Apple Must Improve iPhone 7 Battery Life

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As Apple continues to develop the iPhone 7, it would do well to pay heed to a recent poll which suggests a stronger battery is of paramount importance.

The Apple-following publication 9to5Mac recently polled its readers on whether or not they were satisfied with the battery life provided by the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. 3,100 readers responded, but over 90 percent indicated that they wanted Apple to improve the battery life in the next generation of the flagship Apple smartphone. Only 7 percent of respondents to the survey indicated that the “iPhone battery life and battery cases are good enough as-is.”

Apple Must Improve iPhone 7 Battery Life

iPhone battery life notorious

This won’t come as a huge surprise the people that follow the iPhone series closely. Apple’s devices have been criticized for some time for failing to deliver appropriate battery life. Charging the iPhone becomes a daily occupation once you’ve purchased the smartphone, and this is becoming a serious issue for Apple.

It is particularly worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy series, with which Apple most notably completes, has been commended for the quality of its battery life. Samsung is expected to upgrade this still further with the release of the imminent Samsung Galaxy S6, so Apple will certainly have something to respond to when the Apple iPhone 7 hits the stores.

While the results of the 9to5Mac survey may in this sense be prosaic, the splits contained within the survey are anything but. This survey certainly suggests that Apple should stop prioritising thinness and other elements of the iPhone series over improved battery performance. Over 60 percent of respondents to the survey suggested that Apple should make a thicker iPhone next time out if this will improve its battery life.

This above statistic is particularly noteworthy, as there were several other options included within the poll. The slimness of Apple devices certainly ensure that they are extremely sexy, and have undoubtedly contributed to the success of the iPhone in general. But it seems now that Apple users are willing to sacrifice some of the appearance of the device for more functionality.

By contrast, 31 percent suggested that Apple should achieve the battery improvements by offering a superior chipset within the iPhone series, and an incredibly fractional number of respondents, less than 2 percent, suggested that Apple should focus on improving battery cases instead of improving battery life.

iPhone 7 consensus

Thus, there seems to be an overwhelming consensus that Apple should improve the battery life of the iPhone series. Whether or not this will turn out to be realistic for the iPhone 7 remains to be seen, but Apple should certainly pay attention to this opinion.

Unquestionably, the Cupertino-based corporation is in an incredibly strong position at the moment. The healthy stock price of Apple reflects the fact that it has recently posted the largest single-quarter profit in recorded business history, and also become the first corporation to break through the $700 billion value in market capitalization.

But even the market leader cannot take its position entirely for granted, especially considering there has been a critical media response for some time which suggests that Apple should improve the battery life of the iPhone. It is now clear that this is seeping through even to fans of the iPhone series.

Apple Must Improve iPhone 7 Battery Life

Apple’s survey response

Apple has the opportunity to respond to this in three clear ways. The first of these is quite obvious; simply increase the size of the battery in the iPhone 7. This is entirely logical, and almost certainly something that will occur. After all, Apple increased the battery size in the iPhone 6 over the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, and it is almost a certainty that the iPhone 7 will feature a battery which is bigger still.

But previous increases in battery size haven’t delivered the extended battery life which consumers crave. So the second possibility for Apple is to make adjustments to the iOS operating system which enables power saving functionality to be improved. Apple will be working on the next version of iOS right now, and usually releases a new version of its proprietary operating system with each new iPhone model.

It is considered that Samsung has achieved such excellent battery life in the Galaxy series via innovative programming in the Android operating system. A prominent selling point of the iPhone series for quite some time has been the fact that Apple provides proprietary software and hardware which collectively delivers outstanding performance. It is certainly about time that this also applied to battery life.

iPhone 7 wireless charging

Finally, Apple can look to improve the battery situation of its iPhone series in an indirect fashion. And this seems increasingly likely considering rumours about likely features included in the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone.

While wireless charging wouldn’t actually improve the better life of the iPhone 7, it would ensure that consumers can recharge the device in more convenient fashion. Considering that this is pretty much a daily occurrence at present, it would be hugely welcomed for the iPhone 7 to embrace this technology. Wireless charging would make it far easier for every day iPhone 7 users to charge their devices, and when combined with improved battery life would make a huge difference to the slickness of the iPhone 7 package.

iPhone 7 – added RAM

Aside from these options, it has already been suggested that Apple will double the amount of RAM included in the iPhone 7. This would mean that the 1 GB included in the iPhone 6 would increase to 2 GB. It is conceivable that extra accessible memory within the smartphone could be used to ensure that less strain is placed on the processing unit within the device, and this could have a knock-on effect of producing a more battery-friendly device.

With the iPhone 7 expected to be released late in Q3 or early in Q4 2015, it is still far too early for any of these innovations to be confirmed. But the message for Apple is clear; iPhone users are not satisfied with the existing battery life of the series, and Apple should make improving the situation a priority for the iPhone 7.

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