iOS 7.1 users reporting faster battery drain

Just a few days after the release of the much anticipated iOS 7.1 update, reports of devices discharging their batteries significantly faster than before have been coming in from users. Notably, Apple had since November last year issued a total of five iOS 7.1 betas for developers, before finally releasing the update on 10 March 2014.

While according to reports the iOS 7.1 update has indeed resolved most of the problems with iOS 7.0 (and brought Touch ID improvements, Siri improvements, UI tweaks, amongst other features), iOS 7.1 also seems to have bought along its own battery-gate bug.

Apple fan-site, 9to5mac.com reports that users discussing the new upgrade on Apple forums and on Twitter have been complaining about the battery drainage issue. It further goes on to state that running a clean install of the iOS through iTunes could help to solve this issue.

The iOS 7.1 update, even though not a major one, has been anticipated for months. It has introduced a small but significant change that works towards making iOS devices feel as though speeds have improved. Not so much on the iPhone 5 and later variants, but users of the iPhone 4 and 4S had reported devices becoming slow once they had upgraded them to iOS 7.0. Even that problem seems to have been mitigated by the iOS 7.1 update.

Coming to the battery drain issue, a detailed report by Ars Technica detailed the results of a battery life test on iOS devices running iOS version 7.0.6 and version 7.1. The comparisons showed that almost all the devices had a drop in battery percentages once they had been upgraded to iOS 7.1. The only device to outperform its predecessor was the iPod Touch (fifth generation), that clocked a battery life of 383 minutes on iOS 7.1 against 370 minutes on iOS 7.0.6. The iPad mini with Retina display clocked 632 minutes with iOS 7.1, equalling its figures for iOS 7.0.6.

The vast majority of users however have not reported any significant losses or gains as far as the battery life is concerned. The problem certainly doesn't seem as major as the battery-gate issue that plagued the iPhone 4S launch from 2011.

The iOS 8 is expected to be teased at Apple's WWDC event later this year, and launched soon after. Reports suggest that it will come with Preview and TextEdit apps and iCloud integration.