Good news, Apple fans! It looks like Apple’s recent iOS 7.1.1 update has plenty more to offer than just a few bug fixes and Touch ID accuracy improvements. According to some reports, Apple’s latest mobile software update also has a huge positive impact on iPhone battery life.
Apple released iOS 7.1.1 for compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models this past Tuesday, and the change log was pretty lackluster:
– Further improvements to Touch ID fingerprint recognition
– Fixes a bug that could impact keyboard responsiveness
– Fixes an issue when using Bluetooth keyboards with VoiceOver enabled
As it turns out, however Apple may have also snuck in some sizable software optimizations, because ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says that the update has had a dramatic impact on his iPhone 5’s battery life.
The writer has been keeping track of battery performance on his iPhone since iOS 6. While his data is obviously unscientific since usage patterns change all the time, observed battery life can still be quite telling.
While running iOS 6, Kingsley-Hughes said six hours of usage would take his iPhone 5’s battery from 100% down to 74%. Apple’s iOS 7 update had a minor negative impact on battery performance at first, but things were back to normal after a short amount of time.
The iOS 7.1 update really hurt the battery performance on Kingsley-Hughes’s iPhone. He says six hours of usage on iOS 7.1 would take his charge from 100% to as little as 48%.
With Apple’s new iOS 7.1.1 update, however, the writer says that his iPhone’s battery now has about 76% of its charge remaining after six hours of average use on a fully charged iPhone 5. That’s even better than his battery performance was on iOS 6.
Of note, BGR has also noticed some battery performance improvements on an iPhone 5s running iOS 7.1.1, though they haven’t been quite as dramatic as the improvement observed by Kingsley-Hughes.
Want to improve your battery life even more? Here are 15 tips for squeezing as much battery life as possible out of your iPhone.
