Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Adutrumque

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2012
1,438
2
Sweden
My wife's phone connects to LTE all day and she gets an average of 9 hours. My iphone is the same connection but I only get an average of 4-5 hours. That's a big difference.

Thats very strange. Idd. 9 Hrs on LTE is pretty darn crazy. Well, ofc, we havent got LTE in Sweden so I can't really give you anything here but that is certainly impressive.
 

trlyka

macrumors 6502a
Dec 26, 2011
539
7
Same settings on my 5 as with my 4 and the 5 battery is much worse. Although in May, my battery on my 4 just stopped charging, so I had to get the phone replaced. The 4 had a much better handle on my usage. The 5 just gives in and the battery is not as good. A Lithium-ion battery does not have memory, so I'm not sure if the drain/charge cycle thing will affect it. I thought you can leave it charging whenever you want without repercussions.

Apple batteries
 

0309385

Suspended
Apr 4, 2009
839
27
Anyone know why my battery really sucks?
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    132.3 KB · Views: 88

apb89

macrumors regular
Aug 25, 2012
153
47
I got a replacement iPhone 5 due to issues with the screen and ever since restoring the phone from a backup my battery has been horrendous:
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5596.png
    IMG_5596.png
    108 KB · Views: 93

ShaunOK

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2012
65
46
For the people with usage/standby so close together were you using your phone for that long? There has been issues with the battery draining randomly even with the screen off and no apps running, happened to me a few weeks ago when I lost about 50% in a few hours doing nothing at all. Fixed itself and hasn't happened since (though it has happened with the 4/4S according to some threads on here).
 

CthrewU

macrumors member
Aug 11, 2010
96
25
Not too bad for all 4G?

No wifi no LTE no Music. Mostly web browsing with a few calls and text. This would be my fourth iPhone 5 and so far it's the best battery I have gotten.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    129.7 KB · Views: 83

solo118

macrumors 65816
May 16, 2011
1,316
170
No wifi no LTE no Music. Mostly web browsing with a few calls and text. This would be my fourth iPhone 5 and so far it's the best battery I have gotten.

Are you turning off LTE on purpose to save battery? Or no LTE in your area?

Just a heads up, but anandtech has reviewed the ip5 and said that 3G (4G on iphone 5) does not get much better battery life.

Otherwise, I would say usage is good. It also depends on how many push accounts you have on, and of course notifications/location services etc.
 

CthrewU

macrumors member
Aug 11, 2010
96
25
LTE is not available where I live and I keep it turned off. All mail accounts are set to manually fetch. Considering the cell signal strength I would say that I managed to get one with a decent battery. Almost on par with apples claims.
 

J.L.Photography

macrumors 6502
Feb 23, 2012
283
0
South Florida
I didn't take a screen but I got 9.5 hours today on 1 day 8 hour standby. Listened to alot of music, mail, tons of Facebook and web.

If I try not to use it, I notice standby kills the battery.
 

berniemakaveli

macrumors regular
Sep 30, 2012
136
1
It's almost like my iphone adjusted to daylight savings time, the battery is at 20% at 5pm. Seriously what the ******* Apple?
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
SOLUTION for battery problems!!!!

Hi everyone,
I have gotten alot of tips from different posters in this thread and I think I have solved my battery problem. I have gone through numerous solutions and trips to the genius bar. Done countless trial and errors. The only thing I did not want to do was to set up my phone as a new phone. I mean, whats the point of a back up if the conclusion is that a back up from your previous phone destroys your new phone. So my objective was simple, to achieve at least 9 hours and a half hours of battery life without resorting to "Set up as new iPhone".

While I am tempted to think that most of my issues were hardware issues, I found it hard to believe that I could be so unlucky to get one with a bad battery. Furthermore, my hesitation to swap for a new phone stemmed from the fact that there is a real distinct possibility that my next phone will have a good battery but some other flaw (yellow screen perhaps?).

**PS. you can just scroll to the bottom of this post for my final solution. But if you want to know how I got there or what other possibilities I eliminated, read on.**

I know for a fact that the iPhone 5 has a strong battery. My previous iPhone 5 (yes i got a swap) had great battery! Pushing almost 10 hours on a daily basis without breaking a sweat. This replacement phone on the other hand, was perfect in every single way but i found that the battery was really sub par.

Through my usage I found several things (also contributed by some users here):
1. BAD RECEPTION absolutely kills battery life. Whether 3G/4G/E. all the same. Anything below 3 bars is just a nightmare for battery. There are a few web articles on this. Go read up.
2. Phone calls have a massive draining effect. So don't be too concerned by that
3. Surfing the web on 3G/4G causes significant drain as well. It is definitely worse than wifi
4. Auto Brightness is crazy at times. My phone is usually on my desk under my lamp, so it causes the brightness to hit 100% the whole time.
5. System services also uses your location and not just your apps. Another hidden battery drain.
6. I finally understood the difference between Push and Fetch. Basically, Push doesn't consume as much battery as Fetch. Gmail is fetch, where the phone literally looks for email. Push is when the servers contact your phone telling you that you got an update(think along the lines of receiving an imessage). I even contacted a couple of app developers for my favourite apps to find out about whether their apps were fetching data. Apparently, its mostly push. They strongly avoid fetch
7. Messaging drains battery significantly. Regardless whatsapp/ etc
8. Software update to 6.0.1 through wireless caused my battery to go nuts. The battery would sometimes drop by 2% each time. A DFU restore solved that issue.

Objective: hit at least 9 and a half hours of usage.
***SOLUTION***
1. DFU restore your iPhone 5 to 6.0.1. You HAVE to do a DFU restore. This is especially so if you updated through the wireless updater in ios.
2. Restore from your favourite back up
3. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase Network Settings. Phone will reboot.
4. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase All Settings. Phone will reboot.
5. Set email notifications to every Hour
6. Turn off auto brightness and set to 25% to 35%. *I doubt anything more will be comfortable, but its really up to you. Just try to keep it as low as possible*
7. In Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services, turn off "genius for apps" & "location based iAds"
8. In Settings>General>Date & Time, turn off "Set Automatically"
9. In iCloud, turn passbook off. *optional if you actually use passbook*
10. It is important that you maintain these settings in the use immediately after these changes. After which, you can just use your phone and find out which app/perferred setting actually drains battery.

For my result,
- I spent about 3/4 of the day on wifi.
- Had 2 seven minute calls and quite abit of 2D gaming like lemonade tycoon.
- A lot of flipboard and Facebook.
- Constant checking of usage times in settings.
- 5 mins of apple maps navigation.
*I think I could have hit ten hours if I didn't use my gps for navigation during the day.

Alright guys, thats it. I hope this works for you. If you have more questions, just message me. (michelle, don't be lazy.)

Below is my Before and After screenshots
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    158.8 KB · Views: 105
Last edited:

Roofy.

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2009
595
0
My battery life is around 4.5 hrs usage. Then again I just got the phone and have been using it a lot. YouTube, safari, Netflix, and other basic things all on 4G or LTE. So it's understandable I guess. LTE is so fast that I can deal with the pretty mediocre battery life. But I'm sure it will get better once I stop using the phone for entertainment so much.
 

2010madone

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2012
15
0
take a step back... this thread is funny

as a long time apple customer (at last count i figure i have 28 apple devices) and someone who just switched from the iphone 4s to a new Droid Razr Maxx HD after thoroughly evaluating the 5. . .if you take a step back this thread is pretty funny. i mean. . .maps that work. . .a battery that lasts an entire day. . .these seem like very very basic functions of a smartphone that apple fanboys are contorting themselves into pretzels trying to defend

:D:D:D
 

ShaunOK

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2012
65
46
At 3 hours usage with 67% battery which I thought was crap but that is with nearly 24 hours standby and if the iPhones standby is 200 something hours then you should be losing about 10% per day just on standby? So by rights that would be 3 hours at 77% if I hadn't been on standby for a whole day. As previously said I can hit Apples estimates if using my phone all day but not using it and leaving it on standby it won't last as long.
 
Last edited:

2010madone

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2012
15
0
sorry i just could not resist posting this

i mean. . .its just humorous. Droid Razr Maxx Hd day 3
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_2012-11-08-22-34-35.png
    Screenshot_2012-11-08-22-34-35.png
    116.1 KB · Views: 94

Godf1st

macrumors regular
Oct 12, 2012
153
15
I know for a fact that the iPhone 5 has a strong battery. My previous iPhone 5 (yes i got a swap) had great battery!
***SOLUTION***
1. DFU restore your iPhone 5 to 6.0.1. You HAVE to do a DFU restore. This is especially so if you updated through the wireless updater in ios.
2. Restore from your favourite back up
3. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase Network Settings. Phone will reboot.
4. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase All Settings. Phone will reboot.
5. Set email notifications to every Hour
6. Turn off auto brightness and set to 25% to 35%. *I doubt anything more will be comfortable, but its really up to you. Just try to keep it as low as possible*
7. In Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services, turn off "genius for apps" & "location based iAds"
8. In Settings>General>Date & Time, turn off "Set Automatically"
9. In iCloud, turn passbook off. *optional if you actually use passbook*
10. It is important that you maintain these settings in the use immediately after these changes. After which, you can just use your phone and find out which app/perferred setting actually drains battery.

For my result,
- I spent about 3/4 of the day on wifi.
- Had 2 seven minute calls and quite abit of 2D gaming like lemonade tycoon.
- A lot of flipboard and Facebook.
- Constant checking of usage times in settings.
- 5 mins of apple maps navigation.
*I think I could have hit ten hours if I didn't use my gps for navigation during the day.

Alright guys, thats it. I hope this works for you. If you have more questions, just message me. (michelle, don't be lazy.)

Below is my Before and After screenshots
This procedure works, but I also noticed turning off imessage helped even better. I think there may be a bug in imessage that once was there back in ios 5 which may have been carried over to some devices. I have screen shots in the thread started by the person who wrote this procedure if in one is interested in seeing. Here's where I am after another cycle of doing this procedure and also turning off imessage. I'll post another once this cycle has run trough.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    132.8 KB · Views: 74
Last edited:

Godf1st

macrumors regular
Oct 12, 2012
153
15
i mean. . .its just humorous. Droid Razr Maxx Hd day 3
Being a former android user, it doesn't look like you did too much during that usage. You should have showed how much time besides the percentage of the display. To show how long the display was actually on for. That's just my opinion, not trying to get anything started, just stating a little more screenshots could have been showed. Here's some screenshots of what I was talking about, from when I was on the galaxy s3.
 

Attachments

  • uploadfromtaptalk1344531078683.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1344531078683.jpg
    60.6 KB · Views: 68
  • uploadfromtaptalk1344531071219.jpg
    uploadfromtaptalk1344531071219.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 79
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.