iPhone X Should I be worried about my iPhone X battery?

[saynax]

Hi all,

I got the new iPhone X a week ago and I am generally very happy with it.

However, I keep hearing and reading how great the battery life is and I don't feel like I share that experience.

At work, someone told me they were charging it every 2 days. On different reddit threads, I saw people posting their usage and easily getting 8-10 hours of usage and 20+ hours of standby.

My battery has been pretty consistent since I got it. It does almost last a full day with what I consider frequent, but not heavy usage (no games, no video streaming, no music, i do use WhatsApp frequently, some browsing throughout the day):

Here are my usage stats: https://imgur.com/a/NZOFa

I charged it over night to 100% and unplugged at 6.00 am this morning. It's now 8.00 pm and I am sitting at 10 %.

I actually haven't ever crossed the 7h usage mark without charging it yet, and the standby time is also appears to be pretty poor.

I noticed that my usage+standby time (6h48 + 13h27 = 20h15) does not equal the total time since unplugging it (6.00am - 08.00 pm = 14h). Is this normal? This was the case since I got it. It's accurate at the beginning (e.g. this morning at 07.00 am it showed 40min standby and 20 min usage, which made sense, but then diverges)

I also see that WhatsApp has been consistently consuming the most battery. I am not certain this is normal? I turned off the background refreshing option, but I haven't noticed a huge difference.

I also downloaded another app called Battery Life and it tells me my battery has 0% wear level, but it consistently overestimates my remaining usage time (e.g. remaining 4g browsing time).

Do you think it's worth bringing back the phone to Apple?

thanks

PS: I use the auto brightness option and haven't switched on low power mode.

 

[Vermifuge]

obviously your milage with vary. but there are things you can do to conserve battery.

If you go into settings -> battery it will list all your apps in order of what used the most battery. You can view the last 24 hours or the last 7 days. Pay attention to the small texts that says what was using the power E.G. “background activity.” Apps that use 1 - 2% are no concern but some other app may be using a lot. especially if its running in the background.

You can also go to Settings -> General -> Background app refresh. Here, you can turn off apps that don’t need to be running in the background. Don’t bee too hung ho about turning things off. Running in the background is important for retrieving messages or mail etc... If you see an app thats being used the background with no good reason turn it off.

Finally, an area you can check is Settings -> Privacy -> Location services. Some apps want to always know where you are.. for example the McDonalds app wants to know at all times. You can change it to “while using the app” rather than always this will prevent:

1. apps from tracking you and
2. apps using up data / battery in the background

For example I think it’s OK for the weather app to always know your location that is logical and useful.. but the others are probably best left to “while using”

 

[saynax]

Thanks for your reply Vermifuge.

You can actually see my battery usage screenshots on the link I posted above: https://imgur.com/a/NZOFa

As I mentioned, it appears that WhatsApp has been using most of the battery, but I have turned off WhatsApp's background app refresh. This seems to have made no difference though. I do use WhatApp regularely throughout the day, but I don't think I use it that excessively that it should have such an impact on the battery life.

As the phone is relatively new, I haven't really installed any other third party apps yet, just WhatsApp, Instagram, a Reddit app and a few Banking apps. Except for the WhatsApp battery usage, nothing looks particularly high or out of the ordinary.

Comparing to people on the below thread, it looks like most other users still have around 50% battery left with similar usage stats to mine, whereas mine by that time will be down to 0-10%: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how’s-your-battery-life-on-x.2086208/


I was chatting to a friend with an iPhone 7 Plus yesterday, and while we were talking my battery lost 20% whereas hers lost like 6%.

Would you be able to comment on the fact that usage+standby surpasses the total amount of time since it has been unplugged from charging to 100% by several hours? Is this expected?

Having further read around this forum, my battery life does appear to be considerably lower than everyone else's... I am also not doing anything that you'd expect to drain your battery like streaming videos, taking photos/videos, playing games etc.

 

[Vermifuge]

What's your signal strength? Are you on wifi? Do you use wifi calling? Are you using a Verizon (sim free) version or one of the ATT/TMO options?

 

[saynax]

What's your signal strength? Are you on wifi? Do you use wifi calling? Are you using a Verizon (sim free) version or one of the ATT/TMO options?

I am in the UK so I am with O2 - normal sim card.

At work my reception looks OK -3/4 bars, but the mobile data is very bad around here (slow). At home I am on Wifi / mobile data too, with decent speeds, but I noticed no difference in the battery drainage between being at home and at work.

As for wifi calling - no none. Not making more than perhaps 5 mins of normal calls a day.

 

[Vermifuge]

i'm going to say you must just be a heavy WhatsApp user. 50% of you consumed battery is going into WhatsApp and a lot of it is background activity.

 

[saynax]

Well, I do use it frequently throughout the day, but I am also at work for 9 hours a day and can't use my phone at my desk whatsoever, so it's not like I am on it for hours at a time. Maybe 2 hours total screen time per day at max?

Surely, that can't consume more battery than when other people play games, browse the internet and stream videos throughout their day and end up with better battery than me?

I also turned off background app refresh for WhatsApp, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

So you don't think there is something wrong with my current battery life?

 

[Vermifuge]

i say its unlikely... I do use WhatsApp but for different reasons. I keep it loaded on a separate phone. I hate that WhatsApp can bypass the DND and silent mode of the phone. I just access it from the desktop app. However unlike Viber, WhatsApp requires the phone to be powered on because it relays the messages through the phone for some dumb reason. Viber doesn't require the phone be on. I can leave it off and just use the desktop Viber app.

That said when WhatsApp is running that phones battery does get used quite fast.

 

[KUKitch]

Perhaps you could try uninstalling Whatsapp for a day or two and see what the difference is (or isn't)? That could at least clue you in on whether it is indeed the main culprit before thinking it's a hardware issue

 

[saynax]

Thank you both for your advice.

I will try uninstalling WhatsApp and see if it improves, although that is slightly annoying as I do need it on a daily base.

I don't think the battery % shown that WhatsApp uses is unreasonable as it is my most used App, but nonetheless, I wouldn't expect the battery to drain so quickly.

I checked my WhatsApp usage time for the last 24h: 3.4h on screen and 1.8h off screen. This would include both yesterday and today, so my estimation of having it on screen for about 2h per day is probably quite accurate.

If anyone else has any comments or suggestions, please feel free to post.

Thanks

 

[freakomac]

Whatsapp is a huge drainer for me too, have no idea why its running all day in BG despite BG refresh being off..and this is only since iOS 11. I never bothered to close whatsapp earlier, nowadays once Im done using i close it promtply.

 

[Applefan4]

Well, I do use it frequently throughout the day, but I am also at work for 9 hours a day and can't use my phone at my desk whatsoever, so it's not like I am on it for hours at a time. Maybe 2 hours total screen time per day at max?

Surely, that can't consume more battery than when other people play games, browse the internet and stream videos throughout their day and end up with better battery than me?

I also turned off background app refresh for WhatsApp, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

So you don't think there is something wrong with my current battery life?

Other people tend to be full of crap about their supposed 'amazing' battery life by listening to music with screen off and inflating usage time.

Go on YouTube and search for battery drain tests for iPhone X. It doesn't nearly have as amazing battery life as some claim to have

 

[TechNismo]

Just letting you know that random apps may take up battery unnecessarily as it has happened to me a couple times now. I’ll attach a pic. Look at the app that took the most charge and how long it was in use for... pretty weird (posted on another thread before so you may have seen this before)

 

[orev]

Well, I do use it frequently throughout the day, but I am also at work for 9 hours a day and can't use my phone at my desk whatsoever, so it's not like I am on it for hours at a time. Maybe 2 hours total screen time per day at max?

Surely, that can't consume more battery than when other people play games, browse the internet and stream videos throughout their day and end up with better battery than me?

I also turned off background app refresh for WhatsApp, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

So you don't think there is something wrong with my current battery life?

If you can't use your phone at your desk, where is your phone during that time? If it's in any kind of metal box like a file cabinet or locker, it will severely drain the battery as it continuously tries to find a signal. Put it in airplane mode when you're not allowed to use it.

Also, check the brightness. This is the biggest consumer of battery life and almost no one seems to think about it. Brightness for indoor usage should never be more than 50%, and is fine at 33%.

 

[saynax]

Got down to 50% at 3h40 usage today with WhatsApp still hovering around 48-50% over the last 24h.

I will now close WhatsApp every time I used it and see if that makes a difference for the last 50%.

@orev - no I keep it in my pocket, we just aren't allowed to take them out/use them. My 4g connection is pretty bad around the work area but I don't notice a difference at home with good reception/wifi.
I am using AutoBrightness which seems to be what most others use as well.

 

[freakomac]

Some of the high usage times that various ppl claim could be from listening to music or using GPS in the background (like fitness apps for example). 6-8 hours seems to be the par 'score' for regular use.

 

[saynax]

Thank you all for your previous input.

I wanted to provide an update:

Over the next few days I shut down WhatsApp every time after using it. It made a difference in lowering WhatsApp's % and background activity time, but there was no real improvement in battery life. I kept getting consistent 7 hours of 'usage' from this phone.

As I could return the phone within 14 days, I decided to go back to Apple yesterday and get a new one.

I have now used the new phone for pretty much 24 hours, and as far as I can tell, the battery does seem to last longer.
However
- Charged to 100% yesterday at midnight, used for 30 mins, battery went to 98% as I went to sleep. Woke up at 08.30 with 94% (4% drop overnight, ok I guess) - phone showed 30 min usage and 8 hours standby. All good so far.
- Then, throughout the rest of the day, the Usage counter kept going up, non stop. Phone on standby for 1h? It went up by 1h. I tried shutting down all applications and going into airplane mode, not touching the phone for 30 mins. Usage went up by 30 mins.

Surely, this isn't normal again? You can see this in the screenshots attached, taken at 21.44, that Usage is pretty much the time from me being awake (8.30) until the time of the screenshot (21:44) making a total of 12h44 plus the 30 minutes of real usage before bed = 13h15.

Also, as you can see, counting all the usage times and background activity times from all the apps together, we don't get close to 13h15 of usage.

Any explanations of what could be going on would be welcome. I will update to 12.2.2 tonight and see if the issue persists tomorrow.

By the way, I am at 20% on the screenshots below

 

[Vermifuge]

how about leaving it uninstalled for two days and see what happens?

 

[Eduardboon]

This bug is quite common in my environment. Lots of people are complaining about this. Sometimes the App store shows audio as the culprit, sometimes it's safari. It actually impacts battery life by quite a bit, but a restarts temporary fixes it. Seems to be an iOS issue. Nothing to do with hardware

 

[BugeyeSTI]

It’s whatever you have loaded on your phone. I’d say get rid of Whatsapp and see what happens. No way twp completely different phones have the same issue, more likely it something you loaded onto the phone that’s causing the drain.. Wait a minute, your getting 13+ hours of use with 20% left on a charge and you think something is wrong? I wouldn’t complain about that.

 

[saynax]

It’s whatever you have loaded on your phone. I’d say get rid of Whatsapp and see what happens. No way twp completely different phones have the same issue, more likely it something you loaded onto the phone that’s causing the drain.. Wait a minute, your getting 13+ hours of use with 20% left on a charge and you think something is wrong? I wouldn’t complain about that.

I think you (and Vermifuge) are misreading my message a little, apologies if I wasn't clear.

The battery life on the new phone seems better. The WhatsApp stats seem fine and I don't think its behaving oddly anymore. What is odd is that the entire day counted as usage. This is not the same issue as before. I obviously did not spend my entire time awake (13h) using my phone. So the 13h is not accurate usage time (even when including background activity). I can try uninstalling WhatsApp for 30 minutes and not touching my phone for 30 minutes to see if it's WhatsApp that is making the entire day appear as usage. But as I stated, the hours for all the apps together don't equal the usage time, and usage kept increasing after shutting down all apps and going into airplane mode.

So there are two possibilities as far as I can tell:
- Something that isn't displayed in the battery usage screen is running non stop in the background
- There is a software bug in how the usage gets counted

 

[Vermifuge]

perhaps after cycling the battery a few more times the readings will be more accurate?

 

[freakomac]

The usage times go for a toss very often in 11.2.1 for me. Once I notice it happens I reboot it which fixes this, a lot of ppl here on macrumors also experienced this.

 

[woodynorman]

Not currently on an X, but an 8 plus. I did have the X for a few weeks. I long ago stopped worrying about battery life. Some days my X got better life than my current 8plus, other days not so much. Everybody usage varies. Even with the same apps. I think its just the nature of cell phones/batteries in general.

I say just plug it in when you can, and don't worry about your battery life. Unless you want to keep playing the phone lottery...

 

[aakshey]

Common issue.

If Wifi sync is checked in iTunes, check it off.

Do a hard reset.

Reset network settings.

Turn off HomeKit in Privacy and iCloud. Same goes for Setting Time Zone.

If still required, reset settings.

If really required, do a DFU restore.

Try one step of the above at a time. Your problem will be solved.