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iPhone Have an iphone 7 on ios12.1.4, should I update to 13.2.3?

T

trfc54

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 12, 2019
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My main concerns are battery life as I don't really need the ios 13 features for my usages.

From this youtube video, it seems that going from 12.1.4 to 12.4.1 would be best just factoring in battery life
, but is it still doable to do so with ipsw restore, or should I just stay put at 12.1.4?

For reference, my phone has a new battery, 100% battery health and 2 cycles in coconut battery, and it seems presently I can get about 3-4 hours SOT, which isnt great obviously.
 
trfc54 said:
My main concerns are battery life as I don't really need the ios 13 features for my usages.

From this youtube video, it seems that going from 12.1.4 to 12.4.1 would be best just factoring in battery life
, but is it still doable to do so with ipsw restore, or should I just stay put at 12.1.4?

For reference, my phone has a new battery, 100% battery health and 2 cycles in coconut battery, and it seems presently I can get about 3-4 hours SOT, which isnt great obviously.
Click to expand...
You can only update to iOS 13 and not some iOS 12 version. No one can really tell what your experience will be like with iOS 13 -- there are those who aren't really having issues that are affecting them and those who are.
 
C DM said:
You can only install versions that are signed by Apple, and basically only the latest iOS 13 version is being signed for devices that support iOS 13 (like the iPhone 7).
Click to expand...

Hmm I see, well if that is true, would you update to 13.2.3 in my situation? Doing my research I'm unsure if it's smart, if battery life is my primary concern.
 
I have my father's 6s running iOS 13, he'd upgraded to 13 before he passed and battery life is one thing that doesn't seem to suffer with it--or at least not that I've noticed. Mail is the biggest issue I have with 13. On my work issued and personal phones I am on 12.4.1 and content staying there until Mail improves. New features while nice interest me less than stability.

Are there features in 13 you're dying to have or that would improve your experience? Are you willing to part with the stability and known performance of the version you're on now? In my mind, those are the questions to ask yourself.
 
No, there are not necessarily any features I want, I just want better battery life. I've already done all the necessary things to improve it, turning off background refresh, screen time, I keep it in low power mode, etc.
 
I went from 12.4.1 on my 7 to 13.2. Now I’m on the latest 13.2.3. Battery life is exactly the same as before. Maybe even a little bit better. I have a launch 128GB JB 7. 13.2 sucked for ram management but now on 13.2.3 it’s as good as 12.4.1. Apps open slightly faster as well. I’d say go for it.
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Forgot to add I also get 3-5 hours screen on time. Usually right around 4 on average. My battery is a little over a year old. Currently at 92%. Close to 300 cycles. I also use a smart battery case. Get close to 4 hours screen on time from it too before it dies and switches to the internal battery. It really depends on what you are doing. I play some Pokémon go sometimes and that kills the battery pretty quick. If I’m just browsing safari with 25% brightness and using light apps like YouTube, Instagram etc I get close to 4 hours SOT.

My highest SOT ever combined with the smart battery case was 8.5 hours down to 1%.
 
Last edited:
Alternatively, you could get a case with a battery and achieve stability along with improved battery life. My experience with upgrading iOS versions is battery life improvements are negligible if at all. That's not to say you won't run into issues as mentioned ^^^.
 
I updated my 7+ to iOS 13.2.2 a few weeks ago and so far, it's been amazing. I am getting the same battery life as what I get on my XS Max. I get about 3 days on my XS Max and for the first time that I can remember, I got that in my 7. I charged the 7+ Friday at 4:45pm and put it back on the charger last night.

I am actually using my 7+ as my main phone right now.

I do get double the battery life on T-Mobile then I would get on AT&T, Verizon and Xfinity (Verizon) on any phone I use.
 
Killbynumbers said:
I updated my 7+ to iOS 13.2.2 a few weeks ago and so far, it's been amazing. I am getting the same battery life as what I get on my XS Max. I get about 3 days on my XS Max and for the first time that I can remember, I got that in my 7. I charged the 7+ Friday at 4:45pm and put it back on the charger last night.

I am actually using my 7+ as my main phone right now.

I do get double the battery life on T-Mobile then I would get on AT&T, Verizon and Xfinity (Verizon) on any phone I use.
Click to expand...

Hmm that is interesting, the 7+ has more RAM than the 7 so perhaps it can run ios 13 better, but I am on Tmobile as well so maybe I'll have similar results to you.

Im just hesitant since there are a lot of anecdotal reports about ios 13 having a negative effect.
 
trfc54 said:
Hmm that is interesting, the 7+ has more RAM than the 7 so perhaps it can run ios 13 better, but I am on Tmobile as well so maybe I'll have similar results to you.

Im just hesitant since there are a lot of anecdotal reports about ios 13 having a negative effect.
Click to expand...
There is always those reports. I’ve been using iPhones since the 4. I’ve had the 4,5,6, and now 7. I’ve been through multiple updates over the years and pretty much every update has been fine for the most part. The most annoying bug I’ve ever experienced though was in fact the ram management bug on 13.2. But that was quickly fixed. I can’t think of an update that drastically made something worse over the past 10 years of iPhones and updates. I’ve never once had an update burn my battery. I do usually wait till about December or January to update after a few bug fix releases. By now everything is usually very good. I did however update on day one to iOS 12. That’s been my experience.
 
trfc54 said:
No, there are not necessarily any features I want, I just want better battery life. I've already done all the necessary things to improve it, turning off background refresh, screen time, I keep it in low power mode, etc.
Click to expand...
If it's primarily battery life that you are concerned with, and you aren't having some sort of unusual battery usage issues currently, then upgrading won't likely have much in the way of improvements in relation to that. There are likely at security security fixes to consider as well, but battery life alone isn't really something that would typically benefit from and upgrade.
 
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I think one issue I might be having is that I consistently have only 1 bar of reception for some reason. I'm on Tmobile and perhaps the phone is struggling to maintain a signal? Im going to put it on airplane mode for a little bit to see what that changes. I have the a1660 qualcomm modem version unlocked.
 
trfc54 said:
I think one issue I might be having is that I consistently have only 1 bar of reception for some reason. I'm on Tmobile and perhaps the phone is struggling to maintain a signal? Im going to put it on airplane mode for a little bit to see what that changes. I have the a1660 qualcomm modem version unlocked.
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Signal strength certainly plays a role in battery usage.
 
C DM said:
Signal strength certainly plays a role in battery usage.
Click to expand...

It would make sense if it was struggling with 1 bar that I would have additional drain, but perhaps ios 13 improves the modem performance? I'm not sure.

On low power mode, from this morning to now, I've lost 20% doing nothing, just answering a few text messages for a few minutes. In the meantime my lte signal has been stuck on 1 bar for most of the time, sometimes switching to 4g as well.
 
trfc54 said:
It would make sense if it was struggling with 1 bar that I would have additional drain, but perhaps ios 13 improves the modem performance? I'm not sure.

On low power mode, from this morning to now, I've lost 20% doing nothing, just answering a few text messages for a few minutes. In the meantime my lte signal has been stuck on 1 bar for most of the time, sometimes switching to 4g as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah a low signal and especially if its switching frequently between the two will drain battery like crazy even doing nothing for me too.
 
imagineadam said:
Yeah a low signal and especially if its switching frequently between the two will drain battery like crazy even doing nothing for me too.
Click to expand...

Hmm that sucks, I guess I'll have to just leave my cellular data off most of the time, this is primarily at work where my signal is lowest, but I'll compare it at home where I have generally 3-4 bars.

Nevertheless, I just upgraded to 13.3 so I'll see if its any better.
 
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