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10 hours of battery life...really?

samywamy10

samywamy10

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 15, 2010
100
0
Melbourne, Australia
Hey guys,
so today I removed my iPad from the charger at 100% at 9:50am. It's now 7:19pm and I have 5% of battery left. Even if that 5% does last until 7:50pm, I haven't been using my iPad constantly for 10 hours. Maybe 6 hours of use?

Is this normal?

EDIT: 3% at 7:21pm and it's just been on the home screen.

EDIT 2: 2% 7:33pm it has been locked the whole time.


//Battery log//Wifi on, Push on, removing any unused apps from multitasking bar, brightness ful w/ auto brightness enabled, Bluetooth off//
-start using at 10am 100%
-Need for speed hot pursuit (20 mins) app updates and rss checking the rest of the time til 10:50am - 90% (in the course of replying to this thread and editing this I've lost 1%)
-web browsing on safari, 15 mins music full blast display off - 11:45am 78%
-nothing - 1:20pm 78%. going to do some air video now
-just watched inception on the videos app (couldn't get air video without buffeting every 5 seconds) - 3:51pm 48%
-nothing - 4:34pm 46%
-listening to music with screen on - 5:19pm 35%
-web browsing -6:46pm 11%
-nothing, played 3 minutes of FIFA (lowest brightness) - 9:12pm 3%
 
Last edited:
That sounds OK. Try and remember there are many variables when it comes to battery life. I'd highly suggest you relax and just use it without getting overly concerned. Apple does a very good job with power management.
 
its 6 am and i havent charged my ipad since last morning. I watched at least 3 full length videos, read some comics and downloaded apps. Probably good 5 hrs of use? And its at 67 percent.
 
I'm also experiencing incredibly slow charging times...(The charger has been in for 15-20 minutes and hasn't gone up 1%...)

Is there something wrong or am I just paranoid?
 
samywamy10 said:
I'm also experiencing incredibly slow charging times...(The charger has been in for 15-20 minutes and hasn't gone up 1%...)

Is there something wrong or am I just paranoid?
Click to expand...

Are you charging using an electrical wall socket or by using USB through a computer ?If using USB it's going to be slow.
 
I don't know about you guys but from my experience USB charging not only gives you slower charging times, but also less battery life on THAT charge.

I know it's weird and that it should be the same, but it's happened to me several times that when I'm too lazy to go look for the charger and plug my iPhone to my MBP the battery life the next day sucks, maybe that can be an issue too.
 
LDTaylor85 said:
Is there a way to close programs running in The background?
Click to expand...

Apps don't run in the background on iOS. The multitasking works in a way that apps are frozen and don't use resources after you switch apps, so they shouldn't be using any resources or running down your battery. Some apps will have task completion (e.g., downloading or uploading a file) which will use resources in the background until that task has completed, but you shouldn't want to quit those apps anyway.

The purpose for being able to quit apps in the multitasking bar is to reboot misbehaving apps or to simply remove them from your "recently used' list.


Also, you should be able to achieve 10 hours battery life with simple email, web, video, and basic app use. If you're not, I'd take it to an Apple store. The two exceptions to this which I've found tend to be high-graphics apps like games and image editing / art apps, or if you've got your brightness set abnormally high instead of using the auto-brightness setting. Also 3G iPads last about an hour less when using 3G.
 
EssentialParado said:
Apps don't run in the background on iOS. The multitasking works in a way that apps are frozen and don't use resources after you switch apps, so they shouldn't be using any resources or running down your battery. Some apps will have task completion (e.g., downloading or uploading a file) which will use resources in the background until that task has completed, but you shouldn't want to quit those apps anyway.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that, I know Apple says that what is supposed to happen, but when I forget to turn off my apps I get serious less battery life.
 
Based on your sig I'm guessing WiFi version but in the event it's 3G remember if your signal becomes weak or not available the iPad will still work/use the battery to constantly get that 3G signal and can use much of the battery over the day and drain it a lot more than if the signal is strong and available.
 
Are you running 4.3/4.3.1? I honestly think those have done something to iPad/iPhone battery life. My iPhone 4 was a champ until this and either it's dying or the firmware is doing something.
 
You can also increase battery life by close the apps still running in the background.

Hit (home) button twice (this will bring up apps stay open in the background)
Press and hold the apps, then click upper left corner to close.
Hit (home) again to go back.
 
Last edited:
bender o said:
I don't know about you guys but from my experience USB charging not only gives you slower charging times, but also less battery life on THAT charge.

I know it's weird and that it should be the same, but it's happened to me several times that when I'm too lazy to go look for the charger and plug my iPhone to my MBP the battery life the next day sucks, maybe that can be an issue too.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind, explain to me how charging slower provides decreased. As I have experienced before, slowly charging batteries definitely increases the longevity of the charge capacity as heat is the culprit to a diminishing battery.
 
I'm on my iPad nonstop. I charged it fully Wednesday night, used it all day in school Thursday for notes, roughly 5 hours. 3G and WiFi on, bluetooth off, no push notifications, brightness 40% and nothing else running in the background. Got home battery was at 81%. Used it all day Friday, same thing, got home, 58%. Used it a lot of yesterday for web-browsing and email. Plugged it in this morning at 35% to charge. I got a good 12+ hours, wouldn't shock me if I got over 14. Very happy with my battery.

Edit: Running iOS 4.3.1
 
If you have either notifications or push email on, then those are going to use battery in the background to check for updates.

(Hint: there ain't no such thing as real push except on a Blackberry.)

As others have mentioned, using the lowest brightness you can stand, is a huge factor in getting long times out of any portable device.
 
EssentialParado said:
Apps don't run in the background on iOS. The multitasking works in a way that apps are frozen and don't use resources after you switch apps, so they shouldn't be using any resources or running down your battery. Some apps will have task completion (e.g., downloading or uploading a file) which will use resources in the background until that task has completed, but you shouldn't want to quit those apps anyway.

The purpose for being able to quit apps in the multitasking bar is to reboot misbehaving apps or to simply remove them from your "recently used' list.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. yes we should never have to close out what is in the multitasking "frozen" dock, but if you do not the iDevice will suffer major performance loss. Some applications that are frozen use 150+MB of RAM. Less RAM available equals slower boot up times for other apps, and slower response times. Which then equals more CPU being used, finally equalling less battery life.

When playing some games like Doodle Jump, after I just played Real Racing 2, the doodle jumper will freeze and stutter occasionally. Close Real Racing and I don't have a single problem. Real Racing uses roughly 150-200MB of RAM in "frozen" mode.

I have run many of my own little tests with battery life. If I don't close out my apps throughout the day my battery dies 2-3X faster than if I close them once every 1-2 hours.
 
Mine last roughly 10 hours. I lose about 10% during our of active use. A bit more if I'm doing something like Facetime etc.

I lose 1-2% over night. I have some notifications on but not many.
 
Calibrate your battery

Especially after a software update.

Run your iPad down to zero, it will shut down by itself. Leave it for an hour or so, then put it on the charger and charge to full. Might solve your issue.
 
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