iPad Pro 11 2020 (2nd gen) Battery Life

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.

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.

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. 🧐

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).

@LotusPilot

Well-said. My bad. I totally agree about idential app installiations/patterns, etc. I guess from the beginning, what I've tried to state is that I do use the same app installs (minimal) and I do use the same patterns every morning of my life, and from day 1, I could tell this specific model of the iPad was no where near what my previous ones have been.

Even when I went from the last Air to the first Pro, I could tell the battery took a slight dip, but it was understandable...bigger screen, faster processor, etc. I'm willing to make those sacrifices. But to go from the 2018 version to this version (which is arguably the most alike iPads ever), and to notice such a difference in battery is certainly unusual, and at least for me, hasn't been worth the upgrade.

It's a big deal on other forums as well. https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/fw9oqf/new_ipad_pro_2020_battery_issues/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/iPadPro/comments/fsx2dd/ipad_pro_2020_battery_drain/ just to name a few.

Like you have mentioned, I'm hoping this is related to the version of iPad OS, but since i've had this recent version on my previous iPad Pro 11 (2018 version) and it wasn't present there, then I'm thinking it's actually hardware related.

Unfortunately, there will be no help from Apple. They haven't said a word and I have had two support calls with them with zero help. If a 2011 iPad had better battery, that's pretty bad. I know it's not even close to the 2018 iPad Pro 11. In many ways, it's been my least favorite iPad I've had.