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redman042

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 13, 2008
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The new iPad has a 42.5 watt hour battery. The iPad 2 was only 25 watt hour. That's a 70% higher capacity battery in the new iPad! I was shocked to see this. The retina display must be pulling a lot of juice, as many suspected (particularly those who said a retina display would not happen).

The article that points this out is here:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/new-ipads-most-revolutionary-feature-is-its-battery/18985

Apple lists the battery sizes in the tech specs on their website, so this is confirmed.

iPad weight differences are 1.44 lbs vs 1.33 lbs, an 8% difference. So let me get this straight: They took the biggest, heaviest component in the iPad and increased its capacity by 70% but only bumped the weight of the device by 8%? How'd they do that? As ZDNet implies, there must be more advanced technology in that battery.

I also wonder about charging. The charger in both the iPad 2 and new iPad is 10W per Apple's website. So does the new battery take a charge faster, or will it take 70% longer to charge the device?
 
I also wonder about charging. The charger in both the iPad 2 and new iPad is 10W per Apple's website. So does the new battery take a charge faster, or will it take 70% longer to charge the device?

It will take longer, but I'm not sure by how much. The Retina screen, the LTE (on the LTE models) and the increase in RAM all contribute to the higher power consumption, so it is pretty incredible that they kept the +10 hour battery life. Well worth the extra 60 grams.
 
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