Every year when the new operating system goes onto the phone it churns away as it categorizes photos using image recognition tech, brings in email, sets up search indexes, slices dices and so on. Leave it plugged in for longer than normal for the first week.
I think it's also that new OS releases aren't optimized for battery life. They focus on cleaning up significant bugs and don't always get to optimizations until version x.01 and x.02.
In my case the excess battery usage has been all Apple Maps, according to the battery usage report.
Why are people so slow to realize what is happening? Or are they afraid to say it how it is?
Apple has been screwing older gen phones from the beginning, especially when a new model is about to be released. Majority of people will think after their "forced update", well my phone is so slow and my battery is really bad, maybe it's time to upgrade to the new iPhone 8. Anyone who thinks otherwise is very naive or part of their corruption.
You are accusing an international corporation of maliciously software crippling millions of devices worth billions of dollars. With that in mind, this is easily testable and has been researched and debunked in the past. If apple was caught doing this there would a multi-billion dollar class-action suit.
What’s more likely is each new phone is significantly faster and more efficient than previous iterations. Thus, new software designed for “current” devices will run dramatically slower on a device even two years old. Fun fact, the most intense gain being made in processor tech is by apple and their SoC tech. Each new A series chip blows away competition to the continued amazement of most.
While I don't have hard data to counteract what you say, my personal experience is that every .0 release is indeed quite rough on the battery, and within a few weeks a .1 or .2 release largely remedies that. This effect is usually visible on both older models and the newest ones (even though, for those, you don't really have a way to compare the behaviour with the previous iOS version).
I've experienced this almost every year.
So - don't attribute to malice what can be explained by a rushed release.
The flip side of that is that Apple continues to provide software updates to super-old hardware. How many Android phones get updates for 4 years?
However, I agree that if you do install that final OS update, it tends to make performance terrible. I regretted installing iOS 10 on my iPhone 5; and the unfortunate thing was that there was no way to downgrade.
My SE battery is definitely not lasting as long with iOS11. Same old story really, new iOS = worse battery life. I feel for iPhone 8 purchasers as the battery in those is smaller than in the iPhone 7.
It doesn't help that Apple is making bad 'design' choices such as the one that control center doesn't really turn off bluetooth (https://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-really-turn-off-blueto...). People can't understand every little thing draining the battery when this sort of thing is put in by design.
My personal experience: I never turned off Bluetooth or WiFi or 4G. With iOS 10, before going to sleep I'd put my iPhone 7 in Energy Saving mode and it's battery would go from 100% to 99-98%, now with iOS 11 it's going from 100% to ~90%. So I'm guessing the battery draining is coming from other places.
I know each release comes out with new features and improvements that probably cause further battery drain. But has anyone looked into the specifics of why this happens year over year?
Couldn't they spend time optimizing battery life? Is there no incentive to?
Especially with screens becoming relatively larger and batteries remaining the same, I think battery life is a valid selling point for many consumers. I'm sure Apple does a ton of market research in this area, so maybe I'm wrong.
Right, this is true for software in general. You don't optimize for out-of-date hardware and an older battery is not going to fare well with a new iOS update doing different things with your files and make the adjustments it needs to in the first few days or weeks.
Same here. I thought I was the only one.
Weirdly Netflix and Youtube showing up as “Background activity” when they both have background app refresh turned off.
I am having this issue on my 6S since the update to iOS 11. Have to charge the phone two times per day instead of one before updating. A friend of mine also has the same problem with his 6S.
Same, for my 6S+, watch 0, and iPad Air 2. All of them!
The watch is especially problematic as I am using it to track various activities and it is harder to charge (who has a watch charger in their car?) and can’t be used while charging.
With Apples history of releasing beta-grade software and defective hardware I'm always left scratching my head as the lemmings queue up to be ripped off one more time. Add to that the elimination of user-fixable components and I'm amazed they even survive as a company. The closest analogy is Reagan's teflon presidency. It seems they can do no wrong.
