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The battery sucks, I have had three charges, and I do not play games or watching video, most time I read books on it, and I can only get 7 hours battery life, my brightness is around 70%. My old iPad 2 can get 12hours...the new one battery really sucks!!! Anyone know if the battery of iPad Air great? I am thinking return Air 2 to get an Air.

The Air is much better than the Air 2 in terms of battery life. The retina mini also walks over it in this regard.
 
Loving the battery life on mine so far (64gb wifi). This is after its first full charge. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1414798710.441215.jpg
 
I really have no idea what's going on here, haven't charged since Wednesday night
 

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I really have no idea what's going on here, haven't charged since Wednesday night

Some of that usage will be background activity while in standby. I got a similarly large run time, longer in fact, if you look back at the screen shot I posted.
 
Mine was delivered on Friday night, battery out of the box was 78% then 85% after syncing my backup from iTunes. Not been connected to any charger since. Watched captain America winter soldier 2hrs, watched have I got news for you on bbc I player 40 mins. Spent a good Few hours browsing. It's now 7am on Sunday morning and it's at 36% battery. No stats because it has not done a full charge yet :)
 

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Mine are always set to auto :)
Can't be bothered to adjust it and my iPad is doing it for me perfectly :)

Redundant comment. Prospective buyers who want to learn from those who have already purchased will gain so much from being told that you set your brightness to auto. No wait, you included smiles so it was a helpful comment.
 
I was playing FLT yesterday for about four hours while watching football. On my former rMini that would have eaten 20% of my battery. On my iPad Air 2 is used about 11%. Maybe the A8x processer is more efficient?

The Air is much better than the Air 2 in terms of battery life. The retina mini also walks over it in this regard.

That hasn't been my experience. So far I'm finding better battery life on my iPad 2 Air over my former rMini. Maybe the rMini had a better battery life doing simple task like reading a book or a webpage. But anything processor intensive like playing a game the iPad 2 Air takes the crown in my opinion.
 
I'm genuinely surprised by that, I'm getting noticeably longer run times with the mini. I'll need to try a side by side comparison running an intensive app although perhaps this is where the A8's efficiency over the A7 comes into play.
 
Yeah. Mine is noticeably worse than my Air...2 and a half hours and I'm on 55%? That ain't right. Brightness was around 60%
 

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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.

honestly...the things we have to endure. what is this, S-21?
 
honestly...the things we have to endure. what is this, S-21?

Well my new Air 2 is showing much improved battery life but you don't think the drop from ~13 hours to ~8 hours between the Air 1 & Air 2 isn't an issue?
As I say, it looks like the first unit was defective so I was right to be concerned.
 
I'm getting around 9-10 hours on my Air 2, but the brightness setting is at 70-75% so I'm ok with that.
 
Yeah, it seems brightness has a big effect. I personally can't do more than 30% to 40% without it burning my eyes out.
 
Air 2 battery life. The potential deal breaker.

My latest battery results. Brightness set at about 40% auto and NOT using airplane mode! ImageUploadedByTapatalk1415198713.948128.jpg
 
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And now a more accurate reading, turning on airplane mode every time it's not in use...
 

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To be fair, I think most of the problem lies in iOS 8.1. Before upgrading to iOS 8.1, the battery life of my iPhone 6 Plus is insanely great. Under normal use, it was not difficult for the phone to last two days. And there is a thread in the iPhone forum about how good the battery was for the 6 Plus too.

However, after upgrading to iOS 8.1, the battery life seems to be going back to the iPhone 5s level. In my non-scientific test, the battery life has been reduced by about 20-25%. Of course it's my anecdote and many of you would say the battery life is the same.

I don't know if future versions of iOS 8 will fix this problem, but iOS 8.1 was obviously rushed to the market because of Apple Pay.

p.s. I have sensitive eyes and my brightness level on both the iPhone and iPad is never higher than 40%.
 
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:

Actually the mute switch was a design decision. They probably thought it was unnecessary to have control center with one toggle then a switch on the side for two different actions. So they got rid of it. Personally, I feel like it makes more sense that way but at the same time redesigning control center and the switch might have been a better option.
 
Getting 14 Hours on Mine

After 2 complete discharge and recharge cycles, I'm getting 14 hours on my Air 2 based on the Usage Timer under Settings. It's used primarily indoors with brightness set to about 35-40%. I don't game and watch only an occasional YouTube video. So it's in line with all of my other iPads over the years....if not a little better.
 
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