Does the iPhone 5 battery normally die so fast?

[LOLZpersonok]

This morning I left for school with a battery of about 80%. I didn't use it heavily throughout the day (with the somewhat frequent texts, one phone call and listening to music for a total of 2 hours throughout the day) and now that I come home 6 hours later, the battery is 13%. Yesterday I left home with about a 50% battery and came home with about 5%.

When I'm at home I turn off my cellular and turn on my WiFi and when I go out, I turn off my WiFi and turn on my cellular. The battery doesn't die nearly as fast on WiFi as it does on cellular.

Is this normal? I got the phone 5 days ago brand new when I renewed my contract. My old LG Xenon never died as quickly but that's probably because I kept it off most of the time.

 

[BoostDeuce]

Have you looked in Settings - General - Usage and scrolled to the bottom to see what real usage you are getting out of it?

Sometimes it may not seem like you use it much, but i charge mine every night and by the end of the day, i've got 5 hours of usage, 15 hours of standby, and 50 percent battery. Obviously everyone is different. I do a lot of internet browsing, especially on Alien Blue (reddit) client

 

[Orlandu]

LTE is a huge battery drain, especially if you are around spotty coverage areas.

 

[ross1998]

If I only use my phone for texts and calls my battery lasts me whole day and still have around 65 percent left but right when I start using data ( tmobile 4g) my battery drains fast

 

[paulbennett95]

I'd suggest turning off LTE if you won't be doing much Internet browsing. LTE is a battery killer, especially if you're in a weak signal area and your phone has to keep searching for a signal.

 

[w00t951]

I'm in an area where I usually have 2-3 bars of HSPA+, and extremely spotty LTE (1 bar, if lucky). My usage is pretty heavy, with a lot of web browsing and texting. If I'm lucky, I can hit 15 hours of usage (with music) or 10-12 hours of usage (pure web browsing) with around 5-10 hours of standby.

I have taken steps to streamline my iPhone's battery, such as disabling most automatic downloads, notifications (Messages, Phone, and Gmail are the only ones enabled), location services (only on demand, none in background), etc.

 

[Pinkstiletto66]

Mine is. I get four hours of continuous usage but I am told signal strength is playing a part. I get between 2 and 4 depending where I am in the house.

 

[cynics]

Depends on what you are doing with your phone. And certain things will surprise you.

Tapatalk kills my battery. If I use it a lot my 4S will die in 4 hours or so. However streaming Netflix I can get over 9-10 hours. I'd think the opposite but it just depends on what you are doing. I use a Bluetooth headset and that saves a lot of battery too vs using the phone to talk.

Signal strength plays a HUGE roll too.

 

[Harmonious Zen]

It's really hard to tell, but that does seem like unusually fast battery drain for what you're doing.

 

[clarencek]

Also check your screen brightness. I keep mine very low and can usually go the day ending up with 10% with moderate usage.

 

[leonhkbx]

I'd suggest turning off LTE if you won't be doing much Internet browsing.

 

[hafr]

I'm in an area where I usually have 2-3 bars of HSPA+, and extremely spotty LTE (1 bar, if lucky). My usage is pretty heavy, with a lot of web browsing and texting. If I'm lucky, I can hit 15 hours of usage (with music) or 10-12 hours of usage (pure web browsing) with around 5-10 hours of standby.

I have taken steps to streamline my iPhone's battery, such as disabling most automatic downloads, notifications (Messages, Phone, and Gmail are the only ones enabled), location services (only on demand, none in background), etc.

12 hours LTE surfing on one bar reception? No. No, you're not getting twelve hours on screen action with data transfer using one bar LTE connection. Even if you had a battery pack of a normal size it would be hard to believe.

 

[Harvey Specter]

When I was in school my first class every morning was in a building with low reception and/or a signal jammer to discourage cell phone usage and I'd generally have only about 1 or 2 bars coverage. My battery drained ridiculous fast due to the dual antennas in the 4S switching to try and get better signal.

I'd say it's most likely the spotty coverage is why you're experiencing really fast battery loss

 

[w00t951]

12 hours LTE surfing on one bar reception? No. No, you're not getting twelve hours on screen action with data transfer using one bar LTE connection. Even if you had a battery pack of a normal size it would be hard to believe.

I should have been more clear. The first 5 hours are spent in a poor reception area, and I exit with about 3 hours of usage at about 80-90% battery. Then I'm on WiFi, and the iPhone lasts for freaking forever.

 

[codyst]

I didn't notice a difference in battery life when upgrading from a 4S to the 5. I am guessing it is due to use of LTE draining the battery.

 

[hafr]

I should have been more clear. The first 5 hours are spent in a poor reception area, and I exit with about 3 hours of usage at about 80-90% battery. Then I'm on WiFi, and the iPhone lasts for freaking forever.

No, you're not getting 15-30 hours of LTE surf out of one charge on your iPhone 5 in a poor reception area.

 

[jayrflow]

My battery life is pretty bad. I don't wanna restore and lose my jaibreak. I may have to remove each tweak and only keep the ones I really want. So far I'm at 58% with 4hrs and 44minutes standby and 4hrs and 17minutes usage. Most of that time was screen off with music playing from my phone and about an hour of spotify. Also I've had the screen on for about 30-45 minutes. I got LTE on and I typically get 2-4 bars here where I work depending where I'm at. Sometimes it drops to 3G. Each minute or so I have my screen on, the battery goes down 1%. Also when I'm streaming Mike and Mike in the morning streaming with the ESPN Radio app, my phone gets hot and the battery does quicker. Is that normal? Is it my phone or some tweak that is causing this? Thanks for any help

 

[hafr]

My battery life is pretty bad. I don't wanna restore and lose my jaibreak. I may have to remove each tweak and only keep the ones I really want. So far I'm at 58% with 4hrs and 44minutes standby and 4hrs and 17minutes usage. Most of that time was screen off with music playing from my phone and about an hour of spotify. Also I've had the screen on for about 30-45 minutes. I got LTE on and I typically get 2-4 bars here where I work depending where I'm at. Sometimes it drops to 3G. Each minute or so I have my screen on, the battery goes down 1%. Also when I'm streaming Mike and Mike in the morning streaming with the ESPN Radio app, my phone gets hot and the battery does quicker. Is that normal? Is it my phone or some tweak that is causing this? Thanks for any help

Streaming means a constant data transfer, which drains battery a lot faster than just playing a local file. When you're doing this on poor reception, it will drain faster still.

 

[JetBlack7]

You might need battery calibration. Do a full rundown of the battery twice a month and look at this:

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphone3g/tp/iphone-battery-life.htm

Hope it helps

PS: My battery on average, lasts 2 days. I have almost everything turned off since I don't use them often, which saves a lot of battery.

 

[jayrflow]

Streaming means a constant data transfer, which drains battery a lot faster than just playing a local file. When you're doing this on poor reception, it will drain faster still.

Yea I know streaming will drain it but holy crap it does it quicker than I thought. My phone gets hot while streaming ESPN Radio and I know the battery drains quicker when the phone is hot. By the time I listen to ESPN Radio, I'm in an area of my job that I get 1-2 bars of LTE so I know that plays a huge part of it. I guess it's just something ill have to deal with for now

----------

You might need battery calibration. Do a full rundown of the battery twice a month and look at this:

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphone3g/tp/iphone-battery-life.htm

Hope it helps

PS: My battery on average, lasts 2 days. I have almost everything turned off since I don't use them often, which saves a lot of battery.

Thanks ill try it out. Some of the things I do already like the Bluetooth but I'll try changing my mail settings. I have it to fetch once an hour but I'll change it to manually and see how that works

 

[hafr]

Yea I know streaming will drain it but holy crap it does it quicker than I thought. My phone gets hot while streaming ESPN Radio and I know the battery drains quicker when the phone is hot. By the time I listen to ESPN Radio, I'm in an area of my job that I get 1-2 bars of LTE so I know that plays a huge part of it. I guess it's just something ill have to deal with for now

If you're only listening to radio, switch to EDGE (turn off LTE and 3G). That might make a world of difference.

If I'm on wifi a full day, I get something like three more hours usage just by switching off 3G because I've got bad reception at home. The mere fact that it's trying to keep the signal is killing the battery... Switching to EDGE actually made me go from "this battery life sucks" to "hey, this is pretty good". I only activate 3G when I'm outside of a wifi-area and I need a fast connection (like checking maps or something).

 

[w00t951]

No, you're not getting 15-30 hours of LTE surf out of one charge on your iPhone 5 in a poor reception area.

No, I'm not. Props for reading carefully though.

 

[hafr]

No, I'm not. Props for reading carefully though.

I thought you were commenting on what I actually wrote, which was that your claim that you're getting 12 hours of browsing on LTE is false.

I don't like to think people are making things up, so I'm guessing you're simply mistaken when it comes to your usage pattern.

 

[bliggs]

Average usage on my iPhone 5 over the last two days. This is with both LTE and Wi-Fi always on. I do turn Bluetooth off.

 

[Bacong]

If you're only listening to radio, switch to EDGE (turn off LTE and 3G). That might make a world of difference.

If I'm on wifi a full day, I get something like three more hours usage just by switching off 3G because I've got bad reception at home. The mere fact that it's trying to keep the signal is killing the battery... Switching to EDGE actually made me go from "this battery life sucks" to "hey, this is pretty good". I only activate 3G when I'm outside of a wifi-area and I need a fast connection (like checking maps or something).

I don't have an option to turn off 3G. Just LTE.