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iPad Pro 11 2020 (2nd gen) Battery Life

I have the 2020 (2nd gen) iPad Pro 11 256gb WiFi tablet. I’m not necessarily one that has many apple products, but I have purchased every iPad that has ever been released. At this point, this is completely anecdotal, but my battery life is no where near what I have remembered in the past. Most recently, based on using the iPad Pro 11 WiFi (2018 edition) even just a few days ago in basically the same routine each day, I’m noticing obvious declines. In looking at the battery settings, I do not see anything that particular sticks out as an app that is using battery more than normal, but it is just noticeable.


Typically, when I buy a brand new iPad I set it up as a new iPad, but I did restore this one from a cloud backup from my previous pro, but seeing there was no issues in my iPad Pro 2018, I’m not sure why that would be the reason.


I am curious if there are others noticing the same thing?


Thanks. Stay safe!

iPad Pro 11-inch Wi-Fi

Posted on Apr 14, 2020 5:14 AM

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Posted on Apr 14, 2020 10:20 AM

Thanks for the reply. Wow, your device is definitely taking a hit. In your situation, it sounds like an intensive app was left running overnight? Mine has been using the battery so much, I'm actually cutting mine off at night - something that I never did before. I may test it tonight, because if i lose 15% in standby mode, then something is definitely wrong.

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Apr 14, 2020 10:20 AM in response to wolverine18

Thanks for the reply. Wow, your device is definitely taking a hit. In your situation, it sounds like an intensive app was left running overnight? Mine has been using the battery so much, I'm actually cutting mine off at night - something that I never did before. I may test it tonight, because if i lose 15% in standby mode, then something is definitely wrong.

Apr 14, 2020 6:19 AM in response to jshaas2

I myself have noticed the same thing. I've had the 2nd Gen Pro 11 256GB unlocked for a little over a week and the battery is nowhere near where my 1st Gen Pro used to be. I've reset - reformat and even set up as a new iPad with no change. I currently have 7 apps installed (not counting stock). Last night I set my iPad down with 98% battery. This morning I woke up to it at 85%. No notifications, nothing running in the background. To lose almost 15% battery overnight with no usage, seems off to me. Not sure if that's how it should be or if I got a bad one.

Apr 14, 2020 10:18 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure i'd call web browsing and switching between apps as "moderately heavy CPU loading." If that is moderately-heavy CPU loading, then I'm not sure the iPad could withstand true graphics/processor intensive tasks.


As I stated, I don't have any scientific proof to back up my theory. I do know I've had every iPad that has ever come out. I also know I have the exact same routine every morning and I know how my previous iPad Pro 11 worked during that routine - which consisted mainly of some slight reading in the morning, some web browsing, and maybe a quick edit or two on a Word doc before I went to my office.


I also know there was discussion a year or so ago about the formula Apple used to determine how long it showed 100% charged. As stated in my routine, I could do this for 25-30 minutes each morning and notice 1-3% battery percentage depletion. With this iPad, it's easily double this - with the exact same routine. Again, I have no proof, but with my experience with iPads and how I use them each day (and specifically each morning), i'm telling you, this iPad is chewing through battery much more than the iPad Pro 11 (2018 edition) did.

Apr 14, 2020 5:26 AM in response to jshaas2

My own systematic measurement of relative battery utilisation for an iPad Pro with iPadOS 13.4/13.4.1 - with moderately heavy CPU loading (web browsing and switching between tasks) at 30% screen brightness over WiFi - suggests that 12.5 to 15% battery depletion per hour is typical.


As such, battery life from full charge (in stated conditions) is approximately 6.7 to 8 hrs. Apple often (perhaps optimistically) quote battery longevity to be “up to” 10 hours.

Apr 28, 2020 5:02 AM in response to jshaas2

I feel like this is getting worse. As an example, I’ve been reading early this morning and in just 30 min, my battery has decreased about 7%. I have no background activity on and something seems off. Also, the battery settings page will not update when my last charge to 100% was. It still shows a date a few weeks ago, yet I’ve charged it several times since then. Anyone else having this issue? Better to go to Reddit?

May 10, 2020 8:34 PM in response to jshaas2

Holy crap, I've been noticing that its declining quite quickly too hence why I started searching on google and then found this thread. There clearly seems to be an issue if many of us are experiencing the same issues. Does anyone know if this has been raised publicly by anyone? I have to iPad Pro 11-2020 256GB Wifi too, bought new, just over a week ago now

May 11, 2020 4:34 AM in response to jr_shoots

The only responses I’ve been given were people telling me to contact support. However, there are 3-4 threads on this platform, and Reddit has a few, so I’m thinking it’s not a support issue. I have had every single iPad and I have a very precise ritual of how I use it so I’m quite familiar with how the battery should drop. Just to see, I completely reset my iPad a few nights ago and still have the same issue. Even my previous iPad Pro 11 (2018) didn’t behave this way. I may contact support, but I don’t think they can do anything other than what I’ve tried. I’m assume some of the newer parts vs the 2018 version Lidar/GPU, etc are causing this and we are stuck.


Interestingly, I’m typing this on my iPad and it took me about 3-4 minutes typing this and my battery fell 4% while I’m typing this from 83-79. 🧐

May 12, 2020 6:25 AM in response to PVK1312

I haven't seen anything concrete anywhere else. I am very close to reaching out to support, just makes it difficult with stores shut down because I can't afford to send my iPad in for repairs right now since I use it daily.


But I may have no choice. Last night, I unplugged it around 11:15 pm when I went to bed and it was at 100%. Left it on my desk. Around 9 am today I check and the battery is at 82%. So I lost 18% of battery overnight. Checking the battery levels and there is no activity from 11pm - 9am. So all of that lost with nothing going on. Something is definitely wrong.

May 12, 2020 12:20 PM in response to wolverine18

Wow, that's crazy. I'd be interested to know your battery results and what was the cause for the battery use. It is similar to what I'm experiencing. The standby on this iPad is horrible. It's nothing like the iPad Pro 2018 version. There are several other short posts on this site about the same thing and then a few at Reddit. I hate to start a support ticket (because i'm not going to the store) and like you, I can't go without my iPad (first-world problems I know). But if you do start a support ticket, let me know and let's reference this thread.

May 12, 2020 3:29 PM in response to wolverine18

I seem to be ok sometimes. I noticed the brightness really does punch it. But we all knew that, but perhaps this iPad the brightness being a strong selling pitch, does eat it. 35% brightness I seem to find it tame. I’ve only used it a handful of times today, and I’ve lost 7%. A few weeks ago, when I noticed. And read your posts (but not many) I was somewhat sure it wasn’t that bad, as we’re not seeing it much online this issue. But I called Apple cause I have apple care with iPhone and iPad, so, they call you instantly and I was chatting and during 10 minutes conversation I lost like 6% just browsing safari. She agreed was ominous, then I enjoyed the iPad a fair bit and noticed it wasn’t that bad, and yeah, been a while since I’ve been using iPads, like 5 years, but their phones. The max ones that I’ve had for 4 years. Amazing. The usage and battery life is so good. I tether WiFi loads. Use it loads, and wow. So I’m giving Apple some slack and with Apple care plus, I’ve logged it, so they have it on history and if I’m really not seeing good performance I’ll just exchange. But I’m reluctant in a bit green and appreciate the materials used for these devices and trusting apple. Will keep checking, Netflix is good too. 4/6 hours. Brightness relatively high... I guess it’s software stuff. I remember “uMake” app on iPhone, pumps it away... (good app by the way). I recommend Apple care plus anyhow.

regards,

May 14, 2020 9:19 AM in response to PVK1312

Great post. Interestingly, I went ahead and contacted support. The agent admitted that they have had many complaints, but at this time, not enough to warrant any particular fixes. While we were on chat, he noticed that as the iPad just sat there as I was sending diagnostics, I was losing 1% every few minutes of just sitting there. He did think it was odd and in looking at my battery use, he did say it was going down way too fast.


I had just completed hard reset the device a few days and set it up as a brand new iPad (not restored through iCloud). I can't tell if it's the screen causing the issues, or just a hungry processor/GPU/lidar that is running in the background too heavily. I have my screen so low, that unless it's nighttime, I can barely see it.


As I might have said earlier, with every single iPad (even my iPad Pro 11 2018 version), i'd just leave the device on all the time (even at night) and charge it every few days. With this one, even the standby is so bad that I have to cut it off when i'm not using it.


I do not have Apple Care, and I'm still under warranty so I'm just not sure what to do. If I thought an upcoming iPad OS release would fix this, I would keep it, but for the amount of money I spent, it is just not up to the standards of past iPads in relation to battery.


The only thing the agent told me to do was to follow a link he sent me about maximizing battery life. I know he was trying to be helpful, but it is things that any iPad user would have already done (adjust location services, background activity, display off, etc. )


At this point, I just think more people need to contact support and bring more attention to this issue.

May 15, 2020 10:03 PM in response to jshaas2

I’ve had mine for about 2 weeks now and it all seemed to be going ok, only charging once a day. Mainly using procreate, social media, reading manga etc. Yesterday however, started reading and using Chrome for a couple of hours and the battery dropped probably 50% at least. Or at least something that didn’t seem right. I was blaming it on chrome for a sec as I don’t think I’ve had such a bad exp with the battery when using Safari.

Decided to note down the battery on standby overnight. No activity for 12 hours and lost about 8%. Which is a lot better than what some of you are experiencing but still not a great result. That means it’ll shut down in around 6 days standby from 100% when other iPads have lasted way longer. Or is this normal?

May 17, 2020 6:09 PM in response to jshaas2

Glad to have found this thread. Using an Ipad Pro 2020 11 inch + Magic Keyboard . I guess battery life on this version was rather disappointing to begin with, but what I noticed is that FaceTime completely obliterates battery level: 1h 20min of Face Time recently cost me almost 40% battery. Acknowledging that this is a particularly demanding application, I still find this extreme. On mixed usage, I rarely average more than 7-7,5h, which is too far away from Apple‘s claimed battery life, indeed too far to be lenient and account for „marketing language“. I will visit an Apple Store in the next couple of days and see whether there is anything useful I can report here.


Thanks.

May 18, 2020 4:33 AM in response to EChristoph

EChristoph wrote:
On mixed usage, I rarely average more than 7-7,5h, which is too far away from Apple‘s claimed battery life


On the basis of measured battery performance of iPad Pro with iPadOS 13.4.1, I can confirm that your observations as to achievable battery endurance represent typical figures.


Allowing for differences is App usage and CPU load, for approximately 30% screen brightness, my battery utilisation measurements for iPad Pro 10.5 are at best 13% - 15% per hour.

May 18, 2020 4:42 AM in response to LotusPilot

LotusPilot wrote:


EChristoph wrote:
On mixed usage, I rarely average more than 7-7,5h, which is too far away from Apple‘s claimed battery life

On the basis of measured battery performance of iPad Pro with iPadOS 13.4.1, I can confirm that your observations as to achievable battery endurance represent typical figures.

Allowing for differences is App usage and CPU load, for approximately 30% screen brightness, my battery utilisation measurements for iPad Pro 10.5 are at best 13% - 15% per hour.


Hey bro, I saw your initial reply. If your iPad Pro 10.5 is dropping even close to what the newest iPad is dropping, then something is probably wrong. I had that iPad and mine worked fine. This thread is for the 11 2020 edition, and most that have one are complaining of bad battery life. As I said earlier, even Apple told were aware of this, but probably can’t fix it. It’s not normal iPad battery use...it’s not even what the previous iPad Pro was (and they are supposedly extremely similar).

iPad Pro 11 2020 (2nd gen) Battery Life

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