Apple is aware of battery life problem on 4s and iphone 4

p3unit32 · Nov 9, 2011

f4780y said:
Honestly, what are your expectations in this usage scenario? Out of 1.5 hours you made a 45 minute phone call and surfed the internet posting on the forum. I'll assume you call on 3G and used WiFi for the surfing.

The stated battery life of the 4S in that scenario is up to 8 hours, maybe stretching to 8.5 if I am being generous.
If you used 3G to surf too, the stated battery life is up to 6 hours, which we can stretch to 7 for the phone call time.

You are getting, by your own admission, about 7.5 hours battery life based on completely non-scientific observation. And you are calling that ridiculous?

I don't deny that there is a battery problem on the 4S and I am sure Apple will rectify it, but I think you guys need to put it in perspective to avoid future disappointment. I've been running b2 since it came out, and so far managed 2 full days on standby with about 3 hours total use twice in a row (currently on my 3rd cycle and looks set to be around the same again), which is my normal usage pattern for my phone. It's worse than my iP4, but I expect it to be given the upgrades in hardware and IOS supported by negligible change to the battery capacity.

That's my 2c.

What are you settings? My problems is the inconsistency of the battery usage. One day can be better than the next, regardless if the routine is the same.

sekelani · Nov 9, 2011

Ok. Beta 2 just seems horrible. Wonder when beta 3 will be released. Just a question. How many hours of gameplay is allocated on the 4s?

p3unit32 · Nov 9, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
We need to make apples to apples comparisons. Comparing the 4S' battery life to the Evo's battery life makes no sense whatsoever. Except, of course, to encourage you that you made the right decision coming to an Apple iPhone.

Once again I agree. Android OS runs completely different from iOS. Besides iOS apps aren't suppose to pull battery like their doing or what ever it is that's doing it.

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
But in the comparison between the 4 and the 4S - doing the same activities for a half hour - with my 4S running beta-2 of iOS 5, combination of surfing and gaming, the 4's battery read 89% and the 4s' battery read 86%. So we are not talking a GI-normous difference here, gang.

Actually you numbers show a HUGE difference.

100 - 89 = 11. 100 / 11 = 9.0909. 9.0909 * 30 = 272.727. 272.727 / 60 = 4.54 hours of battery life.

100 - 86 = 14. 100 / 14 = 7.1428. 7.14528 * 30 = 214.285. 214.285 / 60 = 3.57 hours of battery life.

That means the the battery usage for the 4S is 78.6% of the 4. Or you can flip the math and say the 4 is 27.1% better than the 4S. Either way that is huge.

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

sekelani said:
Ok. Beta 2 just seems horrible. Wonder when beta 3 will be released. Just a question. How many hours of gameplay is allocated on the 4s?

None. It isn't possible to calculate that number under any conditions.

f4780y · Nov 9, 2011

sekelani said:
So you had 2 days of stand by and 3 hours of usage?

Yes. You commented on it when I posted it originally, and told me it wasn't that good (I still had 19% left at that stage) - Click this link to go to it.

http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/i...em-4s-iphone-4-a-25149/index3.html#post133292

I ended up plugging it in with 4% left after 2 days 8 hours standby and over 4 hours usage....

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

f4780y said:
I ended up plugging it in with 4% left after 2 days 8 hours standby and over 4 hours usage....

Remember to SUBTRACT out usage from standby before doing the math.

My current formula for iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1 Beta 2 is 1% per hour of standby and 1% per 5.85 minutes of usage.

My current formula for iOS 5.0.1 Beta 2 is 1% per hour of standby and 1% per 7.25 minutes of usage.

f4780y · Nov 9, 2011

Skull One said:
Remember to SUBTRACT out usage from standby before doing the math.

I don't believe I performed any "Math" on it at all?

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

f4780y said:
I don't believe I performed any "Math" on it at all?

Sorry. I was in a hurry and forgot to say why I was posting the math.

Add - To help put the battery usage in context you can do the following.

Rocko · Nov 9, 2011

Skull One said:
Actually you numbers show a HUGE difference.

100 - 89 = 11. 100 / 11 = 9.0909. 9.0909 * 30 = 272.727. 272.727 / 60 = 4.54 hours of battery life.

100 - 86 = 14. 100 / 14 = 7.1428. 7.14528 * 30 = 214.285. 214.285 / 60 = 3.57 hours of battery life.

That means the the battery usage for the 4S is 78.6% of the 4. Or you can flip the math and say the 4 is 27.1% better than the 4S. Either way that is huge.

At first glance it appears 4 is only a few percent better than the 4S, but Skull is right. I took the percentage dropped(11, 14) divided mb minutes used(30) and got 2.14 minutes per drop for each 1% for the 4S and 2.72 minutes of drop for the 4. Took those numbers X 100(100% being fully charged) and divided by 60 to come up with the same answer. 3.56hours of use for the 4S and 4.53H of use for the 4. Nice work Skull.

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
Are your conclusions based on Apple's promised battery life for the 4s?.

And then -- I'm not sure your 'formula', Skull, is the right 'calculus' for anticipating battery life. The 'calculations' within the formula are correct - but I'm still puzzling over the formula itself. I will run it by my engineer friends. Upon first glance your formula assumes a consistent rate of power loss over a given period and I'm not sure that's a 'constant' in this equation. But let me run it by some others. Though I always appreciate your consistency of tracking this clear issue for us, Skull.

I can save you a LOT of time because you don't need to ask anyone. The formula is an "average" based on anecdotal observation and watching what others have posted here. It probably has the ability to be off by as much as + or - 5% from real world. If you don't play any games at all it could be off by as much as 8%.

And I have YET to achieve ANY of the times Apple has posted on my 4S. I think the only way I can reproduce their numbers is to start with a factory fresh install and immediate testing.

Skull One · Nov 9, 2011

I am now running a sort-of boring test on my 4S with iOS 5.0.1 Beta 2. Fully charged and a reboot. The only thing I turned off was Siri. The current articles that state that Siri uses a infrared light for real time detection of the face made me wonder if the light is actually shutting off when the phone goes into sleep mode. Normally I would simply use a camera that can detect infrared light. But that would be too easy so for fun I decided to test it the old fashion way.