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4S only 5 hours of battery life?

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micrors4racer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
354
0
I have a jailbroken 64gb 4S from April and my brother has a 16gb non-JB from earlier this month. We both get around 4 hours 30min to 5 hours of battery life according to the Usage tab. Standby time didn't seem to affect the battery much, as I get the same amount of run time wether or not it has 1 minute of standby or 10 hours. It also didn't matter if I was shooting video most of those 5 hours or just texting and web browsing.

Does this sound normal? I know the 4S drains battery but this seems a little too fast.
 
robanga

robanga

macrumors 68000
Aug 25, 2007
1,657
1
Oregon
micrors4racer said:
I have a jailbroken 64gb 4S from April and my brother has a 16gb non-JB from earlier this month. We both get around 4 hours 30min to 5 hours of battery life according to the Usage tab. Standby time didn't seem to affect the battery much, as I get the same amount of run time wether or not it has 1 minute of standby or 10 hours. It also didn't matter if I was shooting video most of those 5 hours or just texting and web browsing.

Does this sound normal? I know the 4S drains battery but this seems a little too fast.
Click to expand...

Does not seem normal at all - We have two 4s in the house and a 4 and they all get over way over that. Possible issues;

1. You both have a poorly performing app that is constantly using the resources on the phone such as GPS and running the battery down.

2. You both live in places where the networks are constantly switching between COM bands such as 3G, 3.5G, Edge or LTE. I have found that while traveling some areas are like this and that drains the battery a lot faster.
 
S

Satnam1989

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2011
1,200
0
Illinois
OP are you using your iPhone constantly? whats your brightness level? your not shedding much light on tweaks, jailbroken state(s), apps running all/most of the time etc etc....

Refer to my thread here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1376205/ hope it helps....some tips, tricks and tons of battery life info available. I clearly to date see a improvement in my 4S factory unlocked 64GB's battery life on iOS 5.1.1 compared to 5.0.1....


I can't speak for those that went from 5.1 to 5.1.1
 
w00t951

w00t951

macrumors 68000
Jan 6, 2009
1,834
53
Pittsburgh, PA
I haven't used my iPhone for a while (this Nexus tops out at 2 hours of usage) but I think my average was 7 hours of moderately heavy usage. It can depend on several factors, particularly on cellular signal and activated antennas (Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.).
 
M

micrors4racer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
354
0
I am running 5.1.1 and the only jailbreak apps I have is SBsettings and an activator hack so I can double tap the clock in the lock screen so I can turn on the LED light. The other phone isn't jailbroken. Brightness is at 50% with auto brightness on and wifi is on or off deepening on if I am outside or not. Signal level is pretty low at my house but I have experienced the low battery life even in places with full bars. I would say that I get bad battery life wether or not I am using it a lot or letting it have long standby times in between uses.

The most recent example was a day where I shot video most of the time at the beach and it died at 4 hours 30 minutes. The next day I did not use the camera at all and just iMessaged, Browsed, push email and I got 5 hours. The same applies for my brother phone.

According to iLounge and apple with "Wi-Fi Data. Apple promises up to 9 hours of Wi-Fi Internet use"
So that means with constant use at 50% brightness it should last 8-9 hours. Mine is lasting no where near that on constant browsing.

As for apps, I habitually make sure to close all gps apps (maps, navigon) when I stop using them. All other apps I just let the system manage.

I am going to restore my phone with no jailbreak and no apps and see if it gets fixed. If its still bad, how will apple know to replace it since I obviously can't hang around and use it in front of them to show that it drains in 4-5 hours.
 
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S

SurferMan

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2010
1,267
51
South FL
Our 4S and 3GS are jail-broken with a lot of apps and no difference in battery life vs stock iOS. You may have a corrupted app/file but a pain in the ass to check as you have to delete and add 1 by 1 but monitor each before adding the next to see if anything changes. Or could very well be a glitch in the OS, or you live in area that's creating heavy searching and draw on a bad signal.

I can tell you though the battery should last longer but not to expect 9 hours straight use browsing and video recording etc no matter what Apple says, it's just like their est life on the Macbook Pros etc, never gotten what they said even with everything turned off screen brightness way down and using a mouse instead of trackpad to save life (which usually ads at least 45+ min vs trackpad). Apples testing for life is biased "quirky" if you know what I mean ;) , Our replacement 4S is better on battery life than the 1st one but still not near my 4 or GSII in use or standby.
 
A

antman2295

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2010
366
1
Whats strange is lately I've been getting GREAT battery life, like 50%-80% at the end of the day, and before it was 20% or less at the end of the day. The only thing I did different was turn off auto rotation. I'm on 5.0.1 Jailbroken.
 
E

emacna1

macrumors regular
May 31, 2012
126
0
I got my 4S last week. Here are some stats I've been taking over the past week while at work (~7am-~3:30pm):

Standby= 8h 22m, Usage= 4h 5m (9% battery left)
Standby= 8h 12m, Usage= 4h 5m (22% battery left)
Standby= 8h 3m, Usage= 3h 29m (37% battery left)
Standby= 8h 19m, Usage= 2h 46m (50% battery left)
Standby= 8h 15m, Usage= 4h 18m (27% battery left)

Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Intell said:
Yes. My current record is 12 hours 0 minutes and 1 day, 12 hours of standby. I could probably get more out of it if I really tried.
Click to expand...

So your standby time read: 36h with your usage time reading: 12h? I'm not sure how that's possible.

EDIT: With those stats your usage time is 33% of your total time off the charger. The above bold-ed time is also 33%. If I had kept going, my standby and usage at 0% battery would have read around 16h 40m (standby) and 5h 30m (usage).
 
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Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
emacna1 said:
So your standby time read: 36h with your usage time reading: 12h? I'm not sure how that's possible.

EDIT: With those stats your usage time is 33% of your total time off the charger. The above bold-ed time is also 33%. If I had kept going, my standby and usage at 0% battery would have read around 16h 40m (standby) and 5h 30m (usage).
Click to expand...

My personal record was set when my 4S was running iOS 5.0.0 and jailbroken. It's currently running a jailbroken 5.1.1. I did post is another one of these recent 4S battery threads how my settings are set if you'd like to see how my 4S is setup.
 
M

micrors4racer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
354
0
emacna1 said:
I got my 4S last week. Here are some stats I've been taking over the past week while at work (~7am-~4:30pm):

Standby= 8h 22m, Usage= 4h 5m (9% battery left)
Standby= 8h 12m, Usage= 4h 5m (22% battery left)
Standby= 8h 3m, Usage= 3h 29m (37% battery left)
Standby= 8h 19m, Usage= 2h 46m (50% battery left)
Standby= 8h 15m, Usage= 4h 18m (27% battery left)

Let me know if anyone has any questions.



So your standby time read: 36h with your usage time reading: 12h? I'm not sure how that's possible.

EDIT: With those stats your usage time is 33% of your total time off the charger. The above bold-ed time is also 33%. If I had kept going, my standby and usage at 0% battery would have read around 16h 40m (standby) and 5h 30m (usage).
Click to expand...

This is exactly how mine is. So is it normal?
 
cyks

cyks

macrumors 68020
Jul 24, 2002
2,090
8
Westchester County, NY
Yay, yet another one of these silly battery threads where nobody can tell you of it's 'normal' or not becuase there are far too many variables.

I could set my phone to Airplane, start a music loop, turn off the screen and get well over a day of usage.

Likewise, I could go to a low signal area, turn brightness to max, start a background GPS app, and play Infinity Blade 2 and be lucky with a half hour.


Usage and Standby times don't tell nearly enough details to have any idea about your usage.
 
B

batting1000

macrumors 604
Sep 4, 2011
7,451
1,840
Florida
Wow. Most I've gotten is 4 - 5 hrs of usage and a little over a day of standby. I even recently went to the Apple store and they told me my battery was normal, as per their diagnostics application. I actually consider that great compared to my Galaxy S2 which got 1.5 - 2 hrs of heavy usage with a little over a day of standby as well.
 
N

NikeTalk

macrumors 6502a
Apr 5, 2010
598
7
People claiming to get 8+ hours of usage don't really use their phones at all and if they do they're on wifi with 3G off, push/fetch off, location off, screen at 10%, etc. I've had all the iPhones you'll be lucky to get 6 hrs of usage and i'm talking real time usage, email at 30mins, location on, texting, games, surfing on 3G.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
NikeTalk said:
People claiming to get 8+ hours of usage don't really use their phones at all and if they do they're on wifi with 3G off, push/fetch off, location off, screen at 10%, etc. I've had all the iPhones you'll be lucky to get 6 hrs of usage and i'm talking real time usage, email at 30mins, location on, texting, games, surfing on 3G.
Click to expand...

Don't use my 4S much? WiFi off, 3G on, fetch 7 email accounts, 4 CalDAV calendars and one Exchange contacts every hour, location services on, and screen at 25-40%. Most of my usage is 3G web broswing, VNC/RDP, SSH, and lots of texting and emailing. I just don't play too many games. My iPhone is a working device, not a gaming device.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Depends on what you are doing. Normal use for me is phone, email, Facebook, message, and some tapatalk. I get around 6-7 hours of usage. However I noticed in an airport once I was over 10 hours running Netflix on wifi (don't know how in the world that's more energy efficient).
 
C

chiefpavvy

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2008
707
0
12 hours? Yeah, maybe streaming audio. Not much else.

5 hours is fine if you are actually using the phone.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Not a lot of pics posted.

Here is one of my best with mostly phone, messaging, tapatalk, and email.

a6fbdb80-584b-4152.jpg


Like I mentioned when I stream Netflix it goes WAY up. I remembered another time I was trying to kill the battery so I just let Netflix run. It played an entire movie in like 10-15%. I would have been better off just browsing the web and using tapatalk to kill the battery.
 
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