1 hour 17% battery? Help!

That usage is a little high. The iPad is rate for 10 hours so that is 10% per hour. It may take a few charges to get the battery to full y work. At this time I would just monitor drainage and then contact Apple if it does not improve.

I could not drain my battery that fast if I tried... I cannot think of a way you could do it on purpose. If you truly are seeing 83% of your battery drain in one hour one plausible solution is that you have a defective piece of hardware - should be an easy warranty repair.

It is also possible that your battery life is not being accurately reported. You can try rebooting (press and hold the top sleep/wake button, then slide to turn off. After it is shut down press the same button again to wake up your iPad). Fully charge it and try again. You could restore it in iTunes if you really want to make sure it is a hardware issue.

-John

Actually since the 10 hour number is only a manufacturer rating and with your screen brightness all the way up the 17% use per hour would be probably about right. That would be a five to six hour life which you could increase by turning down the screen brightness some to the lowest level that you're comfortable with.
Historically speaking battery life claims are always the maximum possible under controlled conditions and optimum settings for longest battery life. Users are rarely able to get close to them.

On the other hand if you really did use 83% of your battery in 60 minutes that would definitely be a warranty issue to contact Apple about.

If you were talking about a laptop I would agree with you. Have you ever used an iPad?

I have to disagree... iPad battery life under heavy usage with full brightness lasts me several hours and I'm not even below 50% remaining. The iPad battery is amazing.

...iPad battery life under heavy usage with full brightness lasts me several hours and I'm not even below 50% remaining. The iPad battery is amazing.

I concur. Just today, I've been playing video podcasts all afternoon since I got back from lunch. 3 hours of continuous playback at 3/4 brightness and this is the first time I'm below 50%. Compared to my Windows Mobile phone, which I used to do the same thing, I'd be lucky to get 2 hours of video playback.

If it's brand new (a brand new battery needs some time of usage to fully 'ripe'), as you say, and running at 100% brightness I'd say that sounds about right.

The 10 hours claimed by Apple are under ideal conditions and certainly not at 100% display brightness.

I just did a test, charged it to 100%, set the display brightness to lowest setting and started to browse the web and played some simple (not CPU-intensive) games. After about 30 min the battery was still at 100% and just changed to 99% a few minutes later. I was almost convinced that my battery indicator was wrong.

Then charged it again to 100%, set the brightness to 100% (auto-brightness off) and did the same things. After 35 min of use the battery was 89%.

The screen brightness makes a big difference in how long the battery lasts. Obviously some games will also drain the battery faster, but web browsing, email and simple games are all very easy on the battery.

The screen drains more power than any other component in your iPad. Having it at 100% will no doubt suck the life out of your battery. I get the quoted 10 hours with the brightness at 50% and auto. At 100% it is about the same as you.

Clear this up please....are you saying your iPad battery drained all the way down to 17% in one hour or that your iPad battery drained 17% - down to 83% in one hour?

Try decreasing the brightness.I have a Wi-Fi iPad and it drained to 40% in one day.

Try reduce brightness lvl.
If cn't better faster go apple.
With my avg 2~3hr + surf net + some simple game, I probably charge my ipad on the 5th or 6th day. V gd as compared to a net book.