iPhone 4s battery life stinks

[lotust]

it stinks compared to my 2.5 year old iPhone 4 16gb that I have been using. how is it that the old phone outlasts the new one? I removed the sim from the 4S and the battery seems to last allot longer. Maybe it the new modem in the 4S?

I have also done the tweaks as found here to save my battery and they did not help at all. http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/28/iphone-4s-battery-life-sucks-disable-location-services/

im considering returning the 4S and keeping my regular 4. And PS: SIRI sucks.

 

[postmortemIA]

2 cores vs one

 

[Anteaus]

Maybe try turning off background downloading and turn the brightness down? Those can be battery killers.

 

[badb0y]

I get the same battery life.

 

[xanis]

I was having battery issues as well, but they seemed to have been fixed in the 5.2 iOS update. Like postmortemIA said: Two cores vs. one.

 

[mmntech]

Maybe try turning off background downloading and turn the brightness down? Those can be battery killers.

Also push notifications. Set fetches to 30min or more, or just turn them off.

 

[ensign_lee]

define "bad". As longa s you charge your phone once every day or every other day, it seems fine to me?

 

[TheSlamma]

Mine wasn't bad till this 5.1 update, now it's junk

 

[Ns1]

define "sucks "

 

[runawayprisoner]

define "sucks "

It's 6 hours 24 minutes of usage, 12 hours of standby on iPhone 4S vs 8 hours of usage, 1 day 14 hours of standby on iPhone 4 in my case.

Both from 100% unplugged (otherwise the meter wouldn't jump), and both down to the point where the 10% alert flashes.

But to be fair, the 4S drops less calls, has generally better reception, and overall more responsive operation as I zip by the day snapping photos of documents, sending arbitrary emails, receiving texts (a sizable of which are spams from local companies who undoubtedly got a hold of my card), playing games during downtime (Infinity Blade 2, Angry Birds) and so on.

I could use better battery life (24 hours better to be more precise), but this is about enough. Thank God I bring my MBP along and it doesn't take longer than 30 minutes to get about 30% on the battery meter.

 

[xanis]

edit: nm

 

[lotust]

I define bad as in it was cut in almost 1/2 it seems. I dont want 5.1 update. Im jailbroken. The usage was the same before the JB.

but yeah it may be just cuz its got 2 cores VS 1. I would have thought apple would have made the battery larger to compensate? guess not.

 

[TuxDave]

Mine wasn't bad till this 5.1 update, now it's junk

Mine is the same with 5.0 and 5.1. I still can get away with charging every other day and that includes maybe an hour of facetime a night, some phone calls and randomly surfing throughout the workday. This is the same for 5.0 and 5.1.

Edit: I also don't believe in the "disable everything to make battery life go up". The only exception is that I turn off the bluetooth radio since I don't have a bluetooth headset.

 

[Kaido]

I get bad battery life on mine, even worse on the new 5.1 update.

I have a Boost battery case. It helps. Also chargers at my work desk, in my car, and at home. Not ideal, but battery technology only goes so far these days.

 

[kmmatney]

Your battery life is way too low. I have a 4S with all push notifications turned off,and I have Spotlight search completely turned off. I haven't really done much of anything else. I can squeeze a few days out of it if I just use it as a phone, and even with normal email and some safari usage I can usually get 2 days. Mine's jailbroken, but I don't think that matter one way or another.

 

[lotust]

WTH! my phone used 25% battery while I was sleeping last night. Gerrr

 

[Qbah]

Just got the 4S... compared to my old 3GS the battery is utter crap Both with iOS 5.1

With low usage (push notifications on, playing Bejeweled a bit, Facebook, spam deletion, a bit of IM) I would drop to ~70% from 9AM to midnight on my 3GS. With heavy use that would be down to ~30%.

Now doing the same light stuff on my 4S I went to sleep with the phone at 45% battery yesterday.... That's with really not much usage either. I don't think it will last a day when I use it more...

Right now I played Bejeweled for ~10 minutes, checked FB a few times, read an article on Flipboard, chatted a bit on IM (Beejive), got an SMS and deleted a few spam emails and I'm down to 79%. In 5 hours...

The phone is ultra smooth and extremely fast compared to my 3GS, but the battery... D:

EDIT: 9 hours later with doing almost nothing - down to 54% (so -25%)

 

[akugami]

WTH! my phone used 25% battery while I was sleeping last night. Gerrr

This is not normal. Try these steps.

Close all apps.

Go to the settings and check the push notification and data other settings that may affect data usage in the background for all apps.

Double click home button. Delete all recently used apps. All of them.

Hold power button for 5s and power off the device then power it back on.

If this doesn't work, try resetting your wifi settings as well as resetting your mail accounts. Repeat the above steps, then power off, then power on the device.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I haven't had any problems. Maybe bring it in and tell them you're having battery issues?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Apple sucks

but on a more helpful note, reception can play a big part in this as well.

also, might as well just take it back to the Apple store and get it fixed (if they let you)

 

[runawayprisoner]

No, reception doesn't play into it. My old iPhone 4 gets worse reception than the 4S (2-3 bars is normal on the 4. 4S gets solid 4-5 bars most of the time) and it still has significantly better battery life.

Here's another metric: Infinity Blade 2 in 30 minutes eat 12% on the 4S. The same save file eats 6% on the 4.

 

[Qbah]

I got full bars constantly, 3G. Took the phone off the charger 9AM, it's 5PM now, battery at 66%. A few articles on Flipboard, one YouTube clip, a few deleted emails, a few SMSes, a bit of chatting on Beejive, a few FB refreshes.

I followed the guide and disabled location services before going to sleep for:
- Compass calibration
- Diagnostic&Usage
- iAds (has a gray GPS icon)
- Setting Time Zone (has a gray GPS icon)

8 hours - 34% down - over 4% per hour with light-to-moderate use. Still crap D:

EDIT: 10PM - 5 hours later - @42% - lost 24% - hardly did anything - ehhhhhhhh

 

[slugg]

My girlfriend has a 4S on Sprint. I have a 4 on AT&T. I get about twice as much battery life...

When Intel switched to dual core laptop CPUs, battery life went up. Looks like Intel should be making phones...

 

[Sephire]

Turn off bluetooth.

 

[Qbah]

Hmm... Today after 8 hours I lost 10% only which is great! Just had a ~30 minute call in those 8 hours. Now that I think about it, it might be the WiFi that's depleting my battery really fast - there's a very weak AP close to my work, maybe the phone is trying to connect to it all the time? Cause honestly, nothing else changed. Will test more next week.