iPad Air Continues to Offer 24-Hour Battery Life as LTE Hotspot

MacRumors · Nov 4, 2013

For those customers interested in taking advantage of the iPad Air's ability to allow other devices to tap into its LTE data connection, Apple's latest iPad continues to offer a robust 24 hours of battery life as an LTE hotspot, far more than dedicated MiFi hotspot devices, reports AnandTech.

While the 24-hour hotspot battery life is not new to the iPad Air, confirmation of the feature is comforting given that Apple has taken advantage of more efficient technologies to reduce battery capacity in the iPad Air by nearly 25% compared to the previous two generations without compromising performance.

I set the iPad Air up as a personal hotspot, wirelessly tethering it to a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I started a constant 100KB/s transfer on the MacBook Pro (2x the transfer rate of my iPad 3 test) and with the iPad Air's display off I measured battery life. Last time I chose 50KB/s as it was the average transfer rate across our old WiFi web browsing battery life test, I doubled the workload to be more reflective of more strenuous demands. In reality I'd expect to see a burstier usage profile, but that's something for me to test down the road.

A total of 24.08 hours and over 8GB of transfers later, the iPad Air finally died. Just like last time, you'll likely burn through your monthly data allotment before you run out of power.

The iPad Air is of course a much larger hotspot solution than dedicated MiFi devices, but for those who may already be carrying an iPad Air to use on its own, it continues to provide a solid option for delivering cellular data access to other nearby Wi-Fi devices.

Article Link: iPad Air Continues to Offer 24-Hour Battery Life as LTE Hotspot

SmokyD · Nov 4, 2013

That's an impressive amount of time, considering the reduction in battery size for the Air.

840quadra · Nov 4, 2013

Will be nice to consider this an option for professionals in the field for tethered internet access. That is better battery life than most myfi devices my colleagues use.

I currently use my 5S for internet access on the road, and have been reasonably impressed with speed, but not battery life.

MrSmith · Nov 4, 2013

Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

scbn · Nov 4, 2013

is tethering capability built-in to iPad? I've never tried it before.

SPUY767 · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

Pretty much anyone who needs to use one outside the bounds of a 802.11 network?

Jsameds · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

Me?

Oh wait, no. I'm a geek.

Scratch that.

tdream · Nov 4, 2013

Now I know which mifi router to get, thanks macrumors!

zone23 · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

I think you might have it backwards. Geeks are more likely to tether and your average person is more likely to buy a cellular version. I personally don't like tethering and would rather spend a couple extra bucks to get what I want.

staveb · Nov 4, 2013

If you need a hotspot to run 24 hours, don't get a new iPad Air to do it. You'll be running through your overall life expectancy of your iPad and it's a lot cheaper just to buy a cheap little hotspot.

zone23 · Nov 4, 2013

scbn said:
is tethering capability built-in to iPad? I've never tried it before.

Yes it is. Its nice cause I can use it to run the kids iPads and stuff in the car on trips. On Verizon you can't use data and voice at the same time so its better than using my iPhone.

Theclamshell · Nov 4, 2013

It will be interesting to see how battery technology evolves 5-10 years from now.

SethBoy · Nov 4, 2013

iOS turns off the hotspot when no device is connected.

This becomes irritating when I'm using my iPad as a hotspot in a foreign country with a prepaid SIM card: when I put away my iPhone, the iPhone disconnects from the hotspot and the iPad stops broadcasting. I'd then have to turn on my iPad and navigate to the Personal Hotspot setting to be able to tether again.

I can understand it's to save power, but with 25 hours of battery life, there's really no reason I have to fiddle with my iPad each time I need to connect to the hotspot after a period of non-usage.

iamkarlp · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

Businesses far and wide. I actually just setup an att biz/premier account for a business with mobile data share plan last week to handle a dozen or more iPads that will be coming online in the next few months.

Also, people who just want things to work. My mother, My Aunt and the owner at one of the businesses I work for all have data on their personal iPads so that it works wherever they are without having to do anything.

I think it's great that personal hotspot works as well as it does, but sometimes it's hard to beat "just works".

Karl P

(BTW: That biz I mentioned above, iPad Air is huge to these people. In their words "The iPad is finally fast". It is now responsive enough for them to start deploying them for field workers instead of laptops. This isn't a flippant decision, they really do everything the laptops did, but in a lighter, cheaper, easier way that just happens to have longer battery life and a dead-simple LTE connection.)

mattcube64 · Nov 4, 2013

I travel for work and need emails/calendars updated regularly. For me, the Cellular makes sense with my job - my first iPad was Wi-Fi; but my last two have been with ATT Cellular.

I pay for 3gigs every month - and will bump it up to 5 for the tethering when I'm traveling and bring my personal laptop (rather than my work laptop).

staveb · Nov 4, 2013

fun173 said:
It will be interesting to see how battery technology evolves 5-10 years from now.

I'm still waiting for cloud power sources, where one device will be attached to actual power and then other devices can jump and jump many miles one to another and stay juiced up.

malexandria · Nov 4, 2013

iPad 2?

My Air is coming today. But is it me or is Battery Life worse on the iPad 2 since iOS7? I'm noting a lot of issues cropping up. Apps crashing all the time (when they didn't before) and my battery drains faster and takes HOURS to recharge now. I don't know why Apple is keeping the iPad 2 around instead of say the iPad 3. Seems like iOS7 really isn't designed to work with the iPad 2.

Tankmaze · Nov 4, 2013

good stuff... if you have unlimited data... but still, really good battery time usage.

MrSmith · Nov 4, 2013

zone23 said:
Yes it is. Its nice cause I can use it to run the kids iPads and stuff in the car on trips.

Dear, oh dear. Just a suggestion, but maybe you could encourage your offspring to look out the window. You know?

iamkarlp · Nov 4, 2013

SethBoy said:
I can understand it's to save power, but with 25 hours of battery life, there's really no reason I have to fiddle with my iPad each time I need to connect to the hotspot after a period of non-usage.

It isn't to save power. It's because if you left it on, everyone would leave it on. Radio Spectrum is one of our planets most precious resources, and we need to be mindful of that. Having 10's or 100's of millions of mobile devices each broadcasting wifi signals whenever they aren't connected to a wifi network would be nothing short of a cataclysmic disaster to most medium and large scale wifi deployments or any other medium to high density area.

If we were to wish for one thing, it would be for the connection to be initiated with a bluetooth close proximity bump like on the new ATV.

Once you configure which is priority (aka, do you want the iPad or the iPhone to "serve" the connection, you would just tap your iPhone onto your iPad and get a connection.

That would be handy, particularly because it would also set the wifi key, etc.

Karl P

PBG4 Dude · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

I don't, I got the free 200MB/month option from T-Mobile that also allows tethering. Obviously it isn't much data compared to paid plans, but it's better than zero data.

Plus I get to see if T-Mobile LTE is available everywhere I'd want it to be in case I decide to switch from my current phone carrier.

MrSmith · Nov 4, 2013

PBG4 Dude said:
I don't, I got the free 200MB/month option from T-Mobile that also allows tethering. Obviously it isn't much data compared to paid plans, but it's better than zero data.

Apple's got these idiots by the balls. Seriously wrong.

iBug2 · Nov 4, 2013

fun173 said:
It will be interesting to see how battery technology evolves 5-10 years from now.

I'm more interested in graphene processors. If they achieve that, the first generation will be around 400 Ghz. That means they can do extremely low power 10 Ghz chips, and your battery probably will power such a device for a week.

malexandria · Nov 4, 2013

MrSmith said:
Other than geeks, who pays for connecting an iPad to the cellular network?

I hate tethering, more problems than it's worth. Trying to keep multiple devices charged up. When I get a call or notification or something it drops the connection. About as annoying as WiFi. Not to mention I don't trust cell phone companies not to screw me on data caps and overage charges.

troop231 · Nov 4, 2013

fun173 said:
It will be interesting to see how battery technology evolves 5-10 years from now.

If Nikola Tesla were still alive, we wouldn't need to worry so much about batteries.

The future though is graphene based capacitors.

iPad Air Continues to Offer 24-Hour Battery Life as LTE Hotspot

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