iPhone 13 Pro Yet another battery rant post [with context]

[SaguaroSeven]

@tonypg As I mentioned in the iPhone 13 Daily Battery Life thread, I've been disappointed with 13 Pro too. Like @aohus I have Apple Watch paired. I set up my 13 P using device-to-device transfer, which also transferred my Watch over. I updated to 15.0.1 using an ipsw file instead of OTA. I do not disable iPhone functions to get more battery life (background refresh, Hey Siri, location services, etc). I see considerable background activity and only 2.5-4 hrs of "screen on." As noted in the other thead, the battery page is general guidance, it's not precise.

Yesterday was the first day I had reasonable battery performance. The day before that I ran the battery down till the iPhone shut off at night. I did this because I was already <10% close to bedtime, and it used to be (long ago) a semi-official way to calibrate battery. It's too soon to say whether that helped but I'll keep you posted.

I believe there are three likely issues contributing to this:
1. Restoring from a previsous device brings over apps already configured for use. Maybe battery management cruft gets brought over from a previous device (whatever restore method); maybe it's app background optimizations that get brought over?
2. iOS software still needs some optimizations to improve battery, especially location services?
3. It takes a 1-2 week for the iPhone to figure power management -- that's how long it takes to sort out Optimized Charging. So the iOS+iPhone are still sorting out how to manage the battery.

Lastly, I'm not saying what we see with iPhone battery is make-believe, but there is a psychological component to percaptions of battery, and neither the bat %, nor Battery screen are completely accurate.

 

[SweetLou122]

I certainly share these thoughts. Switched from an 11 pro max with about 86% current battery health to the 13 pro (not max). I believe the 13 came loaded with iOS 15.0, but installed 15.0.1 whenever it became available.

I did the wireless data transfer/upgrade (proximity and scanning the swirling QR code). I also did this after upgrading from my 8 plus to the 11pm with no battery issues ever on those phones.

Issues I have noticed:
1) Location services is constantly showing in the top right and left on the pull down menu, either hollow or solid arrow. Never had this issue with the 11 and have not changed any settings.
2) screen on time and screen off time are wonky. Over 24 hours of not charging the phone it displays 8 min of screen off time, when in reality its been 20+ hours.
3) if I power cycle the phone off and back on, the battery will drop 5-10%.

I haven't seen battery issues like this since the 4s (oh and the cold weather/performance crashing of the 6s, which apple covered a replacement battery).

As Saguaro mentioned, a component of battery life certainly is psychological but I (and some others) likely only went digging because something was noticeably off. On both macOS and iOS devices, I have been glad to turn off the constant % indicator as there's no need to worry if it lasts through the day for your workload.

With that being said, objectively there seems to be some sort of calibration issue, hanging/nefarious background apps or location pings etc. contributing. Whether its a RAM issue or iOS issue, my 11 was much more aggressive about killing background apps than the 13p on iOS 15 seems to be, and at 86% health gets significantly better battery life than the 13p at this point in time.

So called clean installs used to fix some issues, likely by restoring all the permissions and settings to default. I think now that just resetting all settings to default is an option, it may be beneficial to work backwards from least obtrusive to most obtrusive (full delete, restore from IPSW, set up device as new) to see what if anything resolves the issues.

 

[will9]

I restored 13 Pro to 15.0 but I didn’t have an archived backup and it wouldn’t accept the 15.0.1 backup without an update. I needed stuff on the phone today so couldn’t start from scratch right now, maybe at the weekend. I unpaired and paired watch S6 as well. Battery life doesn’t seem to have changed. I’ve reset network settings but if I’m gonna reset all settings I may as well do a fresh install. Or just wait for 15.1. There’s more complaints about battery on this release every day and the fact that leaving the phone idle with signal results in significant drain.

 

[aohus]

Updated the battery usage for today.

View attachment 1858987

this seems a little low. you didnt enable screen on time per app setting so i cant determine how much actual screen on time youre outputting. im able to achieve 8-9 hr screen on time through disabling a lot of location settings and background refresh. in reality i do feel that the 13 pro can only max out actual screen on time (apple over-reports screen on time) at 6-7 hours. we have to be mindful that the battery tests shown done by tech youtubers dont include sim cards in their phones so its not realistic testing.

 

[tonypg]

this seems a little low. you didnt enable screen on time per app setting so i cant determine how much actual screen on time youre outputting. im able to achieve 8-9 hr screen on time through disabling a lot of location settings and background refresh. in reality i do feel that the 13 pro can only max out actual screen on time (apple over-reports screen on time) at 6-7 hours. we have to be mindful that the battery tests shown done by tech youtubers dont include sim cards in their phones so its not realistic testing.

I agree with you. I have some interesting update today.

 

[tonypg]

Like my previous reply stated, I decided to unpair my watch to observe the battery usage for a few days. Things have changed since then.

I unpaired the watch before sleep last night and made sure to reboot the phone after unpairing. I was a lot busier today, so I didn't get to use my phone as much as before close to 5 hours of on-screen time but left with much more battery left:

As usual, woke up at 9 and took the phone off the charger. Now it's midnight, and I still have 42% battery left. In a similar usage like yesterday (see my screenshot in the post), I have 33% more battery available. This proves the apple watch is indeed draining the phone battery. I foresee my phone can last about 6 to 7 hours on screen time in one charge, which I guess is expected?

I will definitely do a full reset of my watch and observe the performance for another few days before deciding whether to reset the setting for the phone.

 

[Lustral]

103.2% Health on 11 charge cycles, iPhone 13 Pro Graphite 256GB on 15.0.1. Only charged overnight using 5W Apple Charger.

Still getting poor battery life with mine. However ending most days with about 30-40% battery life on 2h 45min usage according to screen time. I thought it was my works MDM causing the drain. But however it didn't make a difference after removing Teams , Outlook & Yammer.

I have an Apple Watch Series 4 linked to it and it might be the cause of excessive battery use. I might test it out with the Apple Watch turned off .

 

[Lustral]

 

[Diversion]

Are you using eSIM? I'm noticing on my 13 mini eSIM activation is causing a huge amount of drain for me compared to my 11 Pro with regular SIM installed.. I confirmed this by doing a Airplane mode drain test on both my 11 pro and 13 mini and the Mini won in the same tests by being almost 2 hours longer (93% wear on my 11 pro).. However, when I put a SIM into the 11 Pro and turn on the eSIM on my 13 mini. the Mini dies WAY WAY WAY faster vs my 11 Pro.. I think either the 13 models have a bug with eSIMs and battery drain or the eSIM itself is just probematic on the Mini and possible other 13 models.

Edit: Just saw you're using regular physical SIM.. perhaps 13 models just drain a lot more on standby cellular + wifi than the older models do.. could be a bug in iOS hopefully not a physical problem. I just know my battery life is complete crap until i turn off cellular fully.

 

[Lustral]

Are you using eSIM? I'm noticing on my 13 mini eSIM activation is causing a huge amount of drain for me compared to my 11 Pro with regular SIM installed.. I confirmed this by doing a Airplane mode drain test on both my 11 pro and 13 mini and the Mini won in the same tests by being almost 2 hours longer (93% wear on my 11 pro).. However, when I put a SIM into the 11 Pro and turn on the eSIM on my 13 mini. the Mini dies WAY WAY WAY faster vs my 11 Pro.. I think either the 13 models have a bug with eSIMs and battery drain or the eSIM itself is just probematic on the Mini and possible other 13 models.

If you are asking me then no. I’m using a physical SIM which is from 3 and it is a newish SIM from last year which can do 5G

 

[BigMcGuire]

I'm on day #3 with my Pro Max and ... I noticed last night I plugged in for a little and the phone continued to do indexing, App Library organization, etc. So it's still setting stuff up even a few days later. I left it plugged in the entire day 1 I got it and usually that does everything I need. Phone is still setting up days later.

So far I'm not noticing a massive different in standby time between the 12 pro max and 13 pro max - but when using it - it drops a lot slower. I'm hoping it settles down eventually. But I am using it a lot more than I did my 12 Pro Max .

 

[Diversion]

If you are asking me then no. I’m using a physical SIM which is from 3 and it is a newish SIM from last year which can do 5G

Really anyone having issues in general.. i'm starting to think it's an issue with either T-Mobile itself's network (I get the same bad battery life on LTE or 5g modes, I have full 5g and 5g UC coverage where I live). Or the issue is just iOS related with the 13 specifically. It's clear that having a sim running in my 13 is causing the massive drain (I have two lines).. Having an activated working SIM in my 11 Pro doesn't cause it to drain no where near as fast in my battery drain tests..

 

[Lustral]

Really anyone having issues in general.. i'm starting to think it's an issue with either T-Mobile itself's network (I get the same bad battery life on LTE or 5g modes, I have full 5g and 5g UC coverage where I live). Or the issue is just iOS related with the 13 specifically. It's clear that having a sim running in my 13 is causing the massive drain (I have two lines).. Having an activated working SIM in my 11 Pro doesn't cause it to drain no where near as fast in my battery drain tests..

I’m mostly on Wi-Fi 5Ghz working from home with medium signal strength on the Wi-Fi and Cellular. I’m expecting with my usage to have over 50% left by the end of day, or maybe I’m expecting too much from the 13 Pro

 

[Diversion]

I’m mostly on Wi-Fi 5Ghz working from home with medium signal strength on the Wi-Fi and Cellular. I’m expecting with my usage to have over 50% left by the end of day, or maybe I’m expecting too much from the 13 Pro

I simply streamed a 2 hour Netflix movie on both my 11 Pro and 13 mini and the mini dropped 20% and the 11 Pro dropped 5%.. This was with Cellular on for both units but connected to very strong 5ghz Wifi. Both T-Mobile. Both set to LTE. Doing the same test without cellular on both, the Mini is about even with the 11 Pro on just Wifi. Definitely the cellular modem or connection is broken on the 13 for me causing massive drain.

 

[BigMcGuire]

13 Pro Max, strong 5g wifi - I'm seeing flatlining on idle for 2 nights now .

 

[ray6088]

Are you using eSIM? I'm noticing on my 13 mini eSIM activation is causing a huge amount of drain for me compared to my 11 Pro with regular SIM installed.. I confirmed this by doing a Airplane mode drain test on both my 11 pro and 13 mini and the Mini won in the same tests by being almost 2 hours longer (93% wear on my 11 pro).. However, when I put a SIM into the 11 Pro and turn on the eSIM on my 13 mini. the Mini dies WAY WAY WAY faster vs my 11 Pro.. I think either the 13 models have a bug with eSIMs and battery drain or the eSIM itself is just probematic on the Mini and possible other 13 models.

Edit: Just saw you're using regular physical SIM.. perhaps 13 models just drain a lot more on standby cellular + wifi than the older models do.. could be a bug in iOS hopefully not a physical problem. I just know my battery life is complete crap until i turn off cellular fully.

Did you update the carrier firmware update? It normally shows "Yes" or "No", I always click "Yes". In fact, using t-moblie esim is little bit better on battery performace than R15 sim of my iPhone 12 mini. I will check it again when my 13 mini once arrives.

 

[Hiredgoon6]

Traded in 12PM for 13 Pro and not impressed with battery either. Normal day on 12PM ends with 60-70%. Same usage chews through 13 Pro battery.

 

[Mattyman]

13 Pro Max, strong 5g wifi - I'm seeing flatlining on idle for 2 nights now .

View attachment 1860153

That is amazing. is background activity and notifications enabled?

 

[BigMcGuire]

That is amazing. is background activity and notifications enabled?

Yep, everything default except Apple News (only thing where I turned background refresh off).

My wifi router is currently about 3 ft from my phone and my phone spends most of its time within 20ft so that may help too.

 

[Diversion]

Did you update the carrier firmware update? It normally shows "Yes" or "No", I always click "Yes". In fact, using t-moblie esim is little bit better on battery performace than R15 sim of my iPhone 12 mini. I will check it again when my 13 mini once arrives.

Yes it prompted for carrier update after I did a DFU restore on both devices to make sure they were the same for testing.. I would have assumed eSIM was more battery efficient too but i'm starting to think the modem/firmware sucks energy vs the 11 Pro since all tests are the same.. only difference is the 11 Pro has R15 sim vs eSIM on the 13. Both T-mobile.. 5g auto mode vs LTE made no difference on the 13.. just drains a lot more even overnight when in standby/as well as in use.. Nothing in the battery section shows any different drain, it's unreported. Deciding on if I should return the 13 and keep the 11 pro at this point since the battery is more reliable.

 

[aohus]

after unpairing the apple watch my battery life has increased tremendously. standby time has gotten better as well. i'm under the impression that 15.0.1 may have introduced drainage issues with the apple watch. hopefully it gets fixed.

 

[Taz Mangus]

If you want to stretch your battery life more, when you put the phone down for the night, put it in low power mode. This is what I'm doing. When you wake take the phone out of low power mode.

 

[imaginex20]

If you want to stretch your battery life more, when you put the phone down for the night, put it in low power mode. This is what I'm doing. When you wake take the phone out of low power mode.

I started doing exactly this. I have a shortcuts automation that turns on/off low power mode when I have my phone on DND.

 

[tonypg]

after unpairing the apple watch my battery life has increased tremendously. standby time has gotten better as well. i'm under the impression that 15.0.1 may have introduced drainage issues with the apple watch. hopefully it gets fixed.

I am glad this helps you too. It has improved the battery life for me as well.

 

[tonypg]

If you want to stretch your battery life more, when you put the phone down for the night, put it in low power mode. This is what I'm doing. When you wake take the phone out of low power mode.

I prefer to not do anything extra steps that were not expected to save battery because it shouldn't be that way.