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iOS6 impact on battery life?

AndyK

AndyK

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
1,025
377
Terra
I'm wondering if anyone is doing any testing focused on the comparative battery life of iOS6 vs iOS5?

I personally have a 4s, but in general terms, does iOS6 seem to be more efficient in its battery consumption or are new shiny features bumping up the drain instead?

I'd love to hear any comments / thoughts on it and if anyone is actually testing this aspect.
 
SanjeevRana

SanjeevRana

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2011
607
10
Although its an early and most likely flawed comparison but from my day to day use I can say that it's better. And since it's a beta, the final release would be awesome.

I can say that from my experience playing with Android Kernels and then ios systems.

On my 5 hr standby and 2 hr use today, I would be at 75% on ios5 ... On ios6 today I was at 85% .. These are the only type of comparisons one can do at this time !!
 
8a22a

8a22a

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2012
990
4
Yorkshire, UK
Seems a lot worst for me, already down to 30%, usually still at 60% at this time. Haven't used it much more than usual.
 
zign

zign

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2006
284
0
London
8a22a said:
Seems a lot worst for me, already down to 30%, usually still at 60% at this time. Haven't used it much more than usual.
Click to expand...

That's probably due the fact that you are using it more.

I am not seeing any difference.
 
Mustangjac

Mustangjac

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2012
84
6
Florida
AndyK said:
I'm wondering if anyone is doing any testing focused on the comparative battery life of iOS6 vs iOS5?

I personally have a 4s, but in general terms, does iOS6 seem to be more efficient in its battery consumption or are new shiny features bumping up the drain instead?

I'd love to hear any comments / thoughts on it and if anyone is actually testing this aspect.
Click to expand...

Normal usage.....seems about the same. But one thing I noticed.....on my way into work today, I used the turn by turn nav for my commute to work, to try it out. I use it all the time with the tomtom app. I keep it plugged in since it's a HUGE drain on the battery.....I was at 64% when I got to the office. So it wasn't charging enough to run the turn by turn and my bluetooth connection to my radio.

Like I said, iOS5 with tomtom app, no issues charging while on the move.
 
Menel

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
1,356
I was a little sad that by lunch I was at 50% batt. which is low, but I've been playing more than usual, so I checked usage 4hrs used, 5hr standby.... well, ok then. All good :)
 
SanjeevRana

SanjeevRana

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2011
607
10
Here is a shot I took ... an addendum to my prev post ...

I would be 12 hr standby and 3 hr use using ios5.1.1 with 50% ... so I can safely bet that they have modded the kernel to get more standby time out.

This is with my "normal" use of calls, imessages, music, youtube, safari, mails ...
 

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R

runecarlsen

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
2
0
Battery sucks bigtime, using iPhone 4s and iOS6 Beta.

I have had NO problems at all running iOS5, but as soon as I upgraded to iOS6 the problems started. It consumes battery like hell. This morning, I woke up at 6am, and decided to see how it workd. 2 hours later, not touching the iPhone AT ALL, it is down to 49%.

I have closed all background apps, no bluetooth, no internet sharing, no nothing.

I am about to downgrade. Anyone have any idea what might be the problem?

best regards,
Rune
 
this is funah

this is funah

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2005
458
0
Berlin, Germany
It's definitely taking a lot more battery power to run iOS 6, especially when I run the maps app. My iPhone 4 became quite warm yesterday running the maps app and tracking my location, and sucked the battery down 10 percent in 15 mins.

Other than that, battery has been the same
 
Sir Ruben

Sir Ruben

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2010
1,885
1,200
UK
The first thing I noticed is that the option to turn off 3G has gone again, meaning Im getting much faster battery drain.
 
N

nednarm

macrumors 6502
Apr 26, 2010
460
19
U.K
I'm not seeing any notable difference in battery life, however trickle charge doesn't seem to be working as it should be.
I plugged my phone in before I went to bed last night, 8 hours later when I woke up it was on 94%, it hadn't been unplugged at any point during the night. How does trickle charge work? Does the OS wait for the phone to reach >90% battery then charge it back to 100?
 
B

bp1000

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2011
1,476
185
Quite a few phones I've tried struggle to charge fast enough when using turn by turn in the car.

In the past I essentially had to make sure my phone was fully charged before enabling turn by turn and hooking up Bluetooth.

Will be curious to see how the battery performs when using turn by turn and if apple releases a charger or tweaks gps power usage to handle it.
 
R

runecarlsen

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
2
0
So, I have investigated further, and have these experiences with my iPhone 4s with iOS6 Beta 1;

- iPhone consumes aprx 20% in 1hr, - standby mode

Turning off all kinds of stuff like bluetooth, internet sharing, light level, hard/soft reset, 3G, Wifi..... nothing makes a change.

So I decided to see what happens, if I set the phone in flight modus. Well, nothing much;

- iPhone consumes aprx 20% in 1hr, - in flight mode (!!)

My battery was really good before I upgrade to iOS6 Beta 1.

What the &%$&#(!! is this?

The only possible solution I see now, is to try to reinstall once again, but without restoring previous settings/data/apps etc. Doing a clean install of iOS6.

Any ideas?

best regards,
Rune Carlsen
 
B

brilbeer

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2012
2
0
insane battery drain since 6

I'm having insane battery drain since upgrading, from 40% to dead in under 2 hours, without any cell reception....

Second try, from 72% to dead in 3 hours, whilst in my pocket with all apps closed and 2 missed calls.

So I'm not having any luck on this front...
 
R

rman726

macrumors 6502
Oct 15, 2007
415
0
Seems a lot better for my 4S. Weird... I have never had that great of battery life though. It hasn't been as terrible as some people experienced, but it hasn't been as good as others either.
 
J

Jagardn

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2011
668
2
runecarlsen said:
So, I have investigated further, and have these experiences with my iPhone 4s with iOS6 Beta 1;

- iPhone consumes aprx 20% in 1hr, - standby mode

Turning off all kinds of stuff like bluetooth, internet sharing, light level, hard/soft reset, 3G, Wifi..... nothing makes a change.

So I decided to see what happens, if I set the phone in flight modus. Well, nothing much;

- iPhone consumes aprx 20% in 1hr, - in flight mode (!!)

My battery was really good before I upgrade to iOS6 Beta 1.

What the &%$&#(!! is this?

The only possible solution I see now, is to try to reinstall once again, but without restoring previous settings/data/apps etc. Doing a clean install of iOS6.

Any ideas?

best regards,
Rune Carlsen
Click to expand...

Is it possible that the apps your developing are draining the battery?
 
mentaluproar

mentaluproar

macrumors 68000
May 25, 2010
1,763
210
Ohio, USA
This is pretty discouraging news. My 4S performs exactly as I expect it would, including battery life, but if this is still an issue in the final release, I'll have to hold back. :(
 
SanjeevRana

SanjeevRana

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2011
607
10
Ok ... I have something on my mind and I am just going to say this ... please no flaming :)

iOS Betas are meant for developers to test out their apps in the new environment and also provide feedback on the iOS which would mean a fresh install on a dev iphone with just 2-3 apps on which he/she is working.

It is not meant for a full fledged load of apps being used as daily driver and then too being restored with all ios5 settings ....

So , do not read too much into battery drains, etc till the final GM version is out !
 
aleni

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,563
874
iOS 6 beta 1 is the first beta 1 that i find usable for every day use while iOS 5 beta 1 or 2 or even 3 are not usable for daily use when i tested it.

battery life has been great, pretty the same with the amazing 5.1.1.

from looking at the usage now:

Time since last full charge:

usage 2 hours, 22 minutes
standby 3 hours, 29 minutes

battery life still at 79%
 
T

twigman08

macrumors 6502
Apr 13, 2012
478
1
SanjeevRana said:
Ok ... I have something on my mind and I am just going to say this ... please no flaming :)

iOS Betas are meant for developers to test out their apps in the new environment and also provide feedback on the iOS which would mean a fresh install on a dev iphone with just 2-3 apps on which he/she is working.

It is not meant for a full fledged load of apps being used as daily driver and then too being restored with all ios5 settings ....

So , do not read too much into battery drains, etc till the final GM version is out !
Click to expand...

This is true. Not saying this is what people are doing in this thread but too many people run iOS beta versions as their daily driver and actually don't even do any iOS6 development work!

I myself have a developer account but my programming time is filled up right now working on a 360 arcade game and school. So I see no reason for me to download the beta when I wouldn't even be looking at the SDK or the APIs. Nor could I could afford to use this as my daily driver, even though most of Apples betas run pretty good for a beta OS.
 
AndyK

AndyK

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
1,025
377
Terra
For me the big issue on my phone is always battery. I just hope that iOS6 at least doesn't worsen battery consumption by the time it's released. I am under no illusions the chances of it improving it are quite remote.

I know this is early stages, but as further beta builds are released I'd greatly appreciate developers posting back with any differences you notice.
 
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