Will battery life ever improve?

[newyorksole]

I've had every iPhone and don't remember how my battery was on each 1, but I remember with the 3GS I would only go down 10% after an hour.

My iPhone 4S battery will go down 25% after an hour.

I feel like a bigger iPhone means bigger battery, but if they keep adding more features and better processors and screens, how will the battery life get better?

It seems like battery life/technology will never be able to properly handle a phone's features.

 

[FSMBP]

I've had every iPhone and don't remember how my battery was on each 1, but I remember with the 3GS I would only go down 10% after an hour.

My iPhone 4S battery will go down 25% after an hour.

I feel like a bigger iPhone means bigger battery, but if they keep adding more features and better processors and screens, how will the battery life get better?

It seems like battery life/technology will never be able to properly handle a phone's features.

If Apple wasn't too obsessed with thinness, they could easily add more battery (I don't know why the current iPhone 4's thinness isn't acceptable & that the new iPhone will be thinner).

Our best bet is to get close to the iPhone 4's original battery life (that thing lasted over a full day with heavy use by reviewers). I hope Apple gets the new iPhone up to that standard.

 

[Want300]

I've had every iPhone and don't remember how my battery was on each 1, but I remember with the 3GS I would only go down 10% after an hour.

My iPhone 4S battery will go down 25% after an hour.

I feel like a bigger iPhone means bigger battery, but if they keep adding more features and better processors and screens, how will the battery life get better?

It seems like battery life/technology will never be able to properly handle a phone's features.

To me, the iPhone 4 (especially before iOS 5) had the best battery life by far. It seemed to last much longer for me. With the 3G and the 3GS, I had a Mophie JuicePack case for extra battery life.

 

[mattopotamus]

based on the front page news about the sharp screen, I would say we may get a little better battery with an even thinner phone

 

[Want300]

If Apple wasn't too obsessed with thinness, they could easily add more battery (I don't know why the current iPhone 4's thinness isn't acceptable & that the new iPhone will be thinner).

Our best bet is to get close to the iPhone 4's original battery life (that thing lasted over a full day with heavy use by reviewers). I hope Apple gets the new iPhone up to that standard.

Right when iOS 5 was released, my iPhone 4's battery suffered for a while until the first software update came out.

 

[mattopotamus]

i'm thinking we will AT LEAST see the same battery performance we are getting with the 4S....anything else will be a bonus in my eyes as it will have a bigger screen, LTE, and be thinner most likely.

 

[samkak]

in my case 3G and location services eat a hell lot of battery. Wish there was a solution to this

 

[ET iPhone Home]

i got a Mophie Air battery case and stopped thinking about it.

 

[kdarling]

I predict (hope) that battery improvement will be one of the next big leaps in smartphones.

There are lots of people working on an order of magnitude extensions to battery life, and sooner or later someone will find an economical manufacturing technique.

One day not too long from now, someone (perhaps Apple) will come out with a smartphone with a battery that lasts ten times as long as now... say, a week, without recharging... and change consumer expectations.

 

[nw9]

i got a Mophie Air battery case and stopped thinking about it.

The problem with that solution is that you have to use their case instead of any case you think is better. That's not a problem if you like the case the external battery uses, but sometimes people want a stronger, lighter, or thinner case, etc. If I had the option, I would always choose a longer lasting built in battery.

I predict (hope) that battery improvement will be one of the next big leaps in smartphones.

I also wish there is a great improvement too. Current battery technology is constantly playing catch up to the power needs of our mobile devices. I wish there was a bigger jump in battery technology so that batteries would be ahead of the needs of our devices when it comes to lasting longer.

I'm going to be more realistic with my wish though. As long as it last the whole day with heavy usage then it's good for my needs because it's easy to charge it everyday at the end of the day when I have downtime. What I don't like is having to reduce my internet usage or other power demanding usage just so that my battery can last throughout the whole day.

A faster charging time would make it more convenient also. If a full charging time took under 15 minutes then it would be less of a chore to recharge when needed.

 

[ET iPhone Home]

If I had the option, I would always choose a longer lasting built in battery.

I agree with you 100%, but unfortunately, a longer built in battery doesn't exist. Even if the next iPhone stretches to 4" and the battery along with it stretches with it's size, the extra power consumption will only compensate for the new screen size, so we're back again where we started.

 

[newyorksole]

The problem with that solution is that you have to use their case instead of any case you think is better. That's not a problem if you like the case the external battery uses, but sometimes people want a stronger, lighter, or thinner case, etc. If I had the option, I would always choose a longer lasting built in battery.


I also wish there is a great improvement too. Current battery technology is constantly playing catch up to the power needs of our mobile devices. I wish there was a bigger jump in battery technology so that batteries would be ahead of the needs of our devices when it comes to lasting longer.

I'm going to be more realistic with my wish though. As long as it last the whole day with heavy usage then it's good for my needs because it's easy to charge it everyday at the end of the day when I have downtime. What I don't like is having to reduce my internet usage or other power demanding usage just so that my battery can last throughout the whole day.

A faster charging time would make it more convenient also. If a full charging time took under 15 minutes then it would be less of a chore to recharge when needed.

Exactly! You're spot on.

I love using the iPhone. It suits my needs perfectly, but I don't want to be forced to have to turn down my brightness, turn off my location services and keep calls down to a couple minutes because I'm worried about my battery.

I can't even get through a whole day with the iPhone 4S. It's unacceptable.

I'd be in Manhattan sending a few texts, tweeting, taking pics etc sporadically throughout the day and by the time I leave my phone is at 1%.

 

[applefanDrew]

I've had every iPhone and don't remember how my battery was on each 1, but I remember with the 3GS I would only go down 10% after an hour.

My iPhone 4S battery will go down 25% after an hour.

I feel like a bigger iPhone means bigger battery, but if they keep adding more features and better processors and screens, how will the battery life get better?

It seems like battery life/technology will never be able to properly handle a phone's features.

With the new IGZO display tech, new broadcom wifi chips that save 3 orders of magnitude more power when in standby mode, shrinking die of processors, and more power efficient LTE chips, we will see increase in battery life over the next few years.

The new wifi chips probably won't make this iPhone but next year's. For this year, the IGZO display coupled with a 32nm A5X chip will probably give us:

9 Hours talk time
6 hours LTE
8 Hours 3G
10 hours wifi
40 Hours music
10 Hours video
250 Hours standby.

 

[Want300]

Exactly! You're spot on.

I love using the iPhone. It suits my needs perfectly, but I don't want to be forced to have to turn down my brightness, turn off my location services and keep calls down to a couple minutes because I'm worried about my battery.

I can't even get through a whole day with the iPhone 4S. It's unacceptable.

I'd be in Manhattan sending a few texts, tweeting, taking pics etc sporadically throughout the day and by the time I leave my phone is at 1%.

I like the Mophie Key Chain battery... it reminds me of a Zippo. gets the job done.

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Apparently it is not worth the money... Just read some reviews on it.

 

[Tones2]

A short trem solution is a REPLACEABLE battery. Since getting an SGS3, I just keep any extra battery with me and just pop it in when the other runs out. I can't tell how much LESS I worry about battery life now that I can do this. The 4S and SGS3 battery life both suck (but are similar), but at least now I have an option to pop in a new battery instead of always worrying about recharging.

But alas, we will NEVER see a replaceable iPhone battery.

 

[DanteMann]

A short trem solution is a REPLACEABLE battery. Since getting an SGS3, I just keep any extra battery with me and just pop it in when the other runs out. I can't tell how much LESS I worry about battery life now that I can do this. The 4S and SGS3 battery life both suck (but are similar), but at least now I have an option to pop in a new battery instead of always worrying about recharging.

But alas, we will NEVER see a replaceable iPhone battery.

Ditto!
I bought the spare battery and charger/dock for only $35. By far the easiest solution for heavy usage for now.The replaceable battery option will continue to hold this massive advantage.

 

[takeshi74]

Will battery life ever improve?

As with any "Will X ever Y?" question: you can never say never. Looking at history is your best bet.

 

[SurferMan]

To me, the iPhone 4 (especially before iOS 5) had the best battery life by far. It seemed to last much longer for me. With the 3G and the 3GS, I had a Mophie JuicePack case for extra battery life.

This, 4 was easily the best for battery life in use. Mine dropped though after iOS5 but even then it was still quite better than both 4S's we've had. People have shown how iOS5 has more draw on processes and more running in the background vs before. My GSII on the custom ICS Rom is same/slightly better than what my 4 was pre-iOS5 which is impressive.

Hope Apple puts a larger battery in, especially being it will most likely come with LTE. But I'm thinking even with the newer chipsets for LTE drawing less power, the increase in battery size will pry just negate that enough to where the phone will be pry same as 4S for life.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

I've had every iPhone and don't remember how my battery was on each 1, but I remember with the 3GS I would only go down 10% after an hour.

My iPhone 4S battery will go down 25% after an hour.

I feel like a bigger iPhone means bigger battery, but if they keep adding more features and better processors and screens, how will the battery life get better?

It seems like battery life/technology will never be able to properly handle a phone's features.

iPhone 3GS was a clear improvement over iPhone 3G. iPhone 4 was definitely a clear improvement over the iPhone 3GS. I don't own an iPhone 4S, so I don't know what that's like.

And besides, adding better processors and screens doesn't mean battery life can't get better. Every few years everybody changes from architecture, which means that chips will deliver a much better performance, at lower clock speeds and thus use less energy. Also, every once in a while chips become smaller (like switching from 45 nm to 32/28 nm lines) - performance stays the same, the chip becomes drastically more energy-efficient.

Same for displays: remember that IGZO display? It's basically just a LCD display with some small adjustments: these adjustments, however, allow for a higher brightness compared to 'standard' LCD displays - which means better battery life (because less LEDS are needed for the same brightness).

And oh, battery life can improve - but Apple is just obsessed with thickness. The "iPhone 5" is rumoured to be only 7.4~ mm thick, compared to the iPhone 4S' 9.3 mm. We're talking here about almost 2 mm.

What does that mean? Well, that means Apple has managed to give a 7.4 mm "iPhone 5" (with new features), the same battery life as the current 9.3 mm iPhone 4S. Theoretically, this means that they could deliver an "iPhone 5" with a thickness of 9.3 mm that could last for a couple of days (compared to currently one day (depending on your usage)). They could also have settled with (for example) 8.3 mm: that's still a millimetre thinner than the current iPhone 4S (and I believe it than would be the thinnest smartphone on the market (not sure though)), and they could still offer vastly superior battery life compared to the iPhone 4S.
But they won't do this - because they want to make their devices as thin as possible.

 

[Wrathwitch]

+1 for the Mophie battery pack air.

I had the iP4 which had an excellent battery as it was, but the Mophie battery pack added 4 advantages over it's extra bulk (which to ME just made the phone feel more rugged and less fragile)

1) extra battery when needed

2) good rubberized internal material which saved my phone from a concrete bounce once.

3) the case bends the speaker sound to come from the front of the phone rather than the bottom of it and amplified the volume, as well as the nice effect of me never smothering the sound by placing my hands on the bottom of the phone.

4) provided a nice deep protective groove which sheltered the camera lense not only from dirt, but from mistakenly putting fingerprints on it.

 

[aleni]

Does anybody here have a way to charge battery from dead to full in 15 minutes? Hope someone find a way to do this if battery technology cannot improve much further.

 

[newyorksole]

Does anybody here have a way to charge battery from dead to full in 15 minutes? Hope someone find a way to do this if battery technology cannot improve much further.

This.

 

[Darthdingo]

The iPhone4 thickness is fine, instead of making the iPhone5 super thin, just keep the 4's thickness and stuff in a larger battery. Gotta admit that Motorola and their MAXX phones are sweet idea, still rather thin, but having a giant 3300 mah battery, giving a full day of power even on 4G LTE. Apple should use that type of technology.

What's more important ? A cool looking super thin phone, but with a battery that dies quickly, or a little thicker phone with a battery that lasts a day + ?

 

[aleni]

The iPhone4 thickness is fine, instead of making the iPhone5 super thin, just keep the 4's thickness and stuff in a larger battery. Gotta admit that Motorola and their MAXX phones are sweet idea, still rather thin, but having a giant 3300 mah battery, giving a full day of power even on 4G LTE. Apple should use that type of technology.

What's more important ? A cool looking super thin phone, but with a battery that dies quickly, or a little thicker phone with a battery that lasts a day + ?

If i were apple, i would release two type of iphones.

1. IPhone
2. iPhone with more thickness but capable of 12 hours of battery life.

 

[k3roro]

I like the Mophie Key Chain battery... it reminds me of a Zippo. gets the job done.

Image

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Apparently it is not worth the money... Just read some reviews on it.

Whoa... I don't know if I can fit that into my pocket.