iPhone 4S Battery Life Worse for 3G Data and Media as Compared to iPhone 4

[*LTD*]

You have zero way of knowing this because you don't know how many iPhones were tested in each group, their individual values, and hence the standard deviations of each group. So before you want to spout your mouth off with garbage, like Jobs once said, go educate yourself.

Just looking at the graph. Chill.

How utterly predictable, of course if the changes were opposite you would be raving about the brilliance And genius of apple and their ability to make the greatest invention in history even better.

According to the graph, the changes don't appear to be that significant. Am I wrong? I don;t see any major deviation. The only thing that stands out is 3G data, and it doesn't seem that bad.

LOL what else would you have me say?

 

[samcraig]

Further - if the battery life is hampered by using 3G so much on the 4S - could it also be the new antenna and software which is designed to toggle between them to get the best signal. Maybe this toggling/sub-routine drains the battery faster... again - just throwing the idea out there - I'm not an engineer.

 

[faroZ06]

It will be 12 months until the iPhone 5 (at least), yar too long to have waited with my 3GS. If you own a 4, I can understand waiting, although anyone with a 4 saying the 4S isn't a better phone than the 4 is in denial.

Getting the 4GS after the 3GS is understandable, but it is still technically better to wait for the 5 because it won't be outdated for a long time. If the 5S comes out, it will just be faster. If the 6 comes out, it will take a long time to make.

But the 4GS will be outdated by the revolutionary 5 more quickly.

 

[johncrab]

My own tests show that the 4S moves 3G data 5.7 times faster than my 3Gs, so I would expect it to take more energy to do this but it does things faster. I'm not seeing any significant difference in battery life between the two.

 

[PantalonesSucia]

BTW, apple ALWAYS fine tunes the OS for better battery life in new models in subsequent OS updates. I am fairly certain this will be addressed...

Hopefully this. My 3GS was so banged up battery wise that I needed another phone asap. Now my phone is faster with the suspect battery rather than being slow with a crap battery. Heyyyy, I'm movin' on up!!!

 

[jeznav]

Turn off Siri's accelerometer monitoring

In Siri settings, turn off Raise to Speak. This apparently stops the accelerometer from constantly monitoring which drains the battery life while on standby.

 

[randfee2]

what sucks WAY MORE is the fact that I can't deactivate 3G at all!
Sorry, but WTF!!!

Here (at work) my 4S keeps switching between 1 bar 3G and five bars edge. What sense does that make?
The battery gets abused constantly trying to logon to the 3G net which I personally barely used before. I don't need the speed. At work I:

• Check/send email
• Check/send messages
• call colleagues
• check/edit calendar
• use the calculator & camera every once in a while

What I want is maximum battery and not 3G network! My runtime due to constant (3G) network seeking is far lower than what it is for my colleagues with iPhones 4 that have 3G deactivated!

So the real comparison would be in an area where it keeps logging on and off of the 3G network. You'd see that it has WAY LESS runtime there, because the iPhone 4 can be told to not try and log on to 3G, the 4S can't

 

[mrgreen21]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Mophie juice pack plus!!! Plug your phone in at night!!!!!

 

[faroZ06]

Just a hunch, maybe the 4Ss shipped with faulty batteries? Apple products haven't been that way since 2005. Before that, a release-date iMac was a bad idea. They always had some kind of problems if you got the release-date ones.

 

[futch]

Appearances or not, my 4S is distinctly worse than my 4 (concerning battery life). I get it, the A5 (and new GPU) do require greater draw...but this should only be noticeable under load (IMHO).

I'm hoping that some software fixes and battery conditioning will alleviate the issues...but for reference, my phone was charged to 100% at midnight; when I woke up at 7:20, it was at 93%.

No WiFi, no Bluetooth, no Location Services, no iCloud Sync, brightness at 1/3, email was set to 30min intervals (not push). Only App that was active was the clock/alarm.

I dont care how you slice it, that is pathetic and not the experience Apple has earned it's fantastic reputation providing us loyal fans.

I had 3% less drain overnight for the same timeframe. No idea why the disparity for the same phone, outside of different service providers (I have AT&T).

200 hours of standby time, times 4% (loss overnight) = 8 hours give or take. So my phones battery loss was a hair off the advertised loss. We can agree to disagree as I do not see this battery loss/issue as pathetic, albeit I am not experiencing the loss some other users are (who are rightfully concerned).

I am sure a clear answer to the battery issues will emerge. Patience (whether you have it or not) will be required to get the answers. There is always the ability to return the phone...

 

[faroZ06]

In Siri settings, turn off Raise to Speak. This apparently stops the accelerometer from constantly monitoring which drains the battery life while on standby.

If this is a software issue, Apple can fix it easily soon.

 

[jebbe]

I believe iMessage does cause your phone to drain much quicker cause it may send over the phone differently. Cause technically its just using the data from wifi/3g. Now I don't know what protocol SMS/MMS uses when sending, but it could because it's hogging data versus regular cell signal?

Does this make any sense?

 

[mrmoe]

lol dont do that, be smart, and sell it to someone that can use it and not complain

I am actually positive it is a Sprint issue but I don't want to be stuck with their crap contract.

 

[vikingdave]

3G data battery drain varies with signal strength

It's important to remember that 3G signal strength will influence battery drain as the radio varies the transmission power. I wonder how strong the signal was during this test ? It's possible that the 4S just has the ability to dial itself up a little stronger in terms of transmission power than the 4 in areas with a marginal signal. This test may be meaningful, but a different result might be seen in an area with a stronger 3G signal, it's hard to say without more information.

 

[tim0409]

The point is that some users are experiencing abnormal battery usage. I have Siri and location services off yet it is dropping 10% and hour with no use. My usage and standby stats are the same even though I am not using the phone. If I use the phone moderately I struggle to get half a day at the moment before I need to charge it. I have tried setting up a new phone but it is still the same. Either I have a faulty unit or it is software based.

PS And I yes I did think to charge it overnight for those suggesting this was the way forward.

 

[rockametrics]

Never ran iOS 5 on iPhone 4 so I can't compare apples to apples. I think the 4S drains a little more than the 4 did. Not a huge difference. I also have a lot of location services on.

Siri needs a little juice to keep her goin'

 

[raizil]

probably because of u guys being playing all the time with miss Siri.

 

[diamond.g]

The point is that some users are experiencing abnormal battery usage. I have Siri and location services off yet it is dropping 10% and hour with no use. My usage and standby stats are the same even though I am not using the phone. If I use the phone moderately I struggle to get half a day at the moment before I need to charge it. I have tried setting up a new phone but it is still the same. Either I have a faulty unit or it is software based.

PS And I yes I did think to charge it overnight for those suggesting this was the way forward.

If you reboot the phone do you still see the same drop per hour of non use?

 

[*LTD*]

probably because of u guys being playing all the time with miss Siri.

But she loves it, that incredibly useful little whore.

 

[ferrous]

I did notice 4S battery drains quicker

I did notice 4S battery drains quicker than my old iPhone 4. I'm using At&T, first I thought maybe since I've been playing with the new phone more, but now it concerns me that the batter is worse on this model.

 

[fabian9]

Ill wait for the iPhone 5 when a real successor comes out that warrants a £500 upgrade

You're not Apple's target market for the 4S. Apple is targeting new customers and customers who previously owned the 3Gs.

Owning an iPhone, in most cases, ties you into a 2 year contract, so it would be stupid for Apple to try to compete with their previous generation every year - how many people really have the money to buy their way out of a contract and sign up for a new one every year?

Having said that, the 4S is still a tempting upgrade from the 4. Sure, it looks the same, but apart from the screen and the RAM, it's completely different.

 

[toddybody]

LOL what else would you have me say?

He's just pointing out your guaranteed disposition to applaud Apple regardless of their decisions.

"Apple releases redesigned iPhone 5 with 4" screen and tapered aluminum design"

Way to go Apple. This is why the competition will never catch up. Apple will always be the leader in innovation, this phone proves that. They could have easily just given it the new A5 and improved cameras, but they didnt stop there. This new design really takes the iPhone to the next level...larger screen and consistent battery life is better than anything else out there.

Mean while, all the Android garbage is just doing spec bumps. Post PC-Era here we come.
*LTD*

"Apple releases iPhone 4S with A5 and improved camera"

Incredible. Apple really made the right choice here: Improve upon a perfect phone. Let's be honest, a redesign wasnt the best thing now. When all the competition is scrambling to release bigger and bigger phones, Apple stays away from a fad and delivers a perfect 10 again. The A5 and Siri are huge game changers. Pick out a coffin now Google/Microsoft/RIM.
*LTD*


---

Honest praise and criticism are essential to becoming the best you can be, and creating something truly special. If it starts with Apple, you totally forget that. Peace

 

[iSee]

Greater SIGNAL strength or are you noticing you can make calls where she can't? Because the bar indication means nothing in my opinion - you either can make a call/use data or can't. How many bars is pretty useless as it's all how the phone/software is programmed....

Yes, I checked that the bars were for real by actually making a call.

Anyone who's ever owned a cell phone for more than a day knows all about those lying bars.

 

[*LTD*]

He's just pointing out your guaranteed disposition to applaud Apple regardless of their decisions.

When they keep making great decisions, it's easy.

But you don't really need me to tell you that, right? Just look at the news.

 

[leenoble]

The point is that some users are experiencing abnormal battery usage. I have Siri and location services off yet it is dropping 10% and hour with no use

Even under iOS 4 it only took me a couple of weeks to realise that whenever I used the camera app *at all* that battery drainage would increase thereafter.

I got into the habit of force-quitting the camera whenever I'd finished using it. I could replicate this battery drain every time.

I've noticed though that with iOS 5, if you use the camera from the lock screen, it doesn't show up in the running apps list after you log in. I wonder if it is actually not there because it's run under a different "user" or is actually just running whatever background process that drains the battery, all the time.