9+ Hours of Standby @ 100% battery

[Namji]

I am coming from a iPhone 4 ( no experience with 4S or a 5 ) and I've been reading on here about all the horrible battery life on their iPhone 5 and 5S.

Maybe its because I am used to the very horrible battery usage on my iP4 but to me.. I think the iPhone 5S has excellent battery usage..

Last night approx. at 9 PM my iPhone 5S was fully charged at 100%... I unplugged the phone laid it next to my night stand and went to bed early.

I woke up this morning at 6 AM and to my surprise.. I am still at 100%.

On my iPhone 4 in this same scenario, I would be at around 90% to 93%. I am impressed..

Does everyone else with a iPhone 5S have the same experience?

 

[Davejprince]

Was airplane mode turned on?

 

[Namji]

Was airplane mode turned on?

no... it was in normal LTE mode... as you see it now in my screen shot.
Unplugged and laid next to my bed stand... room temperature was about 72 degrees Fahrenheit if you want to get technical

 

[gnasher729]

I woke up this morning at 6 AM and to my surprise.. I am still at 100%.

On my iPhone 4 in this same scenario, I would be at around 90% to 93%. I am impressed..

Apple displays "100%" some time before the battery is absolutely full. That's because the last few percent take ages, and there are people who won't pick up their phone unless it is 100% charged. So two phones, both showing 100%, can have different charges. (Like your car, where the tank is hundred percent full but you can still squeeze in a litre or two or three. And when the display is on "empty", you can still drive quite a distance).

Still, looks like it is wasting less energy in standby.

 

[Namji]

Apple displays "100%" some time before the battery is absolutely full. That's because the last few percent take ages, and there are people who won't pick up their phone unless it is 100% charged. So two phones, both showing 100%, can have different charges. (Like your car, where the tank is hundred percent full but you can still squeeze in a litre or two or three. And when the display is on "empty", you can still drive quite a distance).

Still, looks like it is wasting less energy in standby.

gnasher729, I understand that... However.. I was expecting the indicator to be at 95% at the most by morning... ( 9+ hours of standby )..

At 9:00 AM and I am still at 100%... have not really touched the phone except for reading 3 emails.. not touched any apps or other functions of the phone.. going to see how long until it drops to 99%

Edit: at 9:11 AM I have 99%

 

[dotme]

I'm seeing phenomenal battery life too. I've had the 3GS, 4, 4S, 5 and now 5S

All were "decent" but the 5S so far for me has been astonishingly good.

 

[RodThePlod]

I've found that the standby performance on my 5s is also very good. Yesterday morning before I left for work at around 8.20am I unplugged and had a 100% charge.

When I finished work around 6.30 that evening, my 5s was still at 94%

Granted, I had been using txt/sms and Whatsapp primarily as opposed to actually making phone calls, but I was still impressed by the frugal use of power.

RTP.

 

[dave420]

I had to turn LTE off to get good standby time. Before that I was losing battery very fast. My battery seems to meet my expectations now. I guess I have weak LTE coverage.
A lot of people weren't very helpful on this forum either. I said I was losing 40% battery over seven hours of standby time and five different posters told me to just plug my phone in. Big help

 

[Fedmahn Kassad]

OP, do you mind sharing with us some of your settings? There's no way one can achieve that kind of battery life with all the default settings on.

For reference, the first day I got my 5S, it went from full to ~80% overnight. It's been improving steadily, and I recently turned off a bunch of features I don't use and saw a noticeable improvement.

Another anecdotal data point: my iPhone 4 also had ridiculously good battery life, but I only achieved that after about 6mos to a full year of ownership. The best battery times I got were around the 1-year mark, and I remember getting 1.5 days with moderate use (at my job).

So I think that battery life varies with how long you've owned/used the device, as well as with what settings you're using.

 

[Menel]

I am coming from a iPhone 4 ( no experience with 4S or a 5 ) and I've been reading on here about all the horrible battery life on their iPhone 5 and 5S.

Maybe its because I am used to the very horrible battery usage on my iP4 but to me.. I think the iPhone 5S has excellent battery usage..

Last night approx. at 9 PM my iPhone 5S was fully charged at 100%... I unplugged the phone laid it next to my night stand and went to bed early.

I woke up this morning at 6 AM and to my surprise.. I am still at 100%.

On my iPhone 4 in this same scenario, I would be at around 90% to 93%. I am impressed..

Does everyone else with a iPhone 5S have the same experience?

It all depends on your settings, and signal strength in your bedroom for how hard the transceivers have to drive to maintain connection.

I wouldn't be surprised to get that out of my 5 or my iPad 3 for example. They have incredibly long standby battery life.

 

[Namji]

OP, do you mind sharing with us some of your settings? There's no way one can achieve that kind of battery life with all the default settings on.

For reference, the first day I got my 5S, it went from full to ~80% overnight. It's been improving steadily, and I recently turned off a bunch of features I don't use and saw a noticeable improvement.

Another anecdotal data point: my iPhone 4 also had ridiculously good battery life, but I only achieved that after about 6mos to a full year of ownership. The best battery times I got were around the 1-year mark, and I remember getting 1.5 days with moderate use (at my job).

So I think that battery life varies with how long you've owned/used the device, as well as with what settings you're using.

Sure.. what kind of settings specifically?
I had my phone in I guess sleep mode ( not sure what the technical term would be ) the entire time I was sleeping..
As you can see from the screen shot the Bluetooth was enabled.. (it stays enabled 24/7). I did have DND on from 10:30 PM to 6:00 AM. I've had my phone since October 18th and I've charged it overnight every night except for last night. I wanted to see how long my battery would last in standby mode.

Not sure what else I can share with you.

 

[Fedmahn Kassad]

Sure.. what kind of settings specifically?
I had my phone in I guess sleep mode ( not sure what the technical term would be ) the entire time I was sleeping..
As you can see from the screen shot the Bluetooth was enabled.. (it stays enabled 24/7). I did have DND on from 10:30 PM to 6:00 AM. I've had my phone since October 18th and I've charged it overnight every night except for last night. I wanted to see how long my battery would last in standby mode.

Not sure what else I can share with you.

That's insane lol. If I turn on blutooth on any device - not just my 5S - its battery life will plummet. That said I definitely have BT turned off. Perhaps I'll run a battery life test similar to this and see how it goes; last I did this was the day I got the phone, so perhaps calibration and my own settings will affect it.

Edit: perhaps it helps that you aren't (seemingly) doing iCloud backups? My phone is completely hooked up to iCloud - itunes match, mail calendar contacts, Find my iPhone, etc - so perhaps the extra activity is burdensome to the phone.

 

[Namji]

That's insane lol. If I turn on blutooth on any device - not just my 5S - its battery life will plummet. That said I definitely have BT turned off. Perhaps I'll run a battery life test similar to this and see how it goes; last I did this was the day I got the phone, so perhaps calibration and my own settings will affect it.

Edit: perhaps it helps that you aren't (seemingly) doing iCloud backups? My phone is completely hooked up to iCloud - itunes match, mail calendar contacts, Find my iPhone, etc - so perhaps the extra activity is burdensome to the phone.

I am not utilizing iCloud at the moment. the 5 gb is not enough to backup my phone anyhow. As you can see from the screenshot my icloud storage is 5 gb available.

 

[jassco2]

Same experience here as OP with background apps turned off. It won't drop to 99% after a charge unless I do a few text or browser of course. It drops a percent every few minutes when in use on LTE which is expected an a new phone.

I see most people tend to expect a new stock phone with default settings to get better life then their older phone that has everything turned off for battery savings. With everything on I can see people complaining of battery life, but it is to be expected. Some of the phones people are comparing it to have 2000mAh+ batteries and with their increased sizes they will get longer life in most cases.

I only have background apps and reduce motion turned on (which shouldn't effect the sleep use). It doesn't matter if I set myself on wifi or LTE it seems to be the same. Enjoying it while it lasts.

 

[Namji]

I only have background apps and reduce motion turned off (which shouldn't effect the sleep use). It doesn't matter if I set myself on wifi or LTE it seems to be the same. Enjoying it while it lasts.

This is my thoughts as well.. as long as the phone is in sleep mode / standby mode.. the internal settings would not matter? Or would it?

Regardless.. my settings are not unique.. at least I do not think it is..
I can do a screenshot of my current settings if anyone wants to see.


I read many threads on people complaining about battery life and I was just curious to know why..

 

[jassco2]

Notifications for apps still get pushed if the phone is in sleep, so this would make sense as it is the only thing going on during the screen being off. It has to awake to show the notification and that turns on the screen for a moment too. Notifications other then text messages just aren't as important to me as it is to others, so I enjoy the longer battery. Everything has sacrifice and everyone has a preference.

 

[Namji]

Notifications for apps still get pushed if the phone is in sleep, so this would make sense as it is the only thing going on during the screen being off. It has to awake to show the notification and that turns on the screen for a moment too. Notifications other then text messages just aren't as important to me as it is to others, so I enjoy the longer battery. Everything has sacrifice and everyone has a preference.

I am not so sure but I need to test it... I have do not disturb on between 10:30 PM to 6:00 AM so I don't think my device will wake up even for any emails or texts.

 

[cynics]

100% is the longest one. After that it drops fast. For example I can get 6 hours of usage typically. If I did what you did I'd be lucky to get 4-5 hours. It just lingers at 100%.

Glad to see your experiencing better battery then you did with your 4. The 4's battery was probably worn quite a bit.

 

[eecyclone]

I have been happy with the battery in my 5S. I have owned the 4S, 5, and now 5S. Each iteration has held its battery life progressively longer. Even more so as the novelty of the new device wears off and it sits idle more.

 

[Namji]

Yesterday I had the same exact experience...

This morning upon waking up I saw this..

10+ Hours of standby and only lost 1% in battery usage.

This is outstanding in my opinion.. especially compared to my old iPhone

 

[MikeDee]

Notifications for apps still get pushed if the phone is in sleep, so this would make sense as it is the only thing going on during the screen being off. It has to awake to show the notification and that turns on the screen for a moment too. Notifications other then text messages just aren't as important to me as it is to others, so I enjoy the longer battery. Everything has sacrifice and everyone has a preference.

I don't believe notifications turn on the screen.

 

[jassco2]

I don't believe notifications turn on the screen.

It could be a setting, but whatever are default on the 5s I have. When my screen is off and someone texts me the screen lights up (dim but visible) and I can see the notification bar with the text at the top. The screen then goes back to off after a few seconds. This is what I was referring to as screen on. Some small amount of battery to light up the display repeatably. Also the sound is played. I assume if you get a fury of texts and notification all day it will drain your battery even if you never pick up your phone using the stock settings.

 

[AlexSykes]

I have a feeling the M7 chip is to thank to some extent, I noticed with the iPhone 5S I had that it stays at a higher percentage overnight compared to my old iPhone, and apparently it's because the M7 coprocessor detects when the phone is stationary and presumes youre asleep so doesn't bother to attempt to get a better cellular signal, etc.

 

[*~Kim~*]

Mine lost ~15% in the night last night but it was yesterday that I got it so I will give it a little longer before I start worrying.

 

[suprakc]

Same Here

I have noticed the same thing. I chuckle every time someone whines about battery life, they are full of crap.

I don't know about 9 hours of standby for me... I have everything on at all times - bluetooth, iCloud backups, alternating between WiFi and Cellular data... and I have noticed on a few occasions that, when I unplug my phone at about 5 AM, I leave it alone until about 9-10 AM and it is always at either 100% or 99%.

I plug it in every night at around Midnight showing between 40-70% remaining, depending on usage. I try to completely cycle the battery (drained) at least once a month - which usually takes two full days of moderate usage.