iPhone, iPad battery draining faster on iOS 7.1? You're not alone
iPhone and iPad users running the latest software version, iOS 7.1, is considerably draining battery life, according to some users.
The iterative software update, released on Monday, boasts a number of new features, including accessibility tweaks and user interface design changes, along with a number of security fixes.
According to the latest research, iOS 7.1 is already on 21 percent of all iPhones and iPads — making it one of the fastest uptake of a new mobile operating system version in recent history.
But despite internal extensive testing and five iterative beta versions issued to Apple developers, the battery life on some devices appears to be dropping far more than it did on iOS 7.
Ars Technica tested the battery life across a number of devices, including the iPhone 5s, and iPad models, and discovered that battery life was in nearly all cases slightly lower in iOS 7.1 than the latest version of its predecessor, iOS 7.0.6, which landed in mid-February with an SSL connection bug fix.
But that doesn't account for some of the complaints by some Apple customers.
From Apple's own discussion forums, one user said, "overnight charge decreased from 100 percent to 30 percent." Meanwhile, others have seen similar drops in battery life. Another user said: "My battery drains to 50 percent within an hour or so after intense use on the lowest level of brightness, and I seem to lose about 5-7 percent when on standby for 5 hours or so."
Others said they had 24 hours of moderate to heavy use, but now get half that. Some saw even more dramatic drops in their battery life. One forum member said, "I just charged the battery to 60 percent an hour ago... but now is 36 percent."
And there are more and more reports from the Apple forums.
Twitter users have also been quite vocal on reported problems:
Bad news: after five months of testing, iOS 7.1 has an iPhone battery-killing bug. Good news: iOS 8 is only 6 short months away. Maybe 7.
— Jeremy Horwitz (@horwitz) March 14, 2014
Anyone else seeing an unusual amount of battery drain on iOS 7.1 b4?
— Daniel Waldron (@dwaldron) January 22, 2014
Maybe it is just me, but I am noticing some battery issues after updating to iOS 7.1
— Scott Reed (@sdreed91) March 14, 2014
iOS 7.1 is seemingly terrible on battery life.
— Owen Williams (@ow) March 14, 2014
Wow iOS 7.1 kills my battery.
— Selena Larson (@selenalarson) March 14, 2014
iOS 7.1 is draining out the battery like mad.!
— Meg (@cityslicker_me) March 14, 2014
This 7.1 update sucks. Drains the battery on my 5s, delayed sounds, and a wonky touch screen. Sorry if I favorite your random tweets.
— Eric Smith (@ericpatricksmit) March 13, 2014
All in all, while reports of battery drain do not appear to be isolated, there isn't a clear pattern yet emerging — if there is one — of which devices are affected and why. It's worth noting that not everyone is having issues, with some reporting that battery life has improved considerably