Here comes the iPhone 4S' scandal: Batterygate?

[foghorn67]

It's a rogue process. I think MacWorld or someone went a ton of steps nailing down what HIS battery drain was. It involved looking at log files via itunes.

 

[akugami]

Second, I know iOS users only recently got multitasking, so there might be a learning curve.

Yep. It's only been two years. :hmm:

But, all other smart phone platform users have learned full well that an app or service actively working in the background is going to suck battery power, often very quickly. Google Maps drains my T-bolt if I leave it running in the background with location services on, for example. Not sure if this is a similar situation with the 4S or not.

iOS has a pseudo multi-tasking. Except for very few tasks, any app in the background basically has a limited time to run and after that it goes into a saved state. It should not be draining battery life. As per my first post (which was posted prior to reading yours, although I did read the linked article), in real world practice, sometimes crap happens and a background app doesn't get killed and drains battery. Sometimes it's a combination of settings/actions that causes a process or app to not close properly. There's not enough info at the moment to say what the problem is.

As for the thread title, calling this batterygate is sensationalism. I don't know the percentage of iPhone 4S users having the battery issues but unless it's north of 5%, it's ridiculous to call this batterygate. Even now, Android devices as a whole have much more battery issues.

 

[foghorn67]

Yep. It's only been two years. :hmm:

iOS has a pseudo multi-tasking. Except for very few tasks, any app in the background basically has a limited time to run and after that it goes into a saved state. It should not be draining battery life. As per my first post (which was posted prior to reading yours, although I did read the linked article), in real world practice, sometimes crap happens and a background app doesn't get killed and drains battery. Sometimes it's a combination of settings/actions that causes a process or app to not close properly. There's not enough info at the moment to say what the problem is.

As for the thread title, calling this batterygate is sensationalism. I don't know the percentage of iPhone 4S users having the battery issues but unless it's north of 5%, it's ridiculous to call this batterygate. Even now, Android devices as a whole have much more battery issues.

knee jerk reaction much?

 

[thescreensavers]

Damn motorola ftw?

 

[Anubis]

Damn motorola ftw?

in real life the bionic does not get anywhere close to that for battery life, the atrix D3 and Dx/2 are very good the bionic is a POS

 

[shortylickens]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/01/tech/mobile/iphone-4s-battery-life/index.html

Keep in mind, CNN Tech is the source for this. Their reliability isn't exactly high.



Few things I highlighted in bold.

First, no battery powered consumer device gets what the manufacturer rates it at. Even my MBA falls short of the rated time Apple lists, by a good 25%. It only comes close under ideal conditions, ie, with the LCD on its dimmest, no wireless on, etc. Complaining to Apple because your phone doesn't last as long as the spec sheet is idiotic and makes you look like an ignorant child.

Second, I know iOS users only recently got multitasking, so there might be a learning curve. But, all other smart phone platform users have learned full well that an app or service actively working in the background is going to suck battery power, often very quickly. Google Maps drains my T-bolt if I leave it running in the background with location services on, for example. Not sure if this is a similar situation with the 4S or not.

Third, the last bolded part. Apple stuck a powerful SoC into the 4S with the A5. The A5 & SGX543 may use less power at idle than the older A4, but at load, its going to use more power. There's simply more transistors and die that need to be powered up. For Apple to claim that it won't is ludicrous and for customers to believe him shows them to be naive.

Lastly, no where in the CNN article does it list any battery live lengths for the people who are complaining or compare it to the iP4. It only lists the official spec sheet for each. Regardless, I'm sure a 4S user is getting better battery life than my T-Bolt does, even heavily modded.

Any 4S users want to weigh in?

Ignorance of American consumer laws makes YOU look like, well a typical American, who happens to be an ignorant child.

 

[chin311]

my first iPhone since my old 3g few years back, but my 4S 16gb has done well, actually I didn't even charge it @ all since yesterday around 6am when I took it off the charger, used it quite a bit yesterday and still @ 42% right now.

don't know if it matters for anything with batteries these days but I did the old fashioned drain and refill the first few times with my phone.

definitely outlasting my droid X battery life

 

[MrX8503]

Damn motorola ftw?

Only in 3G talk time.

 

[akugami]

knee jerk reaction much?

My own opinion is that I don't knee jerks often enough.

If you have a contradicting view, or disagree with something I wrote, post a reply.

 

[Fingolfin269]

What we really need to have is a gategate thread: Has using -gate associated to every scandal to make it more dramatic gone too far? More to follow at 6...

 

[Mopetar]

What we really need to have is a gategate thread: Has using -gate associated to every scandal to make it more dramatic gone too far? More to follow at 6...

Tell me about it. Every time some idiotic news anchor, blogger, or other yahoo refers to some, usually overblown, event as a scandal, they tack the "gate" suffix on at the end and make me die a little inside.

I think it started back in the early 90's when President Clinton was investigated for involvement in the Whitewater development project. Someone decided it would be cute to add the "gate" suffix to evoke memories of the Watergate scandal. Unfortunately a boatload of brain-dead yuppies started attaching it to anything that seemed scandalous. I have a feeling that these are the same people who have a strong tendency to misuse the phrase "begs the question."

If there's any justice in the universe there's a special hell for those people.

 

[Ns1]

Damn motorola ftw?

who talks on their phone for 12 hours in a day?

 

[dguy6789]

in real life the bionic does not get anywhere close to that for battery life, the atrix D3 and Dx/2 are very good the bionic is a POS

You're out of your mind. The only time the Bionic gets less than stellar battery life is in a 4G LTE environment with 4G enabled the entire time. On 3G it has some of the best battery life of any smartphone on the market. There are no phones on the market that get extremely good battery life with LTE enabled currently.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

whats the point of turning GPS off? I really don't understand this. How many apps actively use GPS? Maps? Foursquare? Yelp? Do you leave those on all day long? I'd rather leave it on because a Foursquare checkin takes about 10 seconds, and it only stays on for certain screens of Foursquare.

GPS uses maybe 3-4% of my battery life total, and so usually the culprit is another guzzler.

A lot of apps use it. including the web browser. If it can't get a lock, it's just going to keep trying and that's when it really saps your power.
It's more likely Apple just got a bad batch of batteries. It happens.

 

[Aikouka]

I wonder if they're simply leaving certain software open while their screen is locked. I left Facebook open on my 4S while the screen was locked, and I think I lost nearly 10% battery life over the course of an hour!

 

[Ns1]

I wonder if they're simply leaving certain software open while their screen is locked. I left Facebook open on my 4S while the screen was locked, and I think I lost nearly 10% battery life over the course of an hour!

???

I never worry about what's open or closed - I just use my phone.

 

[Mopetar]

who talks on their phone for 12 hours in a day?

No one, probably, but I'd be willing to bet there are a lot of people who talk on their phone, browse the internet, use apps, and do other things with their phone that leave the battery sufficiently drained by the end of the day such that it needs to be plugged in at night. Hell, there are some people that need to plug their phone in at work because the battery won't last the whole day. It's nice to know that certain phones get better efficiency for talk time than others.

 

[Aikouka]

???

I never worry about what's open or closed - I just use my phone.

I'm honestly not sure why your phone use matters at all.

I am simply suggesting that these people may be leaving connection-hungry applications open, and that's draining the hell out of their battery. Locking your screen doesn't seem to actually stop your application or at least it doesn't in my experience. I once left a Kenken puzzle open, and I was rather puzzled when I saw that my completion time was incredibly long (over 2 hours). I realized that the game included the entire time I was at the lock screen.

I normally hit the home button and lock my screen at the "desktop", which shouldn't cause much power use.

 

[shortylickens]

who talks on their phone for 12 hours in a day?

Used to be teenage girls, but nowadays they're all about the texting.
I'd say women, who use their phone for work and play. Real estate agents, lawyers, and other business professional types who have to talk a lot. Then when they arent working they gab with friends.
Its very possible. Back in ye olde 80's, housewives with unlimited calling used to chat all day long while watching soaps and eating bon-bons.

 

[gsaldivar]

Iphone may have 99 problems but battery ain't one. They will patch this up quickly.

If there isn't a problem, why the need for a patch?

Oh wait...

http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/11/02/apple-confirms-battery-life-issues-in-ios-5/

 

[Mopetar]

Looks as though Apple has acknowledged there there are some bugs that are causing the issue:

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.

 

[Munky]

as much as its probably blasphemy, i don't exactly trust anandtech's the thoroughness of the reviews compared to hundreds of people complaining about it.

anand tech recommended like every single sandforce first generation drive, and we all know how horrible that went. and the worst part was it didnt get brought up in subsequent reviews.

Not to derail the thread, but what exactly was so bad about the those sandforce drives?

 

[foghorn67]

My own opinion is that I don't knee jerks often enough.

If you have a contradicting view, or disagree with something I wrote, post a reply.

The OP has been astonishingly generous to Apple. Yet you got on his case. Because Apple needs rescuing by you.

 

[Ns1]

I'm honestly not sure why your phone use matters at all.

I am simply suggesting that these people may be leaving connection-hungry applications open, and that's draining the hell out of their battery. Locking your screen doesn't seem to actually stop your application or at least it doesn't in my experience. I once left a Kenken puzzle open, and I was rather puzzled when I saw that my completion time was incredibly long (over 2 hours). I realized that the game included the entire time I was at the lock screen.

I normally hit the home button and lock my screen at the "desktop", which shouldn't cause much power use.

my point is, part of the reason why I bought an iPhone instead of Android was so that I never have to worry about my battery life/what applications i have open/etc. I have NEVER closed FB (I've actually never manually managed my apps), constantly lock my phone after using FB, and I'm pretty sure I've never had a 10% drop in battery life after 1 hour.

I left Facebook open on my 4S while the screen was locked, and I think I lost nearly 10% battery life over the course of an hour!

 

[MrX8503]

Not to derail the thread, but what exactly was so bad about the those sandforce drives?

Reliability issues. However, I thought Anandtech did specify this, but that the speed increase was worth it. I could be wrong though. I know that presently, Anand has been a big advocate of SSD reliability.

Anand was the only one to address the antennagate iphone4 problem in great detail. Lastly he also was the only one to address the EVO 4G 30fps cap issue.

For those reasons I still think Anand is credible. His review of the 4S does show more power draw under load. The battery life issue could also be isolated.