Magic Trackpad - How Long Are Batteries Supposed To Last?

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Level 2

289 points

Magic Trackpad - How Long Are Batteries Supposed To Last?

I have a Magic Trackpad which I use with my 21.5-inch iMac.

I bought an Energizer Mini Charger, which came with two AA 2000mAh NiMH batteries. I use these AA batteries in my Magic Trackpad, so that I can recharge them.

On Tuesday the 4th of January 2011, my batteries were fully charged at 100%. However, today Thursday the 13th of January 2011, my batteries are down to 14%. So do you really have to recharge the batteries in your Magic Trackpad every 9 days? Or are these Energizer batteries no good?

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010), 3.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard Drive, Mac OS X (10.6.5), iPhone 3GS (16GB), Apple TV (2nd generation)

Posted on Jan 13, 2011 6:43 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 13, 2011 6:55 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Hello again, Reuben,

A lot depends on the amount of usage you place on the batteries. I usually use Lithium-Ion batteries because they seem to have longer lifetimes than NiMH. You can find out more about batteries from:

http://batteryuniversity.com

A site with a wealth of info on batteries and their care and feeding.

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Answer 2

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 13, 2011 7:10 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

I use my Magic Trackpad quite a lot, but I'd still expect the batteries to last longer than a week. 3 weeks would be more the sort of performance I'd expect.

Can you easily find Lithium-ion AA batteries? I found that Energizer sell Lithium AA batteries, but these aren't the same as Lithium-ion are they?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Energizer-Ultimate-626264-Lithium-Batteries/dp/B000IWW1G 6/ref=sr12?ie=UTF8&qid=1294931265&sr=8-2

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Answer 3

Jan 13, 2011 7:21 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

They are in the Lithium technology family and behave the same way. Li batteries are good for things like keyboards and mice because of their discharge behavior...keep a pretty constant voltage until the end of their effective charge.

LiIon batteries, rechargable, are readily available. I recently bought the Apple charger/battery kit from the Apple Retail store, comes with 6 batteries, so I would always have at least two charged batteries. Got tired of replacing throw-away batteries. The Apple item is pricey, $30 in the US, but decided to get it anyway.

A week does seem to be a short time for battery life. I haven't done it yet, but go to the battery univerrsity site and find the charge cycle info on NiMH and LiI and see how they compare...that will tell how the NiMH should behave.

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Answer 4

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 14, 2011 8:28 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

I have since found out that Mac OS X reports the Magic Trackpad battery level inaccurately. Apparently you should ignore the warnings of low battery level and 10%, and just keep on using it until it actually stops working.

Hopefully Apple will fix this soon via a software update.

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Answer 5

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,717 points

Jan 14, 2011 10:24 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I have since found out that Mac OS X reports the Magic Trackpad battery level inaccurately.

Is it just the MTP? I have a Magic Mouse and I find that when Mac OS X tells me that I have 19% energy left that the MM will fail within an hour or so of use.

Do you also have a BT keyboard? I have seen folks report that using the MTP with the BT KB has drastically excelerate their battery failure.

Dah•veed

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Answer 6

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 14, 2011 11:45 AM in response to Dah•veed

Yes I have an Apple Wireless Keyboard (bluetooth) and a Magic Trackpad. But I'm pretty sure the problem is simply to do with the "reported" battery level of the Magic Trackpad, not the actual level. Mine is still on 10% and has been all day.

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Answer 7

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 19, 2011 8:56 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I haven't charged up the batteries in my Magic Trackpad since I last posted on here, and they're still on 9%!

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Answer 8

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 24, 2011 2:53 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I haven't charged up the batteries in my Magic Trackpad since I last posted here, and they're still on 7%. That's 20 days of use!

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Answer 9

Jan 24, 2011 3:20 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Very interesting, Reuben, sure sounds like the battery charge indicator isn't what we would call reliable 🙂

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Answer 10

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Feb 18, 2011 1:40 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Little bit of extra info.

I bought an Apple Battery Charger, the white plug thing that comes with six silver Apple batteries. Well I charged up two of those AAs on the 24th of January 2011 and put them in my Magic Trackpad.

Those batteries lasted until today, the 18th of February 2011. So that's about three and a half weeks of real-world use without recharging. I'm really happy with that. That's much longer than I expected them to last. They didn't actually stop working today, but they were down to 12% battery level, so I took them out to recharge them.

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Answer 11

thorvick

Level 1

0 points

Feb 23, 2011 1:32 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

My trackpad has been at 9% for more than a week

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Answer 12

Nov 9, 2014 8:25 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

So-where are we on this other than these valid comments and questions ?

i bought an expensive Apple charger and six batteries-about £25 quid i suppose(not a cheapy charger from a DIY shop) --and I would not expect the battery to drop from 100% to 18% in a week-especially as the pre-packed commercial batteries that came with the Track Pad initially lasted nearly four months!.....

Is the battery indicator faulty on my machine or is the charger or are the batteries?

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