iPhone 6 plus - battery life after 1st charge - not great

[sparkie7]

I used my brand new iPhone y'day out of the box till down to 20% battery. then charged it to 100% before going to bed.

Put it on Aeroplane mode before sleeping. woke up and it was still showing 100%

Switched aeroplane mode off at 8.30am this morning and have been using it moderately on 3G (instead of 4G) to keep it from draining battery. Took a handful of photos and some web browsing. Screen brightness at 33% instead of Auto brightness as it always cranks up the brightness more than I need.

I have minimal apps installed. Only Skype and XE,com app

Background refresh is turned off for everything except Weather app

Its 7pm now, only 10.5 hours later and my battery is down to 44%! which isn't as good as I was expecting. Was expecting it to last me at least 36-48 hours but looks like it might not even last 20 hours.

Looking at Battery Usage, it says USAGE: 5 hrs, 8 minutes. STANDBY: 18 Hrs, 16 mins. Does this mean I only have 5 hrs of useable battery life left?

Mail app (with a note below saying Background Activity) is using the most battery at 29% (whats going on?), Camera 16%..

.. is this normal for a first charge? does it get better or worse with use?

I'm on IOS 8.0.2 by the looks, should I upgrade to the latest IOS, will this help battery life?

Any other tips/advice to get longer battery life appreciated. Also is there a way to check if my battery is new and operating to spec. Is there a battery app checker or something?

Thanks in advance

 

[maka344]

The battery takes a week to adjust. Then it'll be better.

 

[sparkie7]

Thanks Maka, do you let your iPhone drain to zero before charging or do you top it up at charge?

 

[virginblue4]

Thanks Maka, do you let your iPhone drain to zero before charging or do you top it up at charge?

It really doesn't make a difference. This is from Apple page regarding batteries.

"A charge cycle means using all the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80 per cent of original battery capacity."

More info here - https://www.apple.com/uk/batteries/

 

[PSB136]

Mail app (with a note below saying Background Activity) is using the most battery at 29% (whats going on?)

What's going on? Take a guess! It's constantly checking for mail. Set it to Manual instead of Push or Fetch to save battery life.

 

[tooobe]

Maybe mail is downloading all your mail in the background since you just set the phone up? Do you have a massive number of emails?

 

[maflynn]

Thanks Maka, do you let your iPhone drain to zero before charging or do you top it up at charge?

I avoid such tendencies and my batteries tend to last longer then my wife's who seems to do deep drains.

I'd check what processes are running, are they using location services? I found once that my Microsoft Band app was "stuck" and it kept the location services running (there's no need for that app to use location services) and that was sucking my battery dry. My point is you may have an errant app that is affecting the overall battery life.

 

[maka344]

For the first charge or so yes. This allows calibration.

Chances are, right now, if you get down to 1% it will last a while before it shuts off.

General rule is deplete the battery once per month only. Other than that, sporadic charges are best and never let it fall below 30-40% if you can help it.

If you have a plus and charge daily, you might struggle to get it lower than 30-40% battery.

Calibrate and then turn the % indicator off.

 

[pooleman]

I give no thought to how I drain my battery. I plug it in when I think it needs it. I have push mail and location services off.

 

[LeRoy712]

I thought the same thing as you after my first couple of days with my plus. The battery life wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. Now after about a week in my phone has calibrated itself and the battery life has been really really good. Pull off the charger at about 5am with medium heavy usage throughout the day I'm at about 30% at 10pm. With my 5 I would be about 10% after having charged it during the day sometimes twice.

 

[sparkie7]

It really doesn't make a difference. This is from Apple page regarding batteries.

"A charge cycle means using all the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80 per cent of original battery capacity."

More info here - https://www.apple.com/uk/batteries/

Thanks for the info/link

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What's going on? Take a guess! It's constantly checking for mail. Set it to Manual instead of Push or Fetch to save battery life.

Ok thanks. I've turned off fetch & pull. All manual now

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I avoid such tendencies and my batteries tend to last longer then my wife's who seems to do deep drains.

I'd check what processes are running, are they using location services? I found once that my Microsoft Band app was "stuck" and it kept the location services running (there's no need for that app to use location services) and that was sucking my battery dry. My point is you may have an errant app that is affecting the overall battery life.

I have turned location services on as many apps as I can find. Hopefully this will help

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General rule is deplete the battery once per month only. Other than that, sporadic charges are best and never let it fall below 30-40% if you can help it.

If you have a plus and charge daily, you might struggle to get it lower than 30-40% battery.

Calibrate and then turn the % indicator off.

I'm trying not to have to charge my phone daily. ie. Trying to get 1.5-2 days worth before having to charge.

Re-Charging at 30% level would mean losing a half days use, which would mean charging daily - more or less. What's the reason for not letting it drop below 30-40% ? -- because of memory effect? Or lessens battery lifespan?

 

[sparkie7]

Re partial charging vs charging to full 100% -- is it better either way?

Sometimes I don't have time to wait for my phone to charge to full. Does partially charging it several times a day affect he battery lifespan or performance?

 

[virginblue4]

Re partial charging vs charging to full 100% -- is it better either way?

Sometimes I don't have time to wait for my phone to charge to full. Does partially charging it several times a day affect he battery lifespan or performance?

Please read what I posted, this will answer your question. It's based on cycles, whether you do one full charge or 5 charges at 20% each time, it's still only 1 cycle.

 

[Abarth1200]

Can I offer a suggestion, I wouldn't worry about turning everything off if you are getting a days usage out of it if you charge every night. Some people get too caught up with trying to conserve their battery and forget there phone has a purpose and needs stuff left switch on, like push email for your important email accounts etc.

 

[snsking]

This is my battery life so far, I've only charged it twice since I've gotten it (Saturday afternoon )

If you feel your battery life isn't up to par, you can try and do a full restore and set the phone up as new. Give it a few days to sink in, and if it doesn't remain constant after a few days then something might be wrong.

You mentioned you have 5+ hours usage, which means the screen has been on for 5+ hours while you used it. You still had 44% at that point, so I'd say you're doing average right now in terms of battery life

 

[utahman130]

I only get 10 hours of usage with low brightness, background app refresh off, location services off, no Bluetooth, no games, time zone set manually, and Siri off on my 16 GB Plus. Restored and set up as new yesterday. I just text, browse the web, and check Twitter a lot.

 

[Gathomblipoob]

The battery takes a week to adjust. Then it'll be better.

Agreed. It was much better after about a week.

 

[sparkie7]

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions all.

Just one outstanding Q if anyone can answer?

Re-Charging at 30% level would mean losing a half days use, which would mean charging daily - more or less. What's the reason for not letting it drop below 30-40% ? -- because of memory effect? Or lessens battery lifespan?

 

[maka344]

Its better for the longer life span of the battery.

Those who allow it to completely die, daily, will have shorter overall battery life.

If you upgrade yearly, there's no need to worry.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions all.

Just one outstanding Q if anyone can answer?

Re-Charging at 30% level would mean losing a half days use, which would mean charging daily - more or less. What's the reason for not letting it drop below 30-40% ? -- because of memory effect? Or lessens battery lifespan?

The battery has only a certain number of recharge cycles (this is why you see a lot of threads in the MBP forum about battery cycles). Deep drains shorten the lifespan of the battery.

I charge my IP6+ daily, even if its not needed. I plug it in during the day while I work. Since I work in front of a computer this option is available to me, not everyone can do that obviously.

 

[sparkie7]

Its better for the longer life span of the battery.

Those who allow it to completely die, daily, will have shorter overall battery life.

If you upgrade yearly, there's no need to worry.

Ok thanks

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The battery has only a certain number of recharge cycles (this is why you see a lot of threads in the MBP forum about battery cycles). Deep drains shorten the lifespan of the battery.

I charge my IP6+ daily, even if its not needed. I plug it in during the day while I work. Since I work in front of a computer this option is available to me, not everyone can do that obviously.

how about the reverse? When you charge it, do you charge it all the way to 100% or do you charge to say only 80%. Or does it not matter so much with recharging?

 

[Archer1440]

I, too, have experienced what seems to be steadily INCREASING battery performance on my 6+. Using push and 15 min fetch on 5 accounts, considerable Safari use through the day on both LTE and WiFi, 5-6 calls, a couple hours of music listening, and typically still have 60-70% battery remaining by 8 PM.

Really remarkable performance. This alone makes up for the occasional inconvenience of the sheer size of the device (which in turn greatly redeems itself when using the web).

 

[darngooddesign]

...Any other tips/advice to get longer battery life appreciated.

#1 tip.

Relax and realize it's a battery and takes a several cycles before you get the best battery life.

 

[temna]

My first day with my iPhone 6 Plus I went 14.5 hours off the charger, using it like I regularly would and still had 45% battery. I love rubbing the battery life in my wife's iPhone 5's face.. =)

 

[lordofthereef]

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions all.

Just one outstanding Q if anyone can answer?

Re-Charging at 30% level would mean losing a half days use, which would mean charging daily - more or less. What's the reason for not letting it drop below 30-40% ? -- because of memory effect? Or lessens battery lifespan?

There isn't one. Unfortunately this has been a topic that comes up with every iphone. With current battery tech there simply is no reason to stress about when and how long you charge.

Use an apple approved charger. Plug in when it's available and convenient. You will be fine.

I will say that, based in your usage reports, your battery life is a bit low. But don't stress. Use it a while. Use it how you normally would. If it's still low apple should take care of you. Using it for a single day with a single charge isn't going to give you a real understanding of how anything performs, really.