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brandon87

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2019
44
40
Phoenix
hey y'all, tried to see if this was being discussed but I've had this iPad for a year and week and I feel with the use I put it through the battery is just horrible.

anyone else having gone through this and if you replaced your iPad what did you go with next (I don't fully use the iPad Pro to its full potential so "downgrading" isn't something that bothers me)?

I'm thinking iPad Air this time around. thanks for any input or suggestions!
 
Last edited:

JCCL

macrumors 68020
Apr 3, 2010
2,042
4,691
If you're OK with its performance, why don't you just take it to Apple and pay the battery replacement fee? For 99 they'll give you a refurbished iPad, that looks just like a brand new one, and will have a fresh battery.
 
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brandon87

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2019
44
40
Phoenix
If you're OK with its performance, why don't you just take it to Apple and pay the battery replacement fee? For 99 they'll give you a refurbished iPad, that looks just like a brand new one, and will have a fresh battery.
ummmm .... well I guess I didn't do research enough to know about this! ill actually hit an Apple Store this weekend, thank you for that info!
 
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chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,709
7,279
If you're OK with its performance, why don't you just take it to Apple and pay the battery replacement fee? For 99 they'll give you a refurbished iPad, that looks just like a brand new one, and will have a fresh battery.
Apple will only do this if the battery fails their diagnostic, which certainly will not fail after a year. The battery needs to be below 80% capacity.
 
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JCCL

macrumors 68020
Apr 3, 2010
2,042
4,691
Apple will only do this if the battery fails their diagnostic, which certainly will not fail after a year. The battery needs to be below 80% capacity.
If that’s the case and the battery is healthy, then at least Apple can look at the OP’s usage and configuration and try to determine what’s causing the battery drain.
 
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rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,916
13,260
hey y'all, tried to see if this was being discussed but I've had this iPad for a year and week and I feel with the use I put it through the battery is just horrible.

anyone else having gone through this and if you replaced your iPad what did you go with next (I don't fully use the iPad Pro to its full potential so "downgrading" isn't something that bothers me)?

I'm thinking iPad Air this time around. thanks for any input or suggestions!

Air is M1/8GB which is likely the same as your 3rd gen 11" (2021) unless you went for the 1-2TB option.

I believe the 9th gen (A13/3GB) offers the best battery life.

Otherwise, the others have more or less the same battery as yours, the only plus being they've got a fresh new battery.
 
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Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,144
2,817
and I feel with the use I put it through the battery is just horrible
what’s your use if you don’t mind sharing? I agree with @rui no onna that probably the 9th gen iPad has currently the best battery life, but that might be irrelevant depending on your use - e.g. webpages will reload more often due to lower RAM on the 9th gen iPad, et cetera …
 

brandon87

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2019
44
40
Phoenix
what’s your use if you don’t mind sharing? I agree with @rui no onna that probably the 9th gen iPad has currently the best battery life, but that might be irrelevant depending on your use - e.g. webpages will reload more often due to lower RAM on the 9th gen iPad, et cetera …
Daily now I feel it’s used for maybe a total of 3-4 hours tops? Use it while working so mainly podcasts and depending on incoming calls I’ll try to get in a few episodes in so maybe around 60iah minutes of tv shows. Prior To last july it was just used for light web browsing, YouTube and the occasional basic candy crush games.
 

brandon87

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2019
44
40
Phoenix
Air is M1/8GB which is likely the same as your 3rd gen 11" (2021) unless you went for the 1-2TB option.

I believe the 9th gen (A13/3GB) offers the best battery life.

Otherwise, the others have more or less the same battery as yours, the only plus being they've got a fresh new battery.
Thank you!!
 

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,014
My iPad Pro 10.5 is going on 6 years now with the same battery. I’m overdue for a new battery.

I’m thinking something must be draining your battery. Your battery is probably still in good shape. Have Apple check it.
 
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Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
I found that current iPad performances are virtually the same across all models. So it depends on storage. If you are good with 256GB or less, the Air or other models are fine. But if you need more storage, the Pro is the only option.
 
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Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,616
Los Angeles, CA
hey y'all, tried to see if this was being discussed but I've had this iPad for a year and week and I feel with the use I put it through the battery is just horrible.

anyone else having gone through this and if you replaced your iPad what did you go with next (I don't fully use the iPad Pro to its full potential so "downgrading" isn't something that bothers me)?

I'm thinking iPad Air this time around. thanks for any input or suggestions!
Third Generation 11-inch iPad Pro would be the M1 version that got discontinued. I do not own this particular model of iPad, though, I do keep my ear to the ground to see if there are generational issues. Can't say I've heard one for this model of iPad.

I do know that the fourth generation iPad Airs (the A14 Bionic in the same design as the current iPad Air, but with AirPods Max colors) weren't the best iPads for battery life. I own one of those. It is perfectly fine, but it does drain slightly faster than iPads I've owned in the past. It's not enough to drive me crazy; but then again, that middle size of iPad is seldom my daily driver - I take iPad minis around far more frequently and I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro for much of the "this tablet can do low-end MacBook Air use case things" purposes). I haven't heard of anything with the current iPad Airs. Depending on the capacity you got on the third generation 11-inch iPad Pro, you might be getting a bit of a downgrade in specs (though, likely not noticeable given that iPadOS has never really pushed the M1 to its limits).

I might look into what the current M2 version of the 11-inch iPad Pro has when it comes to battery life.
 

teh_hunterer

macrumors 65816
Jul 1, 2021
1,231
1,672
I have an M1 iPad Pro 11" and the battery life has been fine. If you want to get a good baseline reading of whether your battery life is normal, start with Apple's claims. 10 hours on WiFi, or 9 hours on cellular, at 50% brightness.

So chuck it on 50% brightness and see what you get. Using it with auto brightness or with the brightness high (or max) dramatically impacts battery life.
 
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