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Airpods Pro - How long to fully charge them in case?
- Thread starter scotio200
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I was at 1% at 8:30. I put them in the case and am using the Apple fast charger. They’re at 72% at 8:51.
And from around that 70% mark they charge very slowly. This graph shows the results from my testing. I charged the AirPods in the case from 0-100%. The case itself had a charge level of 50% when the charging started. The case was not plugged in/wirelessly charged during the charging of the AirPods Pro. The lid of the case was closed during charging, except for when checking charge level at the time intervals shown in the graph. I’m going to do the same test with my gen 1 AirPods, and also a test where I charge from 70-100%.
Here is the same test conducted on AirPods gen 1. They charge more or less fully in 17 minutes compared to almost 60 on the AirPods Pro. AirPods Pro are four times slower to fully charge from 0. That’s very disappointing to me.
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Bye battery longevity. If you have a laser thermal detector, then do a test on the charging case when using Qi vs cable connection for fast/normal charging from 0% over the interval of 0-5-10 minutes. This would be an interesting short study you could do.
Basic premise which applies to all of the batteries that are Lithium-Ion cells; more heat = greater degradation (shortening of lifespan). In fact this applies to most or all battery cell technology. The cycles have less overall effect of shortening the battery longevity than heat energy does. I know fast charging will be the worse because of the amount of energy transfer to the cells in a much shorter period of time over normal linear charging. Heat is just the byproduct of the chemical reaction taking place to reverse the cell state and you're not going to completely eliminate it. With every cycle the reversal of the chemical reaction of the lithium-ion is reduced. Introduce more heat and even less of those ions are returned to the original state. But if you want the longest life out of the charging case batteries, then always charge them with a cable and 5W source. The charging cycle can't draw more than 1Ah. You could even charge them with a 2.5W power source at 5VDC, 500 mAh, which takes longer to fully charge but has less adverse effects on component lifespan because of less heat energy.
Yeah, I believe Apple has made the decision to charge the AirPods Pro slower than the original AirPods for better battery longevity. I just think it’s weird that none of the reviews mention this at all.
To some people this might be a dealbreaker, not being able to quickly charge the AirPods like you’re used to. If Apple released the next iPhone with 4x longer charging time, people would be furious, even though it would prolong battery life.
With all the battery operated products we rely on in our daily lives it has to be a balance between user convenience (quick charging) and product longevity (slow charging). With the AirPods Pro charging 4x slower than their predecessors, that balance is heavily tilted imho.
To some people this might be a dealbreaker, not being able to quickly charge the AirPods like you’re used to. If Apple released the next iPhone with 4x longer charging time, people would be furious, even though it would prolong battery life.
With all the battery operated products we rely on in our daily lives it has to be a balance between user convenience (quick charging) and product longevity (slow charging). With the AirPods Pro charging 4x slower than their predecessors, that balance is heavily tilted imho.
Of course it does. Gen 1 with degraded batteries are going to charge significantly faster than a new Pro (or Gen 1) set as it's less work needed to get to 100%. Unless those Gen 1s were new, the above comparison is useless.
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The Gen 1 AirPods I used for my testing are not brand new but I have brand new Gen 2 AirPods available for testing and they’re basically identical to the results above. There are also YouTube tests available that confirms the much faster Gen 1 charging times compared to the AirPods Pro.
The topic here is the much slower charging of the AirPods Pro compared to Gen 1 and Gen 2 AirPods, and that’s definitely no placebo.
The topic here is the much slower charging of the AirPods Pro compared to Gen 1 and Gen 2 AirPods, and that’s definitely no placebo.
Wait, are people implying that Apple shouldn't have made an effort to extend the AirPods Pro battery life/longevity? I mean, that's presumably why the charging speed tapers off that drastically at the end ... IMO this is a very good thing!
It might definitely be a good thing for a majority of users but Apple should have communicated the change. It might be a dealbreaker for some users that their AirPods suddenly take four times longer to charge. Once again, if Apple would have done the same thing to the iPhone without communicating it people would have gone insane!
I mean, you CAN use and listen to the APPs without a 100% charge.
I try not to keep these things in my ears for more than a couple of hours at a time. Perfect time to give them extra juice for the next usage session.
Also, as far as the data collected on the charging times in post #3, when your APPs show 99% for several minutes while charging, disconnect and reconnect your charger. This has immediately reset my APPs to 100%. Seems like a minor bug but I’ve done it a couple of times.
I try not to keep these things in my ears for more than a couple of hours at a time. Perfect time to give them extra juice for the next usage session.
Also, as far as the data collected on the charging times in post #3, when your APPs show 99% for several minutes while charging, disconnect and reconnect your charger. This has immediately reset my APPs to 100%. Seems like a minor bug but I’ve done it a couple of times.
no, I think it's a perfectly true and fair point that you don't have to charge to 100% to use the product. If you look at the graph, a 10 minute charge on the original Airpods gets you up to ~84%, while a 10 minute charge on AirPods Pro gets you to ~50% (e.g. ~2.5 hrs of battery life). So yes, it is slower but not always 4x slower and it's charging characteristics are perfectly compatible with many usage patterns. (I would never have noticed this difference, for instance).
If this translates to a longer overall retention of battery life (still to be determined, but reasonable based on the laws of physics discussed above), then I would say that Apple has done the right thing!
Yep i had the same with my AirPod Pro's. Sometimes they charge to 99% and only register 100% if I disconnect them from the charger. Interestingly though, if I use a 5W charger or a portable low wattage charger rather than a fast charger, they do charge to 100%
The difference between 99-100% is minor and quite uninteresting to me. My observations were that a full charge takes much longer. If a full charge is a 99% or 100% charge doesn’t really matter to me. The big difference in time is between the 0-98% charge.
I’d suggest not to go down below 20% if you can...
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That’s actually a good news. Fast charging is not a good idea for batteries.
I think that may be an hour of ‘listening time’, so music, but I agree it’s still excellent that we can get an hour via quick charge, & potentially have extra long term life thanks to smarter standard charge functionality.
Just got these and I cant believe how slow they are to charge compared to my AirPods 2.
Another thing I've noticed is when I put them in the charging case after using them say they are at about 75% for example. When I open the lid it's saying the battery is 50 something % has anyone else noticed this on theirs?
Another thing I've noticed is when I put them in the charging case after using them say they are at about 75% for example. When I open the lid it's saying the battery is 50 something % has anyone else noticed this on theirs?
Yeah, mine have been like that since the start. However it seems like a false reading because when I use them I can use them for maybe an hour and they still say they are at the same percentage as when I picked them up from the charger. It’s very strange this hasn’t been fixed in any of the firmware updates. I simply don’t care anymore about what percentage they show. I just use then.