apple pencil2 usage drains ipad battery

[nsklaus]

I've been trying to use the apple pencil2 on my ipad pro (11", m1) for a few days.
My main usage was making basic, handwritten notes.
So, yes, just using the pencil to write notes and it seemed to me that my ipad battery charge was dropping quite fast. I had a look at settings > battery and apple notes was indeed listed as number one battery consumer.

My question is this: How much use time apple pencil users should expect ?
I mean, before ipad battery gets so low so you need to charge it. My use case is as follow: use the ipad and pencil instead of pen and paper and write thoughts, notes. For example: writting ideas for making a book. so yes, long notes, lots of notes (just handwritten text, nothing else).

I'm *not* talking about leaving the pencil attached to the ipad. I'm talking of actual pencil usage impact on the ipad battery. How long it is expected to last ? I haven't made calculations yet, but roughly speaking, is it like 3h hours of autonomy or so ?

 

[nsklaus]

i've just made a quick test: writing for 15minutes gulps 10% of ipad battery.

if i scale this:
writing 30mn = 20% battery drain
writing 1hour = 40% battery drain
writing 2hours = 80% battery drain

so using pencil on ipad have 2h30 of autonomy from 100% to 0%
maybe give award of battery killer to apple pencil ?
is this a recent problem ? it could be a bug introduced recently ?
or is this supposed to be considered normal ?

 

[nsklaus]

just in case it interest someone: i created a free diy pencil for testing purpose, (it's not something nice that could be used really, it's just for quick testing .. i made it with a ear cleaner a small sheet of aluminium foil wrapped around it, and a little bit of moisture, water.. you can see example of those on youtube) anyway, then i turned bluetooth off. and tested it for 10mn.
result is 5% ipad battery drain.
( a bit better, but not much, battery drain is still huge).
so the culprit is not the apple pencil itself nor using bluetooth, but rather it's directly the software on ipados that handle handwriting. the automated shapes was still there too unfortunately. i so want to disable that..
anyway, bottom line is: we're stuck with the flaw of high cpu usage and ipad battery drain until apple decide to take a look at its code for pointing/handwriting devices on ipados. another bad apple design that will drag on for years until apple smells the coffee and decide to fix it .. anyone feel like taking a bet ?

 

[FeliApple]

Mine is nowhere near as bad, is brightness at 100%? I reckon it may be more of a brightness issue rather than the Pencil itself.

 

[nsklaus]

Mine is nowhere near as bad, is brightness at 100%? I reckon it may be more of a brightness issue rather than the Pencil itself.

no it's not brightness.
and i can tell so because i've done a separate test of leaving my ipad on at idle (with same brightness) for 15minutes and i haven't lost even 1% of charge. battery showed the same percentage at start as it was at end of that test.

plus, i've been doing some additional search online and unfortunately the numbers i have provided are the same being reported by others. it seems it's the truth that apple hype and PR machine won't tell you .. using their pencil will simply crush your autonomy. to the point that it renders the pencil unusable for any kind of activity outside. if i want to go out and sit by a tree to write thoughts and ideas, then using pencil is very bad choice.