Apple Boosts iPhone 5s Battery Capacity by 10%, iPhone 5c by 5% Over iPhone 5

[SgtPepper12]

Batteries desperately need some major technological improvements. Nothing happened in the last 10 years.

How many millions iPhone5 sold? Let's take 50.000.000

Let's think of an iPhone5 1 mm. thicker and 20 gr. heavier with better battery life

How many millions iPhone5 sold? The same 50.000.000, but with 49.999.999 happier customers

(minus 1 because there is always someone that has to say "that is enough for me")

I don't think it's that easy. Adding 1mm of thickness to the iPhone 5S will add a volume of 0.0073 liters. Current battery technology has an energy density of 300 Wh/l. That would add approximately 2 Wh to the battery, so you'd end up with 36% better capacity. Not only is that not really all that much, but it's also not as easy as making the phone bigger and filling the holes with battery. Phones do not only get thinner and thinner because it looks good, but also because electronics are basically two dimensional. As you can see in the images of the interior of the iPhone the engineers need to put battery and logic board side by side. That's because the electronics need to be in one layer (you can't just staple them) and need contact to the display and the back (because of heat dissipation). So yes, you could make the device 1mm thicker, but does that really give you space for more battery? It probably doesn't.

 

[iMcLovin]

It feels like battery life is put behind in priority, because everyone wants to be ahead of the competitors on cool stuff.

If apple said, here's the iphone 5s, nothing has changed, but we managed to push the battery life 300% I would feel it would be a breakthrough.

10% is nothing - especially since apple forgets to mention when its less battery life than a previous model. iphone 4 had much better batterylife and 3gs as well. It dropped ridiculously on the iphone 4s, and iphone5 has hardly made it any noticable better. So they are still behind what it used to be.

 

[Battlefield Fan]

They needed to increase it +15%

 

[street.cory]

Meh, nothing major. Motorola pushed their product's battery life to 24 hours.

This is definitely a feature Apple are holding out on, probably in order to glorify the iPhone 6 somehow when it comes out.

Motorola includes 8 hours of sleeping in that estimate.

Actually, according to geek.com around 10 hours of not using the phone overall.

This phone, like many others, will only get you to that 24 hour mark if 10 of those hours are spent never touching the phone.

 

[Brandon263]

I don't buy that, everyone I know with an iPhone 5, myself included, has lousy battery life. Before iOS 7 I got 5 hours of usage, after iOS 7 I get about 3-4 hours. Not only that, the battery bleeds out even when its asleep. This is true of everyone I know who has an iPhone 5.

That is very strange, me and my gf have never got less than 7 hours on our phones. And I've never had any of my friends complain that the iPhone 5 has a lousy battery. The 4S, yes, but not the 5.

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I thought it was just the British who had a sense of irony

I hope that comment was tongue in cheek...

Erm...l. It was. Wasn't it?

Shamefully, it wasn't... I'm not that smart...

 

[longofest]

Those standby times are a joke - all of them. The iPhone 4 had great battery life, but my iPhone 5 can barely last through the day barely being used - that's a far cry from 225 hours, so call me skeptical of even higher claims.

 

[Mike82]

I have to charge my iPhone 5 twice a day.

Really? That sucks. My three year old iPhone 4 still easily gets me through the day.

 

[ptb42]

I have to charge my iPhone 5 twice a day.

Get a case like the Mophie Juice Pack. It adds some bulk and weight, but if you have to charge mid-way through the day, you'll be much happier. I had one for my 4S, but have found that I don't usually need a mid-day charge for my 5.

I still need a charge occasionally late in the day when I'm getting on an airplane, after a full work day. But, I have my laptop with me on those days, and it has a USB port that is "live" even when the laptop is powered off. So, I use that to top off my iPhone battery if needed.

 

[lazard]

Those standby times are a joke - all of them. The iPhone 4 had great battery life, but my iPhone 5 can barely last through the day barely being used - that's a far cry from 225 hours, so call me skeptical of even higher claims.

225 hrs standby time = airplane mode and never turning on the screen.

 

[Nozuka]

Those standby times are a joke - all of them. The iPhone 4 had great battery life, but my iPhone 5 can barely last through the day barely being used - that's a far cry from 225 hours, so call me skeptical of even higher claims.

really? for me nothing changed since switching from the 4 to the 5.
never got any problems lasting through the day. sometimes i even get 2 days out of it.

 

[street.cory]

something needs to be clarified on C definition

Color.

 

[Nikhil72]

I've had nothing but fantastic battery on my iPhone 5 unless I'm doing something like intensive gaming or streaming movies. Generally 7-8h of usage time, often including 1 hour of GPS use with my Nike-monitored runs. One thing that dramatically increased battery was removing the Facebook app, which was draining battery in the background.

iOS 7 has been great thus far; it stayed at 100% overnight with fetch for 3 accounts set to 30min, and still gets me from a 6am to 10pm day.

The camera, fingerprint scanner, and battery improvements are my key reasons for buying the iPhone 5S.

As for the mention of iPads not getting quoted battery life, they're reputed for often exceeding Apple's quoted life.

Finally, things like Motorola quoting 24h? That's most definitely with lower screen/use time than my iPhone 5. That's been my experience with the GS3 and GS4, which couldn't get me past 3pm with similar use. My Nexus 4 was the same deal. If I used my iPhone 5 lightly, 24h off the charger is very feasible too.

 

[gnasher729]

From 8 hours of LTE web browsing to 10 hours without increasing the size of the phone is pretty darn impressive.

Could be down to rounding. "We measured 9 hours 43 minutes". "9 hours sounds odd, 10 hours is lying, so we say 8 hours". "We measured 10 hours 1 minute". "10 hours then. ".

Of course the LTE chips could have been significantly improved.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Think how much a device the size of an iPhone could do if most of the space inside wasnt taken up with a great big battery.

 

[troop231]

I agree that battery tech is lacking now days. The future of mobile 'batteries' will be graphene based capacitors. I await that day impatiently.

 

[gnasher729]

Batteries desperately need some major technological improvements. Nothing happened in the last 10 years.

That is rubbish. A 2006 MacBook battery lasted 300 charges. A current MacBook battery lasts 1000 charges. And batteries in Apple devices are formed to fill any little bit of space in the device, so they can have more volume in the same device size.

Motorola includes 8 hours of sleeping in that estimate.

Actually, according to geek.com around 10 hours of not using the phone overall.

That's quite daft then. Say I start 8 am with a fully charged phone. Would be nice if I could use it all day, 16 hours, and plug the empty phone in at midnight, so next morning I have a fully charged phone. After 24 hours, I would have an empty phone in the morning when I need it again.

 

[longofest]

Batteries desperately need some major technological improvements. Nothing happened in the last 10 years.

I'm not sure how much more you want battery technology to improve. You are already storing a LOT of energy into very confined areas, and you've seen how volitile that can be in various Lithium battery explosions.

Where you may see innovation continue to come from is efficiency, so that existing batteries last longer because of reduced power consumption for the same performance.

Also, I'm intrigued by potential improvements in fuel cells, where recharging involves filling up some sort of container of fuel that can be used in a more efficient and thin fuel cell that can power your device. They are a long ways away, but potential innovation in the automotive sector could make its way to the electronics sector in the coming years to make them viable as a next generation solution. Maybe.

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225 hrs standby time = airplane mode and never turning on the screen.

Negative. Standby time means on a cellular network.

Granted, I do have wifi and bluetooth on, because with iOS 6 they are stupidly difficult to toggle on and off. Looking forward to iOS 7 where it will be easier to turn off to conserve battery.

 

[iapplelove]

lol at only 10%

 

[0098386]

The two things I wanted from the next iPhone was a rethink on the battery, and a 128gb option.
Ah well! At least my renewed 4S contract is cheap now.

 

[Sodner]

I'll take it. Not enough for most critics on here, but 2x faster CPU & Graphics, better camera, better flash, better battery life, and new Touch ID.

 

[John Purple]

Pfffff....

who cares about 5 or ten percent more battery for a phone?????

Does MacRumors stil have other topics than every smallest ****** about the phone?

 

[Nishi100]

From 3 hours of LTE web browsing to 3.3 hours without increasing the size of the phone is pretty darn impressive.

Shall I let you in on a little secret...

If Apple made the iPhone 5S a little thicker they could've fitted a bigger battery. Personally, I would prefer a thicker (less thin) iPhone with all day battery, rather than a extremely thin iPhone with battery that I have to charge at 4pm, then again at night.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I'm not sure how much more you want battery technology to improve. You are already storing a LOT of energy into very confined areas, and you've seen how volitile that can be in various Lithium battery explosions.

Actually, there are a lot of new and promising technologies in development but don't expect them to arrive until the next decade.

 

[Delegator]

Battery life is so dependent on usage patterns that the numbers are only useful as relative comparisons. My friends who went from 4 to 5 saw better battery life, so even a small increment over that is good.

Battery capacity, however, is only one part of battery life -- just like gas tank capacity is only one part of determining a car's driving range. The power requirements of the 64-bit CPU, any changes to the chip that handles the CDMA/GSM/LTE/etc, and changes to the OS can all have major effects on battery life.

 

[Plutonius]

Increased battery life is good but how much RAM is in the new iPhones ?