Apple picker It's a well-known fact that smartphone battery life isn't great. They often last barely a day. When I bought my first iPhone 5, I was also surprised that it wouldn't even last a whole day. I thought to myself, "There's a bug somewhere." In this article, I'd like to share with you the experiences I've gathered in the hunt for battery life.
My normal routine
On the web you will find many articles about what and how "eats" the battery and that it is best to turn it all off. But if you turn everything off, the phone you bought just for that will be nothing but a pretty paperweight. I will share my phone setup with you. I get the most out of my iPhone and at the same time it lasted all day. I've settled on the following regimen that works for me and I'm happy with it:
- I have my phone on the charger overnight (among other things, also because of the app Sleep Cycle)
- I have location services always on
- I have Wi-Fi always on
- my bluetooth is permanently off
- I have 3G always on and I normally work in mobile data mode
- on my phone I read books and listen to music, read e-mails, surf the Internet, normally call and write messages, sometimes I even play a game - I would simply say that I use it somewhat normally (a couple of hours a day at a time for sure)
- sometimes I turn on the navigation for a moment, sometimes I turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot for a moment - but only for the necessary time.
When I operate like this, I still have about 30-40% battery capacity on my iPhone 5 at midnight, when I usually go to bed. During the day, I can function quite normally and I don't have to sneak along the walls to find a free outlet.
The biggest battery guzzlers
Display
I have auto brightness set and it works "normally". I don't have to download it to the minimum to save battery. To be sure, check the brightness level and its automatic correction in v Settings > Brightness and wallpaper.
Navigation and location services
It is worth stopping here for a while. Location services are a very useful thing - for example, when you want to find your iPhone or remotely block or erase it. It's handy to quickly know where I am when I turn on maps. It is also suitable for other applications. So I have them permanently on. But it needs a little tuning to make the battery last:
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Allow the use of location services only for those applications where you really need it. Disable the rest.
IMPORTANT! Scroll all the way down (to the bottom of the hints) where the link is System services. Here you can find a list of services that variously turn on location services without you needing it. Try turning off everything you don't need. I have it set up like this:
What do each service do? I couldn't find any official explanation anywhere, so please take this as my guess, partly collected from various discussion forums:
Time zone – used for automatic setting of the time zone according to the location of the phone. I have it permanently off.
Diagnostics and utilization - serves to collect data about the use of your phone - supplemented with location and time. If you turn this off, you will only prevent adding the location, the sending of data itself must be turned off in the menu Settings > General > Information > Diagnostics and usage > Do not send. I have it permanently off.
Genius for Applications – serves to target the offer by location. I have it permanently off.
Mobile network search – supposedly serves to limit the frequencies that are scanned when searching for a network by location, but I have not found a reason to use it in the Czech Republic. I have it permanently off.
Compass calibration – used for regular compass calibration – it appears on the forums that it doesn't happen often and consumes little data, but I still have it turned off.
Location-based iAds – who wants location-based advertising? I have it permanently off.
Traffic - supposedly this is data for Apple Maps to display traffic on the roads - i.e. to collect it. I left it on as the only one.
The navigation itself "eats" quite a lot of battery, so I recommend using it, for example, with a car adapter. Google's navigation is a bit more gentle in this regard, as it turns off the display at least for longer sections.
Wi-Fi
As I already wrote, my Wi-Fi is always on - and it automatically connects to the network both at home and at work.
A mobile Wi-Fi hotspot is a relatively large consumer, so it is advisable to use it only temporarily or to have the phone connected to the power supply.
Data services and PUSH notifications
I have data services (3G) permanently on, but I have limited the frequency of checking emails.
In the menu Settings > Mail, contacts, calendars > Data delivery – although I have Push set, but I have set the frequency in an hour. In my case, Push only applies to iCloud synchronization, delivery frequency to all other accounts (mainly Google services).
This chapter also includes notifications and various "badges" on applications. It is therefore appropriate in the menu Settings > Notifications edit the list of apps that can display any alerts or notifications. If you have enabled badges and notifications, the application has to constantly check if there is anything new to notify, and that of course costs some energy. Think about what you really don't need to know about everything that goes on in that app, and turn everything off.
Invalid / non-existent accounts you have in sync can also take care of draining your battery. If your phone repeatedly tries to connect, it uses energy unnecessarily. I therefore recommend double-checking that all accounts are correctly set up and synchronized.
There have been various reported issues with the Exchange connector in previous versions of iOS - I don't use it though, so I can't speak from my own experience, but the advice to remove the Exchange account and add it back has repeatedly come up in the discussions.
Crab
In the Czech Republic, Siri is not useful yet, so why waste energy on something that is not necessary. IN Settings > General > Siri and turn off.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth and the services that work through it also consume energy. If you are not using it, I recommend turning off v Settings > Bluetooth.
AirPlay
Streaming music or video via AirPlay defacto permanently uses Wi-Fi and therefore does not exactly help the battery. Therefore, if you plan to make more use of AirPlay, it is advisable to connect your phone to the power supply or at least have a charger handy.
iOS
Last but not least, it is advisable to check which version of the operating system you are using. Some of them were more prone to energy consumption than others. E.g. version 6.1.3 was a complete failure in this regard.
If your phone still can't last a full day without charging, it's time to find out where the problem is. This can be helped by some specialized applications, such as System Status – but that is for further research.
How are you doing with battery life? Which services do you have turned off and which ones are permanently on? Share your experiences with us and our readers in the comments.
The way you wrote the instructions, I also have an iPhone 5, I do exactly what you do and it lasts me two and sometimes a half a day... well, it's a mystery :-)
I have almost the same problem as you and unfortunately I have to charge my iphone 5 sometimes 2 times a day.. it's annoying
I have a similar experience. I live in Ireland and my battery lasts for two days. However, I was back at home for a week and recharged twice a day. In Ireland I have Vodafone IE and in CR I had Vodafone CZ fixed. In places with good 2G coverage, the battery was not a problem. In a place with a weak signal, with EDGE and GPRS, the battery died during half a day. From what I've read, the phone is constantly trying to find a transmitter with a stronger signal on a weak network and thus has no chance to 'rest' and thus save energy...
If you are somewhere where you know that 3G coverage is not 100%, turn it off. I turn it off and then it doesn't find the best signal.
I was on vacation, but the type of work I do requires me to be on call 3/XNUMX (both calls and emails), so turning off XNUMXG didn't occur to me...
The fact that you turn off 3G does not mean that you will not be able to access the Internet and that no one will let you. Call and the internet will go to you (just slower).
Of course that's clear to me ;)
GPRS is enough for that, it's much less than 3g.
Hmm, I really wouldn't want to do remote assistance with my colleagues' computers via GPRS... :D
And you were doing remote assistance all the time that you couldn't turn on 3G only when needed :-)
I once had to use RDP via EDGE. It was really slow, so I hope never again :-)
female, we have calves :D and I had the opportunity to recharge during the day, so I didn't have to deal with any disconnection of 3g...
Then I'd try some app to find out what's going on there - either it could be some app or, for example, the broken sync account. Or even a defective battery - recharging it twice a day is really strange.
I have a 4S...I keep charging in the car...if not, around 15-16pm I have my phone ready...but it seems to me that only now what's the heat...we'll see what happens when I set it up according to you...thanks for the tips... ;)
"If you have badges and notifications enabled, the app has to constantly check if there is anything new" - I don't think this statement is true
You're right, I wrote it awkwardly. The point is that if notifications are turned on, the phone maintains a 3G/wifi connection to the Apple Push Notification Server in order to receive those notifications at all.
The second thing is processing the notification when it comes. If I have 30 applications with badges, iOS has to deal with each one of them, and that also consumes a bit.
But it is definitely not a big glutton, not again.
In general, a huge energy guzzler is signal quality. But we won't do anything about it. So is driving in a means of transport (the phone is still registering for other BTSky). Otherwise, my 4S has more or less similar settings, it lasts a day and a half when I'm normally at home and have a normal day. Much less on the go :)
I wonder what is good/bad for having the 'mare net search' item turned on see the third pic? Just for fun.
That makes two of us. In my opinion, during normal operation, the signal should be transmitted classically by the BTS, without the phone interfering with the GPS (but I don't know the technical details, maybe there is a GSM expert here). The only thing I can think of is that if I travel a lot, GPS can help me choose an operator when roaming. But then again – it definitely works without a GPS, so I have no idea.
It's because when a person turns on maps and wants to find out his location, the iPhone uses three things for that. It will begin to find out how strong the signal is to individual BTSs and will determine the location based on triangulation. Although not very accurate, but faster than via GPS. It does the same with the WiFi networks it has in the database. And finally, in about half a minute, it will get the GPS coordinates, which will refine the location. Or if there is no GPS signal, e.g. in a building. Well, that item is there for him to anonymously send the exact coordinates of the given BTS so that later the data will be more accurate. It is detected, for example, when a person inserts a new SIM card and logs into the network.
Sup. Thanks for the info! I'm smarter again
a good application that detects how much I discharge the battery, and some "advice" when charging it, etc. is called Battery doctor, I personally use it and I can only praise it, it seems to me that it was developed by the Chinese, but it is really good.
I also belong to those who don't have a problem. iP 4 lasted me 1-2 days depending on how much I fooled around. iP5 the same - I would say maybe a hair less, but I attribute that to the fact that it can do a little more and I bother it more (typically for the panorama). but the iP5 seems to charge faster to me. The only time I drained the battery before a day was when I played long (about two hours at a time) games. This did not affect the rest of the normal daily operation. Otherwise, I always have wifi and BT and I normally look at maps, play via AP, etc.
The iPhone 5 has a larger display and a smaller battery (in terms of size), so the guys in Cupertino had to do a lot of work to get the battery life as it is.
Does SIRI consume a lot of power?
Siri is consumed by several things:
– on the one hand, it constantly checks if you are not holding the button (but it will be zero zero nothing)
– listens on the microphone when activated (i.e. in my opinion the same as when making a phone call)
– then sends the recording via the internet to Apple (i.e. in my opinion the same as data transfers via 3G or wifi – depending on what kind of connection you have at the moment)
– well and then displays the result (i.e. the same as, for example, a normal browsing on the phone)
Maybe there will be some little things around, but these are probably the main things
Just to clarify. Try putting your phone to sleep by pressing the top button sometime while navigating in apple maps. The display turns off and the navigation only sounds when it wants to tell you something. Of course, battery consumption is significantly lower.
That's not exactly user-friendly... :-))) Google navigation recognizes it by itself, if there is nothing to report, it turns itself off...
It won't go out… I use it a lot and it never goes out. I use the sleep button and the display always lights up when it wants to say something. and shows it in the background behind the lock screen.
I would like to ask. When I leave my phone charging overnight. Could something be happening to the battery like overcharging? Of course, I know that it has no effect in the horizon of six months, but so that I don't have to deal with the problem of a bad battery in a year.
I think this is solved with today's phones. at least I charged the iP4 like this for almost 3 years that I had it. a typical cycle was in my pocket during the day, in the charger at night (if I didn't forget) and when I sold it now, although the battery was not like new, it still gave much more than 1 day of my use without problems. So I don't feel like she would mind charging at night. The fact that the electronics are monitoring it was also visible in the temperature ... when the phone was empty and started charging, both the charger and the phone were quite warm ... as soon as the indicator reached 100%, both cooled down even though it was still connected to the network.
Is there a mistake in the article? version 6.1.3 is the current version for older iphones and ipads, so it doesn't seem to me that apple would leave a battery-eating version for so long. :-)
But I'm not arguing, I was just taken aback…
The web is full of articles and tutorials on this topic. Google "ios 6.1.3 battery drain" and see for yourself. I haven't noticed it personally, I have 6.1.4, but I think from people's reactions that some versions may be more prone to it.
Thanks to the author for the good tips :-)
I have it set according to the author of the article and I can confirm good results :)
Thank you very much :)
Does leaving the phone in the charger overnight and "overcharging" damage the battery?