iPad Mini: What battery usage should I expect from an iPad Mini?

[Imc2111]

I'm at 9 hr 13 mins with 43% remaining, does this sound right? Btw it's the first charge since I've got the Mini.

[darngooddesign]

Originally Posted by Imc2111

I'm at 9 hr 13 mins with 43% remaining, does this sound right? Btw it's the first charge since I've got the Mini.

Sounds like you should expect excellent battery usage.

[Stewart21]

Originally Posted by Imc2111

I'm at 9 hr 13 mins with 43% remaining, does this sound right? Btw it's the first charge since I've got the Mini.

Obviously it all depends on which apps you're running and the model you're using. Apple claim up to 10 hours battery life but I've sen a lot more than that from my mini. Also seen less. In any case enjoy it.

[bobbysmith]

Depends. 5-10 hours of actual use is reasonable, depending on what it's running, screen brightness (I find that the auto brightness has a tendency to go brighter than needed), wifi use and so on.

The iPad doesn't have a meter for this, but it can show the total time the device has been out of sleep mode (usage) and the total time powered on (standby). As long as you find the battery life good enough, that's all that matters.

[CTHarrryH]

I think a lot depends upon if it is a WiFi only model or cellular. Cellular, I find burn a lot of battery especially if in a weak signal area. My WiFi I can use on and off all day and at the end of the day is sits at 90%.

[temna]

With the cellular model, make sure you turn off cellular when you don't need it. It REALLY helps the battery life.

[Gav2k]

Hmm ......

[bobbysmith]

Originally Posted by Gav2k

Hmm ......

Meaningless numbers though. According to that meter I used my iPad for three hours last night while I was asleep.

[costabunny]

when I take mine to work it lasts the entire shift (8-12 hours). Ok its not in my hand the whole time (I do have to do some fares) but I have not needed to plug it in at work yet. I mostly use it for reading tho and a few games now and then. Early part of my shift I have access to wifi and often watch iPlayer or netflix.

I guess it really depends on your usage and settings. I keep mine on low brightness as I work at night so its perfect for me.

[Gav2k]

Originally Posted by bobbysmith

Meaningless numbers though. According to that meter I used my iPad for three hours last night while I was asleep.

Meaningless... Hmm ok that is web browsing odd game of angry birds and a few movies on plex.

Usage whilst your asleep is push notifications incoming emails texts etc etc.

I am averaging 20 hours usage on my mini with screen brightness set to 35%

[bobbysmith]

Originally Posted by Gav2k

Meaningless... Hmm ok that is web browsing odd game of angry birds and a few movies on plex.

Usage whilst your asleep is push notifications incoming emails texts etc etc.

I am averaging 20 hours usage on my mini with screen brightness set to 35%

It's meaningless in that it does not measure your actual interactive use. It does not measure the time you've been "web browsing odd game of angry birds and a few movies on plex."

I can easily get it up to 15-20 hours on that meter, but in actual use it dies after 5-7 hours or so. ~10 hours if I turn the brightness down below the usable level (which is more like 75-100% in office/school settings.). I have to recharge it every day.

Averaging 20 hours of actual use (as in measured with a stopwatch or equivalent, not the "usage" meter) I don't think is possible even with the brightness set to the lowest. If five of the hours measured with the built in meter are just from checking facebook and email notifications in the background and not me actually using it, then it's a pretty meaningless statistic.

If you tell people the battery lasts 20 hours, they expect to be able to use it for 20 hours with acceptable brightness and wifi on with maybe a less than ideal signal. 10 is reasonable, 20 is not.

[temna]

Originally Posted by bobbysmith

It's meaningless in that it does not measure your actual interactive use. It does not measure the time you've been "web browsing odd game of angry birds and a few movies on plex."

I can easily get it up to 15-20 hours on that meter, but in actual use it dies after 5-7 hours or so. ~10 hours if I turn the brightness down below the usable level (which is more like 75-100% in office/school settings.). I have to recharge it every day.

Averaging 20 hours of actual use (as in measured with a stopwatch or equivalent, not the "usage" meter) I don't think is possible even with the brightness set to the lowest. If five of the hours measured with the built in meter are just from checking facebook and email notifications in the background and not me actually using it, then it's a pretty meaningless statistic.

If you tell people the battery lasts 20 hours, they expect to be able to use it for 20 hours with acceptable brightness and wifi on with maybe a less than ideal signal. 10 is reasonable, 20 is not.

Wait, what are you doing that kills it in 5-7 hours? I did that with heavy use on wifi when I was dumb enough to keep cellular on the whole time....

[bobbysmith]

Originally Posted by temna

Wait, what are you doing that kills it in 5-7 hours? I did that with heavy use on wifi when I was dumb enough to keep cellular on the whole time....

Nothing special. Mostly looking at PDFs with Adobe Reader, some web browsing, Facebook, some e-mail. No cellular.

[boobie12]

Originally Posted by bobbysmith

Nothing special. Mostly looking at PDFs with Adobe Reader, some web browsing, Facebook, some e-mail. No cellular.

Yea but the mini can get around 12 hours of straight video playback according to cnet. Much more then the 5-7 hours of usage you talk about.

[bobbysmith]

Originally Posted by boobie12

Yea but the mini can get around 12 hours of straight video playback according to cnet. Much more then the 5-7 hours of usage you talk about.

But I'm not playing video with CNet's test parameters, am I? Different uses.

[temna]

Originally Posted by bobbysmith

But I'm not playing video with CNet's test parameters, am I? Different uses.

You must have gotten a bad one because I don't believe that your battery would die that fast.

[bobbysmith]

Originally Posted by temna

You must have gotten a bad one because I don't believe that your battery would die that fast.

Why not?

[Paulywauly]

I get about 14 hours usage for full charge, compared to my ipad 3 which only got about 9-10 is pretty awesome (especially considering my usage habits haven't changed)

[bobbysmith]

Today.



Subtract some for the background tasks.

[Tom359]

I've had an iPad since the iPad 1, so my usage habits are pretty well established. I use the cellular model (no wifi at work) to surf Reddit, check twitter, watch the occasional video podcast, and play some casual games such as Angry Birds. My iPad 3 would go 9 hours no problem. So far I haven't been able to get the mini over 7 hours. I didn't think that was terrible for it's small size until I started reading some of the reviews and comments in the forums. It appears that anything less than 9 hours is not very good. I've only had my mini for less than a week, so I might try and exchange it to see if a new one is any better.

Originally Posted by bobbysmith

Today.

Image

Subtract some for the background tasks.

[No-Me]

I have a 64GB cellular iPad mini.
iOS 6 gave me about 14 hours on a full charge, iOS 6.1 sucks a lot more out of the battery, I get about 8-8,5 hours on a full charge now. In both cases I left the cellular on.

[throAU]

Originally Posted by Imc2111

I'm at 9 hr 13 mins with 43% remaining, does this sound right? Btw it's the first charge since I've got the Mini.

That's pretty good.


It depends what you're doing.

I've been using one at work periodically running VMware View desktop over wifi, with an LTE sim in the machine as well.

After checking email with it at home about 6am, reading news on it at 7am for half an hour and then doing a VDI session at work over wifi (constant data streaming, encryption, etc) between 8:30 and noon, i had about 50 percent battery left.

A full 8+ hours of fairly heavy network usage is pretty easily achieved I think. If you're running in airplane mode (say, to read a book you already downloaded), expect a lot more.



edit:
and yes, cellular is a huge variable. i'm in a high cellular traffic area at work (an airport) and the tower gets hammered by people as they get off aircraft and call for a cab or whatever. my idevices will often get warm and chew through 70 percent battery in 3-4 hours with NO USE other than push email when I'm at work.

They're fine elsewhere....