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Apple quoted battery life.

C

crashoverride77

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 27, 2014
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This is not an iOS 8 battery drain thread but just a general question. Apple is quoting on the iPhone 6 figures like 11 hours wifi browsing. I'm getting like 6-7 hours so do all my friends. It was the same for the iPhone 4 & 5s I had which where also at least 3-4 hours short of the quoted battery life.
What do these estimates actually mean? Am I missing something since I'm never anywhere near them. In contrast on my iPad I constantly get the quoted 10 hours, if not more.
 
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Not sure about wifi browsing. But, I am coming up on 24hrs up time since last charge in about 14 minutes with 4 hrs screen time to include internet but also hd movies. at 53%.

:)
 
Apple (and most other battery tests) are conducted under very controlled environments.

Variations in screen brightness, signal strength, website, input, all can add up to make a difference.
 
image.jpg


ha, never did screen shot on iphone wanted to try--battery hit 52 while doing this

i assume usage equates to screen on time as was the terminology on android phone
 
rugmankc said:
ha, never did screen shot on iphone wanted to try--battery hit 52 while doing this



i assume usage equates to screen on time as was the terminology on android phone
Click to expand...


Usage does not necessarily equate to screen time. Your phone wakes for messages, emails, phone calls, and stays awake for listening to music, etc.
 
crashoverride77 said:
This is not an iOS 8 battery drain thread but just a general question. Apple is quoting on the iPhone 6 figures like 11 hours wifi browsing. I'm getting like 6-7 hours so do all my friends. It was the same for the iPhone 4 & 5s I had which where also at least 3-4 hours short of the quoted battery life.
What do these estimates actually mean? Am I missing something since I'm never anywhere near them. In contrast on my iPad I constantly get the quoted 10 hours, if not more.
Click to expand...



Traverse said:
Apple (and most other battery tests) are conducted under very controlled environments.

Variations in screen brightness, signal strength, website, input, all can add up to make a difference.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
crashoverride77 said:
This is not an iOS 8 battery drain thread but just a general question. Apple is quoting on the iPhone 6 figures like 11 hours wifi browsing. I'm getting like 6-7 hours so do all my friends. It was the same for the iPhone 4 & 5s I had which where also at least 3-4 hours short of the quoted battery life.
What do these estimates actually mean? Am I missing something since I'm never anywhere near them. In contrast on my iPad I constantly get the quoted 10 hours, if not more.
Click to expand...

Apple claims that the iPhone 6 gets up to 11 hours of battery life using Wi-Fi. This is a similar tactic to a store that claims everything is up to 70% off.
 
Syndicate0017 said:
Usage does not necessarily equate to screen time. Your phone wakes for messages, emails, phone calls, and stays awake for listening to music, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for info, does iOS have a third party app that shows actual screen time?

And yes, in Android I am one of the first to suggest it varies with everyone and no consistency. Too many variables.

Either way I am very happy with plus battery--:)
 
rugmankc said:
View attachment 509183


ha, never did screen shot on iphone wanted to try--battery hit 52 while doing this

i assume usage equates to screen on time as was the terminology on android phone
Click to expand...

Yeah this is exactly the battery life I get about 4 hours with 50% left, so about 7-8 hours screen usage in total. I never get 10-11 on my iPhone just doing wifi browsing and using an app here and there.

----------
Solver said:
Apple claims that the iPhone 6 gets up to 11 hours of battery life using Wi-Fi. This is a similar tactic to a store that claims everything is up to 70% off.
Click to expand...

Well, normally Apple is very conservative when it comes to battery estimates.
Eg
On my Mac book pro retina 13" (haswell) I constantly get the quoted 9hours, if not 10.
On my iPad I also constantly get the quoted 10 hours.

It's just the iphones where I'm always 3-4 hours short.
 
Take the claimed numbers with a grain of salt from any company.
Like others have said, those numbers are achieved in a controlled environment.
You could achieve these results if you were to replicate the test conditions, but it's not very likely that you would in day-to-day use.

For example, I'd bet that the wifi browsing is achieved at 50% display brightness, all background services disabled, a limited number of screen touches, excellent wifi signal and cellular disabled.

Everyone does it, so the numbers are completely useless unless you're just comparing what each company is able to achieve in unrealistic, controlled circumstances.
 
Both my wife's and my 6+ battery work very well. More than enough for one day use. And this is the biggest reason why we choose the 6+ but not 6.

IMG_0018.PNG
 
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Apple's quoted battery life (just like every other phone manufacturer) is done under ideal conditions, without much variation in the use of the phone. In real life, we are actually moving around between reception towers, we have areas with weaker coverage, we install apps that use location and background services, etc. That's why you see a shorter battery life in actual use.
In my experience with the iPhone 6, I've gotten much better results compared to when I first got my 5s last October. I have apps running in the background, apps using location constantly, and I can get anywhere from 7-9 hours of batter, and if I lower my brightness more, I could probably do even better. The bottom line is, I don't care as much about the claimed battery life, but I do care a whole lot about being able to actually see an improvement in my daily use.
 
VSMacOne said:
Apple's quoted battery life (just like every other phone manufacturer) is done under ideal conditions, without much variation in the use of the phone. In real life, we are actually moving around between reception towers, we have areas with weaker coverage, we install apps that use location and background services, etc.
Click to expand...

This.

If one wants a better idea re: battery life, hold off buying until the various tech sites do their benchmarks of a new device, and see what their "real life" battery tests show and compare to other phones.

Also, battery tech has not really changed much over the years, so, that thinner phone has less space for a battery, so at best, going to have about same power capacity as previous phones, but doing much more with it. Sure, phone looks sexy, but probably giving up battery time to get that thinness.

And comparing to iPad, MacBooks is not a great comparison re: promised battery life. See above paragraph: the bigger devices have a lot more space to cram a lot more battery in. And might not have extra power drains of GPS, cellular, etc. that a phone has.
 
Thanks for all the replies. My usage over the last few days has been getting so much better. I got an AC router few days back, maybe that helped although I doubt it. Maybe 8.1 is settled in now or something. With 5.5 hours usage I used to normally have 45-50% battery left. Not the 6 PLUS by the way, just the 6 :D
 

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