I've always thought my iPad's battery life is pretty good. But then today the Apple Store returned it to the factory settings and I just downloaded a couple of apps and used it for about 3 hours. Mostly surfing the web. I still had 83% battery left. It shows how much some apps drain the battery.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad "Clean iPad", great battery life!
- Thread starter iMas70
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apps, usage, configuration, etc all greatly impact battery life. It's not just a matter of the device itself. That's precisely the problem with all the "Is my battery life normal?" threads.
It's not just the apps and assorted settings. One of the biggest settings to adjust is screen brightness. For many things I don't need (or want) the brightness at more than about 2/3rds. It noticeably increases the battery life. This applies to iPads, iPhones and of course the iPod touchs.
This is probably the main difference noted by the OP -- the factory reset probably dropped his screen brightness down some, but not enough to be noticeable. Otherwise, if the OP is still using the same apps in roughly the same way, the deletion of unused apps cannot have made a difference.
It can definitely be the apps as well especially if one has many apps.
If you go into settings/notification center you will see apps in and not in notification center. The rule of thumb is to only keep what you absolutely need in there, however - the ones not in notification center can also use up battery. If you go into each one, you may find some are sill on, just not appearing. Go into each item not in notification center, select alert style to none and make sure the options at the bottom are off. This applies to iPhones as well.
If you go into settings/notification center you will see apps in and not in notification center. The rule of thumb is to only keep what you absolutely need in there, however - the ones not in notification center can also use up battery. If you go into each one, you may find some are sill on, just not appearing. Go into each item not in notification center, select alert style to none and make sure the options at the bottom are off. This applies to iPhones as well.
My problem wasn't battery life, it was the iPad using cellular data even though it showed a connection to my home wifi. Did a backup then erased everything. I just installed a few apps like Facebook and Netflix to see if anything would change. The issue went away so I restored everything yesterday. Went back to normal use and everything seems fine.
Beside brightness, I think things like location services and push notifications really reduce battery life. I have a lot of programs that I keep location services active for. No complaints about my battery life the way it's set up. But it goes to show you the difference between a fresh iPad/iPhone and one that has all of that active.
Beside brightness, I think things like location services and push notifications really reduce battery life. I have a lot of programs that I keep location services active for. No complaints about my battery life the way it's set up. But it goes to show you the difference between a fresh iPad/iPhone and one that has all of that active.
If you think about it, every single calculation your CPU has to do will drain your battery. Do you think notifications are magic? Think again. Push services like Mail and iMessages a thing of rainbows and butterflies? Think again. iCloud automagical backups? Think again.
I actually took my iPad 4 from around 10 to 15 hours. Yes, magic always comes with a price.
I actually took my iPad 4 from around 10 to 15 hours. Yes, magic always comes with a price.
You got me there. I love that character.
He really does give that show a lot of its dramatic depth.
Coming from a Nexus 7 that would lose 10% sometimes in just an hour doing nothing, my iPad Mini sat here for the last 7 hours doing nothing and is still at 100%. I bought it yesterday and is my first iPad so I had no choice but to start it out as new with no backup.
My launch day iPad 2 still has amazing battery life. Currently I'm at 11 hours of usage and 7 days on stand by and still have 59% left.
Main uses are web browsing and pandora. I typically only have to charge it once every 2-3 weeks.
Main uses are web browsing and pandora. I typically only have to charge it once every 2-3 weeks.
Agreed. My iPad 2 has a boss like battery life.
coming 2 years old, I still get 14 hours of usage and about 2 days of standby.
Wifi and bluetooth are always on but no cell usage.
I use it to surf alot, stream movies, check email, read my news and play games.
My iphone 5 on the other hand.....
You mean he overacts?
I find his character is more of a caricature than a character... a bit too intense.
You mean he overacts?
I find his character is more of a caricature than a character... a bit too intense.
I can see that, especially his bits as Rumplestiltskin, but the manic separation of the two aspects of his personality is fun to watch.
Oh, and my iPad 4 gets fantastic battery life, too (lest we be accused of straying off topic).
You're not actually getting 11 hours of "usage" with 59% left. The counter is not accurate and increases because of apps and services running in the background even when it's idle. Leave your iPad overnight and you'll find "usage" has gone up even though you didn't touch it.
Nope, not true at all. I close out the apps when I am finished with them. There is absolutely nothing running on my iPad when it its stand by.
I do it on purpose so I can keep an eye on my battery and app usage. In addition, I delete the apps because of my OCD.
Even if you close out all of your apps by double clicking the home button, there are still background processes running. The iPad doesn't have an Activity Monitor or Task Manager where you can see them like you can on a desktop OS or Android. A fresh iPad right after a restore will still have a usage counter that increases when Idle, just not very much. A better measure of actual usage would be "screen on time." I just do not believe that you're getting even close to 11 hours screen on time with 59% battery remaining. Is music with the screen off a huge portion of your usage? That would explain things.
I'm going to fully charge my iPad tonight and tomorrow let it run without using it and having all the apps closed to see what happens.
Screen is normally on when listening to Pandora, but I keep my brightness at like 20% all the time.
You're entirely correct except for iCloud backups. By default, they only occur when the device is plugged into power, so they have no effect on battery life.
After using my iPad Mini since Thursday, I have to say the battery life is amazing on these things. I have six hours usage, yes that's real, with 70% battery life left. I listened to 4 hours of music early this morning and the rest was internet stuff.