iPhone 5 Battery Life

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BTR

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Topic # 111308 30-Oct-2012 08:33

I was just wondering how often other iPhone 5 users are having to charge their phones. I am having to charge mine daily. I make probably 3-4 calls at 5-10 mins each and probably send 15 text messages max.

Bluetooth is turned off but wireless is turned on.

Just interested to know.

mikebails

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Reply # 708959 30-Oct-2012 09:44

Daily is the norm for smart phones - I've had a few androids over the years and now an iPhone 5 and battery the battery is always around 25-30% by bed time.

If you disable all the notification stuff, turn your screen brightness way down and turn off data (if you're only using it for phone calls and txts!) you should get 2-3 days out if it.

russelo

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Reply # 708965 30-Oct-2012 09:52

disable 3G and you'll get one more extra day.
you'll get slower data connection but at least your background apps can still connect to the net.

If I need faster data connection, I enabled back 3G and disable it again after.
I used SBSsettings to easily do this.

BTR

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Reply # 708978 30-Oct-2012 10:01

Thanks Guys, just wanted to make sure I didn't have a duff battery.

Kyanar

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Reply # 708998 30-Oct-2012 10:22

russelo: disable 3G and you'll get one more extra day.
you'll get slower data connection but at least your background apps can still connect to the net.

If I need faster data connection, I enabled back 3G and disable it again after.
I used SBSsettings to easily do this.

FYI, don't do this on Telecom. The Telecom network is 3G only and disabling 3G will result in no service. Only Vodafone and I think 2degrees still operate a 2G network.

Batman

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Reply # 709020 30-Oct-2012 10:44

if you use your phone the battery will drain ... if you disable everything and don't touch it, can last a few days, but if you do that buy a nokia with black words only and it will last you 3 weeks

littleheaven

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Reply # 709139 30-Oct-2012 13:25

I used to charge my 3GS daily. I'm finding the battery on the 5 a bit better overall. But I would expect to charge one every day as the norm.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.

Currently using: Modified 2008 Mac Pro, HP M6-1017TX Laptop, iPad Pro, iPhone 6S, iPhone 5, AppleTV4, Minix Neo Z-64.

navinbhat

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Reply # 710139 31-Oct-2012 23:19

So I am not the only one with battery issues. Here's my story :
I purchased by iphone last wednesday at Telecom on their open term plan. I kept the phone on the charger the whole night. Next day, on normal usage the phone barely lasted a full day and by 4 pm, it was below 18% battery. My cheap galaxy ace would give me almost a day and a half.
I then spent the next day googling and reading numerous forum threads on suggestions on improving battery life which ranged from resetting the phone and starting fresh to turning off all features. I followed some of the advice and have noticed a little change but nowhere close to what people are reporting overseas. My battery drops 8-10% every hour even if I am not doing anything.
A diagnostic by Yoobee showed that the battery is fine though its not being charged to 100% and peaks at 90. Strange.
I have gone back to both Telecom and Apple. The former say they need to test it and confirm its a fault whereas the latter are willing to replace the device albeit a refurbished one. Long story. I also did receive advice from apple that a 30min video should not drain the battery any more than 6%. I tested this and mine dropped by 8%. Apple tech support don't believe that's acceptable.
The short of it is, I have now installed the batterylog app which logs the usage every 30 min and gives me a great graph of charge and discharge cycles. I am running some tests on video/audio playback and will take the results to Telecom next week to build my case. I've turned off quite a few things and the drain is still high. This is very abnormal for a $1000+ phone which apple claim to provide standby of 225 hours and talk time of 8 hrs etc etc on 3G. I get around 12 hours standby and 3-4 hours usage before the battery is flat. This is just not acceptable. I still love the phone but just want it to at least meet my minimal expectations of an expensive device and not have to turn all features off and take it back to the 90s.
In case you are interested, here's what I did:
- reset all setting and set up the phone as new
- turned off location services for most apps other than maps and compass
- turned off Bluetooth
- set wifi to join networks automatically without asking
- turned on restrictions and disabled ping
- turned off cloud sync for safari
- switched to push rather than fetch even for gmail. And set fetch to manual.
- turned off notifications except for email, phone, messages, calendars

Wish me luck !!

clicknz

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Reply # 710175 1-Nov-2012 07:58

Hi - it does sound like there could very well be a 'fix' coming up for the battery in the next iOS update (this seems to happen after major iOS releases). One of the things I keep an eye on is the status of my iTunes Store settings. Signing out under Settings > Store does seem to stop some heavyish battery use. This will need to be done periodically after downloading or updating an app or syncing with iTunes on a computer.
It could just be that for me I have a bazzillion apps that are constantly phoning home to see if there's an update ready, but this does seem to be something that helps both my & my wife's battery life on iPhone 4's.
Hopefully I'll get to test the life of a 5 before Christmas....

Cheers,
Mike

iPhone photo/general blog - here

navinbhat

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Reply # 717037 14-Nov-2012 13:56

So I've returned my iphone5, after a week of owning it, to Telecom last week and they have promptly sent it to Telegistics (aka hell ?) for an assessment. 7 working days later, still no news and all they are saying is that it's being tested. I am sure the earth was built in 6 ?
I think I have consumers guarantees act on my side with this one and really want Telecom to replace the set eith a new iphone OR provide a refund. A refurb is not acceptable.
What I fear is that they (Telegistics) will come back with a crummy non stickable reason (based on experiences people have expressed in this forum) for why the phone is fine and its all my fault.
The irony is that TNZ have given me a loan iphone4 and its battery is a lot better than the 5.
Anyone from Telecom who may be able to help me here with this ? I have a number of actual screen shots comparing my iphone 5 to a colleagues 5 and now the loan 4.

zhuyan

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Reply # 720386 20-Nov-2012 21:37

I actually found iPhone 5's battery performance slightly improved if compared with that of iPhone 4. A typical day use, including 3-5 calls, emails pushed through via exchange server, web browsing, ebooks reading plus occasional game play, it survived nicely for about 24 hours before I need to charge it. My iPhone 4 would only last for about 12-16 hours.

BTW, I turn the bluetooth off as I feel this is quite useless in my case. Not sure whether that might help the battery a little?

mattwnz

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Reply # 720394 20-Nov-2012 21:50

Apple really need an apple store in NZ, as they can solve problems like these for the customer in store. Surprised there isn't one in Auckland considering it's population.

navinbhat

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Reply # 720396 20-Nov-2012 21:54

To give you guys an update, I contacted consumer.org.nz last week explaining my situation and was put in touch with one of their consumer advisors. I emailed her my whole case notes including a log containing my test results comparing the battery life of two iphone 5s (mine and a colleagues') and an iphone 4 (my loan one from Telecom). I also indicated in my notes that i had a far better customer experience with Apple than the Telecom retail store. She forwarded this to the new GM of Retail in Telecom requesting him to look into this matter. An hour later, the retail store contacted me advising that they will have escalated my case internally and will do everything to ensure that I have a satisfactory outcome (whatever that means) and will do some more testing as soon as they receive the unit from Telegistics. Quite frustrating really and I am not hoping for a satisfactory outcome from my perspective at least; but give up I won't.

BTW, the iPhone 4 consistently gives me 6-7 hours usage with a day's standby.