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iPad M1 iPad Pro 5 years on

My iPad Air M1 on 26.5 is still a very good device. Battery life is diminishing but I’m never that far away from a power supply. This replaced an older MacBook and I’ve yet to find myself seriously wishing for a ‘real’ computer. True, my needs aren’t heavy going (no coding, graphics etc), but I do use it for music recording via GarageBand which it excels at and it deftly handles the usual daily computing etc. Attached to an external monitor (with Magic Keyboard and Mouse) it’s basically my Mac.
 
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FeliApple said:
I would assume that iPadOS 18 isn’t that heavy on an M1 iPad (Air or Pro, it’s the same) compared to either of the original versions (14 for the Pro, 15 for the Air), but is this the case? Do you see lag or slowness somewhere? Is battery life worse?
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I have 2 M1, both maxed out, one 11" and one 12.9" (see my signature), the 11" is on 15 and the 12.9 is on 26. Performance is the same. I cannot compare battery life since the 11" is at 100% health and the 12.9" is at 83%. But I haven't seen battery life getting noticeably worse with updates on the 12.9. I would say the real impact on battery life came with iPadOS (13-14), but it has not got worse over time. I don't update my 11" to be able to use OS virtualization via the full UTM, but otherwise the M1 would not be penalized by 26 in any meaningful way, unless of course people prefer older versions.
I would not update my 2018 pro to 26. For now it's on 17 but now that all iPads can be updated to 18 I'll probably do at some point (no hurry, maybe in a year or 2). In my experience 18 takes more RAM causing more reloads, but does not degrade performance otherwise.
 
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I am still rocking an 11 iPad Pro and the battery is still good it is current on update and does everything I need it to do so until the battery drops significantly or it can no longer receive updates it will remain in my arsenal.
 
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I’ve had an iPad Pro M1 12.9 256GB since ‘21. It’s paired with a Magic Keyboard and Pencil, currently running 26.4.1. Unable to view the battery health percentage on this model. I almost sold it recently and had diagnostics run on the battery health…was told it was good. I’ve recently begun to notice a little stutter or dropped frame rates, not as fluid, during transitional effects. I’m considering a complete wipe and restore from back-up.

Edit: Went back to standard from clear icons. Seems more fluid again. Not sure if placebo or genuine fix yet.
 
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r_mack said:
I have an iPad Pro M1 128 Gb 11” since fall 2021. Still going incredibly strong. Battery is around 90%. Handles iPadOS 26 expertly.
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The M1 iPad Pro seemed to be future proof for sure. Are you able to view your battery health percentage? My model doesn’t show that unless it’s hidden and I’ve not found it.
 
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lookn4wifi said:
The M1 iPad Pro seemed to be future proof for sure. Are you able to view your battery health percentage? My model doesn’t show that unless it’s hidden and I’ve not found it.
Click to expand...
lookn4wifi said:
The M1 iPad Pro seemed to be future proof for sure. Are you able to view your battery health percentage? My model doesn’t show that unless it’s hidden and I’ve not found it.
Click to expand...
Not directly. I used this workaround. Not perfect, but worked well enough.
 
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lookn4wifi said:
I’ve had an iPad Pro M1 12.9 256GB since ‘21. It’s paired with a Magic Keyboard and Pencil, currently running 26.4.1. Unable to view the battery health percentage on this model. I almost sold it recently and had diagnostics run on the battery health…was told it was good. I’ve recently begun to notice a little stutter or dropped frame rates, not as fluid, during transitional effects. I’m considering a complete wipe and restore from back-up.

Edit: Went back to standard from clear icons. Seems more fluid again. Not sure if placebo or genuine fix yet.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think that the M1 iPads are far better suited for longevity than its significantly affected predecessors. Even performance was a bit of an issue by the time the 1st and 2nd-gen Pros were updated to their final versions, and battery life was useless. I’ve seen people getting 2-3 hours on updated 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and brightness wasn’t high enough to justify it.

I still contend that the biggest threat to M1 iPads is Apple killing battery life again through updates that are too much. Liquid Glass was apparently a start in that direction, see how many people here are now saying that “battery life is noticeably worse now”. The same thing happened with newer iPhones, but this is likely to get worse as updates go by.

The question is how much: it is one thing to go from 20 hours of light SOT to 12, than to 6. 12 might be acceptable for many or most, 6 wouldn’t be.

I’m a bit more hopeful about performance: see how many people just report iPadOS 26 artifacts instead of something catastrophic like in the past. Maybe Apple maintains performance quality in the future and thus contributes to longevity.

I’m rather certain that a charger will be a far more frequent occurrence though, I have no confidence in Apple maintaining battery life, even the fairly diminished iPadOS 26 battery life will probably seem great a few more updates in.

The good thing about these iPads is that well, if you have the Pencil at least you can keep it for that even if compatibility drops. Pages won’t stop working, GoodNotes, Notability, etc, won’t either.

I wouldn’t want to be using a 1st-gen iPad Pro on iPadOS 16 because performance is poor and battery life is pathetic. Hopefully I would want to use an M1 iPad even as updates keep coming, and hopefully I’ll be able to describe battery life as decent even then.
 
FeliApple said:
Yeah, I know how it works, that’s why I asked: are you comparing current health vs MaximumFCC or NominalChargeCapacity? Also, what’s your cycle count?
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Just now, I divided the Maximum FCC by the Nominal Charge Capacity. Result is 89.3%. If I divide against the original spec, the result is 95% which is ridiculous. Cycle Count is 361. I always turn iPad off at night, so that’s helping. I charge probably every 3-4 days.
 
r_mack said:
I have an iPad Pro M1 128 Gb 11” since fall 2021. Still going incredibly strong. Battery is around 90%. Handles iPadOS 26 expertly.
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Same model, I think I have it since 2022... I don't know what the BH is, but it lasts for days and gets used daily (note taking, reading, web, mail, some youtube). I don't see any reason to replace it.
 
My 11” M1 Pro is 4.5 years old now and 87% battery health after heavy use.
Tip.. you can get Apple to remotely diagnose your battery health if you contact them and ask them to remote in,

Was considering upgrading to the new M5 but it seems unnecessary for me. . OLED nicer but MKHBD said the audio in the thinner pros like the M 4/5 was worse.
I can see this lasting up to the M6 exp first half 2028 and I’ll see what that brings.
Don’t need a Mac unless my usage changes, which it might when I retire but I will still want an iPad, I love mine.
 
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r_mack said:
Just now, I divided the Maximum FCC by the Nominal Charge Capacity. Result is 89.3%. If I divide against the original spec, the result is 95% which is ridiculous. Cycle Count is 361. I always turn iPad off at night, so that’s helping. I charge probably every 3-4 days.
Click to expand...
361 with 95% health is great!
 
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I traded my iPad M1 12.9" for my wife's 11" iPad Pro 2. Gen with A12z CPU. She uses the M1 iPad in the kitchen to watch TV only. As it was plugged in all the time the battery is now degraded to 79%. I wanted the 11" because of its better portability. Battery is at 87%. I upgraded it to 27.4 and it still works without any hick-ups. Very happy with it.
 
The performance of my M1 11' is still good but the battery is abysmal and has always been not that good that's why last year I've upgraded to a M4 11' witch have a much, much better battery life due to OLED screen (in fact its the best battery I've ever had for iPad alongside my 13' M5 iPad Pro). Also, when you see the OLED screen of M4 iPads and up, you simply can't go back, its just that good.
 
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SoYoung said:
The performance of my M1 11' is still good but the battery is abysmal and has always been not that good that's why last year I've upgraded to a M4 11' witch have a much, much better battery life due to OLED screen (in fact its the best battery I've ever had for iPad alongside my 13' M5 iPad Pro). Also, when you see the OLED screen of M4 iPads and up, you simply can't go back, its just that good.
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The screens on the IPP m4 and m5 are fantastic. Colors just pop.
 
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FeliApple said:
Full brightness has killed every device ever, regardless of the iOS version or device or whether it’s new or anything. The screen just consumes too much power.

Absolutely nothing you can do, every device, past, present, and probably future too will have horrendous battery life with full brightness.

Sadly there’s no solution other than decreasing brightness. If you feel that even full brightness isn’t enough then you are just going to have to tolerate it/accept it.
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Not for OLEDs iPad Pros. I'm also using my iPads with max brightness and with the OLED iPads I can easily last 5 hours between 80% (charge limit) to 20%. This is almost 3x as good as previous M-Series iPads. Just today my M5 13' have 1h30 screen time with full brightness and just go down by 10% (80% to 70). The same screen time on my old M2 12,9 one would probably drained all the battery.
 
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SoYoung said:
Not for OLEDs iPad Pros. I'm also using my iPads with max brightness and with the OLED iPads I can easily last 5 hours between 80% (charge limit) to 20%. This is almost 3x as good as previous M-Series iPads. Just today my M5 13' have 1h30 screen time with full brightness and just go down by 10% (80% to 70). The same screen time on my old M2 12,9 one would probably drained all the battery.
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If with low brightness and efficient use the maximum possible battery life is 30 hours (and I’ve read that 13-inch M4 and M5 iPads are significantly better than their predecessors), 7 hours is still killing the device, it’s just better. But yeah, my 16 Plus is also better than my previous LCD iPhones with comparably higher brightness, it makes sense. I don’t have OLED iPads nor do I use iPads with high brightness to compare. I use my iPhone outdoors, but not my iPads.

In any case, for M1 iPads there’s no solution at all. You can expect the same-old 4 hours of SOT with 100% brightness.

Max brightness use is interesting for me on the charging aspect, you can expect more or less the same time of use than the time it takes to charge.

I don’t think 1.5 hours of full brightness would’ve killed the M2, but 4-5 hours is as high as you’ll probably get.

With OLED, brightness is the main battery killer regardless, it’s just a little better than it is with an LCD screen. My 16 Plus on iOS 18 is better with higher brightness than even my highly efficient Xʀ on iOS 12 in terms of percentage of SOT vs low brightness, but battery life can still be called poor with high brightness.

In any case, if you have an M1 iPad and need full brightness, you have to keep a charger nearby, almost regardless of what you’re doing with it.

Just curious, do you use it with full brightness because you like it like that or because you need it (i.e., you use it outdoors)?
 
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