Apple is not out of the woods yet, may need to release iOS 7.1.1

Mar 14, 2014 09:57 GMT  ·  By

It seems iOS 7.1 has more than one issue that need addressing in a future software update. Besides the shift key nightmare and the unreliable Touch ID on 5s handsets, it appears there’a also a problem with battery life on some handsets.

Jeremy Horwitz is just one of many customers affected by the battery drain plague. On Twitter, he writes “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.”

On Apple Support Communities, things aren’t any different. One person says, “I have updated my iPhone 5s to iOS 7.1, ever since I have been experiencing battery drain of about 1% every 10 mins. Is anyone else facing the same issue?”

Few of these people actually provide enough information about their configuration, or their activity when they noticed the drainage. For example, playing a graphics-intensive 3D game will drain at least 1% of your battery with every passing minute, regardless of your firmware version.

Another person writes, “I installed iOS 7.1 yesterday and now my battery on my iPhone 5S is dropping rappidly. I charged it last night and unplugged it before work. On the 30min commute it went from 100% down to 97% with no use from me. What gives?”

Again, these are not exactly staggering numbers. The user could well be telling the truth, but who knows how many apps he had in the multitasking tray, and how many of those were talking to cell towers, for instance.

Regardless, users on Twitter seem equally upset. Apparently, a lot of people are noticing a difference in their mileage following the installation of iOS 7.1. For some, battery life is actually improved on the new firmware.

“Yes! Looks like the iOS 7.1 update really fixed my battery issues. Make sure you all update to it before resorting to a full restore,” writes Justin (under the Twitter handle @OneRainyWish).

Some suggest that a clean-install of the firmware will rid the phone of any bugs, including battery drainage and failed fingerprint authentication. However, if these problems escalate with no immediate fixes available, Apple may be forced to cook up an incremental iOS 7.1.1 update.

One last battery drainage claim comes from the people at Ars Technica who actually found “a statistically significant drop in battery life” after installing iOS 7.1. For more information on this controversial update, visit the related links below.