iPhone 4s battery life problems: unhappy customers

In the last week many people have raised concerns with problems regarding the new iPhone 4s battery life. It appears this has been shortlisted to a bug in the Apple location services system in the latest iOS 5 operating system. This has been the cause of short battery life for some users who bought the latest Apple smartphone.

The bug seems to be based around the ‘Setting Time Zone' feature within the operating system. This is a part of the systems services within the location services. It is activated even when the person hasn't moved different locations or time zones. A purple arrow beside the setting is highlighting the fact that it is running often, accessing the phones location even when not asked by the user.

Locations services are well known to be a drain on a smartphone battery. It uses a wifi network name and mobile mast data, with GPS sensor input to work out a phones location. The mobile mast data is particularly intensive as it uses the signal from three close masts then triangulates the position from the three signals. The problem with the new software seems to be that it is accessing this on a regular basis, rather than once.

iDownloadBlog have a piece published on the subject, and author Oliver Haslam says “”it appears that iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably.

Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that's a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge… We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching ‘Setting Time Zone' off.”

Location Services is a very important aspect of the new smartphone, and Apple have focused on the features within the latest iOS.

Apple users are less than happy with the situation right now, and there are debates on the official forums.

Leslie101 says “I received my iphone 4s yesterday, charged it overnight and had a 30% battery drain after checking email for 10 minutes this morning. I upgraded from an iphone 3g and that 3-year-old phone holds a better charge than the 4s. Very disturbing. I hope Apple comes up with a fix fast.”

Kitguru says: Have you had a problem with your own iPhone 4s? Let us know.

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