Knowing what's included in iOS 8 (and probably having read various threads about it and different experiences that people have had with different devices on iOS 8) you are really the only one who can decide if it's worth it or not. Experiences differ for different people, so no one can really say what it might end up being for you, as well as what is more or less important for you in general and in various specifics, and thus if it's worth it for you or not.
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iOS 8.1 Battery Life
- Thread starter helicopter96
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Well in personal experience, I'm not sure how it performs on an iPhone 5s. On my iPad mini (or an iPhone 5), it's noticeably slower.
It's fairly comparable to iOS 7 on my iPhone 5. But, again, that only goes to show you that everyone has a somewhat different personal experience with things of this nature so they wouldn't necessarily apply the same way to the experience of others.
Sitting here with an iPhone 6, has had atrocious battery life since it first arrived with iOS 8.0. Have updated to 8.0.2 and 8.1 with hardly any change. I typically get 4 and a half to 5 hours of usage. I once saw it die with 3 and a half hours of usage. Notifications are minimal, background app refresh is off, 45% brightness, only one email, push is off, fetch is set to hourly. I usually go from 1-3 bars of LTE throughout the day though, but nothing usually in usage says low signal, so. Set up as a new phone, I've reset all settings a couple times and even restored as new. *sigh*
I have complained a lot on this forum about it, but haven't been able to get it looked at since the nearest Apple store is over 2 hours away so.
I have complained a lot on this forum about it, but haven't been able to get it looked at since the nearest Apple store is over 2 hours away so.
1 bar will absolutely kill your battery life as the phone has to ramp up power to stay connected to the tower. I can see a major difference in battery life between my house where I get 5 bars and my workplace where I get 3.
I only have 2 bars of 4G but usage is near 8-9 hours.
Something isn't right with that phone. 3-5 hrs is almost 50% off.
Faulty phone me thinks.
iOS 8.1 Battery Life
Is that "AT&T 4G" or LTE? LTE uses more power.
Also not all "usage" is equal. 2 hours of GPS usage can drain a phone, but 2 hours of playing music with the screen off will barely make a dent. Check the battery usage screen to see what's the highest battery drainer.
Is that "AT&T 4G" or LTE? LTE uses more power.
Also not all "usage" is equal. 2 hours of GPS usage can drain a phone, but 2 hours of playing music with the screen off will barely make a dent. Check the battery usage screen to see what's the highest battery drainer.
On 8.0 I consistently got over ten hours of usage on my 6 Plus. Since updating to 8.1, I struggle to get six hours. And this is with Apple Pay credit cards removed, same apps as before the update, and even more notifications and background app refresh disabled.
I can't figure out the iphone usage thing. My iphone 4 showed usage of 5 hours, standby of 15 hours, last night before bed -- and I still had 42% battery left. This was after a day where I listened to a one hour podcast, and exchanged 50 texts or so. A normal day for me, but the battery seemed to do better than on other days, when 5 hours usage would have left me around 20% or less. Heck, I was on track to post numbers competitive with the 6 Plus yesterday. On an iphone 4! (In contrast, I'd get about 5 hours of "Screen Time on" in a typical day using the LG G2, a phone known for its big battery.)
Why is the phone performing this well? Is that because it's using older, less battery draining networks or something?
Could be a number of different things. Perhaps you were in one area where the signal was good for a longer period of time and the phone didn't have to work hard switching towers looking for signals or trying to keep a weaker signal. Could be less of other processes were running or doing things in the background, as sometimes more could be going on and other times less. Etc.
Going out on a limb here but I bet you OTA update to 8.1 yes? I did the same thing (actually 8.1 beta to 8.1) and battery took a bit of hit. Quite noticeable but not like a major drain issue. Fresh restore via iTunes letting it backup and restore data as well solved it for my iPhone 6. Sounds about like your issue so worth a try. Pretty painless letting iTunes handle it all including restore backup and all good now if not better than it was.
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I would definitely not do it for that reason alone. That usage meter is not even totally accurate. Most of the time it does not even count phone calls. Had same issue on 4s and now 6. I can start the day with a 30 min phone call and a few minutes after hanging up look and shows like 5 or 6 min of usage. Look back at phone call record and it shows 30 min call. So 30 min call only shows 5 min usage in the battery stats. That 5 min would be other usage like checking email or checking for app updates etc. So if as you say that's the ONLY reason you want to upgrade I would advise against it. Looks like you getting good battery usage so wouldn't even worry about that meter if it were me.
I upgraded to iOS 8.1 last week and jail broke my iPhone, and I feel like I'm getting the same battery life, maybe a tad better. I am pretty surprised.
I will give you an example.
I use SLEEPCYCLE app, which I switch on before I go to sleep and switch it off as soon as I wake up. Since SLEEPCYCLE only makes a small dent in battery drainage, I used to get a usage of 10 + hours daily, and this used to confuse the hell out of me. For a while, I thought iOS 8 has improved battery life dramatically.
I started a thread, proudly wanting to show off my great battery life, until some other members on here, pointed out to me that using apps like these add to your USAGE hours, without killing the battery. So yes it is misleading, and I felt a tad bit foolish...
Now, as long as the phone lasts me a day (which it does with about 20% still left by the time I reach home), I have stopped looking at the usage and standby..
Hmm. Interesting. I guess the important thing is do they perform better or worse than the previous model or whatever. For example, if you go from a 5s to a 6, or come from an android to iphone, are you seeing improved battery life and longer lasting days?
It actually isn't. I always do major updates through iTunes, since I don't have enough extra space on my iPhone. But thanks for the suggestion. However, my battery life has improved a tiny bit since first updating to 8.1.
My 5s lasts about 3-4 hours of normal use, just 3G turned on (no LTE) with all location services turned off and almost every battery draining feature turned off too. Horrible.
And yes, I have done several wipes, without restore from backup.
And yes, I have done several wipes, without restore from backup.
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Mine isn't quite that bad but I am seeing that just overnight form 1a to 9a it drained 34%. In an hour of texting it's down another 15%. This is on iOS 8.1. On iOS 7 I used to make it a full day and played low intensity games most of the day and would throw it on the charger with more than 20% left still.
I've tried the usual (reduce motion, background refresh off, etc). The one thing that finally worked for my iPhone 6 was turning off Touch ID for the lock screen and putting the passcode on for 1 hour after standby. Finally back to charging only while asleep!