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Battery life ipad mini

Is anyone experiencing poor battery life for the new ad mini?

iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Nov 3, 2012 10:28 PM

Reply
22 replies

Dec 2, 2012 5:53 PM in response to Tgara

I can give an example. I have the 16gb ipad mini and in 4 hours of use I've gone from 100% to 54% battery. I average usually 7.5 to 8 hours on a full charge. That is at least 2 hours short of Apple's estimates and 3 to 4 hours short of what many reviewers reported their battery life to be.


My iPad 2 had much better battery consistently reaching and exceeding the 10 hour mark. Since battery life hasn't been a widespread issue for mini owners I think I might just have a dud.


Has anyone else had complaints?

Jan 21, 2013 4:17 AM in response to tarafromslidell

I saw there are lots of people complained their battery life after upgrading 6.0.2 but mine is still 6.0.1 and yet i m experincing v short battery life on my mini ipad. I tried to disable wifi , celular, closing all the apps, location. But still it went from 97% to 96% in 3-4 mins max. So 1 % per 4 minutes, or about 400 minutes. Thats like less than 7 hours with very low level of usage i would say. My ipad 2 can do way better than that. Does anyone experiencing same problem like mine with their ipad mini 6.0.1?

Feb 7, 2013 7:10 AM in response to tarafromslidell

IPad Mini IOS 6.1

02/05/13 Apple reinstalled the IOS once

02/06/13 Apple reinstalled the IOS one more time and then gave me a new iPad Mini


This morning results 02/07/13 comparing both my iPhone and my new iPad Mini

6:00 am Mini 100% - iPhone 100%

6:30 am Mini 95% - iPhone 100%

7:00 am Mini 89% - iPhone 100%

7:30 am Mini 80% - iPhone 100%

7:45 am Mini 75% - iPhone 100%

8:00 am Mini 70% - iPhone 99%


Several of my colleagues are using iPad 2, 3, and 1 new retina IPad. None of them are having this issue.


To date Apple has done me good but I am at a cross roads. I may have to get rid of the Mini.

Feb 8, 2013 4:50 AM in response to jareia

Does the new mini have exactly the same apps as the previous one? The reason I ask is that it is possible that a particular app may be the cause of poor batty life. This happened to me when the Crackle app was first released some time ago. The battery life on my iPad started dropping dramatically. After some research I found out the Crackle app was causing battery life problems so I then deleted it and that cured my battery problem.


I would suggest you delete all apps on your iPad except for the ones that can not be deleted, reset it and charge it and see how it works then. Then you can at least eliminate any outside app cause. Then if need be try once again going to the Apple store and see what they suggest. Try another mini swap if need be. Don't give up!

Feb 8, 2013 8:04 AM in response to tarafromslidell

Same apps. Downloaded my entire iPad settings and apps from iCloud from my last iPad2 that didn't have a battery issue. In fact it lasted twice as long as the new iPad Mini.


The loss of batter life I should on my last email was 6:00am to 8:00am when it was sitting idle except for the email I sent. From 8:00am to 11:00 am I worked in my normal apps and the rate of loss doubled. At 11:00 am my iPad Mini was at 5%. The guys I work along side of with 2 iPad2s and 1 new iPad Retina still had over 54% left and we are all using the same survey app. The comparison is obviousness.


My iPhone was using 10.34% per hour

My iPad Mini was using 21.56% per hour


I went back to apple yesterday and they gave me another new iPad Mini. I am testing again.


I must say, Apple has stood by their product so far. They have not admitted there is a overall issue but they have worked with me. I am hopping they can fix this issue in an IOS update.

Feb 9, 2013 6:24 PM in response to tarafromslidell

Mine is experiencing the same thing. I even documented the time nd iPad's battery life:


8:00 AM: 100%

9:00 AM: 86%

10:10 AM: 74%

12:00 PM: 49%

1:00 PM: 38%

3:00 PM:10%

3:30 PM: Dead


I took breaks of 30 minutes in between some of these uses. I am planning to take mine to the Apple store and see what they say about it. I have a friend with the 32 GB one nd she says hers is even worse then mine.

Feb 18, 2013 3:29 PM in response to tarafromslidell

The same thing is happening with my new ipad mini I got in December. I talked to four people at apple support. Three said it wasn't normal. One said it was normal. I restored the ipad mini to factory default and turned off all notifications and it is still having horrible battery life. I dimmed the brightness as well. I'm stumped. My iPod touch forth gen can go eight hours and keep almost a hundred percent charge. I have 64 gig. I am taking it back to the apple store Sunday.

Apr 4, 2013 7:05 PM in response to tarafromslidell

My new iPad mini's battery life is less than stellar as well. With a full charge, I barely get 6 hours of reading or work time.


If I follow all the directions to turn off the the features that I bought the thing for what good is it?


I bought this to replace Nook tablet that went belly-up.. But even my old nook let me read for 10 to 12 hours with one charge. This thing seems to need to be plugged in at all times.


Not happy with this. Thinking of returning it.

Apr 4, 2013 7:27 PM in response to jareia

jareia wrote:


IPad Mini IOS 6.1

02/05/13 Apple reinstalled the IOS once

02/06/13 Apple reinstalled the IOS one more time and then gave me a new iPad Mini


This morning results 02/07/13 comparing both my iPhone and my new iPad Mini

6:00 am Mini 100% - iPhone 100%

6:30 am Mini 95% - iPhone 100%

7:00 am Mini 89% - iPhone 100%

7:30 am Mini 80% - iPhone 100%

7:45 am Mini 75% - iPhone 100%

8:00 am Mini 70% - iPhone 99%


Several of my colleagues are using iPad 2, 3, and 1 new retina IPad. None of them are having this issue.


To date Apple has done me good but I am at a cross roads. I may have to get rid of the Mini.

Using the battery level meter in this manner is comparable to using your car's fuel gauge to calculate miles per gallon. The only thing that matters is the total amount of operating time from full charge to auto-shutdown.


Use the wall-mount charger that came with the iPad and charge overnight. Do NOT use an iPhone charger. Do NOT use an iPod charger. Do NOT use a computer's USB port. Then, operate it normally until auto shut-down (ignore any low level alerts that may appear). An irony is that doing that test to determine the total operating time is also the exact procedure necessary to calibrate the battery level meter.


I'm not claiming that you do not have a problem. I am stating, however, that we don't yet know whether or not a battery problem exists.





According to Apple:

Use Your iPad Regularly

For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge, be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

Elsewhere, Apple elaborates and explains that two half-discharges (or four quarter-discharges, etc.) equals one full discharge.

Apr 8, 2013 4:11 PM in response to tarafromslidell

I am having a battery issue as well. Ordered online first day and no nearby apple store (rural SK) to chat with. All notifications and push turned off, screen dimmed, etc. iOS 6.1.3 seemed to be beginning of problem for me. Ie - overnight 100% wall charge and five minutes of use today at 8:00 am. Got back at 4:30 pm and it was at 87%!


Frustrating when I do use it a few hours and see it at 50%, then shut off and return later to 30%.


I have tried all of the tricks that I have read. What's up, Apple?

Battery life ipad mini

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