I‘d love to give your 6s or SE a shot. I‘m still skeptical because that number is so far removed from my experience that it sounds impossible, but yeah, we’re running around in circles at this point. I think 5 hours is impossible even with extremely light use, nevermind anything moderate like outdoors LTE. 6s users widely report far lower numbers on iOS 15. Maybe, just maybe, that number might be possible on iOS 12 at the latest, and with extremely light use. (9 and 10 are a lot better than that. I’ve used both for a combined 6 years without replacing a single battery and they‘re amazing. My 6.5-year-old 6s on iOS 10 with an original battery is flawless). Like I said, we‘re running in circles.
Oh, that I agree with. App support is the most pervasive issue of staying behind, 100%. Like I’ve stated repeatedly before, I am nobody to say that updating for app support is wrong. “The device is a glorified paperweight” is probably not an exaggeration: no iPhone since the App Store debuted was designed to merely run native apps (and like you said, Safari crumbles heavily even on my 6s on iOS 10. Half the websites don’t run).
I actually think you aren’t wrong here either! Yeah, the device will lose its complete usefulness much faster by not updating. As to why I do it: it fulfills my requirements and it runs flawlessly in terms of performance and battery life throughout its entire lifetime. I don’t use a million apps. I don’t have the most stringent support requirements. My use case… hasn‘t changed.
I had an iPhone 6s and a 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 9, and I used them for exactly the same things I now use my iPhone Xʀ and iPad Air 5 on iOS 12 and iPadOS 15, respectively. So, if I don’t need the support… why diminish performance and battery life? I don’t need to do that.
Why should I update my 6s on iOS 10 when it obliterates a 6s on iOS 15 in terms of performance and battery life and does everything I need it to? It’s all drawbacks for no gain. Makes no sense. Were I to need to run many current apps, I would probably be forced to, but… it’s not my main phone and I basically just use it for messages, music, and native apps. Like you said earlier (and I agreed), should my use case evolve and expand into running apps and web browsing, I’d probably have to update. Web browsing? Yeah, I have issues. Yes, many websites that I would like to visit have components that don’t run, if they run at all. Annoying? Nope, look, here’s my iPad on iPadOS 15, I’ll use that instead. I have the devices to skirt around any and all compatibility loss. I’m better off maintaining perfect performance and battery life.
You are right that I probably wouldn’t be able to use it as my only device, but, as a second phone, surrounded by other devices? Why update? What would I gain?
So I have posted some pictures and screenshots of my SE being used today from 100% charge to 9% on a well used battery that’s sitting at 89% health after 8 months of use. The SE is on 15.7.2 which is the latest update. I have given you the benefit of the doubt by NOT using WiFi AT ALL. Every second of use was on 4G LTE. I also drained the battery unnaturally quickly by streaming videos on YouTube, Prime and Disney+ along with some mild web-browsing and music streaming also.
The numbers aren’t bad, are they? I would normally get a lot more SoT than 3 hours 40 mins because, when I was using the phone as my daily driver, it was being used for undemanding tasks like instant messaging on WhatsApp and light web-browsing rather than constant media streaming on 4G. Using the phone as I normally would with only around 1-1.5 hours of media streaming, the charge could easily last 5 hours+ of SoT. I would also connect to WiFi when at home which would massively reduce battery drain.
When I use the device on WiFi only, I can stretch the SoT to 6 hours, or 6.5 hours on a new battery, which is more than enough for most people. This is considerably higher than the 2.5 hours of SoT which you’ve been quoting. I tested this recently prior to getting my iPhone 13 when I was sick and spent my entire day in bed on my SE.
Please stop posting misinformation urging people not to update their firmware on older phones as what you are saying is massively exaggerated. The phone is DEFINITELY usable without a battery case or power brick on 15.7.2. The 6S I have lasts even longer due to the much larger battery. Users realistically lose around 10-15% of SoT going from iOS 9 to iOS 15 on the A9. There is no grand conspiracy involving the insertion of malicious malware into iOS updates to intentionally shorten battery life.
I believe your personal experience is likely based on a bad battery or some kind of bug that drains your battery abmormally quickly.
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