Battery Usage

[photogpab]

Very happy with the battery life on my iPhone 5 64gb White.

This is with push email on, all location services on, wifi on, bluetooth off, brightness on auto. This phone was restored from a backup from the iPhone 4S 5.1.1.

I don't listen to music on my phone, so this is a result of browsing the web, playing various games and playing around with multiple apps.

Image

That's really awesome. I wish someone could tell me what I'm doiing wrong that is preventing me from getting that sort of usage? 7+ hours?? That's amazing.

My 5 is definitely giving me better battery life than my 4S. But I'm not getting anything close to what you're getting or what others are getting. And I'm really not using the phone that much. Texting and web surfing. That's all.

 

[Irish Rose]

OP, I would make an appointment with Apple and get them to look at the battery. It shouldn't drain that quickly. I'm getting 8 hours of use and over a day and a half of standby time with mine. I keep auto brightness off, WiFi and LTE are always on.

 

[photogpab]

OP, I would make an appointment with Apple and get them to look at the battery. It shouldn't drain that quickly. I'm getting 8 hours of use and over a day and a half of standby time with mine. I keep auto brightness off, WiFi and LTE are always on.

Ok. I will make an appointment and ask them to take a look. I'm really surprised people are getting 8 hours of usage.

Question about 'auto-brightness'. I have it on because I always thought it helped save battery. Not true?

 

[Irish Rose]

Ok. I will make an appointment and ask them to take a look. I'm really surprised people are getting 8 hours of usage.

I am surprised that I'm getting 8 hours of use too, especially since a lot of it is using LTE for web browsing.

Question about 'auto-brightness'. I have it on because I always thought it helped save battery. Not true?

I've heard that it can make a difference, however, I just keep my brightness level set at 50% and it seems to be fine going by the battery life.

 

[photogpab]

I am surprised that I'm getting 8 hours of use too, especially since a lot of it is using LTE for web browsing.



I've heard that it can make a difference, however, I just keep my brightness level set at 50% and it seems to be fine going by the battery life.

I don't know what to think. If I was hitting 7+ I would be thrilled. Apple said 8 hours I believe. The reason I'm nervous is - during the day I don't actually use the phone that much, but by the time I get home the phone says 4+ hours usage even tho I really haven't used it that much at all. Battery will be hovering around 65% which is great.

But then when I'm home I really start using the phone a lot and that's when the battery plummets fast.

That's why I'm nervous. Because on weekends when I actively use the phone ALL day (not just at night), the battery barely hits 5 hours. The only time it lasts me over 6 hours are the days I'm at work and don't use it that much during the day.

 

[HKPDW]

My IP5's battery seemed to be draining about 30% faster than my IP4.

So far, I've cycled the battery twice (make sure to charge past 100% - til the charging symbol (lightning bolt) disappears). I've also disabled the LTE, Location Services, Blue Tooth and adjusted the screen brightness to 40% as well as set push notifications to "once an hour".

My IP5's battery performance now matches that of my IP4's battery with similar settings.

 

[photogpab]

My IP5's battery seemed to be draining about 30% faster than my IP4.

So far, I've cycled the battery twice (make sure to charge past 100% - til the charging symbol (lightning bolt) disappears). I've also disabled the LTE, Location Services, Blue Tooth and adjusted the screen brightness to 40% as well as set push notifications to "once an hour".

My IP5's battery performance now matches that of my IP4's battery with similar settings.

But what's the point of having an iPhone 5 without LTE?? And location services is essential to so many apps. I just think there has to be a better way

 

[mikejfrd]

I'm happy with my battery performance and its an improvement from what I was getting with my 4s. This was on LTE most of the day at work and wifi all evening at the house.

 

[photogpab]

I'm happy with my battery performance and its an improvement from what I was getting with my 4s. This was on LTE most of the day at work and wifi all evening at the house.

I agree - one thing is for sure and that is that I am getting huge improvement over my 4S.

I just want to make sure I am getting the best results as some people seem to be getting 7 or 8 hours.

 

[HKPDW]

But what's the point of having an iPhone 5 without LTE?? And location services is essential to so many apps. I just think there has to be a better way

If you find it, let me know.

Unfortunately, I've had to turn my IP5 into an IP4 to maintain the battery's service life...

 

[jason1790]

I get great battery life

Here is what I got on my iPhone 5 32gb White AT&T. (bought it on launch day)

iPhone 5, iOS 6, 3 Push email accounts, wifi always on, bluetooth off, LTE on (but I don't get LTE where I am at), brightness auto, I text constantly through out the day, check email, browse safari, listen to music

 

[ryuuzaki]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

The sprint and Verizon models go one day on standby, EASILY, and 9 hours of usage, and have 10-20% left.

This is certainly the case. There is not a single person who has has the AT&T model that posted that their battery is fine and can go ONE day on standby without dropping. I guarantee that the battery dies before it hits 1 day on standby.

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

 

[richpuer]

Here's mine I think this is bad too

 

[UnbornApple]

That's really awesome. I wish someone could tell me what I'm doiing wrong that is preventing me from getting that sort of usage? 7+ hours?? That's amazing.

My 5 is definitely giving me better battery life than my 4S. But I'm not getting anything close to what you're getting or what others are getting. And I'm really not using the phone that much. Texting and web surfing. That's all.

I was getting battery life just like yours. What I found was that I did a restore from an iCloud backup. That last backup was from iOS 5, which is not on the iPhone 5. I think the phone had some issues with pulling that back in.

I did a restore on iTunes and now I'm getting like 7+ hours a day with LTE turned off because I don't have it in my city. It sucks not having all of the stuff from my old phone, but all the apps can be re-downloaded.

 

[mikejfrd]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

The sprint and Verizon models go one day on standby, EASILY, and 9 hours of usage, and have 10-20% left.

This is certainly the case. There is not a single person who has has the AT&T model that posted that their battery is fine and can go ONE day on standby without dropping. I guarantee that the battery dies before it hits 1 day on standby.

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

I'll test that theory as well tonight and won't charge it. That'll take me over the 24hr mark. Guarantee ill wake up in the morning with battery life.

 

[richpuer]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

dies before it hits 1 day on standb

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

Wow Sounds very possible. My AT&T won't last a day and for sure it charges SUPER fast.

I thought it was because of lightening cable. I wonder why the other phones wouldn't charge as fast.

Any way to get around this AT&T firmware?

 

[ryuuzaki]

Wow Sounds very possible. My AT&T won't last a day and for sure it charges SUPER fast.

I thought it was because of lightening cable. I wonder why the other phones wouldn't charge as fast.

Any way to get around this AT&T firmware?

I don't know. That's the other thing that raises questions.

You would think core phone operational code is conserved across all models.

Makes sense right? Battery should charge the same and the phone should know how to manage its discharge etc. Or at least thats how I imagine they would think about it in the software (note: I'm not a coder, or an engineer).


But it could be possible they messed up when it comes to power management for the AT&T model.

Or the radio management is messed up causing it to overwork and drain the phone faster. That would make sense too.

I really think this is an iOS problem and not a hardware problem. All the components are the same except for the qualcomm chip. That's the only difference. It must be the software.

There are alternate possibilities. Maybe the qualcomm chip in the AT&T model just uses power way more than the chips in the verizon and sprint models? But theyre based on the same platform. The difference is CDMA v GSM. Could forcing the phone to rely on one half of the chip (I.e, no data + voice at the same time) and turn off the other have to do with this when making calls? (if im not mistaken, that's how the verizon and sprint phones work)

Whatever. It's got to be something to do with how the phone manages power. That makes the most sense to me, at least. Maybe someone more familiar with this type of stuff can chyme in.

----------

I'll test that theory as well tonight and won't charge it. That'll take me over the 24hr mark. Guarantee ill wake up in the morning with battery life.

Your phone looks great and seems to be on par with the other carrier models.

And this is with LTE on? That's impressive.


Can you tell me what week your phone was manufactured?

 

[jamst149]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

The sprint and Verizon models go one day on standby, EASILY, and 9 hours of usage, and have 10-20% left.

This is certainly the case. There is not a single person who has has the AT&T model that posted that their battery is fine and can go ONE day on standby without dropping. I guarantee that the battery dies before it hits 1 day on standby.

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

I'm on verizon and I would say I am averaging like 5 hours usage and anywhere from 10-16 hours standby.

LTE is on (but I am hardly using it at all). Mostly browsing the web on wifi. I have push off and probably 75% of location services have been turned off. Screen brightness is set at about 50% with auto-brightness on.

I think I am using the phone more then I had previously been using my IP4. It just seems like I can't get through a day without getting under 20% battery and that rarely happened on my IP4. Actually 3 of 5 days I have been under 5%.

So my guess is I am either just using it more then normal OR the battery life is just worse off then my IP4.

I followed the following two articles to tweak my settings for best battery life and I can't say I really noticed a ton of difference. Better for sure nut may not be good enough to not carry an extra lightning cable around with me just in case

http://www.imore.com/how-fix-battery-life-problems-ios-6-or-iphone-5
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Squeeze_the_Most_Juice_Out_of_Your_iPhone_or_iPad_Battery

 

[himedc]

I've been very happy with mine so far. Verizon white 32gb.

 

[CSpackler]

My battery really hangs in there.

This is lots of wifi browsing, some calls, push emails, some video streaming, some LTE, plenty of notifications, playing with various apps. Brightness at 60%. All radios on except bluetooth. No music though. Restored as new.

Let the battery discharge until the phone turns itself off. Then charge fully while the phone is off (you'll have to manually do this as it turns back on automatically). Charging while off prevents parasitic load, or when the battery and phone are vying for power and the battery gets confused where 100% should be.

 

[Nikhil72]

I have an AT&T iPhone 5 running on LTE with excellent coverage outside the apartment in NYC and using a MicroCell with 4G (and WiFi on) at home, and my battery has been stellar so far, definitely better than the 4S and close to, if not on par with, the 4. The average brightness (with auto brightness on) is around 40-50% (see one of my previous posts in another thread explaining how auto-brightness works in iOS6), 3 email accounts with fetch enabled for 30 minutes, iCloud enabled (photostream off), BT off, location services on (but nothing running it in the background). Originally restored from backup but then wiped it clean (mostly to get a fresh start as I've realized I'm a hoarder on my phone).

Another thing everyone should try: in the Location Services setting, go to the bottom to System Services-->turn off all but the Traffic one. I had that setup on my 4S from iOS 5 when the battery was poor initially and it made a good deal of difference back then. It hasn't affected anything in terms of how the phone operated.

 

[iLoveMyApple]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

The sprint and Verizon models go one day on standby, EASILY, and 9 hours of usage, and have 10-20% left.

This is certainly the case. There is not a single person who has has the AT&T model that posted that their battery is fine and can go ONE day on standby without dropping. I guarantee that the battery dies before it hits 1 day on standby.

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

I've noticed that my battery drains way faster over AT&T's "4G". Even if I have a full signal. I don't have LTE in my area yet, so I don't know about that. When I'm connected to wifi, my battery lasts way longer.

 

[zorinlynx]

If you run Skype, make sure you're not logged into it all the time. Skype is a chatty protocol and it will drain your battery fairly quickly if you stay logged in.

 

[sotorious]

Wow still with my iPhone 4 I would get like 12 hours of usage. I'm scared to switch to any phone.

 

[mikejfrd]

I have seen enough of these posts on macrumors to see this correlation:

The AT&T iPhone 5 model will not go for more by my guess, on average, 12-13 hours on Standby and 6-7 Hours of usage (not including music).

The sprint and Verizon models go one day on standby, EASILY, and 9 hours of usage, and have 10-20% left.

This is certainly the case. There is not a single person who has has the AT&T model that posted that their battery is fine and can go ONE day on standby without dropping. I guarantee that the battery dies before it hits 1 day on standby.

I don't think any of us who own the AT&T model can pull that off.

What can be the culprit?

I honestly think its the firmware. I think something is causing the phone to do some type of abnormal activity (tons of variables can be involved, could be the radios over working themselves).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Verizon and Sprint phones don't charge as fast as the AT&T model does. The AT&T model charges insanely fast, it's bizarre.

Thoughts?

EDIT: got proved wrong by the post above me. D'oh. It was a fun theory while it lasted. I still stand by it. There is something up since I feel like the above poster is in the minority of users.

I don't know. That's the other thing that raises questions.

You would think core phone operational code is conserved across all models.

Makes sense right? Battery should charge the same and the phone should know how to manage its discharge etc. Or at least thats how I imagine they would think about it in the software (note: I'm not a coder, or an engineer).


But it could be possible they messed up when it comes to power management for the AT&T model.

Or the radio management is messed up causing it to overwork and drain the phone faster. That would make sense too.

I really think this is an iOS problem and not a hardware problem. All the components are the same except for the qualcomm chip. That's the only difference. It must be the software.

There are alternate possibilities. Maybe the qualcomm chip in the AT&T model just uses power way more than the chips in the verizon and sprint models? But theyre based on the same platform. The difference is CDMA v GSM. Could forcing the phone to rely on one half of the chip (I.e, no data + voice at the same time) and turn off the other have to do with this when making calls? (if im not mistaken, that's how the verizon and sprint phones work)

Whatever. It's got to be something to do with how the phone manages power. That makes the most sense to me, at least. Maybe someone more familiar with this type of stuff can chyme in.

----------



Your phone looks great and seems to be on par with the other carrier models.

And this is with LTE on? That's impressive.


Can you tell me what week your phone was manufactured?

Week 37 ...and yes LTE all day at work until I got home and switched to wifi. I also streamed pandora on wifi for a bit when I got home.