Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

d4cloo

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2016
131
297
Los Angeles
I was checking the battery health of my 13" M2 MacBook Air, 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and the M1 12.9 iPad Pro.

Both the MBA and MBP still have 100% battery health, while the battery of the M1 12.9 iPad Pro already need servicing. How awesome is that?

The difference is, with the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, you cannot change the changing behavior of the device, which you can do on Mac OS.

I guess I will pay for the battery replacement, but this is a major problem of the iPad Pro. Probably won't buy an other iPad anymore if the battery on these devices degrade so badly as you don't have the ability to customise the charging behaviour.
Same experience here, but with one older generation iPad compared to yours. It’s not a great battery at all.
 

pianostar9

macrumors regular
Tell me, how can I change the charging behavior on the iPad?
I can use BattSafe just fine to change the charging behavior and it looks like this is actually possible for iPhone 15 now without any tricks :p

If you aren't jailbroken, buy a smart power plug, and when you hit 80%, use Shortcuts to turn the power plug off.

As for the rest of your post, I'd second the recommendation for CoconutBattery comparisons of all three devices if you really care about "the facts"
 
  • Like
Reactions: bondr006

cupcakes2000

macrumors 601
Apr 13, 2010
4,035
5,425
Sure thing - both iPhone and iPad run similarly more limited OSs compared to macOS, it’s a hard fact. Look at the number of people on these forums dreaming about being able to dual-boot their iPad Pros into iPadOS and macOS.

Fair enough, unlike iPhone, iPad also supports a pencil, so can be a great tool for drawing or annotating, but this is where its advantage over a Mac ends. I use iPad for these things - music, movies, web browsing, note taking, simple spreadsheets (Numbers), document writing (Pages), some basic photo and image editing (Pixelmator and Canvas) and very simple Wordpress website updates (in Safari, yet complex layout changes are still working better in macOS).

So yes, I can do anything that can be done on my iPad on my iPhone, just on a much smaller screen, obviously.

iPad is also lighter to carry around than a MacBook, which I do enjoy when travelling for work.

Did I miss anything else?

I wouldn’t use these forums to gauge anything close to ‘hard facts’.

You seem to have covered pretty well what the iPad excels at, certainly over a phone , a little bit to the contrary of your original assessment. So what do you do on a Mac then? That seems to be what you missed, being as though you asked. Hard core data set analysis? Coding? Probably not on the MacBook Air that you’re touting. I’m confused. You have listed most ‘general computing’ activities already. Are you just pissed that iPadOS isn’t macOS?
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,643
4,469
I mentioned cycles because typically there is a correlation, but I’m talking exclusively about health: if an iPhone with 1,810 mAh has no battery life impact with 63% health on iOS 10... would an iPad that’s not updated ever see any kind of degradation? If it will, what’s the health requirement? How low does it need to go? Is it 50%? Less than that? Never?

Like I said, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is at 84% health and there’s no battery life difference to when it was originally forced into iOS 12. I get the exact same numbers.

With fine-tuned efficiency settings... how low does an efficient, original-iOS-version iPad need to go for it to matter? It’s an interesting question, and one that needs a lot of years to reply to. I’m not a heavy enough user to provide an answer. I don’t degrade my devices quickly enough, and I keep them - and use them! - for many years.

That said, with the available information I have, I’m inclined to say never. Never meaning, way beyond its practical lifespan. The original iOS version of an iPad will be a glorified touch-screen photo album and notes recorder before the battery life shows any meaningful degradation. Well, Netflix will probably work because it works on every iOS version, so you can add that, too, but yeah, it will be very limited by then.

But for example, I cannot say that an iPad with 50% health on its original iOS version will be just like-new. I don’t know if the answer is no, and perhaps it only loses a negligible amount of battery life, and I would be inclined to think that’s true, but I don’t know it with absolute certainty, because I’ve never seen an iPad degraded like that on its original iOS version.
I know your theory about OS updates destroying battery life and that if you never update your battery life never changes... and you know I disagree with it. And while nobody has any long-term scientific evidence, my experience is based on a large number of devices and is more typical of an iPad user (since the vast majority of people update their devices instead of leaving them on their original OS). And in my experience battery health does impact battery life but the impact cannot be perceived before a certain threshold. And it can take years to get to that threshold. Many years sometimes. And again usage patterns make all the difference. And you can significantly degrade a battery in a matter of months on the original OS is you do the wrong things (like leaving the device dead for months). And in my experience of dozens of iPads, upgrades can impact standby time more than anything (but not always), not so much screen on time. And sometime the impact can even be positive (something that you probably won't believe...)
 

Yoms

macrumors 6502
Jun 1, 2016
410
268
I was checking the battery health of my 13" M2 MacBook Air, 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and the M1 12.9 iPad Pro.

Both the MBA and MBP still have 100% battery health, while the battery of the M1 12.9 iPad Pro already need servicing. How awesome is that?

The difference is, with the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, you cannot change the changing behavior of the device, which you can do on Mac OS.

I guess I will pay for the battery replacement, but this is a major problem of the iPad Pro. Probably won't buy an other iPad anymore if the battery on these devices degrade so badly as you don't have the ability to customise the charging behaviour.
Those clickbait titles... Just to gather some clout and have a moment.
 

one more

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2015
5,153
6,572
Earth
I wouldn’t use these forums to gauge anything close to ‘hard facts’.

You seem to have covered pretty well what the iPad excels at, certainly over a phone , a little bit to the contrary of your original assessment. So what do you do on a Mac then? That seems to be what you missed, being as though you asked. Hard core data set analysis? Coding? Probably not on the MacBook Air that you’re touting. I’m confused. You have listed most ‘general computing’ activities already. Are you just pissed that iPadOS isn’t macOS?

I use my old 2015 MacBook Pro for copying some large files over to my iPhone and iPad, installing IPSW files when needed and backing them up when upgrading devices. At times I also use the MBP to update a few Wordpress sites, which works way better than on an iPad.

I probably use iPhone about 50% of the time, iPad - 45% and Mac - the remaining 5%.

Again, most of things I can do on an iPad, I can also do on an iPhone, except for a pencil-related work, which I do not really need.

If I could only have two devices of three (iPhone, iPad, Mac), it would be an iPhone and a MacBook, however.

So I am not “pissed” about anything, really, as it all works fine for me, just sharing my personal opinion on iPad’s hardware and software strength & weaknesses.
 
Last edited:

MarkNewton2023

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2023
604
604
I was checking the battery health of my 13" M2 MacBook Air, 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and the M1 12.9 iPad Pro.

Both the MBA and MBP still have 100% battery health, while the battery of the M1 12.9 iPad Pro already need servicing. How awesome is that?

The difference is, with the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, you cannot change the changing behavior of the device, which you can do on Mac OS.

I guess I will pay for the battery replacement, but this is a major problem of the iPad Pro. Probably won't buy an other iPad anymore if the battery on these devices degrade so badly as you don't have the ability to customise the charging behaviour.
I do not have any issues
I was checking the battery health of my 13" M2 MacBook Air, 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and the M1 12.9 iPad Pro.

Both the MBA and MBP still have 100% battery health, while the battery of the M1 12.9 iPad Pro already need servicing. How awesome is that?

The difference is, with the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, you cannot change the changing behavior of the device, which you can do on Mac OS.

I guess I will pay for the battery replacement, but this is a major problem of the iPad Pro. Probably won't buy an other iPad anymore if the battery on these devices degrade so badly as you don't have the ability to customise the charging behaviour.
Based on your noted experience, iPad does not meet your expectation. Hence, you did the right decision to move on from iPad. Keep calm 😊.
However, for others, iPad is a perfect device per their need and expectation. 😊
No devices are so perfect for everybody’s need. That is as expected 😊
 
  • Like
Reactions: bondr006

Populus

macrumors 603
Aug 24, 2012
5,937
8,409
Spain, Europe
You can't equate the battery of the Mac to the iPad Pro. That is apples to oranges.

The iPad is a fine device. It can't meet everyone's needs or expectations but, for those it does, it is a keeper.
To be fair... it is Apple's to Apple's...

And after this terrible joke, I'm leaving the thread, not before unwatching it.
 

bondr006

macrumors 68030
Jun 8, 2010
2,903
16,819
Cary, NC - My Name is Rob Bond

I was wrong .... iPad sucks ... worst Apple device by far​

I was checking the battery health of my 13" M2 MacBook Air, 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and the M1 12.9 iPad Pro.

Both the MBA and MBP still have 100% battery health, while the battery of the M1 12.9 iPad Pro already need servicing. How awesome is that?

The difference is, with the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, you cannot change the changing behavior of the device, which you can do on Mac OS.

I guess I will pay for the battery replacement, but this is a major problem of the iPad Pro. Probably won't buy an other iPad anymore if the battery on these devices degrade so badly as you don't have the ability to customise the charging behaviour.
Nice emotional click bate title ya got there, but we definitely agree....You are wrong!

My M1 iPad Pro 11 replaced my 2019 I9 MBP in Nov. 2021 for use in my real estate and property management business and totally streamlined my workflow, reduced steps I had to take, and made work a lot more fun. It is so much easier, convenient, and more intuitive to use the iPad for the work I do. In fact, I would go so far as to say, in my opinion the laptop is limiting and cumbersome compared to the iPad Pro for the type of work I do. I work with contracts, forms, docs, pdf's, take a huge amount of notes, sketch house dimensions, take pictures, communicate(messages, email, FaceTime, and phone calls), and do a bunch of scanning. Working with documents, pdf's, contracts, and forms is so much easier for me. Editing, marking up, and then sending to clients is all done within the app, and reduces the amount of steps it takes to communicate. The iPad also reduced the amount of hardware devices I needed, and condensed them all into one really portable device that actually makes my work more easy and convenient. I am 63 and have used Macs and PC's for going on 40 years now, and for some reason using an iPad and iPad OS is just something I get. I have really enjoyed using my iPad Pro as my main work device this past couple years, and it makes me feel good at my age, that I was able to pick the iPad up, and just run with it. IMO the iPad is the most dynamic, flexible, and versatile device Apple has ever made. Pretty cool to have something you love using for both mobile and desktop.
 
Last edited:

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
16,120
2,397
Lard
It's not an emotional post. These are the facts:
- 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro = 100% battery health
- 13" M2 MacBook Air = 100% battery health
- 12.9 M1 iPad Pro = below 80% battery health

And the reason for this, is that Apple doesn't allow you to manage the charging behavior of the device, like what you can do on Mac.

The iPad Pro really sucks with the way it destroys batteries due to limitations Apple has put in place.
Do you mean Maximum Capacity?

I have two indicators: Battery Condition and Maximum Capacity.

The laptop computers will run using the AC power and not bother with the battery at all. However, my M1 MacBook Air, which is slightly more than 1 year old, is at 93% of Maximum Capacity.

How many cycles do you have on the laptop computers? My cycle count is at 48. I haven't used it a tremendous amount on battery alone.
 

Mlrollin91

macrumors G5
Nov 20, 2008
14,172
10,187
14" Macbook Pro M1Pro, purchased November 2021. Battery health is 93%. 161 cycles.
11" M1 iPad Pro, purchased March 2022. Battery health 97%. 216 cycles.

I have zero complaints with either of these. Sure the MBP could be a little better but its completely normal and working just as expected.
 

teh_hunterer

macrumors 65816
Jul 1, 2021
1,231
1,672
On the M1 12.9 iPad Pro, I cannot do this, which is why the battery health dropped so much in comparison to my M2 MacBook Air.

That's just superstition from one data point - your battery. Battery health is luck of the draw, and there's a whole bunch of people who think it's got anything to do with their charging habits. It doesn't.

For every person you find who babies their battery and it's at 99% after a year of daily use, I'll find you someone who just charged whenever and however they wanted and their battery is at 99% too.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,609
8,624
My first iPhone’s battery lasted nowhere near how long my Blackberry battery lasted.

Primarily, it was because I actually enjoyed using the iPhone and used it far more heavily than I ever used my Blackberry. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: bondr006

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
I know your theory about OS updates destroying battery life and that if you never update your battery life never changes... and you know I disagree with it. And while nobody has any long-term scientific evidence, my experience is based on a large number of devices and is more typical of an iPad user (since the vast majority of people update their devices instead of leaving them on their original OS). And in my experience battery health does impact battery life but the impact cannot be perceived before a certain threshold. And it can take years to get to that threshold. Many years sometimes. And again usage patterns make all the difference. And you can significantly degrade a battery in a matter of months on the original OS is you do the wrong things (like leaving the device dead for months). And in my experience of dozens of iPads, upgrades can impact standby time more than anything (but not always), not so much screen on time. And sometime the impact can even be positive (something that you probably won't believe...)
It would be interesting to see, like I said, whether actual low battery health can affect an original version device. If it does, then you can definitely kill a device within months. It doesn’t happen with normal operating conditions, though.

I agree that sometimes it can improve, but from one iOS version to the next, never when compared to the original (which is what matters).

I am surprised about OP’s battery health, but it’s a rare occurrence. Battery health typically outlasts the lifespan of an original version, especially on iPads, when conditions are normal. Like you said, it typically takes years, which is why OP’s case is surprising.
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,643
4,469
It would be interesting to see, like I said, whether actual low battery health can affect an original version device. If it does, then you can definitely kill a device within months. It doesn’t happen with normal operating conditions, though.

I agree that sometimes it can improve, but from one iOS version to the next, never when compared to the original (which is what matters).

I am surprised about OP’s battery health, but it’s a rare occurrence. Battery health typically outlasts the lifespan of an original version, especially on iPads, when conditions are normal. Like you said, it typically takes years, which is why OP’s case is surprising.
Even assuming that your theory ("Battery health typically outlasts the lifespan of an original version") is correct, how many people never update the OS on their iPad from its original version? Seems to me more a niche case, a tiny minority of people, so not really relevant to the vast majority of people here.
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
Even assuming that your theory ("Battery health typically outlasts the lifespan of an original version") is correct, how many people never update the OS on their iPad from its original version? Seems to me more a niche case, a tiny minority of people, so not really relevant to the vast majority of people here.
Agreed, completely, yet I can’t help but notice this when people worry “well, my 10.5-inch iPad Pro’s battery life is very poor, so I upgraded. It’s okay though, the device is really old, battery health is, say, 68% on Coconut”. Battery life is only poor because you installed iPadOS 473 on a device that started on iOS 10, so of course it will be poor...
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,643
4,469
Agreed, completely, yet I can’t help but notice this when people worry “well, my 10.5-inch iPad Pro’s battery life is very poor, so I upgraded. It’s okay though, the device is really old, battery health is, say, 68% on Coconut”. Battery life is only poor because you installed iPadOS 473 on a device that started on iOS 10, so of course it will be poor...

Macs are seemingly more resilient. They suffer, too, but it takes longer, I think.
Yeah but your theory is that even if you upgrade once, you have lost this special resilience of the original OS version. So at that point I guess the deterioration, if any, is not worth giving up the new features, and for those who care about it, security updates.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bousozoku

sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,989
34,243
Seattle WA
Yeah but your theory is that even if you upgrade once, you have lost this special resilience of the original OS version. So at that point I guess the deterioration, if any, is not worth giving up the new features, and for those who care about it, security updates.

I couldn't imagine taking this into consideration when evaluating updates. I don't believe it to be true, for that matter, based on multiple owned iPads and innumerable updates.
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
Yeah but your theory is that even if you upgrade once, you have lost this special resilience of the original OS version. So at that point I guess the deterioration, if any, is not worth giving up the new features, and for those who care about it, security updates.
No, I have always said that the key part of my theory is “if updated far enough”. Some major iOS versions (typically the first one) are fine. If there’s a difference, it’s negligible. Specific amounts (which is why I don’t give any) of major iOS updates required varies. For some devices, the first one is abhorrent. For others, you can update it up to three times and they’re fine. Once you pass that threshold, though, it’s all downhill from there.

Funnily enough, I’m unsure about extreme degradation on some halfway updated devices. Take my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Assume that at some point battery life really decreases. Say, 40% health, 30%, whatever, take whatever number you like. The question will always be there: ”Wait. Would it be better on iOS 9? If so, how much?” So, perhaps they’re mostly fine on a version, but if degraded far enough, they suffer, and they wouldn’t if they weren’t updated at all.

Regardless, the chances of an iPad being degraded to such a degree are rather low. Like I said, the battery typically outlasts the version obsolescence itself. You can degrade, say, a 9.7 or a 10.5-inch iPad Pro if you’re a heavy enough user (partly thanks to Apple’s long support lifespan: if you require updates, the longer they’re supported the longer you will use them), but from the other side, I’ll never be able to tell you for sure that it wouldn’t be like-new if the device were seven iOS versions behind.
 

Rradcircless

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2022
194
434
I've had my m1 iPad Pro for 2 3/4 years now and yeah, battery sucks. Is battery service available for iPad?
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,643
4,469
No, I have always said that the key part of my theory is “if updated far enough”. Some major iOS versions (typically the first one) are fine. If there’s a difference, it’s negligible. Specific amounts (which is why I don’t give any) of major iOS updates required varies. For some devices, the first one is abhorrent. For others, you can update it up to three times and they’re fine. Once you pass that threshold, though, it’s all downhill from there.

Funnily enough, I’m unsure about extreme degradation on some halfway updated devices. Take my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Assume that at some point battery life really decreases. Say, 40% health, 30%, whatever, take whatever number you like. The question will always be there: ”Wait. Would it be better on iOS 9? If so, how much?” So, perhaps they’re mostly fine on a version, but if degraded far enough, they suffer, and they wouldn’t if they weren’t updated at all.

Regardless, the chances of an iPad being degraded to such a degree are rather low. Like I said, the battery typically outlasts the version obsolescence itself. You can degrade, say, a 9.7 or a 10.5-inch iPad Pro if you’re a heavy enough user (partly thanks to Apple’s long support lifespan: if you require updates, the longer they’re supported the longer you will use them), but from the other side, I’ll never be able to tell you for sure that it wouldn’t be like-new if the device were seven iOS versions behind.
that makes your theory rather vague however, and the issue I take with it is that it's based on a relatively limited amount of devices (and updates thereof). Again none of us has hard scientific numbers to prove anything, but my experience does not match this theory.
My 10.5 pro degraded heavily all of a sudden and within iPadOS 16 (where it still is). Battery health moved from over 80% to 50-60% in a matter of months and battery life was more than cut in half, without any special factors or changes in habits.
Similarly my 9.7 stayed on 13.4 (where it still is) for years, but then in a matter of months lost a lot of health and battery life for apparently no reason. So updates are not the culprit and this also show a non linear path in degradation (although it's always for devices used for several years, never within the first couple of years).
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.