How To Improve Your iPhone 5S’ Battery Life
As you no doubt know, not long ago, Apple released not one but two new iPhone models: the high budget iPhone 5S and the colorful ‘not quite low budget’ iPhone 5C. However, not everything went well; after the initial disappointment of iPhone 5C sales, at the end of last month Apple confirmed the high end iPhone 5S comes with a manufacturing defect affecting ?a small number of the new [iPhone 5s] models […]?; the defect makes the iPhone 5S battery drain very fast.
Teresa Brewer, a spokeswoman for Apple gave had this to say to the New York Times: ?We recently discovered a manufacturing issue affecting a very limited number of iPhone 5S devices that could cause the battery to take longer to charge or result in reduced battery life […] We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone?. Brewer also said added “We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone“.
While Apple did not mention the exact number of iPhone 5S smartphones affected by this manufacturing defect, the statement it offered hints that it could be a few thousand iPhone 5S handsets. If you are an iPhone 5S owner, you should probably know that there is nothing wrong with your smartphone’s battery. The problem is due to a manufacturing defect, not due to a battery defect, as some consumers thought. Even so, we understand if you are worried, considering Apple has a history of defective batteries – some of you may remember that seven years ago, in 2006, Apple recalled a number of Mac laptops due to some issues with the batteries, namely some cells within the laptops’ batteries caused them to explode.
If you own an iPhone 5S and you think your smartphone’s battery is draining too fast, don’t worry, it doesn’t necessarily mean you own one of the iPhone 5S smartphones that come with the manufacturing defect. While Apple urges iPhone 5S owners with battery problems to bring the smartphone to an Apple Store for an evaluation, the problems may also be solved by following a few simple steps that we will list below. Since iOS 7 drains battery faster than any previous iteration of iOS, we will give you five tips on improving your iPhone 5S’ battery life.
Limiting Location Services
iOS 7 apps make use of GPS tech to pinpoint your location, however there are many apps that you don’t really need to share your location with. Considering the fact that GPS uses a lot of battery power and can drain your iPhone 5S’ battery quickly, we advise you to turn off all Location Services in iOS 7. To do this, all you have to do is go to the Settings app, then go to the Privacy section and turn off Location Services from there. There are certain apps, such as Find My iPhone or Google Maps that you will want to always use your location data, so be selective about what apps and services you choose to toggle off.
Change The Brightness Settings
This is the iOS feature that has the biggest impact on your smartphone’s battery life, more than any other setting or preference. You should know that Brightness settings are not set by default on the high end iPhone 5S. We recommend keeping your iPhone 5S’s display dim most of the time (around 75% brightness is the best setting) but you can also change the screen’s brightness automatically. To do this, go to the Settings app, from there choose the ?Wallpapers & Brightness? section and in there turn on ?Auto Brightness?.
Airplane Mode
The way your iPhone 5S is designed, it constantly looks for an Internet signal to stay connected permanently; however, if you are in an area with poor signal or if you are not using the Internet it is best to turn off WiFi and cellular usage. To temporarily do turn off WiFi and cellular usage, all you need to do is enable Airplane Mode on your iPhone 5S. To enable Airplane Mode, go to the Settings app and you will find it there; you can also turn Airplane Mode on or off with the new Control Center in iOS 7; to activate the new Control Center, simply swipe from the bottom of the screen.
Close Your Apps
There are many apps running on your iPhone 5S and most users are not aware of this. Most apps remain in memory even after you click on them to close them.? Fortunately, the seventh iteration of iOS makes it very easy to see what apps are running so you can close them. First, you need to tap twice on your iPhone 5S’ Home button; then the new multitasking feature will show you full page previews of all the running apps. To see all the apps currently running, just scroll horizontally and to close any running app just flick towards the top of the screen. The best advice we can give you is to remove any (non essential) apps that are power hungry and use cellular or location data, as these are the apps that will drain your iPhone 5S’ battery the most.
Turn Off Auto Downloading And App Refreshing
The seventh iteration of iOS comes with a new feature: Auto Downloading. As its name implies, the feature allow apps and downloads to happen without user consent; the feature is great as your apps automatically receive updates, but it also drains battery. To turn Auto Downloading off, go to the Settings app, then choose the ?iTunes & App Store? section and from there go to the ?Automatic Downloads? setting and turn Auto Downloading off. The same with app refreshing – it’s nice to have an app update in the background but on iOS 7 it drains battery quickly. To turn app refreshing off, go to the Settings app, then choose the General section and there turn off all Background App Refresh services; you can also select which apps you want to receive auto updates.
Apple reported that it sold 9 million iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C units in the first weekend of availability after the release on September 20th. In the company’s fourth quarter earnings report that was announced at the end of October, Apple said that the iPhone 5S was the major contributor to the 33.8 million total iPhone units sold in the fourth quarter; this is a record for the September quarter. After the initial release on September 20th, Apple released both the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S in 51 other countries. As Apple says, all new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C customers ?will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more […]? so that customers get the chance to get their brand new iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C up and running as they make the purchase. Both Apple and its authorized resellers and retailers will also provide customers with information on the seventh iteration of iOS, which comes installed in all iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C smartphones.
About The iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S is Apple?s current flagship. It comes with the same 4 inch Retina display as the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5 and it has chamfered diamond cut edges. The iPhone 5S features vastly improved specs over the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5S is powered by the new 64 bit A7 System on Chip, that offers up to 40 times CPU performance increase and up to 56 times GPU performance increase. The A7 SoC also comes with support for OpenGL ES version 3.0 that allows developers to make games with very detailed graphics.
Besides the first ever 64 bit System on Chip, the iPhone 5S also includes the M7 motion co processor; the M7 chip is a dedicated CPU that processes motion data from the accelerometer and gyroscopes, leaving the main CPU to handle other tasks. The M7 motion co processor will be very important for Apple?s upcoming smart watch, the iWatch. Until then, the M7 motion co processor (that includes an accelerometer, gyroscope and compass) will be used by the next generation of health and fitness apps to measure motion data.
The iPhone 5S also benefits from an improved battery life thanks to a bigger, 1570 mAh battery. It also features an better camera sensor that offers many new features such as dual flashes, a larger aperture (f/2.2) and larger sized pixels that drastically improves image and video quality. The dual LED flash is very important for those times when taking a picture in low light conditions and the larger aperture will help control how much light each picture gets. The new camera sensor also allows you to record slow motion videos, in case you want to make your videos more dramatic.
The iPhone 5S also includes a fingerprint sensor called Touch ID that allows you to authenticate just by pressing the Home button and make iTunes purchases. The fingerprint sensor is only 170 microns thin and it can detect 550 pixels per inch while scanning sub epidermal skin layers. Touch ID feature 360 degree readability so you won?t have to worry about holding your thumb in a certain orientation in order for it to be scanned correctly by the fingerprint sensor. The sensor also includes a tactile switch, a stainless steel detection ring and also a laser cut sapphire crystal, that protects the sensor from scratches. The Touch ID system can also store multiple fingerprints, allowing you to share access to your iPhone 5S to a few family members or friends.
Did you get an iPhone 5S? and if you did what do you think of it? Are you worried about the battery life problems? If you are still experiencing battery life issues after following the five tips we offered in this article, then you should probably contact Apple. As always, we appreciate your comments so leave us your thoughts in the dedicated section below.
