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iPad mini Mini 4 battery question - again

ssledoux

ssledoux

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 16, 2006
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Down south
I decided before I took the mini 4 in for battery replacement, I'd test it just to see exactly how bad the battery was. My daughter is notorious for plugging in a dead iPad, letting it charge up to 15 or 20%, and then giving it to her kids. I think she just doesn't always plan ahead for a time when they may need to use their iPads. And it seemed to me like with the mini, that's what was happening, and the mini would die very quickly, like almost immediately.

So I charged it to 100% yesterday, turned the display to always on so I could make sure it wouldn't shut off at all, and started playing stored videos (which is likely what my grandson would be doing in the car).

I got 6 hours 41 minutes of playing videos (at least 4-5 hours of it was playing stored Daniel tiger shows - someone please save me), sitting with display on, and then downloading a movie and a few episodes of Peppa Pig before it was at 8%.

Does this sound pretty reasonable for a mini 4? I mean it's not a new device, and if I'm not gonna get much more than that out of it, I'm not paying $100 to replace the battery. I don't get the battery health option on here, so I just have no clue what to expect.
 
nicho said:
That's over ⅔ of the life of a brand new battery. https://www.anandtech.com/show/9724/the-apple-ipad-mini-4-review/3

You could probably extend it further with reduced brightness and wifi/bluetooth turned off.
Click to expand...

I did notice the brightness was a bit higher than I would keep it, and that actually was with wifi on, so yeah - maybe we could get it extended a bit more. I actually already turned the brightness down, but it was after it was down to the 8%. I'm gonna tell my daughter to keep it lower. I'll cut off the wifi now. I mean it doesn't need to be on unless something is downloading anyway.

Does dark mode help at all with battery life, or make it worse? Just asking because I can turn that off completely as well.
 
nicho said:
That's over ⅔ of the life of a brand new battery. https://www.anandtech.com/show/9724/the-apple-ipad-mini-4-review/3

You could probably extend it further with reduced brightness and wifi/bluetooth turned off.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that 10 hour claim was for iOS 9. No way a Mini 4 with a brand new battery is gonna last for 10 hours screen on time on iOS 13. Except maybe reading books on a low brightness level.

OP, sounds like a decent result, I wouldn’t bother with a new battery. It should run well enough for a couple more years at the minimum.
 
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That’s about the same battery life I get from my trusty Mini 4 after three years or so. It’s degraded, but still I rarely deplete it over a day. I say don’t bother with a battery replacement unless you absolutely know you’re going to keep using it for several years ahead, with or without future iPadOS updates.

I’m keeping mine until the next Pro comes out, then I’ll decide if I go with that or a Mini 5. Th Mini 4 will be handed down to my 7 year old son, he only use his iPad for YouTube anyway, and is allowed an hour and a half screen time per day, so for him it’ll do, poor lad. 😂😊
 
doolar said:
That’s about the same battery life I get from my trusty Mini 4 after three years or so. It’s degraded, but still I rarely deplete it over a day. I say don’t bother with a battery replacement unless you absolutely know you’re going to keep using it for several years ahead, with or without future iPadOS updates.

I’m keeping mine until the next Pro comes out, then I’ll decide if I go with that or a Mini 5. Th Mini 4 will be handed down to my 7 year old son, he only use his iPad for YouTube anyway, and is allowed an hour and a half screen time per day, so for him it’ll do, poor lad. 😂😊
Click to expand...

Yeah that's kinda how I feel about this one. It's for my 18mo grandson, and he only really uses it in the car on road trips, or occasionally long enough to watch a show while my daughter is home schooling her older kids.

I think just the way she was charging it, it just wasn't ever really getting a full charge and it would just die almost immediately when she'd pull it off the charger. But 6 hours or more of use is way more than he'll ever use at a time for sure.

So one more question - if he uses it, and it has, say, 40% battery left, but you know you'll need it the next day, do you charge, or do you let it run completely out? I'm just trying to tell her what would be best for the battery going forward.
 
ssledoux said:
I did notice the brightness was a bit higher than I would keep it, and that actually was with wifi on, so yeah - maybe we could get it extended a bit more. I actually already turned the brightness down, but it was after it was down to the 8%. I'm gonna tell my daughter to keep it lower. I'll cut off the wifi now. I mean it doesn't need to be on unless something is downloading anyway.

Does dark mode help at all with battery life, or make it worse? Just asking because I can turn that off completely as well.
Click to expand...
Just for info: Brightness is the battery killer #1, Wifi and Bluetooth maybe give you some 10-20 minutes more on a complete charge - not really worth turning that on and off intermittently.

About dark mode: Would help if iPads had an OLED screen (black means the pixels are shut off). But iPads have LCD screens, so it does not help at all - just let your preference decide :)
 
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