iPhone, iPad battery draining faster on iOS 7.1? You're not alone

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iPhone and iPad users running the latest software version, iOS 7.1, is considerably draining battery life, according to some users.

The iterative software update, released on Monday, boasts a number of new features, including accessibility tweaks and user interface design changes, along with a number of security fixes.

According to the latest research, iOS 7.1 is already on 21 percent of all iPhones and iPads — making it one of the fastest uptake of a new mobile operating system version in recent history.

But despite internal extensive testing and five iterative beta versions issued to Apple developers, the battery life on some devices appears to be dropping far more than it did on iOS 7.

Ars Technica tested the battery life across a number of devices, including the iPhone 5s, and iPad models, and discovered that battery life was in nearly all cases slightly lower in iOS 7.1 than the latest version of its predecessor, iOS 7.0.6, which landed in mid-February with an SSL connection bug fix.

But that doesn't account for some of the complaints by some Apple customers.

From Apple's own discussion forums, one user said, "overnight charge decreased from 100 percent to 30 percent." Meanwhile, others have seen similar drops in battery life. Another usersaid: "My battery drains to 50 percent within an hour or so after intense use on the lowest level of brightness, and I seem to lose about 5-7 percent when on standby for 5 hours or so."

Others said they had 24 hours of moderate to heavy use, but now get half that. Some saw even more dramatic drops in their battery life. One forum member said, "I just charged the battery to 60 percent an hour ago... but now is 36 percent."