Deliberately trying to run the battery down.

[Thomas Davie]

I kept my iPad (3) at or above 95% battery Friday until Sunday. At that point I started trying to run the battery dowwn to 0, and then charge/time to charge to 100%. I've brought it to work every day, and let people play with it (knowing that they would probably try lots of Youtube, open lots of apps and leave all of those apps open). I would use it at lunch hours mainly to surf and listen to music.

Today however I bought and installed AirVideo, turned off wifi, and have been streaming over 3g/4g. About 4 hours and finally I'm down to about 6% battery with 5 minutes left to go in a movie.

After it charges back up to 100% (overnight I guess, since I have beer to drink now), I'll remote desktop into my iMac before I go to work tomorrow and start a big video playlist and monitor time till shutdown.

I'm very impressed with the battery in this.

Tom

 

[Leonard1818]

I can see deliberately killing the battery once to. Calibrate (I did this too) but multiple times? For what?

 

[Thomas Davie]

I can see deliberately killing the battery once to. Calibrate (I did this too) but multiple times? For what?

Really simple; if I push the iPad really hard, once or twice at the beginning, I can get an idea of what to expect in my real world usage.

Tom

 

[LanEvo]

Really simple; if I push the iPad really hard, once or twice at the beginning, I can get an idea of what to expect in my real world usage.

Tom

Brightness at 100 with continual use, and it'll go down to 0 in 5 to 6 hours. Use anything around 50 and you will get the stated 10 hours.

 

[Leonard1818]

Really simple; if I push the iPad really hard, once or twice at the beginning, I can get an idea of what to expect in my real world usage.

Tom

But that doesn't make a lot of sense....

Having to push it really hard to kill it really isn't demonstrating "real world" usage is it?

If you're having to TRY to run the battery down, that really doesn't prove anything from a "real world" standpoint unless your "real world" use is going to include RDPing into your iMac and streaming large video playlists... (and ONLY doing that)

Proving that you can kill the battery by streaming movies for X hours doesn't really tell you a lot about "real world" use... more just that if you were to use it like that you would get X hours of battery out of it....

I've run the same types of tests on my iPhone just to see what my battery life will be like under different usages but I was very strict about it. Full charge, don't do ANYTHING extra except talk on the phone... how long did it take to die? That's how long I would have on JUST phone calls. Full charge, don't do ANYTHING extra except listen to muisc (no call). How long did it take to die? etc. etc. etc. I soon came to the realization that, while it's good to have those figures in your head, it really isn't reflective of "real world" use. The only good measure of how it's going to hold up under different usage types is to just use the darn thing how you normally will and take notes

 

[TheWheelMan]

Really simple; if I push the iPad really hard, once or twice at the beginning, I can get an idea of what to expect in my real world usage.

Tom

You should also note that a) Killing modern batteries, in general, shortens their lifespan. The Li Ion batteries, unlike the old Ni Cads, like to be charged. And b) New batteries usually need a couple of weeks to build up to full strength, which is why I generally charge them quite a bit the first week or so, though not overly much. In other words, the battery will be at its strongest after it's broken in, not right out of the box.

Not sure how this applies to iPad batteries, but it seems to have held true with my iPad 1. And, as already pointed out, you can't possibly gauge "real world usage" by using it in "unreal world" ways.