iPhone 5S Battery Life is Poor!

[Commander]

Okay, here goes...
I've had my iPhone 5S a little over a day.
Oh and first impressions are crucial, right?

Take a look at this:

See that horrible looking red "9%" in the top right corner?
A little further down do you see the ghastly number FOUR?

What did I do during this time?

[*] Made ONE 15 minute phone call (so not intensive!).
[*] Played AC Pirates (a game) for no more than 30 mins.
[*] Tethered my iPhone to my PC for around, say, 3 hours.

I spoke to Apple Tech: they said I should get 8 hours tethering.
Well, I had 73% when I started at 11am. By 2pm it was only 15%.
I may have been tethering but iPhone screen was OFF throughout.
Well I say OFF...the technical term is technically "LOCKED" but still.

I don't feel the above screenshot justifies Apple's claims on their site.
I've had iPhones before and they've certainly lasted longer than this.
The last iPhone I had was an iPhone 4 and that was over 2 years ago.
I'd think technology would have improved since then...especially Apple!
I mean I'm still an active iPad user and it's amazing...battery never dies!
I've tried to get my battery to die within a day...I really have. It doesn't!

But I'm struggling to get any more than half a day out of my iPhone 5S.
Is anyone else having any battery problems with 5S or am I a loner here?

 

[Luke]

I have never had much luck with Apple products. I've had an iPod Touch which would hardly hold it's charge for a few hours of hardly using it. My old iPad (I've upgraded to a Surface RT which can hold it's charge for about a week of use every day) was horrible as well. I was having to constantly charge it and all I did was internet usage and music playback. My parents are having to charge their phones every night, while on my Samsung Galaxy S4 I just got 9 days out of it before it hit 2%. This is also tracking my every move on the pedometer, so it's doing pretty well.

I would suggest take it back and try get another iPhone 5s, or try a different company. I've found that Apple products have horrible battery life. My iPod Touch which I've had for three years and I've hardly used it will only last 20 minutes from being fully charged until it dies, and that's not even using it!

 

[iPhonefreak]

I would love to help you increase your battery life. My 5S gets about 8 hours on heavy usage.

What's your brightness at?
Have you power cycled it?
Do you have push notifications for mail off?

Tethering is very demanding on the battery, I can easily see your battery life double without the tethering.

I would try a restore first. Sometimes it's all it needs. If that fails, I would definitely have it looked at, as Apple has amazing support that no other company can rival.

I've had great experiences with my battery life. My iPod touch which is 4 or 5 years old still gives me awesome battery life, and my iPad 2 has phenomenal battery life.

Must I add, the way the chain of supply works for both Apple and Samsung is: Some phones just have bad battery life, some have great. It's like a snowflake. No phone's battery life is the same.

 

[Commander]

I got it to last for a little over 6 hours today, with over a day standby. Bearing in mind this is the second charge. I downloaded quite a lot of apps today over WiFi, including large ones like Real Racing 3, Asphalt 8, etc. Other than that, though, I just checked a couple of emails...so nothing too intensive. I stuck it on charge when I got home (it had 14% remaining). Still think it could be better, but it's certainly better than what it was during the first charge. Could people who own iPhone 5Ses tell me, on average, how much use they get out of theirs per charge? And what your everyday use consists of? I ask because my iPhone claims I've used it for over 6 hours when, as a matter of fact, I've probably "actually" used it nowhere near that length of time. I've probably had it in my hand "using" it for only 1-2 hours (absolute max). When I was downloading apps earlier I guess that classed as use though...but I locked the screen so wasn't actually "using" the device myself, even though it was downloading apps.

 

[iPhonefreak]

Did you see my post?

The usage is the time the screen is unlocked and on.

I'm currently on an hour and 18 minutes of usage and over 2 hours of standby with 90% left. Just web browsing and texting.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

Turn bluetooth off, brightness to minimum, maybe get one of those battery cases?

Sorry, I don't have an iPhone 😛

 

[Commander]

Mine drained from 100% to 66% overnight last night. Hideous! *cringe*
I took it to the Apple Store, they ran diagnostics, said it was fine! 😕
I restored via recovery mode and am leaving it on overnight again.
But if this doesn't improve I'm going to pursue a refund.
I'm still within my 14 days thankfully.

 

[Twisted Fairytale]

I'm having a similar problem with my iPhone 5, 16GB, White. What will happen for me though, is: I'll charge it 100%. Now, one of two things will happen, and it's always random. If I'm having a good day, it will drain normally. However, if I'm having a bad day, it will "die" at 40-50%. At this point, it requires me to plug it in to use it...

 

[iPhonefreak]

Mine drained from 100% to 66% overnight last night. Hideous! *cringe*
I took it to the Apple Store, they ran diagnostics, said it was fine! 😕
I restored via recovery mode and am leaving it on overnight again.
But if this doesn't improve I'm going to pursue a refund.
I'm still within my 14 days thankfully.

Commander, I'm trying to assist you. Please answer my questions.

The diagnostic says what the battery's physical health is, and they've said it was fine twice to me before on two different phones and they replaced it.<br /><br />-- Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:51 am --<br /><br />

I'm having a similar problem with my iPhone 5, 16GB, White. What will happen for me though, is: I'll charge it 100%. Now, one of two things will happen, and it's always random. If I'm having a good day, it will drain normally. However, if I'm having a bad day, it will "die" at 40-50%. At this point, it requires me to plug it in to use it...

But it powers right back up, right? 7.1 will fix that.

 

[Luke]

Mine drained from 100% to 66% overnight last night. Hideous! *cringe*
I took it to the Apple Store, they ran diagnostics, said it was fine! 😕
I restored via recovery mode and am leaving it on overnight again.
But if this doesn't improve I'm going to pursue a refund.
I'm still within my 14 days thankfully.

I would just suggest getting the refund if playing with settings isn't working. Make sure you get it within those 14 days! Don't want to miss out!

 

[Commander]

Anyone having battery issues I recommend you do the following:

[*] Turn your iPhone off.
[*] Hold the home button down as you plug it into your computer.
[*] When you see a cable / the iTunes logo release the home button.
[*] iTunes should detect a device in recovery mode. Factory restore it.
[*] Set up as a new iPhone (do NOT restore from backup).

Understandably this can be a pain but it seems to have worked for me.
My battery drained less than 10% last night...night before was 66% :O

However, I will be monitoring my iPhone for a bit longer before I decide whether or not it's fixed. After all the problems I've had with it so far one night isn't enough for me to change my judgement. However, I will say that it's looking good so if you're having any battery problems try the above. 🙂

 

[Twisted Fairytale]

But it powers right back up, right? 7.1 will fix that.

It will power up as soon as I plug it in and show the percentage that it was before it died. However, if it dies at %40, it won't power back up until it's plugged in.

A horrible pain in the butt, especially when I'm out doing stuff. 😛

 

[jhony117]

I didn't use iPhone 5S yet. So i can't say well about its battery situation well.

 

[Commander]

I returned mine to Apple and got a replacement. Had the same problem. Returned the replacement and got a full refund. Goodbye iPhone! 😀 doubt I'll buy another until they give it more boost. 😎

 

[Atrox]

My Uncle has the same problems with his iPhone, I've never really liked Apple Products. They're Over Rated. 😛

 

[Commander]

I like their iPads and their Macs very much...but not their phones 😛

 

[ImCoolBeans]

Guys,

The most recent iOS update is what is causing the crap battery life. Once they release a new update it should get better