Despite the iPhone 4S’s dual-core A5 chip that provides up to twice the performance than on the iPhone 4, Apple is adamant that the 4S should provide 8 hours of 3G talk-time. This is one hour more than the previous model, although the 4S provides 200 hours of standby battery life versus the iPhone 4’s 300 hours. Despite these claims, the newspaper reports that Apple engineers have begun contacting some iPhone 4S owners to help solve the riddle of the disappearing battery-life.

On Apple’s support message boards, iPhone 4S users have been conveying the extent of the problem and suggesting ways to remedy the issue. A number of them claimed an increase in battery life once “Calendars” has been removed from the “Notification Center”, while the Guardian reports that a problem with the “Setting Time Zone” setting in the iOS 5 software on the iPhone 4S might be responsible for the conundrum.

“Setting Time Zone” allows the iPhone to automatically update time and date when the user crosses to a different time zone. On the iPhone 4S, a bug in this setting permits it to run constantly, making use of the location tracking circuitry, which in turns drains battery life. Turning “setting Time Zone” off can result in an extension of battery life.  

So far, Apple has not released an official response, but as it stands now the problem appears to be software rather than hardware related, providing hope for a solution via a software update through iTunes.

In related news, Samsung has recently surpassed Apple in terms of worldwide smartphone sales.