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Wrong. Look around, and stop spreading fud. People are losting 20%+ while they sleep, losing 30% or more in less than two hours. There is a definite problem with *some* phones. Mine's not one of them thankfully.

I'm pretty sure it's not some phones but rather the way some people are using them. I lost nearly 20% just a couple of hours while I was sleeping, so when I woke up I turned off my geo-fenced reminders and put it back on to charge. Now after a full day with plenty of Siri use, playing music via Bluetooth, etc. it's down just 30%.
 
i took mine off the charger at 11 am - 100%
a few calls through the day, some texts, siri, and a some words with friends moves. iCloud turned on, bluetooth off, brightness around 45% and email set to fetch every 30min.
as of 8:36pm I'm still at 79%
i couldn't be happier with this battery so far.
 
I'm pretty sure it's not some phones but rather the way some people are using them. I lost nearly 20% just a couple of hours while I was sleeping, so when I woke up I turned off my geo-fenced reminders and put it back on to charge. Now after a full day with plenty of Siri use, playing music via Bluetooth, etc. it's down just 30%.

This.

I have zero problems with battery life knowing what's running in the background and being conscious of the apps in the multitasking bar. The iPhone 4S has a superior battery to the iPhone 4, but it is more powerful as well, but the battery has been extremely good to me.
 
"Battery life left us slightly less impressed, however. After about two hours of wandering around town, shooting several dozen photos and about 10 minutes of HD video with each device, the iPhone 4S had just 30 percent of battery left. Its predecessor, the iPhone 4 offered much better performance in the battery department, finishing the shoot with 52 percent remaining, even though we also used that device to check email multiple times and make several phone calls. Despite its enormous 4.3-inch AMOLED display, the Galaxy SII took top prize, with 53 percent left when we returned to the office, while the Nokia N8 had 50 percent remaining. And what about HTC's new Amaze 4G? Our around-town photo session wasn't nearly as kind on that smartphone's battery, with just 29 percent left at the end of the shoot."

This is from Engadget. It's pretty clear this is a problem with the 4S.
Oh and all the people saying the bigger screen is a battery killer. Really? Not so much is it....
 
"Battery life left us slightly less impressed, however. After about two hours of wandering around town, shooting several dozen photos and about 10 minutes of HD video with each device, the iPhone 4S had just 30 percent of battery left. Its predecessor, the iPhone 4 offered much better performance in the battery department, finishing the shoot with 52 percent remaining, even though we also used that device to check email multiple times and make several phone calls. Despite its enormous 4.3-inch AMOLED display, the Galaxy SII took top prize, with 53 percent left when we returned to the office, while the Nokia N8 had 50 percent remaining. And what about HTC's new Amaze 4G? Our around-town photo session wasn't nearly as kind on that smartphone's battery, with just 29 percent left at the end of the shoot."

This is from Engadget. It's pretty clear this is a problem with the 4S.
Oh and all the people saying the bigger screen is a battery killer. Really? Not so much is it....

it shouldn't last as long. the battery is only slightly larger than the iphone 4 but it packs considerably more hardware such as the dual core chip and more advanced camera hardware/faster software and hd capture.
 
This is from Engadget. It's pretty clear this is a problem with the 4S.

How do you get to the conclusion from their article that it's a physical problem with the phone hardware? Not saying they didn't see what they saw, but you're claiming its an endemic problem and I'm curious how you justify that stance.

Read this: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13652385/

Just one example of a major difference made due to setup. No, restoring a backup shouldn't cause that kind of problem, but clearly in that case the cause was not the 4S as much as the restore/setup from the previous OS.

I'm not saying some people might now have hardware based problems, I'm sure there are some. However with four million units sold we'd see a much different landscape on MacRumors if this were a common problem.
 
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nippyjun said:
The battery is fine. People are just using the heck out of their new toy.

In my case, I have to disagree with you. I've not played with this new toy very much at all and my battery has been aweful. I have noticed that it has been really warm in the back glass directly behind the processor. This has been with nothing open. I think there is an internal process running (software) causing this issue. I'm just glad I'm a rare exception. It means there is a chance of it correcting itself over time!

Also of note, I did a backup from iCloud from my old iP4 which ran smooth as butter. I'm hopeful a few recharge cycles will correct this issue.
 
@CosmoPilot: see the post I referenced. Also try deleting apps one by one to see if there's one messing you up. I notice if I leave Speedtest.net app running it keeps the GPS fully on and sucks down the battery while warming up the back. Otherwise my battery is fine relative to the 4 I had before.
 
Hardware? Where did I say anything about HW?
I'm just posting more proof this is in fact an issue.
Search battery in these forums. You'll find like 10 threads complaining about battery life...
 
The battery problem is not from over use of the new phone for some of us. I have a 16GB AT&T model that has been run with no apps on it after a fresh restore and I am losing 20% or more an hour with all apps closed. I have an appointment with the genius bar tomorrow.
 
I think the battery issues stem from IOS5 not the hardware. My Verizon iPhone 4 is using more battery than it was before I upgraded. I have turned off most of the push/location services and it is using more. Unfortunately, that is just based on observation not actual pre/post IOS5 testing.
 
I think it's both hilarious and typically hypocritical of iPhone lovers to bash Android over battery life, then ignore it with Apple.

Flip flopping like a bad politician is so typical of fanbois.

To the question, I had planned on upgrading if Apple brought out the iPhone 5.

In lieu of that, I will pass on the 4S since it has no appeal and happily wait for the next iPhone.

Sadly it's to the point where Apple can sell anything is massive quantities with the drones in lock step.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a very loyal Apple enthusiast and spent tens of thousands on their gear, I've got the latest MBA, MBP, Mac Pro & more.

But I'm not an Apple lemming. I do my own thinking and speak very positively when Apple has done the exemplary work I know they're capable of. Conversely when they don't I call them on that.
 
So basically this "issue" is being raised but really will not impede purchase of the device or spur returns. It is just one item to discuss at length as we do after every major release. The antenna issue was not a problem for me as I make very few calls on my phone. Battery life (as a data hog) is an issue which is why I raised the question. Apple has always had pretty good batt life and I would think that if this is remotely true can be fixed with software update as I do think iOS 5 combined with the faster A5 chip is causing some of this.

My iphone 4 has been using battery and I think it is because of apps continuing to run in background for notifications even when they are closed and not in the multi-tasking bar. Plus cloud and wifi sync probably needs more optimization to help battery life.

----------

The battery problem is not from over use of the new phone for some of us. I have a 16GB AT&T model that has been run with no apps on it after a fresh restore and I am losing 20% or more an hour with all apps closed. I have an appointment with the genius bar tomorrow.

Apps are not really closed. In the iOS 5.0 forum i started a thread showing how AIM still runs and sends me notifications even though it is "closed" and not in the multitasking bar
 
The battery issue didnt prevent me from getting the phone, but it does prevent me from using it the way I'd like to.

~I cant use it as my point and shoot because 20shots took nearly 20%
~I had to disable most location services in order to last the day so no GPS
~I stopped encouraging my friends to do "Find my Friends"
~I took off 70% of my apps because I dont know which are battery intensive
~I might have to disable Siri because it seems she's drinking a lot of juice
 
I think the battery issues stem from IOS5 not the hardware. My Verizon iPhone 4 is using more battery than it was before I upgraded. I have turned off most of the push/location services and it is using more. Unfortunately, that is just based on observation not actual pre/post IOS5 testing.

I think this is the case. Once I upgraded my iPhone 4 to iOS5, my battery started suffering a bit. My iPhone 4S is performing roughly the same. I can unplug the phone around 6am and it will last until about midnight with moderate use - few phone calls, text, surfing and streaming Spotify on my commute. Also, I've noticed when I'm in area with strong signal, my battery will last a very long time, but in my office where I get only one or two bars, the battery will drain a lot faster. The battery still performs better than all the other smartphones I tried out this summer (Samsung Focus, Infuse 4G, and Motorola Atrix). I was charging those phones by 3pm constantly. But again, I think this is a software issue more than hardware. This always seems to be the case with iOS updates, one or two releases will drain batteries which usually gets fixed with an update...
 
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