iPad What happened to the legendary standby time of iPad?

[okkibs]

Hey,
Not too impressed by my battery life…

Display (on higher brightness), cpu/gpu intense tasks (gaming, heavy multitasking), Wifi (for example streaming a movie instead of watching it from device storage), in this order can eat through battery. The current iPads are relatively slim and lightweight and thus can't have very big batteries. Unless you want a low spec iPad like the 9th gen (perhaps the 10th gen? I have not had that myself, so no idea about battery life) or a Macbook that has more space for a big battery, you can't expect to be impressed by the battery.

Expect about 2 hours in intense use and high brightness, double that for lower brightness or less intense use, and a couple hours more for browsing static webpages (few videos etc) on low brightness. Apple says "up to 10 hours" for that.

And finally, standby usage is a bit high, I found out it's less if I disable Wifi, but completely turned off the battery still drains as if in standby.

I suggest a power bank or a tiny 30W+ quickcharger for on the go (27W is supposedly the fastest it can charge, but if you use it at the same time it might draw a bit more than 30W), that works for me and is still very portable as the alternative would mean bringing the entire M1 Macbook.

 

[sdm1985]

Display (on higher brightness), cpu/gpu intense tasks (gaming, heavy multitasking), Wifi (for example streaming a movie instead of watching it from device storage), in this order can eat through battery. The current iPads are relatively slim and lightweight and thus can't have very big batteries. Unless you want a low spec iPad like the 9th gen (perhaps the 10th gen? I have not had that myself, so no idea about battery life) or a Macbook that has more space for a big battery, you can't expect to be impressed by the battery.

Expect about 2 hours in intense use and high brightness, double that for lower brightness or less intense use, and a couple hours more for browsing static webpages (few videos etc) on low brightness. Apple says "up to 10 hours" for that.

And finally, standby usage is a bit high, I found out it's less if I disable Wifi, but completely turned off the battery still drains as if in standby.

I suggest a power bank or a tiny 30W+ quickcharger for on the go (27W is supposedly the fastest it can charge, but if you use it at the same time it might draw a bit more than 30W), that works for me and is still very portable as the alternative would mean bringing the entire M1 Macbook.

Thank you! I never have brightness on more than 30% and less when night. Nothing heavy really on my iPad, but I do have magic keyboard connected…

 

[FeliApple]

Yet another test, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 dropped nothing (0%) from 100% in 56 hours, and my iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15 dropped... to 95% in the same timeframe, also from 100%.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro is far more degraded, has been used far more (it is almost 7 years old, while the iPad Air 5 is around 8 months old), and is not on its original iOS version (it is three major updates in - iOS 9 through 12). The iPad Air 5 is on its original iOS version (iPadOS 15), and is practically new (usage has been extremely light, it’s most likely still at 100% health).

I cannot stack it more against the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and it won by a huge margin. I think there’s nothing else to determine here: the culprit is solely iPadOS.

It’s absolutely sad. iPads’ standby time has been absolutely revered and praised by all iPad users since the beginning. Now it’s mediocre. If three major updates, and six more years of usage aren’t enough to offset the difference, well, then nothing is. Abhorrent. Yet another unfixable effect of iOS updates.

 

[I7guy]

My iPad 7th gen on iPadOS 16 sips battery if not used (and even when used). I don’t have a lot going on it though.

I guess it depends on what is happening in the background. Push emails, WiFi on or off, airplane mode on or off, automatic updates on or off, etc.

 

[FeliApple]

My iPad 7th gen on iPadOS 16 sips battery if not used (and even when used). I don’t have a lot going on it though.

I guess it depends on what is happening in the background. Push emails, WiFi on or off, airplane mode on or off, automatic updates on or off, etc.

That is the sad part. It used to be possible to improve standby time significantly just by tweaking settings, until iOS 12 (even when the iPad has been updated, like I said on my previous comment). Starting with iPadOS 13 though, it’s just poor even with every setting optimized. My iPad Air 5 has everything off, I left it on Airplane Mode just to try that, too, and nothing helps. All of the settings you mentioned (and more) have been turned off. It’s still awful. And it’s still awful on the device’s original iOS version at 100% health. I cannot have better conditions. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro, like I said: 7 years, 3 major updates, far more degraded. It’s still better. This has never happened before.

I’d be confident enough to say that an iPad Air 1 on its final iOS version (iOS 12) - or an Air 2 on iOS 12 - would be better than my Air 5, regardless of battery health. You know my stance on iOS updates, but standby time has been surprisingly stable even when devices last compatible with iOS 12 were fully updated. My Air 5 on its original version is abhorrent.

That said, if you have efficient settings, you need a while to see the difference. 7 or 8 hours and you won’t see a catastrophic loss, but leave it a couple of days and it will drop far more than =>iOS 12 versions did.

 

[I7guy]

That is the sad part. It used to be possible to improve standby time significantly just by tweaking settings, until iOS 12 (even when the iPad has been updated, like I said on my previous comment). Starting with iPadOS 13 though, it’s just poor even with every setting optimized. My iPad Air 5 has everything off, I left it on Airplane Mode just to try that, too, and nothing helps. All of the settings you mentioned (and more) have been turned off. It’s still awful. And it’s still awful on the device’s original iOS version at 100% health. I cannot have better conditions. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro, like I said: 7 years, 3 major updates, far more degraded. It’s still better. This has never happened before.

I’d be confident enough to say that an iPad Air 1 on its final iOS version (iOS 12) - or an Air 2 on iOS 12 - would be better than my Air 5, regardless of battery health. You know my stance on iOS updates, but standby time has been surprisingly stable even when devices last compatible with iOS 12 were fully updated. My Air 5 on its original version is abhorrent.

That said, if you have efficient settings, you need a while to see the difference. 7 or 8 hours and you won’t see a catastrophic loss, but leave it a couple of days and it will drop far more than =>iOS 12 versions did.

I guess it depends on hardware. My iPad 7th gen is good. I don’t know what “legendary” means because it always gets used maybe not very much every day but I use it to perform my eod activities. My M1 Pro also gets used every day. My iPad 2 still has good battery life after not being used for months.

 

[FeliApple]

I guess it depends on hardware. My iPad 7th gen is good. I don’t know what “legendary” means because it always gets used maybe not very much every day but I use it to perform my eod activities. My M1 Pro also gets used every day. My iPad 2 still has good battery life after not being used for months.

Like I said, you need a little while longer to see the effects.

Hardware is irrelevant, like people here are saying.

 

[I7guy]

Like I said, you need a little while longer to see the effects.

Hardware is irrelevant, like people here are saying.

In my opinion I believe hardware is relevant. My 7th gen I believe on iPadOS 16 would last like my iPad 2 if I didn’t use it, with the most battery savings settings enabled.

 

[FeliApple]

In my opinion I believe hardware is relevant. My 7th gen I believe on iPadOS 16 would last like my iPad 2 if I didn’t use it, with the most battery savings settings enabled.

Once again you’re contradicting everything. It wouldn’t and I’m not discussing it anymore.

 

[I7guy]

Once again you’re contradicting everything. It wouldn’t and I’m not discussing it anymore.

Hardware is relevant on 64 bit devices because newer processors are more efficient; new circuits save more battery - which is why my observations on iPhone X and later.

I understand why you don’t want to discuss it - there is no proof only anecdotal evidence.

 

[HDFan]

Don't understand why people are obsessing about standby time. Just turn it off when you put it away. When you are ready to use it again just hold the power button when you pick it up and it will be ready by the time you settle in. Turning it off when not needed should extend battery life.

 

[FeliApple]

Don't understand why people are obsessing about standby time. Just turn it off when you put it away. When you are ready to use it again just hold the power button when you pick it up and it will be ready by the time you settle in. Turning it off when not needed should extend battery life.

It’s not obsessing, we’re commenting on it. It used to be something that was largely irrelevant: standby time used to be so good that nobody really spoke about it other than to praise it, especially in comparison with Android devices. It isn’t now, and turning it off every time you lock it is not sustainable. Nobody reboots a device 20 times a day.

As far as turning it off when you leave it unused for a longer period of time, yeah, I do that, and that’s no issue. But if you are a frequent user, if you charge it once every couple of days (like many do), standby time has an impact now that it didn’t have before. Like I said, the most important part is that iOS updates aren’t even required for standby to be poor: it happens on new iPads as well.

 

[I7guy]

My iPad only gets turned off under unusually circumstances, such as in-flight. I use it daily and charge it on average about every week or so more or less is my stand by time good or bad? I don’t think it even factors into the equation. But that’s my iPad, others may have issues with battery drain.

 

[MacCheetah3]

I have no complaints of the standby time.



Additionally, with fast(er) charging support, this (M1) iPad charges in half the time, ~2 vs ~4 hours, as my 6th gen. iPad.

 

[r0ttenAppl3]

Basically Apple screwed up on iOS16 for iPad. On top of that, they also pay zero attention to what people have been complaining about. Ever since I updated to iOS 16, my iPad Pro M1 12.9 cellular has HORRIBLE battery life. The standby time is merely 24 hours. However I do not think this is a hardware issue, and the battery is okay when the screen is on (less than 10% loss after 60 mins on teams).

Does anyone has a solution to this? I've tried to reset, re-image, etc. None worked. I've also tried to email Creig Federighi, then an apple support came, ending up ghosting me after a few engagements.

 

[Digitalguy]

Basically Apple screwed up on iOS16 for iPad. On top of that, they also pay zero attention to what people have been complaining about. Ever since I updated to iOS 16, my iPad Pro M1 12.9 cellular has HORRIBLE battery life. The standby time is merely 24 hours. However I do not think this is a hardware issue, and the battery is okay when the screen is on (less than 10% loss after 60 mins on teams).

Does anyone has a solution to this? I've tried to reset, re-image, etc. None worked. I've also tried to email Creig Federighi, then an apple support came, ending up ghosting me after a few engagements.

While I agree, I actually found that 16.3 on my 12.9 M1 is giving me great standby time compared to all the other 16.x versions on my many other iPads. So I have left it there for now. Of course at some point I'll have to update but since I have multiple iPads, as soon as I realize one version has great standby time I'll upgrade everything to that version and stay there for a while...

 

[r0ttenAppl3]

Seems that this is random, I've found user with similar iPad behaviour on Reddit. Identical hardware as well.

 

[FeliApple]

Basically Apple screwed up on iOS16 for iPad. On top of that, they also pay zero attention to what people have been complaining about. Ever since I updated to iOS 16, my iPad Pro M1 12.9 cellular has HORRIBLE battery life. The standby time is merely 24 hours. However I do not think this is a hardware issue, and the battery is okay when the screen is on (less than 10% loss after 60 mins on teams).

Does anyone has a solution to this? I've tried to reset, re-image, etc. None worked. I've also tried to email Creig Federighi, then an apple support came, ending up ghosting me after a few engagements.

Look at that graph! There’s a consistent drop when you didn’t use it. How much was that? From... what? 85% to 60%? Never mind the usage at 3am, it wasn’t enough to really make it drop, that’s what? 25% overnight? Wow. iOS 12 would never...

 

[r0ttenAppl3]

Yup. About 20% overnight, they just went missing. Probably this would be the last iPad for me. So incredibly disappointed.

 

[okkibs]

I had mediocre standby times at the beginning with iPadOS 16 and something in the neighbourhood of 20% overnight too - but now for some reason I lose only about 3-4% per 24 hours of standby. I don't know what the difference is, it is running the same version though with less apps open. Maybe keeping more apps in memory changes things. I'll keep track of this.

But it's really strange that standby time should be affected by open apps, since iPadOS is very aggressive with its standby and will not even leave Wifi connected.

 

[Fishels]

My air 3 has really good battery. I’m kinda wanting a 5th Gen model but I am worried about battery

 

[FeliApple]

My air 3 has really good battery. I’m kinda wanting a 5th Gen model but I am worried about battery

Battery life is great. Screen-on time is amazing with light use, and very heavy use has always obliterated iPads.

As far as standby goes, unless your Air 3 is on iOS 12, standby time should be just the same.

I wouldn’t refrain from buying an iPad just because standby time isn’t what it was pre-iPadOS 13.

 

[Fishels]

Battery life is great. Screen-on time is amazing with light use, and very heavy use has always obliterated iPads.

As far as standby goes, unless your Air 3 is on iOS 12, standby time should be just the same.

I wouldn’t refrain from buying an iPad just because standby time isn’t what it was pre-iPadOS 13.

I’m not quite sure what my standby is for my Air 3 so I won’t lie lol

But I can easily get 11 hours on this Air 3 (bought in 2020) and sometimes 12 a day. I do keep brightness fairly low but I’m really impressed by how well it’s holding up.

It’s on 15.6.1

 

[SYCAMOREGRAD]

I think iPadOS happened. It runs a lot more in the background, and the iPad 4’s battery is larger. Add those two factors, and you get a mediocre standby time on any and every version of iPadOS.

I have the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. It’s on iOS 12 after Apple forced it out of iOS 9. Standby time is amazing. It’s better, I think, than my Air 5 running its original version of iPadOS (iPadOS 15). The latter isn’t bad, but the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is better. There have been many complaints about standby time on older models (including the 9.7-inch iPad Pro) starting with iPadOS 13 (the first version of iPadOS).

Regarding screen-on time, it’s a shame: after Apple forced it out of iOS 9, battery life plummeted from about 14 hours to about 10.5 hours. But standby time remained amazing. This forced update happened a couple of days before iPadOS 13, and looking at the glass half-full (because I would love it if Apple hadn’t forced it out of iOS 9), I’m glad I can have iOS 12 instead of iPadOS 13, both the screen-on time and standby time reports aren’t good. If an updated iPad defeats an original version iPad, then there’s no other explanation: the OS version is exclusively at fault (as far as screen-on time is concerned, the Air 5 blows the 9.7-inch iPad Pro out of the water, though).

So yeah, in conclusion, iPadOS 13 onwards hasn’t been great in terms of standby time: even if you can explain your result with the size of the iPad 4’s battery, the fact that the far smaller battery in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro retains good standby time on iOS 12; that coupled with the fact that the reports of iPadOS 13 onwards aren’t good allows us to conclude, I think, that battery size is not enough to explain it, and that the OS plays a part.

iPadOS in and of itself, hasn’t been great. Kinda like iOS 10 and newer. Craig Federighi is no Scott Forstal. J/S

 

[FeliApple]

I’m not quite sure what my standby is for my Air 3 so I won’t lie lol

But I can easily get 11 hours on this Air 3 (bought in 2020) and sometimes 12 a day. I do keep brightness fairly low but I’m really impressed by how well it’s holding up.

It’s on 15.6.1

You’ll easily get more than that on your Air 5, especially with only one major update.

For what it’s worth, I’m getting around 10-11 hours on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro (on iOS 12), and more than 23 hours on my iPad Air 5. For an Air 3 on iPadOS 15 to get 12 hours, you aren’t a heavy user. The Air 5 will be amazing for you, if so.


Like I said, standby time is worse, significantly worse, but very, very, very far from being anywhere near a deal-breaker. It’s okay.