Apple Confirms Battery Life Bug in iOS 5 - Releases iOS 5.0.1 Beta
by Brian Klug on November 2, 2011 5:51 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iOS 5
- iPhone 4S
Since the launch of iOS 5, a number of users have begun reporting decreased battery life on their iDevices, and alongside it have been reports of battery life issues afflicting the iPhone 4S. We investigated the iPhone 4S' power consumption in our review, and found that power consumption is on par with or less than the iPhone 4. Nevertheless, we predicted that there were a combination of software issues afflicting a subset of 4S owners and users with iOS 5 installed.
Today, Apple has confirmed to AllThingsD that this is the case:
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.
In addition, Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 beta today which includes note of these software fixes which will hopefully improve battery life for affected customers. In addition, the beta restores multitasking gestures for the original iPad, security improvements, and improvements to the data store policies for applications, among others.
No doubt iOS 5.0.1 will release in a few weeks after this beta gets its own soak period in the hands of developers. We'll be investigating to see how this updates impacts the iPhone 4S' performance in our own battery life tests.
Update: We just installed the iOS 5.0.1 beta on one of our own iPhone 4S' and noticed that the baseband firmware also gets a version bump (indicating a bugfix of some kind) from 1.0.11 at release, to 1.0.12 in the iOS 5.0.1 beta.
Source: AllThingsD, Apple Developer Portal
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fic2 - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
Obviously they are holding it wrong.(someone was going to say it)
Urbanmech - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
I didn't notice any battery difference on my iPad2 with iOS5. I just have the base 16GB Wifi only model.Subzero0000 - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
I feel that it dries out about 30 minutes earlier than it used to. Mine is iPad2 16GB 3G (always on).wickman - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
I had no problems with my iPad 2 (16gb 3G) on iOS5, nor did my iPhone 4 have any issues on iOS5. I could probably see the 30 minute lower life but my usage is so mixed it's hard to get a consistent estimate.But I did buy a black and a white 16gb 4S and I did see noticeable worse battery life on the black model. I would have to charge it daily, by the end of the day I may be down to 20% life. But the white model has been considerably better. With the same usage, I have been able to arrive home with 40% or even 50% battery life. So there is clearly an issue with one of my phones that I purchased, but it is unclear if the issue is either hardware (junk battery perhaps?) or software (have yet to try this latest patch).
bjacobson - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
must have been running with steve jobs mode enabled.inplainview - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
What are you, 12 or just stupid?ananduser - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
Why so serious ? Sarcasm mode fail ? Or are you just mad your favorite gadget is scrutinized... You should take some time off the Internets.sigmatau - Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - link
He calls people morons and what not that say anything wrong about Apple. I even owned a 3GS and was told not to comment negatively on an ios5 review. Rabid, blind, deaf, monkeys to me.doobydoo - Thursday, November 3, 2011 - link
I think maybe his problem is not with 'commenting negatively' on Apple, but more making a job about a dead man which just isn't funny.doobydoo - Thursday, November 3, 2011 - link
a joke*