iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) Battery Drain even when using 87w

[farewelwilliams]

I usually leave my iPad Pro on streaming some TV as background noise. I leave it plugged in 24/7, but by around 9pm at night, the battery goes down to 4%. I have to close my tv app and turn it off the screen to let it recharge. The brightness and volume are both at 50% while streaming.

I am using the 87W charger and 2-meter USB-C cable that I bought at the Apple Store so I know for sure that it's 100% genuine. I even tried switching the cable to the 1 meter version because I thought the 2 meter wire was providing less power, but nope, it's still draining the battery while in use.


Is there something faulty or is this something that Apple failed to design properly?

 

[DoubleFlyaway]

Ive read on here that the 87 doesn’t work any better than the 12 on the 12.9. You have to get a 29 to get the max charging.

 

[sevvere]

The Ipad has always “undercharged”. I have written a rant about this subject in the past, and pointed out that using the 29w charger doesn’t really “fast charge” the iPad Pro ... it only “normal charges” it. Using the 12w adapter “undercharges”, in other words, either slowly drains, stays even, or barely charges while in use.

That being said, I would assume the 87 watt charger should just downgrade itself intelligently to put out 29 watts, but I don’t know. There is a whole thread about this subject on the Ipad forum I believe where someone put the time into testing all the chargers on the Ipad and comparing the charge time.

The usual crowd will come on here and tell you that their Ipad is chargin just fine and act like your Ipad is an anomaly. This is ridiculous. I was watching 12.9 Ipad reviews the other day and was reading the comments and there were plenty of comments about how their IPads barely charges while in use or even drains. Also this charging problem has been documented time and time again on these very forums.

All i know for certain is that the 29w charger is the best charger to use for the iPad Pro and if your not actually watching the content but instead just listening to it, you should turn your brightness down all the way while charging.

 

[DoubleFlyaway]

The Ipad has always “undercharged”. I have written a rant about this subject in the past, and pointed out that using the 29w charger doesn’t really “fast charge” the iPad Pro ... it only “normal charges” it. Using the 12w adapter “undercharges”, in other words, either slowly drains, stays even, or barely charges while in use.

That being said, I would assume the 87 watt charger should just downgrade itself intelligently to put out 29 watts, but I don’t know. There is a whole thread about this subject on the Ipad forum I believe where someone put the time into testing all the chargers on the Ipad and comparing the charge time.

The usual crowd will come on here and tell you that their Ipad is chargin just fine and act like your Ipad is an anomaly. This is ridiculous. I was watching 12.9 Ipad reviews the other day and was reading the comments and there were plenty of comments about how their IPads barely charges while in use or even drains. Also this charging problem has been documented time and time again on these very forums.

All i know for certain is that the 29w charger is the best charger to use for the iPad Pro and if your not actually watching the content but instead just listening to it, you should turn your brightness down all the way while charging.

People on here were saying that the 87 doesn’t have whatever in it it needs to intelligently go down to 29. It goes down to the 12.

With my 2nd gen it slowly charges wih a 12 unless I’m playing Civ VI—- that’s the only thing that makes it drain while charging. The 29 is fantastic, though.
[doublepost=1515183332][/doublepost]https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/87w-usb-c-charger-doesnt-charge-12-9-ipad-pro-29w.2015416/

 

[farewelwilliams]

Ive read on here that the 87 doesn’t work any better than the 12 on the 12.9. You have to get a 29 to get the max charging.

i also bought a 29w but haven't really used it yet. let me switch to it and i'll report back.

 

[farewelwilliams]

People on here were saying that the 87 doesn’t have whatever in it it needs to intelligently go down to 29. It goes down to the 12.

With my 2nd gen it slowly charges wih a 12 unless I’m playing Civ VI—- that’s the only thing that makes it drain while charging. The 29 is fantastic, though.
[doublepost=1515183332][/doublepost]https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/87w-usb-c-charger-doesnt-charge-12-9-ipad-pro-29w.2015416/

confirmed! I attached a wemo smart plug to measure the watts, the 87w only outputs 19w while the 29w surprisingly outputs 32watts.

looks like the 87w wasn't a good buy (only bought it for future proofing).

 

[farewelwilliams]

People on here were saying that the 87 doesn’t have whatever in it it needs to intelligently go down to 29. It goes down to the 12.

With my 2nd gen it slowly charges wih a 12 unless I’m playing Civ VI—- that’s the only thing that makes it drain while charging. The 29 is fantastic, though.
[doublepost=1515183332][/doublepost]https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/87w-usb-c-charger-doesnt-charge-12-9-ipad-pro-29w.2015416/

update: i can still confirm that 29w does push out more energy than the 87w, but my iPad Pro battery is still decreasing while streaming video with the 29w. i lowered the audio to 25% and that seems to fix it. i guess the speakers take up a lot of juice.

 

[farewelwilliams]

last update:
what i've found is that once your iPad Pro charge reaches a certain percentage, the 29w charger drops the charge rate to trickle charge. the problem is, trickle charge isn't enough to continuously power the iPad Pro while streaming video, so the battery goes back down. even when the battery goes down to 20%, the 29w charger isn't smart enough to go back to fast charging. you have to manually replug the cable to start the fast charging again.