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Is anyone else finding the iPhone 6s to have bad battery life?

S

scaramoosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
857
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I've got the TSMC model, so this isn't a dig at Samsung or whatever, I don't care about all that crap. However I'm finding myself having to charge before the day is out, I just went for a 3 hour run, I listen to podcasts throughout that period and I went from 95% to 59% in that time. I turned off data and wifi, yet it's still draining my battery life mad and I'm, not a heavy user and podcasts/music shouldn't use that much battery. I had the same problem on the iPhone 5s when I had one of those, but I sold it and went back to my iPhone 4 while I waited for the S and the battery on that is fine.

I don't watch anything on my phone, I don't play games, I don't do a lot with it really, I don't even take many pictures. I had an Xperia Z1c awhile back and I used to get 5-6 days battery on a single charge with how I use my phone. I do the same run every day and on that phone I'd use about 5% battery only. I had a HTC One M7 and that got me 2 days, even my old Nokia 1020 would last me 2 days as well.

I don't get why the iPhone 6s is so bad, just turning on the screen will use a whole percent. If I unplug it in the morning at 100%, it'll be nearly dead come 8pm...

I'm even using low powered mode, so I would hate to think what it would be like with that off. It just makes me think if maybe Apple need to do the high powered and low powered core thing that you get on Android and Windows Phones.
 
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I counted my screen on time, only 2 hours, where the podcast app drained it by 36% in just 3 hours and that's counted as usage :\ Safari somehow used 16% of my battery and that was only used for 32 mins throughout the day.

To me this proves that the SoC is not very efficient and that the iPhone needs a bigger battery.

Usage was 13 hours for it to die but what counts as usage? listening to a Podcast should not use that much battery. If I listened to something all day while at work, it would be dead before I'm even finished, it should play audio all day with no issues.
 
Coming from a Note 3 > 6s+ > 6s > 6s+ I can definitely agree that the 6s battery felt like it didn't want to hang around. It was decent on standby, but when used a fair bit it spared no battery expense compared to the phablet batteries. If I had kept the 6s I would have done everything possible to conserve power.
 
Interestingly while still giving me 2 1/2 days on medium use. 9.02 is a fair bit worse on battery than 9.00 or 9.01. I was getting 3 days on them.

I was glad I updated to 9.02 as the camera had a bit of under the hood tweeks. But hope 9.1 sorts the battery.
 
Are you listening to locally stored music/podcasts or streaming them? If streaming them then it will use a lot of power, for instance a 1 hour podcast streamed over mobile data is pretty much like having a 1 hour phone call and Apple's claimed battery life on a 6s for talk time is up to 14 hours (http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-6s/specs/) and I assume that's in an almost perfect reception area and not moving between masts. If it's locally stored music/podcasts though then Apple claims up to 50 hours of audio playback (same link as before) so something seems very wrong with your setup (phone, iOS installation and/or interference from other installed apps).

Playing local music does increment the usage counter by the way, even if the screen isn't on. Some of the iOS housekeeping functions also seem to increment the usage counter as well. I can leave my phone completely untouched for a day and when I wake it up I'll see 20 or 30 minutes of usage even though I've never even gone within 6 feet of it for the entire time since taking it off the charger.

If I was you and this is locally stored music that we're talking about then I'd contact Apple about it because dying by 8pm when you're virtually using it as an iPod doesn't sound right. Being me though (a bit lazy) I'd probably wait a few weeks for iOS 9.1 to come out before contacting Apple in case that fixes it.
 
Do you have a rose gold phone? You not seen the latest 'gate'. Apparently the colour of your phone is now affecting battery life. The rose gold is coming out the worst as the signal can't get past the extra paint layer.

Silver has the best life apparently.
 
Coming from a galaxy s5 that was rooted with greenify and other battery saving tips, I find the 6s to have a really good battery life for the size. All day for me.
 
I am not doing too well on battery with my 6s. I switched from 6+, so maybe I just took my 6+ battery for granted, but I am getting really poor battery life. I usually have to plug in after 8ish hours standy/4.5-5 hours usage..

Then again, I also have EVERYTHING turned on: background app refresh, location services, iCloud push, Google and Apple location tracking.

Weird thing is when I turn all of those off, my battery is not that much better; I believe this is because I have the samsung chip.
 
6S is no different than every smartphone i've used for almost the last 10 years. I have a Galaxy S6 as well and they are about the same
 
I bought the 6s. I didn't activate it since I wanted to test the battery before I switched from my current phone. The damn phone lost 50% battery after 10 hours idling. During that 10 hours I didn't even use it, just let it sit there. Imagine if the phone is on LTE and with phone signal, the battery would be worse. I returned it.
 
I'm seeing a marked improvement over my old 6. Today being Sunday I didn't do a huge amount on the phone, but I did browse the net for around am hour, used Twitter, amd watched the news on a streaming site. Still got 82% after 12 hours standby and around 2 hours use.

@Aceroller, its funny, but everyone I know who uses Facebook sees battery drain, my daughter wasn't even getting 8 hours out of the battery on her 6, she uninstalled Facebook and now easily gets a full days use, even though she still uses as much Facebook, just via Safari. The Facebook app seems to still run in the background, even if denied in settings.

Anyone who mentions battery on any iPhone I suggest they remove the Facebook app and see the difference on battery life.
 
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I charge my battery to 100% before bed and I wake up with about 95% for no obvious reason. Safari browsing is a battery killer for some reason too.
 
6s Plus 128GB Space Grey
TSMC Chip
Typical use two days weekend, normal charge every night.
40% AT&T LTE one to two bars
60% WiFi AirPort Extreme 802.11ac Comcast cable 120 Mbps
25% screen brightness manual, except when outside at 100%
Hey Siri on all time, mail at 15 min, system services share location and find phone on others off, iCloud music, location on for apps if using except for weather on always, auto app update on for blocker apps others off, diagnostics usage on, advertising off, WiFi assist off, low power mode not used.

Have run this several times since receiving phone on 9/25 with similar results. All running smoothly, no lag, no issues what so ever. It's a keeper.


image.jpeg
 
I don't use Facebook or anything, my biggest drain is Podcasts which I listen to for 3 hours a day. Hearthstone says 10% of my usage even though I played it for 5 mins before realizing it wasn't for me. Safari uses so much battery and I barely use it...

It's like when I want to use the phone the battery loses 1% per min.


I'm taking it back though, I cannot live with this crap battery life, I know the 6+ is better but I cannot live with a phone that big. I'm just gonna get one of those new Windows Phones or the new Nexus depending on reviews. I can get way more battery life out of those platforms because they just pack in a bigger battery.
 
scaramoosh said:
I don't use Facebook or anything, my biggest drain is Podcasts which I listen to for 3 hours a day. Hearthstone says 10% of my usage even though I played it for 5 mins before realizing it wasn't for me. Safari uses so much battery and I barely use it...

It's like when I want to use the phone the battery loses 1% per min.


I'm taking it back though, I cannot live with this crap battery life, I know the 6+ is better but I cannot live with a phone that big. I'm just gonna get one of those new Windows Phones or the new Nexus depending on reviews. I can get way more battery life out of those platforms because they just pack in a bigger battery.
Click to expand...

You probably have a faulty battery, but if you want to switch platforms, do it.
 
scaramoosh said:
I don't use Facebook or anything, my biggest drain is Podcasts which I listen to for 3 hours a day. Hearthstone says 10% of my usage even though I played it for 5 mins before realizing it wasn't for me. Safari uses so much battery and I barely use it...

It's like when I want to use the phone the battery loses 1% per min.


I'm taking it back though, I cannot live with this crap battery life, I know the 6+ is better but I cannot live with a phone that big. I'm just gonna get one of those new Windows Phones or the new Nexus depending on reviews. I can get way more battery life out of those platforms because they just pack in a bigger battery.
Click to expand...

Something is wrong with your setup, if "Safari uses so much battery and you barely use it". You could try exchanging your phone.

I did a 4 hour round trip drive yesterday, and played Apple Music for most of it. Didn't do much else with the phone the rest of the day, but still got messages and e-mails (and Facebook updates). A few pictures and stuff, since it was a family day. And still came back at the end of the day with a significantly charged battery.

So far today, I've had 1.5 hours of usage, and have > 85% of my battery left. This is on a 6s. Which gets WAY better battery life than my Samsung S5 ever did.

C
 
I started out with a bad battery in my 6s as well. I would do my normal routine before getting out of bed (email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, clipboard, drippler, CNN, App Store updates) and I would be somewhere in the 75-79% range. This was far worse than my 6 but I took it as the reduced size of the battery.

I decided I wanted space gray instead of silver and returned and re-purchased. After that same routine my battery is between 90 and 95%.

I would take it to apple for a battery analysis before jumping platforms.
 
I went, they just told me my battery tested fine.

I'm sending it back and I'll just get a Nexus 5X instead.
 
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