iPhone 5 battery life [Merged]

[tarasis]

I've been monitoring my 5 after DFU Restoring it to a clean state (pulling contacts, bookmarks and whatnot from iCloud but no apps)

From last charge (46 hours ago), the phone is now down to 47% and showing 3h 45m usage, however most of that isn't actually real usage.

In the first 34 hours, it dropped 16% from 100% to 84%, using 56 minutes of usage. Of that usage the phone was checked 7 times to see what the current % was and the usage times. It was then locked immediately. There was no mail checking, there was a push account but received no email, no imessages or other Notifications.

This was better than before when I restored from my 4S where it was dropping 10%+ overnight (1-2% an hour) and I though "YAY! Problem solved"

However in the last 12 hours, I've gone from 84% to 47% without doing a whole heck of a lot (I took some photos, had a 7 minute phone call, received 6 text iMessages, looked one thing up on Google Translate via Safari, checked a date in Calendar, photostream uploaded the photos when I got home and I guess downloaded them again, and played about an hour of music) and I now stand at 3h 45 usage. Which to put it mildly is crap.

Is it the phone or is it iOS 6? I'm not running LTE, signal is strong around here, I have no none Apple apps on the phone atm and I've basically not been using it.

I'm off to the Apple Store tomorrow for a Genius appointment (regarding nicks on the phone that it came with, the fact that when connected to my Mac sometimes that iPhone 5 overloads the USB socket, and very minorly some dust under the glass (grey patch in lower left of screen))

 

[epphllps]

Didnt even listen to music..only browsing and some pics.

So you browsed and looked at pics for 12 hours and 11 mins? Usage means you use the phone that long. I hate coming off as a prick but we know better at this point. Cool you are getting long usage but all of us can inflate our stats. We are actually trying to help one another in this thread. Sorry for being a d ick.

 

[ucdesai]

I've been monitoring my 5 after DFU Restoring it to a clean state (pulling contacts, bookmarks and whatnot from iCloud but no apps)

From last charge (46 hours ago), the phone is now down to 47% and showing 3h 45m usage, however most of that isn't actually real usage.

In the first 34 hours, it dropped 16% from 100% to 84%, using 56 minutes of usage. Of that usage the phone was checked 7 times to see what the current % was and the usage times. It was then locked immediately. There was no mail checking, there was a push account but received no email, no imessages or other Notifications.

This was better than before when I restored from my 4S where it was dropping 10%+ overnight (1-2% an hour) and I though "YAY! Problem solved"

However in the last 12 hours, I've gone from 84% to 47% without doing a whole heck of a lot (I took some photos, had a 7 minute phone call, received 6 text iMessages, looked one thing up on Google Translate via Safari, checked a date in Calendar, photostream uploaded the photos when I got home and I guess downloaded them again, and played about an hour of music) and I now stand at 3h 45 usage. Which to put it mildly is crap.

Is it the phone or is it iOS 6? I'm not running LTE, signal is strong around here, I have no none Apple apps on the phone atm and I've basically not been using it.

I'm off to the Apple Store tomorrow for a Genius appointment (regarding nicks on the phone that it came with, the fact that when connected to my Mac sometimes that iPhone 5 overloads the USB socket, and very minorly some dust under the glass (grey patch in lower left of screen))

For those who are having multiple mail acconts setup as Push, change the mail settings to fetch every 30 mins or 1 hour. This will dramtically improve your battery life.

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I've been monitoring my 5 after DFU Restoring it to a clean state (pulling contacts, bookmarks and whatnot from iCloud but no apps)

From last charge (46 hours ago), the phone is now down to 47% and showing 3h 45m usage, however most of that isn't actually real usage.

In the first 34 hours, it dropped 16% from 100% to 84%, using 56 minutes of usage. Of that usage the phone was checked 7 times to see what the current % was and the usage times. It was then locked immediately. There was no mail checking, there was a push account but received no email, no imessages or other Notifications.

This was better than before when I restored from my 4S where it was dropping 10%+ overnight (1-2% an hour) and I though "YAY! Problem solved"

However in the last 12 hours, I've gone from 84% to 47% without doing a whole heck of a lot (I took some photos, had a 7 minute phone call, received 6 text iMessages, looked one thing up on Google Translate via Safari, checked a date in Calendar, photostream uploaded the photos when I got home and I guess downloaded them again, and played about an hour of music) and I now stand at 3h 45 usage. Which to put it mildly is crap.

Is it the phone or is it iOS 6? I'm not running LTE, signal is strong around here, I have no none Apple apps on the phone atm and I've basically not been using it.

I'm off to the Apple Store tomorrow for a Genius appointment (regarding nicks on the phone that it came with, the fact that when connected to my Mac sometimes that iPhone 5 overloads the USB socket, and very minorly some dust under the glass (grey patch in lower left of screen))

For those who are having multiple mail accounts setup as Push, change the mail settings to fetch every 30 mins or 1 hour. This will dramatically improve your battery life.

 

[tarasis]

For those who are having multiple mail acconts setup as Push, change the mail settings to fetch every 30 mins or 1 hour. This will dramtically improve your battery life

I know but this is a newly restored system, there is only the one mail account (iCloud) that had been never checked and no mails pushed to the device. So there was no mail checking going on to drain. (Normally I use manual on other accounts anyway)

 

[Brandon0448]

I've been using my iPhone 5 moderately every day, just average use, and I've had no battery issues what so ever. I have my brightness on 50%.

+1 I have every feature turn on, wifi, bluetooth, location services, push email for 3 well used accounts, brightness at 50% and let auto-brightness do its thing. The only time I have battery problems is when I play Blood Brothers all day. But that is to be expected haha. Absolutely love my iPhone 5, was a huge upgrade over my abused iPhone 4.

 

[grenhall]

I know but this is a newly restored system, there is only the one mail account (iCloud) that had been never checked and no mails pushed to the device. So there was no mail checking going on to drain. (Normally I use manual on other accounts anyway)

I've had huge batteriproblems with BOTH my iPhone 5's. Looks completely solved with iOS 6.0.1. If the upgrade doesn't solve your issues, return it to Apple because it's a faulty device. Especially if you've restored it as new.

 

[Argentine86]

For those who got replacement...??

Question for those who got a replacement due to battery, how did they determine the phone is bad? Or do they only give a new one based on complaint and a picture of usage?

I'd like to take it in but I'd feel better knowing they can check or scan the phone to find an issue rather than just hand me a new one...

 

[0309385]

From what i've seen on my iPhone 5 is that it really drains super ****ing quick when bluetooth is streaming to my car or where I leave on bluetooth and just go about my life without it actually being connected to my car when im not in it...

 

[lawhochun]

This is absolutely shameful

 

[moldy lunchbox]

This is absolutely shameful

Unless you were recording video that whole time, I'd be at the Apple Store on my next lunch break replacing it.

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Question for those who got a replacement due to battery, how did they determine the phone is bad? Or do they only give a new one based on complaint and a picture of usage?

I'd like to take it in but I'd feel better knowing they can check or scan the phone to find an issue rather than just hand me a new one...

They take the phone in the back and run tests on it. I don't know what they do but they'll bring it back out and tell you whether its defective.

 

[grenhall]

He wrote 13 hrs if you put your glasses on.
And yes, cellular is a power drainer.

By the way- everyone can't get 10hrs on wifi. That's a faulty assumption. Every battery doesn't work the same.

I have never said that all batteries work the same just that everyone can get 10h browsing without cellular data enabled.

 

[lawhochun]

Unless you were recording video that whole time, I'd be at the Apple Store on my next lunch break replacing it.

I was browsing on LTE and listening to music....its my third day with the phone. I will give it a few more days and few more charge cycles before taking it back to Apple.

 

[Sharule]

So you browsed and looked at pics for 12 hours and 11 mins? Usage means you use the phone that long. I hate coming off as a prick but we know better at this point. Cool you are getting long usage but all of us can inflate our stats. We are actually trying to help one another in this thread. Sorry for being a d ick.

I swear to god all i did was fb browsing pics vids..this is on wifi only and auto brightness (20-40%).

Look at this. Its from now, listened to 1 song. Or you think i only use my phone for music lol

And brightness is on 50% all day.

 

[Adutrumque]

I have never said that all batteries work the same just that everyone can get 10h browsing without cellular data enabled.

That's the same thing. You're laying off arguments towards yourself. Good job.

 

[tarasis]

Had phone replaced for other issues yesterday, charged overnight and have yet to see how the Battery holds up.

 

[tarasis]

The battery in the replacement iPhone seems to be working better.

I've listened to an hour of music (was out and about during that time in the supermarket), rearranged a few apps, and had a couple of photos sync over photostream later but after 9h 45 minutes standby and 1h 11 minutes usage the phone has only dropped 2%.

This is with the settings I had before, Cell is on, LTE is on though none around, Wifi on attached to a G network, only the stock apps and settings, iCloud enabled with all associated features.

 

[JayGlow]

I got a replacement and it's no better.

I got exactly 6 hours usage out of it after a full cycle charge. Did another full cycle charge last night, and then it stayed on 100% for ages, and then started dropping loads quickly. Went down from 94% to 90% instantly, then later went from 89% to 96% instantly. I'm currently on for just over 6 hours usage.

It just doesn't seem good enough. I basically see it drop a % everytime I press the home button. Is the batery defective or are my settings screwing it up? Should I try a restore, even though it is brand new and I didn't restore from backup? I just activated over wifi.

 

[frozzbite]

so sick of battery life issues. I actually felt better when i turned off the battery percentage.

I get 7hrs 14mins. Spent most of the day on wifi. At most a couple of hours on 3G/Edge

I feel like taking my friend's iPhone 5 (he is about to return it even though he gets pretty decent battery times), and swap batteries with him. What do you guys think? I just bought a tool kit to open iphones

 

[mac00l]

I don't know if anyone said this, buy iTunes Match has a glitch.

I realized whit my 3GS that iTunes Match uses a TON of your data, even when downloading over 3G is disabled.

Therefore the second day after getting my iPhone 5 and a full overnight charge, I started downloading songs trough itunes match in my home's wifi for a few minutes. I went to work and due to the match data issue I disabled data services in my phone. After 3 hours I realized that it was down to 20% battery. After a while it was off.

The next day was exactly the same, and I was seriously considering going to Apple.

Then in the third day I realized iTunes match had some sort of glitch. After downloading 50 or so song, it got stuck trying to download a song (but never actually downloading it). Even with everything off it kept trying to make the download.

I manually stopped the problematic songs (about 6) and disabled iTunes Match .

A week since, my phone ends the day with 40% remaining battery after a day worth of fairly use. Whereas after the same use my old iPhone 3GS finished with 20% even after having juice for 2 hours during each day. A Storm 2 that I used to have, was always dead by 3-4 pm.

If you are having battery issues disable iTunes Match, AND location services for reminders, which also seems to be a drainer.

 

[berniemakaveli]

I was recently in the bay area where i had a constant 4-5 bars of LTE on my 5 and got 6-7 hours usage mostly browsing with some maps use here and there. Back in Vegas where I have 2-3 bars of LTE i got 4 hours and 30 minutes of usage today. Does one or two bars of service really make that much of a difference? This is my 2nd iPhone 5, I want to exchange it at Apple but i feel the one they give me will be the same story.

 

[YOKOJP]

My first iphone 5, I get an average of 6 hours basically doing NOTHING. little web, and music. I have bluetooth, location services, and mail off. I called apple and got a second iphone 5. Used it for about a week and even worth battery life than my first iphone 5. Apple will send me a third one this Wednesday and hopefully everything works out.

My wife's iphone 5 gets about 9hours. That should be normal for all iphone 5s

 

[berniemakaveli]

My wife's iphone 5 gets about 9hours. That should be normal for all iphone 5s

I agree and thats what confuses me too. We have half iPhone 5 users with phenomenal battery life and the other half with very sub-par battery life. Unless Apple shipped thousands of defective phones by some strange accident, i have no idea why theres such a discrepancy.

 

[Adutrumque]

My first iphone 5, I get an average of 6 hours basically doing NOTHING. little web, and music. I have bluetooth, location services, and mail off. I called apple and got a second iphone 5. Used it for about a week and even worth battery life than my first iphone 5. Apple will send me a third one this Wednesday and hopefully everything works out.

My wife's iphone 5 gets about 9hours. That should be normal for all iphone 5s

It's different with 3G/4G/LTE
Try that and you'll get 6 hrs with that phone.

I get 9-10 hrs with wifi and 6 with 3G. Thats the general battery life for most iphone 5's.

 

[kannesss]

I've heard if you have a bad LTE signal it will drain your battery. Can't you just run 3G on it still ??

 

[YOKOJP]

It's different with 3G/4G/LTE
Try that and you'll get 6 hrs with that phone.

I get 9-10 hrs with wifi and 6 with 3G. Thats the general battery life for most iphone 5's.

My wife's phone connects to LTE all day and she gets an average of 9 hours. My iphone is the same connection but I only get an average of 4-5 hours. That's a big difference.