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Typing battery life on iPad
- Thread starter Josias
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I type a lot in Pages on the iPad, often for 2 or 3 hours straight. I've noticed that the battery drains at approximately 8-10% per hour, depending on screen brightness and the aggressiveness of the typing. Although, I am never ONLY typing, because I will often flip to a Dictionary app or Safari to look something up.
I'd say your hands will fall off before the battery runs out! 
Seriously, I use my iPad a lot, and I've never run out of battery before the end of the day. Sometimes I go for two days before having to charge. Unless you are going somewhere where the only electricity available is from a portable generator, it's not an issuue.
Seriously, I use my iPad a lot, and I've never run out of battery before the end of the day. Sometimes I go for two days before having to charge. Unless you are going somewhere where the only electricity available is from a portable generator, it's not an issuue.
That is exactly the situation. From reading Helvetica's reply,it seems I'm looking at 10-12 hours of typing, but that's with the occasional use of Safari / Dictionary, and not necessarily a dim screen. Would 15 hours be unrealistic to expect if one did nothing but type with the display at low light?
15 hours??? I don't know if that is possible. I don't think anyone ever tried testing how long the battery will last under such usage, you'll have to try it and report back!
Do you already have the iPad 1, or are you thinking of buying the iPad 2? If you have the iPad 1, and you are willing to jailbreak it, there's a mod that lets you dim the screen to lower levels than the lowest settings allowed by Apple. If you are getting the iPad 2, there's no telling when it would be jailbroken and if it is, whether or not this mod will work on iPad 2.
If WiFi and 3G are off (i.e. it is in airplane mode), the screen is dimmed to minimum, notifications are off, and no other apps are running, the battery life will be dependent on the efficiency of the application you are using. Even though you are typing the application has to render the letters/words on the screen and this takes some amount of processing power. Certainly wouldn't want to use an editor that has fancy on-screen graphics like spinning logos or animated effects.
I think you could get pretty close to 15 hours under the right conditions with a brand new iPad, assuming some short bathroom/food breaks where the iPad is turned off.
I think you could get pretty close to 15 hours under the right conditions with a brand new iPad, assuming some short bathroom/food breaks where the iPad is turned off.
The 15 hours would be over several days, if not a week. But what you're referring to, the airplane mode and all others processes that might consume battery life, is exactly the condition it would be used under. The text editor used is also of little relevance, ideally it would be one that taxes the battery as little as possible.
I think you can count on a solid 10 hours of typing, and if wifi is off and screened dimmed a bit more. But if you have a wireless keyboard that will take some power -- and if you're typing a lot you probably want a real keyboard.
If you're somewhere without power, take along a gel-cell battery, like those powerstation things, add a small inverter, and plug in the ipad charger. Depending on the size of the battery, this would give you a couple of full recharges.
If you're somewhere without power, take along a gel-cell battery, like those powerstation things, add a small inverter, and plug in the ipad charger. Depending on the size of the battery, this would give you a couple of full recharges.
15 hours?
15 hours will be unrealistic.
15 hours is a bit much. Suppose, though, you trained yourself to hit the sleep button every time you were stuck or blocked. Might not work, since some people like to read back what they've already written at such times.
I do not care what button you hit but asking a ipad to run for 15 hours is pushing it. If you got 10 you should be happy.