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iPad mini Insane Battery Life?

jclardy

jclardy

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 6, 2008
4,159
4,365
So I "downgraded" from iPad 3 but have been loving the mini. One thing I noticed on my 3 was that the 10 hours of battery life was typically best case scenario, I would only get it with brightness way down and only using non intensive apps.

My mini right now though is at 9 hours 7 minutes usage and 1 day of standby. And it still has 41% battery left! I intentionally didn't plug it in since the night before last to see how long it would actually last.

My usage pattern has been fairly regular, a lot of web browsing, reading and a few games, twitter/Facebook, some video playback. Never above 50% brightness on the screen. Is anyone else getting this killer battery life or is it just me?
 
Ashin

Ashin

macrumors 6502a
Jun 19, 2010
959
201
Probably just the buggy OS ticking up ghost usage

Ask yourself. Did you really spend 9 hours using it? 1 day standby means you must be spent almost all day using it :confused::rolleyes:
 
R

Royalcards

macrumors newbie
Oct 18, 2011
12
0
I tested the battery yesterday. It got me 13 hours with 5 percent remaining. Its amazing!
 
jclardy

jclardy

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 6, 2008
4,159
4,365
Ashin said:
Probably just the buggy OS ticking up ghost usage

Ask yourself. Did you really spend 9 hours using it? 1 day standby means you must be spent almost all day using it :confused::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Standby is the time spent "on" with the screen off - standby mode. And yes it is surely possible...yesterday morning I used it for chord charts for guitar with the screen on for around an hour, used it last night for reading for an hour before going to sleep, this morning reading news, and plus yesterday I had it with me all day and people were randomly checking it out. Also used it to stream an episode of breaking bad in the afternoon. Overall I used it way more than usual because I just got it two days ago.
 
Ashin

Ashin

macrumors 6502a
Jun 19, 2010
959
201
jclardy said:
Standby is the time spent "on" with the screen off - standby mode. And yes it is surely possible...yesterday morning I used it for chord charts for guitar with the screen on for around an hour, used it last night for reading for an hour before going to sleep, this morning reading news, and plus yesterday I had it with me all day and people were randomly checking it out. Also used it to stream an episode of breaking bad in the afternoon. Overall I used it way more than usual because I just got it two days ago.
Click to expand...

I know... what I mean is 1 day standby = 24 hours - 9 hours = 15 hours standby... my question is between sleeping, eating, and whatever... is there really 9 hours in a day you can spend using an iPad?

I'd suggest fully charging it and leaving it on standby over night... bet the "usage" reads an hour or more... :rolleyes:
 
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
Ashin said:
I know... what I mean is 1 day standby = 24 hours - 9 hours = 15 hours standby... my question is between sleeping, eating, and whatever... is there really 9 hours in a day you can spend using an iPad?

I'd suggest fully charging it and leaving it on standby over night... bet the "usage" reads an hour or more... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

if you do not work :p
 
jclardy

jclardy

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 6, 2008
4,159
4,365
mattopotamus said:
if you do not work :p
Click to expand...

Yesterday was Sunday ;)

It is obviously not 9 hours of continuous active usage. But I can see the screen having been on displaying something for 9 hours. I have auto lock set to 15 minutes, so unless I actively put it to sleep it will stay on.
 
B

bogatyr

macrumors 65816
Mar 13, 2012
1,127
1
Ashin said:
I know... what I mean is 1 day standby = 24 hours - 9 hours = 15 hours standby... my question is between sleeping, eating, and whatever... is there really 9 hours in a day you can spend using an iPad?
Click to expand...

On a Saturday or Sunday I can spend about 10 hours reading. Just depends on if I get to relax for a day or not - it is pretty rare but it can happen.
 
C

Candykwan

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2012
23
0
4gen's battery has lasted the entire day for me. Pretty sweet ^^ I had movies from Netflix on for around 4-5 hrs and been using it to dl/play apps. So timeframe would be 8am-11pm when it finally turned off from battery depletion...of course I wasn't on it for the whole time but that's a pretty good battery life, especially when it takes a while for the battery to be fully charged
 
Q

Quantus

macrumors regular
Apr 2, 2012
171
1
Guys.... that usage meter is very inaccurate. Has always been.

I'm getting about 10 hours of mixed usage, mostly web browsing w/ short 15 minute gaming sessions here and there. Overall, very pleased.
 
cfs112

cfs112

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2012
87
0
I used it for two days upon opening on Friday with medium usage and got about 15 hours before needing to charge. Great battery life so far!
 
M

mellofello

macrumors 65816
Feb 1, 2011
1,257
556
The best part about the many so far is how much faster it charges compared to the iPad 3. My number one complaint about the three was how slow it charged
 
S

seajewel

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2010
385
76
I think I'm getting roughly 11 hours usage with brightness around 40-50%. It's pretty great. 15 hours would be even nicer but this will do ;) I'm skeptical of those of you reporting what appears to be 20 hours of usage... if that were the case Apple would have been trumpeting it.
 
B

bagelmaker

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2012
73
0
The battery life is amazing. Compared to my iPod touch this thing lasts 10 times longer. I've barely put the thing down in the past three days and I've only had to charge it once. Honestly, if it's a choice between this awesome battery life and retina display I think I would choose this battery life.
 
Acorn

Acorn

macrumors 68030
Jan 2, 2009
2,642
349
macrumors
games for me use the most battery life. mixed usage you can get a decent amount of time but if you just game on it the battery life is way way shorter.
 
MistaGavin

MistaGavin

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2012
92
0
Here's mine. It's my best yet, but I could probably improve it if I reduced brightness and turned off notifications.
 

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adam044

adam044

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2012
1,095
10
Boston
jclardy said:
So I "downgraded" from iPad 3 but have been loving the mini. One thing I noticed on my 3 was that the 10 hours of battery life was typically best case scenario, I would only get it with brightness way down and only using non intensive apps.

My mini right now though is at 9 hours 7 minutes usage and 1 day of standby. And it still has 41% battery left! I intentionally didn't plug it in since the night before last to see how long it would actually last.

My usage pattern has been fairly regular, a lot of web browsing, reading and a few games, twitter/Facebook, some video playback. Never above 50% brightness on the screen. Is anyone else getting this killer battery life or is it just me?
Click to expand...

I could get 1 day USAGE and 12-14 days standby on my ipad 2, now that I have the ipad 4 running the better screen its about half that so I believe it
 
B

bobbysmith

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2012
108
0
jclardy said:
Standby is the time spent "on" with the screen off - standby mode.
Click to expand...
That is not what standby is. Standby is the total time the device has been powered on (usage+sleep). Usage is the time it has been out of sleep mode, which is both active use with the screen on and background tasks with the screen off.
 
A

AlvinNguyen

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2010
820
3
MistaGavin said:
Here's mine. It's my best yet, but I could probably improve it if I reduced brightness and turned off notifications.
Click to expand...

Hey you play contract killer :D I was #7 on gamecenter for a while. PM me if you want a secret regarding that game. Best free game ever for sure :p
 
J

Jord5i

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2012
95
0
I am currently on my best run with my iPad 2. It's insane but I am currently at 49%, almost 10h of usage and 1 day 18h of standby. Never got this crazy of a run before, I might make it to the 20h :)

The batteries just seem very inconsistent, because I don't really use it any differently than I normally would.
 
T

Trat

macrumors regular
Aug 31, 2010
124
0
Where do people find the time for all of these 9 hour runs. I mean, the iPad is fun and all but no way will I waste 9 hours a day on using one, especially not on a Sunday. Don't you socialize, spend time with your family or do useful things with your spare time?
 
M

m00min

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2012
419
90
bobbysmith said:
Do you feel good about spending your Sundays demeaning other people?
Click to expand...

I can't see anything demeaning in there. I spent five hours yesterday sat on the couch playing Angry Birds Star Wars. Fun? yes. Complete waste of time? Totally :)
 
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