iPhone 5 battery life [Merged]

[Ashukansal]

http://www.apple.com/ca/batteries/iphone.html

[Derek87]

After a couple weeks with my replacement iphone 5 (ATT), i can now say that my battery life is improved.

on the first run through i saw just about 8 hours of usage with 2 days of standby. this was at home over the weekend where i have stronger cellular signal.

during my normal work week where i have to remember to turn of LTE after my commute and entering my office (which has poor LTE penetration and 4G isn't that much better), i now see roughly 6-7 hours of usage with 2 days of standby.

this is with almost all notifications off, mail set to fetch manual, very few location services ever active, and most of my use is browsing/email on my commute (~2 hours total) over LTE/4G with occasional usage over Wifi at the office or home (1 hr per day)

this replacement phone is running 6.1.3. my old phone saw 4.5-5 hours over the same 2 days of standby, so this is an improvement for me.

[l.i. bruce fan]

Took my iPhone 5 to the Genius Bar for the 2nd time, as it died right in front of the genius he could not run a diagnostic but agreed the 5.25 hours of usage was not acceptable and offered to replace it with a refurb or swap the battery.

I was leaning towards swapping the battery but could not wait another 30-45 minutes that he said it would take.

What would you do? Take a refurb or swap the battery?

[henryonapple]

my batter is dying super quick, is the apple store usually pretty lenient about giving out new refurbs?

[l.i. bruce fan]

Originally Posted by henryonapple

my batter is dying super quick, is the apple store usually pretty lenient about giving out new refurbs?

Not anymore it seems, this was my 2nd or 3rd visit with the same complaint...

[henryonapple]

Originally Posted by l.i. bruce fan

Not anymore it seems, this was my 2nd or 3rd visit with the same complaint...

lame!!!!

[darkcoupon]

Yesterday after 3hrs and 40 minutes of usage and 12hrs, 56 minutes of standby my iPhone 5 battery was at 1%. This was all normal usage: browsing, emails, a few short calls, and a little facebooking. WiFi off, Auto Brightness off, LTE and BT on. I've never had issues with these settings for the entire 6 months I've had my phone until recently. While I was using it I could literally see the percentage ticking down. After only an hour of usage my battery was at 66%, I made a comment on a facebook post and by the time I hit the "post" button it was at 64%. And for whatever reason it would get extremely hot after using for only a few minutes for really basic tasks. This is a little ridiculous, I'll be taking my phone to the Apple store for a replacement ASAP. Seems like it's been like this ever since updating to 6.1.4

[hafr]

Originally Posted by darkcoupon

Yesterday after 3hrs and 40 minutes of usage and 12hrs, 56 minutes of standby my iPhone 5 battery was at 1%. This was all normal usage: browsing, emails, a few short calls, and a little facebooking. WiFi off, Auto Brightness off, LTE and BT on. I've never had issues with these settings for the entire 6 months I've had my phone until recently. While I was using it I could literally see the percentage ticking down. After only an hour of usage my battery was at 66%, I made a comment on a facebook post and by the time I hit the "post" button it was at 64%. And for whatever reason it would get extremely hot after using for only a few minutes for really basic tasks. This is a little ridiculous, I'll be taking my phone to the Apple store for a replacement ASAP. Seems like it's been like this ever since updating to 6.1.4

I've seen that happen before, the cause was an e-mail that was stuck in the outbox. So as soon as that e-mail account was added after a restore, the phone never stopped trying to send it. After having removed it from the outbox via the mail service's web client everything was back to normal. No matter how many replacements we would've gotten, it wouldn't have helped sine the problem didn't lie with the phone itself.

I'm not saying it's what happened to you, but it's well worth a look.

If you've got a mac, you can download Xcode (free), then open it, register your phone in the program (connect it and hit a button, no big deal) and open Instruments. In Instruments, you can (amongst other things) look at which processes are active, how much RAM they use, how much CPU etc (an activity monitor). Take a look and see if you notice anything out of the ordinary.

My experience with sudden battery drain is that it's almost always due to a software error that is easily fixable once the cause has been determined, so check it out if you feel like saving yourself a trip to the Apple Store.

[darkcoupon]

Originally Posted by hafr

I've seen that happen before, the cause was an e-mail that was stuck in the outbox. So as soon as that e-mail account was added after a restore, the phone never stopped trying to send it. After having removed it from the outbox via the mail service's web client everything was back to normal. No matter how many replacements we would've gotten, it wouldn't have helped sine the problem didn't lie with the phone itself.

I'm not saying it's what happened to you, but it's well worth a look.

If you've got a mac, you can download Xcode (free), then open it, register your phone in the program (connect it and hit a button, no big deal) and open Instruments. In Instruments, you can (amongst other things) look at which processes are active, how much RAM they use, how much CPU etc (an activity monitor). Take a look and see if you notice anything out of the ordinary.

My experience with sudden battery drain is that it's almost always due to a software error that is easily fixable once the cause has been determined, so check it out if you feel like saving yourself a trip to the Apple Store.

It seems to have been a temporary issue as I was able to use the phone for about the same amount of time the next day without any significant battery drain. I honestly think it's some underlying issue with 6.1.4 because I would never have problems with battery life before upgrading.

I did notice earlier today while checking email the phone started to get extremely hot again. I closed the 15ish apps that were running in the background and that seems to have fixed it...still, it seems a little strange for apps that don't truly "run" in the background to drain the battery that fast. Either way, I'll download Xcode and see if I can find anything out of the ordinary.

[hafr]

Originally Posted by darkcoupon

It seems to have been a temporary issue as I was able to use the phone for about the same amount of time the next day without any significant battery drain. I honestly think it's some underlying issue with 6.1.4 because I would never have problems with battery life before upgrading.

I did notice earlier today while checking email the phone started to get extremely hot again. I closed the 15ish apps that were running in the background and that seems to have fixed it...still, it seems a little strange for apps that don't truly "run" in the background to drain the battery that fast. Either way, I'll download Xcode and see if I can find anything out of the ordinary.

The app Carat in AppStore is pretty useful, open it once or twice per day, and after a while it'll tell you which apps are draining your battery. It also uses a huge database to cross check... You know what, I can't explain. Download and check it out

There have been reports of Facebook and Facebook messenger draining the battery quite aggressively, could be worth closing them after each use if you use them.

[beeinformed]

Originally Posted by hafr

The app Carat in AppStore is pretty useful, open it once or twice per day, and after a while it'll tell you which apps are draining your battery. It also uses a huge database to cross check... You know what, I can't explain. Download and check it out

There have been reports of Facebook and Facebook messenger draining the battery quite aggressively, could be worth closing them after each use if you use them.

Thanks for suggesting this app! My phone seems to be having some battery issues, so I think I'll try this app.