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GCHASE1995

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2015
430
338
Is this good battery life? Running iOS 9.1 beta 2 iPhone 5s Low Power Mod since unplugging
 

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Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,672
52,517
In a van down by the river
What is good battery life for one may be bad for another. There are a lot of variables involved.

Why would you want to run low power mode all the time? It automatically prompts you when battery life gets to 20%.

That is akin to detailing your car and not wanting to take it out of the garage, because it might get dirty and use gas.
 

lolbie

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2015
25
5
yes that is a good battery life with ios 8.4.1, my battery was emtpy after 4 hours of usage max 5

so yeah I wish i had ur battery life :p

btw I have an iphone 5
 

Scott M

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2009
274
68
Looks decent. My iPhone 5S battery has been awful since updating to iOS9. I can't get more than 5 hours usage :(. I used to be one of those people who couldn't understand why people were always complaining about battery hits when upgrading iOS, but for the first time, it's affected me and it's painful. Used to get 7-8 hours of usage on both iOS7 and 8. Could just be the fact that my phone is ageing now, but I did notice a significant drop once upgrading to iOS9.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,672
52,517
In a van down by the river
I was getting 7-8 hours on iOS 7 and 8. Haven't broken 5 hours on iOS9.
Your battery had 69% (or so left) according to your picture which means, plenty of battery left until it needs to be charged.

Battery life is not static. Some days you will get better battery usage than other days.
 
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Scott M

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2009
274
68
Your battery had 69% (or so left) according to your picture. which means, plenty of battery left until it needs to be charged.

Battery life is not static. Some days you will get better battery usage than other days.

Yes, I know, I mean when it gets down to about 1% I only have 5 hours or less of usage. Whereas on iOS7 and 8 I'd routinely get 7-8 hours. Maybe 6 and a half on a bad day.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Yes, I know, I mean when it gets down to about 1% I only have 5 hours or less of usage. Whereas on iOS7 and 8 I'd routinely get 7-8 hours. Maybe 6 and a half on a bad day.
In the screenshot you seem to have about 2.5 hours of usage after 36% of battery usage, so you are saying in the remaining 64% you only get about the same amount of usage as you got from the first 36%?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
What is good battery life for one may be bad for another. There are a lot of variables involved.

Why would you want to run low power mode all the time? It automatically prompts you when battery life gets to 20%.

That is akin to detailing your car and not wanting to take it out of the garage, because it might get dirty and use gas.
Running it from early on conserves more power. For example, by evening I'm often below 20% and might have to worry about not having much battery left if I go out somewhere even if I turn on LPM at that point, which extends it somewhat but still limited since it has less than 20% to work with. If I turn on LPM earlier, and perhaps even right from 100% (I've been experimenting) I'm at more than 50% by evening with similar usage, which certainly doesn't even really make me think about my battery twice if I'm going out somewhere.

LPM certainly disables and reduces some things, but if they are things you don't mind much given what you are doing on the phone that day or in general, then it's not bad at all. For example, if you don't really need push or fetch from email much (because you don't mind that part at all normally or because you have other apps like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail to give you push notifications), or you have animations reduced anyway normally, or you are mostly don't some calling, messaging, surfing the web, and perhaps using some non performance intensive apps (like some social networking here and there and some weather or sports scores and the like) then CPU speed reduction won't be something you'd be affected by much. Meaning naming LPM on earlier won't change much as far as your experience normally goes anyway aside from giving you more battery. Certainly not for everyone and not for everyday necessarily for those that would fall into that category, but still a fairly good option for some and/or sometimes.

Similar write-up about it at http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/0...ificantly-increase-your-iphones-battery-life/

As far as a car anology, as popular yet not necessarily great as they are, it'd likely be closer to having an electric car with great performance but on some days or even most days just driving it around city streets at city speeds. You aren't taking advantage of the performance but if all the things you need to do that day are within a small area that you'd normally take streets anyway, then it's not like you'd be upset that you weren't letting it loose on the highway or some mountain roads since you wouldn't be doing it that day anyway.
 
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Armen

macrumors 604
Apr 30, 2013
7,408
2,274
Los Angeles
Is this good battery life? Running iOS 9.1 beta 2 iPhone 5s Low Power Mod since unplugging

Low Power Mode reduces or turns off these features:

  • Email fetch
  • Hey Siri
  • Background app refresh
  • Automatic downloads
  • Wi-Fi associations
  • Some visual effects
  • lowers CPU speed (which will make your 5S run like a iPhone 4S)

It's intended to be used only when you need a little bit of battery until you get to a charger not run all day long in super dumb/slow mode.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Low Power Mode reduces or turns off these features:

  • Email fetch
  • Hey Siri
  • Background app refresh
  • Automatic downloads
  • Wi-Fi associations
  • Some visual effects
  • lowers CPU speed (which will make your 5S run like a iPhone 4S)

It's intended to be used only when you need a little bit of battery until you get to a charger not run all day long in super dumb/slow mode.
What do you mean by wifi associations? As far as what else it does, I believe it sets (and locks) the auto-lock time to 30 seconds, and lowers the brightness to a somewhat lower level than it normally would set it to (with auto brightness).

As for running it all the time or most of the time, I've been playing around with it just to experiment basically, and on the days when I would keep it on most of the time my phone still works about the same as usual. Granted I mostly use Gmail app push notifications for mail, don't have background refresh or Hey Siri enabled, have reduce motion enabled all the time anyway, and don't use automatic updates, so it's mostly the CPU speed that would be felt, but if I'm mostly doing some web surfing and messaging and calling and light usage of a few apps (like weather, sports, traffic, and maybe some social networking) that day then I'm not really noticing much of a difference in that respect either. Basically it's one of those YMMV type of things for different people under different circumstances.

Just came across a fairly similar write-up about it too: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/0...ificantly-increase-your-iphones-battery-life/
 
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Armen

macrumors 604
Apr 30, 2013
7,408
2,274
Los Angeles
What do you mean by wifi associations? As far as what else it does, I believe it sets (and locks) the auto-lock time to 30 seconds, and lowers the brightness to a somewhat lower level than it normally would set it to (with auto brightness).

As for running it all the time or most of the time, I've been playing around with it just to experiment basically, and on the days when I would keep it on most of the time my phone still works about the same as usual. Granted I mostly use Gmail app push notifications for mail, don't have background refresh or Hey Siri enabled, have reduce motion enabled all the time anyway, and don't use automatic updates, so it's mostly the CPU speed that would be felt, but if I'm mostly doing we surfing and messaging and calling and light usage of a few apps (like weather, sports, and maybe some social networking) that day then I'm not really noticing much of a difference in that respect either. Basically it's one of those YMMV type of things for different people under different circumstances.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205234
 

Sekelani

macrumors 6502
May 26, 2012
273
76
Is this good battery life? Running iOS 9.1 beta 2 iPhone 5s Low Power Mod since unplugging
I would say this is great battery life on a 5s. I wouldn't get more than 5 hours on my old 5s. Plus the fact it's older hardware and it's still taking punches with new software it's great!
 

GCHASE1995

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2015
430
338
I would say this is great battery life on a 5s. I wouldn't get more than 5 hours on my old 5s. Plus the fact it's older hardware and it's still taking punches with new software it's great!

The day before I got over 20 hours usage and standby and still had 65% left
 

Scott M

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2009
274
68
In the screenshot you seem to have about 2.5 hours of usage after 36% of battery usage, so you are saying in the remaining 64% you only get about the same amount of usage as you got from the first 36%?
Yeah, the lower the percentage, the quicker the battery starts to drain, with my phone. I will post a screenshot of my battery at 5% or so later and you'll see.
 

Scott M

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2009
274
68
In the screenshot you seem to have about 2.5 hours of usage after 36% of battery usage, so you are saying in the remaining 64% you only get about the same amount of usage as you got from the first 36%?

Here you go.

As you can see. Nowhere near 5 hours with only 6% left. I've screenshot the apps I used too and you'll see that none of them are particularly battery-draining apps like YouTube or Netflix.
 

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bkends35

macrumors 6502a
Feb 24, 2013
941
422
USA
Low Power Mode reduces or turns off these features:

  • Email fetch
  • Hey Siri
  • Background app refresh
  • Automatic downloads
  • Wi-Fi associations
  • Some visual effects
  • lowers CPU speed (which will make your 5S run like a iPhone 4S)

It's intended to be used only when you need a little bit of battery until you get to a charger not run all day long in super dumb/slow mode.
The part about a 5s feeling like a 4s is definitely not true. Having tested both devices on iOS 9, with and without lpm, I can tell you that the cpu performance decrease is hardly noticeable at all to me. I also only use my phone for productivity and communication. So mostly email, calendar, texting, web surfing, and some social media. I never game or do anything like that. The 4s is borderline unusable on iOS 9, whereas the 5s is pretty quick, even in lpm.
 

Armen

macrumors 604
Apr 30, 2013
7,408
2,274
Los Angeles
The part about a 5s feeling like a 4s is definitely not true. Having tested both devices on iOS 9, with and without lpm, I can tell you that the cpu performance decrease is hardly noticeable at all to me. I also only use my phone for productivity and communication. So mostly email, calendar, texting, web surfing, and some social media. I never game or do anything like that. The 4s is borderline unusable on iOS 9, whereas the 5s is pretty quick, even in lpm.

I didn't benchmark both modes to provide you 100% accurate results. All I'm stating is it's not worth it to run the phone in LPM all day long unless you're going on a 2 day camping trip with no power near by to recharge your phone.

It's irritating to me when Apple engineers spend all this time to gauge battery life with every feature on the phone turned on and the first thing a user does is disable almost everything.

It's like buying a new car and removing the Air conditioner, heater and the door linings just to reduce weight to get better gas mileage out of it.
 
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