iPhone 5 battery life [Merged]

[kamalds]

Note 2 battery life is better. I was barely able to touch 6 hours with iphone 5 with heavy usage.

[JS82712]

Originally Posted by kamalds

Note 2 battery life is better. I was barely able to touch 6 hours with iphone 5 with heavy usage.

Note 2 is also bigger (i.e. more room to stuff more battery), your point?

[Sir Ruben]

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

Sadly until apple sort out the battery life of its phones im stuck on android, i currently have a Samsung Galaxy S2 which lasts 24-26hrs at my normal usages levels and around 16 hours with heavy use, thanks to being able to replace the stock battery with a high capacity one,. the iPhone 4S , and the 3GS i had before that would normally need to be charged after 4-6 hours, so when they announced the iPhone 5 was thinner than the 4S i assume the worst in terms of battery life and suspect i would not get much more than 5 or 6 hours out of it without having to charge it.

I will admit i am a HEAVY user, screen is on almost all day, with an hour and half of 3G streaming video twice a day (My commute to and from work watching netflix or some other streaming service), i use the phone all day online, running web tools and even remote accessing servers and desktops on it when required, i dont have time to sit and charge a device all day, and im not carrying a charger with me all the time to grab a 5 minute charge here and there when i can.

i just wish apple would stop with the thin kick, and produce a phone thats usable, for a FULL work day + Commute time, i should be able to undock a phone in the morning, and then use it all day, docking it to charge overnight, not undock it in the morning, then dock it again when i get to work just to have enough charge to see me through the trip home.

My god you ARE a heavy user. I read your post and feel sorry for you having to look at a smartphone screen all day, thats awful. Id suggest a laptop. I can only imagine the condition of your poor eyeballs

[nj1266]

This is what I am getting. Similar to what I used to get on my iPhone 4, although this one has LTE. I am happy with 27 hours between charges.

[washburn]

i am getting 4 and a half to 5 hours max on my iPhone 5 with brightness at 85 and some youtube/safari/email...basically like 20% of battery per hour is this normal?

it does seem to drain quick

[Nightarchaon]

Originally Posted by Sir Ruben

My god you ARE a heavy user. I read your post and feel sorry for you having to look at a smartphone screen all day, thats awful. Id suggest a laptop. I can only imagine the condition of your poor eyeballs

I know, but i cant fit a laptop on the train (there is barley enough room for a smartphone on my daily commute, talk about sardines)

I am hoping the iPad mini Retina in the new year to fit the bill for me

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
I am still observing around a 2-3% dropoff overnight since exchanging iP5's. This is nothing short of astonishing as prior I would drop around 20%.
J

[chrscap]

LTE, location, auto brightness and 1 hour push notifications.

[drummingcraig]

Originally Posted by harpyeagle

If you have not already, I would turn off everything in the system services. Most of these here are optional - at least for me and no problems so far- I do not need features like "Genius for Apps" or "Location based iAds".

(settings->privacy->location services->system services)
Cell Network Search
Compass Calibration
Diagnostics & Usage
Genius for Apps
Location-Based iAds
Setting Time Zone
Traffic

This is the only customization that I've did so far since day 1 of my iphone5(> 6 weeks now) apart from restoring it from backup and has served me well;definitely better than ip4 - I usually get a standby time of 2 days with 8hrs/day on LTE and remaining on WiFi. I make a few calls and stream music over BT in my car. Notification is on with DoNoDisturb scheduled from 7pm-6am. My usage time is usually about 6-7hours for two days. imessage is on and so is "push" for yahoo and my work a/c over MS exchange.

Originally Posted by drummingcraig

This is very interesting. Just switched all of these off so we'll see how it affects my nattery life now. Thank you for that suggestion.

This absolutely, 100% made a huge difference for me!

Since my last full charge (which was yesterday morning) I still have 39% battery left, the usage indicator is showing that its been in use 5.5 hours since then and I have had the phone on a mix of LTE, wifi, 3G+ and several phone calls.

My only question is what specifically do all of those system services do and are any of them something I would want turned back on?

Great find though and this should be stickied right at the top of this thread for folks to try first if they're having issues.

[Motionblurrr]

Originally Posted by iapplelove

Well I was hoping I didn't have to contribute to this thread but I will,and my battery pretty much sucks .

Launch day iPhone 5, some times the battery is decent but most of the time I cannot get through a day. Not really heavy usage starting to become a hassle.

yup, I'm in the same boat as you. it was pretty good at first now it's just pretty crappy

[drummingcraig]

Originally Posted by Motionblurrr

yup, I'm in the same boat as you. it was pretty good at first now it's just pretty crappy

Check out my post above yours and the stuff another poster suggested turning off. Made a huge difference for me.

[ethan028]

Originally Posted by JS82712

Obviously he's lying, otherwise he would've uploaded a usage screenshot by now

Nah sorry, I'll upload in a few seconds.

[c613m]

No matter what, I'm still getting same battery life. Tried restoring, starting from scratch... and no difference.

At 58%, 1h50m usage (mostly browsing over LTE, listening to music 20mins, Simpsons Tap game for 15 mins), about 15 texts.

8 h 50mins standy.

I give up on trying to get better than this....

[Motionblurrr]

Originally Posted by drummingcraig

Check out my post above yours and the stuff another poster suggested turning off. Made a huge difference for me.

Do you have locations on after turning those off?

[drummingcraig]

Originally Posted by Motionblurrr

Do you have locations on after turning those off?

Yes, the apps that I granted ocation access to are still working. After doing some digging I came upon these descriptions of the System Services:

System Services - These low-level services provide many features to the iOS and apps.

Cell Network Search - Helps you locate 3G and 4G cellular networks to connect to.
Compass Calibration - Enables the iPhone's built-in compass to accurately locate you.
Diagnostics & Usage - Send data about your use of GPS features to Apple.
Genius for Apps - Helps the App Store recommend new apps based on others that you like.
Location-Based iAds - Uses your location to help apps deliver ads based on where you are.
Setting Time Zone - Automatically updates your phone's time zone based on its geographic location.
Traffic - Supplies information to the Maps app about traffic conditions based on where you are.

Status Bar Icon - Want to know when these services are accessing your location? Move this to On and you'll see an icon at the top of the screen when they are.

Based on this, I have turned back on Cell Network Search, Compass Calibration and Traffic for now. We'll see what impact that has.

[solo118]

Originally Posted by drummingcraig

Yes, the apps that I granted ocation access to are still working. After doing some digging I came upon these descriptions of the System Services:




Based on this, I have turned back on Cell Network Search, Compass Calibration and Traffic for now. We'll see what impact that has.

I have the same setup. I do not see how Traffic would be negative towards battery life if you do not use it often.

[harpyeagle]

Originally Posted by drummingcraig

This absolutely, 100% made a huge difference for me!

Since my last full charge (which was yesterday morning) I still have 39% battery left, the usage indicator is showing that its been in use 5.5 hours since then and I have had the phone on a mix of LTE, wifi, 3G+ and several phone calls.

My only question is what specifically do all of those system services do and are any of them something I would want turned back on?

Great find though and this should be stickied right at the top of this thread for folks to try first if they're having issues.

Glad it worked for you!

To me, there are only three important ones - cell n/w search, compass & timezone settings, but I am doing ok w/o them so far.

Cell n/w: I've noticed i am seamlessly switching from WiFi to LTE when i go out of my home, from LTE to 4g when i get into my office and from LTE back to WiFi when i get back home. I think this may matter when you are in a weak signal area where it may search a closer tower or something - just a guess, but luckily the signal strength here is not that bad. So no problem for me.

Compass: I did check my phone from icloud.com with this switched off and it still shows me the exact corner of the home I am in. So i am not sure where else this plays a part as i do not see any difference here.

Time Zone: This might matter when you travel internationally often or different time zones here in the US where it recognizes the zone you are in and displays the appropriate time there. I may scratch my head if i don't remember that I turned this off when i land in Pacific Time for example(I am in EST now), but hopefully i'll remember this option to turn it back on to get what i need.

Everything else: I do not have any second thoughts to turn them off.

Let us know how your battery life is doing now that you've turned back on a couple of these options.

[sppunk]

An update: turning off Siri has made a big impact, even moreso than turning off the features mentioned above.

[cameljockey]

What the hell?

I lost 20% over night... this is the second day in a row.

It happened after I made some changes reading from this thread.
I also downloaded 2 apps. Could there be a bug in one of them to cause this?

Thanks.

[rtr1985]

My experience--had terrible battery drain on two iPhone5, one iPhone4S, and an ipad3.

I wiped everything and set-up as new. This fixed the battery problems for all the devices. Usage stats are through the roof again without sacrificing convenient settings.

[dandan2300]

I'd love some help with my phone. I've tried everything. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbcsleu6mc8bz7i/2012-11-16%2019.21.00.png

[MattBookBower]

I'm not too sure about my battery.

It was 100% when I left for work this morning, listened to the radio for about 30 minutes and just general facebook browsing and texting.

Time since full charge is...

Usage - 1 hour 15 mins
Standby - 2 Hours 39 minutes

My battery is currently at 77%, is this correct or do I need to see a Genuis?

[Random 995K]

Originally Posted by MattBookBower

I'm not too sure about my battery.

It was 100% when I left for work this morning, listened to the radio for about 30 minutes and just general facebook browsing and texting.

Time since full charge is...

Usage - 1 hour 15 mins
Standby - 2 Hours 39 minutes

My battery is currently at 77%, is this correct or do I need to see a Genuis?

see a genius

[MattBookBower]

Originally Posted by Random 995K

see a genius

Thanks for the reply, but on what basis? I have posted in another thread and they are saying that amount of usage is normal?

I'm now down to...

Usage - 2 hours
Standby - 4 Hours 50 Minutes

The battery stands at 61%.

If others belive I might need to see a genius then understand.

Screen brightness is at around 40% and have only got a few things that have location services turned on...

[stoneland]

Originally Posted by MattBookBower

Thanks for the reply, but on what basis? I have posted in another thread and they are saying that amount of usage is normal?

I'm now down to...

Usage - 2 hours
Standby - 4 Hours 50 Minutes

The battery stands at 61%.

If others belive I might need to see a genius then understand.

Screen brightness is at around 40% and have only got a few things that have location services turned on...

This seems like fair usage to me. Some people are really hoping for 10+ usage on a single charge...but the fact is that if you USE your phone it's going to run the battery down. I get anywhere between 5-7 hours of usage before it drains completely.