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5s battery life: what do you get?

JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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May 15, 2014
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I'm curious what kind of battery life people are getting on their 5s with iOS 8.
I seem to be getting around 4-6 hours on a charge, doing email, messaging, phone calls, web, music, and other standard phone tasks. Is this about normal, or is there something messed up?
Thanks,
JerTheGeek
 
M

MattMJB0188

macrumors 68020
Dec 28, 2009
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JerTheGeek said:
I'm curious what kind of battery life people are getting on their 5s with iOS 8.
I seem to be getting around 4-6 hours on a charge, doing email, messaging, phone calls, web, music, and other standard phone tasks. Is this about normal, or is there something messed up?
Thanks,
JerTheGeek
Click to expand...

I get about double that, but of course I wasn't foolish enough to update it past iOS 7.1.2.
 
JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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May 15, 2014
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MattMJB0188 said:
I get about double that, but of course I wasn't foolish enough to update it past iOS 7.1.2.
Click to expand...

Yeah but it's now on 8.1, so any battery issue bugs should be fixed by now, and iOS 8 was designed for newer models.
 
Count Blah

Count Blah

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After getting burnt with < 66.67% less battery life taking my 4s to iOS 7, my 5s is staying on 7.1.2 as long as possible. Insane battery life on my 5s, and I'm not giving that up.
 
W

Woochifer

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Apr 22, 2007
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5-7 hours is my typical battery life (presuming that the indicator is somewhat linear, since I don't normally drain the battery all the way). Of course, if I was playing certain games, then it could go as low as 2 hours. If I switch off the cellular antenna, then I can go closer to 8 or 9 hours. And in Airplane Mode, I can push 10 hours if I'm just reading e-books or listening to music files. And the brightness, background modes, location services, and other settings all factor into the battery life as well.

I haven't noticed any change in the battery life with any iteration of iOS 8 on my 5s. The only time I did notice a change to the battery life was when iOS 7.1 came out, and switched the location services on in the background. Changing some of the settings helped restore some of the battery life after that update.

FWIW, my phone's at 78% with 1 1/2 hours usage and 11 hours standby. No different than how it's always been.

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MattMJB0188 said:
I get about double that, but of course I wasn't foolish enough to update it past iOS 7.1.2.
Click to expand...

You mean you're getting 8-10 hours on iOS 7.1.2? Interesting ... what was your battery life before iOS 7.1?
 
Last edited:
JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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So I guess my battery is around average?
Here is a screenshot of battery usage:
 

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JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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May 15, 2014
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lakaiordie said:
you're using safari and using youtube mostly. that sucks up a lot. your phone might last the day. but not if you keep watching youtube vids.
Click to expand...

YouTube usage isn't always watching. Often I check my view counts or reply to comments, since I run a channel. I watch the occasional video but not too often on my phone; I usually watch on my iPad instead.

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Woochifer said:
my phone's at 78% with 1 1/2 hours usage and 11 hours standby. No different than how it's always been.
Click to expand...


That seems to be about what I'm getting; 1-2 hours per 20%, which equates to 5-7 hours. I guess this really isn't that bad; I mean 5 hours of actually having the screen on is quite a lot of time to be using my iPhone throughout the day
 
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Woochifer

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Apr 22, 2007
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JerTheGeek said:
YouTube usage isn't always watching. Often I check my view counts or reply to comments, since I run a channel. I watch the occasional video but not too often on my phone; I usually watch on my iPad instead.

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That seems to be about what I'm getting; 1-2 hours per 20%, which equates to 5-7 hours. I guess this really isn't that bad; I mean 5 hours of actually having the screen on is quite a lot of time to be using my iPhone throughout the day
Click to expand...

The screen brightness makes a huge difference, as does your cellular coverage. When traveling into an area with weak cell service, the battery life on my phone goes way down.
 
JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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Anyone else have suggestions? Or do others also have the same 4-5 hour battery life?
 
mofunk

mofunk

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I can go about all day on a full charge. But like someone else said about Safari and Youtube… those aren't heavily used because for the most part I can use a third party app. For news and stuff Flipboard works fine. Youtube videos I will watch on my Mac or just limit my time on the youtube app to 10min.

Some days I will turn off my phone just so it can rest.

There are some apps I don't need to use on Cellular so I turn those off. Notifications are limited to a few apps. When I'm done with the apps I closed them. Brightness on the screen is turned down.
 
JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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mofunk said:
I can go about all day on a full charge. But like someone else said about Safari and Youtube… those aren't heavily used because for the most part I can use a third party app. For news and stuff Flipboard works fine. Youtube videos I will watch on my Mac or just limit my time on the youtube app to 10min.

Some days I will turn off my phone just so it can rest.

There are some apps I don't need to use on Cellular so I turn those off. Notifications are limited to a few apps. When I'm done with the apps I closed them. Brightness on the screen is turned down.
Click to expand...

I heard that closing apps can actually reduce battery life; cause every time you open an app, it uses more battery.
 
mofunk

mofunk

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Nope. That doesn't make sense. If you close an App its not running so how would it run down the battery. Why would it use more battery? It uses the same battery based on how long it takes to connect and how you are using it. Oh and how much processing the app is using.

You just need to play around with it. Check your settings and make sure some of the stuff is turned off or not running. Like Refreshing some apps that don't need to. I have Maps Refresh turned on just in case I need to make a u-turn or something.
 
JerTheGeek

JerTheGeek

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May 15, 2014
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mofunk said:
Nope. That doesn't make sense. If you close an App its not running so how would it run down the battery. Why would it use more battery? It uses the same battery based on how long it takes to connect and how you are using it. Oh and how much processing the app is using.

You just need to play around with it. Check your settings and make sure some of the stuff is turned off or not running. Like Refreshing some apps that don't need to. I have Maps Refresh turned on just in case I need to make a u-turn or something.
Click to expand...

Read this: http://www.scottyloveless.com/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain

it goes more in depth about why closing apps uses battery.

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Also, I noticed just now my battery went from 31% to like 23% in literally 3 minutes. Something seems to be abnormal here
 
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