iPhone Battery

Apple has recently admitted its devices running iOS 5 are experiencing battery life issues, and the company is planning to launch a fix in the next iOS firmware update. iOS 5.0.1 beta has been released to developers and promises to correct several issues affecting battery life in the mobile operating system. Several iPhone 4S owners have reported less than expected battery life and are awaiting the public release of the fix.

After a period of silence, Apple has finally announced they have found a few bugs responsible for the short battery life and expect to release iOS 5.0.1 to the public within a few weeks. In the meantime, iPhone 4S users and others running iOS 5 have looked to temporary fixes to improve iPhone battery life until the official fix is released.

Last week, Apple engineers were reportedly looking into complaints about unexplained iPhone 4S battery drain. On Wednesday, the company officially acknowledged the problem and said they are currently working on a fix.

Apple told Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Apple is currently investigating reported battery life problems experienced by iPhone 4S users. There are many tips and tricks floating around about how to extent battery life on your iPhone, but you shouldn't have to shut down most of the useful functions of your device to get battery life back. Normally these problems are due to specific bugs or corrupted files in the iPhone firmware or applications (this happened with the iPhone 4.1 update).

Apple will often issue a fix in the next iOS update, however in the meantime iPhone users must do what they can to solve the problem or deal with abbreviated battery time. There are many general tips and tricks that can improve battery life on your iPhone, but these involve much compromise and will switch off many features of your iPhone. In the past specific apps such as Ping and Game Center were pegged as culprits. The flood of feedback from users of the iPhone 4S point to these top 5 fixes for short iPhone 4S battery life:

With well over 4 million iPhone 4S units sold over the first week of release, some owners are reporting that battery life is inexplicably short with normal usage. Even compared to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, for some reason the new design is sometimes experiencing power drain for no apparent reason. According to the Guardian, Apple engineers have begun to respond to iPhone 4S owner complaints and many have installed diagnostic software to help track down the issue.

One of the unannounced iPhone 4S surprises was a shortening of the standby time on the device to 200 hours down from the iPhone 4 spec of 300 hours. There was no wave of concern over this number, until the iPhone 4S started losing battery power at a much faster clip in some cases. Initial reports of shorter than expected battery life have evolved over time into serious battery drain problems in some cases.

When it comes to battery life, Apple's official iPhone 4S specs are a little bit dodgy. According to Apple, the iPhone 4S has one-hour of extra 3G talk time than its predecessor, but the same battery life as the iPhone 4 when it comes to basically every other feature. iLounge decided to investigate how the iPhone 4S improves upon the iPhone 4 in some categories, and how it falls short in others. The tech site put the devices through an extensive battery test and discovered the iPhone 4 actually has a slight edge over the 4S when it comes to battery usage.

In a 3G Data test the iPhone 4S failed to outlast the iPhone 4 in Audio Playback, Video Playback, and Video Recording. The iPhones were pretty even for FaceTime and Wi-Fi with the iPhone 4S clocking in slightly better for Cellular Calls. The chart above shows some of the comparisons for AT&T.