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iPod touch Why is my BRAND NEW iPod Touch 6G dying SO fast?

uid15

uid15

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Original poster
Mar 9, 2015
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Hello!

I have just bought a brand new iPod touch 6th gen, 32GB, gold. To say I am pleased with it is an understatement; the difference in speed and camera between it and the 5th gen I have is HUUUGE. However, I am now on my 4th day of using it, and have found the battery to be disappointing, if we're doing understatements still:


"Background App Refresh" is completely OFF:

~ The battery lasts me, from 100%, 3-4 hours (mostly light iMessage & taking 30-100 photos per day.)

~ The LCD is on 100% for 45m-1hr when outside shooting photo, and then 60-70% when inside.

Additionally, the hiss reduction/noise reduction applied to Voice Memos and videos recorded using the inbuilt mic is extremely aggressively applied, and I can hear that horrible "warbling" or "shimmering" you hear when audio has been noise reduced - THIS DOES NOT exhibit itself when using EarPods with Remote & Mic as an audio source - the (IMHO, acceptable) slight background hiss is present, as it was on my 5th gen, and I would like to be in control of reducing the audio hiss, I do not like Apple doing this so aggressively

I have attached 2 audio samples taken simultaneously; one on the 5th and one on the 6th gen, internal mic, so you can CLEARLY hear the audio difference in Voice Memos. Thanks.

Any thoughts, my good people? Thank you :)
 

Attachments

  • iPod Touch Voice Memo Quality comparison - 5th and 6th gens.zip
    181 KB · Views: 924
I Feel your battery life pain - have it, actually.

I bought the 6G to upgrade my 5G because, after years of use, it's battery life was getting bad. Big surprise - the 6G battery life - when new - was just as bad as the heavily used 5G. And I am very good at battery conservation. Screen never more than 30% brightness, in AirPlane mode most of the time, no auto updates, etc.

I think I got kind of a lemon battery, but from what I'm reading even a normal 6G battery is a huge step down. This is not one of Apple's finer moments.
 
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colodane said:
I Feel your battery life pain - have it, actually.

I bought the 6G to upgrade my 5G because, after years of use, it's battery life was getting bad. Big surprise - the 6G battery life - when new - was just as bad as the heavily used 5G. And I am very good at battery conservation. Screen never more than 30% brightness, in AirPlane mode most of the time, no auto updates, etc.

I think I got kind of a lemon battery, but from what I'm reading even a normal 6G battery is a huge step down. This is not one of Apple's finer moments.
Click to expand...

No wonder the battery percentage indication is DISABLED for iPod Touch - they must be too embarrassed to show it! :D
 
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uid15 said:
No wonder the battery percentage indication is DISABLED for iPod Touch - they must be too embarrassed to show it! :D
Click to expand...

It was always disabled.

My battery life seemed to have improved after multiple charging cycles although it's not as good a a 5G battery. It also charges very quickly (i.e. I charge it more often but spend much less time charging).
 
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Plutonius said:
It was always disabled.

My battery life seemed to have improved after multiple charging cycles although it's not as good a a 5G battery. It also charges very quickly (i.e. I charge it more often but spend much less time charging).
Click to expand...

I can see why the R&D team didn't put so much effort into making a leisure product have a longer batter life; a phone is considerably MORE important a product to give better battery life to, but considering the substantial price of these (unless you're a billionaire and throw money around like sweets!) this is a poor show, and it's not like they haven't had THREE YEARS to sort it out.
 
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uid15 said:
I can see why the R&D team didn't put so much effort into making a leisure product have a longer batter life; a phone is considerably MORE important a product to give better battery life to, but considering the substantial price of these (unless you're a billionaire and throw money around like sweets!) this is a poor show, and it's not like they haven't had THREE YEARS to sort it out.
Click to expand...

The issue was that they kept the same form factor (i.e. size) and so were stuck using essentially the same capacity battery as the Touch 5. The greatly improved performance of the Touch 6 over the Touch 5 came at the expense of using more battery. All in all, I think they did a great job in the design considering the constrains the designers had.
 
They honestly should have made it a little thicker to add a bigger battery. I think any device like this needs to last at least 5 hours of continuous use on a charge. Thinner looks nice, but a powered on screen looks nicer.
 
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Plutonius said:
It also charges very quickly (i.e. I charge it more often but spend much less time charging).
Click to expand...

The quick charging isn't the benefit it might appear to be. It is a sign that the battery has a high impedance and quickly reaches its terminal voltage when charging without absorbing much energy. That is why the subsequent discharge cycle is shorter than we would like.

I think Apple missed the boat on the 6G battery - either by selecting an inadequate battery during the design or perhaps because a high percentage of the batteries they use are defective.
 
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colodane said:
The quick charging isn't the benefit it might appear to be. It is a sign that the battery has a high impedance and quickly reaches its terminal voltage when charging without absorbing much energy. That is why the subsequent discharge cycle is shorter than we would like.

I think Apple missed the boat on the 6G battery - either by selecting an inadequate battery during the design or perhaps because a high percentage of the batteries they use are defective.
Click to expand...

Actually, I believe that Apple added the quick charging as a feature. Unfortunately, it's probably cutting out early due to thermal cutoffs (i.e. it's not actually charging to 100%). This is not a function of the battery as much as the charging circuitry and the choice of charging times. People have also been reporting different battery life so there may be issues with some of the batteries themselves. On mine, I found that doing a factory reset seemed to have improved the battery life (still not as long as the Touch 5).

As far as selecting an inadequate battery, the Touch form factor did not change so the battery was essentially almost the same capacity as the Touch 5. Getting the great performance out of the Touch 6 with the same battery, means that the battery life will be less.
 
You know what? I sold my HUGE 5.5" Android phone and another Lumia to be able to afford this iPod, and as much as I will stand by Apple and I like them and admire (most of) their pramatic choices, this was a HUGE mistake to put a puny little battery in the iPod Touch AGAIN. I am on the verge of returning this to the shop for a full refund - I don't need a faster iPod touch THAT MUCH that I am willing to suffer appalling battery life for it. Apart from the 6G going a bit overboard on the noise reduction from the internal mic, EVERYTHING else is better than the 5G by many orders of magnitude... but NOT "£189 and a paltry battery" better, I can and WILL do without.
 
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Turn brightness to 1% turn off Bluetooth, Background App Refresh, Wifi, and make sure you only have the Apps Apple preloaded and your battery will last for a long time. *problem solved. ;)

I just re-purchased an iPod 6g Saturday, hoepfully he continues to be pretty good. I haven't noticed any issues so far, *knock on wood. lol


Kal.
 
Kal-037 said:
Turn brightness to 1% turn off Bluetooth, Background App Refresh, Wifi, and make sure you only have the Apps Apple preloaded and your battery will last for a long time. *problem solved. ;)

I just re-purchased an iPod 6g Saturday, hoepfully he continues to be pretty good. I haven't noticed any issues so far, *knock on wood. lol


Kal.
Click to expand...

So, in essence, make my device utterly useless JUST to save the battery life? Yeah... NO. That's utterly ridiculous - I'm taking it back.
 
lol... I knew my iPod would having some issue, (Not terrible but a little annoying) I was cleaning the back and noticed some light scuff type scratches on the back (I dint make them) and also noticed the power/lock button is slightly wiggly. I am pretty sure the lock button is wiggly on all iOS devices, but I guess I'll check my other devices to make sure. As for the scratches, ughh, it's annoying to me, (severe OCD) but I guess since the iPod came with them, it's not a huge deal. Just weird.


Kal.
 
So much for the "battery-efficient" A8! I guess the 32nm variant of the A5 was more battery-efficient than we gave it credit for (fun fact, the iPad 2 with the 32nm A5 has the best battery life of any iPad).

Apple has yet to make a comparable jump to Intel when they went to Haswell.
 
Andres Cantu said:
So much for the "battery-efficient" A8! I guess the 32nm variant of the A5 was more battery-efficient than we gave it credit for (fun fact, the iPad 2 with the 32nm A5 has the best battery life of any iPad).

Apple has yet to make a comparable jump to Intel when they went to Haswell.
Click to expand...

If anyone wants better battery life then don't buy a product with such a small battery.

Mine is fine as I only use it for Google Play Music and taking photos. My phone has 6 times the battery capacity of the Touch plus a 5.5" screen. Any Netflix watching, browsing or playing games gets done on that. There's a real limit with what you can comfortably do on a 4" screen.
 
I use it as my car media player, I have everything turned off, and it sits on standby most of the time.

Battery is bizarre. A few days later it will be in the red.
 
My experience is pretty much the exact opposite of everyone else in this thread. I think my 6th gen touch gets the same, if not better, battery life than the 5th gen. Apparently there must be a lot of defective batteries going around and I just got lucky.
 
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I used to go a week or two on an older IPT and an iPhone 4. The iPod Touch 6G drains in a couple of hours if wi-fi is on. It's really ridiculous.
 
Plutonius said:
Actually, I believe that Apple added the quick charging as a feature.
Click to expand...
LOL

In my personal experience guys battery is not the problem but percentages are messed and can't be calibrated. I have found that if i use the device until itself shuts off i get 7 hours, of use. 2 on green meters and 4 hours on that red 20% left.
 
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