Will we ever see some breakthrough in terms of battery in future iPads?

[Perene]

http://www.tabletpccomparison.net/comparison-charts/battery-life-chart

According to this chart it seems the iPads for years now can only last 10 hours in a single charge and the models who lasted more were heavier. This is an interesting topic to be discussed and one that I haven’t see getting the attention it deserves. If we run battery apps they always say 10 hours for video and for a new iPad with the iOS it came with.

Now, I don’t know what does it mean to last 10 hours since that depends on some factors, such as the level of brightness and options enabled that drain more battery. Also the battery apps say more than that for different tasks. But let’s assume it’s 10 hours with 100% brightness for everyone running the last iOS and watching YouTube, and in a reality where iOS isn’t eating more battery than it should. Let’s assume it’s that for iPads sold today, even though the IPP 10.5 came with 10.3.2.

Can we expect in the future that the iPads could last 15, 20 hours or that’s an impossibility? Or that would require the devices to become heavier in weight, and for that same reason they will always be limited to these 10 hours? I know that probably the batteries today are pretty good considering the demands imposed on the devices, but to be pretty honest I always felt lame the idea of recharging my device before going to bed, everyday.

I always wanted my iPad to last at least 2, 3 days without this need, and during those days I would be watching videos, mostly. Not all the time, of course. That is impossible with any iPad. Also the AirPods batteries wear pretty quickly, yet they can be recharged in minutes. Right now we can do that faster on the iPads (with the 29W adapter), but that’s the only significant improvement I ever saw since the first iPad was released.

Or these 10 hours are not due to technical limitations, instead they are an imposition from Apple? Even the idea of planned obsolescence and wearing the batteries faster to generate more profits for them doesn’t explain why we need to recharge everyday, I mean, even if Apple wanted to last 500 instead of 1000 cycles I still don’t understand why for each cycle we need to do it so fast, in 1 instead of 2 days.

 

[sosumi99]

The battery life is partly a matter of technical limitations and partly a matter of Apple’s design choices. Apple seems to have made a design decision that thinner is better, while a battery life of around 10 hours is “good enough.” Thus, as battery technology improves and components are made more energy efficient, instead of maintaining the same thickness in its laptops and tablets and phones and put in a bigger battery with a longer life, Apple has chosen to reduce the thickness of the devices and leave the battery life the same.

I personally think we’ve long reached the point of diminishing returns on the pursuit of thinness (certainly for the laptops and maybe also for the iPads), but Apple doesn’t appear to agree (or thinks customers will prioritize thinness and weight over battery life longer than ~10 hours). Thus, I don’t think we’ll see longer battery life in these devices even as the technology keeps on improving.

 

[acorntoy]

The battery life is partly a matter of technical limitations and partly a matter of Apple’s design choices. Apple seems to have made a design decision that thinner is better, while a battery life of around 10 hours is “good enough.” Thus, as battery technology improves and components are made more energy efficient, instead of maintaining the same thickness in its laptops and tablets and phones and put in a bigger battery with a longer life, Apple has chosen to reduce the thickness of the devices and leave the battery life the same.

I personally think we’ve long reached the point of diminishing returns on the pursuit of thinness (certainly for the laptops and maybe also for the iPads), but Apple doesn’t appear to agree (or thinks customers will prioritize thinness and weight over battery life longer than ~10 hours). Thus, I don’t think we’ll see longer battery life in these devices even as the technology keeps on improving.

Pro 12.9 still needs some weight loss. Although they managed to drop the 2’nd gen’s weight without decreasing battery size (very slight, but noticeable)

But the actual answer is: probably soon after you see dramatic battery improvements in the car markets.

 

[Precursor]

The processors need to have a breakthrough first. Going from 10nm to 7nm will help shave battery, but that'll also be an small decrease.
I'm thinking in 10-15 years when quantum processors become a commercial thing, batteries can be shrunken to ridiculously small sizes. Until then we'll get incremental weight and size reductions.

 

[sonicrobby]

To me it doesnt seem to be the battery tech, as it has been improving over the years. But as batteries become more compact, Apple aims to make their devices even thinner. I bet if they used today's batteries (like the layered sheets used in the 12" MB), and the current iPad components inside the original iPad, it could potentially last maybe a whole day, even 2 under a single charge.

One of my pet peeves is how the camera sticks out of the iPads. I wish apple would add an extra few mm of battery to make the back flush again.

 

[Perene]

If the chart isn't inaccurate then there's a 10.1 device with even less weight (0.39 kg / 0.86 lbs) than the IPP 10.5 (469 g (Wi-Fi) / 477 g (LTE) (1.03 lb) that can last 5 hours more:

But it was released in 2015 and I think it's even more expensive. There's also the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016) which appears to last 15 hours too, the problem is that it's heavier (1.16 lbs, 520g). Samsung also had battery issues with the S3 model (9.7 screen, 429 g/0.94 lbs (Wi-Fi)/ 434 g (LTE), released in April 2017):

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-s3/help/battery-drain-t3596556

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Tablets/Tab-S3-is-this-really-the-battery-life/td-p/140140
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-s3/how-to/wifi-power-drain-bug-please-report-to-t3624872
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Tablets/tab-S3-wifi-power-drain-bug/m-p/123511#M5427

Which makes me wonder if this isn't something them (and Apple) can't fix or improve greatly at least for the time being.

Note: in my opinion the IPP 10.5 is not that much heavier than the IPP 9.7 but it shouldn't be more than that, this is the limit for me and I wouldn't buy a tablet thicker/heavier.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I am very happy with my 10.5 battery. The only advances we will see to increase battery life will be making the circuitry more efficient. That is until they come up with a new battery chemistry. I heard of advances but nothing in the next few years will replace the battery chemistry we use now.

 

[gobikerider]

My 12.9 battery easily goes from 7am-12pm or 2+days with light usage.

 

[rui no onna]

At around 25-50% brightness (varies depending on ambient light), I get around 15+ hours of onscreen time (mostly Safari, non-media heavy websites) on the 2017 iPad (A9). I've gotten around the same battery life on the iPad 4 (iOS 6) with similar usage.

I think A10 Fusion and A11 Bionic (the iPhone chipsets) would be quite interesting on the iPad as far as battery life goes.

 

[kristalsoldier]

The battery life is partly a matter of technical limitations and partly a matter of Apple’s design choices. Apple seems to have made a design decision that thinner is better, while a battery life of around 10 hours is “good enough.” Thus, as battery technology improves and components are made more energy efficient, instead of maintaining the same thickness in its laptops and tablets and phones and put in a bigger battery with a longer life, Apple has chosen to reduce the thickness of the devices and leave the battery life the same.

I personally think we’ve long reached the point of diminishing returns on the pursuit of thinness (certainly for the laptops and maybe also for the iPads), but Apple doesn’t appear to agree (or thinks customers will prioritize thinness and weight over battery life longer than ~10 hours). Thus, I don’t think we’ll see longer battery life in these devices even as the technology keeps on improving.

Very interesting. Also, most likely Apple is also staying true to its original design intent with the iPad, i.e., as a device that stands between a phone and a laptop. Such a device would not normally be at work for more than 10 hours a day as it shares usage time with the phone and the laptop. So the 10 hour battery life would seem reasonable.

Edit: Though the above logic falters with the 12.9 version and indeed the way Apple seems to be trying to position the Pro line.

 

[steve62388]

Battery technology has not advanced as fast as the other components in portable devices. It's very frustrating and I don't see it changing any time soon.

I keep reading about 'breakthroughs' made but they are still years away from commercial production.