Ios 5.1

[Jimi007]

It updated directly to the device now, rather than using your computer as with the previous updates...

[nullx8]

5.0 did this already and the 4 betas before too

[nikster]

This one fixes the battery life problems!!

Upgrade, ye all, upgrade! Finally the 4 is back to its old great battery life (like iOS 4) and the 4S finally doesn't suck... by all reports it's now great, actually.

[Somtamnication]

I updated my trusty old ipad 1. Seems to work ok.

[jamesbrock]

This one fixes the battery life problems!!

Upgrade, ye all, upgrade! Finally the 4 is back to its old great battery life (like iOS 4) and the 4S finally doesn't suck... by all reports it's now great, actually.

To be honest, I didn't notice any decreased performance between the 4 and the 4S - that's not to say there wasn't an issue, just that I just didn't notice it myself - but it's good to see the issue has been addressed yet again (I can't recall many iOS updates that haven't addressed the relatively poor battery life inherent in the iPhone).

[mogandave]

If they came out with an OS no one wanted to play with the batteries would last a lot longer...

[jamesbrock]

If they came out with an OS no one wanted to play with the batteries would last a lot longer...

Or a device for that matter!

How many times, when sitting around, did you pull your old Nokia out to surf the we... check emai... do some banki... watch some vide... play snake?

Granted, my old N95 8GB did all those things; but the device itself was such that only when I really had to!

[jamesbrock]

If they came out with an OS no one wanted to play with the batteries would last a lot longer...

To prove your point though, my iPhone 4 only has to be charged every second or third day now, now that my gf is using it! She's using it as a phone, and rarely opens up any app other than a English/Thai translation app.

So, the device that rarely made it through a day in my hands, could make it through more than three in hers if we let it run flat. This proves (to me at least) that it's not so much the device, but the person holding it; which would explain a lot of new users' shock at the horrendous battery life the first few days that they have it - I doubt they buy their first iPhone and stick it in their pocket!

[nikster]

^ sure ... it would last even longer if you put it in "phone" mode - turn off notifications, data, location and 3G and it will last well over a week, if not two. If you use this huge battery just to make phone calls over 2G, it'll run and run and run... But who wants to do that?

iOS 5 had some problems where the phone would periodically wake and do stuff even if you weren't doing stuff. It's easy to see in settings->about->usage where you'd see a very high value for use vs. standby - much more than you'd actually used it. I think that was the main culprit and I hope they fixed it now. Like I said this was a bug in iOS 5 - I never had any issue with iOS 4 - iOS 4 would last two days of intense use no problem on my iPhone 4. On iOS 5 - one day, and sometimes I'd have to charge it in the evening to prevent the battery from running out - lame!!

[jamesbrock]

and sometimes I'd have to charge it in the evening to prevent the battery from running out - lame!!

I've had to do that on every model since 2008! Methinks your "intense" usage isn't as intense as mine... And that's my point really - everyone's usage patterns are different, so everyone's battery life will differ.

[SoloFlyer]

I can rarely get through the day without some kind of top-up charge; and thats not even moderate use - bugger all talking, mostly texting, pics rarely video, bit of browsing, lots of reading etc etc, nothing that should count as intensive use. Have the updated OS as of yesterday, but haven't let it run without my habitual charge whenever an outlet is available...

[jamesbrock]

I can rarely get through the day without some kind of top-up charge; and thats not even moderate use - bugger all talking, mostly texting, pics rarely video, bit of browsing, lots of reading etc etc, nothing that should count as intensive use. Have the updated OS as of yesterday, but haven't let it run without my habitual charge whenever an outlet is available...

Well, that depends on your definition of 'use'. Just think of how much energy is used simply by powering the screen...

Those eight or so seconds every time you hit the home button to check the time, or see if you have any notifications, would certainly add up over the course of a day. So, simply by having the screen powered while reading, texting, taking or looking at pics, surfing the web, etc. is what I consider intensive use (as opposed to actual processor cycles). There would be a far greater proportion of my phone's day that the screen is powered up than not.

[SoloFlyer]

^ Perhaps...

Battery died this morning, last full charge less than 24hrs ago; so definitely no noticeable improvement with the new OS.

[khonlanna]

To me, it seems they've just changed the battery indicator, in a cunning way. After updating, when it said "72percent" I turned on the 'Flight Mode". After a while, I turned it off. Then it said "74 percent"!! And, it took only one hour to drop "60 percent" to "38 percent" even though I made only one three minute phone call and I kept other applications turned off as usual.

[mogandave]

74-60=14, just sayin'

[khonlanna]

_{Sorry about the mistake: Wrong=}And, it took only one hour to drop "60 percent" to "38 percent" even though .....

→ And, it took only one hour to drop FROM "60 percent" to "38 percent" even though .....

It took rather a long time to drop from "100 percent" to "60 percent" or so, but after that.........

So I beleive they "modified" the battery indicator.

Edited March 11, 2012 by khonlanna