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

[p3unit32]

Ok... Good enough for me.

 

[p3unit32]

As a matter of fact guys this thread has been useful and has done its work on my part. I'll check on it here and there for any significant changes. But it looks like we know what we're up against and what we need to do concerning the battery. Thanks for all the info and tips Skull, NewdestinyX, and sekelani.

 

[AnthemX]

I was REALLY hoping to avoid this discussion about Lithium-Ion Batteries. Mainly because the topic is usually 100% misunderstood by 99% of the people involved in the conversation. Even people that are "in the industry" get it wrong at times because they forget the "rules" involved.

So to my regret here is the can of worms laid out for everyone.


My last post only referenced the Operating System side of the debate. The reason for that is simple. That is truly the only thing that matters. But still some people say a deep discharge is needed while others say it is useless.

Technically they are BOTH RIGHT.

Yep, you read what I just typed correctly. Now to explain the "why" and hopefully end this for GOOD.

A SINGLE CELL Lithium-Ion battery DOES NOT NEED to be deep cycled charged. End of discussion on that. You can't argue with it. You can't say "BUT BUT BUT". The single cell doesn't have any requirement what-so-ever other than to have a protection circuit on it. The remainder of the rules are; you should never charge it at below 32F, you should store it at 40% charge if the battery is not in a device. And you should NEVER allow the battery to sit long enough that the trickle discharge of the protection circuit allows it to fall bellow the minimum charge level.

A MULTI-CELL Lithium-Ion batter HAS TO BE deep cycled charged every 60 to 100 charges to make sure EVERY CELL reaches BALANCE with it's companion cells. You can't argue with it. You can't say "BUT BUT BUT". Because this is a CHEMICAL process, the individual cells will NEVER be exactly the same on their charging or discharging rate. That means the battery has to be deep cycled to get them in parity. Oh yeah, see above for the rest of the rules.

BTW you can read up on 2 stage vs 3 stage charging of Lithium-Ion batteries if you really want to see why things work the way they do. And Wikipedia only covers about 1/3 of the information on the subject.

OH yeah one last note. This only applies to CONSUMER GRADE batteries. Commercial and industrial Li-Ion batteries tend not to have built in protection circuits. That is because they are allowed to charge above and discharge well below consumer grade batteries recommend voltage levels.

Skull, without getting into a tit for tat argument, i know i am right, that's what is why i said it !, i am sure you can appreciate there are other people on this forum with knowledge in technical areas like yourself. Maybe you don't want people to talk about this again, but it is after all a public forum and people can talk about it if they want !. You give the impression people are stupid and once you have said something that should be the end of it. The point and the joy of using a forum is to spark discussion, if you want to post something and not get it questioned by others, use a personal blog or website.

 

[sekelani]

Ok so heres another dumb question (This 4s is giving me more trouble than I ever had on my 3gs).

I took my 4s to Apple today regarding the battery life. The guy informs me that my best option is to do a complete factory reset. However my phone had poor battery life from the moment i opened it. Will a factory reset do me any good??

Sorry for the dumb questions, ive never had any problems on my iphones before

It's a 50 50 chance of working. I did so and no difference to my battery. One day it's hideous battery life. The other is good. Not sure bud. But I would do a factory reset.

 

[iJeff]

The new 5.0.1 has caused more issues than it has fixed. Im still on 5.0.0 and will stay here as long as i can.

 

[Skull One]

Skull, without getting into a tit for tat argument, i know i am right, that's what is why i said it !, i am sure you can appreciate there are other people on this forum with knowledge in technical areas like yourself. Maybe you don't want people to talk about this again, but it is after all a public forum and people can talk about it if they want !. You give the impression people are stupid and once you have said something that should be the end of it. The point and the joy of using a forum is to spark discussion, if you want to post something and not get it questioned by others, use a personal blog or website.

My posts are to correct ignorance 99% of the time. And I do that because I firmly believe everyone should be empowered with knowledge. I never even bother to respond to someone that has gone beyond ignorance and crossed the line of stupidity. So if I answer something or someone it is because I believe, 100%, that the person is not stupid. Which is the exact opposite of what you think of me based on this post.

I waited for quite a few post for someone to chime in and state what I finally had to post. I don't want to answer everything here. It defeats the very reason for the community to exist. I want people to be able to answer things for themselves, and others as well, and to be able to defend it properly. In this case it simply didn't happen. So to get this thread back on topic, I decided I would truly end that part of the narrative so we can go back to original topic. Which is, what bugs in iOS are causing the battery to drain to quickly on the iPhone 4S.

BTW, if you knew the correct answer and the full reason for that answer, I am curious why you didn't post it.

 

[xrayeyes]

Awesome info in this thread! I have tried to keep up with each and every post, but please forgive if this has been mentioned and I missed it. Is anyone playing around with turning System Services off? I mean all of them off?
This info was posted 10 days ago, but I've seen a bit more chatter about it on forums. Especially the Traffic service. I know the info on the Time Zone service has been looked at but, I wonder about the others.
System services iphone - Iphone system services diagnostics and usage - Iphone system services traffic - How to Increase Your iPhone

I have turned all of them off this afternoon and it "appears" my battery is not dying near as fast.

 

[iphoneshoeyuk]

Here is my usage what you think guys. I have 47% battery left

 

[iphoneshoeyuk]

That's a good idea starting new thread for people that have no battery problems

 

[p3unit32]

Like me, you have a 4S that's 'working' - no battery issues. I wonder if I should start a thread called - DO YOU HAVE A 4S with 'perfect' BATTERY USAGE?

I'll bet there's a lot of us. I saw this happen with a batch of Razor flip phones back in the day where a lot of them had a serious heat issue and others not at all. Though I don't want my Apple stock to drop anymore - I think most people's only recourse of action for this issue is to swap the phone out. After 4 hours of use and 17 hours of standby to have 47% battery left is at or even ABOVE Apples specs. Agreed, Skull? If not what am I missing in the equation?

Now this is more like it! How it NdX?

 

[Skull One]

Like me, you have a 4S that's 'working' - no battery issues. I wonder if I should start a thread called - DO YOU HAVE A 4S with 'perfect' BATTERY USAGE?

I'll bet there's a lot of us. I saw this happen with a batch of Razor flip phones back in the day where a lot of them had a serious heat issue and others not at all. Though I don't want my Apple stock to drop anymore - I think most people's only recourse of action for this issue is to swap the phone out. After 4 hours of use and 17 hours of standby to have 47% battery left is at or even ABOVE Apples specs. Agreed, Skull? If not what am I missing in the equation?

At present I am still of the opinion that this is an Operating System issue and not a hardware issue. My opinion is based on the fact that a battery recall would be simpler and cheaper to carry out than Apples present course of patching the OS and allowing people to return their phone for an exchange.

While my battery life is much better than the average user that complains, I saw vastly improved battery stats under iOS 5.0.1 Beta 1 than I have under any other version of iOS 5 I have tested. Which also suggests to me that there is an Operating System bug at fault.

 

[iPhoneTibster]

My battery is perfect since 5.0.1 came out.



 

[Skull One]

My battery is perfect since 5.0.1 came out.



You are able to get 9 hours of mixed usage and 24 hours of standby time on a single charge?

 

[Yptcn]

The iPhone 4S is my very first so I have nothing to compare with...so sorry for the dumb question :

What is considered as a good battery life ????

 

[Skull One]

The iPhone 4S is my very first so I have nothing to compare with...so sorry for the dumb question :

What is considered as a good battery life ????

That is a loaded question. The correct answer, in my opinion, is that you can do everything within reason during your daily activities without having to stop and recharge.

For me, I believe that I should be able to go 8 to 9 hours of on screen usage with a minimum of 16 hours of standby time. That mixed usage would consist of being able to have 4 push mail accounts with 20 emails, 20 texts, 1 hour of phone calls, 1.5 hours of gaming, 4 hours of web browsing on WiFi and the ability to take at least 10 pictures.