start a service/complaint file.

From the overall 'net chatter, it sounds like iOS 5 may have something to do with sub-optimal battery life. I just don't know why there is such a huge variance in experiences.

I've had my 4S on for 4 hrs. (turned on timer when I unplugged) this morning. I've used it quite a bit in that time, including listening to ~1 hr. of music & podcasts. Battery level is at 89%. I ended a 16 hr. day yesterday with over 30%. I've tweaked the settings minimally.

I called Verizon and they think the reason, that I am getting such poor battery life, is because I am in extended coverage a lot of the time, on US Cellular towers, because it's a bad Verizon coverage area where I live... Hmm.. It seems as if though a lot of other people, are having the same issues as me though. I don't think there are this many defective phones, I am thinking ios5 issue as well...

 

[Kylazin]

Yeah, it may be because I'm on extended coverage as well. I thought Wifi would help with this issue, but I suppose its still searching for signal. My real concern now though is why the phone charges to 100% and then begins to decline while it remains plugged in.

 

[leharris22]

Is there a way you can turn of GPS, wifi and bluetooth? Those might be diminishing battery life.