iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 mini battery life: is this normal?

[NaughtyNoot]

I got my iPhone 12 mini back in November, and in general after using it for a few months have been very happy with the smaller form factor. Of course, I knew beforehand that battery life would be inferior compared to the other iPhone 12 models, but figured that -- as a very light user (and previously happy iPhone 5 owner) -- it would still be good enough for my needs. And indeed, the 4-6h of screen-on time that is often reported should be more than enough for me (since I don't use the device to game, don't use it to check social media often, don't use it for media consumption other than listening to some music through my AirPods now and then, ...).

The thing is, I noticed that I haven't nearly been getting that much screen-on time on my device. Due to the pandemic, I'm mostly working from home and therefore often not using my phone at all the entire day (except for replying to a few messages), yet in the evening the remaining battery charge is often as low as 40-60%. This obviously worries me, as this would mean that it would never last me a day if I actually had to go back to work again, using it on public transport and such (and truthfully, I don't see how it could ever work for anyone, given that I use my phone way less than other people seem to do on average).

As an example, I included in attachment a screenshot of my battery usage yesterday (taking it off the charger at 9am or so). As you can see, there was only a little over 2h of SOT (more than usual) + some screen-off time when I was streaming music using my AirPods (which, if I understand correctly, should use very little battery life). Battery at this point was at 15%.

Is this normal for an iPhone 12 mini? I've checked multiple times for apps eating battery through background app refresh, but never seem to find any culprits. Brightness isn't particularly high; and while low power mode wasn't enabled, I don't think this is expected to be necessary on a new iPhone 12 mini. Battery health -- surprisingly -- is still at 100%. Any thoughts?

 

[theapplehead]

Hm yeah this does appear to be abnormal battery drain from my experience. What version of iOS is on your iPhone?

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Hm yeah this does appear to be abnormal battery drain from my experience. What version of iOS is on your iPhone?

Currently on iOS 14.6.

 

[theapplehead]

Currently on iOS 14.6.

iOS 14.6 does have notoriously less then average battery life. iOS 14.7 is right around the corner and should be released sometime next week, so when that is released see if that improves battery drain at all. You could alternatively reset your iPhone and see if that improves battery life back to where it should be. But make sure you have a backup of your phone before you reset it since you would lose your data if not.

 

[fischersd]

I also tend to leave my devices on wireless chargers whenever I'm not using them. It's basically a trickle / slow charger, compared to using a charging cable - lower amp, slower charging isn't as hard on the battery. Thereby, it'll be pretty much fully charged whenever you do go to use it.

Still do the troubleshooting to run down excessively quick draining though.

 

[NaughtyNoot]

iOS 14.6 does have notoriously less then average battery life. iOS 14.7 is right around the corner and should be released sometime next week, so when that is released see if that improves battery drain at all. You could alternatively reset your iPhone and see if that improves battery life back to where it should be. But make sure you have a backup of your phone before you reset it since you would lose your data if not.

Hmm, in that case I'll wait for iOS 14.7, and see if that fixes anything. However, I also seem to have had these issues on previous iOS versions already (specifically, the battery has always drained relatively fast in stand-by, while not using the phone at all). If the next iOS version doesn't help, I'll try resetting as you suggested (was kind of hoping to avoid doing that, but indeed it's probably a good idea).

I also tend to leave my devices on wireless chargers whenever I'm not using them. It's basically a trickle / slow charger, compared to using a charging cable - lower amp, slower charging isn't as hard on the battery. Thereby, it'll be pretty much fully charged whenever you do go to use it.

Still do the troubleshooting to run down excessively quick draining though.

True. The benefit of having a desk job is that on most days, I always have access to a charger and can leave it there when not using it. Still, I was hoping for some more autonomy when going outside (or not having access to chargers/powerbanks in general), as it's not nice to be dependent on that...

 

[reppans]

nvm

 

[Barbareren]

View attachment 1807523

Is this normal for an iPhone 12 mini?

That’s definitely not normal. Looks like you have a faulty battery.

 

[cynics]

While you provided a good deal of information its still not enough to get a handle of whether battery performance is bad or not.

From what I see your battery went from 100% to 15% in ~19 hours?

What is your batteries health? (settings, battery, battery health)

Your usage directly corresponds with battery depletion. You can see when you usage eases up the phone starts sipping energy.

Streaming audio CAN be a huge power hog depending on the variables. For example using YouTube to stream audio is going to use a lot more resources than using Apple Music. Youtube is a video streaming service using video codec, video ads, API access for video streaming, caching behavior for video streaming not audio streaming, etc. Don't confuse Apples 50 hour spec of "Audio Playback" with "Streaming audio". A lot of the same processes and hardware are used plus streaming requires full network access (cellular or wifi) a long with more NAND and SoC time. I wouldn't be surprised if Apples testing methodology was using wired ear buds at very low volumes too.

Also keep in mind a small iPhone uses less energy for on screen task due to a smaller screen (less pixels to move). However the rest of the hardware is about the same. Wifi radio, cellular radio, SoC decoding, bluetooth radio, etc etc. Except the battery in the smaller iPhone is smaller (lower capacity).

Again though, just food for thought.

I would suggest clicking on the top charts tabs in your pics where you see the battery dropping and just see what you or the phone was doing. Just don't confuse apps that have high percentages of activity during times of low power consumption, you will be chasing ghost.

For example, this is a pic from my iPhone, "Exposure Notifications" used 88% of the power from that hour. On closer inspection though it shows battery life did not drop that hour at all. So it used 88% of >1% battery consumption, aka it didn't use any power.



We are looking for areas in that top chart that show battery decline and then singling those app/processes used during that time. For example, again my iPhone, I see a large battery drop here, Safari used 88% of about a 5-10% battery drop.



I was using watching videos from Safari during that time and it was definitely the majority of that 5-10% consumption.

A faulty battery generally has one telltale sign, the phone will unexpectedly shut off before 0% battery. This happens because the SoC's current draw on the battery causes the voltage to dip below its shut off trigger. This is a telltale sign because the battery should be able to deliver the hardwares power requirements from its max charge voltage to its shut down voltage without causing it to tank. This is like an old car battery on a VERY cold day that wont start. The dome lights come on, the radio comes on, the ignition beeps, the battery even shows 12-14 volts if you put a volt meter across the terminals, but as soon as you goto start the car (apply a significant load) you get a click and nothing happens. Voltage is there but the capacity of the battery to deliver the current is not due to resistance.

The iPhone picks up on this pretty quick and puts the phone in a reduced performance mode as soon as it restarts. You will get a message telling you to visit and Apple store to have the battery checked. It will also tell you the phone has been placed in its 'reduced performance mode'. Reduced performance is an under clock of the SoC which will reduce its current requirement peaks which will mitigate voltage dips that can potentially cause the iPhone to just turn off.

I think its going to be unlikely that the battery health will say its ok, the phone stays in max performance mode AND you can drain it to 1-2% battery with a battery that isn't in relatively good shape. Apple can test this in store though for piece of mind.

Hope something here helped little or guides you it the right direction.

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Some additional information:
- battery health is at 99% (was at 100% when I posted this yesterday, but coincidentally it just dropped to 99%)
- optimised battery charging is enabled
- based on one of the suggestions, I have now turned Wifi calling on.
- location services are all set to "when using", meaning that it shouldn't drain battery constantly in the background. The exceptions here are the weather widget and some system services that also require location data.
- about the music streaming I mentioned: this was using Apple Music and AirPods (i.e., wireless), but I only listened to a handful of songs that day (so maybe 20-30 minutes of streaming at most; far less than my typical usage when on public transport).
- I was never able to find any apps using significantly more energy than others in the battery usage summary. I even disabled the COVID tracking app used in my country because "Exposure Notifications" showed up in the list consuming a lot of power.
- so far I have not experienced any serious battery malfunctions as described above; my only complaint is that the battery is going down very quickly despite my very light usage
- I do have an Apple Watch. Don't know if that has a significant impact on the phone's battery to keep the bluetooth connection perhaps?

To find out whether the issue is really due to the battery itself (i.e., the hardware) or because of low signal strength (which should not be the case, as I live in a relatively large city with good coverage) or other issues with my carrier / mobile data usage, I removed my SIM card today (meaning I'm using Wifi only) as an experiment to see how it impacts battery life. Will post the results here tomorrow.

 

[Apple$]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Some additional information:
- battery health is at 99% (was at 100% when I posted this yesterday, but coincidentally it just dropped to 99%)
- optimised battery charging is enabled
- based on one of the suggestions, I have now turned Wifi calling on.
- location services are all set to "when using", meaning that it shouldn't drain battery constantly in the background. The exceptions here are the weather widget and some system services that also require location data.
- about the music streaming I mentioned: this was using Apple Music and AirPods (i.e., wireless), but I only listened to a handful of songs that day (so maybe 20-30 minutes of streaming at most; far less than my typical usage when on public transport).
- I was never able to find any apps using significantly more energy than others in the battery usage summary. I even disabled the COVID tracking app used in my country because "Exposure Notifications" showed up in the list consuming a lot of power.
- so far I have not experienced any serious battery malfunctions as described above; my only complaint is that the battery is going down very quickly despite my very light usage
- I do have an Apple Watch. Don't know if that has a significant impact on the phone's battery to keep the bluetooth connection perhaps?

To find out whether the issue is really due to the battery itself (i.e., the hardware) or because of low signal strength (which should not be the case, as I live in a relatively large city with good coverage) or other issues with my carrier / mobile data usage, I removed my SIM card today (meaning I'm using Wifi only) as an experiment to see how it impacts battery life. Will post the results here tomorrow.

Have you disabled 5G? 5G in it's current form can be a big battery drain.

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Have you disabled 5G? 5G in it's current form can be a big battery drain.

5G is turned off (it's not even available in my country yet).

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Attached below are the results of using my phone without a SIM card yesterday (to find out if signal strength etc. are having a negative impact). Took it off the charger at around 10am; 15 hours later (at 1am), the battery had 58% left. The "screen-off time" is again listening to Apple Music using AirPods.

Not sure what to make of this. The main improvement seems to come from reduced battery drain during stand-by. It's already somewhat better than before, but it doesn't look like I would have been able to get 5h of SOT, let alone when actually using it with my SIM card inside...

 

[macsound1]

If you have wifi calling enabled and you're in a controlled environment (home), you might try disabling cellular all together for a day and see if that improves your battery life.
When I'm home my 12 mini is still around 60% by the end of the work day. When I'm at the office it's around 35%.

Even though theres strong cellular by my office, it's also a brick building which must be making the return trip back to the tower considerably more difficult.

Wow, good timing, I had just posted when you replied about the exact thing I was thinking!

 

[prazakj]

WOW, I don’t think that 2hours of usage on the mini is fair enough. I don’t use my mini while I’m at the office that much and I never get below 3hours of SoT everyday with no sweat. If I push it more, I have no problem to around 4hours with still some percentage of battery left. And I never got under 30% before bedtime. And my battery health is 96% (strangely, bought in December 2020, charging overnight via wireless charger). I think you could have a problem with battery, but main problem would be that YouTube usage as you read a few lines up.

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Updating to iOS 14.7 made things a little bit better (I typically end the day now at 50-60% instead of 40-50%; keep in mind that this is still with very little to no usage). Putting it in low power mode the whole day also didn’t do that much.

As has been suggested here already, I’ll probably try a reset in the future (perhaps after iOS15 has arrived) to see if that helps, but I’m not too hopeful…

 

[partyboy4357]

Yah there is a reason the mini failed to sell and being discontinued and you’re experiencing one of the manyreasons it’s a bust.

 

[macsound1]

Yah there is a reason the mini failed to sell and being discontinued and you’re experiencing one of the manyreasons it’s a bust.

Interesting you say that. Coming to the mini from an 8, 7 before that, 6s before that.
The 12 mini has the best battery life of them, up by about 10%.
At the end of a normal day, going to work (for 8 hours plus 2 commuting) in a brick building with terrible cell reception, dozens of teams and iMessages, scrolling through twitter and phone calls, I'm still around 55%. Not sure if that's somehow abnormal battery life...

 

[NaughtyNoot]

Well, while I wasn't immediately convinced with the 12 mini when I first got it, after actually using it for a few months I've definitely come to love its size and wouldn't want to go back to a larger model. Actually, the reason I'm so worried about battery life is because I want to hold on to this device as long as possible (especially if they are really going to discontinue this smaller model). I'm very well aware that the smaller form factor implies a smaller battery, but would be more than happy with the 4-5h SOT that other 12 mini users seem to be reporting.

 

[prazakj]

T

Well, while I wasn't immediately convinced with the 12 mini when I first got it, after actually using it for a few months I've definitely come to love its size and wouldn't want to go back to a larger model. Actually, the reason I'm so worried about battery life is because I want to hold on to this device as long as possible (especially if they are really going to discontinue this smaller model). I'm very well aware that the smaller form factor implies a smaller battery, but would be more than happy with the 4-5h SOT that other 12 mini users seem to be reporting.

Today, I’m on 42% and 4hours and 10mins of usage. Not bad actually, but one of my heaviest day for a longer period now.

 

[NaughtyNoot]

T

Today, I’m on 42% and 4hours and 10mins of usage. Not bad actually, but one of my heaviest day for a longer period now.

That’s pretty nice. Is that actual SOT or some other kind of usage?

Meanwhile, I’m at 57% today after using it for less than 44min … Also had some crazy overnight background usage last night (apparently from the reddit app), no idea why but it shouldn‘t matter because it was on the charger (background refresh is disabled now for all apps otherwise).

 

[prazakj]

That’s pretty nice. Is that actual SOT or some other kind of usage?

Meanwhile, I’m at 57% today after using it for less than 44min … Also had some crazy overnight background usage last night (apparently from the reddit app), no idea why but it shouldn‘t matter because it was on the charger (background refresh is disabled now for all apps otherwise).


View attachment 1814811View attachment 1814813

It could be. My longterm usage is between 3-4hours depending on the day and how much I use other devices. I also have background refresh turned off and I don’t use much of larg-consuming app. From social sites I use only Twitter. 🙂

 

[scrl]

I haven't got the level of detail others have here, but I can report anecdotally that I'm certainly experiencing significantly shorter battery life on my iPhone 12 mini than on previous iPhones I've had. Days of largely "non-usage" still result in a battery that's half-gone at the end, which never used to be the case.

Personally, I LOVE the size of it (because I have a Mac and an iPad that I use all day, so I only need a small screen on my phone), and I'm prepared to accept the compromise on stamina. But if my usage changed, I could easily imagine that I would flatten my phone's battery before the day was done.

 

[Barbareren]

My battery life is just as I had expected; decent, compared to my old X/XS. I once got 8h,25min of SOT from a full charge, but I’m rarely glued to the phone screen like that. I’m still a heavy user, though, but I don’t find the battery life any worse than any of my previous phones, so I’m not complaining. Also, 20W fast-charging is a godsend. 🙂

 

[prazakj]

My battery life is just as I had expected; decent, compared to my old X/XS. I once got 8h,25min of SOT from a full charge, but I’m rarely glued to the phone screen like that. I’m still a heavy user, though, but I don’t find the battery life any worse than any of my previous phones, so I’m not complaining. Also, 20W fast-charging is a godsend. 🙂

Similar to you, just not having more than 8hours of SoT. I’m more likely around 3hours 😀