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

[p3unit32]

http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/09/siri_raise_to_speak_feature_uses_modified_iphone_4s_proximity_sensor.html

Skull's post is confirmed. I watched a video on this topic. The proximity sensor turns on when the screen is lit, so the phone will know how far it is from your face. This means Every time you start to use your phone Siri will be ready for commands. Ex. Raising the phone to your face will activate Siri, unless you turn it off in settings.

 

[AnthemX]

Has there been any sign of a Beta 3 ?, from what i have heard Beta 1 was better than 2, but at present it would look like they are going with Beta 2 as they have increased the testing to some user groups !. I am getting worried now that the standby time of 1/2% per hour and horrific usage drain is going to be the best it gets !!!

 

[Skull One]

Well I decided to take my Siri turned off test one step further. I have been *shudders to type this* "unloading apps" after I use them to see if I could get any better battery life out of my iPhone with no other adjustments.

Battery remaining: 70%
Usage: 1:57
Standby: 17:33

Now for the "projected" math. And I will calculate it two ways. The old "standard" and my new theory.

The old way using straight time projection:
Usage (117 / .3 / 60) = 6:30
Standby (1053 / .3 / 60) = 58:30

That calculation estimate is actually promising. Two days without charging with 6 hours of use isn't half bad.


The new theory for estimate battery drain and then comparing to actual:
Usage (117 / 7.25) = 16.13% ** 7 minutes 15 seconds of use per 1%
Standby (1053 / 60) = 17.55% ** 60 minutes of standby per 1%
Estimate battery drain of 33.68% vs actual of 30%.

Now my theory, as you can see, has a margin of error. But the math was developed on the basis that we should be able to get 9 hours of mixed usage plus 24 hours of standby time (IE 540 / 7.25 = 74.48% plus 1440 / 60 = 24% so 98.48%).

So technically I am currently ahead of my curve on battery life by 3.68% which is actually interesting. Mainly because I didn't expect to see my Beta 1 theory actually apply to Beta 2. So I will now take this battery run to below 5% left to see what I come out with. Then for fun, I will rerun the test with Siri on but I will never use it while still "unloading" the app after each use.

BTW, I swore after I left Android I would never do this level of testing again for a mobile OS. Apparently I am crazier than I thought.

 

[Rocko]

Sorry to be the 'curve breaker', but as I've said several times, I am NOT experiencing 'horrific' usage drain. Not at all. My iphone 4s on iOS5.0.1 beta 2 is getting me 'NEAR' Apple specs. I do 'work' on it all day and not GAMING.. So I could care less about the 'gaming' results -- but I'm not saying that isn't important -- it's just I'm not sure that's what MOST people buy an iPhone for. Even on iOS5.0 I was getting pretty close to Apple Specs and never have to recharge mid day. I believe several people got 'bad out of the box' units and should return them for a swap.

I notice the biggest drain when 3G and or GPS are constantly used. Either streaming movies/etc. or using a GPS navigation program that will use both. With this scenario it's almost like clockwork that I will lose 1% every 2 minutes. I have yet to locate my temp. gauge but I notice a increase in phone temp. as this drain is occurring.

 

[Skull One]

Play any game that doesn't have a FPS (frames per second) throttle if you really want to feel you phone heat up quick.

 

[Rocko]

Play any game that doesn't have a FPS (frames per second) throttle if you really want to feel you phone heat up quick.

Yeah, I bet. With the GPU the 4s has I know it can pull some power. Rage HD is really graphics intensive but it must have a FPS lock as it gets warm but never gets past a certain temp no matter how long I play.

 

[p3unit32]

Yeah, I bet. With the GPU the 4s has I know it can pull some power. Rage HD is really graphics intensive but it must have a FPS lock as it gets warm but never gets past a certain temp no matter how long I play.

I was wondering about that. You know these games look just as stunning as some console games, however these graphic intensives games can really make a gaming console put out some heat. I was wondering how the 4S would handle gaming, or graphics intensive games played for long time periods.

 

[Rocko]

I agree. I know that putting the high quality graphics on a smaller screen is less taxing that a larger screen. 1920x1080 for 1080P vs 960x640 but still, I am very impressed by the 4S's graphic prowess. My droid X would have blown up attempting to play a game like Rage HD or similar. I have also played the same game on my dad's iPad 2 and the graphics are almost as good.

It's still hard to comprehend sometimes that these small devices can have such powerful GPU's. Begining my tech exposure during the days Vic 20's and 8086's all the way until today's modern PC's where you need to have a $150 graphics card pulling 400 watts to play something nice..it's crazy what these devices can accomplish.

 

[p3unit32]

I agree. I know that putting the high quality graphics on a smaller screen is less taxing that a larger screen. 1920x1080 for 1080P vs 960x640 but still, I am very impressed by the 4S's graphic prowess. My droid X would have blown up attempting to play a game like Rage HD or similar. I have also played the same game on my dad's iPad 2 and the graphics are almost as good.

It's still hard to comprehend sometimes that these small devices can have such powerful GPU's. Begining my tech exposure during the days Vic 20's and 8086's all the way until today's modern PC's where you need to have a $150 graphics card pulling 400 watts to play something nice..it's crazy what these devices can accomplish.

Absolutely! What blows me away is they don't require fans. However if it gets to hot it will shut off.

 

[Rocko]

Skull, I noticed an ifared light emitting from the 4S no matter if Siri is turned off or not. Do you know the purpose of this? It only happens when the screen is on and auto brightness on or off does not affect it. I could understand if this was used to turn the screen off while on a call, but to run continuously seems a waste. Took this with my Droid X.


Could this be where some of the draining is?

 

[Skull One]

I'll be. Thanks for the video. I need to test that on my old iPhone 4 now.

And as far as battery drain, that can't be a whole lot. That isn't really that intense of an infrared source.

 

[Rocko]

I'll be. Thanks for the video. I need to test that on my old iPhone 4 now.

And as far as battery drain, that can't be a whole lot. That isn't really that intense of an infrared source.

True, the power to send the light isn't much but monitoring has to take up some CPU power. I would think if it's the proximity sensor they would have written the program to only fire the sensor during a call, not all the time.

 

[Rocko]

BTW, 5.0.1 is out via iTunes!

 

[Skull One]

That came out WAY to fast. The issue must be much bigger than I thought.

 

[Skull One]

Skull, I noticed an ifared light emitting from the 4S no matter if Siri is turned off or not. Do you know the purpose of this? It only happens when the screen is on and auto brightness on or off does not affect it. I could understand if this was used to turn the screen off while on a call, but to run continuously seems a waste. Took this with my Droid X.

Could this be where some of the draining is?

I just confirmed that my iPhone 4S shows the IR light on even though I turned Siri off and did a reboot. I can't use my iPhone 4S to test my coworkers iPhone 4 because the 4Ses camera has a bloody IR filter.