New 2024 iPads Still Have 10 Hours of Battery Life

[MacRumors]

The iPad Pro and iPad Air models that Apple introduced today continue to offer the same 10 hours of battery life that Apple has advertised with iPads for years now, despite the addition of new, more efficient chips.

Apple's iPad Pro has an M4 chip that is built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology, and it has six efficiency cores, or two more than the M2. The device is also equipped with a more efficient OLED display, but neither the chip nor the OLED display have resulted in additional battery life.

The 11-inch iPad Pro has a 31.29-watt-hour battery, up from 28.65‐watt‐hours in the prior-generation model, while the 13-inch iPad Pro has a 38.99-watt-hour battery, down from 40.88-watt-hours.

As for the iPad Air, the 11-inch model has a 28.93‐watt‐hour, up slightly from the 28.6-watt-hour battery that was in the prior 10.9-inch version. The new 13-inch model has a 36.59‐watt‐hour battery.

Apple says that the iPad Pro and iPad Air models last for up to 10 hours when surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video, but that drops to nine hours when surfing the web using a cellular data network.

Article Link: New 2024 iPads Still Have 10 Hours of Battery Life

 

[coffeemilktea]

The 11-inch iPad Pro has a 31.29-watt-hour battery, up from 28.65‐watt‐hours in the prior-generation model

I'm surprised they were able to fit a bigger battery in there while simultaneously making it insanely thin 😲

 

[Deine Mudda]

That's just sad.
I mean, it's enough but still. M4 new design, new hardware and still no upgrade in battery life.

 

[ignatius345]

If I'm understanding this right, they made the batteries larger to keep battery life up. What's to be mad about?

 

[Solver]

Apple could make them weigh twice as much and give them three times the battery life.

 

[anakinfan8]

That's just sad.
I mean, it's enough but still. M4 new design, new hardware and still no upgrade in battery life.

Agreed, I thought that at this point with all the improvements Apple Silicon brought to the Mac, iPads would have more impressive battery life than this...but then again, I know nothing of chip engineering nor have ever owned an iPad haha

 

[Tagbert]

I think the point is that, even though it is thinner, with the M4 they are able to get the same battery life.

 

[TMRJIJ]

About 14 years of technological advancements throughout this entire product line. Still can't get more battery life 🤦‍♂️

 

[contacos]

I'm surprised they were able to fit a bigger battery in there while simultaneously making it insanely thin 😲

well, they removed some hardware components like the ultra wide camera

 

[Tagbert]

Apple could make them weigh twice as much and give them three times the battery life.

But would that be a good trade-off on a hand-held device? I would appreciate a lighter device and rarely need more battery life and even then, a charger is usually close by.

 

[Fuzzball84]

I suspect the screen is likely to consume less than the previous for most people (subject to whats actually being displayed) but the M4 could really drain the battery. It really depends on how its being used.

Apple must consider the up to 10 hours sufficient for most people. Its been like this since the first gen ipad… and again your milage may vary depending on what you do.

 

[mblm85]

I think that battery life is in anticipation of the load that AI and other features in iPadOS 18 will cause. I bet you get more in the meantime. Worst case for Apple: “You get longer than they said!” for a while.

 

[Tagbert]

About 14 years of technological advancements throughout this entire product line. Still can't get more battery life 🤦‍♂️

They have been prioritizing other things like performance and lightness. There are always compromises. Their design goal seems to be 10 hours of battery while improving the other factors. How often do we need longer battery life? With USB-C a charger is usually pretty close at hand.

 

[CalMin]

Very cool. They must have shrunk down the internals by quite a bit to accomplish that given the thinner chassis. Color me surprised and impressed Apple!

 

[Return Zero]

The device is also equipped with a more efficient OLED display

Is this actually true given it is tandem? Any OLED experts here? (I know you’re here somewhere. lol)

 

[joeblow7777]

I remember when the iPad first launched and 10 hours of battery life seemed crazy because for laptops 4-6 hours was the norm. Now laptops last 15-20 hours and iPads, the device for which extreme mobility is supposed to be its advantage, need to be plugged in more frequently?

 

[Fuzzball84]

Very cool. They must have shrunk down the internals by quite a bit to accomplish that given the thinner chassis. Color me surprised and impressed Apple!

Battery chemistries can be changed and optimised… its still li ion… but its been advancing a lot in the past 10 years. More charge discharge cycles, better power management chips, better battery stability over time… higher capacity in a smaller volume.

 

[jz0309]

it's a marketing spec, real world reviews might show something different, or not.
If Apple were to up that spec, it sets the expectations for all future models.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

This could've been achieved by making the batteries flatter. The batteries in the iPad never filled up the available volume of the tablet.

Is this actually true given it is tandem? Any OLED experts here? (I know you’re here somewhere. lol)

Kind of, yes. My understanding is that, by layering the OLED panels, you are able to achieve the same (or higher) brightness while pushing lower voltage through each panel. This also has the effect of reducing burn-in, especially for blue subpixels, since they do not need to be pushed as much. Mercedes uses this tech in their EQS.

Additionally, new organic compounds have been produced in the last few years for the Blue subpixel that have a longer lifetime and use less energy.

 

[Supermallet]

For the same price as the 13" IPP you can have either a 13" MBA with 16GB RAM or a base 15" MBA, which has a physical keyboard and trackpad built in that runs a desktop level OS, and has double the battery life. If you aren't using the Pencil functionality in a professional manner I cannot see the value proposition in the Pros, especially what you factor in the cost of the nearly required accessories necessary to get the full experience out of the iPad.

 

[JPack]

Every single iPad/mini/Air/Pro has a 10 hour battery life rating according to Apple. That's obviously not correct because tests show battery life exceeds 10 hours in many cases. In other words, Apple believes users don't care about battery life once it exceeds a certain number.

In short, this spec is meaningless. The original iPad with A4 in 2010 has a 10 hour battery life according to specs.

iPad - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

 

[Ipadlover29]

They should make a thicker, heavier more expensive model with more battery life for those who want one.

 

[aevan]

Apple could make them weigh twice as much and give them three times the battery life.

Yup. I think 10h is quite enough, so I prefer them being lighter. Especially for 13"

 

[ignatius345]

About 14 years of technological advancements throughout this entire product line. Still can't get more battery life 🤦‍♂️

Let us all know when you figure out how to do this better!

 

[ignatius345]

I remember when the iPad first launched and 10 hours of battery life seemed crazy because for laptops 4-6 hours was the norm. Now laptops last 15-20 hours and iPads, the device for which extreme mobility is supposed to be its advantage, need to be plugged in more frequently?

I don't know about you, but have no desire to use an iPad for more than ten hours at a time.