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CupertinoSlave

macrumors 6502
Sep 16, 2014
307
180
Tampa, FL
I think the A9 processor is just THAT good. I geet about 2 days with basic use ( imessage and calls ) and a full day of heavy use. It blows my Note 5 out of the water.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
iOS doesn't really keep apps active in the background especially third party apps so there is nothing draining the battery.
There have been many times where I get notifications about FB, Flickr, Twitter, and etc via email but no badges or notifications from the app itself even with background app refresh enabled!
App notifications don't really depend on the app running or anything like that as they use Apple's app notification push service that is independent of all that.
 

DcGamer05

macrumors 6502
Mar 27, 2011
389
226
Litchfield CT
I highly doubt it's the A9 processor doing that. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 6 in November coming from an iPhone 5 and I must say my battery life on my iPhone 6 is phenomenal compared to my 5. My iPhone5 wouldn't last half a day always had to have a juice pack handy on me.

With my iPhone6 I have not had that problem. The battery lasts more than twice as long as it did before. I use my phone quite often and yet I don't seem to need to recharge. Before when I would get home at the end of the day I was lucky if I had 10% left. Now I'm used to seeing 28-50% battery left. Also some days that I only use it lightly I don't even charge it over night and it lasts all the next day.

I don't use Facebook or Twitter but use email, iMessages and other apps, even light gaming (tapped out). I know everyone has a different experience but so far my iPhone 6 has been excellent on battery and also the performance is nice too. Overall I've been very impressed with the iPhone 6 and above battery life Apple really seems to have tweaked it properly this time.
 

vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
I highly doubt it's the A9 processor doing that. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 6 in November coming from an iPhone 5 and I must say my battery life on my iPhone 6 is phenomenal compared to my 5. My iPhone5 wouldn't last half a day always had to have a juice pack handy on me.

With my iPhone6 I have not had that problem. The battery lasts more than twice as long as it did before. I use my phone quite often and yet I don't seem to need to recharge. Before when I would get home at the end of the day I was lucky if I had 10% left. Now I'm used to seeing 28-50% battery left. Also some days that I only use it lightly I don't even charge it over night and it lasts all the next day.

I don't use Facebook or Twitter but use email, iMessages and other apps, even light gaming (tapped out). I know everyone has a different experience but so far my iPhone 6 has been excellent on battery and also the performance is nice too. Overall I've been very impressed with the iPhone 6 and above battery life Apple really seems to have tweaked it properly this time.

I was disappointed in the iPhone 6 because the A8 was just a re-skinned version of the A7 (if you look at some benchmarks) and virtually nothing else was upgraded but the exterior design. With the 6s, it's the inverse.

And the A8 is significantly more power efficient than the A6, which may be why you were getting decent battery. Additionally, the battery was slightly bigger and the screen a little more efficient than the iPhone 5 panel.

I'm jumping from a 5s to a 6s (A7 to A9) and both battery life and performance are significantly improved (although the A7/A8 are still relatively fast).
 

electronicsguy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2015
570
251
Pune, India
iOS doesn't really keep apps active in the background especially third party apps so there is nothing draining the battery.
There have been many times where I get notifications about FB, Flickr, Twitter, and etc via email but no badges or notifications from the app itself even with background app refresh enabled!

i'm afraid this is not correct. ios does keep many things active in the background (it wouldn't be a phone otherwise, much less a smartphone). Most inbuild system services can and do run in the background. Even third party apps can run in a limited way in the background. The official apple dev doc on this is found here: https://developer.apple.com/library.../BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html
 

XTheLancerX

macrumors 68000
Aug 20, 2014
1,911
782
NY, USA
Dont know about the 6S but my iPhone 6 has below aevrage battery life.Doesnt last more than 7 hours

same 6-7 hours i ever got on an iPhone

Same here. I don't get how people around here get 8-11 hours on their regular iPhone 6 or 6S's. My iPhone 6 averages 5 hours. iOS 9 hasn't treated my battery the best. Maybe my iPhone is just aging, but then again it's only been a year.

Anyway I was surprised to see today, I went to an area with horrible cell service and I was on cellular much of the day, higher brightness, I get home and it's at 18%, with 6 hours and 35 minutes of use. Maybe I just had a lot of prolonged background activity because of slow (and I mean slow) data? I didn't think I used the phone that much but I digress.
 

Elisha

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2006
781
504
i'm afraid this is not correct. ios does keep many things active in the background (it wouldn't be a phone otherwise, much less a smartphone). Most inbuild system services can and do run in the background. Even third party apps can run in a limited way in the background. The official apple dev doc on this is found here: https://developer.apple.com/library.../BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html
You just agreed with me by saying it only runs in a limited way!
They don't really stay alive and multitask in the background like on Android. They get into a frozen state or go into a limited DND type state.
 

electronicsguy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2015
570
251
Pune, India
You just agreed with me by saying it only runs in a limited way!
They don't really stay alive and multitask in the background like on Android. They get into a frozen state or go into a limited DND type state.

correct. but I didn't agree with your absolute statement that "iOS doesn't really keep apps active in the background" - that statement is plain, wrong. 3rd party apps can work in the background for limited tasks and then be put in the frozen state; so they will consume battery during that time, which is the crux of the thread. Heck, FB finally responded by removing the silent "noise" they were creating to keep their app alive all the time. http://www.techinsider.io/facebook-fixes-app-battery-drain-issue-2015-10

Finally, 1st party apps/services run in the background all the time. some of them: springboard, phone baseband services, clock, touch sensor, screen refresh.
 
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Harmonious Zen

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2013
874
551
Absolutely I do.

It's a smartphone that I take full advantage of. Phone calls, texting, email, Web research, camera, and that's without streaming. I'm up and active 16 hours a day and that's when I use my phone. A very busy person between work and personal, plus being very mobile I rely on my iPhone 6 Plus. Carry an Anker battery the phone requires two charges, sometimes three.

My iPhone as compared to the Nexus models 5, 6 and 6P that I've used over the last three years reveals iPhone Battery life about average.

Nothing special.

That's about my experience too. iPhone 6s battery life ain't too great considering all I put it through.
 

vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
Same here. I don't get how people around here get 8-11 hours on their regular iPhone 6 or 6S's. My iPhone 6 averages 5 hours. iOS 9 hasn't treated my battery the best. Maybe my iPhone is just aging, but then again it's only been a year.

Anyway I was surprised to see today, I went to an area with horrible cell service and I was on cellular much of the day, higher brightness, I get home and it's at 18%, with 6 hours and 35 minutes of use. Maybe I just had a lot of prolonged background activity because of slow (and I mean slow) data? I didn't think I used the phone that much but I digress.

Everyone has different settings, man. I have a profound knowledge of the little things that cause battery drain, and I have tried turning off as many of those without diminishing the usability. I have also recently set up as new.

And this is what I'm getting:

image.jpeg


And that result was with decent usage all throughout (Crunchyroll, YouTube, SoundCloud, Reddit, lots of Safari browsing, some Snapchat, little social media). Pretty pleased.

In comparison, the most I got out of my 2-year old 5s after I updated it to iOS 9 was 7 hours of usage and 12 hours of standby with relatively the same usage. I assume iOS 9 has some dark magic or something.

And no, I do not have Facebook installed, so that's a plus.
 

pika2000

Suspended
Jun 22, 2007
5,587
4,903
Background App Refresh turned off, no fetching whatsoever, 30-50% brightness, most apps closed, mostly using texting apps and SoundCloud (little social media).
If you have background app refresh off, obviously you will have improved battery life. But I think for many it defeats the idea of a smartphone.

Simple battery tips:
- Brightness. Many people, especially girls for some reason, likes the brightness on their phone to be maxed out. Obviously it's a huge battery killer. Simply enabling auto brightness would help significantly.
- Cellular radio/data. This is second major battery hog, although not as much as the screen. Obviously disabling background app refresh mitigates this, but some people rely on the functionalities of the apps having this capability.

My 6S has okay battery life. Not super great, but decent enough after some tweaks I did. Enough to last a day, but nothing more.
- Facebook app. Major battery killer. Despite having the latest version, it remains to be the number one battery hog as reported by iOS. I uninstalled it and battery life has improved a bit. I'm surprised Apple doesn't remove Facebook app and classify it as malware. There is no excuse for a company like Facebook to make a vampire app.
- Disabling Safari iCloud syncing. This is the second battery killer. After I uninstalled Facebook, Safari rose to the top of battery hog, which makes no sense. After many trial and error, finally disabling iCloud syncing put its behavior down.
 

vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
If you have background app refresh off, obviously you will have improved battery life. But I think for many it defeats the idea of a smartphone.

Simple battery tips:
- Brightness. Many people, especially girls for some reason, likes the brightness on their phone to be maxed out. Obviously it's a huge battery killer. Simply enabling auto brightness would help significantly.
- Cellular radio/data. This is second major battery hog, although not as much as the screen. Obviously disabling background app refresh mitigates this, but some people rely on the functionalities of the apps having this capability.

My 6S has okay battery life. Not super great, but decent enough after some tweaks I did. Enough to last a day, but nothing more.
- Facebook app. Major battery killer. Despite having the latest version, it remains to be the number one battery hog as reported by iOS. I uninstalled it and battery life has improved a bit. I'm surprised Apple doesn't remove Facebook app and classify it as malware. There is no excuse for a company like Facebook to make a vampire app.
- Disabling Safari iCloud syncing. This is the second battery killer. After I uninstalled Facebook, Safari rose to the top of battery hog, which makes no sense. After many trial and error, finally disabling iCloud syncing put its behavior down.

Uh, I haven't seen any benefit whatsoever with Background App Refresh on. Do you have to keep apps running on the multitasking tray for it to work? Because I just close everything immediately.

I can just refresh apps when I open them. Refreshing them in the background brings little benefit and affects battery. All you'll be saving is 0.5 seconds while you refresh data manually if you were to have it off.
 

pika2000

Suspended
Jun 22, 2007
5,587
4,903
Uh, I haven't seen any benefit whatsoever with Background App Refresh on. Do you have to keep apps running on the multitasking tray for it to work? Because I just close everything immediately.

I can just refresh apps when I open them. Refreshing them in the background brings little benefit and affects battery. All you'll be saving is 0.5 seconds while you refresh data manually if you were to have it off.
To each his own. I want my smartphone to be smart, to not having me do things manually, like refreshing things, etc. Sure, it may not be a big deal for you, but then again, I pay $$$ for a smart device so I expect it to do things for me. :D I don't also bother to close apps (unless it is surely crashing or problematic). It's an extra step. iOS is at version 9, and instead of me having to manually close apps, I expect Apple to make iOS better and better in task/app memory management.
 

vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
To each his own. I want my smartphone to be smart, to not having me do things manually, like refreshing things, etc. Sure, it may not be a big deal for you, but then again, I pay $$$ for a smart device so I expect it to do things for me. :D I don't also bother to close apps (unless it is surely crashing or problematic). It's an extra step. iOS is at version 9, and instead of me having to manually close apps, I expect Apple to make iOS better and better in task/app memory management.

Uh, iOS is already the best at managing RAM. How do you think the iPhone 4s with 512MB RAM is even running the latest software?
 

electronicsguy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2015
570
251
Pune, India
Do you have to keep apps running on the multitasking tray for it to work? Because I just close everything immediately.

This is an old and wrong concept. The ios apps that are shown in the list when you double click the home button is not a list of running apps. Its a most-recently-used apps list. The OS manages which apps run in the background, according to its rules.

See the official doc as well: Note the phrase "recently used apps": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202070

and so, by "closing the apps" you're not really doing anything apart from removing that app from the MRU list.
 

vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
This is an old and wrong concept. The ios apps that are shown in the list when you double click the home button is not a list of running apps. Its a most-recently-used apps list. The OS manages which apps run in the background, according to its rules.

See the official doc as well: Note the phrase "recently used apps": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202070

and so, by "closing the apps" you're not really doing anything apart from removing that app from the MRU list.

Er-hrm.

"If you quit an app from the app switcher, it might not be able to run or check for new content before you open it again."
 

electronicsguy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2015
570
251
Pune, India
Er-hrm.

"If you quit an app from the app switcher, it might not be able to run or check for new content before you open it again."

right. so you're not doing anything as far as reducing battery life is concerned, is what I meant to say. Just because it's in the list doesn't mean it's running in the first place. In fact, its the opposite: you may be reducing battery life, since the app you closed (and wasn't running) now has to reload its data from the internet (in case of connected apps), rather than using data from the flash storage).
 
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vertsix

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 12, 2015
1,870
6,141
Texas
right. so you're not doing anything as far as reducing battery life is concerned, is what I meant to say. Just because it's in the list doesn't mean it's running in the first place. In fact, its the opposite: you may be reducing battery life, since the app you closed (and wasn't running) now has to reload its data from the internet (in case of connected apps), rather than using data from the flash storage).

Hmm, I beg to differ. I am getting excellent battery life. But (I think) your claim makes some sense.
 

Radon87000

macrumors 604
Nov 29, 2013
7,777
6,255
My battery life is THIS bad on iPhone 6.A mere 6 hours of usage and I haven't even played a game long
3a1d05569d527dd6b825eada3355c5d0.jpg

e75a655d1f476cc7da548b279f0f57be.jpg
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
My battery life is THIS bad on iPhone 6.A mere 6 hours of usage and I haven't even played a game long
3a1d05569d527dd6b825eada3355c5d0.jpg

e75a655d1f476cc7da548b279f0f57be.jpg
6.5 hours of usage with 6% left is not great, but it's certainly not bad, let alone "THIS" bad for an iPhone 6. Factoring all kinds of things that would go into battery usage (like cellular signal and GPS usage that uses more battery than many other uses, for example) there's certainly a range of what would be reasonable.
 
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