How's Your iPhone 4S Battery Life Doing?

PhilSynowiec · Oct 17, 2011

The iPhone 4S was supposed to step up it's game in the battery category this year. Unfortunately, after using the 4S for a few day now, users haven't noticed too much battery improvement. Most people around the web are saying that their battery life is close in comparison to the iPhone 4. Now this isn't the first time Apple has Scooby-Doo'd us with the battery, it usually happens every year. While Apple improves battery life, they also upgrade the hardware, here being the dual core A5 chip it takes up more power. More power equals less battery life that can possibly balance iPhones out with their predecessors.

So how is your battery life doing on your iPhone 4S? What phone did you upgrade from? How is it compared to the iPhone 4?

cyber_quisp · Oct 18, 2011

Hi All,
I do not yet have this 4S model, but I know this is very common in the Droid Global Arena. This 4S phone is the first Global ready phone. Go into your settings, or look up how to have the Global services stop transmitting and looking for global connection towers. This was done with the Droid Global Phones, and the Battery life was for the better.

SingingSabre · Oct 18, 2011

My 4S battery life is worlds ahead of the Droid I had prior.

scotiez · Oct 19, 2011

I upgraded to the IPhone 4s from the HTC incredible android phone. After having my very 1st apple product i will never go back to android again. I LOVE my IPhone! On my android i had to buy an extended battery cause the OEM battery would only last me about 8 or 9 hours with very little use. So i expected the same with the 4s since i already heard the battery life was not great. How ever i am getting use out of it all day long without charging it at some point during the day. When i plug it in to charge its about 20%. I did buy the Mophie juicepack plus/case so i wouldn't run out of battery. I have not used that yet but i probably will in the near future as i use my phone more and more every day. I don't think the battery usage is bad on the 4s, but it is average for a smart phone. Never the less i have the Mophie juicepack for a backup just for when i need it.

skedmond · Oct 19, 2011

A big difference I notice in the settings for this phone is stuff with iCloud. Today I turned off everything icloud, and also went to mail settings and set icloud from push(default) to fetch. I also have my email set to fetch every 15 minutes. It was defaulted to push for icloud. I can definetely see how this can drain the battery. I just made the "fetch" adjustment today. So far it 'seems' to be lasting a bit better as I expected. Also take into consideration the higher demands of iOS5.

mahall · Oct 20, 2011

scotiez said:
I upgraded to the IPhone 4s from the HTC incredible android phone. After having my very 1st apple product i will never go back to android again. I LOVE my IPhone! On my android i had to buy an extended battery cause the OEM battery would only last me about 8 or 9 hours with very little use. So i expected the same with the 4s since i already heard the battery life was not great. How ever i am getting use out of it all day long without charging it at some point during the day. When i plug it in to charge its about 20%. I did buy the Mophie juicepack plus/case so i wouldn't run out of battery. I have not used that yet but i probably will in the near future as i use my phone more and more every day. I don't think the battery usage is bad on the 4s, but it is average for a smart phone. Never the less i have the Mophie juicepack for a backup just for when i need it.

Welcome to world of Apple my friend!! iPhone's rock!!!

iNurse · Oct 20, 2011

scotiez said:
I upgraded to the IPhone 4s from the HTC incredible android phone. After having my very 1st apple product i will never go back to android again. I LOVE my IPhone! On my android i had to buy an extended battery cause the OEM battery would only last me about 8 or 9 hours with very little use. So i expected the same with the 4s since i already heard the battery life was not great. How ever i am getting use out of it all day long without charging it at some point during the day. When i plug it in to charge its about 20%. I did buy the Mophie juicepack plus/case so i wouldn't run out of battery. I have not used that yet but i probably will in the near future as i use my phone more and more every day. I don't think the battery usage is bad on the 4s, but it is average for a smart phone. Never the less i have the Mophie juicepack for a backup just for when i need it.

Welcome!!!!! Glad you are here. I came from an incredible too !! Love my iPhone

stevenAreardon · Oct 20, 2011

Never has an iPhone b4 Switched from HTC Evo..... Battery in iPhone much better.....I love my new iPhone

naima.vs · Oct 22, 2011

I haven't noticed a difference yet. (upgraded from the 4 to 4S). I also think that the usage profile is quite different in the first few days until one settles back into the daily routine and all the fun stuff has been tried out sufficiently ;-)

4s_mtl · Oct 23, 2011

Battery life is terrible ... I am coming from an Samsung Omnia2. I still don't get all that iphone mindset, same functions really as the "other guys", different apps and more $. Argh !

PHONEGUY · Oct 24, 2011

my batt life is not as good as my old 4. so i may take it back or give it to my shorty

kanderna · Oct 24, 2011

This is my first iPhone (came from BB), so didn't really have a basis for comparison. I have a 4S (Sprint), and my cube neighbor at work has a 4 (VZW). He couldn't believe how bad my battery life was. At work is a hard judge, as my desk is apparently a questionable reception area, but to give an idea of what we're talking about, here's my home experience: Last night I unplugged at 11pm after a full day of charging. It sat on my nightstand all night with no use (all apps were shut down as well). When I woke up this morning at 6:30, the battery was at 77%. As I type now, it's at 40% under only mild usage. Any thoughts on that?

eddieg · Oct 24, 2011

kanderna said:
This is my first iPhone (came from BB), so didn't really have a basis for comparison. I have a 4S (Sprint), and my cube neighbor at work has a 4 (VZW). He couldn't believe how bad my battery life was. At work is a hard judge, as my desk is apparently a questionable reception area, but to give an idea of what we're talking about, here's my home experience: Last night I unplugged at 11pm after a full day of charging. It sat on my nightstand all night with no use (all apps were shut down as well). When I woke up this morning at 6:30, the battery was at 77%. As I type now, it's at 40% under only mild usage. Any thoughts on that?

WOW thats not good. Do this charge the bat to full before you go to bed and let the phone sleep and in the morning take a screen shot of your battery usage i would like to see the stats. Are you using wifi?

kanderna · Oct 25, 2011

eddieg said:
WOW thats not good. Do this charge the bat to full before you go to bed and let the phone sleep and in the morning take a screen shot of your battery usage i would like to see the stats. Are you using wifi?

There was another more active (and seemingly more appropriate) thread where I've posted stats: http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/i...ue-battery-life-23773/index10.html#post126504

randymsb · Nov 21, 2011

I come from android device too. I love the iPhone 4s, but not to happy bout the battery. I fully charge my phone and not ten minutes using Facebook battery down to 89 percent. I do have battery charger case to recharge phone if needed but it don't protect the phone. But other than that I LOVE MY IPHONE.