Apple Pencil battery drain even if not used

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Level 1

81 points

Apple Pencil battery drain even if not used

As a Christmas gift i received an iPad Pro 10.5, with a Slim Combo keyboard case and an Apple Pencil. I’m very happy about that and I basically replaced my iPad Air 2 and my MacBook Pro with this new set.

But I have a question about Apple Pencil. I love the pencil, but I’m not using it all day long, so it basically stay in the little landscape loop on the Logitech SLim Combo most of the time. Nevertheless it drains battery and I have to charge it basically every day (I dont want a lithium battery to stay at low charge level for too long).

It seems to me that since it is “connected”, both physically and via BT, with my iPad, it never goes to sleep.

Is there a solution to avoid unnecessary charging cycles like these ?

Thank you.

iPad Pro Wi-Fi, iOS 11.2.1

Posted on Jan 9, 2018 12:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MichelPM

Level 10

80,958 points

Feb 21, 2018 1:34 AM in response to Max(IT)

The REAL reason is there is no off or sleep mode built into the Apple Pencil.

Apple designed the Apple Pencil to be an “always on and active”, ready to go device.

So, the Apple Pencil’s battery is always going to drain, even when Bluetooth is turned off on the iPad.

So, you will need to keep the Apple Pencil charged on a daily basis.

If you let the Li-ion battery drain completely and leave in that condition for more than a few days, the Pencil battery will be dead and so is the Pencil.

This is just one of the many Apple design decisions/flaws that makes me completely loathe the Apple Pencil and prefer my own third party smart Bluetooth, an Adonit Pixel/Pixel Pro, as my smart Bluetooth stylus of choice for my 1st gen iPad Pro for the last two years!

I hate the cheap feeling and slippery plastic barrel, do not like the diameter or length of the Pencil’s barrel, no software eraser and in place of a software eraser, a lightning connector protective cap that can be easily lost, to the ugly, inelegant way the Apple Pencil charges and pairs on the iPad Pro.

The Apple Pencil, to me feels like an afterthought accessory device and NOT a well designed, forethought digital writing device.

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Answer 2

MacGee

Level 6

8,564 points

Feb 21, 2018 12:26 AM in response to Max(IT)

While the pencil keeps contact with the iPad Pro it suffers from precipitous battery drain. You can try to keep the two far enough apart that they can’t maintain contact, though that’s not as easy as I thought it would be - contact was only cut by having the pencil two rooms away. And the walls have to be solid; if your walls are plasterboard, forget it.

Alternatively, you can somehow shield the pencil from electromagnetic fields. I’ve found that tinfoil works well, though only until it gets a crack in it; even the smallest flaw will stop it working. It’s better to fold the tinfoil over the pencil than wrap it round, but I’m still at an early experimental stage. My aim is to make an actual Faraday pencil case.

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