How was your iPhone 5, 4s battery life after two years?

[TigerMSTR]

I'm considering buying Apple Care for $99 for my iPhone 6. It includes free battery replacement for battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification for up to two years after the purchase of the iPhone. Typically an Apple battery replacement would cost $79, so if I do get my battery replaced the $99 for Apple Care+ is well worth it considering the peace of mind from the accidental damage protection Apple Care+ provides.

Before I make the purchase I'm trying to gauge how long I can expect my iPhone 6 battery to last. Apple says, "your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles." With my phone battery in good health I typically use a little more than one charge cycle per day. So assuming that in 365 days (1 year) I'll use 400 charge cycles, my battery will have less than 80% of its original capacity approximately 15 months after I purchased the device.

The unknown factor is how rapidly the battery health will deplete after I hit 500 cycles. With all the devices I've owned previously the battery has been very good for the first year and a half, but after that the battery health degrades rapidly. For example, when I first bought my Nexus 4 I almost always was able to go 8 hour off the charger, and it wasn't at all unusual for me to have 12 hour days with more moderate usage. Some 16 months after I purchased the device, with typical usage I'm lucky to get 4 to 5 hours off the charger and even when I hardly touch the device, its batter is depleted to about 50% after 6 hours of the charger. This degradation in battery life happened strikingly quickly. My friend with an iPhone 4s had similar experiences.

My question for you guys is how was the battery life of your devices after two years and how frequently you charge b the device. This will greatly assist me in deciding if I should purchase Apple Care+.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I've had my iPhone 5 since January 2013 so almost two years. Battery life is still great though. I can go upwards of 12 hours or more and not have to charge it until I go to bed. That's using Facebook, Safari, and several other apps. I have Bluetooth and Background App Refresh turned off as well as location settings set to only use when an app is active. I also close apps out of the switcher when I'm not using them. That's probably more placebo than anything, but I like not leaving things running when I don't need them, especially during my 40 minute commute.

It really depends on your uses of whether you think your battery is going to take a lot of wear. If you use it all day for work, then it probably won't last as long. I'm a student, so use during the day is not high.

I didn't buy AppleCare+ with battery wear in mind. I bought it for the extended warranty in general and the $50 (at the time) accidental damage replacements. I've only had to use it twice in almost two years (home button repair and lightening cable replacement), but it's definitely a better option for me than Asurion.

 

[TigerMSTR]

I've had my iPhone 5 since January 2013 so almost two years. Battery life is still great though. I can go upwards of 12 hours or more and not have to charge it until I go to bed. That's using Facebook, Safari, and several other apps. I have Bluetooth and Background App Refresh turned off as well as location settings set to only use when an app is active. I also close apps out of the switcher when I'm not using them. That's probably more placebo than anything, but I like not leaving things running when I don't need them, especially during my 40 minute commute.

It really depends on your uses of whether you think your battery is going to take a lot of wear. If you use it all day for work, then it probably won't last as long. I'm a student, so use during the day is not high.

I didn't buy AppleCare+ with battery wear in mind. I bought it for the extended warranty in general and the $50 (at the time) accidental damage replacements. I've only had to use it twice in almost two years (home button repair and lightening cable replacement), but it's definitely a better option for me than Asurion.

Yeah it's also great for the extended warranty. Given the [overblown] bending issues, home button failure that have happened on all iPhones and the WiFi failures in the 4s, I wouldn't be surprised if I make use of it. Apple makes great products but they do have their share of hardware issues.

It's nice to hear that you have great battery after so long. How frequently do you charge the device?

 

[ElectronGuru]

There are three things that really hit battery health

Age
Cycle count
Time away from ideal voltage

1 & 2 are rather fixed, but 3 can be helped. Don't leave it depleted for days and don't leave it plugged in @ 100%. On phones where I've done this, runtime is crap. On phones where I have not done this (my 3 year old 4s for example), runtime still over half of new.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

It's nice to hear that you have great battery after so long. How frequently do you charge the device?

Usually once a day overnight while I sleep. Occasionally I need to charge it a bit in the evening to give it an extra boost.

I had some trouble with 7.1 when it came out, but the next update fixed it. I'm not running 8.1 with the battery life I mentioned before.

 

[Grolubao]

After 2 years my battery lost 12% of it's original capacity. Not bad if you ask me

 

[TigerMSTR]

Can everyone also say how frequently they charge their device.

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After 2 years my battery lost 12% of it's original capacity. Not bad if you ask me

Is that an iPhone 5 or 4s?

 

[Grolubao]

Can everyone also say how frequently they charge their device.

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Is that an iPhone 5 or 4s?

iPhone 5 and I charge it every day

 

[Ffosse]

iPhone 5 manufactured and activated in August 2013, charged 119 times or every 3.7 days. Battery life is great.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I've had my 4S for just over three years. I'm not a power user, but I do use it a lot during the course of a day. Running 8.1, I still get most of a day on a full charge. I do top off the battery in the evenings. Three years, and still strong.

 

[TigerMSTR]

iPhone 5 manufactured and activated in August 2013, charged 119 times or every 3.7 days. Battery life is great.


Image

Only 119 charge cycles after nearly a year and a half? Do you not use this phone or something?

What app is that btw?

 

[Ffosse]

Only 119 charge cycles after nearly a year and a half? Do you not use this phone or something?

What app is that btw?

I got the phone used in May and it was in excellent condition; the previous owner only had 45 charge cycles on it since it was activated 9 months earlier.

No, I don't use it much. It's just a backup beater device as it's pretty slow. The Z3 Compact is way better. The app is called Battery Doc.

 

[Lorenzo F]

Can everyone also say how frequently they charge their device.

I charge my iPhone 5, which I bought in September 2012, about once a day.

But let me explain a little. Electron Guru above recommends keeping the ideal voltage, and I actually do that: I begin to charge my phone once the battery gets to 40%. I set the timer for 40 min. Once 40 min is up my battery is at 80%. So my phone charges at about 1% a minute.

Hope that helps.

 

[sanandreas1234]

This is my iphone 5 after almost 2 years. Will be 2 years come this December. Has 937 charge cycles at the moment and battery is still doing well.

 

[TigerMSTR]

iPhone 5 manufactured and activated in August 2013, charged 119 times or every 3.7 days. Battery life is great.


Image

This is my iphone 5 after almost 2 years. Will be 2 years come this December. Has 937 charge cycles at the moment and battery is still doing well.

I have a really hard time believing that both of your batteries are at 100.0% capacity after 120 and 1000 charges respectively. Never have I seen a device that retained its battery capacity anywhere near as well as that. I have a feeling that a bug in this app is causing it to display false information.

Try testing your battery capacity using iBackupBot. It appears to give more reliable readings.

 

[Ffosse]

I have a really hard time believing that both of your batteries are at 100.0% capacity after 120 and 1000 charges respectively. Never have I seen a device that retained its battery capacity anywhere near as well as that. I have a feeling that a bug in this app is causing it to display false information.

It's not entirely clear, but the 100% capacity figure just means the phone is 100% charged on that app. The main figure is Max Capacity 1400mah, down from 1430mah, which seems about right on a device with 119 charge cycles. And on the screenshot by sanandreas1234, capacity has gone down to 1200 from 1430mah, pretty impressive given the large number of charge cycles.

iBackupBot is something I would never use when there is an app available.

 

[sanandreas1234]

I have a really hard time believing that both of your batteries are at 100.0% capacity after 120 and 1000 charges respectively. Never have I seen a device that retained its battery capacity anywhere near as well as that. I have a feeling that a bug in this app is causing it to display false information.

Try testing your battery capacity using iBackupBot. It appears to give more reliable readings.

Image

These are my iBackupBot results. Basically the same as what I got from the app. Pretty much have 1200 out of the 1430mah as Ffosse mentioned.

 

[TigerMSTR]

These are my iBackupBot results. Basically the same as what I got from the app. Pretty much have 1200 out of the 1430mah as Ffosse mentioned.

Yeah my bad. It wasn't that the 100% in Ffosse meant that you had fully charged the device and not a representation of the maximum capacity of the battery compared to the design capacity.

 

[cynics]

My problem with battery life is software related. On iOS 5 my 4S had very good battery, 7-8 hours. Now the with iOS 8 and a brand new battery I can only get 3-4 hours with the same usage. Its to be expected in a sense but 3-4 hours is miserable and constitutes me micro managing features which I hate doing.

 

[GalvaJ]

My charging habits are as follows: I plug my phone in when I go to bed and I unplug when I wake up. So figure for most of the time I'm asleep it's plugged in while at 100% seeing as it'll be fully charged after roughly 2 hours. I also will plug it in during the day if I feel I won't be able to make to the end with whatever I have at the time.

On both my 4S and 5S I have noticed battery performance start to drop after about 14 months. I noticed the same on my girlfriends iPhone 5 and she has the same charging habits as myself.

I'm waiting on my iPhone 6 now and I think I'm gonna try to get into the habit of charging to 100% and unplugging right away. So that'll mean that I'll avoid charging while I sleep as much as possible. I'll see how that goes for me over the course of the next year.

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My problem with battery life is software related. On iOS 5 my 4S had very good battery, 7-8 hours. Now the with iOS 8 and a brand new battery I can only get 3-4 hours with the same usage. Its to be expected in a sense but 3-4 hours is miserable and constitutes me micro managing features which I hate doing.

I remember my iPhone 4S being fantastic in both battery, and performance when it had iOS5. Then with iOS6 I noticed it lost some of the peppyness that I loved about it. And battery life wasn't the same anymore either. Even after a battery swap. I wasn't surprised to see it. But it sucked cause I really loved every single thing about that phone when it had iOS5 on it.

Honestly, I didn't even feel that great about my 5s with iOS7 on it. Sometimes I feel hesitation when I'm moving though things quickly. Makes me wish we'll have a Snow Leopard type of release with iOS sometime soon. We can definitely use it I think. That's a convo for another thread though.

 

[TigerMSTR]

There's no need to micromanage your iPhone battery. There are controllers in the hardware that take care of all that.

 

[Michael CM1]

The more I have had to drive in the past year, the more I'm using my iPhone for music or podcasts. Thus with my 5s I had to charge nightly because it went below 50 percent. I have been using my iPhone 6 even more, so it still needs a nightly charge. I think with my 4s it quite often just needed changes every other night, but at some point I started using a dock that charged while outputting sound to the car stereo. So hard to know the real battery life there.

 

[theapplefanboyj]

My 4S battery was too bad to deal with. I replaced the battery too, since it was a launch day phone. But still, the battery would die at around 4:30pm.

 

[DoNoHarm]

I'm considering buying Apple Care for $99 for my iPhone 6. It includes free battery replacement for battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification for up to two years after the purchase of the iPhone. Typically an Apple battery replacement would cost $79, so if I do get my battery replaced the $99 for Apple Care+ is well worth it considering the peace of mind from the accidental damage protection Apple Care+ provides.

Before I make the purchase I'm trying to gauge how long I can expect my iPhone 6 battery to last. Apple says, "your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles." With my phone battery in good health I typically use a little more than one charge cycle per day. So assuming that in 365 days (1 year) I'll use 400 charge cycles, my battery will have less than 80% of its original capacity approximately 15 months after I purchased the device.

The unknown factor is how rapidly the battery health will deplete after I hit 500 cycles. With all the devices I've owned previously the battery has been very good for the first year and a half, but after that the battery health degrades rapidly. For example, when I first bought my Nexus 4 I almost always was able to go 8 hour off the charger, and it wasn't at all unusual for me to have 12 hour days with more moderate usage. Some 16 months after I purchased the device, with typical usage I'm lucky to get 4 to 5 hours off the charger and even when I hardly touch the device, its batter is depleted to about 50% after 6 hours of the charger. This degradation in battery life happened strikingly quickly. My friend with an iPhone 4s had similar experiences.

My question for you guys is how was the battery life of your devices after two years and how frequently you charge b the device. This will greatly assist me in deciding if I should purchase Apple Care+.

While you may want the convenience, strictly from a dollars and cents perspective, replacing the battery is like $15, not $79. I just bought a replacement battery for my iphone 4s off ebay for $15. It came with all the tools, I went to ifixit.com for a super clear step by step guide, and it took me about 2 minutes. And it's not like we're talking about replacing some integrated component of the device. It's a glorified duracell we're talking about. Easy peasy. My adivce is not to bother with applecare. Especially with the popularity of these phones in China, you will find a super cheap option online for whatever component breaks down and you can just go to ifixit to take care of it.

 

[mich070]

I really don t know how you can get less charge cycles as yours guys! I am using a brand new iphone 5 since one months and i am already at 32 charge cycles... I always charge my phone at around 40% until i reach 100%. Is there sth i am doing wrong? I am experiencing amazing battery life btw!