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iPad 3 definitely has shorter battery life than iPad 1

J

Jwr53

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 18, 2012
8
0
I use my iPad 3rd gen on and off all day, as I did my iPad 1, and it's not at all uncommon to see the 10% battery warning pop up--on my iPad 1, I almost never saw it.

A charge still lasts me a day, so it's not a big deal, but the specs imply that the battery life is equal to the older models, and it's just not so.
 
I'm consistently getting the same battery life out of my 3 as I got out of the 2. Never owned the 1. It doesn't give usage stats unfortunately, but I use it about 3 hours a day and have to charge it about every 4th day. I think heavy gaming drains it a little faster, but that's to be expected.
 
I can't tell if the drain is the same or a little bit faster but I still feel like it has plenty of battery to go a day or two of my normal usage and much more potentially. What is possible here that I speculated on before I got rid of it just a couple of months ago is that the first generation battery might've been weakened over the years that I had it.

What I can tell is that it takes a lot longer to charge then the first generation one.
 
I have both the 1 and 3. They both seem to have the same long battery life for me. But then my brightness setting on the 3 is 50% with auto brightness = on.

I'm guessing that the Retina display can consume a lot more power than the standard displays of the 1 and 2. If you crank up the brightness on the 3 (>70% with auto brightness = off), it's going to eat a lot more power than on earlier models.
 
Jwr53 said:
I use my iPad 3rd gen on and off all day, as I did my iPad 1, and it's not at all uncommon to see the 10% battery warning pop up--on my iPad 1, I almost never saw it.

A charge still lasts me a day, so it's not a big deal, but the specs imply that the battery life is equal to the older models, and it's just not so.
Click to expand...

Your experience does not match mine. After upgrading from the original iPad to the 3rd gen, my battery life is just as good if not better than before.
 
I went from iPad1 to iPad3
I notice the battery drains much, much faster on my 3.
And I do the same things and have the same settings pretty much on both so nothing out of the ordinary.
I have not tried restoring the iPad3 yet as some people have suggested to address the battery questions.
 
i have used the 3 ipads and all of the have the same battery life. maybe your ipad is faulty or something?
 
My iPad 1 seems to be capable of being set at a lower brightness and still be happily usable, which results in a longer battery life, but when they are set at an equal brightness visually, they last the same.
 
Why do people use their own experience to come to a "definite" conclusion about something so macroscopic? That is a sample of 1 in millions.
 
Yes, it definitely has less overall life, I'd say maybe an hour or so in normal usage but i almost never fully drained my battery using the iPad 2 and iPad 3 rarely gets to even 20% before Im at the charger. For me, this is a non-issue. I do wish it charged faster though, i'd prefer that over a longer battery life.
 
"Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music". This equals 10% per hour or 1% every 6 minutes of continous use.

I agree the battery goes down quicker on the iPad 3 compared to the iPad 1 in my experience. On the iPad 1 I could read for an 1 hour and see less than 10% reduction in battery. With the iPad 3, even in airplane mode, it's a consistent 10% per hour minimum (unconfirmed opinion).

Conclusion. You probably got more than 10 hours from the iPad 1 with very light usage. And the iPad 3 probably offers 10 hours but more likely alittle less. I can't complain even with 9 hours as i don't use it all day everyday.
 
All I know is that I can lay in bed to read a book on the night-time setting (white text on black) with the brightness way down and go from 89% to 44% in about 3-4 hours (wifi only model with no background downloading). Thats (very) roughly about 8-9 hours with the backlight way down. I've had similar results every time I've remembered to track my battery level over extended use.

*Edit*

It also takes about 10 hours to charge fully from nearly drained (<5%). I put it on the charger when I go to bed, and it doesn't reach 100% until after breakfast (about 10 hours later)

It's not cramping my style too much, but it's definitely very, very disappointing. Considering ditching it for a used iPad 2, DEFINITELY ditching it for the next model.
 
It is fair to say, without question, that the ipad 3 will quickly draw down the battery more often than the ip2/ip1.

Results vary because people are willing to change their settings to mitigate the drain.

50% display
Notifications turned off
etc...

In the end if you can get through the day same as before then just charge it over night.
 
First week new toy, more use, especially retina graphics intensive, exercising LTE connectivity .

Battery dropped like a stone.

After a week the battery lasts just the same as my iPad 1 & 2.

Still happy
 
Ieo said:
All I know is that I can lay in bed to read a book on the night-time setting (white text on black) with the brightness way down and go from 89% to 44% in about 3-4 hours (wifi only model with no background downloading). Thats (very) roughly about 8-9 hours with the backlight way down. I've had similar results every time I've remembered to track my battery level over extended use.

*Edit*

It also takes about 10 hours to charge fully from nearly drained (<5%). I put it on the charger when I go to bed, and it doesn't reach 100% until after breakfast (about 10 hours later).
Click to expand...

I would get your iPad checked out. Anand is very thorough in his testing and he obtained 9.3 hours battery life at 70% brightness (web browsing) and a full charge in 6 hours. It sounds like yours is significantly worse on both fronts.
 
Wow, I charge mine every night. (usually ar 20% or lower) although I like my brightness 100% with auto brightness off.
 
I can't fathom getting an iPad down to 20% in one day, and I'm on mine a LOT. You guys must use them all day at work or something.
 
One of my disappointments about the new iPad is that I can't run it like a clock radio at my bedside like I could with the iPad 2. The charger can barely handle the new iPad when its turned off. It would take forever to try and charge if I ran a clock/radio app.
 
"It would..." suggests you haven't tried it. I'm inclined to disagree. The effect is likely unnoticeable (unless you want the screen on constantly, which is madness in itself).


Batavian said:
One of my disappointments about the new iPad is that I can't run it like a clock radio at my bedside like I could with the iPad 2. The charger can barely handle the new iPad when its turned off. It would take forever to try and charge if I ran a clock/radio app.
Click to expand...
 
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