iPhone Battery Suckage Persists For Some

Thursday afternoon, Apple released iOS 5.0.1 — an update to its mobile OS intended to resolve an issue that was shortening the battery life of iPhones and other devices that use the software. For some, it did just that. But for an increasingly vocal group of others, it did not. A quick check of Apple’s support forums show an increasing number of complaints claiming the issue is persisting or even worsening for some.

“Upgraded to 5.0.1 this morning,” reads one complaint. “Still draining at the exact same rate. Unplugged with a full charge 2 1/2 hours ago, and already down to 80 percent with light usage. Just lost 2 percent during a 15 minute shower. I see no difference at all.”

“I was a full charge at 5pm,” reads another. “After a few phone calls I went to bed around 2 a.m. with a 48 percent charge. Woke up at 8 a.m. with a full drain. It was in standby mode. That’s crazy!”

Another: “After installing 5.01 i charged it up fully before going to bed and after 7 hrs just sitting there lost 79 percent, and have lost further 5 percent while logging in and typing this. Going to try a full back up and restore this eve…”

And another: “Early yesterday afternoon, I downloaded the iOS 5.0.1 update on my iPhone 4s. After installing, I watched my battery drain 10 percent in 40 minutes while doing nothing on the phone. This update does absolutely nothing for battery life.”

Certainly for that user and others whose complaints I cited above. But for others, iOS 5.0.1 seems to have done the trick. “It really seems to have fixed the problem,” one ATD reader told me. “Battery life looking much better now,” said another.

So there appears to be a broad range of experience here, and lots of inconsistencies. Anecdotally, here at ATD we’re running the gamut. For some of our iPhone 4S users, batteries post-5.0.1 are draining as quickly as they were prior to it. For others, battery life has improved. And for a few of us who never experienced the issue and have had good battery life all along, there’s been no change whatsoever.

We’ve reached out to Apple for an explanation and will update here if one is offered.

UPDATE: Apple just issued the following statement to AllThingsD.

“The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”