iPad Battery Test Surprise: iPad Mini Trounces iPad Pro
I have a beautiful iPad Pro (11"), which I purchased to demo my startup’s mobile app. There are many things I love about the iPad Pro: it is powerful, sleek, and (blessedly) notchless. In many ways, it is the perfect iPad.
But its battery life is terrible. Even though I don’t use my iPad Pro often—and never use demanding apps—it seems like every time I pick it up the battery is either dead or nearly so.
After I troubleshooted the issue with Apple, my iPad Pro was still draining 15% or 20% per day, even when not in use. Apple said this was not appropriate behavior, so they swapped the device for a new unit (with a brand-new battery).
I set up this unit as a new iPad and installed only a handful of apps. But like the old one, my new iPad Pro couldn’t hold a charge. In fact, I was almost certain that my 6-year old iPad mini could hold a charge longer than this brand-new iPad Pro.
Head-To-Head Test
So I ran a head-to-head test. I charged up both iPads and didn’t use either one, except to check the battery once or twice a day. As you can see, the iPad mini absolutely slaughtered my new iPad Pro.
When the Pro croaked, the 6-year-old mini still had over 40% of its battery left. The Pro lasted less than 11 days; for reference, Steve Jobs boasted that the original iPad lasted for over 30 days on standby—or roughly triple the time of my brand-new iPad Pro.
It is shocking that a brand-new top-of-the-line iPad would have 1/3 of the standby life of the original iPad, which was released a decade ago. Perhaps even more surprising is that even a used iPad mini trounces the new iPad Pro, especially considering the cost difference:
- iPad Pro: $800
- iPad mini (current gen): $400
- iPad mini (2014, used): $75
Apple’s top-of-the-line iPad should not trail the original iPad (or a several-years-old iPad!) on any metric—especially one as important as battery life.
Why Does the Pro Lag the Mini?
My guess is the new iPadOS is to blame for the iPad Pro’s lousy battery life. My iPad mini (retina, 2014) is too old to run iPadOS, so it’s still running iOS. Given the extreme and surprising disparity in battery life, I’m guessing that there’s something about iPadOS’s standby mode that makes it much less battery-efficient than good ol’ iOS.
It is possible that iPadOS has worse standby life because it’s doing more behind the scenes. But I can’t imagine what it would be doing, and if I’ve disabled background app activity, that should send a pretty clear message that I don’t want my iPad to be doing anything while I’m not using it.
Getting Help
If you have battery issues with your iPad, be sure to document your experience with screenshots of the Battery settings, and take your iPad in to Apple (or call AppleCare) before your warranty expires. Even if you’re out-of-warranty when they finish troubleshooting, you are covered so long as you first raised the issue when you were under warranty.
Let’s hope Apple fixes this issue soon, so we can get back to the month-long standby that the iPad has boasted since its inception! You can submit feedback to Apple here.
Nick is the founder of BeeLine Reader, a startup whose technology makes reading on screen easier and faster. In a prior life, Nick worked in an Apple Authorized Repair Center. His first computer was a Mac Plus.
