iPad Pro iPad Pro battery health at 96% after 9 months, is it good? What’s yours?

[rui no onna]

That sounds a LOT higher than I’d expect, and a lot higher than pretty much every reported usage I’ve seen for the first-gen iPad Pros (both the 9.7-inch and the 12.9-inch) on iPadOS 16.
It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I’ve seen that data read incorrectly thousands of times; are you counting since you unplugged the iPad? If you’re counting from last 10 days, you might be including screen-on time from the previous cycle. Like I said, I’m sorry to be skeptical, but I’ve seen thousands of screenshots incorrectly reported, and it really sounds too high.
I’m barely scraping 10-11 hours of similar use (web browsing and media consumption), on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12, with low brightness. That use is light, and I’ve never been able to get any more... on iOS 12. 9 hours would be at most two hours below what I’m getting, and according to everything I’ve read, it’s too much. I’ve optimized every single setting, and I know how to do it: I’m getting 16 hours of screen-on time on my iPhone Xʀ. I’ve only seen one other person, ever, get 16 hours on a Xʀ. The vast majority were at 10-11, at best (on iOS 12, like me). On iOS 16? They’re barely scraping 6.

I’d expect 6-7 with light use maybe, at best? I’ve seen some screenshots and they were all on about 4, but with lighter usage, 6 or 7 may be possible.

I’m not discounting the possibility of me being completely and entirely wrong (I’d never do that): if I am, that’s great news for all first-gen iPad Pro owners, at least battery life isn’t as obliterated as it could be; in fact, I hope I’m wrong.

For what it’s worth, I get better battery life from the 2017 12.9 compared to the 2017 10.5 (using both at 0-20% brightness) even when both were new. The 12.9’s battery hasn’t degraded as much as the 10.5’s either even with fairly heavy use. The 12.9 was used for ~8-9 hours/day at the office on weekdays for email, instant messaging, web browsing/research, PDF annotation, etc. while the 10.5 was my e-reader, web browser when I get back home.

The 12.9 has a 41Wh battery while the 10.5 only has 30.4Wh. I’m sure the bigger battery is required to power the larger, higher resolution display. It may not need the 30% higher capacity for that, though, particularly if one is using it at low brightness (iirc, power consumption increases logarithmically/exponentially with increased brightness).

Mind, the iPad 4th gen has a ~40Wh battery as well and that one lasted forever.

Probably same situation as iPhones. My 4.7” iPhone batteries have degraded fairly quickly despite light use (like 10 minutes per day average onscreen time). Meanwhile, my dad’s and brother’s 5.5-6.1” iPhone batteries maintain good battery life for quite a long time despite being used far more heavily.

 

[FeliApple]

For what it’s worth, I get better battery life from the 2017 12.9 compared to the 2017 10.5 (using both at 0-20% brightness) even when both were new. The 12.9’s battery hasn’t degraded as much as the 10.5’s either even with fairly heavy use. The 12.9 was used for ~8-9 hours/day at the office on weekdays for email, instant messaging, web browsing/research, PDF annotation, etc. while the 10.5 was my e-reader, web browser when I get back home.

The 12.9 has a 41Wh battery while the 10.5 only has 30.4Wh. I’m sure the bigger battery is required to power the larger, higher resolution display. It may not need the 30% higher capacity for that, though, particularly if one is using it at low brightness (iirc, power consumption increases logarithmically/exponentially with increased brightness).

Mind, the iPad 4th gen has a ~40Wh battery as well and that one lasted forever.

Probably same situation as iPhones. My 4.7” iPhone batteries have degraded fairly quickly despite light use (like 10 minutes per day average onscreen time). Meanwhile, my dad’s and brother’s 5.5-6.1” iPhone batteries maintain good battery life for quite a long time despite being used far more heavily.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that! So, with light use the 12.9-inch should be better than the smaller iPad. How much better? 20%? More? I ask because I’ve never used a 12.9-inch iPad, I have no idea. I thought it was similar.

I hadn’t thought about the brightness to larger battery relationship, which makes perfect sense. We’ve established before that brightness is the main culprit of poor battery life: you’ve mentioned that high brightness on a 12.9-inch iPad means abhorrent battery life, and I’ve read that since the first 12.9-inch iPad Pro debuted. Makes sense that the larger battery would eclipse the larger screen drain at low brightness.

My surprise, however, comes exclusively with the iOS version: 9 hours sounds too high for iPadOS 16, considering my 9.7-inch iPad Pro dropped immediately from 14 to 11 hours after being forced out of iOS 9 into iOS 12, and considering that every single instance of iPadOS 16 on the first-gen Pros I’ve seen mentioned has been the same: performance is fine, battery life is abhorrent. Considering that it’s been the iPad with the most iOS updates ever, that doesn’t surprise me. 9 hours on iPadOS 16 is too close to the 11 I get on iOS 12 with light use, even when considering that the battery might still offset the screen. This is my reasoning, and it might be completely incorrect: If iOS 12 - which is a lot lighter than iPadOS 16 - already saw a 14 to 11-hour drop, I can only expect iPadOS 16 to be almost fulminant. With that assumption, 9 hours would be absolutely astonishing, even if by itself I’d consider it pretty horrible (I already think my 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s battery life is awful).

On iPhones: Yeah, 4.7-inch iPhones degrade quickly in terms of battery health, and I can also confirm that 6.1-inch iPhones do not. That has one explanation only, I think: larger batteries coupled with more efficient processors significantly offset - but do not mitigate - higher battery drain by newer iOS updates. What do I mean by this? Battery life significantly decreases when compared to the original iOS versions; in fact, they lose even more screen-on time (because they have more to begin with), but that initial advantage - which I consider to be extremely significant - manages to guarantee at least half-decent battery life for a long time. iPhone Xʀ users on iOS 16 widely report 6-7 hours on iOS 16 (while I get, with heavy LTE usage, 11 hours on iOS 12), but 7 hours is completely usable for a moderate user. Four iOS versions later, and a 4.7-inch iPhone is unusable: the iPhone 6s on iOS 13 is utterly abhorrent, regardless of what you do to improve battery life. I have tried it: every setting off, just writing on notes at 0% brightness on Airplane Mode (give me anything lighter than that), and it dropped to 66% after 1.5 hours with 84% health. On the other hand, my iPhone 6s on iOS 10 gets twice that with heavier use and... 63% health.
Conclusion? An iPhone Xʀ on iOS 16: Totally usable, even if significantly worse than it used to be.
An iPhone 6s on iOS 13: Not so usable, you are guaranteed to need a charger if you are even a moderate user (a full, moderate LTE use on my 6s on iOS 10 and I don’t see a lot of difference even when comparing it to light Wi-Fi use, standing at over twice what I got on Wi-Fi and light use on iOS 13 with a better battery). Full LTE with moderate use on iOS 13? Haven’t tried it, but I reckon it’s utterly unusable. I reckon it’d struggle to get 3 hours (I’m getting 6.5 on iOS 10, with, like I said, 63% health).

 

[rui no onna]

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that! So, with light use the 12.9-inch should be better than the smaller iPad. How much better? 20%? More? I ask because I’ve never used a 12.9-inch iPad, I have no idea. I thought it was similar.

I hadn’t thought about the brightness to larger battery relationship, which makes perfect sense. We’ve established before that brightness is the main culprit of poor battery life: you’ve mentioned that high brightness on a 12.9-inch iPad means abhorrent battery life, and I’ve read that since the first 12.9-inch iPad Pro debuted. Makes sense that the larger battery would eclipse the larger screen drain at low brightness.

My surprise, however, comes exclusively with the iOS version: 9 hours sounds too high for iPadOS 16, considering my 9.7-inch iPad Pro dropped immediately from 14 to 11 hours after being forced out of iOS 9 into iOS 12, and considering that every single instance of iPadOS 16 on the first-gen Pros I’ve seen mentioned has been the same: performance is fine, battery life is abhorrent. Considering that it’s been the iPad with the most iOS updates ever, that doesn’t surprise me. 9 hours on iPadOS 16 is too close to the 11 I get on iOS 12 with light use, even when considering that the battery might still offset the screen. This is my reasoning, and it might be completely incorrect: If iOS 12 - which is a lot lighter than iPadOS 16 - already saw a 14 to 11-hour drop, I can only expect iPadOS 16 to be almost fulminant. With that assumption, 9 hours would be absolutely astonishing, even if by itself I’d consider it pretty horrible (I already think my 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s battery life is awful).

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve noticed a reduction in onscreen time on the 2017 12.9 during the years I used it (2017-2021) regardless of iOS version. The battery life on the 12.9 is good enough that I simply never needed to worry about it.

I’ve since given my 2017 12.9 to my mom so dunno what battery is like now. She doesn’t use it often so I think it’s probably the same as before.

Meanwhile, the 10.5 gave me battery anxiety after 2-3 years of usage. Also, standby drain can be atrocious.

Mind, I checked my M1 12.9 and it looks like that’s giving me 7 hours onscreen time with around 40-50% drain. Again, low brightness (it’s usually at 15% when it’s on my office desk) and fairly light tasks (no gaming). I’ve never done a complete 100% -> 0% drain on it though. That’s usually from incomplete cycles starting at 90% charge. I’ll remember to monitor it more closely one of these days.

 

[FeliApple]

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve noticed a reduction in onscreen time on the 2017 12.9 during the years I used it (2017-2021) regardless of iOS version. The battery life on the 12.9 is good enough that I simply never needed to worry about it.

I’ve since given my 2017 12.9 to my mom so dunno what battery is like now. She doesn’t use it often so I think it’s probably the same as before.

Meanwhile, the 10.5 gave me battery anxiety after 2-3 years of usage. Also, standby drain can be atrocious.

Mind, I checked my M1 12.9 and it looks like that’s giving me 7 hours onscreen time with around 40-50% drain. Again, low brightness (it’s usually at 15% when it’s on my office desk) and fairly light tasks (no gaming). I’ve never done a complete 100% -> 0% drain on it though. That’s usually from incomplete cycles starting at 90% charge. I’ll remember to monitor it more closely one of these days.

Quite surprised, especially if you updated iOS. I have to admit, however, I track it very closely. It is decent enough on iOS 12 for me to doubt whether I would notice it, hadn’t I tracked it closely throughout its lifetime. I doubt it, because I’ve seen it: when discussing the impact of iOS updates, I’ve seen that people say “it’s fine for me”, only to ask for a screenshot and the results are a lot lower than I’d expect, but they’re light enough users - or the number is half-decent enough - for them not to notice. Like I said, if I didn’t track it, frankly I don’t know if I would’ve noticed a problem. If I did, I don’t know if I could know that it’s as “severe” as it is.

Your M1 seems to get around 15 hours then, which is very good. I’ve found that 99-0% can be directly extrapolated, and the 100-99% drop represents about 7-8 times that average. With that rule of thumb, you can estimate overall battery life if the power consumption is consistent throughout the cycle (of course, one hour of high-brightness gaming would throw the estimate away, and make the cycle impossible to extrapolate, but barring that, it’s fairly accurate).

 

[MarkC426]

That sounds a LOT higher than I’d expect, and a lot higher than pretty much every reported usage I’ve seen for the first-gen iPad Pros (both the 9.7-inch and the 12.9-inch) on iPadOS 16.
It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I’ve seen that data read incorrectly thousands of times; are you counting since you unplugged the iPad? If you’re counting from last 10 days, you might be including screen-on time from the previous cycle. Like I said, I’m sorry to be skeptical, but I’ve seen thousands of screenshots incorrectly reported, and it really sounds too high.
I’m barely scraping 10-11 hours of similar use (web browsing and media consumption), on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12, with low brightness. That use is light, and I’ve never been able to get any more... on iOS 12. 9 hours would be at most two hours below what I’m getting, and according to everything I’ve read, it’s too much. I’ve optimized every single setting, and I know how to do it: I’m getting 16 hours of screen-on time on my iPhone Xʀ. I’ve only seen one other person, ever, get 16 hours on a Xʀ. The vast majority were at 10-11, at best (on iOS 12, like me). On iOS 16? They’re barely scraping 6.

I’d expect 6-7 with light use maybe, at best? I’ve seen some screenshots and they were all on about 4, but with lighter usage, 6 or 7 may be possible.

I’m not discounting the possibility of me being completely and entirely wrong (I’d never do that): if I am, that’s great news for all first-gen iPad Pro owners, at least battery life isn’t as obliterated as it could be; in fact, I hope I’m wrong.

I have only taken the time from the battery tab in settings (not physically added up the time), so there may be some give and take....
I never have BT on, and brightness is always about 10%.

I could spend 30 minutes reading, but book is downloaded onto iPad, so battery level hardly moves.

Also for reference in this thread
Post in thread 'Terrible Standby Time on iPad Pro?'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/terrible-standby-time-on-ipad-pro.2373835/post-31815389
my iPad 2 has been in standby for 1200 hours and still at 53%.

 

[FeliApple]

I have only taken the time from the battery tab in settings (not physically added up the time), so there may be some give and take....
I never have BT on, and brightness is always about 10%.

I could spend 30 minutes reading, but book is downloaded onto iPad, so battery level hardly moves.

Also for reference in this thread
Post in thread 'Terrible Standby Time on iPad Pro?'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/terrible-standby-time-on-ipad-pro.2373835/post-31815389
my iPad 2 has been in standby for 1200 hours and still at 53%.

Yeah, I don’t physically track it either, but some people read it incorrectly. But yes, if reading a book (maybe on iBooks? That’s what I’ve tried) is a significant part of your usage, then that explains it. That is the lightest screen-on usage I’ve ever found. I got 14 hours on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro with light usage and low brightness, like light web browsing, maybe notes and some tv shows, but I got 21 hours of full iBooks once. There’s no other screen-on usage that would ever get me 21 hours.

 

[darngooddesign]

That’s very decent in terms of cycles-to-health ratio! I’ve always had worse. Maybe it’s due to the way I use it, I don’t really know. That said, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, was pretty abhorrent, standing at about 500 cycles and like 85% health. It was on iOS 9, so I didn’t really care, battery life was perfect (I monitor it closely). After it was forced out of iOS 9, usage diminished sharply, and it now stands at around 650 cycles... and it still has 85% health, three years later.

That said, I’ve found that health doesn’t really matter, like I said earlier. I haven’t been able to test the limits of that, but if my iPhone 6s is like-new on iOS 10 with 63% health and 1400 cycles, iPads with their larger batteries should be even better. Why do I say that I haven’t been able to test the limits of that? Simply because I haven’t been able to test an iPad on its original version of iOS with many years, many cycles, and poor battery health. 900 cycles is more than I’ve ever had. How’s screen-on time for you? What iOS version is your iPad on?

It’s not mine, but the best I have access to right now is a 6th gen iPad on iOS 12. Cycle count hovers around 500. I need at least twice that to extract any meaningful conclusions, so it won’t happen anytime soon. My 9.7-inch iPad Pro isn’t too interesting due to it being on iOS 12. That said, it will still take a huge while to get it to any interesting number. Even on iOS 12, I’m not a heavy user. iOS devices last a long time, it gets me 11 hours, and I don’t use it enough to cycle through it quickly.

However, if I had to guess? It’s even more irrelevant than on iPhones. Like I said, I reckon even 3000 cycles wouldn’t do much, even if it has something like 60% health. Can an iPad really be worse than an iPhone 6s? I doubt it.

Just did a test. With Background refresh off and all Notification turned off I got around six hours of streamed Apple Music playing with the screen always on and 50% brightness.

 

[FeliApple]

Just did a test. With Background refresh off and all Notification turned off I got around six hours of streamed Apple Music playing with the screen always on and 50% brightness.

Apple Music playing through internal speakers? Is it on iPadOS 16? If so, it would be expected: internal speakers drain the battery pretty heavily, even if the music app itself doesn’t drain much. It’s a weird paradox: a not-so-heavy app doing something in a way that’s pretty draining. Interesting test.

 

[rui no onna]

Quite surprised, especially if you updated iOS. I have to admit, however, I track it very closely. It is decent enough on iOS 12 for me to doubt whether I would notice it, hadn’t I tracked it closely throughout its lifetime. I doubt it, because I’ve seen it: when discussing the impact of iOS updates, I’ve seen that people say “it’s fine for me”, only to ask for a screenshot and the results are a lot lower than I’d expect, but they’re light enough users - or the number is half-decent enough - for them not to notice. Like I said, if I didn’t track it, frankly I don’t know if I would’ve noticed a problem. If I did, I don’t know if I could know that it’s as “severe” as it is.

Your M1 seems to get around 15 hours then, which is very good. I’ve found that 99-0% can be directly extrapolated, and the 100-99% drop represents about 7-8 times that average. With that rule of thumb, you can estimate overall battery life if the power consumption is consistent throughout the cycle (of course, one hour of high-brightness gaming would throw the estimate away, and make the cycle impossible to extrapolate, but barring that, it’s fairly accurate).

Created some automations to notify me of charge level at certain events. The iPad was docked at my desk and connected to a smart plug.

M1 iPad Pro 12.9 1TB 5G
81% Dec 20, 2022 at 6:35 AM -> charger disconnected
59% Dec 20, 2022 at 2:57 PM -> charger connected

Screen (15% brightness) was on for around 4 hours.

 

[eyeseeyou]

iPad pro 11 2018 (bought at the end of 2020), 301 cycles and 96.5% battery (after 9 monthy and 142 cycles it was still at 104%)
PS I just saw I actually had put my data points above in January...

I just checked my 2018 Ipad pro, and it has 404 cycles, and the battery capacity is at 88.6%. $100 to replace it while this thing is still running like butter.

 

[FeliApple]

Created some automations to notify me of charge level at certain events. The iPad was docked at my desk and connected to a smart plug.

M1 iPad Pro 12.9 1TB 5G
81% Dec 20, 2022 at 6:35 AM -> charger disconnected
59% Dec 20, 2022 at 2:57 PM -> charger connected

Screen (15% brightness) was on for around 4 hours.

That is better than I had predicted: it extrapolates to about 19 hours of screen-on time. Makes a lot of sense: our usage is similar (low brightness, light use), and I’m getting more than 20 hours on my iPad Air 5 (also M1), so around there.

I wonder whether that improvement is due to the M1 chip… I’d like to know whether the iPad Pro 3rd and 4th gen and the iPad Air 4 can produce similar results.

Which iPadOS version is your 5th-gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro on?

 

[Alish545]

my Ipad is Ipad air 4th generation.
my battery health is 87% in 536 cycles. Is it good? And how much will it last?

i have been keeping my apple pencil attached with it like 1-2 month now