Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Are you happy or unhappy with the battery life on your iPhone 4S


  • Total voters
    253
I've had 3.5 hrs of usage, mainly calls but also a day of emails and a few iMessages. 9+ hrs of standby and I'm at 68%. I'd say that's pretty good, especially considering brightness is up above 1/2 way mark. If I can pull down 6-8 full hours of use, I'm good. I've yet since the day I picked it up to come dangerously low. However I do have a battery backup plug if I'm in a remote area with no power available.
 
After I did the fix for my battery, it has improved SOOOO much!

my stats right now are :

67%

usage:2H , 4 minutes
standby 13 hours, 15 minutes! :D
 
Think my battery usage is ok...
 

Attachments

  • ImageUploadedByTapatalk1320089478.575040.jpg
    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1320089478.575040.jpg
    47.5 KB · Views: 41
Looking at the poll results (btw poor wording), it does not seem to be a minor problem.

Yes I admit I should have worded the poll better :eek:

I don't want to jinx myself but today, was the first full charge after the 3 complete discharges/charges. And the battery seems to have improved a lot.

I switched my 4S on at 7:30am today (1 November), listen to some music for 25 minutes, made a 1-2 minute call, tried to ring someone but got no answer, manually checked for email twice, read around 8 emails.

So far I'm on 93 percent and have 46 minutes usage and 8 hours 47 mins standby. Before the 3 complete discharge's, I could drop around 30 percent by 11pm with probably the same or less usage than what I have mentioned above.

----------

After I did the fix for my battery, it has improved SOOOO much!

What fix did you do? :)
 
Definitely subpar compared to the iPhone 4 but its not disastrous.

-Wi-Fi On...mostly (ask to join off)
-BT Off
-Notifications On (excl some games)
-Location Services On (excl iAds, Time Zone & Diagnostics)
-40% Brightness
-Light music, surfing, maps, gaming and calls
-Heavy messaging
-Exchange Contacts and Calendar
-Fetch 2 Mail accounts hourly
-Siri on (raise to speak off)
-iCloud on (excl Contacts, Calendar and Photostream)

attachment.php
 
Definitely subpar compared to the iPhone 4 but its not disastrous.

-Wi-Fi On...mostly (ask to join off)
-BT Off
-Notifications On (excl some games)
-Location Services On (excl iAds, Time Zone & Diagnostics)
-40% Brightness
-Light music, surfing, maps, gaming and calls
-Heavy messaging
-Exchange Contacts and Calendar
-Fetch 2 Mail accounts hourly
-Siri on (raise to speak off)
-iCloud on (excl Contacts, Calendar and Photostream)

attachment.php

I have similar but feels pretty rubbish tbh. Can't decide whether to return phone for now and wait, have 10 more days to return phone and I'm not confident an update from Apple will improve things.
 
Seriously? You're getting 5 1/2 hours with 25% battery remaining. That is incredible. By 3 1/2 hours of usage I'm usually hovering around 15-20% battery. You don't know how good you got it.
 
Too be honest, I think my battery life has improved quite a bit after finishing the 3 complete discharges/charges.

This has been the usage I have had with my 4S after the 3 complete discharges.

(1 November), Listened to some music for 60 minutes, made a 1-2 minute call, tried to ring someone but got no answer, manually checked for email twice, read around 8 emails, played a game for around 10 minutes, wirelessly transferred a track over to my 4S.

(2 November) Done a 3 minute iCloud backup, 5 minutes use spent between Twitter & Facebook, location based reminder ran for 1 hour 25 minutes, sent 4 text messages, 2 minute phone call, downloaded an app.


(3 November) Looked at calendar for a couple of minutes, took a 1 minute video, played a video for around 3 minutes, listened to some music for 25 minutes, wireless synced 3 podcasts & 1 app with iTunes, used Twitter and surfed for 15 minutes, listen to some podcasts and music for 1 hour 40 mins, watched some you tube videos for 50 minutes.

My final usage stats were:

Usage 6 hours 58 mins

Standby 2 days 5 hours


Based on my usage and the standby & usage stats I have mentioned, do you think my 4S has a defective battery or is the usage stats what is to be expected?

6311659230_6669b230da_o.png
 
Last edited:
This is what i got yesterday (not using iOS 5.0.1) despite heavy messaging (using Siri no less), plus mild browsing over 3G and WiFi. Then again i didn't game today...

Usage pattern;

-Wi-Fi On...mostly (ask to join off)
-BT Off
-Notifications On (excl some games)
-Location Services On (excl iAds, Time Zone & Diagnostics)
-40% Brightness
-Around 3hrs of music
-Apps
-Exchange Contacts and Calendar
-Fetch 2 Mail accounts hourly
-Siri on (raise to speak off)
-iCloud on (excl Contacts, Calendar and Photostream)

attachment.php
 
Usage: 5 hours, 14 minutes
Standby: 12 hours, 53 minutes
Battery at 1%

Spent the day playing Real Racing 2 and World of Goo plus checking email, surfing the web, and sending text messages.
 
After seeing this thread with numerous screenshots of their iPhones holding a charge for well over 24hrs, I fail to see where the drama about battery life is coming from.

My iPhone 4 lasted about a day on a full charge, and so does my 4S.

My usage right now:
60 min usage, 4 hrs standby. 87% charge remaining.
I've been sending texts, checking emails, checked a couple webpages, and listened to Pandora.

At this rate of usage I will run out of juice after 30 hrs. That is fantastic, and basically means I should never worry about battery life on this phone as long as it is plugged in before I fall asleep.
 
Usage: 3 hours and 53 minutes
Standby: 14 hours
Battery Remaining: 2%

I have yet to get anything more than about 4 hours out my battery.
 
mine so far

4 hours, 3 minutes usage
18 hours, 49 minutes standby

41%

pretty happy to be honest and thats with e-mail push on too. Got it yesterday so the battery should only improve...
 
As Of Last Night

When I switched off my phone, I had 76% battery indicated. I have collected my email, printed a couple of pictures, and played a coupler of albums (streamed to my ATV)

My indicated battery is now 70%....It's the first full charge cycle, and iCloud is on, as is notifications.

I'd have to say that so far I really don't have any complaints yet. I have also been talking to siri a fair bit too.

I would say that although it's early day's my battery would seem to be pretty much on a par with my 4. Things I missed at first....Bluetooth was on by default. I turned off vibrate but apart from that it's pretty much set up as my 4 was. Time will tell later in the day.
 
Last edited:
When I switched off my phone, I had 76% battery indicated. I have collected my email, printed a couple of pictures, and played a coupler of albums (streamed to my ATV)

My indicated battery is now 70%....It's the first full charge cycle, and iCloud is on, as is notifications.

I'd have to say that so far I really don't have any complaints yet. I have also been talking to siri a fair bit too.

I would say that although it's early day's my battery would seem to be pretty much on a par with my 4.

How much are you all losing overnight?

I only lost 4% overnight which was about 8 hours....which is about the same as it was on the 4. which lost 3 to 4 % overnight in that time.

so far I'm happy.
 
When I go to bed.....Might try leaving it on tonight though.

I know alot on here have complained about how much it drains when on standby and overnight so was glad to see mine didn't do so. Odd that alot seem to be suffering with battery life and some aren't.

Maybe the phones that are out now have better batteries and those who ordered at the start aren't...odd.
 
Not sure of the exact usage stats but my iPhone 4S has run out of battery on my way home from work for the last two days, which never used to happen with my iPhone 4.

More shockingly, my phone was on 100% when I went to bed last night - when I woke up, it was on 22%. Settings are all on default, no push mail and iCloud won't have backed up as it wasn't on charge...
 
That' Can't BeRight

Not sure of the exact usage stats but my iPhone 4S has run out of battery on my way home from work for the last two days, which never used to happen with my iPhone 4.

More shockingly, my phone was on 100% when I went to bed last night - when I woke up, it was on 22%. Settings are all on default, no push mail and iCloud won't have backed up as it wasn't on charge...

Check that your bluetooth is off.....If it is I'd take it back.
 
Not sure of the exact usage stats but my iPhone 4S has run out of battery on my way home from work for the last two days, which never used to happen with my iPhone 4.

More shockingly, my phone was on 100% when I went to bed last night - when I woke up, it was on 22%. Settings are all on default, no push mail and iCloud won't have backed up as it wasn't on charge...

WOW that is really bad, sounds like a dodgy battery for it to go down that quick. I hate to hear stories like this as it makes you wonder how can some people's battery be fine but then somebody else loses near 80% overnight.

something must be being used....speak to apple they may do some tests to find out.
 
My first stats on the 4s

6 hours, 40 minutes usage
1 day, 3 hours standby

Pretty much on par with my 4..good stuff
 
Ok, I ended up plugging my phone in last week and messed up my battery test, so I did it again Thursday and Friday. Here are my results. Not horrible but wish it was a bit better.

Normal usage. Some phone calls, text, Internet, iBooks reading, updating apps etc. ... Oh and bluetooth and wifi are always on. I use Bluetooth to stream in my car. Probably an hour 1/2 worth in this time frame.


Edit 11/6: I found a LowBatteryLog for 11/4/11 when I posted that screen shot. The interesting thing is it does give exact usage for when the phone died so here are my official 0% battery numbers:

Awake Time: 08:45:01
Standby Time: 33:18:20

Not too bad. I'm going to run another test starting later today with my Kensington Powerguard battery case that I picked up for $20 at Marshalls. I'm going to see just how long I can go with the case and the phone at 100% charge. I'm seriously considering a Mophie battery case but thought I'd try this one first since it was dirt cheap.

Scratch that last part. I put the case on and then took it off... it's way too big and bulky for me. I guess it will be used strictly for when I travel with the phone. I just couldn't see myself using it on a day to day basis...
 

Attachments

  • ImageUploadedByTapatalk1320498808.773345.jpg
    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1320498808.773345.jpg
    102.9 KB · Views: 48
Last edited:
Ok, I ended up plugging my phone in last week and messed up my battery test, so I did it again Thursday and Friday. Here are my results. Not horrible but wish it was a bit better.

Normal usage. Some phone calls, text, Internet, iBooks reading, updating apps etc. ... Oh and bluetooth and wifi are always on. I use Bluetooth to stream in my car. Probably an hour 1/2 worth in this time frame.

You want better? That's amazing usage

I'm currently

4 hours, 5 minutes usage

17 hours standby

46% left so I'm happy with mine
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.