Magic Trackpad 2 - Fast Battery Drain?

[Tucom]

So I got the new 4K iMac and Trackpad 2 up and running on the 28th with the MTP 2 having about 95% battery life, and now about a week later it's at 39% - wasn't this device supposed to have "about a month" of battery life? Funnily enough the (awesome) Magic Keyboard only dropped an impressive 2-3 percent, so it's projected to go well past the estimated runtime from Apple.

Anyone else having fast battery drain? I DO use it A LOT - could be I'm activating the haptic engine and speaker much more so than most users, so maybe my unit is perfectly fine. Overnight the battery life doesn't budge, which is great, and thus leads me to believe my unit is fine.

Though I just wanted to see what others experiences were.

Works absolutely perfect otherwise.

 

[AVonGauss]

Deleted.

 

[Tucom]

After purchase charged to make sure it was 100%, I got 12 days before it went down to 8%. Running on the second charge now, hopefully it will be slightly better.

Cool, glad mine isn't faulty then. That appears to be roughly the same the battery life mine is getting.

Honestly that's not too bad - wasn't the original MTP about the same, but it lacked the haptic engine and speaker which have a far greater power draw than the mere buttons the original had?

That runtime is fine for me personally, just wanted to make sure mine wasn't a lemon.

 

[satinsilverem2]

I changed mine about 8 days ago and I'm currently at 45 percent. I know Apple says "up to" one month but over 50 percent in one week is a little higher of a drain than I would like. Then again I'm using it 6-8 hours a day so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[dyn]

I got mine second week of October and charged it to 100% that day because I connected it with the Lightning cable to pair and kept it connected that way. After reaching 100% I disconnected it and solely used it via BT. Today it is at 48%. I do turn it off when I'm not going to use it for a long period (basically I turn it off when going to bed) and I think my usage is somewhere between 2 hrs a day to 6 hrs a day.

 

[Tucom]

I got mine second week of October and charged it to 100% that day because I connected it with the Lightning cable to pair and kept it connected that way. After reaching 100% I disconnected it and solely used it via BT. Today it is at 48%. I do turn it off when I'm not going to use it for a long period (basically I turn it off when going to bed) and I think my usage is somewhere between 2 hrs a day to 6 hrs a day.

So it's been going strong for about 23 days then? Mine is nowhere near that, but Avon's (second post) experience matches mine perfectly, and I do use it pretty heavily. Standby time seems negligible; no point in turning it off really - next day not even a single percentage has dropped.


Also...

Whenever I fully charge mine overnight via a USB wall charger(2.1A 5V = ~ 10W, yes? About the same as USB 3, shouldn't damage it), the moment I connect it and check battery level, it so far as always been at 95%. That normal?

 

[dyn]

Yes, just about 20 to 23 days. The 95% doesn't sound normal though. I've seen the battery usage drop quite a lot when I used to keep my Magic Mouse and the former Magic Trackpad powered on. I tried if turning them off when bed time would make a difference. And it did, quite a lot actually, so I started powering them off when not using them.

 

[Tucom]

Yes, just about 20 to 23 days. The 95% doesn't sound normal though. I've seen the battery usage drop quite a lot when I used to keep my Magic Mouse and the former Magic Trackpad powered on. I tried if turning them off when bed time would make a difference. And it did, quite a lot actually, so I started powering them off when not using them.

Alright, well, I'll just sit with it for now. 'm not too worried about it atm, but curious if anyone else has any MTP 2 scenarios that match mine or, instead, more closely match yours.

As long as mine isn't faulty then it's not a big deal to me. But you'd think the quoted estimated battery life via Apple would account for the device never being turned off; only using standby mode.

 

[dyn]

I think they went with the most optimal scenario which means turning it off after use. Not that it really matters since it supports being used via the cable and quick charging. Btw, they are also not that very specific about battery life:

And the battery will power your Magic Trackpad 2 for about a month or more before needing a recharge.

 

[Tucom]

I think they went with the most optimal scenario which means turning it off after use. Not that it really matters since it supports being used via the cable and quick charging. Btw, they are also not that very specific about battery life:

I imagine they meant w/o turning it off. Otherwise wouldn't they have mentioned it? You could be right though, and to get their mentioned battery life, it seems you have to turn it off.

"About a month" is 25-30 days, give or take - about twice what I and other users are reporting. Again, it's not a big deal to me if that's the norm.

My Magic Keyboard is still above 85% - couldn't be happier that.

 

[darkinners]

Been using it for almost two weeks.
The trackpad has 95% battery unbox.
Today it still has 83%, I use about 4-5 hours a day.
in those 4-5 hours , around 85% of time I use trackpad, 15% of time I use magic mouse.

 

[Tucom]

Been using it for almost two weeks.
The trackpad has 95% battery unbox.
Today it still has 83%, I use about 4-5 hours a day.
in those 4-5 hours , around 85% of time I use trackpad, 15% of time I use magic mouse.

Weird. Do you turn yours off when not in use at all? Besides one other poster mine is in line with how other people's are behaving, so still not too worried about it, but this disparity is a bit odd...

 

[darkinners]

Weird. Do you turn yours off when not in use at all? Besides one other poster mine is in line with how other people's are behaving, so still not too worried about it, but this disparity is a bit odd...

No I don't but I use it with my rMBP, I close the laptop lid when I am not using it.
I don't know if this matter to the battery life of the trackpad.

 

[SteveJobzniak]

It seems to drain battery slower if your Mac supports Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy mode.

Then again, I've seen a claim that the Magic Trackpad 2 uses a Bluetooth 3.0 chipset internally so it wouldn't even know what Low Energy mode is.

But just in my own testing: With a Mac Pro 2009 upgraded to a Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy card, I seem to remember that the Magic Trackpad 2 was draining slower than my MacBook Pro 2010 with Bluetooth 3.0 card.

I lose about 10% per day on the Magic Trackpad 2 + MBP 2010 combo. I think it was only 5-8% when used with the Mac Pro with Bluetooth 4.0.

The Magic Keyboard, on the other hand, drains VEEEEERY slow even on the MacBook Pro 2010. So that one works perfectly.

Both the MT2 and MK will go into sleep mode when not touched for a while, so you don't need to worry about turning them off manually. When you press a key/tap the touchpad, they wake up and re-pair with the computer.

My solution for the MT2 battery drain on MBP was to connect it via the lightning cable at all times, and only use the keyboard wirelessly. Works fine for me. I prefer to keep my MT2's battery living long, and don't want to be charging it once a week, because that would rapidly kill the battery (which has something like 500 cycles max before it's bad, aka 500+ weeks if charging once a week). Then again, I guess when I think about it, there's no problem with a 500 week lifetime, since that is nearly 10 years.

In short: Yes the Magic Trackpad 2 seems to drain a bit faster if the host computer lacks Bluetooth 4 (which is listed as a requirement for the trackpad even though it works without that), but it's no big problem, and you can connect it via lightning cable to keep it at 100% battery at all times if you want to. As for the keyboard, it works perfectly no matter what.

Edit: I see that the thread starter uses a 4k iMac and that it has Bluetooth 4.0. Odd, I guess the Magic Trackpad 2 eats battery even with BT4.0 Macs. Maybe I just never noticed it on my Mac Pro since I often plugged in the cable to charge it without checking the levels... Well, in this case, just enjoy it even if you Mac is old and don't worry about the battery drain, it's apparently normal to go down in a week of heavy use.

Edit: People say that they get much better battery life when turning them off at night/when away from computer. I guess I will try that. Maybe it uses quite a bit of energy to keep waiting for a tap.

 

[priitv8]

Edit: People say that they get much better battery life when turning them off at night/when away from computer. I guess I will try that. Maybe it uses quite a bit of energy to keep waiting for a tap.

Still, they must have fundamentally different energy needs. I own both the keyboard and trackpad of the 1st generation. I also always switch the trackpad off when not in use. Still, the keyboard battery lasts for about 10 times longer. Don't remember, when was the last time I did charge the keyboard batteries. Trackpad's were recharged about 2 weeks ago.

 

[SteveJobzniak]

Still, they must have fundamentally different energy needs.

That is true. A trackpad sends hundreds of move points per second for smooth cursor movement. A keyboard sends one key on and one key off event.