14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve had enough time to test iOS 8 and peruse it. Despite rolling out two incremental updates to fix bugs, Apple has yet to do something about the inconsistent battery meter. Which it may or may not know about.
There are no reports about this, but we’ve been able to confirm a power management problem after we made the jump to iOS 8. Here’s what we found.
From 5% to 20% in a split second
Between last week and this week, on three separate occasions I took an iPhone 5 test unit below the 10% mark. Well, to be honest, I forgot to charge it. But that’s beside the point. The phone was (and still is) on iOS 8.
When I plugged the device in, the battery meter instantly shot up to 22%. The first time this happened, I found it curious but didn’t think much of it. The second time it happened I really needed that phone charged fast, so I didn’t dig any deeper (again).
The third time was this morning. The battery gauge was at 6% when I plugged the phone in, and it jumped to 22% in a flash. I thought to myself: well, that’s familiar. Instead of leaving it plugged in, I immediately disconnected it.
Interestingly, the battery meter stayed at 22% even after I’d disconnected it from the Lightning cable. I decided to use it like that to see if I actually had 22% worth of juice to work with. As it turned out, I did. The phone worked for at least another hour, which included two phone calls, some WhatsApp chatter (don't show this to my boss), and some email.
I’d never be able to do that on a 6% charge with an iPhone test unit that has seen more action in its lifetime than Jean Claude Van-Damme. Plus, the screen brightness was at full blast.
Goes into red a little too fast
The only conclusion I could reach was that the one-figure readings were premature. The phone’s battery goes into the red well before the battery actually drains below 20%. This never happened under iOS 7, and it’s happened three times after the jump to iOS 8. It’s pretty obvious what the culprit is here. At least in my case.
But since the power is still there, we can only blame iOS 8 for not displaying the percentage properly. Something that can be easily fixed through a software update.
No battery drainage complaints
Unlike previous years, customers making the jump to the all-new iOS 8 this time around are not complaining about battery drainage. Normally, these reports trickle in even when there’s no new firmware on the horizon. People just whine about it on a regular basis.
Not with iOS 8. There are very few customer reports of iOS 8 sucking more power than normal, and no one can say for sure if those are just guesses or actual tests. Anyone else here experience something similar?