iPad Air 2 battery only lasting 7 hours!!!

[I am Jack's account]

I've purchased an iPad Air 2 last week and it came with iOS 8.1.3. I haven't updated to iOS 8.3 yet because based on most of what I read online, it's drains the battery a lot. Since the last full charge it lasted less than 8 hours! And I do not listen to music or watch videos on it. I only use iBook, google something every once in awhile and check my emails occasionally. I'm pretty frustrated and I'm almost returning it.

I'd love to know about your guy's experiences. Should I update to iOS 8.3? I'm considering installing iOS 9 on the iPad Air 2 because of the great results I'm witnessing after installing the Beta on my iPad 4, but then again, both my iPad 4s have always been great like that, the one still running iOS 6 is THE best. I've only spent five days with the Air and I wonder if it's an iOS problem or the device that is a piec of sh*t!

I deeply appreciate any input.

 

[XTheLancerX]

Update your iPad like I said. In your other forum topic.

Oh, and make sure your brightness isn't too high. By the time the brightness is at 60-75% or more on iPads, things go downhill fast. Try getting yourself used to 30% brightness if that's your issue. Based on your usage patterns you described, you will be impressed.

 

[cynics]

I get about 8 hours on any iPad Air 2 with my usage, which I'd actually consider fairly heavy. You need to goto Setting, General, Usage, Battery and see what is eating up the batter life.

You'll see this...

 

[I am Jack's account]

I get about 8 hours on any iPad Air 2 with my usage, which I'd actually consider fairly heavy. You need to goto Setting, General, Usage, Battery and see what is eating up the batter life.

You'll see this...

Mine is like that, never makes to 8 hours.

Is it something I should simply get used to? There's no way to get more than 8 hours on Air? My iPad 4 (both the one on iOS 6 and the other running iOS 9) get 14+ hours.

I'm guessing its a device thing.

 

[cynics]

Mine is like that, never makes to 8 hours.

Is it something I should simply get used to? There's no way to get more than 8 hours on Air? My iPad 4 (both the one on iOS 6 and the other running iOS 9) get 14+ hours.

I'm guessing its a device thing.

Not sure. Thats about the best I get on 2 different Air 2s. It ranges on what I'm doing though. Generally my usage is playing some games, safari, and a lot of video streaming. Brightness I keep fairly high.

Not that impressed with charging times. I actually just timed it. From completely flat it took 3 hours and 50 minutes to get to 100% using the supplied Apple charger.

 

[I am Jack's account]

Update your iPad like I said. In your other forum topic.

Oh, and make sure your brightness isn't too high. By the time the brightness is at 60-75% or more on iPads, things go downhill fast. Try getting yourself used to 30% brightness if that's your issue. Based on your usage patterns you described, you will be impressed.

Appreciated!

I wouldn't know specifically how much brightness I've been using but I'll pay attention.

I don't have notification center on, neither location service, find my iPad, cellular data, not a single push notification... Nothing, I even turned off the email fetching. I'm considering airplane mode, now it's easier to turn on and off, but I think this is severally ridiculous.

Will we never be able to get through a single day with an iPad now?

 

[cynics]

Appreciated!

I wouldn't know specifically how much brightness I've been using but I'll pay attention.

I don't have notification center on, neither location service, find my iPad, cellular data, not a single push notification... Nothing, I even turned off the email fetching. I'm considering airplane mode, now it's easier to turn on and off, but I think this is severally ridiculous.

Will we never be able to get through a single day with an iPad now?

I can not on a lazy Sunday like today.

However I keep all features turned on. Location services, wifi, bluetooth, brightness fairly high, push notifications for apps I feel need it, background app refresh for apps I feel need it, airdrop, siri, etc if it has it I have it on. I'm not going to cripple the device because to conserve battery a little bit. Typically I don't find turning things off to make too much of a difference anyway.

 

[zhenya]

The Air 2 is definitely down on battery a bit from the gen 4 and original Air (the latter being the best of all generations IMO). Still, I would expect a bit more than 8 hours unless you are using it at full brightness and perhaps using a video player heavily playing formats that it cannot decode natively. You really need to watch the energy usage reporting and see what are the biggest power draws. It could be that you are perhaps running the display overly bright and suffering from a bit of 'new device syndrome' which for me always means the battery life seems a bit lower than what it will eventually settle into as I'm using the device a lot more than I normally will in the long run. When I first got the Air 2, I definitely noticed the difference compared to the Air, but now in practical usage, it rarely matters. It still gets 10 hours for me on the absolute low end, and a lot closer to 15 for a lot of my usage (as opposed to 20 or more from the Air). It's not actually a problem in my real-life usage, however, just different.

 

[I am Jack's account]

The Air 2 is definitely down on battery a bit from the gen 4 and original Air (the latter being the best of all generations IMO). Still, I would expect a bit more than 8 hours unless you are using it at full brightness and perhaps using a video player heavily playing formats that it cannot decode natively. You really need to watch the energy usage reporting and see what are the biggest power draws. It could be that you are perhaps running the display overly bright and suffering from a bit of 'new device syndrome' which for me always means the battery life seems a bit lower than what it will eventually settle into as I'm using the device a lot more than I normally will in the long run. When I first got the Air 2, I definitely noticed the difference compared to the Air, but now in practical usage, it rarely matters. It still gets 10 hours for me on the absolute low end, and a lot closer to 15 for a lot of my usage (as opposed to 20 or more from the Air). It's not actually a problem in my real-life usage, however, just different.

Would you say the battery life on the first generation Air is better than the 4?

Would you recommend? I mean, I could definitely return Air 2 and then get Air 1. Would you say I'll see an improvement?

Thanks!

 

[zhenya]

Would you say the battery life on the first generation Air is better than the 4?

Would you recommend? I mean, I could definitely return Air 2 and then get Air 1. Would you say I'll see an improvement?

Thanks!

I think it is, but although I still have my iPad 4 in regular use, I'm not the primary user, and I can't say for 100% sure. I do remember being constantly amazed at the battery life of my Air when I upgraded from the 4 though, and that going from the Air to the Air 2 definitely felt like a step down in battery life.

Still, with all the other things that the Air 2 brings to the table, I would take the slightly less battery life, things like the laminated screen, TouchID, and extra RAM all make it feel like the better device.

 

[ipadpro]

mine 5 or 6 ,

later i jump to ios 9 update maybe less used - that suck-

 

[rui no onna]

Would you say the battery life on the first generation Air is better than the 4?

For web browsing and similar light tasks, I actually find battery life on the iPad 4 to be better than the iPad Air (~16+ hours on 4 vs ~12 hours on Air). Can't really comment on GPU heavy tasks such as gaming although I'd expect the Air to have the edge here (A7 vs A6X).

 

[sracer]

Appreciated!

I wouldn't know specifically how much brightness I've been using but I'll pay attention.

I don't have notification center on, neither location service, find my iPad, cellular data, not a single push notification... Nothing, I even turned off the email fetching. I'm considering airplane mode, now it's easier to turn on and off, but I think this is severally ridiculous.

Will we never be able to get through a single day with an iPad now?

Yes, we will never be able to get the type of battery life as we did on the iPad 4. It was too good. Apple decided to reduce the battery capacity/size in order to reduce weight and thickness.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I've purchased an iPad Air 2 last week and it came with iOS 8.1.3. I haven't updated to iOS 8.3 yet because based on most of what I read online, it's drains the battery a lot. Since the last full charge it lasted less than 8 hours! And I do not listen to music or watch videos on it. I only use iBook, google something every once in awhile and check my emails occasionally. I'm pretty frustrated and I'm almost returning it.

I'd love to know about your guy's experiences. Should I update to iOS 8.3? I'm considering installing iOS 9 on the iPad Air 2 because of the great results I'm witnessing after installing the Beta on my iPad 4, but then again, both my iPad 4s have always been great like that, the one still running iOS 6 is THE best. I've only spent five days with the Air and I wonder if it's an iOS problem or the device that is a piec of sh*t!

I deeply appreciate any input.

I would say it is user error.

Depending on the brightness setting you will not get near what Apple say you will get. Apples ideal conditions use a fairly dim screen and watching videos does not help either.

When you calm down and you "snit" ends, try turning you brightness down some and see how much longer the battery will last. Getting all upset is not going to solve anything but if you can not help yourself, just return it and find another device. My Air 2 battery does NOT last as long as previous iPads I have owned but with it being more powerful and thinner I would not expect it to be.

I have never been able to do 8 hours in a day on my iPad.

 

[wakinghour]

I have an iPad Air 2 and I noticed a bug on iOS8 where the mail app takes up over 50% of battery use without push enabled. You might want to check that.

 

[ofarlig]

You really should get more. I am at 47% remaining and i used it for around 10 hours, mostly browsing and reading in Kindle. Standby is at 3 days since last charge also. Did a small bit of gaming Heroes of Might and Magic 3 also.

 

[Will22]

You really should get more. I am at 47% remaining and i used it for around 10 hours, mostly browsing and reading in Kindle. Standby is at 3 days since last charge also. Did a small bit of gaming Heroes of Might and Magic 3 also.

So you 10 hours usage in "battery usage" but around how much screen on time do you think you have?

I have about 7 hours screen on time on this charge so far.

 

[ofarlig]

So you 10 hours usage in "battery usage" but around how much screen on time do you think you have?

I have about 7 hours screen on time on this charge so far.

About 9 hours, i had been using it quite a bit and that night alone saw 5 hours on screen time. I turned off most useless stuff that will update in background while screen is off.