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Apple's iOS 7.1.1 tweaks shown to extend iPhone battery life

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system seems to have brought with it enhancements designed to ease strain on the iPhone's battery, as some users are reporting noticeable increases in uptime with iOS 7.1.1.

iOS 7.1 brought a significant dip in battery life, according to journalist Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, who has been tracking power consumption on his iPhone 5 since the handset's release. That trend has been reversed with iOS 7.1.1, he noted for ZDNet, with battery life returning to levels seen in iOS 6.

Specifically, Kingsley-Hughes's battery meter now comes in approximately 16 percentage points higher after a six-hour test. Where his iPhone dropped to about 61 percent under iOS 7.1, the same workload nets around 76 percent with iOS 7.1.1.

Kingsley-Hughes says his data is averaged over "many six-hour runs." He measures drops only from a full charge in order to eliminate the possibility of a non-linear discharge curve.

Apple has been seen exploring numerous ways to improve the battery life of its devices in the past, including changes to the hardware itself that would lower power consumption. One notable invention, first discovered by AppleInsider, would monitor the device's charge and discharge cycles and use that information to alter various parameters — such as screen brightness or the CPU clock speed — to conserve power based on what it predicts the user will need.