Search This Blog

3/08/2012

Test suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem

According to research carried out for me by an iPhone app developer, the Toshiba pa3285u-1brs Battery issue that some iPhone 4 and 4S owners are experiencing is not, as some have suggested, related to the hardware.
The developer, who at this point wishes to remain anonymous, approached me late last week to discuss the issues he was experiencing with one of his two iPhone 4S handset. The problem he was seeing was pretty much along the lines of what others are reporting - rapid drop in Fujifilm Finepix z1 Battery when the handset is doing little or nothing.
Nothing new there, but what I thought was interesting was that he had two handsets, one that was displaying the battery problem that some people are screaming about, and another that wasn’t. He admitted that the two handsets were very different in their configuration and had different apps installed. One was a test bed for apps he develops, the other was his day-to-day use handset. It was his day-to-day handset that was displaying the ACER Aspire 9300 battery problems.
Both handsets were bought at the same time (direct from Apple for delivery on launch day), both are connected to the same network (AT&T) and both handsets are now running iOS 5.0.1. This to me was strong evidence to suggest that the problem affecting iPhone handsets was not a hardware issue. However, so that we could totally rule out this being a hardware problem the developer took things a step further. He factory reset both handsets and then recovered them from a backup. However, rather than reloading them with their original backup, he swapped them over. He reloading his day-to-day handset with the backup from his development handset, and loaded the development handset with the backup from his regular day-to-day handset.
Would the Canon Digital Ixus 330 Battery problem stay with a specific handset or swap over with the software?
The problem jumped handsets. Now the handset that was his development test bed (but loaded with the apps and settings from his day-to-day handset) is displaying the battery drain problem. The other handset (the one that was displaying the problem), is showing excellent Canon Nb-4l Battery life.
Note: This is a sample of one so bear that in mind. Ideally I’d like to try this with multiple handsets, but I don’t have access to armloads of iPhones.
The problem, it seems, is down to software. What exactly (whether it’s an app or set of apps, or a setting somewhere), we’re still not sure. However, I am now convinced that this problem ISN’T a hardware issue and will eventually be fixed by a software update.
Sidenote: As an aside, I think that iOS 5.0.1 has introduced the Toshiba Satellite Pro 2100-405eg Battery bug to my iPhone 4. Typically the handset would drop about 3 - 4% battery capacity overnight (around 7 hours). Since installing iOS 5.0.1 I’ve noticed a much bigger drop of around 15 - 20% with no change in how I’m using the handset. I’ll keep a closer eye on this over the next few days and see if the pattern holds true.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
bradmiller@... 14th Nov
Shortly after installing iOS 5 on my 3GS I discovered the issue to be with the wireless synch. I have very good battery life untill I enabled the wirelles synch feature in Itunes and synched my phone. After that the drain on the Sony VGN-B3VP Battery life became terrible. I reconnected my phone to the laptop and dissabled wireless synch and the problem resolved and now I have my origianl battery life or slightly longer than what I was getting before iOS 5. Seems the phone is contstanatly looking for my laptop to synch to even when not plugged in when the wireless synch is enabled. Others should try this and see what the results are. I have not found a way of disabiling this feature from the phone settings but inly ny unchecking this feature in Itunes.
Actually, only certain ZDNet bloggers troll about it being hardware problem
dderss 14th Nov
@bradmiller@... ... even though it was known right from the start that this is software issue given the fact iOS 5 influenced this way on some of iPhone 4 and iPhone 3Gs devices. Also, Apple itself said that this is software issue.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
SackScratcherton 14th Nov
@Johnpford This is why I thought multitasking was a bad idea. Just because Android does it doesn't mean Apple should have followed suit. Not every crammed-in feature from Android is a good one.

In an environment where anyone with a computer can cobble together an Android or iOS app, it seems unwise to open up resource utilization while the app is no longer running to the masses.

I'd love to see a services API to run apps in the background, one that constrains their resource utilization.
I am with you - no multitasking for iPhone or Winphone 7(.5)/8
Solid Water 14th Nov
@SackScratcherton

I talked to my son today who has iP 4S. He says he tried to disable everything that he found on the Internet being said should help to no avail. His iP 4S dropped 10% of the charge in 10 minutes when he was playing solitaire... sad

He was also saying that after he uses applications they do not quit, so he has to kill them manually. Imagine that! sad sad

From what I see the same is true about Winphone - until they do not do real multitasking like Android does they are good enough. As soon as they start multitasking they will be like any other smartphone on the market.

This leads me to a thought - do not do multitasking if do not know how to do it right.

Note:
I still have Sony Clie NX-60 PDA with 800x600 screen that I bought quite a while back (to read books). It is AMAZINGLY fast for the device with a 200 MHz CPU. That is where my train of thoughts about multitasking came from.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
Champ_Kind 14th Nov
@Johnpford I found that the issue, at least for me, is Location Services. I can have all apps closed, the phone totally cold restarted (hold home and sleep until the Apple logo appears then goes away), but until I restart Location Services, it keeps draining the Acer Aspire 5742 Battery.

@bradmiller@, my WiFi sync doesn't kill the Canon Nb-8l Battery  at all, even when performing a full backup. Having WiFi N available makes it faster than USB syncing ever was.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
Rama.NET 14th Nov
@comp_indiana
Why should I turn it off? I have a smartphone and as a user I expect it to work properly as mentioned. I don't care about platform, whether it is powered by iOS, Android or Windows, it should work as mentioned when it was sold. And as a consumer I expect premium quality because I paid top $ because I was told device wasmade with premium parts and quality of itself as its manfacturer was touting.
Reality
use_what_works_4_U 14th Nov
@Rama.net
In an ideal world I agree with you 100%. in the real world of software development it's not so simple. It is possible that the culprit is a combination of apps/features that, on their own, are harmless but put together cause a huge problem. Ideally the vendor should catch it, in reality it is impossible to test every possible configuration of software on any given device. That's how the real world is for Apple, Microsoft, Google, HTC (I speak from experience with my HTC phone) and pretty much everyone else out there. If you want a really rock-solid product, wait for the X.1 (not X.0.1) release.
I had similar results, but didn't quantify them as nicely.
flightning 14th Nov
I bought a 16GB 4S on Verizon, restored my data from my previous 3GS, the Olympus Sp-310 Battery lasted 6 hours and the phone was always hot. I went online and tried all the tweaks that were suggested and was able to bring Acer Travelmate 505 Battery life back to normal, even better than my 3GS. After two days I realized I needed more storage so I bought a 32 GB 4S and transferred the 16GB 4S to my wife. Both phones were reset, I restored my 4S backup onto the new 32GB phone. Both of us have had zero battery life issues, she actually goes 3+ days on a single charge and has no over heating issues on the same phone I couldn't keep alive 6 hours. This was done weeks before the iOS 5.0.1 update was made available.
We can stress these devices...
wellcraft19 14th Nov
@flightning
True, but we can also these days so easily load "too much" SW on these devices and we tend to treat them as small portable computers - which they are not. A phone is still hampered by the amount of "energy" one can expect to store inside the "physical volume". That energy just do not last for certain processor/power hungry apps. Just like we can load a Nissan Micra with bags of concrete, it would just not run very well, or far.
There are more apps out there than there are educated users. I think most Smartphones, by it based on iOS, Android, WP, or webOS, do an amazing job. Competition will push the envelope even further, but in essence, we the users are the beta testers or real test bed - since the combinations of SW/HW are essentially endless.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
swiftsmile12 14th Nov
When both the phones are reset, why restore it from a back up ? Just leave them as they are brand new phones and see if there is Canon Legria Hf m306 Battery issue on either of the phones (say both phones lose 50% in 6 hours). I would fully charge the phones and then start loading some apps (say 5 apps) on one phone and see the battery after 6 hours. Then fully charge the phone again and load 5 new apps.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
Christian D. H. 14th Nov
That sounds like a very independent and objective source of information... I'm holding out on buying the phone until this is fixed, if it ever gets fixed. One would reckon that development of iOS is done in emulators where memory use is measured, which makes it smell like a hardware problem they didn't anticipated like the last launch of iPhone 4. Moreover if it was for sure a software issue Apple would be stupid not to go live with this information.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
augustus_rome 14th Nov
@augustus_rome
comp_indiana
boycott will be shown in the next release all customers are not fools or blind fanbois. there are alternative products. apple was portrayed as a perfect product company. that halo was punctured when the antenagate happened. now with HP Compaq Business Notebook 6715b Battery gate that reputation is pretty much shredded. let us see how the competition take advantage of this window of opportunity.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
non-biased 21st Nov
@augustus_rome Your right, not all customers are fools that would believe anything you post. As soon as you have to resort to antennagate (try spelling it right) and CASIO Exilim Zoom EX-Z70 Charger batterygate to prop up your pathetic little rant you lost all but the fools. But by all means please do boycott Apple products, it will leave one more on the shelf so that one less person has to wait on production to catch up with demand.
RE: Tests suggests iPhone battery issue not a hardware problem
Narg Updated - 14th Nov
@Userama Agreed, but at least on Google you can install a 3rd party app to take tighter control over apps that multitask. Apple should take this step too and allow th user control over what apps to allow to multitask and which ones not to. Or at least allow the devs the ability to set if their app stays running or not. I'd much rather have seen iOS not allow any app to stay resident unless the developer programmed it specifically to do so. There are so many apps still that don't behave well while "suspended" on iOS. But in the users control, there's a LOT of apps that I'd prefer not continue to stay operational in the background suspended or not. When I want an app to stop, I would prefer not to have to take the multiple step process to manually kill it each and every time. This kind of falls into the thought of: Aren't computers supposed to work for us? Why do I need to take so many extra steps to ensure a clean operation environment on my iPhone? iOS itself should provide the ability to ensure operation like we want it to. (I know, asking too much )

No comments:

Post a Comment