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iPad Pro How much is a battery replacement?

C

Chairman.Jobbie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have an iPad Pro 11" 2018. I have no problem with the battery or device that I know of but I just realised it has been 5 years and likely past the recommended number of cycles on a battery.

Do they replace batteries? Has anyone had their battery replaced in this situation?
How much does it cost?
Also, can the battery suddenly warp as its now 'old' or what's the worst that can happen?

Thanks.
 
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They replace the whole iPad. Apple needs to approve it, and for that it needs to have less than 80% in their own test, which is a lot more stringent than the numbers you’ll get with Coconut. By this I mean, it’s not easy for it to be approved.

There’s no issue with using an iPad for a long time, especially compared to iPhones. And especially when you say that there are no issues with battery life.

It’s definitely not like with iPhones (when both are updated, of course). Batteries of iPads are far larger and can withstand a lot more usage. It’s likely that any battery degradation is due to updates, not the battery itself.

I have a 7-year-old 9.7-inch iPad Pro and battery life is just fine. Honestly I doubt a 3rd-gen, 11-inch iPad Pro has a battery that’s degraded enough for Apple to replace it. You can ask Apple Support to run a test if you like, they do it with the chat support option. Like I said, I doubt it will fail.
 
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Chairman.Jobbie said:
Its unlikely they will have a 2018 iPad Pro lying around so for £129 you probably get a newer (refurbished) iPad Pro for £129....
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that's not how it works, every time someone has a battery service, their iPad is not thrown away, they throw away the screen and the back and just replace that, keeping the internals and make a so called "replacement device" out of it, so they won't give you a newer one...
 
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Chairman.Jobbie said:
I have an iPad Pro 11" 2018. I have no problem with the battery or device that I know of but I just realised it has been 5 years and likely past the recommended number of cycles on a battery.

Do they replace batteries? Has anyone had their battery replaced in this situation?
How much does it cost?
Also, can the battery suddenly warp as its now 'old' or what's the worst that can happen?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
unless you leave the device plugged in all the time, there is very little risk of battery warping, there are devices that are over 10 years old with the battery perfectly fine (my iPad 2 is at 93% health with 750 cycles). Cycles are almost irrelevant for battery health. Leave your iPad plugged in or completely discharged for a year or 2 and your battery will be very degraded with barely any cycle. Cycle it healthy, avoiding full charges and discharges, and you can have over 1000 cycles and a battery at over 90% health...
 
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My 2017 iPad Pro is beginning to have battery issues. I hear batteries are around 100.00 but thought I’d be better off selling it for 150, and using the proceeds to upgrade to the 2021 refurbished iPad Pro.
 
My 2018 iPad Pro 12 inch needs battery service, its charge lasts about half a day if I don’t back the brightness down at karats 70 percent. You used to be able to mail them in for service now you have to make an appointment and go to the Apple Store.
 
lancemcv1 said:
My 2018 iPad Pro 12 inch needs battery service, its charge lasts about half a day if I don’t back the brightness down at karats 70 percent. You used to be able to mail them in for service now you have to make an appointment and go to the Apple Store.
Click to expand...
You are running at full brightness? It’s not the battery, it’s likely that your battery life is bad because brightness is high. Any iPad (even those that are new and on original iOS versions) have very poor battery life at full brightness.
 
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Digitalguy said:
unless you leave the device plugged in all the time, there is very little risk of battery warping, there are devices that are over 10 years old with the battery perfectly fine (my iPad 2 is at 93% health with 750 cycles). Cycles are almost irrelevant for battery health. Leave your iPad plugged in or completely discharged for a year or 2 and your battery will be very degraded with barely any cycle. Cycle it healthy, avoiding full charges and discharges, and you can have over 1000 cycles and a battery at over 90% health...
Click to expand...
The only iPads with severe battery life issues are those that have been through a quintillion iOS updates: A8, A9 and A10 models for now. So, the Air 2, 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros, and the 5th and 6th-gen iPads. Those are the devices that I see mentioned the most with battery life issues. The combination of several years of use coupled with 7 major updates is definitely not good for long-term (as far as iPads go, 7 years is long-term) battery life.

I agree that cycles are not that relevant. In fact, I’ve seen 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros which have been very lightly used and battery life is still abhorrent. I’ve seen some with maybe 400 cycles and battery life is very poor. 400 cycles isn’t anywhere nearly enough for them to account as a remotely impacting factor in battery life.

Earlier iPads have far larger batteries and 32-bit iOS versions are far better, even fully updated. I think as far as long-term iPad battery life goes, up until the iPad Air 1 (this one a lot less than the iPad 4 and below, but still), they retain good battery life. It plummets on A8 through A10 iPads, due to the combination of iOS updates - like I said - and smaller batteries. Full-screen iPads? Remains to be seen. It will be interesting. Honestly, I haven’t seen a report yet of a 3rd-gen iPad Pro with abhorrent battery life. The other interesting factor is base iPads from the 7th-gen: larger batteries, more efficient processors. Will they suffer too eventually? Time will tell.
 
FeliApple said:
The only iPads with severe battery life issues are those that have been through a quintillion iOS updates: A8, A9 and A10 models for now. So, the Air 2, 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros, and the 5th and 6th-gen iPads. Those are the devices that I see mentioned the most with battery life issues. The combination of several years of use coupled with 7 major updates is definitely not good for long-term (as far as iPads go, 7 years is long-term) battery life.

I agree that cycles are not that relevant. In fact, I’ve seen 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros which have been very lightly used and battery life is still abhorrent. I’ve seen some with maybe 400 cycles and battery life is very poor. 400 cycles isn’t anywhere nearly enough for them to account as a remotely impacting factor in battery life.

Earlier iPads have far larger batteries and 32-bit iOS versions are far better, even fully updated. I think as far as long-term iPad battery life goes, up until the iPad Air 1 (this one a lot less than the iPad 4 and below, but still), they retain good battery life. It plummets on A8 through A10 iPads, due to the combination of iOS updates - like I said - and smaller batteries. Full-screen iPads? Remains to be seen. It will be interesting. Honestly, I haven’t seen a report yet of a 3rd-gen iPad Pro with abhorrent battery life. The other interesting factor is base iPads from the 7th-gen: larger batteries, more efficient processors. Will they suffer too eventually? Time will tell.
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I partially disagree. I think software updates have affected standby time above all, not so much battery life while using the device. My mini 2 on IOS 10 has amazing standby time, but a relatively degraded battery so if I keep the screen on all the time it will drain faster than other devices, but it will last much longer on standby.
Cycles are a big misunderstanding because while they affect battery health, they affect it way less than other factors like very high and low voltages or heat. So good cycles, which avoid extremes, have way less impact than bad cycles (or even no cycle, if the iPad is keep at 0 or 100% all the time).
I know you have a different opinion about this and think that OS updates are the cause of everything when it comes to battery life and health, but I think we can agree to disagree on that... 😉
 
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Longplays said:
Apple historically give a newer one provided that they do not have the same SKU on hand.
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Considering you can still get the 2018 11 Pro from the Apple refurbished store (not always but when available) I'd say the OP will get exactly the same model he sends in.. The bigger issue is getting Apple to acknowledge the battery is below 80% and approve the replacement...
 
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Digitalguy said:
I partially disagree. I think software updates have affected standby time above all, not so much battery life while using the device. My mini 2 on IOS 10 has amazing standby time, but a relatively degraded battery so if I keep the screen on all the time it will drain faster than other devices, but it will last much longer on standby.
Cycles are a big misunderstanding because while they affect battery health, they affect it way less than other factors like very high and low voltages or heat. So good cycles, which avoid extremes, have way less impact than bad cycles (or even no cycle, if the iPad is keep at 0 or 100% all the time).
I know you have a different opinion about this and think that OS updates are the cause of everything when it comes to battery life and health, but I think we can agree to disagree on that... 😉
Click to expand...
Wait, I actually didn’t even consider the Mini! Is the Mini 2 very poor as far as screen-on time goes?

Agreed, heat is a massive problem, so much so, that on iPhones fast charging and wireless charging have consistently been reported as culprit for quick battery health degradation. Heat itself (i.e., very hot weather, or constant exposure to sunlight with high temperatures, or being left in hot conditions like in a car) has very reliably been described as a massive factor. It is one of my main battery care practices: charge as slowly as possible, avoid heat. iPads perhaps have fewer cases because they are used more indoors, but they’d definitely suffer just like iPhones.

I don’t care if my iPhone can charge at 90w within an hour. My very reliable original 5w chargers do the trick. Luckily, I’ve accumulated a few throughout the years, so I have 4 or 5 around. It’s sad that Apple stopped selling them.
 
FeliApple said:
Wait, I actually didn’t even consider the Mini! Is the Mini 2 very poor as far as screen-on time goes?

Agreed, heat is a massive problem, so much so, that on iPhones fast charging and wireless charging have consistently been reported as culprit for quick battery health degradation. Heat itself (i.e., very hot weather, or constant exposure to sunlight with high temperatures, or being left in hot conditions like in a car) has very reliably been described as a massive factor. It is one of my main battery care practices: charge as slowly as possible, avoid heat. iPads perhaps have fewer cases because they are used more indoors, but they’d definitely suffer just like iPhones.

I don’t care if my iPhone can charge at 90w within an hour. My very reliable original 5w chargers do the trick. Luckily, I’ve accumulated a few throughout the years, so I have 4 or 5 around. It’s sad that Apple stopped selling them.
Click to expand...
Fast charging is more of an issue with phones, as the bigger the battery the less the same charge rate will affect it in terms of heat. And especially the 12.9 are the least affected. However again, voltage is the biggest factor, by far.
And low voltage above all. Leave your iPad completely drained for a year or 2 and you cells will start dying... Similar issue, to a lesser extent, with high voltage. I tested leaving my mini 5 plugged in for 6 months with only 10 cycles, it lost 15% of battery health.
My mini 2 (bought 9 years ago) has decent screen on time, but a bit worse than the mini 5 for instance, but standby? Miles better, so over time it will degrade much less
 
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SigmundJake229 said:
My 2017 iPad Pro is beginning to have battery issues. I hear batteries are around 100.00 but thought I’d be better off selling it for 150, and using the proceeds to upgrade to the 2021 refurbished iPad Pro.
Click to expand...
Except the buyer will be getting the same battery issues. At least he/she should be informed of that, I'd think.
 
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As others have said, Apple loves the environment so they replace the entire unit instead of designing them so that it's easy enough to go in there and replace the consumable component that always fails over time.
 
FeliApple said:
The only iPads with severe battery life issues are those that have been through a quintillion iOS updates: A8, A9 and A10 models for now. So, the Air 2, 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros, and the 5th and 6th-gen iPads. Those are the devices that I see mentioned the most with battery life issues. The combination of several years of use coupled with 7 major updates is definitely not good for long-term (as far as iPads go, 7 years is long-term) battery life.

I agree that cycles are not that relevant. In fact, I’ve seen 1st and 2nd-gen iPad Pros which have been very lightly used and battery life is still abhorrent. I’ve seen some with maybe 400 cycles and battery life is very poor. 400 cycles isn’t anywhere nearly enough for them to account as a remotely impacting factor in battery life.

Earlier iPads have far larger batteries and 32-bit iOS versions are far better, even fully updated. I think as far as long-term iPad battery life goes, up until the iPad Air 1 (this one a lot less than the iPad 4 and below, but still), they retain good battery life. It plummets on A8 through A10 iPads, due to the combination of iOS updates - like I said - and smaller batteries. Full-screen iPads? Remains to be seen. It will be interesting. Honestly, I haven’t seen a report yet of a 3rd-gen iPad Pro with abhorrent battery life. The other interesting factor is base iPads from the 7th-gen: larger batteries, more efficient processors. Will they suffer too eventually? Time will tell.
Click to expand...
iOS 6 was the last 32 bit operating system. It can barely function in todays interconnected environment. Having great battery life on a device that can’t function buys one little.

In my own use case my Xs max with a new battery felt like I just bought it. I wouldn’t not update my max on iOS 11 in fact because I have corporate software on it I’m required to update frequently.
 
I7guy said:
iOS 6 was the last 32 bit operating system. It can barely function in todays interconnected environment. Having great battery life on a device that can’t function buys one little.

In my own use case my Xs max with a new battery felt like I just bought it. I wouldn’t not update my max on iOS 11 in fact because I have corporate software on it I’m required to update frequently.
Click to expand...
iOS 10 was the last iOS version that supports 32-bit devices, but I agree regardless: like I’ve frequently stated, it isn’t perfectly usable today on iPhones.

However, barring web browsing, for content consumption it would still be quite great on those iPads.

For my use case on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, I’d gladly and immediately downgrade to iOS 10 from iOS 12 if I could. Funnily enough (and this is the only time you’ll hear this from me), I should have updated it. Had I known that Apple was going to force it out of iOS 9 into iOS 12 three years after purchase, I would’ve updated it to iOS 10.3.3 and it would still run that one today, a far better version for it in terms of battery life and performance.
 
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Chairman.Jobbie said:
Its unlikely they will have a 2018 iPad Pro lying around so for £129 you probably get a newer (refurbished) iPad Pro for £129....
Click to expand...
My daughters base iPad from 2021 (I can't think of what generation it is) had a cracked screen and they don't do screen replacements so had to pay £400 and they just replaced with with a new one she said but I think it must have been refurbed one as it didn't come in a box or anything. so yeah I can't see you getting it done for £129
 
entropyfl said:
My daughters base iPad from 2021 (I can't think of what generation it is) had a cracked screen and they don't do screen replacements so had to pay £400 and they just replaced with with a new one she said but I think it must have been refurbed one as it didn't come in a box or anything. so yeah I can't see you getting it done for £129
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It seems odd that they wouldn't change the screen on a 2021 iPad and charge £400 for a replacement - but maybe that's the way it is. Also, I don't intend to get the battery checked or change my iPad at the moment as the replies put my concerns to rest.
 
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