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Semi Scientific Battery Drain Test on Two Identical iPhone 4Ss

7timethecrystal

7timethecrystal

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
110
0
I posted this in the Batterygate thread, but my results are telling enough that I thought a re-post as a new thread was worth it.

My situation: My wife and I have Sprint 16 GB iPhone 4Ss. From the very beginning, I had noticed my wife's 4S had no battery issues, and was vastly outperforming mine. After similar usage today in similar network conditions, after 8 hours, her phone had 52% and mine had died.

So, I did a full charge of both phones back to 100%. Before taking them off power, I ensured the phone's key components were identical (WiFi, Mail, Location Services, etc.). We have one Gmail Exchange account set to Push. I put them in the same physical spot so 3G radio strength wasn't a factor.

At 9pm CDT, I unplugged them. My phone took a long time to get from 99% to 100%, her phone didn't. Mine also went to 99% upon unplug, her's didn't. At 10:15pm CDT, all in standby mode with no usage...her phone remains at 100%. Mine is now at 92%. That's roughly 1% every 10 minutes on my phone, same thing I saw earlier today during stand-by usage.

I think this, for me at least, confirms the diverse results folks are seeing. Some folks are seeing major battery issues, some are seeing better battery life over other iOS devices. It just so happens in our house, we have one of each. Why would two identical phones behave so differently? I've exahusted all possible options on my phone, including the recently posted attempt at deleting e-mail accounts and resetting network settings.

Now, I am off to restore my phone. If this fails, it's the Genius Bar. And I'll be taking both phones with me to show the issue.
 
Bump with results from restore.

I restored my iPhone 4S last night to factory settings, and allowed the new configuration to match that of my wife's.

Her phone came off full charge at 9pm last night. Mine came off of full charge following the restore at 12am.

Here's our overnight usage:

From 9pm to 7:30am, her phone in standby was at 94%. She lost roughly 0.57% per hour, which would be close to the advertised 200-hr standby. Her phone and battery work exactly as advertised.

From 12am to 4:30am, my phone in standby was at 67%. I lost 7.3% per hour, which would equate to 12-hours of standby.

I've had it. I am going to the Apple store tonight. I think this, at least to me, proves Batterygate is real, and lots of folks have some sort of manufacturing defect.

And for what it's worth, I manage 5 iOS devices. My iPad 2, my wife's iPad 1, and my work 3GS in addition to the two 4Ss. Out of the five devices, all running iOS 5, only my iPhone 4S has an issue. I highly doubt it's an iOS 5 issue considering it was the same after restore.
 
Is iCloud backup on? I had a similar issue with both my 4 and now 4S. Turning off iCloud fixed it. Later I turned it back on. Been working just fine ever since. No explanation why but it did that with two phones. :confused:
 
Givmeabrek said:
Is iCloud backup on? I had a similar issue with both my 4 and now 4S. Turning off iCloud fixed it. Later I turned it back on. Been working just fine ever since. No explanation why but it did that with two phones. :confused:
Click to expand...

Nope, not iCloud. I in fact erased it earlier in the evening as one of my tests.
 
I would try this same experiment again but restoring both phones to factory settings and leaving it at factory settings: no apps, no email accounts, no wifi, nothing. Just restore to factory, go through the initial setup of the phones (skip wifi, skip iCloud) and keep them at that. Charge up to 100%, take off charge, let 'em sit overnight and see where they stand in the morning.
 
f00f said:
I would try this same experiment again but restoring both phones to factory settings and leaving it at factory settings: no apps, no email accounts, no wifi, nothing. Just restore to factory, go through the initial setup of the phones (skip wifi, skip iCloud) and keep them at that. Charge up to 100%, take off charge, let 'em sit overnight and see where they stand in the morning.
Click to expand...

I'd like to, but she'd probably not be happy about that seeing how happy she is with it and it's behaving normally. It's her first iPhone. LOL!

I may try a restore on mine one more time.
 
7timethecrystal said:
I'd like to, but she'd probably not be happy about that seeing how happy she is with it and it's behaving normally. It's her first iPhone. LOL!

I may try a restore on mine one more time.
Click to expand...


Well maybe I can try it myself tonight. My wife has the same phone as me except her's is white and I'm pretty sure they are from different batches (hers shipped 2 days before mine did despite being ordered on the same day). Also I think her phone's battery sucks as much as mine; your case is ideal for comparison, i.e. known crappy battery vs known good battery.
 
f00f said:
Well maybe I can try it myself tonight. My wife has the same phone as me except her's is white and I'm pretty sure they are from different batches (hers shipped 2 days before mine did despite being ordered on the same day). Also I think her phone's battery sucks as much as mine; your case is ideal for comparison, i.e. known crappy battery vs known good battery.
Click to expand...

Interested to hear your results then. I think I am going to do one last restore and then head over to the Apple store.
 
can you post the first three letters/numbers of the serial number of both phones, and pointing out which one is the good one?

My battery is ****, literally drops a percentage every 1 minute of usage, this is was bare bones fresh install as new phone with siri off.... serial starts with DNP
 
i wish i had two iphones to do a comparison like this. I have the feeling I have one of these iphones w/ a bad battery. Im going to fully charge and see how it goes.
 
wurt said:
can you post the first three letters/numbers of the serial number of both phones, and pointing out which one is the good one?

My battery is ****, literally drops a percentage every 1 minute of usage, this is was bare bones fresh install as new phone with siri off.... serial starts with DNP
Click to expand...

Mine is also DNP. I believe hers is as well, though. I'll double check.
 
7timethecrystal said:
Interested to hear your results then. I think I am going to do one last restore and then head over to the Apple store.
Click to expand...


Sure thing, pending approval from the wife of course. I don't think she'll have a problem with it though.


Oh and my phone is now down 17%. 9 hours 5 mins standby (1h 8m usage). That's about 1% per 32 mins, roughly 2% per hour or potentially 50 hours standby (4x worse than advertised). Sigh...
 
DarkFlame said:
i wish i had two iphones to do a comparison like this. I have the feeling I have one of these iphones w/ a bad battery. Im going to fully charge and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

I think it makes it even a bit more frustrating to see the phone work perfectly for her and not for me. We both love it, and I am an Apple homer, but this is driving me nuts. Yesterday, after similar usage, she was down to 55% after like 8 hours. My phone died on the way home.

What kind of drain are you seeing on standby?

----------
f00f said:
Sure thing, pending approval from the wife of course. I don't think she'll have a problem with it though.


Oh and my phone is now down 17%. 9 hours 5 mins standby (1h 8m usage). That's about 1% per 32 mins, roughly 2% per hour or potentially 50 hours standby (4x worse than advertised). Sigh...
Click to expand...

CEO level approval is always required ;)

Yea, that drain is a bit better than mine, but not ideal. Anytime you see the battery drain as you are using it there has to be a problem.
 
My phone is doing the exact same thing. I am losing battery at a very rapid rate. I took mine to the genius bar and said it was probably an app that was causing this so I have been deleting apps and testing again and nothing has changed for me either. I am going to take mine back and get a replacement unit as soon as they get some back in. Its very frustrating though so I feel your pain.
 
7timethecrystal said:
Mine is also DNP. I believe hers is as well, though. I'll double check.
Click to expand...

Ya'll might be on to something. I mean beyond that battery issues exist. If all 3 of your phones begin with DNP (mine is C37) than it my be a batch issue.

Can others who are experiencing battery issues post the first 3 digits of their serial #'s?
 
My SN starts with DNP and my battery has been fantastic. On Sunday night I took the phone off the charger (100%) which was around 11pm. I wake up at 4am and used the phone normally. Watched 2 episodes on netflix, did normal texting and browsing (normal for me) played about 1 hour of games throughout the day, used Bluetooth to listen to music in my car for roughly 1 hour, listened to music through headphones for roughly 1 hour and I had 17% battery at about 8pm. Not trying to brag, just wanted to give my battery results. So essentially for me I can get almost 2 days of use, considering I don't normally play games. This is essentially the same for me as my iPhone 4 was.

Good luck with your phone.
 
On the phone waiting to talk to a tech at Apple. Shockingly there's "extended wait times". lol

As for the serial numbers, I started a thread about that yesterday. There didn't seem to be any correlation between serial and battery performance.
 
f00f said:
On the phone waiting to talk to a tech at Apple. Shockingly there's "extended wait times". lol

As for the serial numbers, I started a thread about that yesterday. There didn't seem to be any correlation between serial and battery performance.
Click to expand...

Let me know what they say. I have my Genius Bar appointment set up.

Yea, I saw the thread on the S/N correlation. I believe ours have the same, and she has no issues with battery.
 
I'm not sure if you guys had iPhones when the 3GS was out but I remember when I got it there was a huge battery problem then and it ended up being an OS issue where it would hang up the phone and drain the battery. Not sure if this same issue is possible for some people.
 
lickitysplit said:
I'm not sure if you guys had iPhones when the 3GS was out but I remember when I got it there was a huge battery problem then and it ended up being an OS issue where it would hang up the phone and drain the battery. Not sure if this same issue is possible for some people.
Click to expand...

I've done most of my tests without making any calls. So the 3GS issue occurred after a hang-up?
 
7timethecrystal said:
I've done most of my tests without making any calls. So the 3GS issue occurred after a hang-up?
Click to expand...

Lol sorry hang-up as in freeze. For example my 3GS would seem to operate normally however I couldn't recieve any calls/data. After I rebooted the phone I would get a bunch of emails/text/missed calls as if the phone was rejecting data. But from what I've read this doesn't seem to be happening
 
lickitysplit said:
Lol sorry hang-up as in freeze. For example my 3GS would seem to operate normally however I couldn't recieve any calls/data. After I rebooted the phone I would get a bunch of emails/text/missed calls as if the phone was rejecting data. But from what I've read this doesn't seem to be happening
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Yea, I haven't seen any of that. The phone behaves flawlessly when it has power from what I've seen.
 
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