iPhone 5 Battery Life

DubDJ

How are people finding the battery life on the new iPhone 5?

I went from an iPhone 4 I ordered on launch day so it was well over 2 years old. And it had a better battery life than my new iPhone 5 with the 'improved' battery life. I've let it drop to 1%-2% a few times and charged it back up to 100% and it is still below average at best.

Anybody actually seeing an improvement in battery? I'm curious to see if its just normal or if my battery is actually worse. I used to leave my iPhone charging and disconnect it before going to sleep and I'd wake up with 98-100%. Done the same thing last night with the 5 and woke with 92%. That's an example of how it has dropped since upgrading to the new model.

FourFourRED

See here; http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

The iPhone 4 has 75 hours more standby time than the iPhone 5.


The 8% drop overnight could be a result of numerous things. How often is your iPhone fetching new content from email, iCloud & push notifications? These are the most likely causes of battery loss overnight.

Follow these tips from Apple on how to get the most from your iPhone 5's battery - http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html



I found the 4S to be a big drainer in battery. I got my new iPhone 5 yesterday and it lasted 24 hours from a full charge with 8 hours of that 24 being "awake time".

Since then I've turned off fetching of iCloud data unless the app's are open. I've reduced my push notifications & keep location services off unless needed.

I reckon I will be getting at least 12 hours usage with around 24 hours total active time on a full charge now.



However, it's always good for the battery to be charged whenever you have access to a charger throughout your day to keep the electrons flowing and be sure to calibrate once a month.

(So basically don't keep waiting for it to hit 1% or die completely more than a few times per month because it's actually worse for the battery).


Also: Letting the phone drop to 1-2% and charging to 100% again isn't going to improve battery life it will only calibrate the battery percentage level indicator so that it keeps accurate.

For e.g. your phone might die even at 8-9% battery because the phone hasn't been calibrated and the indicator has lost its accuracy.

faceman

I posted a thread about this recently too. My ip5 has a battery life no better than my launch ip4.

DubDJ

Aodhagan wrote: »

See here; http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

The iPhone 4 has 75 hours more standby time than the iPhone 5.


The 8% drop overnight could be a result of numerous things. How often is your iPhone fetching new content from email, iCloud & push notifications? These are the most likely causes of battery loss overnight.

Follow these tips from Apple on how to get the most from your iPhone 5's battery - http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html



I found the 4S to be a big drainer in battery. I got my new iPhone 5 yesterday and it lasted 24 hours from a full charge with 8 hours of that 24 being "awake time".

Since then I've turned off fetching of iCloud data unless the app's are open. I've reduced my push notifications & keep location services off unless needed.

I reckon I will be getting at least 12 hours usage with around 24 hours total active time on a full charge now.



However, it's always good for the battery to be charged whenever you have access to a charger throughout your day to keep the electrons flowing and be sure to calibrate once a month.

(So basically don't keep waiting for it to hit 1% or die completely more than a few times per month because it's actually worse for the battery).


Also: Letting the phone drop to 1-2% and charging to 100% again isn't going to improve battery life it will only calibrate the battery percentage level indicator so that it keeps accurate.

For e.g. your phone might die even at 8-9% battery because the phone hasn't been calibrated and the indicator has lost its accuracy.

I overlooked the difference in battery. I didn't realise the 4 had a better battery life. I thought it was 225 compared to 200 but that's the 4S comparison so that part is new to me. Didn't realise the 4 has such a good battery life.

Settings are the same as before so notification and push haven't changed from one phone to another. Only mentioned calibration as it seems to be the first port of call. The 75 hour battery drop seems to explain the loss of battery life I'm seeing. I've been charging as normal as well as waiting for it to go right down. Usually while connected to my MBP it does charge from 50% and above so it's had a fair bit of variety there. Just thought it was supposed to be an improvement over the 4.

Not too worried now. But was curious about the drop. But the above seems to explain somewhat. Thanks for the info. Gonna keep track of usage and post here to compare.

Currently it's @ 19% and Standby is 16hrs 30mins and usage 5hrs 18 mins.

FourFourRED

5hrs 18mins usage with 19% left to go isn't bad at all. My 4S would have died by that time.

5 is impressing me so far.

Piliger

Battery life on my 5 is fine (day and a half). I read about quitting the constantly running background apps and now quit them all regularly and it helped quite a bit. Why keep push email going all night ? Why leave wifi on all night ?

A few people do have problem I agree, but most don't. Hopefully 6.0.1 might also help those people.

FourFourRED

Also, mine is usually on charge overnight.

DubDJ

Lets see if iOS 6.0.1 makes any positive differences to it

_Puma_

How hard is it to replace the battery in the 5? Ive owned a 3GS and I had a go at replacing the battery myself following youtube videos and although it was a bit cumbersome I was able to manage it! Currently own a galaxy S2 and got an extended battery for it. Just have to take off the cover and pop it in, old school style! I cannot understand why apple make it so hard to replace the battery for their Iphones

Heisenberg1

DubDJ wrote: »

How are people finding the battery life on the new iPhone 5?

I went from an iPhone 4 I ordered on launch day so it was well over 2 years old. And it had a better battery life than my new iPhone 5 with the 'improved' battery life. I've let it drop to 1%-2% a few times and charged it back up to 100% and it is still below average at best.

Anybody actually seeing an improvement in battery? I'm curious to see if its just normal or if my battery is actually worse. I used to leave my iPhone charging and disconnect it before going to sleep and I'd wake up with 98-100%. Done the same thing last night with the 5 and woke with 92%. That's an example of how it has dropped since upgrading to the new model.

I noticed a big improvement in Battery life over my 4S getting around 1Day 7hours Stand-By with usage around the 7 hour mark.

DubDJ

_Puma_ wrote: »

How hard is it to replace the battery in the 5? Ive owned a 3GS and I had a go at replacing the battery myself following youtube videos and although it was a bit cumbersome I was able to manage it! Currently own a galaxy S2 and got an extended battery for it. Just have to take off the cover and pop it in, old school style! I cannot understand why apple make it so hard to replace the battery for their Iphones

Try check info on iFixit.com that would give plenty of info. Afaik the 5 is a lot easier to repair than previous models.

mad muffin

I would put the iPhone 5 between the iPhone 4 and 4S.

I think the iPhone 5 battery is pretty good and almost as good as the 4 considering its only marginally bigger with duel core 1.3Ghz and a larger screen with a higher resolution.

Gumbo

99% at 11pm last night. 24% now. Heavy use today as we're working on an app in work so constant uploading etc!

mad muffin

Not bad?

DubDJ

This is my latest.

Duff

Got mine this morning, fully charged at 2 p.m. It's at 85% now with a lot of texting and some Facebook/Twitter action. Miles ahead compared to my 4S.

Mimikyu

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DubDJ

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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Just comparing my earlier usage stats to yours and with almost identical usage (yours with more actual usage and mine with more standby usage) your battery was at 40% whereas my one was at 24%. Which adds to my battery worries.

DubDJ

My battery drained pretty low last night. So I let it get right down to 1%. Normally my iPhone 4 would go dead at 2%. By the 5 kept running even at 1%. So connected to my MBP and had it connected for a good while. Disconnected at 3am when it was at 100%. Just to make sure it was calibrated properly.

Battery life seems to be much better now. Still at 75% at the moment. After 16 hours combined usage. Much happier.

eeloe

Mines pretty shocking to be honest, but I'm used to having my phone charged a couple of times a day anyway!

mad muffin

Before I put it on to charge last night

Creamy Goodness

fully charged 100% at 12pm on saturday afternoon, only plugged it in this morning, 1hr 20 minutes commute, push on, wifi 3g on, bluetooth off.

blows any smartphone i've had out of the water.

DubDJ

mad muffin wrote: »

Before I put it on to charge last night

That's really good. Basically 2 days of not more.

mad muffin

DubDJ wrote: »

That's really good. Basically 2 days of not more.

Yeah I'm impressed. I would have liked to see how far I could go but needed a full battery for the morning.

Also impressive is how fast this phone charges.

DubDJ

mad muffin wrote: »

Yeah I'm impressed. I would have liked to see how far I could go but needed a full battery for the morning.

Also impressive is how fast this phone charges.

Yeah noticed that myself. Charging much faster even when connected to the laptop. Which is handy.

Mimikyu

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Piliger

Got my 5 from Apple a couple of weeks ago. The battery is excellent, and I have no problems with it.

Remember to be closing those open apps !
(double click the main button, hold an icon, and then close each of them.)

Mimikyu

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Armonline

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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It depends on what type of apps. Generally, most apps in the 'multitasking' dock are not actually running. They close completely but their last state is saved into memory, so they only impact your phone by using up extra memory. The OS will 'close' the oldest as needed to reclaim memory, by releasing that memory. Some apps do use specific multitasking APIs which will result in battery drain. These APIs provide services through the OS, so it still isn't really the app that is using up resources, but they have instructed the OS to maintain some service which will use CPU cycle or other subsystem and therefore use battery. These will include any VOIP apps that can receive calls (OS keeps a VOIP connection open), any app the maintains location awareness when closed (GPS etc), apps that continue to stream and/or play music in the background, apps that use background task completion (i.e. uploading videos, but the process terminates when the task is complete) and local and push notifications (though these OS services are always running unless disabled in Settings).

So, if you have apps like Safari or twitter or facebook still 'running', no they won't result in additional battery drain. If you leave Skype or TuneIn running, then you will see additional battery drain. I've found VOIP apps like Skype or Maps Apps really tend to suck the battery when they are left running in the background, while music stream apps are not extremely draining.

I think it comes down to this, if the application requires a constant internet stream, GPS signal or wireless connection (Wifi or Bluetooth) it will drain the battery faster, otherwise it will not.

Armonline

I was plesantly surprised found the Iphone 5 Battery. Sold my Galaxy s3 partly due to having to always nurse the device through the day battery wise and I am really pleased with the Ipohne 5. I generally have at least 30% to 40% left on the iPhone 5 at the end of the day even though i have Wifi and bluetooth on all the time.

Mimikyu

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