Battery Complaints Mount After iOS 4.3 Update

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iPhone 4 Battery from iFixit teardown.
iPhone 4 Battery from iFixit teardown.

Since Apple introduced iOS 4.3 last week, I’ve found a number of complaints about battery issues with the firmware update. I’ve even experienced these problems personally and I know many of you have too.

The update has caused issues with the battery life on my iPhone 4 and my iPad 2 is getting considerably less time out of its battery than my old iPad running iOS 4.2.1, so if you haven’t upgraded to iOS 4.3 you may want to wait until this issue is resolved.

According to users on Apple Discussions under the topics iPhone 4 – ios 4.3 – Battery Drain and iOS 4.3 causing battery drain, the iPhone’s battery life is severely shortened by the latest iOS update. As a result some users are also complaining that battery life is lasting 2 to 4 hours less than before the update was applied.

In other words on a moderately heavy day of iPhone 4 usage I wouldn’t have to charge my iPhone 4 until sometime between 6:00 and 8:00 PM before this update. Now I find myself having to charge it around 2:00 or 3:00 PM in the afternoon. My day normally starts around 5:00 AM.

I used my original iPad moderately for e-mail, web browsing, and reading and I had to charge it at least once every 10-14 days. Now with the iPad 2 I’m finding myself charging it more often. I’ve only had it for a week and I’ve had to charge it three times. I no longer own the original iPad and therefore I have not tested the battery life on that model iPad after an iOS 4.3 update. If you have please leave a comment describing your experience with it.

Things get worse because users are reporting that the usual fixes where you turn off Push Notifications, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Personal Hotspot, Location Services, or even Ping are not helping much. Restoring a device by re-flashing the firmware isn’t helping either.

Apple hasn’t provided a solution to this problem yet, although it is likely that an update to iOS may address them.

Are you experiencing problems with this recent iOS update? Tell us about it in the comments.

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