During its iPad event last week, Apple released its latest iOS 5.1 firmware. In addition to several new features, like Japanese support for Siri and a new camera slider for the home screen, the update promises to “address bugs affecting battery life.” But does it work?
iPhone 4S users have been suffering from poor battery life most on Apple’s latest handset, so if you’re an iPhone 4S owner, tell us how iOS 5.1 has affected your battery life by casting your vote in our poll.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
27 responses to “Has iOS 5.1 Improved Your iPhone 4S Battery Life? [Poll]”
My 4s battery life is slightly, but noticeably, better.
I probably get around 45-60 minutes of actual usage time added to my battery life since the update. So that puts me at around 8 hours of usage time before needing a charge. It gets me from wake up to sleep now
Haven’t noticed a difference, but I have noticed that iMessage has been acting weird since updating..
It’s going to be considerably better, seeing as I can actually manually turn 3G off again.
Still not sure if this has fixed any battery issues with iPhone 4.
Its like having your oil/fluids change on your car. 4S seems to be running with fresher legs and battery life was noticeably lasting longer.
nope my battery is still awful… already dropped 20% in under 10 minutes….. no but got another problem I have a icon don’t know what it is just says waiting but never downloads or anything and will disappear and come back its very very strange……
My 4S is definitely lasting longer, roughly 20% to 30%
Never had any battery life issues to begin with but I have noticed its better than before.
Have you accepted the new App Store Terms of Agreement? It could just be in limbo waiting for you to accept. or try downloading another free app to clear it. Not really sure. If youre jailbroken then who knows.
thanks
I simply mean that doing the same things I normally do, with the same daily routine, the battery seems to last longer. But I haven’t done any formal testing, just seat-of-the-pants numbers.
My girlfriend has the same thing, after updating iMessage stopt working for a while and now she has me in her contact list twice (one for text messages and one for iMessage).
I haven’t noticed any difference in battery usage, it’s still as good as before.
How does turning 3G off help?
http://WWW.TOP4BIZ.COM
Killian I love polls buddy, but this one – well it sucks man. You needed to poll either YES or NO. All these other options in your poll just skew and confuse the results. Seriously dude scrap this one and start over.
Mine phone used to get very warm. Since 5.1 it stays relatively cool and my battery life has improved quite a bit.
My 4s had a pretty good battery to begin with. By the end of the day I had 20% left. Now I’m getting by the whole day and battery is still at 40%. So it has improved a whole lot.
I have noticed a big difference, normally by my normal use at down to 45% by noon, but now it at 40% when I am done work. Been happy with this improvement.
My battery life is WAY worse after the update! What am I doing wrong? It’s almost 5PM and I’m at 15% power.
Go to settings – general – usage and look at how much time you spend using your phone vs how long its in stand by. And then consider if you might be using your phone a heck of lot! No battery fixes will do anything about hyper usage.
Turning off 3G really helps. I did a small test. Every other setting remaining same, I did following.
One night I let the 3g and wifi on and noticed that overnight battery drained from 100% to 89%.
Next night I switched off 3g and wifi and noticed that overnight battery drained from 100% to 99%
I’ve iPhone 4
Everytime I update my iPhone 4, I follow a specific procedure and this is just to ensure that the update is perfectly installed. I’ve a theory behind this process that may be wrong but it works for me. The theory is that all the apps that you install are add-on to the original OS, so when you upgrade the OS these might cause problem. To avoid any problem I uninstall all apps before the upgrade.
I do the following to upgrade my iPhone 4 OS everytime a new upgrade is released.1). Update my laptop OS.2). Restart laptop3). Update iTunes.4). Restart laptop.5). Uninstall all apps from my iPhone. (Keep a list of how they are organized on my phone)6). Restart iPhone. 7). Charge to 100%8). While charging download the new iPhone software. Click “Download only”.9). Remove passcode lock, set autolock to never10). Upgrade with new OS11). Let the upgrade complete. It never took more than 10-15 minutes.12). Once the installation is done, remove the connecting cable and restart phone.13). Install all apps.14). Use it extensively to use up the battery. Let the phone die to 0% battery.15). Don’t bother about what stats you get the first time.16). Charge it from 0% to 100% ( I use battery doctor pro).17). Do all the settings like, Location, 3G, wifi, bluetooth etc as prior to upgrade. Use your phone as usual and now note the usage.
I also do the following to increase battery life.
1). While going to sleep, I switch off 3g, wifi, bluetooth and location service. This saves an incredible amount of battery. Like they say, you take care of your battery and it will take care of your device :-)
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers!!!
My iPhone 4S battery life had been GREAT… It would use no more than 30% in a 24-hour period. Now, after upgrading to iOS 5.1 yesterday, my phone is consuming battery life way faster than before… More like using 60% in a 24-hour period. I’m not using the phone any differently than I had been using it before yesterday.
Come on, Apple! You created a problem where there wasn’t one!
I have iPhone 4S with all the location services on, push email and wifi on (bluetooth off), and with the latest update to iOS 5.1 has increased my battery by greater than 50%.
actually battery life is much worse!! with 5.0.1 it was quite good, I could bear 3 days without charging.. but now, I charge it at 10p.m. and than, next day /around 2pm/ it has 30%, and I don’t make a call and I don’t even use the iPhone between 10p.m. and next day 2pm… can I fix it somehow?
Exactly the same for me as Tivadar Kiss. 5.0.1 was a great improvement over 5.0. Now 5.1 seems to have taken me back to battery life comparable to 5.0. Not good.