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iPhone 5 Battery Life May Be Impacted Greatly by Cellular Signal Strength

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Deep in its lengthy review of the iPhone 5, iLounge has performed an analysis on the battery life of the iPhone 5. The site tested the device under a number of conditions, including both cellular and Wi-Fi web browsing, voice calls, FaceTime calls, video recording, and video and audio playback.

iphone5battery.jpg



The phone performed fairly well but iLounge found battery life struggled when transferring cellular data or making voice calls, which they speculated was due to a weak signal:
if you're using your iPhone 5 in places a with a very strong (4- to 5-bar) LTE or 3G signal, your cellular battery life may approach that number, but if not, the cellular antenna will struggle to maintain a signal, and fall well short. Because LTE and 3G/4G towers are in a state of build-out flux right now, our tests suggest that many LTE users won't come close to Apple's promised numbers.
Click to expand...
iphone5batterytesting.jpg



iLounge has the detailed results on its battery testing in its iPhone 5 review, but unsurprisingly, mileage will vary greatly depending on a number of factors including health of the battery, signal strength, screen brightness, and other considerations.

Article Link: iPhone 5 Battery Life May Be Impacted Greatly by Cellular Signal Strength
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/26/iphone-battery-life-greatly-impacted-by-cellular-signal-strength/
T

technopimp

macrumors 6502a
Aug 12, 2009
645
219
Even doing "nothing" (phone is locked, etc.) on AT&T's 4G network (no LTE here yet) I've been losing 1-2% every few minutes. Once I switch to WiFi it goes back to normal. Hope this improves.
 
wlossw

wlossw

macrumors 65816
May 9, 2012
1,109
1,164
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Battery life is definitely worse than my iPhone 4 for comparable usage. I am on Rogers in Montreal, quebec, and am often on 2-3 LTE bars.

Hopefully the run time will improve as network coverage is expanded, and hopefully that will be soon.
 
bushido

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
lol what is LTE? i'm getting 2 bars of edge at my parents place if i'm lucky :D cannot wait to go back to uni and the real world soon
 
G51989

G51989

macrumors 68030
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
Newsflash.

ALL Cellphones, even dumbphones are affected by signal strength, the weaker the signal, the phone has to boost power to the radio to maintain a connection.

Turn on Airplane mode on pretty much any dumb or smart phone, you'd be amazed how long the battery lasts without having to power the radio, I did that with my old Samsung Replenish Android Phone after I got my S3, I think with airplane mode on, it lasted almost a week before it died, my old 3GS would go almost a week to.

In other news, the pope is catholic.
 
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S

StealthGhost

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2010
131
0
Manufacturers love to BS the numbers

Little over 4 hours seems pretty poor, but obviously you'd have to compare it to other devices. Maybe WiMax takes less power or something because there's no way I could kill my phone in 4 hours, even HBO 4g streaming I watched 3 hours and still had 40% one time.
 
C

CIA

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2003
656
460
This might explain my battery issue. While home ("4G" AT&T, not LTE area) I get full signal and the battery (now conditioned twice) works great finally.

This past weekend I was hiking all day Sunday in a marginal coverage area and the phone barely lasted 6 hours.

Home (good signal) it's gone 2 days now without needing a charge.
 
B

BMNB1tch

macrumors regular
Jan 20, 2009
135
0
can't you see
whats the point of LTE if
you dont have a Battery
will software fix this
broken technology?
 
adcx64

adcx64

macrumors 65816
Nov 17, 2008
1,270
124
Philadelphia
This is my first iPhone, and I'm really satisfied with my battery life. Albeit I'm on WiFi most of the time, I managed 12 hours on and off. LTE somewhat degrades my battery life, but it is by no means bad. Props to Apple.
 
FSMBP

FSMBP

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,712
2,623
technopimp said:
Even doing "nothing" (phone is locked, etc.) on AT&T's 4G network (no LTE here yet) I've been losing 1-2% every few minutes. Once I switch to WiFi it goes back to normal. Hope this improves.
Click to expand...

That's weird. Doesn't iPhone switch to cellular data when locked, regardless if Wi-Fi is enabled (when all background tasks are complete that is)?
 
K

koppie644

macrumors regular
Oct 4, 2011
132
1
Of course. The signal is displayed as weak when you are relatively far from the base station or subject to shadowing. At the same time, your cell phone has to transmit more power to upload any information, which leads to lower battery life.
 
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StellarZ

macrumors member
Feb 25, 2008
76
1
AZ
I've been exactly opposite. I switched from an iPhone 4 and with my use I was getting around 8 hours. Been approaching upwards of 15 with the iPhone 5. I do stream music and video via Airplay for around 50% of my daily use.
 
DirtySocks85

DirtySocks85

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2009
1,441
82
Wichita, KS
Is anyone surprised here? I've seen dramatic differences in battery life correlating to cell signal since I got my iPhone 3G in '08. For that matter, cell radios working harder significantly reduced batteries in old basic Nokia phones 15 years ago. Something about mountains being made of molehills comes to
mind.
 
TG1

TG1

macrumors 6502a
Feb 21, 2011
591
51
Even my Razr Maxx will peter out around lunch time because our signal strength is absolutely atrocious at work (constantly waffles between 0 and 1 bar). Phones boost power whenever signal strength is poor. Nothing new here.
 
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2

2bikes

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2012
420
4
My iPhone5 battery lasts much longer than my 4S. And my usage location, times and style has not changed.
 
GFLPraxis

GFLPraxis

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,152
460
My battery life on my iPhone 5 has been incredibly poor. I even turned LTE off yesterday and fully charged it overnight, and I'm halfway through my work day and down to 47%. I have only done texting and Facebook messenger.
 
T

technopimp

macrumors 6502a
Aug 12, 2009
645
219
FSMBP said:
That's weird. Doesn't iPhone switch to cellular data when locked, regardless if Wi-Fi is enabled (when all background tasks are complete that is)?
Click to expand...

The example I'm giving is when I am on cellular data (not on a WiFi network). At lunch, in a so-so coverage area, I lost 15% in an hour. It was locked in my pocket. At home, overnight, I lose about 3%.
 
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