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Why is the iPhone 6S so battery hungry?

ThunderMasterMind

ThunderMasterMind

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 29, 2016
543
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Back in November of 2015, I upgraded from my 4S to a 6S on contract. Well it hasn't been exactly what I hoped for, as for this phone isn't as reliable as my 4S. I don't know why, but it seems that there's a terrible issue with battery life on it. Ever since I got it, the battery drains insanely fast. The processor heats up and pretty much boils the battery until it eventually dies. It's ridiculous that I have to charge the thing 2-3 times a day, where I could get by a day on my 4S with around 20-15% at the end of the day. It's almost like the phone has too much power and it doesn't really know how to handle it properly. Why does it heat up like it does just from simply scrolling through Instagram or Safari? It doesn't make any sense at all. If iOS is what is causing all the issues because it's getting too complicated for the processor to just relax. For the past week, I have brought my 4S along to listen to Spotify and just look around at things since, well I don't care if that battery dies, and the phone runs just as fast as my 6S. Well oddly enough my 4S still manages to end the day with more battery life than my 6S does, and I didn't even use the 6S. It sits in my pocket and I periodically take it out to look at something and when I take it out, it's pretty warm and the battery is once again draining itself. It utterly pisses me off that it acts this way and it's really pathetic compared to my 5 year old 4S. Yes the 4S will heat up, but it doesn't do it nearly as badly as the 6S does. Heck half of the heat on the 4S is just from my hands holding it. I question if companies really think that phones need to be this powerful. What do most people use them for? Looking at Instagram, posting on Snapchat, texting, and taking lots of pictures. You don't need an insane processor to perform these actions, especially on iOS. It's understandable for Android because Java can be pretty demanding at times.
I was wanting to upgrade to the iPhone 7 for the reason that I hope the fusion chip manages battery life better, and I would like to have an iPhone that I can hold easily without fearing of dropping it. Jet black is much easier to hold compared to any matte finish. I don't generally like cases. Never used them on my 4S and periodically use them on my 6S because I fear of dropping it much more than my 4S. Glossy finishes provide way better grip than a slick matte finish.


So let me ask you 6S users. Are you having terrible battery issues with it?
 
Have you tried troubleshooting it all some? Resetting all settings? Restoring as new and not using a backup? Perhaps not even using iCloud after restoring to see how it behaves?

There's also the possibility of something being off as far as the battery (threre's even a battery recall for some 6s phones) and/or device itself goes and something needs to be replaced.
 
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I wouldn't say I'm having terrible issues with my 6s, but you should know the following:

1) Battery on the 6s was less than on the ip6.

2) if you have the Samsung processor, that is another strike against you.

I run my 6s exclusively on low-power mode to help with the battery issue and also turn off all background functions (and yes, I have the Samsung CPU).

It is what it is.

My sister has the TSMC CPU and gets very good battery life.
 
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bufffilm said:
I wouldn't say I'm having terrible issues with my 6s, but you should know the following:

1) Battery on the 6s was less than on the ip6.

2) if you have the Samsung processor, that is another strike against you.

I run my 6s exclusively on low-power mode to help with the battery issue and also turn off all background functions (and yes, I have the Samsung CPU).

It is what it is.

My sister has the TSMC CPU and gets very good battery life.
Click to expand...


I have a Samsung processor in my iP6S, and the battery life is better (slightly) than in my iP6. Maybe it is because my iP6 is so old now and they battery doesn't last as long though.
 
TheAppleFairy said:
I have a Samsung processor in my iP6S, and the battery life is better (slightly) than in my iP6. Maybe it is because my iP6 is so old now and they battery doesn't last as long though.
Click to expand...

Could be...

The smaller battery in the 6s was the only weakness w/the phone. I like having the 3.5mm jack...Apple should never have gotten rid if it after the 6s/+, but that's a topic for a different day. :)
 
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bufffilm said:
Could be...

The smaller battery in the 6s was the only weakness w/the phone. I like having the 3.5mm jack...Apple should never have gotten rid if it after the 6s/+, but that's a topic for a different day. :)
Click to expand...

Yup, I have considered the + model just for battery life a couple of time. I could go either way on the audio jack. Most of the time I use BT headphones and speakers anyway.
 
TheAppleFairy said:
Yup, I have considered the + model just for battery life a couple of time. I could go either way on the audio jack. Most of the time I use BT headphones and speakers anyway.
Click to expand...

I have a BT speaker for the iphone and iPad (but no speakerphone capability).

The lousy battery life on many BT earphones (and having to mind charging them constantly) is a major turn off for me.
 
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I have had my 6s for a little over a month, and I have to say that my battery life on it compares pretty close to what I was getting on my 5s that I owned before it. I'm guilty of not researching thoroughly enough before making a phone purchase and if I had it to do over again I would have bought the 7. I never use the headphone jack and the increased battery life of the 7 would have been nice.
 
It sounds like you have a rouge app running. The heat is a tip that something is keeping the processor pinned all the time and that is not normal (at least I've never had that issue with my 6s, however I am lucky enough to have the TSMC version of the A9 which is known to run cooler). The battery life of my 6s has been great and most days I finish the day with close to 50% remaining. I did own a 4s a few years back and it generally needed to be charged mid-day to get me through...

A couple suggestions:
1. You should check battery under settings to see what is using up most of your battery. You may need to do a clean install of iOS to fix the problem.
2. You may want to check to see if your 6s qualifies for the battery replacement program since it sounds like it might be about the right age (I purchased mine in October 2015 and it did qualify). Enter your serial number on this website to find out: https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/
 
When I got the phone I never put a backup on it for 2 reasons. 1 being that going from iOS 6 to 9 would've been a major pain to deal with. 2, I didn't really need to put a backup on it because I could always grab my old phone and get what I need, not to mention that I didn't have much on it anyway. I have never restored and I probably won't anytime soon, unless iOS 11 looks that good. Then I'll restore to a fresh install of 11, that is if I haven't picked a new phone by then, which is being debated between my whole family from possibly switching carriers. The only thing that I can think of that might be eating my battery in the background is Hotspot Shield VPN that I run on my school's network. I have a jailbreak on 10.2, but as far a I can tell, it hasn't affected anything at all. It runs the same as it did before. The tweaks installed aren't really running all the time. It's just visual things like a theme and round dock. The battery itself isn't in great shape for being a year old, which is disappointing compared to my Dad's almost 3 year old iPhone 6. His battery life cycle is around 92% where my 6S is only 80%. I knew that my device wasn't effected by the battery issue as for it was manufactured in November. I just don't understand this phone at all.



Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 12.21.56 PM.png
 
ThunderMasterMind said:
When I got the phone I never put a backup on it for 2 reasons. 1 being that going from iOS 6 to 9 would've been a major pain to deal with. 2, I didn't really need to put a backup on it because I could always grab my old phone and get what I need, not to mention that I didn't have much on it anyway. I have never restored and I probably won't anytime soon, unless iOS 11 looks that good. Then I'll restore to a fresh install of 11, that is if I haven't picked a new phone by then, which is being debated between my whole family from possibly switching carriers. The only thing that I can think of that might be eating my battery in the background is Hotspot Shield VPN that I run on my school's network. I have a jailbreak on 10.2, but as far a I can tell, it hasn't affected anything at all. It runs the same as it did before. The tweaks installed aren't really running all the time. It's just visual things like a theme and round dock. The battery itself isn't in great shape for being a year old, which is disappointing compared to my Dad's almost 3 year old iPhone 6. His battery life cycle is around 92% where my 6S is only 80%. I knew that my device wasn't effected by the battery issue as for it was manufactured in November. I just don't understand this phone at all.



View attachment 693353
Click to expand...

Can you go without the VPN for a few days to see if battery life goes back up?

What you should post also is your battery usage screen.
 
bodonnell202 said:
It sounds like you have a rouge app running. The heat is a tip that something is keeping the processor pinned all the time and that is not normal (at least I've never had that issue with my 6s, however I am lucky enough to have the TSMC version of the A9 which is known to run cooler). The battery life of my 6s has been great and most days I finish the day with close to 50% remaining. I did own a 4s a few years back and it generally needed to be charged mid-day to get me through...
Click to expand...

How can a person tell which processor their 6s has?
 
At the end of the day my 6s has at least 70% battery life left - that is fine for me.
As stated what are you running and what does the system tell you is using battery
 
Here is the battery usage. I am starting my Spring break tomorrow and will try to get some measurements of usage and battery life. I only use the VPN connections when on the school network and disable them as soon as I get out of school each day. I will also conduct tests between jailbroken and stock and see if that makes any difference, even though I doubt it will have that big of an affect between the 2.


Here it is for the past week. Ignore Siri because that was an accident and it was left open while I was driving. I don't really use Siri:

IMG_2790.PNG
 
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I'm on 9.0.2 JB so have no usage with ios10, but why is the home screen at 17% usage?

That's the first place to start...though where in there, is the question.
 
Turn off raise to wake, get rid of useless notifications, and / or stop checking your phone so dang much man!

Almost 1/5th of your battery usage is just from staring at your home screen. If your home screen usage was nil, your battery would be roughly 15% higher based on the amount of battery that you have remaining; adding that to the remaining 14% gives you 29%. 29% instead of 14% makes a big difference at the end of the day.

Turn off auto-app updates and background refresh entirely (or leave it on for what apps absolutely need it to function). Those other apps, like the App Store, are running in the background without your interaction which is also wrecking your battery life. Just removing the App Store battery usage in the background would add an additional 2.6% to your battery life - pushing you up over 31% battery life.

Those little things will add up, but focus on the big one first...your home screen usage!

In regards to the battery life, if you are still within warranty (or AppleCare) you're borderline for a free battery replacement. That additional 20% capacity would help make a difference.

When it comes down to WHY your battery is degrading, well, you're probably wrecking havoc on the poor thing. Heat is an enemy and deep discharging is an enemy to the health and longevity of your battery. I get the feeling that your dad doesn't use his phone as hard or as long as you do, and it probably doesn't discharge all the way to death like yours, and that would account for most of the difference in health %'s.
 
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blairian89 said:
Turn off raise to wake, get rid of useless notifications, and / or stop checking your phone so dang much man!

Almost 1/5th of your battery life is just from staring at your home screen. If your home screen usage was nil, your battery would be roughly 15% higher based on the amount of battery that you have remaining; adding that to the remaining 14% gives you 29%. 29% instead of 14% makes a big difference at the end of the day.

Turn off auto-app updates and background refresh entirely (or leave it on for what apps absolutely need it to function). Those other apps, like the App Store, are running in the background without your interaction which is also wrecking your battery life. Just removing the App Store battery usage in the background would add an additional 2.6% to your battery life - pushing you up over 31% battery life.

Those little things will add up, but focus on the big one first...your home screen usage!

In regards to the battery life, if you are still within warranty (or AppleCare) you're borderline for a free battery replacement. That additional 20% capacity would help make a difference.

When it comes down to WHY your battery is degrading, well, you're probably wrecking havoc on the poor thing. Heat is an enemy and deep discharging is an enemy to the health and longevity of your battery. I get the feeling that your dad doesn't use his phone as hard or as long as you do, and it probably doesn't discharge all the way to death like yours, and that would account for most of the difference in health %'s.
Click to expand...
Mostly I tend to leave my phone unlocked on the Home screen at times which is one problem. Now that I think of it, my phone tends to heat up when the display is all the way up, especially under those damn fluorescent lights in the school. My Dad tends to charge his phone on and off all day. When he leaves in the morning, he charges it in the truck and it's not a full charge, and he takes it on and off charge like that for the rest of the day. When he gets home it's around the same percentage that mine is, yet his phone is older than mine. I have never used auto-update because I generally prefer to control what my phone does, not the other way around. Background app refresh is irrelevant to me because the other devices I have on me don't have the feature. I don't even know why AppStore is there in the first place. I haven't used it except once or twice to update a few things, then closed it soon after. The phone has overheated twice in the time I have had it which makes it even worse, but things happen. I wasn't about to have my phone on me while building a boathouse above water.
 
ThunderMasterMind said:
So let me ask you 6S users. Are you having terrible battery issues with it?
Click to expand...

Just to note- I haven't read other replies yet, so I may append to this post.

I have had a 6S since last July, and have had no problems with battery life or heated processor. How is the signal where you are? That has always been the biggest drain my my experience.
 
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