iPhone 5S Manufacturing Defect Is Draining The Battery Of Some Handsets

Apple has confirmed that a manufacturing defect is causing a small number of iPhone 5S units to suffer from reduced battery life and having difficulty charging.

The Cupertino-based company said the defect is not the same as a defective battery, as reported by some users, and implied the number of devices affected is in the thousands.

It is reaching out to anyone with a defective handset to offer them a replacement.

iPhone 5S battery

The iPhone 5S, which should have a better battery life than its predecessors, was launched by Apple in September and is the company’s new flagship smartphone. It was unveiled alongside the cheaper iPhone 5S and boasts an improved camera, a 64-bit A7 processor and Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Apple boasted it had sold nine million iPhone 5S and 5C units during the first weekend the devices were on sale, but users have reported a number of problems.

Some have suffered from the so-called ‘blue screen of death’ when using iDrop, while days after its release, one user discovered how to bypass the phone’s lock screen.  A community-backed bounty to reward the first person to crack the Touch ID was also established. Later, it emerged that users of all iPhones could be in danger due to a simple flaw affecting a plethora of iOS applications, that allows attackers to send users to malicious websites.

None of these problems have affected the iPhone’s popularity though, as Apple was able to sell 33.8 million of them during the fourth quarter of 2013, a new record for the company.

Were you paying attention to the launch? Try our iPhone 5C and 5S quiz!