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iPad iPad Air 2 and battery life?

W

Whoakapi

Cancelled
Original poster
May 26, 2010
382
215
This is just a little worry of mine.

According to specs:
iPad Air 1 has a 32.4 watt-hour battery
iPad Air 2 has a 27.3 watt-hour battery

That's about about 16% difference in capacity. Has Apple made any claims regarding power efficiency of the A8X? I might have missed it during the keynote, but the reduced capacity of the Air 2 battery indicates that it will have noticeable shorter battery life than the Air 1. Unless the A8X is some sort of über power saver...
 
WashupDawg said:
This is just a little worry of mine.

According to specs:
iPad Air 1 has a 32.4 watt-hour battery
iPad Air 2 has a 27.3 watt-hour battery

That's about about 16% difference in capacity. Has Apple made any claims regarding power efficiency of the A8X? I might have missed it during the keynote, but the reduced capacity of the Air 2 battery indicates that it will have noticeable shorter battery life than the Air 1. Unless the A8X is some sort of über power saver...
Click to expand...

Apple says same 10 hour battery life like all iPads.
 
I wonder if the laminated screen has any bearing on this with perhaps a lower brightness requirement from the back light?
 
I think you need to forget about specs when you deal with Apple. They might do optimization in CPU, architecture, or overall internals in iPad so that it uses less energy and lesser watt battery can be used. Or maybe the new battery has better power efficiency although lesser watt is stated in the spec.

It would be nice if Apple can extend the 10hrs battery life to 11 or 12 though. But that can add more weight to iPad. So it's a give and take.
 
Donka said:
I wonder if the laminated screen has any bearing on this with perhaps a lower brightness requirement from the back light?
Click to expand...

They said something about efficient backlight so improved backlight efficiency could be part of it.
 
WashupDawg said:
This is just a little worry of mine.

According to specs:
iPad Air 1 has a 32.4 watt-hour battery
iPad Air 2 has a 27.3 watt-hour battery

That's about about 16% difference in capacity. Has Apple made any claims regarding power efficiency of the A8X? I might have missed it during the keynote, but the reduced capacity of the Air 2 battery indicates that it will have noticeable shorter battery life than the Air 1. Unless the A8X is some sort of über power saver...
Click to expand...
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a 3200 mah battery and the note 4 only has a 3220 mah battery with 2k res screen a better cpu clocked at 2. 7 ghz (snapdragon 805)compared to 2.3 ghz (snapdragon 800), and more features yet the note 4 battery life is about the same and if note better then the note 3. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Samsung can do this with their phones that Apple can do even better with the Ipad air 2 battery compared to the Ipad air
 
My assumption is that the A8x chip should be at least within 10% as battery efficient as the A7 chip. I'm thinking it's closer to zero, and then the new efficiency in backlight contributes to allowing the lower watt battery (low enough to have the battery life equal the previous gen).

My only hope is that that 10 hour battery life figure is legit, and not ~10 hours, unlike what they claim the retina mini gets, versus the ipad air. The air definitely has longer battery life in day to day use, imo.
 
VanillaCracker said:
My assumption is that the A8x chip should be at least within 10% as battery efficient as the A7 chip. I'm thinking it's closer to zero, and then the new efficiency in backlight contributes to allowing the lower watt battery (low enough to have the battery life equal the previous gen).

My only hope is that that 10 hour battery life figure is legit, and not ~10 hours, unlike what they claim the retina mini gets, versus the ipad air. The air definitely has longer battery life in day to day use, imo.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as I suspected. Worse battery life:

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/21/ipad-air-2-reviews/
 
WashupDawg said:
This is just a little worry of mine.

According to specs:
iPad Air 1 has a 32.4 watt-hour battery
iPad Air 2 has a 27.3 watt-hour battery

That's about about 16% difference in capacity. Has Apple made any claims regarding power efficiency of the A8X? I might have missed it during the keynote, but the reduced capacity of the Air 2 battery indicates that it will have noticeable shorter battery life than the Air 1. Unless the A8X is some sort of über power saver...
Click to expand...

So thats 27,300 milliamps?
 
I got mine delivered today around 10am. Left it restoring from my Mac till about 11am. Been using it on and off since then to test out some apps and play around 20 mins of a demanding game. Now@ 9.22pm and still got 91% battery remaining. Still strong battery life for me.
 
FranksWildYears said:
Yet still better than any pre-Air iPad. If they've been okay, I wouldn't worry. I should think the main reason for shorter battery life is the fact that, unlike last year's, it's not just the phone chip inside the tablet. The first Air had a markedly lower capacity battery than its predecessors yet trumped them for battery.
Click to expand...

Yeah the battery life is definitely still fine. I'm just speaking against Apple's marketing claims of "the same" battery life, which aren't necessarily true.
 
VanillaCracker said:
Yeah the battery life is definitely still fine. I'm just speaking against Apple's marketing claims of "the same" battery life, which aren't necessarily true.
Click to expand...
There is a difference between battery life vs battery capacity so technically Apple is correct with their verbage.
 
Gincoma said:
There is a difference between battery life vs battery capacity so technically Apple is correct with their verbage.
Click to expand...

Been using my iPad Air 2 for about 3.5hrs now, including video and audio playback, photo editing, web browsing. Down to 80% battery.

I think it's only fair to judge battery after a couple of charge cycles and in regular usage. I'll seldom use it for such a duration and for so many tasks on a normal day.
 
Gincoma said:
So thats 27,300 milliamps?
Click to expand...

Haha.

No. 27.62 watt hours

It is 7,340mAh

IPad Air was 8,827mAh

----------
WashupDawg said:
This is just a little worry of mine.

According to specs:
iPad Air 1 has a 32.4 watt-hour battery
iPad Air 2 has a 27.3 watt-hour battery

That's about about 16% difference in capacity. Has Apple made any claims regarding power efficiency of the A8X? I might have missed it during the keynote, but the reduced capacity of the Air 2 battery indicates that it will have noticeable shorter battery life than the Air 1. Unless the A8X is some sort of über power saver...
Click to expand...

It isn't 27.3. Its 27.62 exactly

RXxBQ2bQ5wXfXFk2.huge
 
Last edited:
Wild-Bill said:
Recode calculated 90 minutes less battery life than the original iPad Air, but they did get over 10 hours on it.

LINK
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter what Re/Code says

You'll get 3 different reviewers do 3 different battery drain tests and get 3 different results.

It will be different for everyone. Some users will get the same battery life as before. Some user may notice a difference.

Apple has claimed since iPad 1 that you'll get 10 hours of battery life. I'm sure you'll get 10 hours of battery life.
 
ipadlvr said:
It doesn't matter what Re/Code says

You'll get 3 different reviewers do 3 different battery drain tests and get 3 different results.

It will be different for everyone. Some users will get the same battery life as before. Some user may notice a difference.

Apple has claimed since iPad 1 that you'll get 10 hours of battery life. I'm sure you'll get 10 hours of battery life.
Click to expand...

Walt Mossberg does the same test every year. I know it still meets Apple's 10 hour claim, but Walt got 90 minutes less using the same test he did last year.
 
FWIW, here's my experience so far today at 50%.

Marginally better than the first Air.

image.jpg
 
From the Engadget review.

"A thinner profile comes at the expense of battery size. ...In our video test, in which an HD movie plays through the life of the battery, the Air 2 squeezed out 11 hours and 15 minutes,. [...] "

What? Only 11 hours of video? It's going back.
 
dannyyankou said:
Walt Mossberg does the same test every year. I know it still meets Apple's 10 hour claim, but Walt got 90 minutes less using the same test he did last year.
Click to expand...

Forget that old hag. Doesn't matter what these reviewers say. They're jaded at this point.

The way he used it isn't the way most people will use it

I bet most people won't see any difference between the Air 2 and the Air (if they are upgrading) in terms of everyday use.
 
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