Our lab-coated colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports are still testing various features of the iPhone 4S, so we don’t have their verdict on its battery life yet. But many customers online, including reader Bill, are already complaining that the battery drains much too quickly, and never fully charges to 100%.

Bill explains:

Messages are flying fast and furious on Apple and iPhone forums about the new iPhone 4S: The iPhone 4S’ battery life is poor. But many people have an additional problem with their new, expensive iPhone 4S, me included: The battery doesn’t charge fully. Even after being powered overnight, my iPhone 4S displays 93% or 94%, which is troubling. I can understand poor battery life, especially if you’re using lots of features, such as iCloud, the camera, wifi, Bluetooth or playing music. But not charging fully? That’s unexpected and either indicates a hardware problem (sigh, a recall), or a software glitch (which hopefully can be fixed with an operating system update.) It appears that the iPhone 4S’ battery actually reaches 100%, then starts to discharge.

Here are what a couple of other people said about this not-fully-charging-problem: “I charge my new iPhone 4s over night through the wall charger. It only hits 92%, and won’t charge fully. Anyone else having this issue?“, and “I woke up this morning and I was at 100%. My phone is still on charger and I have been watching it slowly go down, now i’m at 94%?”

I’ve attached a photo of my iPhone 4S, showing the battery level after being in the charger for over 10 hours.

iPhone 4s Battery Life? [Apple Support]

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