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iPad What happened to the legendary standby time of iPad?
- Thread starter iKoopa
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I'm on the same boat. I guess that I'm not gonna update anything in the next weeks or months.
Legendary stand-by time is my favorite "feature" of the iPad.
I do not, but for the record, I don’t consider my Air 5 good in standby at all, like I said.
Well, I own an iPad Pro M1 11 inch. And I have to admit I am not really seeing any standby issues on the most recent iPadOS.
I am currently on version 16.1.1.
I tend to use my iPad sporadically. I charged it fully while using it on Monday late afternoon. Because of this thread I went to pick it up now while it was sitting in my Magic Keyboard case since then, so we are talking about close to 40 hours time. And the reported battery remaining was at 96%.
that means it dropped a total of 4% in a little more than a day and a half this time. If one were to extrapolate, it would give me more than 30 days of standby time. I still think the M1 iPad Pro 11 inch is the best all-around value iPad .
If only it had the mini LED or OLED screen like the iPhone, or the current MacBook Pro, but other than that, I love everything about the form, factor size and weight.
I am currently on version 16.1.1.
I tend to use my iPad sporadically. I charged it fully while using it on Monday late afternoon. Because of this thread I went to pick it up now while it was sitting in my Magic Keyboard case since then, so we are talking about close to 40 hours time. And the reported battery remaining was at 96%.
that means it dropped a total of 4% in a little more than a day and a half this time. If one were to extrapolate, it would give me more than 30 days of standby time. I still think the M1 iPad Pro 11 inch is the best all-around value iPad .
If only it had the mini LED or OLED screen like the iPhone, or the current MacBook Pro, but other than that, I love everything about the form, factor size and weight.
Note, however, that the 100-99% drop takes about 7 times more than the rest of the percentage points. It would be equal to around 10% in... what, 40 hours? It’s about 4 hours per percentage point, or 6% per day, like other comments reported. Not great for an iPad, just like most of the comments report here. That matches my Air 5 numbers too. It should be far better, for all of us.
If you want that standby time back, buy an old less powerful iPad running an old version of iOS, not iPadOS; and have its battery replaced.
That's pretty much the long and short of it until battery tech improves or the iPad's design changes to accommodate the kind of power storage Macs have.
iPad Air 4, charged it to 100% on Tuesday. Now two days later lost 18%. I didn’t touch it. Connected to WiFi nothing else seemed to have happened.
Strange you can’t see battery health like on iPhone btw.
Strange you can’t see battery health like on iPhone btw.
In the OP example/instance, the slimmer design (which is overall the industry direction, especially with Apple), forces ~34% battery (design) capacity decrease.
Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi - Full tablet specifications
Apple iPad Air (2020) - Full tablet specifications
Interestingly, while the battery size difference is significant and I am sure that it plays a part, I’m more inclined to blame iOS as a culprit with 99% of that culpability: the iPad Mini 1 is amazing on standby on iOS 9, my iPhone 6s on iOS 10 with a 1080 mAh capacity remaining is amazing on standby, while my iPhone Xʀ running iOS 12 with nearly three times the 6s’ capacity and my Air 5 which has twice the Mini 1’s capacity (but runs iPadOS 15 instead of iOS 9) both pale in comparison.In the OP example/instance, the slimmer design (which is overall the industry direction, especially with Apple), forces ~34% battery (design) capacity decrease.
Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi - Full tablet specifications
www.gsmarena.com
Apple iPad Air (2020) - Full tablet specifications
Like I said earlier, the fact that it affects every device, regardless of capacity, and on their original iOS versions (so the fact that the device runs the iOS version which was designed for it isn’t a factor; furthermore, older, fully updated devices like the Mini 1 are still amazing) is, in my view, a clear reason to solely blame newer iOS versions.
Unfortunately, and I repeat this because I think it is the worst aspect of the issue, the fact it happens with every setting combination and on every device would signal that unless Apple fixes the issue themselves, it is unsolvable on our end.
Just putting this out there - we also cannot discount the effects that poor WiFi (or even cellular) has on our devices.
Devices can drain battery faster, if they are struggling for a decent signal.
Sorry if this has been said previously, but I'm a techie and I know that many homes may have poor WiFi reception - mostly due to the expectation that their carrier-provided router/wifi is expected to blast fast signal throughout their whole house (many times this is an unrealistic expectation, depending on the size of ones house or placement of the router).
Devices can drain battery faster, if they are struggling for a decent signal.
Sorry if this has been said previously, but I'm a techie and I know that many homes may have poor WiFi reception - mostly due to the expectation that their carrier-provided router/wifi is expected to blast fast signal throughout their whole house (many times this is an unrealistic expectation, depending on the size of ones house or placement of the router).
I wish it were a connectivity issue. It is far worse on Airplane Mode with everything off, too.
That's unfortunately never been something I could blame it on after some quick testing. My AirPort Extreme+AirPort Express as an extender always worked optimally for my iPads back in the old days, and where we live now I have set up a Linksys Velop mesh network AND am lucky enough to be living in an area with great 5G/5GUW coverage.
I think the issue has been home network adjacent though. When iCloud was launched, Steve Jobs pitched it as taking the place of the Mac as far as being the center of the ecosystem. That's definitely what it's become over the years, and the amount of files and tasks that are syncing through it are growing and growing. Thus, when you kill every app on your iPad and turn off all connectivity to iCloud, your battery barely drains at all in standby.
Still takes me back to my main point though--the battery capacity in the current iPad design language has fallen a bit behind what we're demanding out of iPads these days.
For me to get good standby on the Air 5, Mini 6, and the iPad Pro 11 M2 that I had - I had to turn off notifications, background app processing for quite a few of the apps I use regularly on my Mac/iPhone, and I had a shortcut automation that turned on lower power mode at night until the morning.
I also use Apple's case, keep the iPad closed, and face down when not in use. This seems to help the standby battery usage significantly.
Doing this seemed to help me with my standby life. But most people are going to leave default settings and it really drains with that.
Also keep in mind - I'm noticing that both iPads/iPhones need a few days to settle down once you get them. I usually leave them plugged in for the first few days. My new 14 Pro is still chugging away on photo stuff a week later when on power.
I also use Apple's case, keep the iPad closed, and face down when not in use. This seems to help the standby battery usage significantly.
Doing this seemed to help me with my standby life. But most people are going to leave default settings and it really drains with that.
Also keep in mind - I'm noticing that both iPads/iPhones need a few days to settle down once you get them. I usually leave them plugged in for the first few days. My new 14 Pro is still chugging away on photo stuff a week later when on power.
I own a Wi-Fi model of Fourth Generation iPad Air and I don't notice it being particularly lame when it comes to battery life.
That said, I know that battery life has long been a complaint of other Fourth Generation iPad Air owners/users. I've heard that the current (Fifth Generation) iPad Air has it a little worse in this regard. But you're literally taking the number of cores from A14 Bionic and doubling them. Incidentally, A14 Bionic wasn't the most battery-efficient of Apple's recent SoCs (those same cores were groundbreaking when put into M1 to go into MacBook Airs and 13-inch MacBook Pros, but not so much on the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and Fourth Generation iPad Air).
Worse, from what I've heard.
It went from being a legend to being a myth.
At first I thought it was because I had the cellular on, but even when I turn it off, it still drains pretty fast. My M1 MacBook Pro 14-inch seems to have better standby time. Both of them are in the same room, where the main router is. I’m thinking the problem could be iPad OS?
At first I thought it was because I had the cellular on, but even when I turn it off, it still drains pretty fast. My M1 MacBook Pro 14-inch seems to have better standby time. Both of them are in the same room, where the main router is. I’m thinking the problem could be iPad OS?
In this thread the issue is not so much battery life, but stand-by time (drain while the iPad is not in use). The number of cores makes no difference for that (and it mostly makes little difference for basic use, since iPadOS still often relies on single core). Stanby time has significantly worsend in all all iPads after IOS 10 and even more with iPadOS.
But id someone does use the iPad continously during the day, and charges at night, the impact of standby drain can be pretty minor in terms of battery life.
Does it really need to be explained to you that iPad today is doing infinitely more than iPad was doing 10 years ago? That is packed with an exponentially more powerful chip? That battery technology has hardly advanced at all in the same timeframe? I mean, really?
My iPad lost 7/8% per day while connected to iCloud and since I have removed it, it's now 3/4%.
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The "exponentially more powerful chip" does not make a difference for battery life (and even less for standby time) as this power is more than offset by an "exponentially more efficient chip". (A much more sophisticated) software, not hardware, is what is impacting standby time.
Also, screen-on time isn’t poor. Poor optimisation in every regard also destroys screen-on time (this is easily shown by screen-on time results of heavily updated iPhones and iPads, like A9-enabled devices). This time, new devices on original versions of iOS are affected, too.
It’s not a matter of battery technology, imo, it’s lack of optimisation for standby battery life. Apple may consider standby time good enough. It isn’t. It is a gigantic regression from iOS 10 standards, while screen-on time has only gotten better. With light use, my Air 5 is the best iPad I’ve ever used regarding screen-on time, achieving north of 25 hours.
This applies to iPhones too: how is it possible that my iPhone Xʀ running iOS 12 is awful in standby, when a 7-year-old iPhone 6s running iOS 10 with a third of the battery capacity is infinitely better? Original iOS version for both, the Xʀ currently has three times the battery capacity of the 6s, and standby time is infinitely better on the 6s. My iPhone 5c on iOS 10 is even better (32-bit devices were even better, fully updated too!), and that is unacceptable, simply because the regression has been too steep. My Xʀ sometimes loses like 6% overnight, my iPad Air 5 seems a little better, but it still loses 3%. In terms of screen-on time, the difference is massive: 6% on the Xʀ is equivalent to like an hour of screen-on time with light use. For that to be equivalent, my 6s on iOS 10 would need to lose a whopping 12% overnight, more or less. Of course, that never happens.
You don’t need to go ten years back. On iPads, in my experience, standby time broke on iPadOS 13; on iPhones, on iOS 12. The 2018 and 2019 releases.
Hi, I’ve gotten a new iPad Air 5 just last week. im worried about battery life too! I’ve had an ipad since the original and i have to say the battery life on this most recent model is the worst. All day battery life? I’ve been on a zoom meeting for the past 2 hours, some light browsing for an hour before that and I've gone from 100% to 20% already??? Does that sound normal? I do have a Bluetooth keyboard case attached if that would make a big difference I dont know