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wilberforce

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2020
2,890
3,163
SF Bay Area
I am actually pleasantly surprised by the battery life. After 2 days of occasional use it is still at 83%. Admittedly not intensive use, but way better than my previous mini, and better than my iPad Pro.
The first few days I had it, it used battery intensively and got quite warm (probably doing iCloud and other background tasks), but now it has settled down.
 
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curdy

macrumors 6502
Jul 5, 2009
372
413
BC, Canada
I’ve got one that I’ve been using for a while. Just installed iOS 15.1 beta 2 and I’m going to see how that does first.

so I returned my originally ordered iPad mini 6 that I was having heat and battery issues with and ended up finding a replacement at Best Buy since Apple.ca shipping times were weeks away. The original iPad must have been a lemon because my new mini is so much better in terms of battery life and no heat.
 
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3SQ Machine

macrumors 6502
Dec 8, 2019
352
202
Seeing that this thread faded out, are folks now feeling better about the Mini 6 battery life after a few weeks?

I'm still "meh" on the battery life, but I had to restore it over the weekend so I'm going to give it a few more charge cycles to see if it gets better.
 

Hello...

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
808
106
Yes mine is much better now I waited about a week we can a half and it seemed like it got better
 

jasperj8

macrumors member
Dec 28, 2020
94
25
I am actually pleasantly surprised by the battery life. After 2 days of occasional use it is still at 83%. Admittedly not intensive use, but way better than my previous mini, and better than my iPad Pro.
The first few days I had it, it used battery intensively and got quite warm (probably doing iCloud and other background tasks), but now it has settled down.
wow that is impressive. I get the same battery % just by leaving it and not using it for 1 - 1.5 days.
 

bubulol

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2013
967
273
Keep in mind iPad Min battery life is always behind bigger iPad
I ve measured iPad Mini 4 and iPad Air 2 under iOS 9/10, 9/10 hours for iPad Air 2, 7:30/8 hours for iPad Mini 4
My iPad Mini 5, around same, about 8 hours if not heavy usage, during first quarantine, i used my iPad Mini 5 alot for gaming (2D managing games), probably around 6 hours which is quite impressive and not so far from my current sot (about 8)
I will not surprised that Mini 6 keeps similar battery life which is enough for such smaller and mobile iPad!
 

*~Kim~*

macrumors 65816
May 6, 2013
1,099
408
UK
Mine seemed fine at first but isn’t so impressive now. ~8 hours on the last charge, some of that being with screen off. What is more concerning was that I couldn’t charge my iPad last night so left it on Low Power Mode and 10% at around 12:45. Looking at the battery tab, it shut off at about 3am.

That’s what Apple Care+ will be for, I guess. Had COVID during my return period so it couldn’t have gone back even if I’d started to have concerns then.

Note for others: Wait for the extended returns if you think someone you live with might bring COVID in…
 

zevim2005

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2014
8
0
I was getting poor battery on the first week of use like 3-4 hours SOT and now im getting 8 Hours SOT with a couple of days on standby.
 

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
I've just upgraded from an iPad Mini 2 (!) and it has a better battery life than my new Mini 6. I'm not sure if I got lucky with that Mini 2 but it's battery life has always been much better than that of my other Apple products (all purchased much more recently :)).

Exact same here. My old Mini 2 seems to have better battery life than my new Mini 6 (after multiple charge cycles). Besides hardware, what else is different? A couple generations of iOS. I've followed a number of tutorials about improving battery life by turning off this and that (particularly background tasks that really don't need to be running when the app is not in use) but it still feels like this battery is not as good. It seems to drop fairly quickly (relatively) when only in standby mode.

We should both try a simple test of charging them to 100% and then leaving them alone in standby for a day or two and then checking battery life. The question: Will the 6 be more drained than the old 2? Based only on feel, I'm going to guess yes.

I think I'm going to take it into an Apple Store soon to see if they can find a few settings that are default on that are eating power but don't really need to be on. There must be something I've missed. I'm doubting a brand new battery will be < a many-years-old battery. Maybe A15 just burns a lot more juice? My main suspicion is other defaults in iOS being "on" but don't need to be "on."

Otherwise, love the 6 in almost every way vs. the 2 (lack of headphone jack is the ONE big bummer IMO). It just seems to need to be charged more often than the 2 in the same general usage.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,651
12,792
I think I'm going to take it into an Apple Store soon to see if they can find a few settings that are default on that are eating power but don't really need to be on. There must be something I've missed. I'm doubting a brand new battery will be < a many-years-old battery. Maybe A15 just burns a lot more juice? My main suspicion is other defaults in iOS being "on" but don't need to be "on."

Sadly, I don't think it's possible to turn off the background processes eating up standby battery that Apple introduced in later iOS versions. I've tried completely disabling Background App Refresh and Siri, and I've been setting up devices as new instead of restoring. Alas, it's still draining 5-25% battery on standby for every 24 hour period depending on the iPad model.

Maybe airplane mode might help but keeping an iPad offline long terms gives me issues with iCloud sign-in and Keychain.
 

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
An airplane mode experiment sounds like a good idea too. Mini 2 vs. Mini 6 100% charged in Airplane mode for a day or two. Which will do better? Conceptually the 6 must win because the battery is fresh & new. But based upon subjective "feeling," I'm having some doubts.

Though here, the outcome doesn't really help anyone. It doesn't seem practical to be putting 6 in Airplane mode often to try to stretch battery life. So I'm hoping there still a few energy-eating things that can be switched off so that the 6 has- or seems to have- the battery life of the 2.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,651
12,792
Though here, the outcome doesn't really help anyone. It doesn't seem practical to be putting 6 in Airplane mode often to try to stretch battery life. So I'm hoping there still a few energy-eating things that can be switched off so that the 6 has- or seems to have- the battery life of the 2.

I have multiple iPads and the ones with best standby battery life are the OG Air on iOS 9 and mini 4 on iOS 10 despite having the oldest batteries.

My Air 2 had good standby battery life on iOS 10 and that dropped after upgrading to iOS 12. Screen on time remained around the same though.

I've limited Background App Refresh and Siri on my iPads. I always have most notifications disabled since they're a bother when I'm reading. The only other things that can be disabled would hinder functionality (location and bluetooth). I wish you luck on your quest but I recommend you temper your expectations. Unfortunately, iOS has gotten bloated.
 

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
Thank you for the information. That's disappointing but I can appreciate truth.

I've definitely NOTICED... and I actually expected the opposite given how OLD the Mini 2 is.

I may still do the test just because I easily can... but now the expected outcome seems even more likely based on your own experiences.
 

3SQ Machine

macrumors 6502
Dec 8, 2019
352
202
I tried something new this week, connecting my iPad Mini 6 to a monitor so I could run my work’s virtual desktop while my laptop was serviced. Now THAT drained the battery super fast—wouldn’t even last the morning without a charge. But at least the usb-c connection made the monitor setup a snap.
 

zevim2005

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2014
8
0
I can say that battery improved a lot after 2 weeks of use, yesterday charged the iPad to 100% and now after night in standby and 2:30 SOT the battery stands in 84%
 

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Macrumorsss

macrumors member
Sep 30, 2018
64
18
Just got my mini and battery life is unimpressive. Can’t really use it as an reader because it drains the battery so fast.
1636294686626.png
 

jasperj8

macrumors member
Dec 28, 2020
94
25
Really? I’m currently at about 50% after 6.5 hours. Mostly ebooks (Apple Books) or online with Safari.
at roughly 7/8 hours mine drops to 20-30 and I have to recharge. i use it primarily for reading, not browsing, nor social media/messaging
 

geta

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2010
1,526
1,267
The Moon
When i got the Mini 6 a month ago, the battery was holding for two days, now i finish the day with 25-30% using the same apps and sometimes its getting a bit warm…
 

Phineasgage1848

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2016
65
113
Anyone else seeing Apple News consuming an unnecessary amount of battery in the background? I removed the News widget to see if this helped, but it didn’t. I generally leave background app refresh on for all apps, as it hasn’t been a problem in the past, but just turned it off for News.

39EFE089-374D-47D8-93BA-E93C0E78DF88.jpeg
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,028
Anyone else seeing Apple News consuming an unnecessary amount of battery in the background? I removed the News widget to see if this helped, but it didn’t. I generally leave background app refresh on for all apps, as it hasn’t been a problem in the past, but just turned it off for News.

View attachment 1923075
Yep, on my iPhone and iPad despite background data turned off and the app forced closed. Apple News is going nuts. Granted, it’s not using a TON of battery but definitely some. Didn’t do this before iOS / iPad OS 15.

247A3550-1F64-45B7-8A29-0D330BCF0449.jpeg
 
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Phineasgage1848

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2016
65
113
Yep, on my iPhone and iPad despite background data turned off and the app forced closed. Apple News is going nuts. Granted, it’s not using a TON of battery but definitely some. Didn’t do this before iOS / iPad OS 15.

View attachment 1923157

Nice to see its not just me! It doesn’t seem to happen on my 13 mini (15.1.1). I feel like News using around 10% of battery, when I’ve disabled all user options to reduce usage, is definitely a bug. Anyone else seeing this?
 
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