How do I improve my battery life?

Mr. RPG · Dec 11, 2012, 11:44 AM

At 100% my iPhone 5/ battery lasts only about 3.5 hours in extended use

What are ways to make if last longer?

ant the ninja · Dec 11, 2012, 11:50 AM

What do you mean by "exended use"?

syd430 · Dec 11, 2012, 11:59 AM

Set brightness to lowest possible without it becoming uncomfortable. Mine is at around 20% in most indoor situations. Turn off LTE if you don't really need the extra speed. Turn off bluetooth when not in use. Use wifi as much as possible.

ferganer · Dec 11, 2012, 12:34 PM

Disable push/data fetch and notifications for stuff you don't want. Turn off connections (BT, Wi-Fi, LTE) you are not using. Disable location services. Set brightness lower. Restart every once in a while.

In any case, 3.5 hours even of "extended use" sounds abnormally low to me.

Apple fanboy · Dec 11, 2012, 12:39 PM

Drain your battery until it is completely dead and then charge it up fully. I use my iPhone a lot and never had such a poor usage. It could be faulty. Is it in warranty? Why not make an appointment at the apple store?

Ballis · Dec 11, 2012, 12:40 PM

I dunno if this is possible with the US iPhone where you can toggle LTE off, but with my european one, I can toggle 3G off, leaving only Edge on. Granted, its dead slow, but battery life is just insanely good this way (can use the phone extensively for a day and still have 50% battery left).

Ive got push mail on, wifi on, location services on, bt off. and a fairly bright screen.

90miles · Dec 11, 2012, 12:45 PM

You can always check Apple's tips for battery usage here.

cruzmisl · Dec 11, 2012, 12:56 PM

I don't see how anyone could have issues with battery life on this phone, unless they actually use it all day and nothing else.

jokemjokester · Dec 11, 2012, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syd430

Set brightness to lowest possible without it becoming uncomfortable. Mine is at around 20% in most indoor situations. Turn off LTE if you don't really need the extra speed. Turn off bluetooth when not in use. Use wifi as much as possible.

These two would probably be the most important factor. If you use your phone heavily, I would too would recommend not using LTE and try being on wifi as much as possible.

FlatlinerG · Dec 11, 2012, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 90miles

You can always check Apple's tips for battery usage here.

This single link sums up this thread. Great post!

Megalobyte · 01:50 PM

3.5 hours usage isn't good. Unless you were using the camera the whole time or heavy gaming, sounds like something is wrong.

The worst I ever get is 7, as high as 10.5 if I stream music for an hour or 2. On average I get 8 hours of pretty heavy use, in fact it's nearly impossible, or at least very rare for me to get from 100% to 0 in one day. I actually did yesterday, but I was up until 3 am, my stats were 10.5 usage, 17 standby, about 1.5 hours was BT streaming music. Normally I end a day with anywhere from 15-35% left, and 4-6 hours use. The 5 IMO has the best battery life of any iPhone, including the 4. Plus, pretty amazing they accomplished this while making the phone so fast and powerful.

That's not to say everybody is getting great battery life, clearly some aren't. Hey, my wifi isn't quite 100%, but I'm afraid to swap for fear I get a 5 hour battery life phone.

Always a trade off it seems. I'd rather deal with minor wifi issues and hope for an update than take a chance on losing the great battery life.

I think the OP has a bad battery or an app/process that's misbehaving. 3.5 isn't acceptable from this phone.

metsjetsfan · Dec 11, 2012, 01:58 PM

There is almost no way you can significantly increase your battery life there might be some mail settings you could tweak but that is about it. It is what it is, you maybe able to squeeze an extra 15 min or so here or there but there is no way to really tell since it is almost impossible to duplicate the same usage in the real world usage. You can do constant netflix streaming but that is not a real use case(for most), even then you could be getting tons of email or notifications.

This is assuming you don't have some type of faulty battery

unagimiyagi · Dec 11, 2012, 02:17 PM

Battery life streaming video is better than the iphone 4, but that's about it. It's probably a bit worse overall for me. Of course, the performance is 8 times as fast so I can't complain except for the ridiculous price of non-existent lightning accessories.

Neverbepeace · Dec 11, 2012, 04:18 PM

Not sure if this is significant, but I find that turning off iMessage, increases battery life a lot. Took phone off charger at 615am and it's at 41% 11 hours later. Lots of text.....some browsing.....2 hours of talk......does iMessage really suck that much battery?

Dec 11, 2012, 11:44 AM	#1
Mr. RPG macrumors 6502 Join Date: Sep 2012	How do I improve my battery life? At 100% my iPhone 5/ battery lasts only about 3.5 hours in extended use What are ways to make if last longer?
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 12:39 PM	#5
Apple fanboy macrumors 65816 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom	Drain your battery until it is completely dead and then charge it up fully. I use my iPhone a lot and never had such a poor usage. It could be faulty. Is it in warranty? Why not make an appointment at the apple store? __________________ Late 2012 21" iMac 2.9GHz i5, ITB Fusion drive, 16GB RAM, 2 TB TimeCapsule, iPhone 5 32GB, iPad 4 32GB, iPad 2 16GB, apple TV 2, iPod touch 4th gen 8GB, Xbox 360 120GB. Macrumors Scavenger Hunt IV 2
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 12:45 PM	#7
90miles macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2012	You can always check Apple's tips for battery usage here. __________________ Base 15" rMBP iPad 2 32GB+3G iPhone 5 16GB iPod Classic 80GB (5th gen)
	1

Dec 11, 2012, 01:43 PM	#11
Megalobyte macrumors 6502a Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Florida	3.5 hours usage isn't good. Unless you were using the camera the whole time or heavy gaming, sounds like something is wrong. The worst I ever get is 7, as high as 10.5 if I stream music for an hour or 2. On average I get 8 hours of pretty heavy use, in fact it's nearly impossible, or at least very rare for me to get from 100% to 0 in one day. I actually did yesterday, but I was up until 3 am, my stats were 10.5 usage, 17 standby, about 1.5 hours was BT streaming music. Normally I end a day with anywhere from 15-35% left, and 4-6 hours use. The 5 IMO has the best battery life of any iPhone, including the 4. Plus, pretty amazing they accomplished this while making the phone so fast and powerful. That's not to say everybody is getting great battery life, clearly some aren't. Hey, my wifi isn't quite 100%, but I'm afraid to swap for fear I get a 5 hour battery life phone. Always a trade off it seems. I'd rather deal with minor wifi issues and hope for an update than take a chance on losing the great battery life. I think the OP has a bad battery or an app/process that's misbehaving. 3.5 isn't acceptable from this phone. Last edited by Megalobyte; Dec 11, 2012 at 01:50 PM.
	0

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Dec 11, 2012, 11:50 AM	#2
ant the ninja macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2012	What do you mean by "exended use"?
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 11:59 AM	#3
syd430 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Australia	Set brightness to lowest possible without it becoming uncomfortable. Mine is at around 20% in most indoor situations. Turn off LTE if you don't really need the extra speed. Turn off bluetooth when not in use. Use wifi as much as possible.
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 12:34 PM	#4
ferganer macrumors newbie Join Date: Dec 2012	Disable push/data fetch and notifications for stuff you don't want. Turn off connections (BT, Wi-Fi, LTE) you are not using. Disable location services. Set brightness lower. Restart every once in a while. In any case, 3.5 hours even of "extended use" sounds abnormally low to me.
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 12:40 PM	#6
Ballis macrumors 6502 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Oslo, Norway	I dunno if this is possible with the US iPhone where you can toggle LTE off, but with my european one, I can toggle 3G off, leaving only Edge on. Granted, its dead slow, but battery life is just insanely good this way (can use the phone extensively for a day and still have 50% battery left). Ive got push mail on, wifi on, location services on, bt off. and a fairly bright screen.
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 12:56 PM	#8
cruzmisl macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2012	I don't see how anyone could have issues with battery life on this phone, unless they actually use it all day and nothing else.
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 01:58 PM	#12
metsjetsfan macrumors 6502 Join Date: Feb 2011	There is almost no way you can significantly increase your battery life there might be some mail settings you could tweak but that is about it. It is what it is, you maybe able to squeeze an extra 15 min or so here or there but there is no way to really tell since it is almost impossible to duplicate the same usage in the real world usage. You can do constant netflix streaming but that is not a real use case(for most), even then you could be getting tons of email or notifications. This is assuming you don't have some type of faulty battery
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 02:17 PM	#13
unagimiyagi macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2009	Battery life streaming video is better than the iphone 4, but that's about it. It's probably a bit worse overall for me. Of course, the performance is 8 times as fast so I can't complain except for the ridiculous price of non-existent lightning accessories.
	0

Dec 11, 2012, 04:18 PM	#14
Neverbepeace macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2009	Not sure if this is significant, but I find that turning off iMessage, increases battery life a lot. Took phone off charger at 615am and it's at 41% 11 hours later. Lots of text.....some browsing.....2 hours of talk......does iMessage really suck that much battery?
	0