iPad Pro iPad Pro M4 Battery Life

[alecgold]

Can anyone report on the M4 pros while using multiple apps in stage manager? My 11” M2 barely gets 6 hours if I’m lucky and usually runs warm too while in stage manager. Thanks!

Oh, I’m really curious about this. Did you get a 1Tb(+) version?

I run my iPad as a notebook (next to my mechanical keyboard and trackpad) connected to a 32”5k. I used to have Nebo.app open on the iPad and 4 apps on the display. Something like word, outlook, chrome and what-not. These days I have Notability open, which is consuming much less power. but my M2 13” did run warm often and then refused to charge beyond 80%. My M4 11” (so far) hasn’t stoped charging and I can’t feel it getting warm.

 

[jonnyb098]

Oh, I’m really curious about this. Did you get a 1Tb(+) version?

I run my iPad as a notebook (next to my mechanical keyboard and trackpad) connected to a 32”5k. I used to have Nebo.app open on the iPad and 4 apps on the display. Something like word, outlook, chrome and what-not. These days I have Notability open, which is consuming much less power. but my M2 13” did run warm often and then refused to charge beyond 80%. My M4 11” (so far) hasn’t stoped charging and I can’t feel it getting warm.

Encouraging news! I have the 256GB 11” M2. I’m seeing more and more reports of incredible battery life on the M4. It would be nice to know useful information rather than the same 15 YouTubers talking about how thin it is and repeating the same talking points and info from Apple.

 

[rkuo]

I was hoping I didn’t need to, for no particular reason other than that. I just like the idea of a device with sufficient battery life that lasts it through a day of use.

Today was a whole day of meetings. I charged it for a while during lunchtime and am now at home with it at over 50%. I could probably get used to this arrangement.

Totally get it … it’s nice to have the option of all day battery even if you don’t need it. But it’s definitely better for the battery to top off to 80 percent when you can during the day.

 

[alecgold]

I came from a 13” M2 that was often on 70-80% brightness. After a year of daily 8-14 hour use I charged the battery a few times a day when I got the chance. It would do about 7 hours going from 100% down to 20% or even 10%.

Now I’m on an 11” M4 and it usually at or below 50% brightness. It has been used 11h47 minutes and is down to 29%.
It has been 3 hours safari, 2 hours Documents 5, 1,5 hours Prime, 1 hour notability, 1h45 WhatsApp, 46min Proton Mail, 40 minutes iMessage, and the remainder time in different newspaper apps.

So I’m confident I can get a 14 hour usage out of my 11” M4! This is really nice!
Now I’m really curious what will happen when I go and use heavy apps like Nebo.app and te likes that can really drain a battery of a M2 in 3-5 hours.

Encouraging news! I have the 256GB 11” M2. I’m seeing more and more reports of incredible battery life on the M4. It would be nice to know useful information rather than the same 15 YouTubers talking about how thin it is and repeating the same talking points and info from Apple.

i get amazing times, certainly compared to my 13”M2. Se the above post I made earlier.

 

[Takeo]

My test was simply to run the same video at full screen on both iPads with the brightness set to 100% on both iPads […]

3 Hours:
Air: 54%
Pro: 75%
[…]

UPDATE: I noticed after doing this test that auto-brightness was enabled on both iPads. I just ran the test again at 100% brightness on both iPads (11" M2 Air vs. 11" M4 Pro) with the same video with auto-brightness disabled. The Pro stayed the same but the Air fared much worse. Given that the OLED screen can turn pixels completely off and I'm not actively using the iPads during this test (just hitting play on a video and walking away) that's probably not surprising. Still super impressive though!

Battery levels after 3 Hours of fullscreen video playback:
---
11" M2 iPad Air: 26%
11" M4 iPad Pro: 76%

Also just to note, the Pro is ice cold. The Air is a little warm.

 

[ManuCH]

UPDATE: I noticed after doing this test that auto-brightness was enabled on both iPads. I just ran the test again at 100% brightness on both iPads (11" M2 Air vs. 11" M4 Pro) with the same video with auto-brightness disabled. The Pro stayed the same but the Air fared much worse. Given that the OLED screen can turn pixels completely off and I'm not actively using the iPads during this test (just hitting play on a video and walking away) that's probably not surprising. Still super impressive though!

Battery levels after 3 Hours of fullscreen video playback:
---
11" M2 iPad Air: 26%
11" M4 iPad Pro: 76%

Also just to note, the Pro is ice cold. The Air is a little warm.

That's quite a crazy difference though, that the Air used 50% more battery than the Pro during 3 hours...

 

[G4RHL]

I have had my iPad Pro 11 M4 for just under a week. I left it set to charge to 80% but I find it runs down much quicker than my previous 3 year old iPad Pro 11. The old one would last all day. Using the new one the same I am lucky to get to late afternoon before having to charge it up. The critical message comes up. I nave now switched off the 80% control and will see how it fairs charged to 100%. There is no doubt it needs more power.

 

[okkibs]

That's quite a crazy difference though, that the Air used 50% more battery than the Pro during 3 hours...

Actually it's in line with what you'd expect because the Air will be at 100% brightness where 3-3.5 hours of battery life are the most it can do (no really, the Air has terrible battery life) whereas with auto brightness turned off the M4 Pro will not actually be at 100% with 1000 nits. I couldn't find the value unfortunately but what it comes down to is that one device is at 100% brightness whereas the other isn't. So the Air at 100% uses up its battery faster.

For a 100% comparison auto brightness needs to remain on with the M4 iPad and it needs to be outside in the sunlight or it will just keep dimming. And then the battery life will be much closer to that of the iPad. Apple made it so that you can use the 1000 nits when you really need it but inside it will always try to dim the screen. I think it's because Apple knows that actually keeping up 1000 nits isn't sustainable with the tiny battery.

The varying battery life here is this thread are probably at least in part due to some people using their device outside and some inside. The display brightness makes a big difference as the display is the single most power hungry component of any device, at least in simpler everyday tasks.

 

[Takeo]

For a 100% comparison auto brightness needs to remain on with the M4 iPad and it needs to be outside in the sunlight or it will just keep dimming.

Interesting. Also I know just hitting play on a video and walking away is not at all indicative of typical use so take my test for what it’s worth. And just to clarify, my first test (up thread) was done indoors (bright room with iPad 10 feet away from a wall full of windows but no direct sun) with both iPads having auto-brightness enabled. The second test was done under the same conditions but with auto-brightness disabled on both… so yah the Air has to “work” a lot harder when forced to push out full brightness non-stop.

 

[LouisMac90]

Wow you lost % already ? I do the 80% charge

Yeah on my iPhone I didn’t get it until October dropped 1% at 25 cycles before Apple stated the new models should last 1000 cycles with a minimum of 80%. Optimised charging on only using the Apple lead and 20w plug at home then a Belkin cable in the car for Carplay on a 30minute commute. Currently on 97% at 115 cycles hence why I wanted to ask what I should do on my M4 iPad Pro. I get the new iPhone each year so isn’t too bad but the iPad I will be keeping.

 

[LouisMac90]

I have had my iPad Pro 11 M4 for just under a week. I left it set to charge to 80% but I find it runs down much quicker than my previous 3 year old iPad Pro 11. The old one would last all day. Using the new one the same I am lucky to get to late afternoon before having to charge it up. The critical message comes up. I nave now switched off the 80% control and will see how it fairs charged to 100%. There is no doubt it needs more power.

Please report back your findings as I am having the same issue but I am barely using mine. Even with WiFi off Bluetooth on as Apple Pencil Pro is attached seems to need charging frequently. I don’t let it drop below 20% before charging back to 80% charge.

 

[FeliApple]

Actually it's in line with what you'd expect because the Air will be at 100% brightness where 3-3.5 hours of battery life are the most it can do (no really, the Air has terrible battery life) whereas with auto brightness turned off the M4 Pro will not actually be at 100% with 1000 nits. I couldn't find the value unfortunately but what it comes down to is that one device is at 100% brightness whereas the other isn't. So the Air at 100% uses up its battery faster.

With light usage the Air 5 is ridiculously good though, and no iPad is good (no iPhone either) with 100% brightness.

I get north of 25 hours on iPadOS 15 with light use. It’s ridiculous. I think people tend to use devices with high brightness, which is why some people are complaining. It seems like they haven’t learned after all these years that full brightness is a battery killer.

Some are getting 12-14 hours with moderate use, which is decent but it’s nothing older iPads couldn’t do.

 

[Takeo]

With light usage the Air 5 is ridiculously good though, and no iPad is good (no iPhone either) with 100% brightness.

The battery life on my iPad Air 5 was always pretty bad actually. And the iPad Air 6 (just returned it) wasn’t much better. Note that in my test where the Pro trounced the Air (3 hour full screen standard dynamic range video playback resulting in 25% drain on the Pro vs. 75% drain on the Air) both iPads were at 100% brightness. I was impressed. Especially since I’d rarely actually use my iPad Pro at 100% brightness in real world usage (I just did that for the test).

 

[G4RHL]

I have reported it to Apple. i am now back to charging up to 100% and will see how that compares. Before, with it at 80% at 09:00 a.m. I would be getting close to critical by about 18:00 using it the same during the day as my old iPad. Brightness by the way is set to 75%. On my previous iPad it was often on maximum.

 

[klasma]

That's quite a crazy difference though, that the Air used 50% more battery than the Pro during 3 hours...

The M4 has AV1 decode hardware support, which the M2 has not. That could explain part of the difference. Those video playback battery tests really only test a very specific usage scenario, and the results may even depend on the codecs available for the specific video on YouTube.

 

[anthony13]

iPads don’t seem to hold the same kinda charge that laptops or phones do. My m2 has never lasted more than a couple days even when not being used.

 

[EugW]

The M4 has AV1 decode hardware support, which the M2 has not. That could explain part of the difference. Those video playback battery tests really only test a very specific usage scenario, and the results may even depend on the codecs available for the specific video on YouTube.

Does YouTube stream AV1 to the M2s or do they default to HEVC?

 

[FeliApple]

The battery life on my iPad Air 5 was always pretty bad actually. And the iPad Air 6 (just returned it) wasn’t much better. Note that in my test where the Pro trounced the Air (3 hour full screen standard dynamic range video playback resulting in 25% drain on the Pro vs. 75% drain on the Air) both iPads were at 100% brightness. I was impressed. Especially since I’d rarely actually use my iPad Pro at 100% brightness in real world usage (I just did that for the test).

The fact that brightness was at 100% tells me everything I need to know. No iOS device (especially with LCD) will be good at full brightness.

 

[AppleFeller]

iPads don’t seem to hold the same kinda charge that laptops or phones do. My m2 has never lasted more than a couple days even when not being used.

This maybe it was a rogue app but I didn’t touch my 11” M4 for a day picked it up to 89% …. I mean end of the day I’m not gonna be too upset but I feel like MacBooks have more standby ability just having the larger batteries…

 

[Nikhil72]

MacBooks have much larger batteries. My M4 iPP has been losing ~2-3% overnight while I sleep, which is quite good in my opinion.

 

[aakshey]

This maybe it was a rogue app but I didn’t touch my 11” M4 for a day picked it up to 89% …. I mean end of the day I’m not gonna be too upset but I feel like MacBooks have more standby ability just having the larger batteries…

FYI iPads have 2x battery size compared to MBAs at least in terms of mah

 

[Takeo]

The fact that brightness was at 100% tells me everything I need to know. No iOS device (especially with LCD) will be good at full brightness.

True. It was just a simple "for what it's worth" test and I put them both at 100% just so they'd both have the same settings (although the Pro's 100% is 1000 nits). That said, the Pro actually did shockingly well… because OLED I guess.

Also since people were wondering about the CODEC of the video I tested… it was an ISO of an old DVD streamed from my local network-attached media server using Infuse. MPEG-1/2 (mpgv) CODEC. 720x480 @ 29.97 frame rate.

Honestly the Air result seemed wrong to me. I was shocked. I double checked to make sure I hadn't accidentally left something running in the background (nope). And also checked the battery usage stats and confirmed than 100% of the battery usage for those 3 hours was Infuse. Still, surprised it was so bad. In my earlier test with auto-brightness enabled the screen had dimmed itself a bit and the Air did much better (although still nowhere near as good as the Pro).

All that being said, I know that hitting play on a video and walking away isn't at all indicative of real world usage. But I needed to choose some kind of scenario so that was it. I don't expect to get 12+ hours on the Pro with normally scrolling, emails, social media, switching apps, stage manager, etc. Maybe not anything even close to that. Even if I was watching video for 3 hours, I'd still (in real world usage) probably pause not and then, jump back, stop to check my email, etc.

 

[aakshey]

Variance in battery life between high/low brightness is much lower in an OLED compared to a LCD

on high brightness battery life tanks with an lcd, while it makes relatively minimal difference with an OLED

 

[crobcary]

So far, better than my M1 12.9”. I haven’t had run off the battery while using cellular connection, but so far my M4 has lasted significantly longer than my M1 has in my daily work. I hope the battery’s resilience on this model is better than my M1—its battery capacity fell off disturbingly quickly, and was one of the key reasons I went ahead and upgraded; I probably would not have done it if the “health” wasn’t already in the mid-80s by Apple’s announcement.

 

[jmgregory1]

Interesting watching Linus’s review on YT (Shortcircuit) and they said they got 17 hours of battery life in their testing. I pulled my M4 13” 1TB iPP off the charger this morning at 6am, used it at work all day and now I’m back on it at home and I’m at 50% charge. Definitely excited to know I can finally get through a typical work travel day without having to worry about it needing to get plugged in.