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iPad Air 2 battery life. The potential deal breaker.

Donka

Donka

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 3, 2011
2,869
1,468
Scotland
Ok, so on the first charge, the Air 2 was noticeably poorer compared to my Air 1 with regards to battery life. After draining down to 3% and then charging overnight, I have been testing this morning. With back light around 30% and only reading websites in Safari for around 2 hours, my battery life has dropped to 75%. On the original Air that is a year old, I would be no less than 85% with the exact same usage, probably nearer 90%. I have real concerns over battery life unless iOS 8.1 has had a real hit on performance. Also, when checking battery usage, standby and usage figures are exactly the same so it seems something is always consuming resources.
Anyone else in the same boat?
I'm living the Air 2 otherwise but battery life has me considering going back to the original Air.
 
Donka said:
Ok, so on the first charge, the Air 2 was noticeably poorer compared to my Air 1 with regards to battery life. After draining down to 3% and then charging overnight, I have been testing this morning. With back light around 30% and only reading websites in Safari for around 2 hours, my battery life has dropped to 75%. On the original Air that is a year old, I would be no less than 85% with the exact same usage, probably nearer 90%. I have real concerns over battery life unless iOS 8.1 has had a real hit on performance. Also, when checking battery usage, standby and usage figures are exactly the same so it seems something is always consuming resources.
Anyone else in the same boat?
I'm living the Air 2 otherwise but battery life has me considering going back to the original Air.
Click to expand...

I ran mine down to 12% and recharged overnight. I've been surfing and downloading some movies and just looked at mine. 1 hr 8 mins, 93%. I've only had mine a couple of days. From past experience I know I need a good week to really judge. Fist day was spent restoring etc so isn't much of an everyday pattern. But I got 11 hrs on Saturday and that was surfing and downloading movie (filling it up for a trip).

So going just by the last couple of days I would say mine is on par with my Air 1. More time will tell.

Edit: my backlight is at about 40%, maybe a bit less. This iPad is quite a bit brighter than my Air 1
 
I got 11 hours out of my first full charge. I'm estimating around 10-11 hours on my second full charge. Screen has been on at 40% all the time. No cheating listening to music with the screen off or at minimum :p

That's no bad per se...

But my iPad 4 with a 2 year old battery can easily match or beat that and my mini 2 with a 1 year old battery beats my air 2 by several hours. That's kinda sad and a step backwards.

A deal breaker to me? No. I don't rely much on the battery.

But my wife was ready to replace her old Nexus 7 when I showed her my air 2. Then I discovered the issue about battery life and now she is thinking about taking over my old mini 2, which has sorta been displaced by my 6+, since battery life is crucial to her. That might work for us, but that's less money for Apple.
 
Faelan said:
I got 11 hours out of my first full charge. I'm estimating around 10-11 hours on my second full charge. Screen has been on at 40% all the time. No cheating listening to music with the screen off or at minimum :p



That's no bad per se...



But my iPad 4 with a 2 year old battery can easily match or beat that and my mini 2 with a 1 year old battery beats my air 2 by several hours. That's kinda sad and a step backwards.



A deal breaker to me? No. I don't rely much on the battery.



But my wife was ready to replace her old Nexus 7 when I showed her my air 2. Then I discovered the issue about battery life and now she is thinking about taking over my old mini 2, which has sorta been displaced by my 6+, since battery life is crucial to her. That might work for us, but that's less money for Apple.
Click to expand...


I had the wifi only model with the air 1 and lte with the iPad Air 2. I don't notice any huge difference that it matters imo
 
atlatnesiti said:
Yeah, real deal breaker... LOL
I'm on 22% battery life left with 10 Hours and 15 min of intensive LTE and WIFI use :)
Bad battery life my ass... Are you kidding me..?!
Click to expand...

Well I'm forecast to get 8 hours of use at 30% backlight with normal web use over wifi. I'm not kidding you there! That is markedly poorer than the Air 1 I had.
 
Yep, a deal breaker for sure. I would wait for the iPad 9 it will be better by then.
 
atlatnesiti said:
Yeah, real deal breaker... LOL
I'm on 22% battery life left with 10 Hours and 15 min of intensive LTE and WIFI use :)
Bad battery life my ass... Are you kidding me..?!
Click to expand...

This. The battery on the Air 2 is amazing. I've ran it down twice while using it all freaking day.
 
Donka said:
Air 2 battery life. The potential deal breaker.
Click to expand...

Plus the vibration, the screen distortion, all the iOS 8 issues, and so on...

Honestly, the lack of the mute switch (which I use all the time as a lock rotation switch) is also rather annoying.

But hey, it's thinner! I guess that's worth everything, right? Right, anyone? :rolleyes:
 
I use my iPad(s) primarily for gaming...

Here is the a little stat:

air2bata.png
 
I'm thinking I may have a suspect app running on mine. Look at my usage stats this morning. Usage and standby are the same...
 

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Donka said:
I'm thinking I may have a suspect app running on mine. Look at my usage stats this morning. Usage and standby are the same...
Click to expand...

Yup, looks like it to me. Looks like Safari is killing the battery though... maybe a tab running some active script?
 
I bought two iPad Air 2. Both have been running great, battery life is fine. Though I do have location services disabled, which really seems to help with the battery.
 
scaredpoet said:
Yup, looks like it to me. Looks like Safari is killing the battery though... maybe a tab running some active script?
Click to expand...

I mostly used Safari this morning and I think that is where that figure is coming from. I'm wondering if some widget may be at play. I'll disable them all and see if the figures change.
 
Safari is the browser I use. I charged up to 100% last night so I will check later today as I browse alot. Curious about this and what might be the culprit if I note excessive battery drain.
 
Donka said:
Ok, so on the first charge, the Air 2 was noticeably poorer compared to my Air 1 with regards to battery life. After draining down to 3% and then charging overnight, I have been testing this morning. With back light around 30% and only reading websites in Safari for around 2 hours, my battery life has dropped to 75%. On the original Air that is a year old, I would be no less than 85% with the exact same usage, probably nearer 90%. I have real concerns over battery life unless iOS 8.1 has had a real hit on performance. Also, when checking battery usage, standby and usage figures are exactly the same so it seems something is always consuming resources.
Anyone else in the same boat?
I'm living the Air 2 otherwise but battery life has me considering going back to the original Air.
Click to expand...

Yes, I would return you device today. What a horrible roose Apple is playing on its users! :p
 
its too early to assess the battery - you need to do several full chatge/discharge cycles before the battery is at full potential.
 
Donka said:
Ok, so on the first charge, the Air 2 was noticeably poorer compared to my Air 1 with regards to battery life. After draining down to 3% and then charging overnight, I have been testing this morning. With back light around 30% and only reading websites in Safari for around 2 hours, my battery life has dropped to 75%. On the original Air that is a year old, I would be no less than 85% with the exact same usage, probably nearer 90%. I have real concerns over battery life unless iOS 8.1 has had a real hit on performance. Also, when checking battery usage, standby and usage figures are exactly the same so it seems something is always consuming resources.
Anyone else in the same boat?
I'm living the Air 2 otherwise but battery life has me considering going back to the original Air.
Click to expand...

The original Air feels like double the battery life of an iPhone 6 Plus.
The Air 2 feels like it's on par with the iPhone 6 Plus.
Not bad, but not so great anymore.
 
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