Brand new iPhone, horrible battery life

BluAffiliate · Dec 30, 2012

Hey guys,
I've been an iPhone owner since the iPhone 3G and have always loved it. This month I finally upgraded to iPhone 5 and noticed the battery life is horrible. In all these years I have been able to use my iPhone in my day to day life and it usually has enough battery for me so that I can plug it in at night and be ready to go by morning.

This brand new iPhone 5 however usually doesn't make it past 7PM, of moderate use (checking emails and texts, a few phone calls a day, and light web browsing). Literally if I don't touch the phone AT ALL (did experiment) it will drain to 15% by night time from a full charge.

I have reason to believe this phone battery may be defective, but is there a way to test for battery speed before I take it to the apple store to make sure I'm not imagining anything and have proof of my claims?

Thanks to everyone!

Using it with LTE with the latest software.

dextr3k · Dec 30, 2012

I have a pair of new iphone 5's (my wife and I). And the first day I set it up for her I told her how great it is.

She came back to be at 3pm from a full charge saying the battery died.

Its gotten much better after a few charge cycles from 0-10% to full overnight.

teeejay · Dec 31, 2012

Just go through few charging cycles, it will get better

bandofbrothers · Dec 31, 2012

I achieve 1.5 days before charging and have a similar usage pattern to you.

Their are lots of current threads on here and other forums offering up tips and settings changes to help with battery drain.

borostef · Dec 31, 2012

I also have an iPhone 5, and must say that battery life is not that great...
Do as others suggested, go through couple of charging cycles and it will get better... It did for me, but battery life is still not as good as it was on my iPhone 4...

Apok · Dec 31, 2012

I'm on my third ip5, first replacement was due to horrid battery life and second because flash wouldn't work, and I'm still getting worse battery life than my old 3GS did. I am def a little disappointed in the battery life for the 5.

Dave Felix · Dec 31, 2012

Okay I read all these posts about users getting horrible battery life on the first couple days of getting the iPhone. First off they've been in a box forever so on the first day my iPhone was at about 51% and lasted for about 3-4 hours in 4G LTE coverage before draining to 1%.

1. Charge your phone to 100%. (not 64%, not 85%, 100%!!)
2. Once its charged that high update it to the most recent software.
3. Hold the power button to turn it off. Once its off turn it back on.

That should help MOST of you. Look what it was able to do for me. Sometimes it needs a fresh reboot or a few cycles.

If this isn't good battery life then try attaching a battery from Advance Auto.

hafr · Dec 31, 2012

Dave Felix said:
Okay I read all these posts about users getting horrible battery life on the first couple days of getting the iPhone. First off they've been in a box forever so on the first day my iPhone was at about 51% and lasted for about 3-4 hours in 4G LTE coverage before draining to 1%.

1. Charge your phone to 100%. (not 64%, not 85%, 100%!!)
2. Once its charged that high update it to the most recent software.
3. Hold the power button to turn it off. Once its off turn it back on.

That should help MOST of you. Look what it was able to do for me. Sometimes it needs a fresh reboot or a few cycles.

Image

If this isn't good battery life then try attaching a battery from Advance Auto.

Welcome to "intuitive probability theory 101".

First question, how probable do YOU think it is that a 1400 mAh battery in an iPhone 5 will give you at least (assuming the battery indicating might switch to 98 % right after the photo was taken) 57/0,02/60 hours of use? That's 47,5 hours for those of you wondering.

(And oh, that would be 47,5 hours over the course of the almost 21 days that the battery would last before having to recharge

)

Dave Felix · Dec 31, 2012

That would be lovely if it were true but it was my example on how to better your battery life. Obviously it wont work for all but should work for some.

hafr said:
Welcome to "intuitive probability theory 101".

First question, how probable do YOU think it is that a 1400 mAh battery in an iPhone 5 will give you at least (assuming the battery indicating might switch to 98 % right after the photo was taken) 57/0,02/60 hours of use? That's 47,5 hours for those of you wondering.

(And oh, that would be 47,5 hours over the course of the almost 21 days that the battery would last before having to recharge )

hafr · Dec 31, 2012

Dave Felix said:
That would be lovely if it were true but it was my example on how to better your battery life. Obviously it wont work for all but should work for some.

You're falling into the trap of thinking the battery meter is actually accurate.

It doesn't mean you have better battery life than anyone else that can get ten hours of standby, including an hour of usage out of his or her iPhone 5, just that the battery indicator for one reason or another just isn't dropping.

Compare it to those saying the last ten percent last them "forever" and that they can't seem to drain the battery...

Dave Felix · Dec 31, 2012

hafr said:
You're falling into the trap of thinking the battery meter is actually accurate.

It doesn't mean you have better battery life than anyone else that can get ten hours of standby, including an hour of usage out of his or her iPhone 5, just that the battery indicator for one reason or another just isn't dropping.

Compare it to those saying the last ten percent last them "forever" and that they can't seem to drain the battery...

I see what you're saying now because the day I got it, it lasted almost 20 minutes on the 1%. It never actually did die just stayed there. Is that why a lot of people prefer not to show the battery percentage? Im always paying close attention to it.

hafr · Jan 1, 2013

Dave Felix said:
I see what you're saying now because the day I got it, it lasted almost 20 minutes on the 1%. It never actually did die just stayed there. Is that why a lot of people prefer not to show the battery percentage? Im always paying close attention to it.

Most likely. If you know you're stressing out over battery percentage, just don't show it. It's going to limit you in some way or another, just bring a charger or a battery pack if you know there is a risk of the battery dying on you at a bad time.

cynics · Jan 1, 2013

How long have you had the phone? Most people have that honeymoon period with a new device where you'll use it a lot more then the device it replaced.

What are your usage times? I typically get 5-6 hours on my 4S but I find tapatalk kills the battery pretty quickly. The other huge killer for me is signal strength.

Using Netflix in a airport during a cancelled flight I had over 11 hours of usage. Just depends on what your doing.

Dave Felix · Jan 2, 2013

cynics said:
How long have you had the phone? Most people have that honeymoon period with a new device where you'll use it a lot more then the device it replaced.

What are your usage times? I typically get 5-6 hours on my 4S but I find tapatalk kills the battery pretty quickly. The other huge killer for me is signal strength.

Using Netflix in a airport during a cancelled flight I had over 11 hours of usage. Just depends on what your doing.

yeah depends on what youre doing. My iPhone isnt a week old but since I had the 4 I just let itunes get my apps and things. I havent really played with it.

tuamtuem · Jan 2, 2013

cynics said:
How long have you had the phone? Most people have that honeymoon period with a new device where you'll use it a lot more then the device it replaced.

What are your usage times? I typically get 5-6 hours on my 4S but I find tapatalk kills the battery pretty quickly. The other huge killer for me is signal strength.

Using Netflix in a airport during a cancelled flight I had over 11 hours of usage. Just depends on what your doing.

In my case, it doesn't depend on what am I doing. I bough the i5 for about 1 month. It worked great on the original firmware iOS6.0.1, but the battery problem comes after I upgraded to iOS6.0.2.

I'm 100% sure that in my case the root-cause of battery drain problem is iOS 6.0.2 bugs!!!

Dave Felix · Jan 2, 2013

tuamtuem said:
In my case, it doesn't depend on what am I doing. I bough the i5 for about 1 month. It worked great on the original firmware iOS6.0.1, but the battery problem comes after I upgraded to iOS6.0.2.

I'm 100% sure that in my case the root-cause of battery drain problem is iOS 6.0.2 bugs!!!

Dont stress yourself, Im sure Apple is working on 6.0.3 as we speak haha they normally do well with upgrades for bugs in their system.

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