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Battery duration?

Arkanok

Arkanok

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2007
552
115
Hey guys, please don't get mad for me asking this question but I didn't seem to find too many posts about it.

I just got the new iPad (which is my first iPad) and I was just wondering if my battery life was normal. So this morn (7am est) I had it fully charged, fresh from the charger, and I've been using it on and off for some web browsing, bit of gaming but not too much, maybe 20 min of video ect. Nothing too extensive, and my battery is at 76%.

Does that sound like a decent level of drainage with that usage, or should it be lasting longer before dying?
 
Arkanok said:
Hey guys, please don't get mad for me asking this question but I didn't seem to find too many posts about it.

I just got the new iPad (which is my first iPad) and I was just wondering if my battery life was normal. So this morn (7am est) I had it fully charged, fresh from the charger, and I've been using it on and off for some web browsing, bit of gaming but not too much, maybe 20 min of video ect. Nothing too extensive, and my battery is at 76%.

Does that sound like a decent level of drainage with that usage, or should it be lasting longer before dying?
Click to expand...

You do know that 76% is not dead or near dead.;) You could go 4 days at that use before it would be dead.
 
Julien said:
You do know that 76% is not dead or near dead.;) You could go 4 days at that use before it would be dead.
Click to expand...


Oh I know, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not it's lasting as long as it should. One of my friends told me that his iPad 1 would last for hours of straight usage and only drop like 2%. So naturally I'm curious to see if he was just BS'n me. ;)
 
Arkanok said:
Oh I know, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not it's lasting as long as it should. One of my friends told me that his iPad 1 would last for hours of straight usage and only drop like 2%. So naturally I'm curious to see if he was just BS'n me. ;)
Click to expand...

Listening to the Music player the iPad batt. will last 100's of hours. Streaming 1080p video through LTE and using BT speakers will lower that to less than 8 hours. Go here and just read Apple's specs.
 
I am in a similar situation, with 30-60 brightness and I used all the features, wifi, music, video, etc. no games. I have had it at constant use for over 4+ hours now, screen kept on and it is currently at 62% down from 100% fully charged this morning.

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Arkanok said:
Oh I know, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not it's lasting as long as it should. One of my friends told me that his iPad 1 would last for hours of straight usage and only drop like 2%. So naturally I'm curious to see if he was just BS'n me. ;)
Click to expand...

That is not true, although on mine it will stay at 100 for a good hour or so before dropping. Mine it on its second or third recharge.
 
I was worried about my battery when I first got my new iPad as well.

Things very much improved after I allowed it to drain all the way down the first time and also ceased in keeping my brightness all the way up (now it's usually at around 50-75% or lower much of the time).
 
andyblila said:
What's your brightness set at?
Click to expand...

My brightness is about 40%, unless I'm reading an iBook, in which case I lower it to about 10%.



LanEvo said:
I am in a similar situation, with 30-60 brightness and I used all the features, wifi, music, video, etc. no games. I have had it at constant use for over 4+ hours now, screen kept on and it is currently at 62% down from 100% fully charged this morning.

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That is not true, although on mine it will stay at 100 for a good hour or so before dropping. Mine it on its second or third recharge.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Yeah I'm going to try draining it all the way tonight or tomorrow and then fully charge it and see what happens.



NameUndecided said:
I was worried about my battery when I first got my new iPad as well.

Things very much improved after I allowed it to drain all the way down the first time and also ceased in keeping my brightness all the way up (now it's usually at around 50-75% or lower much of the time).
Click to expand...

With that in mind, how long would you see your iPad lasts during normal usage?
 
Arkanok said:
My brightness is about 40%, unless I'm reading an iBook, in which case I lower it to about 10%.





Hmm. Yeah I'm going to try draining it all the way tonight or tomorrow and then fully charge it and see what happens.




With that in mind, how long would you see your iPad lasts during normal usage?
Click to expand...
My rule is 3 full drains and recharges when I first get an electronic item like this. After than I drain and recharge once a week. Other than that it's normal charging.
 
LanEvo said:
My rule is 3 full drains and recharges when I first get an electronic item like this. After than I drain and recharge once a week. Other than that it's normal charging.
Click to expand...

Yeah i'm gonna make sure I do this as often as possible.
 
Doesn't Apple say you should get about 10 hours out of a charge with normal use?
 
Arkanok said:
Yeah i'm gonna make sure I do this as often as possible.
Click to expand...

Don't. It might have been reasonable advice ten years ago, with NiCD batteries and primitive chargers, but these days you'll gain nothing and even reduce battery-life. Buy a cradle, connect your charger to the cradle, and pop the iPad in the cradle whenever you're done with it.
 
burne said:
Don't. It might have been reasonable advice ten years ago, with NiCD batteries and primitive chargers, but these days you'll gain nothing and even reduce battery-life. Buy a cradle, connect your charger to the cradle, and pop the iPad in the cradle whenever you're done with it.
Click to expand...

Really? I always thought that was bad for the battery?
 
Arkanok said:
Oh I know, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not it's lasting as long as it should. One of my friends told me that his iPad 1 would last for hours of straight usage and only drop like 2%. So naturally I'm curious to see if he was just BS'n me. ;)
Click to expand...

Sounds bad to me, I would replace it like most would here. Tell them that you used it and it ran the battery down to 76%.:eek:
 
Arkanok said:
Really? I always thought that was bad for the battery?
Click to expand...

No, because a Lithium Ion battery grow crystals in dead cells and these cells become unusable. Running to a full dischargee diminishes their life and there reserve capacity (difference between the max charge they will hold and cut off point). You should NEVER purposely run them dead (unless the monitoring system needs calibrating (about once every 6 months)). For maximum life and more importunely reserve capacity you should charge often and top off any chance you get.


LanEvo said:
My rule is 3 full drains and recharges when I first get an electronic item like this. After than I drain and recharge once a week. Other than that it's normal charging.
Click to expand...

Super bad rule unless you are into shortening their life/capacity.
 
Julien said:
No, because a Lithium Ion battery grow crystals in dead cells and these cells become unusable. Running to a full dischargee diminishes their life and there reserve capacity (difference between the max charge they will hold and cut off point). You should NEVER purposely run them dead (unless the monitoring system needs calibrating (about once every 6 months)). For maximum life and more importunely reserve capacity you should charge often and top off any chance you get.




Super bad rule unless you are into shortening their life/capacity.
Click to expand...

Hmm, thanks for the breakdown! I guess like some others, I thought it was best to fully drain them fairly often as I believed charging them too often before the battery was fully drained was a bad idea.

Thanks for the advice!

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Stealthipad said:
Sounds bad to me, I would replace it like most would here. Tell them that you used it and it ran the battery down to 76%.:eek:
Click to expand...

Ha, ha, ha.
Yeah I guess it's fine after all. :rolleyes:
 
Exactly....... Maybe back in the 80s with the Ni-C and Ni-MH batteries did you want to drain them completely before you charged them back up. Most AA/AAA rechargeable batteries require this.

However, your iPad 3 battery is like the battery in most laptops - a Lithium Ion battery. Unlike the earlier batteries, Lithium Ion batteries have very little to no memory effect and do not need to be drained fully before being recharged. In fact, you damage lithium ion batteries and wear them out far quicker by doing this.

Apple recommends draining the battery once a month to re-calibrate the OS on older Li-Ion batteries but lately, the newest batteries do not need this. It is good to "Exercise" the battery by taking it down to 50% once in awhile if you keep it at 100% (like I do) all the time.

I had an old Dell D830 laptop that had a 5 year old battery that still held 4+ hour charge because I didn't drain it all the way down and kept it healthy this way.
 
Last edited:
Glad to see some knowledgeable people here. It bears repeating: never run down the battery on these devices intentionally, unless the battery needs calibrated.

How do you know if the battery needs calibrated? Well it might say you have 10% life left, and then shut down without warning. Aside from something like that happening, I can't think of any reason you should have to calibrate the battery unless the device is sitting without getting any use for weeks/months at a time.

Two rules I follow:
  1. Never use a portable device while it is plugged into the wall, unless it is charging. (less of an issue with an iPad, more of an issue with laptops)
  2. Always top up the charge to 100% where possible, as long as there has been 15–20% drain. If there has been less than 10% drain, I leave it unplugged.
From owning several MacBooks/MacBook Pros and going through several batteries, this is what has actually worked and prolonged battery life.

Intentionally running the battery down has always resulted in reduced battery life for me.
 
I was wondering whether mine was not lasting as long so today I have been working on a painting in ArtRage, it's been 8.1/2 hours now and i am at 23%. I think that's not bad considering it hasn't been in sleep mode.
 
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