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iPhone X - Poor battery life

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sdilley14

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Is anyone else experiencing poor battery life on their iPhone X?

Right now I'm losing between 20-30% of battery life per hour with pretty basic usage (social media, texting, Snapchat, that sort of thing). The phone also feels like it is running a little warm.

I have background app refresh turned off, I have the "Hey Siri" listening function turned off, I kill background apps when I'm not using them, I have screen brightness turned all the way up (I realize this doesn't help the cause, but it shouldn't destroy the battery on it's own), I'm not streaming videos or gaming or anything like that.

I've had the phone for about 4 days. I would think that the Spotlight indexing is finished by now, so I wouldn't suspect that of being the battery draining culprit.
 
1) Are you running beta iOS?
2) Did you set up as new or from backup?
3) What apps are you using the most?

Edited to add: Screen brightness all the way up will use a lot of battery, not to mention doesn't help prevent burn-in.
 
sdilley14 said:
Is anyone else experiencing poor battery life on their iPhone X?

Right now I'm losing between 20-30% of battery life per hour with pretty basic usage (social media, texting, Snapchat, that sort of thing). The phone also feels like it is running a little warm.

I have background app refresh turned off, I have the "Hey Siri" listening function turned off, I kill background apps when I'm not using them, I have screen brightness turned all the way up (I realize this doesn't help the cause, but it shouldn't destroy the battery on it's own), I'm not streaming videos or gaming or anything like that.

I've had the phone for about 4 days. I would think that the Spotlight indexing is finished by now, so I wouldn't suspect that of being the battery draining culprit.
Click to expand...
What are the actual usage and standby times that you are seeing (and at what battery percentages)?
 
need a screen shot of battery in settings. i'm at 55% with 3hr 57mins of usage on the latest iOS and really like the battery life i'm getting.
 
There is that
sdilley14 said:
Is anyone else experiencing poor battery life on their iPhone X?

Right now I'm losing between 20-30% of battery life per hour with pretty basic usage (social media, texting, Snapchat, that sort of thing). The phone also feels like it is running a little warm.

I have background app refresh turned off, I have the "Hey Siri" listening function turned off, I kill background apps when I'm not using them, I have screen brightness turned all the way up (I realize this doesn't help the cause, but it shouldn't destroy the battery on it's own), I'm not streaming videos or gaming or anything like that.

I've had the phone for about 4 days. I would think that the Spotlight indexing is finished by now, so I wouldn't suspect that of being the battery draining culprit.
Click to expand...


Screen brightness all the way up is your problem. You should never do this for long periods of time. But also apps in the background have no affect on your battery, a huge myth. They are frozen so it doesn't take any ram, cpu or battery while they are frozen. In all actually killing the apps after every use will cause you to use more battery since it has to load up every time you open it again. If its just frozen it doesn't take as much to unfreeze vs opening all the way.
 
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I get about 8-9 hours of usage auto brightness on and I restored from an iCloud backup.

Not bad, but I’m trying to find ways that I can break the 10 hour usage window. That would be great
 
Lobwedgephil said:
Well, social media apps kill the battery, seems high but you could be on snapchat and Facebook for 60 mins straight.
Click to expand...

BasicGreatGuy said:
1) Are you running beta iOS?
2) Did you set up as new or from backup?
3) What apps are you using the most?

Edited to add: Screen brightness all the way up will use a lot of battery, not to mention doesn't help prevent burn-in.
Click to expand...

Attached a screenshot of the battery usage. I'm at 80% right now (I've had it sitting on the wireless charger for about 20-30 mins).

I use most of the social media apps in short bursts, browsing for 5-10 minutes at a time multiple times throughout the day.

1. I am running the most recent version of iOS
2. I set the phone up from a backup of my iPhone 6 (you place the new phone next to the old phone during setup and it transfers everything over)
3. 'Most used' apps are shown in the attached screenshot

battery1.png battery2.jpg
 
sdilley14 said:
Attached a screenshot of the battery usage. I'm at 80% right now (I've had it sitting on the wireless charger for about 20-30 mins).

I use most of the social media apps in short bursts, browsing for 5-10 minutes at a time multiple times throughout the day.

1. I am running the most recent version of iOS
2. I set the phone up from a backup of my iPhone 6 (you place the new phone next to the old phone during setup and it transfers everything over)
3. 'Most used' apps are shown in the attached screenshot

View attachment 737243 View attachment 737247
Click to expand...


Yeah that’s not normal. Idk factory reset it and see if that fixes it
 
There’s this weird knowledge out there that OLED is apparently more energy efficient than LCD displays. Not quite the case, especially without a dark mode in iOS. Just for reference from DisplayMate, when you are showing 100% white content at full brightness, the display pulls 3.25 watts! In comparison, the 6/7/8 Plus pull 1.52 watts at full brightness regardless of what they are showing. That is a HUGE difference.

To me, the brightness slider combined with white backgrounds will destroy battery life quicker than anything else on the iPhone X. I’ve been keeping my brightness at least below half and using Smartinvert from time to time when I know I’ll be browsing the internet. It’s amazing how much big of a difference having those pixels off does!
 
Renho said:
There is that



Screen brightness all the way up is your problem. You should never do this for long periods of time. But also apps in the background have no affect on your battery, a huge myth. They are frozen so it doesn't take any ram, cpu or battery while they are frozen. In all actually killing the apps after every use will cause you to use more battery since it has to load up every time you open it again. If its just frozen it doesn't take as much to unfreeze vs opening all the way.
Click to expand...
That's actually not true in all scenarios. Some apps play silent audio to bypass the CPU freezing you're talking about. They're easy to identify though as they'll show high background usage.
 
I go through this list to perserve battery life and choose the ones that apply to my preferences

Battery saving tips

1. Settings > WiFi > Disable Ask to Join Networks

2. Settings > Cellular > Enable LTE > OFF If you don't need it

3. Settings > Cellular > Go all the way to the bottom > Turn OFF Wi-Fi Assist

4. Settings > General > Spotlight Search > Turn OFF everything there

5. Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps > Turn OFF everything there

6. Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > ON

7. Settings > General > Background App Refresh > switch it OFF

8. Settings > General > Display & Brightness > Turn off Auto-Brightness and turn down the brightness to what feels comfortable. Do not have it on full brightness

9. Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Make sure all apps are set to "Never" or "While Using". Go to Share My Location and make sure it is OFF. Then go back to Location Services and go down to System Services and turn OFF everything there except for Find my iPhone/iPad/iPod.

10. Settings > Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Turn OFF Fitness Tracking

11. Settings > Privacy > Diagnostic & Usage > Check OFF Don't Send

12. Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Turn on Limit Ad Tracking, then press Reset Advertising Identifier

13. Settings > iCloud > Turn OFF anything here you don't use. I recommend turning OFF iCloud Drive, Everything in Photos, News, and Wallet.

14. Settings > App and iTunes Store > Turn OFF everything here.

15. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Tap on anything here besides iCloud and set it to Manual.

16. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Turn OFF Contacts Found in Mail

17. Settings > Messages > Turn OFF Send Read Receipts and Group Messaging if you don't use it.

18. Settings > Facetime > Turn OFF if not used.

19. Settings > Safari > Turn OFF Preload Top Hit. Turn OFF Safari Suggestions. Turn OFF Quick Website Search.

20. Settings > Safari > Turn ON Do Not Track.

21. Settings > News > Turn OFF Cellular Data. Turn OFF Show Story Previews.

22. Settings > Music > Turn OFF Show Apple Music if you don't use it.

23. Settings > Music > Turn OFF Use Cellular Data.

24. Settings > Videos > Turn OFF Show iTunes Purchases.

25. Settings > Photos & Camera > Turn off everything here.

26. Settings > iBooks > Turn OFF Cellular Data. Turn OFF Sync Bookmarks and Notes. Turn OFF Sync Collections. Turn OFF Online Content.

27. Settings > Podcasts > Turn off Sync Podcasts. Turn OFF Cellular Data. Change Refresh Every to MANUAL.

28. Settings > Game Center > Tap on your email address > Sign Out

29. Settings > Notifications > Go into each app and turn off notifications for apps you don’t need notifications on. Adjust for the ones you want and turn off the show on lock screen. Constantly turning on your lock screen drains the battery

30. If you are using Facebook, go to account settings in the FB app and turn off autoplay in video and photos. This disables video post from playing when you scroll over them.

31. Settings > General > Siri> Hey Siri > switch it OFF if you don’t use it
 
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pdxmatts said:
I go through this list to perserve battery life and choose the ones that apply to my preferences

Battery saving tips

1. Settings > WiFi > Disable Ask to Join Networks

2. Settings > Cellular > Enable LTE > OFF If you don't need it

3. Settings > Cellular > Go all the way to the bottom > Turn OFF Wi-Fi Assist

4. Settings > General > Spotlight Search > Turn OFF everything there

5. Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps > Turn OFF everything there

6. Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > ON

7. Settings > General > Background App Refresh > switch it OFF

8. Settings > General > Display & Brightness > Turn off Auto-Brightness and turn down the brightness to what feels comfortable. Do not have it on full brightness

9. Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Make sure all apps are set to "Never" or "While Using". Go to Share My Location and make sure it is OFF. Then go back to Location Services and go down to System Services and turn OFF everything there except for Find my iPhone/iPad/iPod.

10. Settings > Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Turn OFF Fitness Tracking

11. Settings > Privacy > Diagnostic & Usage > Check OFF Don't Send

12. Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Turn on Limit Ad Tracking, then press Reset Advertising Identifier

13. Settings > iCloud > Turn OFF anything here you don't use. I recommend turning OFF iCloud Drive, Everything in Photos, News, and Wallet.

14. Settings > App and iTunes Store > Turn OFF everything here.

15. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Tap on anything here besides iCloud and set it to Manual.

16. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Turn OFF Contacts Found in Mail

17. Settings > Messages > Turn OFF Send Read Receipts and Group Messaging if you don't use it.

18. Settings > Facetime > Turn OFF if not used.

19. Settings > Safari > Turn OFF Preload Top Hit. Turn OFF Safari Suggestions. Turn OFF Quick Website Search.

20. Settings > Safari > Turn ON Do Not Track.

21. Settings > News > Turn OFF Cellular Data. Turn OFF Show Story Previews.

22. Settings > Music > Turn OFF Show Apple Music if you don't use it.

23. Settings > Music > Turn OFF Use Cellular Data.

24. Settings > Videos > Turn OFF Show iTunes Purchases.

25. Settings > Photos & Camera > Turn off everything here.

26. Settings > iBooks > Turn OFF Cellular Data. Turn OFF Sync Bookmarks and Notes. Turn OFF Sync Collections. Turn OFF Online Content.

27. Settings > Podcasts > Turn off Sync Podcasts. Turn OFF Cellular Data. Change Refresh Every to MANUAL.

28. Settings > Game Center > Tap on your email address > Sign Out

29. Settings > Notifications > Go into each app and turn off notifications for apps you don’t need notifications on. Adjust for the ones you want and turn off the show on lock screen. Constantly turning on your lock screen drains the battery

30. If you are using Facebook, go to account settings in the FB app and turn off autoplay in video and photos. This disables video post from playing when you scroll over them.

31. Settings > General > Siri> Hey Siri > switch it OFF if you don’t use it
Click to expand...
Good lord! Why are we turning off so many features!
 
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Renho said:
There is that



Screen brightness all the way up is your problem. You should never do this for long periods of time. But also apps in the background have no affect on your battery, a huge myth. They are frozen so it doesn't take any ram, cpu or battery while they are frozen. In all actually killing the apps after every use will cause you to use more battery since it has to load up every time you open it again. If its just frozen it doesn't take as much to unfreeze vs opening all the way.
Click to expand...
Background app refresh is not the same thing as apps open in the app switcher.
 
Coming from a 6, the X battery is insane.
I pulled mine off the charger this morning about 5:30 a.m. As of this post, 10:50 p.m. (~17.5 hrs), I have 41% remaining! #dang
Sure, YMMV. But in my standard usage patterns on my 6 vs. nearly identical standard usage patterns on my X, I'm completely blown away. I've not seen better battery efficiency in a hand-held.

Nothing like skipping few generations to really appreciate the latest tech, I guess.
 
pdxmatts said:
If you use all of those things, then be my guest. it's up to you what you want to do. This is just a guide for battery saving tips to help others. I'm sure that some people don't even know what is in the background enabled
Click to expand...

I understand, wasn’t trying to be snarky. It really is a comprehensive list. I actually used a few things off of there that I’m going to try myself and see what happens. I appreciate you posting this.
 
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