Apple Says Manufacturing Defect is Responsible for Battery Issues in Some iPhone 5s Devices

[MacRum2011]

I wonder how one would know if there battery is ok. I reckon my iPhone 4s lasts longer than the 5s.

I recharged mine this morning at 8am, 8 hours later it is 75% which I think is ok, but if i web browse or something like that it goes down a lot quicker than the 4s did.

I never switch my iPhone 5s off, unless it needs a reboot which at times they do. at 75% now after 8 hours since recharge, by tomorrow morning 12 hours away it will be around 30%. I don't know how long the hours are for these, but I could get 3 days out of the 4s and i barely get 2 days with the 5s. So I just recharge daily even if its 60-70% but i'd get 2 working days/hours out of it if I don't browse the web like Facebook too much or play a Facebook game for a few minutes.

 

[Marc-SP]

Uh, translate this problem into software and you've described every single version of Windows ever. I've never seen a fix of any sort.

😕 What do you mean? Fix for what? Windows is always improving and fixing bugs, like OSX or any other OS.

You don't have kids, do you?

STOP THE PRESS!!! Apple is a 5 year old boy. Or girl? 😛
Even if I said "someone" we are talking about Apple here or, more generally, companies. 🙂

As I said, I dont' think Apple needs "positive reinforcement" or a candy for doing what is legally required to do. 🙂 And I understand some other companies might be no so diligent. I that case we should complaint, of course.

 

[MuGeN PoWeR]

manufacturing fault 😱

 

[sshhoott]

After the Antennagate cover up, this one feels good to the heart. Apple, thanks for the honesty. This may not have happened under Steve Jobs.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

Jobs was a bit bullheaded... this new "bring it in and we'll give you a new one" deal is pretty sweet, though. Not really any other phone manufacturer that can offer that.

I read "replacement" phone as a refurb.

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Ranges are not needed since the serial number is tied to apple id and apple is reaching out. I think the effected people probably have already been contacted.

Actually, it would have been nice so that people like me, who were just about to buy, would know if they were getting one of the bad ones. Now I'm not interested in picking one up until I can verify that I won't be getting a defective phone. If I can't verify, I won't buy. The more time that goes by, the more chance there is that I'll jump ship. They should have identified the affected serial numbers.

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Must be pretty bad if Apple actually acknowledges that there is a problem...

Agreed.

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... Sorry, I know some of you are poised, ready to leap all over Apple's latest screw-up, but this actually isn't a big deal. A few thousand (out of however many million) 5s's have this problem, and Apple is responding to it within a few weeks of the product's launch.

It's fine.

Just to be clear: No one know how many phones are defective. The article guessed at that number.

 

[patrickgerr]

Actually, it would have been nice so that people like me, who were just about to buy, would know if they were getting one of the bad ones. Now I'm not interested in picking one up until I can verify that I won't be getting a defective phone. If I can't verify, I won't buy. The more time that goes by, the more chance there is that I'll jump ship. They should have identified the affected serial numbers.

This is definitely a dilemma. How would you know if you're getting one of the defective ones? Post the serial numbers like other recalls.

 

[Cruddley]

My battery only lasts 1 hour. I thought it was because of the high tech in the fingerprint sensor.

Now you're just being silly! 😀

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This is definitely a dilemma. How would you know if you're getting one of the defective ones? Post the serial numbers like other recalls.

I was going to say something smart like "you'll know because it has bad battery life". But you're right, how do you differentiate normal bad battery life from faulty bad battery life?!! i agree we need serial numbers here before this line becomes blurred.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

This is definitely a dilemma. How would you know if you're getting one of the defective ones? Post the serial numbers like other recalls.

I wasn't kidding in my post that you responded to (not that you implied that I was). I was all set to reserve one online, and pick it up tomorrow. My local stores have them in stock 😡

 

[DCIFRTHS]

I was going to say something smart like "you'll know because it has bad battery life". But you're right, how do you differentiate normal bad battery life from faulty bad battery life?!! i agree we need serial numbers here before this line becomes blurred.

I know if I ask one of the store employees, they'll either feed me the standard "Oh. I haven't heard about that." or "If you have any problems, you can always bring it back." No thanks.

 

[locust76]

And what's your excuse for the poor battery life in the iPhone 5? 4-5 hours of average use before a recharge is NOT normal. It was NOT like this with 6.1.4.

That certainly doesn't sound like average use. My wife's iPhone 5 (previously my iPhone 5) holds out the entire day under "average use." With iOS 7.

 

[SBlue1]

And what's your excuse for the poor battery life in the iPhone 5? 4-5 hours of average use before a recharge is NOT normal. It was NOT like this with 6.1.4.

I had my iPhone 5 loosing power after 11 months of use. Standby was just 4 or 5 hours. Called support, they ran a diagnosis and sent me a new iphone 5. Great. New battery, shiny new phone, increased resell value. Thank you Apple. Love it.

 

[downpour]

I'm hoping the problem with the new MacBooks doesn't turn out to be a hardware issue as well... It's putting me off buying one.

Apple need to worry less about keeping new products secret and spend more time testing them (in large trials) before release.

 

[iChrist]

An issue with Apple hardware???

You don't say...

 

[racer1441]

Not sure it would be any different for any device that's under 90 days old, from any reputable electronics company.

It's not like you're gonna get to keep the defective one you know.

Apple really doesn't need pats on the back for doing the obvious.

Yeah, you have never dealt with some of the PC makers before apparently.

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I'm hoping the problem with the new MacBooks doesn't turn out to be a hardware issue as well... It's putting me off buying one.

Apple need to worry less about keeping new products secret and spend more time testing them (in large trials) before release.

Name one company that does a large trial product test? Other than google glass, I can't think of one in the last 10 years or so.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Expect this thread to be full of moany faux outrage about an issue affecting 0.5% of users which is being sorted for them...

Expect the acolytes marching with torches and pitchforks doing preemptive damage control. 🙄

 

[Ivan0310]

And what's your excuse for the poor battery life in the iPhone 5? 4-5 hours of average use before a recharge is NOT normal. It was NOT like this with 6.1.4.

Probably that you're case is far and away not the average? Ever stop to consider the possibility that your battery has just failed and needs to get replaced? It may just be coincidental that it happened after your update to iOS 7--not everything is a conspiracy.

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I wonder how one would know if there battery is ok. I reckon my iPhone 4s lasts longer than the 5s.

I recharged mine this morning at 8am, 8 hours later it is 75% which I think is ok, but if i web browse or something like that it goes down a lot quicker than the 4s did.

I never switch my iPhone 5s off, unless it needs a reboot which at times they do. at 75% now after 8 hours since recharge, by tomorrow morning 12 hours away it will be around 30%. I don't know how long the hours are for these, but I could get 3 days out of the 4s and i barely get 2 days with the 5s. So I just recharge daily even if its 60-70% but i'd get 2 working days/hours out of it if I don't browse the web like Facebook too much or play a Facebook game for a few minutes.

Concerning your 4s to 5s comparison, is this all on WiFi or generally on mobile broadband? I ask because your 4s is only capable of HSPA+ whereas your 5s is capable of LTE, each of which will have different power consumption rates.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I suppose the users have been contacted already before the press release was issued. It potentially and hopefully eliminates the mass of people who will equate real life battery performance not matching the published performance to a defect.

Exactly! But sadly this forum will have some folks that will piss on Apple for not being "perfect", since Apple is the only company that employees robots and not humans. 😉

Expect the acolytes marching with torches and pitchforks doing preemptive damage control. 🙄

Expect this thread to be full of moany faux outrage about an issue affecting 0.5% of users which is being sorted for them...

You know what is even better than faux outrage about an issue affecting a small population? Faux outrage over the potential of said faux outrage. 😉

No, they have to replace them under law. Even if it wasn't under law, they would still run the cost/benefit scenarios. Only on MR do people think that every little thing that Apple does is from the kindness of their hearts.

Cite the law you're referring to, please.

Foxconn just can't seem to get things done the way they ought to be.

I'm not sure Foxconn is to blame.

To the MR forum, this translates to "everybody".

Fun fact #844: You do not have to hang out in the forums, ever. You can still visit MR, read the front page and bypass the forum.

 

[kunstler]

May I ask is it normal?? Auto-brightness turned on,Siri turned on, 4G on and background refresh off.

This is my first day using the 5s.

 

[eecyclone]

Any way to tell if my 5S is affected? How bad is the battery life of affected phones?

 

[kunstler]

Any way to tell if my 5S is affected? How bad is the battery life of affected phones?

It is also my concern

 

[JulesK]

The battery life on my 5S is so much better than my old 4S, running either iOS 6 or 7. I actually got a Mophie battery case before I got the 5S, on the assumption that I would need to be charging it all the time. I still use the case when traveling or when I know I'll be using the phone a lot (just easier than carrying around an external battery pack), but I can get through a normal day on the 5S without needing to recharge, which I could never do with the 4S. The big caveat is that I do not use LTE (but the 4S didn't have LTE either); AT&T 4G is fast enough for my uses, so I've turned off LTE.

So if your phone is one affected, or your battery life seems very bad, I'd push to have Apple examine the phone. I couldn't be happier with the batery life on the 5S.

 

[ouimetnick]

Charged mine on Monday night. Use it a bit here and there

Usage: 2 hours, 2 Minutes
Standby: 1 Day, 2 Hours

Battery life 75%

I think everything is fine here

 

[predation]

so are replacements refurbs? or brand new ones??

 

[cjmillsnun]

so are replacements refurbs? or brand new ones??

Initially they are likely to be new phones (I can't see there being many refurb iPhone 5s phones around), but as they get returned these ones will be refurbed and become the replacement for someone else.

 

[charlituna]

But nothing for the 4s users who have horrible battery life since upgrading to iOS 7?

Is that how it should be as well?

Not necessarily. If you had great battery life when you bought it then it's not a manufacturing defect. It's something else. Could be corrupted software, could be a consumed battery, could be those dozen times you dropped it on the floor didn't break the outer glass but did break something internal.

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No, they have to replace them under law.

Well yes consumer law in like 100 countries says they have to replace units with a manufacturing defect. But here's the catch, unless it is a safety issue the laws don't generally have rules they have to look for and admit to such defects in a public forum. These batteries aren't exploding etc, just draining quickly. So Apple could have kept mouths shut until the folks happen to come in for service, if they happened to during their warranty. In several countries if it's outside of the first 4-6 months proving the issue was a defect falls on the customer and them just saying it was isn't enough. So many folks will be dumb enough to just think this is the way it is and not come in and get a gripe on record in the early weeks and then when it dies for real four days out of warranty they have no grounds for claiming it had a manufacturing defect because according to the products service history it was trouble free for the whole year.

And they don't have to replace but just repair. The issue might be just a bad batch of batteries. But it sounds like even if that is the issue they are going to swap phones to be nice.

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Oh, it's "only" a few thousand users...

They sold 9 million phones. Even if 10k have this issue that's not a bad number.

Remember the Red Ring of Death. Something like 50% of units affected and if you could manage to get a swap you often got one with the same issue cause apparently they were not rushed to sort out the issue or to stop sending out units from a potentially rotten production run of many thousands of units cause it would be too much of a write off.

Nothing Apple has ever had was that awful

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Ranges are not needed since the serial number is tied to apple id and apple is reaching out. I think the effected people probably have already been contacted.

They will also likely flag the serials so if the folks come into a store the tech will be alerted. Just like with the hard drive issue etc for computers

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Concur with this. What's funny is there is NO fix and not many are complaining about it even though it's affecting a lot of people I know with the 5. Another example of Apple trying to kill older hardware so people upgrade. Not happy.

Yep your right. You should launch a campaign to force Apple to stop making older hardware eligible for new versions of iOS. If you want the new software you have to buy the new toys.

And then the new software would break your old iPhone etc