iPad mini I need to verify practical battery life while watching movie.

chemicalx · Jul 30, 2013

Hi all, I'm newcomer here, just bought a Mini a month ago, I'm quite doubting about my battery life after reading some reviews and I need your help.

Though I have surfed the forum and seen lots of posts concerned Ipad Mini Battery Life but most of them were calculated in mix use situation (games, web, music, book, film....) and that's hard to justify whether the battery is in good shape

Now I just want to see how long the battery should last while playing movie only
These are some results from other reviews:

review from Gizmodo
"I got over 11 hrs with continuous video playback"

review from Cnet
"the iPad Mini held up through 12.1 hours of video playback"

review from Engadget
"In our standard battery run-down test, which entails looping a video with WiFi enabled and a fixed display brightness, the iPad mini managed an astounding 12 hours and 43 minutes"

review from ExpertReview
"plays a looping video at 50% brightness with Wi-Fi disabled, it managed over eleven and a half hours"

review from AnandTech
53% brightness, looping 720p movie and last for over 11hrs

As you can see, all the reviews can get over 11hrs but my Mini, with 50% brightness and no Wifi, can only last for 9hrs and a half (looping M4V in Photo app)

I would be very grateful if you could post your result here (only playing movie) so I can conclude if my battery is faulty or those reviews are all exaggeration.

darngooddesign · Jul 30, 2013

Apple says up to 10 hours watching videos, so it sounds like yours is in spec.

GGJstudios · Jul 30, 2013

chemicalx said:
As you can see, all the reviews can get over 11hrs but my Mini, with 50% brightness and no Wifi, can only last for 9hrs and a half (looping M4V in Photo app)
I would be very grateful if you could post your result here (only playing movie) so I can conclude if my battery is faulty or those reviews are all exaggeration.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new iPad Mini! Your battery is perfectly fine. Each user's battery life will differ slightly, but they should all be in the same range when doing the same tasks. Yours is well within reasonable expectations, so I would just relax and enjoy your iPad.

TJ61 · Jul 30, 2013

chemicalx said:
...my Mini, with 50% brightness and no Wifi, can only last for 9hrs and a half (looping M4V in Photo app)

It's possible that the encoding of the movie could make a difference in the power consumption on playback. Also, the Photos app could be less efficient than the Videos app. That's just a guess, but if you're trying to make a comparison, you really should match the conditions the others were most assuredly using. If you really care, spring for a movie rental and do it right. You can usually find a $0.99 special.

chemicalx · Jul 30, 2013

GGJstudios said:
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new iPad Mini! Your battery is perfectly fine. Each user's battery life will differ slightly, but they should all be in the same range when doing the same tasks. Yours is well within reasonable expectations, so I would just relax and enjoy your iPad.

TJ61 said:
It's possible that the encoding of the movie could make a difference in the power consumption on playback. Also, the Photos app could be less efficient than the Videos app. That's just a guess, but if you're trying to make a comparison, you really should match the conditions the others were most assuredly using. If you really care, spring for a movie rental and do it right. You can usually find a $0.99 special.

thanks for your kind words

actually, I can make my Mini last 12hrs with mix use, but those results of 11hrs in movie playing really worries me

my result of 9hrs still followed the condition in the reviews: 50% brightness, no wifi, standard format M4V.
Forgot to mention, my version is 6.1.3, can this be the cause of quickly drained battery ?

It's really good if you can post your results for comparison.

TrollToddington · Jul 30, 2013

My iPad 2 has been working for 16 hours since the last full charge - that's what the iOS says in the settings. I did not watch any movies, only reading books, surfing the web and listening to music. Wifi has always been on. There are still 5% battery left.

Depending on usage the iPad can last forever on full charge

Sorry for the off topic. I hope you did not mind me sharing my exeperience.

ApfelKuchen · Jul 30, 2013

5% less than Apple's "up to 10 hours" spec is hardly faulty. There's certainly nothing faulty about not matching lab tests that produced results that exceeded Apple's spec.

There are also variables in the lab tests that you may not have matched. For example, they almost undoubtedly tested with a clean iOS installation (restore iOS, set up as a new device, no additional apps installed), no built-in apps running, auto-brightness off, location services off, notifications off, Bluetooth off, the same ambient temperature (warmer or cooler than the test conditions will yield different results)

Lab tests like those are designed for product comparisons - consistent, controlled conditions that eliminate as many variables as possible. The more variables you eliminate, the farther you stray from real-world conditions.

Each tester you cited got somewhat different results. Part of that is due to variations in test methodology, part of that due to sample variability. Otherwise, why would Engadget get nearly 12.75 hours with Wi-Fi enabled, while ExpertReview got 11.5 hours with Wi-Fi disabled?

The test results aren't intentional exaggerations, they're the natural outcome of lab testing. As they always say, "Your mileage may vary."

chemicalx · Jul 30, 2013

ApfelKuchen said:
5% less than Apple's "up to 10 hours" spec is hardly faulty. There's certainly nothing faulty about not matching lab tests that produced results that exceeded Apple's spec.

There are also variables in the lab tests that you may not have matched. For example, they almost undoubtedly tested with a clean iOS installation (restore iOS, set up as a new device, no additional apps installed), no built-in apps running, auto-brightness off, location services off, notifications off, Bluetooth off, the same ambient temperature (warmer or cooler than the test conditions will yield different results)

Lab tests like those are designed for product comparisons - consistent, controlled conditions that eliminate as many variables as possible. The more variables you eliminate, the farther you stray from real-world conditions.

Each tester you cited got somewhat different results. Part of that is due to variations in test methodology, part of that due to sample variability. Otherwise, why would Engadget get nearly 12.75 hours with Wi-Fi enabled, while ExpertReview got 11.5 hours with Wi-Fi disabled?

The test results aren't intentional exaggerations, they're the natural outcome of lab testing. As they always say, "Your mileage may vary."

thank you, maybe I just worry too much (it's my bad habit everytime I own a new hi-tech toy

), it's good to know that warmer or cooler than the test conditions will yield different results

12vElectronics · Jul 30, 2013

Enjoy the iPad mini and stop stressing over half an hour!

mcdspncr · Jul 30, 2013

Try something like CineXplayer. I've always used that for traveling and felt it lasted very well, but I've never measured it. Either way, I bet it's related to iPhoto. Great app but fairly bloated I suspect. Doesn't even run on first gen iPad.

takeshi74 · Jul 31, 2013

If you're really worried then get it tested. 9 hours isn't something to be concerned about. Encoding will affect battery run times as videos aren't all encoded identically so your attempt to gather statistics isn't going to be meaningful. If you want to monitor your battery in a practical matter then monitor run time trends versus a single data point. If you see a serious drop in battery life then you might want to dig into the problem.

Badrottie · Jul 31, 2013

I watched Netflix movie over wifi for 3 hours appox the battery goes down to about 80% average. That is for iPad 2. :apple:

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