iPhone 4S Battery Life Problems Befuddle Apple Engineers, Owners

Though the iPhone 4S has set sales records and been met with hugely positive reviews, owners have been reporting a big problem with their new Apple smartphone: battery life.

Could Apple be on the verge of Battery-Gate? A story in the Guardian reported that Apple engineers have begun contacting certain users who have complained about battery problems; apparently, Apple has asked those users to install diagnostic programs onto their phones so that Apple can better diagnose what is causing the battery problems. We've reached out to Apple for comment on that front and will update when we hear back.

Almost since the release of the iPhone 4S, the Internet has been absolutely lit up with stories about the failings of its battery life. iLounge's mammoth review of the iPhone 4S noted that the biggest disappointment about the phone is its battery performance.

Erick Schonfeld, editor of our sister site TechCrunch, recently penned an opinion piece/plea-to-corporate-giant entitled "Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less," in which he describes his iPhone dying within eight hours of a full charge. His claims that the iPhone 4S battery lasted for about two-and-a-half hours of Internet usage, 30 minutes of talk time and five hours on standby before being drained, echoed similar claims on the Apple support forums, which are flooded with complaints and pleas for help. MacWorld also published a long first-person essay in which one writer investigates his problems with the iPhone 4S's battery and attempts to get to the root of the problem.

Looking for ways to improve your own iPhone 4S's battery life? Several tech sites around the web have published stories about just that. Apple blog TiPb and HuffPost tech sister site TUAW, for example, offered several tips for improving performance, including lowering your screen brightness and locking your display whenever you aren't using it. Gizmodo also listed several possible culprits that could be draining the iPhone battery (most likely: iCloud, Location Services, the Notification Center). GottaBeMobile and The Atlantic Wire both offered extensive battery life tips as well.

In its story, the Guardian notes that Apple is forthright about the lackluster battery life of its newest iPhone: Its technical specs show that the iPhone 4S gets even worse standby battery life than the original iPhone. The first-generation model got 250 hours of standby time, compared with 200 for the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4 got 300 hours of standby time.

Though Apple's website has a handy list of tips for those wanting to improve their phone's battery life, the complaints have not stopped pouring in; if the Guardian's story is true, then Apple may have its first bonafide PR problem on its hands. Last year's Antenna-Gate scandal is surely fresh: The fiasco surrounding the "death grip" that caused the iPhone 4 to lose cellular reception was much publicized, but apparently did not cause Apple to lose any fans or mobile consumers. Given initial sales numbers for the iPhone 4S, Antenna-Gate was but a minor blip on the radar.

This, too, is probably the fate for the iPhone 4S battery life saga: an annoyance, not a disqualifier. For now, iPhone 4S owners will just have to learn to keep a charger more handy than they're accustomed to doing.

Check out our slideshow (below), showcasing users' biggest complaints about the iPhone 4S so far.

Comments

[batterylifeguard]

04:11 AM on 11/20/2011

Anyhow part of the solution is the essential batterylifeguard app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/batterylifeguard/id453450106?mt=8

[GCV1]

07:52 PM on 11/03/2011

I write software for a living. Amongst the thousands of lines of code, there are many many things that can easily affect performance, battery life, etc. In fact, it is very very easy to accidently create a programming loop that chews up gobs of power. You hope to catch all the glitches in testing, but often they still slip out. I personally take care of 400,000 lines of code I have written over the past 10 years. (That's like over 30 novels worth of very arcane words and formulas) iOS software will be way bigger than what I do all by myself. Ensuring zero defects in that much stuff is incredibly difficult. One single line out of millions could adversely affect battery life. But the good thing about software is that fixes are easy to make and updates are easy to push out. So articles like this are interesting if you want to bash a product, but they're largely misleading.

[empress trudy]

06:54 PM on 11/03/2011

I will say I am not thrilled with the low light no flash performance of the back camera on my Andriod Evo4G. It's more than a res problem it seems to creating a mirror image on the right most third of the picture or possibly a double image. In normal light it doesn't do this.

[abhorson]

01:46 AM on 11/02/2011

sure, it might not work as a phone unless you put your hands in a circle to make the antenna-reception problem work... and it might not work as an internet device without keeping it plugged in..., and SURE it tracks what you do and where you go (wonder if that drains the battery?), and yes, it is ungodly expensive and it makes you load lots of crapware on your PC AND give them credit card info...

but, doesn't it just look beautiful ??? If you CAREFULLY drill a hole in the screen and place a gold chain through it, everyone will remark what a beautiful piece of jewelry you're wearing.

[kinogod]

12:59 PM on 11/01/2011

Talk to Siri about it.

[ChicoHash]

11:43 AM on 11/01/2011

Jack Kilpatrick : Shana, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!

[excelntassistant]

09:24 PM on 10/31/2011

After reading about all the things I need to turn off, it leaves me thinking....for a phone that supposedly does it all, there sure are a lot of things I can't do now!

[Rharte]

08:19 PM on 10/31/2011

The video where Siri has problems understanding the guys Scottish accent is funny on so many levels. What more, the Siri voice used was British. Hah!

[John Horner]

07:58 PM on 10/31/2011

There is often a big penalty for those who absolutely must be one of the first to buy a new device. A good rule of thumb is to wait for it to be on the market several months, at least. Then if there is an undisclosed problem with it the problem either will be fixed, or you will know about and can continue avoiding the product.

The same rule of thumb applies to cars. Wait for that first model year to come and go before you jump.

[ChristianEcon.com]

07:04 PM on 10/31/2011

Can an Android phone do anything of note besides generate endless jealous comments in any article mentioning the iPhone? Just wondering....

[Layman23]

04:29 PM on 11/01/2011

Try conference calling and switching between callers in Android. Then all the droids will go silent.

[lostnacfgop]

04:35 PM on 10/31/2011

So the 4S battery on a new phone lasts about the same as the almost 2 year old battery in my existing 3G? Why change phones - for the love of 2 year commitments? Ahhh, no.

[Whoahox]

03:22 PM on 10/31/2011

I recently adopted a 4s. Mine uses energy about as efficiently as a late 1960's Cadillac. I think maybe its dual processors are drinking up all that juice. For me, the major problem with the iPhone is not necessarily its battery life, but the fact that it doesn't allow for changing out the battery with a spare. I miss my old LG Voyager sometimes.

[Pectin]

07:38 PM on 10/31/2011

It's not the battery life, just that you can't switch batteries?

Huh?

[brux]

08:29 PM on 10/31/2011

But then it would not look as cool.
Get one of those cases with the batteries in them that add on power and charge them both at night.

[Truthdude]

03:04 PM on 10/31/2011

I just got one and yep the battery starts to drain as soon as I unplug it. It's also been glitching and freezing and Suri is useless. Considering trading it in. Those droids are looking mighty nice I must admit.

[ChristianEcon.com]

07:00 PM on 10/31/2011

Lol...nice try.

[Pectin]

07:38 PM on 10/31/2011

You lie.

[FrankensteinBlack]

02:41 PM on 10/31/2011

Solution! Wait for the untethered JB and install Firewall-IP posthaste. It will silence all the background network chatter from apps and save you data usage to boot. After all who needs apps scanning address book and SMS and then "phoning home" with the info anyways ;^(...

[thegreatdaveo]

02:26 PM on 10/31/2011

From what I've read, right from the start there have been battery issues with i-devices. Even the original iPods had irreplaceable batteries that were intentionally designed to wear out after a few years, forcing the consumer to buy a new iPod, since s/he couldn't just replace the battery. I'm so glad I have a Droid.