iPad Air iPad Air 5 battery life?

[Warped9]

Last year, November 2022, I picked up an iPad Air 5 with M1. It’s been a good and snappy performing device with no disappointments after upgrading from an old iPad Pro 10.5.

But…perhaps mistakenly, I expected better battery life from a device with an M1. One of the significant benefits on the M series processors in the MacBooks has been excellent battery life significantly beyond you would get in an Intel or AMD powered laptop. And a laptop should be harder on a battery than a tablet, no? But I’m not seeing it with my iPad Air 5. In daily use I don’t see it as really any better than my old iPad Pro 10.5 even after five years of use.

Was I expecting too much? Or is something off here?

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

 

[boogiedout]

Battery life is awful, worst of any iPad I’ve owned

 

[Warped9]

Battery life is awful, worst of any iPad I’ve owned

For me it isn’t that it’s horrible, but it’s no better than my old 10.5 ever was. I expected/hoped for distinctly better.

 

[JRoDDz]

Have iPad Air 5th gen. Battery just likes to drain for no reason. Even when not using it, it just drains. Usually I need to place it in airplane mode just to stop the drain.

 

[rui no onna]

Last year, November 2022, I picked up an iPad Air 5 with M1. It’s been a good and snappy performing device with no disappointments after upgrading from an old iPad Pro 10.5.

But…perhaps mistakenly, I expected better battery life from a device with an M1. One of the significant benefits on the M series processors in the MacBooks has been excellent battery life significantly beyond you would get in an Intel or AMD powered laptop. And a laptop should be harder on a battery than a tablet, no? But I’m not seeing it with my iPad Air 5. In daily use I don’t see it as really any better than my old iPad Pro 10.5 even after five years of use.

Was I expecting too much? Or is something off here?

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

The improvement on MacBooks was due to the switch from more power hungry Intel to more efficient ARM chips.

The iPad Pro 10.5 was using an ARM chipset to begin with.

Also, laptops tend to have bigger batteries than iPads. Iirc, the M1 MBA has a 50Wh battery while the M1 iPad Air only has a little less than 30Wh.

 

[Howard2k]

I upgraded from 9th gen iPad to 5th gen iPad Air and my thoughts were that the battery was not as good on the Air as the 9th.

But Apple claims the same battery life for each unit:
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video


Looking at my Saturday usage, I had 5 hours of usage on my Air, and used around 55% of my battery. That's perfectly in line with the 10 hours of usage that Apple claims. So while my gut feel was that there might be something wrong, it appears to be perfectly in spec.

Luckily I also had saved a copy of a 10 day battery profile from my iPad 9 and I went back and double checked that. On a day with 3.5 hours usage I used around pretty much bang on 50%. So my iPad 9 was actually quite a bit less efficient, it's just that my perception was wrong due to my changed usage patterns with the new iPad.

I'm not saying any of this applies to any of you, just that when I actually checked the data it's not what I thought.

The M1 MacBook Air has a 50 Watt-hour battery, compared to 32 Watt-hours on the iPad Air 5, so another 50% capacity.

 

[nph]

Battery life is awful, worst of any iPad I’ve owned

Agree 100% i have to charge it several times a week and I use it maybe 30 minutes per day for reading news.
Would a complete reinstall help?

 

[FeliApple]

I’m a light user and my battery life is great, but people aren’t too happy with heavy usage. There’s probably a reason for that.

 

[RaphaZ]

Is the 4th Gen Air better?

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I’m using mine for research online, note-taking with GoodNotes, reading (kindle), messages and Spotify as well as (sometimes) drawing in Procreate, with somewhere between 30-90 minutes of use every day.
I turn it off overnight and I have to charge it less than once a week. I bought it shortly after release.

 

[nph]

Maybe that is the solution. Power it off completely every night...?

 

[darngooddesign]

Agree 100% i have to charge it several times a week and I use it maybe 30 minutes per day for reading news.
Would a complete reinstall help?

Add ‘Low Power Mode’ to Control Center and turn it one while not in use.

 

[FeliApple]

OP, it should be way better than an updated 10.5-inch iPad Pro, unless you’re using it at full brightness. I recall seeing some tests and it was the usual: an iPad Air 5 used at full brightness with heavy usage gives the same-old 3-4 hours. This happened with early 32-bit iPads, this happened with early iPad Pros, and this still happens today.

If that’s not the case, and usage isn’t that heavy (like gaming), then it should be better.

Also, standby time should be half-decent. Yes, it isn’t like it used to be, but it should still be good.

 

[Propine]

I had iPad 4 many years ago and it was a beast from battery life perspective. Last year I have bought iPad Air 5 and was like you very disappointed. If using actively I have to charge it twice a day. Not only doesn’t it match MacBook Pro on M1, it doesn’t even closely match the older gen iPads. The iPad 4 had 42.5W battery and was 9.5mm (or so) thick. Now we have a 6mm iPad with 28W battery and much more power efficient chipset doesn’t counter that considerable difference in battery power.

I think they made it so thin not only for aesthetics, but also to make sure that when with Magic Keyboard attached it won’t be way too thick (and honestly it kinda already is). I wish Apple added a battery in the Magic Keyboard instead of a simple deadweight to counter the heavy top.

 

[FeliApple]

I had iPad 4 many years ago and it was a beast from battery life perspective. Last year I have bought iPad Air 5 and was like you very disappointed. If using actively I have to charge it twice a day. Not only doesn’t it match MacBook Pro on M1, it doesn’t even closely match the older gen iPads. The iPad 4 had 42.5W battery and was 9.5mm (or so) thick. Now we have a 6mm iPad with 28W battery and much more power efficient chipset doesn’t counter that considerable difference in battery power.

I think they made it so thin not only for aesthetics, but also to make sure that when with Magic Keyboard attached it won’t be way too thick (and honestly it kinda already is). I wish Apple added a battery in the Magic Keyboard instead of a simple deadweight to counter the heavy top.

Heavy usage hasn’t been great for iPads from the beginning though, and while the battery of the Air 5 is far smaller, with light use and efficient settings it’s the best iOS device I’ve ever used, giving me 25 hours of screen-on time on iPadOS 15, surpassing my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12.

Twice a day? You must be a heavy user with high brightness, otherwise it should be better than that.

 

[ssledoux]

I have a 5th gen Air, and I use it a lot. I don’t find my battery drains very quickly. I certainly don’t charge it daily.

 

[ssledoux]

This is not typical of my use at all, but I was gone all day yesterday and today. I have 35% right now. It was last charged to 100% over 60 hours ago. I haven’t had nearly the normal amount of screen time, but I‘m on it now, and definitely won’t have to charge before tomorrow.

 

[Propine]

Heavy usage hasn’t been great for iPads from the beginning though, and while the battery of the Air 5 is far smaller, with light use and efficient settings it’s the best iOS device I’ve ever used, giving me 25 hours of screen-on time on iPadOS 15, surpassing my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12.

Twice a day? You must be a heavy user with high brightness, otherwise it should be better than that.

Heavy user? No. Mostly surfing and emails 😅 Yeah the brightness is always 100%, the screen is not bright enough.

 

[FeliApple]

Heavy user? No. Mostly surfing and emails 😅 Yeah the brightness is always 100%, the screen is not bright enough.

No iOS device has ever been good with full brightness. There is no iOS device that will give you a half-decent battery life with 100% brightness, regardless of its efficiency.

My iPhone Xʀ is one of the most efficient combos ever (the A12 Bionic on iOS 12), and when I have the brightness at 100%, battery life plummets. This has always been the case. I am a light user with efficient settings, but it doesn’t matter: full brightness eclipses everything.

 

[minimo3]

Is the 4th Gen Air better?

Nope. Mine gets about 4.5 hours SOT before it’s completely drained. And I installed it as new without restoring backup. It’s only 1.5 years old with very light use at home. The iPad 9th gen and the mini 6 have way better battery life

 

[FeliApple]

Nope. Mine gets about 4.5 hours SOT before it’s completely drained. And I installed it as new without restoring backup. It’s only 1.5 years old with very light use at home. The iPad 9th gen and the mini 6 have way better battery life

Again, probably high brightness, right?

There’s no solution for high brightness.

I’m a very efficient user who runs original versions of iOS. For battery life, you can’t ask for anything better. SOT plummets when cranking brightness up, even though the device itself is set up for efficiency.

There’s nothing a user can do to have good battery life if they use the device at full brightness. They either decrease brightness or charge the device more often.

 

[minimo3]

Again, probably high brightness, right?

There’s no solution for high brightness.

I’m a very efficient user who runs original versions of iOS. For battery life, you can’t ask for anything better. SOT plummets when cranking brightness up, even though the device itself is set up for efficiency.

There’s nothing a user can do to have good battery life if they use the device at full brightness. They either decrease brightness or charge the device more often.

I checked a couple of times today and the brightness bar is at about 60%. Is that considered high?