iPad 1.0 Battery Life...3, 6, 9, or 12 Months Later

For the life of me I don't think that I've seen a question posted previously for what I'm about to ask...so I apologize if it's been asked before.

With the announcement/release of the iPad 2...all possible outlets (e-Bay, Craig's List, and tons of "buy-back" & "recycle sites"), are being flooded with used iPad 1.0's from folks looking to get some quick cash to finance their iPad 2.0 purchase.

Many of these folks selling iPad 1.0's sometimes mention how long they've had their iPad 1.0's. Some will say:

- only used 5 times
- only 2 weeks old
- only a couple months old
- got it the first day it was released (so basically about 1 year old)

So I got to thinking...since iPad's are primarily meant to be used on battery power (as opposed to a laptop which can be run "plugged in" or run on battery power)...what sort of battery life or battery runtime on a 100% charge (hours & minutes)...are folks seeing since they purchased their iPad 1.0's?

I know that there's always a difference between what Apple claims for the amount of runtime (hours & minutes) on a full charge...but let's say you've had an iPad 1.0 for 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. Maybe you actually got 7 hours on a full charge when you first got it...and maybe you use your iPad everyday since you purchased it.

After that "long-winded" setup for my question...here's what I would really like to know. For folks that have an iPad...how has your iPad 1.0's battery runtime on a full charge (hours & minutes) since you purchased it changed? If you originally got 7, 8 or the claimed 10 hours...what sort of battery runtime are you getting now...3, 6, 9, or 12 months later?

I'm thinking that if someone is considering buying a 1 year-old iPad 1.0...it's going to be sort of disappointing if they get it home...and find out that they're only getting 3-4 hours or less on a full charge...out of the original claimed 7-10 hours.

Thanks,

- Nick

p.s. I do realize that folks use their iPad's differently...and thus iPad battery runtime on a single full charge will differ from person to person. What I'm looking for is how has your battery runtime changed or been reduced since you purchased it (due to the amount of total charge cycles or simply how a battery gets less & less runtime on a full charge over it's lifetime).

Bought my iPad first day. Use extensively every day. I have noticed no deterioation on battery life. It definitely gets 10 hours or more.

In fact it is very difficult to run down battery even intentionally. Unless I fire up a movie and keep it running full time. it takes me about two to three days to run it down to zero.

GNR said:

Bought my iPad first day. Use extensively every day. I have noticed no deterioation on battery life. It definitely gets 10 hours or more.

In fact it is very difficult to run down battery even intentionally. Unless I fire up a movie and keep it running full time. it takes me about two to three days to run it down to zero.

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Wow...that's pretty darn amazing...not the answer I was expecting. Sounds like you're saying that 1 year later...iPad battery runtime on a full charge has changed very little (or not at all)!

- Nick

If anyone is interested, there are various battery monitors available in the App Store that will give you some values. I just installed this one on my iPod Touch - it's free and tells me how much standby, music playback, video playback and WiFi browsing time I can expect on my current charge.

I'm not claiming that it's perfectly accurate but it may help in the discussion if you're trying to figure out how much time you can expect for variou activities at various levels of charge.

After 9 months, I have not seen any deterioration in battery life.

I use it several hours per day, mainly document processing and browsing.

Cheers ... McBie

Got the 3G model as soon as it was available. Hard to say how much actual time I get on it since some days it is in sleep mode a significant part of the day. I can say I haven't noticed any significant degradation in battery life compared to a year ago. Getting the same performance I was then.

Have had mine since launch day battery life is still the same and I use it all the time.

Same here, got mine a little less than a year ago and the battery is as good as new.

Haven't done any timing tests in awhile but have not noticed a decrease.

Unplugged mine about 12 hours ago now. Little over 3 hrs in use today, the rest in standby... Battery is sitting at 73% still.

Ok...sounds like we've gotten some really positive info so far. Everyone responding seems to indicate that their iPads battery is pretty much as "healthy" (or almost as "healthy") as the day they purchased it.

I would say that the average iPad is being used on battery power MUCH MUCH more than the average laptop/notebook...and with a laptop/notebook (after a year of heavy battery use)...I would expect some battery runtime degradation.

So my next question is..."What sort of battery technology is Apple using in the iPad that if with daily use (and possibly daily recharging)...battery runtime (hours & minutes on a full charge) seems to be remaining the same after upwards of a year of use?"

- Nick

Lithium. Same thing as their MBPs. That's why I think people obsessing with battery calibrations and life on their MBPs are wasting their time. Battery tech has come a long way.

schweb said:

Lithium. Same thing as their MBPs. That's why I think people obsessing with battery calibrations and life on their MBPs are wasting their time. Battery tech has come a long way.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty amazed that even after as much as a year of running an iPad off the battery (which I'm assuming most iPad owners do almost exclusively)...it sounds like no one responding so far in this thread has seen much if any battery runtime degradation!

AWESOME!

- Nick

//I would say that the average iPad is being used on battery power MUCH MUCH more than the average laptop/notebook...and with a laptop/notebook (after a year of heavy battery use)...I would expect some battery runtime degradation. //

With respect to my laptop and before iPad came out I did extensive research on lithum batteries. One surprising thing I learned is that one of the absolute worse things you can do for life of battery is to run on power. That is because heat and especially charging while heated is damaging to the battery.

So maybe the long battery charge for iPad indirectly extends its full charge life by eliminating need to run plugged in.

Got mine since launch day and have not noticed any difference so far so good.

9 months use

every day. No degradation of battery life observed yet.

I got mine in June and have used it extensively every day since then with little to no deterioration in battery life. It only sees a power cable if it's nearly dead or if I'm going out of town and want to fill up for the day.

The lithium Polymer batteries used in the iPad really are high quality by nature, Li-Po tech has changed greatly since it started to be used 10 years ago. In the RC aircraft industry (It actually caused most of the Li-Po revolution.) it's common to use a battery that can take 70-100 amps of draw with no bad effects. I have a battery that I give a good 30C draw on every now and then for about a year now (one plane I had would draw 75 amps out of it) and despite a number of crashes, it still charges to 98% capacity.

The battery test used on the iPad is much more strict than laptop charge tests, My Asus UL30 gets ~13 hours to the charge however if I were to test it to the iPad's video standard I would get ~9 hours. Depending on use the iPad 2 may see you 12 hours of use.

Other than everyone saying they hadn't noticed any battery loss, don't think anyone actually timed it to see how long it would last. So, decided to check mine out and have more than just a general feel for it.

Bought mine the day it was released, so just over 12 mths old now. 64GB Wi-fi only version. Wi-fi is on. Did turn off location and notification services. Brightness set at 50%.

About 2 hrs browsing time on it and little over an hour of movie watching - sound also at 50%. Total time now at 3:15 and battery is showing it's down to 76%. The plan is to post back with final results - but who knows if the old codger can stay awake on a lazy Saturday afternoon to make sure it keeps going.

At 4:15: another hour of playing video and down to 69%

Going to stream some Netflix or hulu next.

At 6:20 now, after a couple hours streming Netflix, I'm down to 53% power.

I woke up just in time to catch the last scene of Mad Max 2.

I have only had my iPad for just about a month now and just once I tried to drain her completely..

It took almost 3 days so I'm pretty much gonna charge it like I do my iPhone..

Leave it charging over night and unplug them in the mornng