May Return my 4S Due to Battery Life

[Skull One]

I have usage 9 hrs 34 min
Standby 1day, 1 hr

For first two days I let it get so low til it shut off and then recharged it. Took 2.5 hrs. This is same as a deep cycle, correct?

And do my numbers look ok, this is with 20 songs, 4 videos, 34 photos and 30 apps. Avail space 8.7 GB may return for larger one, haven't really taken videos or pictures yet. What do you suggest?

Correct. That is a deep cycle charge.

And your numbers look solid, in fact it is inline with that I saw for the three days of using my iPhone 4S.

 

[dorrien12]

Skull One, what's your take on 16GB vs 32GB. Right now, I have minimal things on, only been three days.

I know I will add more apps, and movies, don't have an iPad yet so I watch my movies on here (usually keep 2-4 on at a time), why I don't know because I only watch them when I'm traveling (1-2 a yr) or when not at home and really bored, even then, I don't alway watch.

Anyway, I do take pictures a lot, but not professionally. My 3GS, 16GB with all my stuff on it, I filled it til about 10GB.

Trying to decide if I should exchange for the 32, but it's like a purse, the larger it is the more junk you stuff in.

What's your take on that, with the HD video capabilities?

 

[Pseudo-Fed]

If I erase all content and settings to start fresh does it erase my AT&T registration or will my phone be good?

 

[Skull One]

Skull One, what's your take on 16GB vs 32GB. Right now, I have minimal things on, only been three days.

I know I will add more apps, and movies, don't have an iPad yet so I watch my movies on here (usually keep 2-4 on at a time), why I don't know because I only watch them when I'm traveling (1-2 a yr) or when not at home and really bored, even then, I don't alway watch.

Anyway, I do take pictures a lot, but not professionally. My 3GS, 16GB with all my stuff on it, I filled it til about 10GB.

Trying to decide if I should exchange for the 32, but it's like a purse, the larger it is the more junk you stuff in.

What's your take on that, with the HD video capabilities?

Ok, I happen to have a few insights, because I researched those very questions myself. So lets start with a few knowns.

I am going to set some arbitrary values so we have a discussion point. iPhone 4S 16GB with 12GB of usable memory after apps and data are installed.

The iPhone 4S takes 8 Megapixel pictures. So lets us an average of 4.1 Megabytes per picture. So for every 1GB of used space we can store 1,951 pictures.

Now, the next issue is HD video. I believe I read yesterday that the 16GB 4S would record 1.5 hours of video. That means we are looking at roughly 7.5 minutes of video per 1GB of memory.

If we then take into account that there will be "bigger and better" apps for the new speed and graphics power, we could be looking at apps in the 1 to 2 GB range going forward.

And if you add any music, then things could get really tight in a 16GB iPhone.

Hence, I decided to upgrade to the 32GB 4S over my iPhone 4 that was 16GB.

 

[Skull One]

If I erase all content and settings to start fresh does it erase my AT&T registration or will my phone be good?

Your SIM is your key and it is already ready for use. So you can do a factory restore and reactivation very quickly.

 

[racefit]

Just came over from Blackberry and MAIN thing I was interested in was improved battery life. (Not better than BB but good for a full screen smartphone and better than the 4).

Really nice phone but if this is the battery life I can expect I may have to go back to BB. I'm not too technical but I'm willing to work through bugs if I know things will get significantly better. Otherwise time is ticking on my 14 day return.

Can anyone give me some sort of confidence that this issue will be resolved at some point?

 

[moparharn]

During the restore, Itunes corrupted my restore file and I lost all of my contacts, calendar, settings, and apps. Gee that was nice! I switched to the cloud for backup so that I won't have to rely on Itunes/tethering to restore my phone. Since the restore, I think my energy consumption has improved. I will post back tomorrow to update this first impression. I need to get beyond all the persistent problems so that I can experience this phone and all it has to offer. Is there a section on this forum to that will help me learn to explore the phones potential? Bill

 

[sekelani]

Lets make sure I cover all the bases. First this is a ONE WAY PROCESS if you don't have a proper backup. So lets make sure that happens first.

1) Launch iTunes.
2) Plug phone into PC.
3) Let it do the normal sync.
4) Right mouse click on the phone and a menu should pop up that has a item for backup
5) Select backup and let it run.
6) Eject phone.
7) On phone go to settings.
8) Go to general.
9) Scroll to bottom.
10) Select Reset.
11) Reset phone.

Once this is done you will be back at the first time activation screen.

12) Activate but do not allow any kind of restore.
13) Setup your device manually with enough information to get you thru the day.
14) Turn on battery percentage display.
15) Run the battery down to sub 10% or lower if you can.
16) Charge the phone.

I would check it after the first 90 minutes and note what percentage it is up to. Then check it every 30 minutes after that noting the percentage till it reaches full charge. You will know when it reaches full charge because the battery icon will change from a battery with a plug symbol to a battery with a lighting bolt symbol.

Once you have this test done, then you want to do a iTunes restore to get you back to your full data and then rerun the battery test to see if the situation returns. If it does return you know it is the data. If the failure happens with the limited setup, you know it is the phone.

Hopefully I haven't missed a step.

You are the man buddy. I'll do that tonight. Thank u

 

[sekelani]

I have a 64 gig white iPhone 4s. I had a horrible battery life of 5hours usage and 12 hours stand by. Really bad. So I reset my phone erased everything. Put iCloud on and I want to run down my battery till its completely dead then reinstall all my apps again. Any advice??

 

[Pseudo-Fed]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Did a full restore on my exchanged, 2nd 4S. Charged from 9pm to 5 am--to 100%. So far at 98% after 3 hours standby with cell data, bluetooth, and wifi off and checking weather a couple of times (after enabling cell data). Not great but not horrible either. Will begin using it some and see how it goes.....

 

[IOSIphone]

All of this information seems instresting.
Because, there are less 4S users, who think the battery life on all 3 versions are dreadful.
There are also positive points for the battery, but for the 32GB, negative as well.
Wonder, why this is?

 

[moparharn]

I have no phone calls. Listened to four songs through Ford sync. Bluetooth on for one hour. 1o minutes of Euchre App. One check on radar app. Read 14 emails. No wi fi on. This is my total usage. We will see at the end of the day, but I have exhausted all my options for improving battery life as far as I can tell. If it does not get better, this problem combined with the non auto fit of web pages will drive me to return the phone. These two issues alone are enough, never mind the other ten reasons which I think I would overlook to keep this very nice phone. Nice product, but may not be for me. Bill
ps- if my battery is at 30% at the end of the day with moderate usage, I reserve the right to change what I said above.

 

[Skull One]

ps- if my battery is at 30% at the end of the day with moderate usage, I reserve the right to change what I said above.

ROTFL....

The day is young and you already win "Best post of the day".

And yes, I agree with your concerns especially since you are in the window of trying this for free. I wish I had more free time to play with this issue but at present I can't borrow my original iPhone 4 from my wife until this weekend. I want my test to be as clean and fair as possible.

 

[moparharn]

I have another week left in my test. I will be waiting with baited breath for your opinion on this . Thanks for all you do here. Bill

 

[moparharn]

I did have a one hour phone call on bluetooth starting at 5:05 pm that took my battery from 53% to 30% roughly. The 6:05 to 8:45 time frame had almost no usage and it went from 30% to 1% in 2hrs 40 mins. My Droid X was much better in terms of battery life. One week left in trial and we shall see but I almost closed the door on this phone. If it did everything else really well I would buy a mophie and be done with it, it does not and thus I won't. Bill