9-10hrs battery life. What that really mean?

[SingingSabre]

It means that I left my aunt and uncle's house yesterday morning with 76% battery life. I showed off a couple things with it at my girlfriend's grandma's memorial with some family for about 30 minutes total, cousins played and facebooked on it for about 45 minutes throughout the day, then my girlfriend and I gamed on it for about an hour total, then she watched The Producers on it with it hooked into my car's stereo for the drive home (about two hours). We got home with 40 minutes left on the movie, walked inside, and watched the remainder of the movie. After the movie was over, I had 48% remaining.

I'm not writing this to give numbers or ratings, but rather to give a feel for people who aren't as numerically oriented as spec sheets.

 

[hookbill]

Battery life on my iPad 1 is great. I use it constantly for at least 5 hours every evening and still have 73% next morning.

 

[hookbill]

Actually the truth is that APPLE or any other company tries to fool us with these battery numbers...they never mention that the 10 hrs they get is at 50-60% brightness...the brightness is the main cause..and also the background apps...

Sent from my iPad using iPF

You're absolutely right about brightness/display. It's the biggest energy user.

But apps running in the background. No, not really. They are more or less on standby, not really running at full capacity.

 

[FloydianSpiral]

usually my iPad 2 will run all day, but if I'm playing games, they usually tend to suck the battery life away and you only get about 6 hours or so.

 

[tomthbomb]

It is good to drain it down every now and then. (battery calibration).

While that was the case with older Ni-cad battery's that is not the case with Li-Ion or Li-Po battery's.

With Li-Ion and Li-Po battery's they are good for about 1000, charges/discharges cycles. Draining the battery for just the sake of draining and recharging it does nothing but use one of those 1000 cycles.

Does not a partial recharge use one of the 1000 cycles?

 

[SaberOne]

Update

Ok, now that I’m using the pad to surf more often I noticed a faster draw on the battery life, so now I’m glad I purchased the New Trent device. Murphy’s Law usually prevails when you’re traveling through airports.

It may be overkill but I also have a separate battery pack for my phone. Those who travel know what a pain it is to charge on the run. The wall outlets in airport terminals are pretty much a thing of the passed as sponsored charging stations have sprung up. They're usually people climbing over each other to plug in their device and I’d just soon not deal with all that, not to mention the loss of time.

 

[IvanLasston]

If you are on the go then having battery backup is always good. I prefer a general USB battery/charger combo if possible - then all devices can charge. With the iPad this is harder to do because of the current draw. I carry around a Zagg Sparq as a charger/battery backup for both phone and iPad. I no longer have to carry the apple specific chargers for the iPad and iPhone. Just 1 Zagg Sparq and a bunch of USB cables.
phone Charger | iPhone Charger | iPad Charger | Portable Battery Charger | ZAGGsparq | ZAGG
I like that it has an optimized charger port and a regular USB port. They are expensive at list but Zagg has several sales throughout the year. I've picked up several for half off. The Sparq is good for doubling the life of my iPad. The only two gripes I have is 1 - the plugs are held together by plastic so they can break (upside is Zagg has a very easy return/warranty policy, just register the device and if anything happens - start a warranty claim. They will send a new device out, and you have 60 days to send back the busted device) The second gripe is that the Sparq won't charge both the internal battery and the iPad together. That is - the iPad has to charge up first, then the internal battery will start charging.

I had an iGo battery for my iPhone - and that lasted 10 years - haven't tried anything lately.

 

[SingingSabre]

If you are on the go then having battery backup is always good. I prefer a general USB battery/charger combo if possible - then all devices can charge. With the iPad this is harder to do because of the current draw. I carry around a Zagg Sparq as a charger/battery backup for both phone and iPad. I no longer have to carry the apple specific chargers for the iPad and iPhone. Just 1 Zagg Sparq and a bunch of USB cables.
phone Charger | iPhone Charger | iPad Charger | Portable Battery Charger | ZAGGsparq | ZAGG
I like that it has an optimized charger port and a regular USB port. They are expensive at list but Zagg has several sales throughout the year. I've picked up several for half off. The Sparq is good for doubling the life of my iPad. The only two gripes I have is 1 - the plugs are held together by plastic so they can break (upside is Zagg has a very easy return/warranty policy, just register the device and if anything happens - start a warranty claim. They will send a new device out, and you have 60 days to send back the busted device) The second gripe is that the Sparq won't charge both the internal battery and the iPad together. That is - the iPad has to charge up first, then the internal battery will start charging.

I had an iGo battery for my iPhone - and that lasted 10 years - haven't tried anything lately.

You had an iGo for your iPhone that lasted 10 years...when the iPhone came out 4 years ago? I'm confused.

 

[SaberOne]

I just checked out the ZaggSparq specs and watched the video. It states it will add 5-6 hours to the ‘iPad’ so not quite a full charge and its 6000mAh rating seems to support that more or less. Not sure if the battery requirements are the same for the iPad2 since Zagg doesn’t specify. It does provide the dual-port option and it does plug directly into the wall outlet.

In related news: I’ll be posting my results with the NEW Trent 11000mAh Power Pack when I return from Europe to see if it lives up to the specs of one full charge of the iPad2.

 

[IvanLasston]

If you are on the go then having battery backup is always good. I prefer a general USB battery/charger combo if possible - then all devices can charge. With the iPad this is harder to do because of the current draw. I carry around a Zagg Sparq as a charger/battery backup for both phone and iPad. I no longer have to carry the apple specific chargers for the iPad and iPhone. Just 1 Zagg Sparq and a bunch of USB cables.
phone Charger | iPhone Charger | iPad Charger | Portable Battery Charger | ZAGGsparq | ZAGG
I like that it has an optimized charger port and a regular USB port. They are expensive at list but Zagg has several sales throughout the year. I've picked up several for half off. The Sparq is good for doubling the life of my iPad. The only two gripes I have is 1 - the plugs are held together by plastic so they can break (upside is Zagg has a very easy return/warranty policy, just register the device and if anything happens - start a warranty claim. They will send a new device out, and you have 60 days to send back the busted device) The second gripe is that the Sparq won't charge both the internal battery and the iPad together. That is - the iPad has to charge up first, then the internal battery will start charging.

I had an iGo battery for my iPhone - and that lasted 10 years - haven't tried anything lately.

You had an iGo for your iPhone that lasted 10 years...when the iPhone came out 4 years ago? I'm confused.

Bad typing - I had an iGo from 2002 - and I used it for multiple devices, up to and including the iPhone (previously other phones and iPods.) So not quite 10 years. The point was iGo made a good battery that lasted a long time for me. Didn't have enough current for the iPad though.

Secondly - according to this article
iFixit Successfully Unloaded iPad 2, Using Battery 6930 mAh Li-Po | News, Reviews, Gadget Database
The battery is 6930 mah - so 6000 mah should be close to double time for the iPad 2 at least. As I said - I seem to get double the time - only 1 charge when plugged into the Sparq.

 

[SingingSabre]

Bad typing - I had an iGo from 2002 - and I used it for multiple devices, up to and including the iPhone (previously other phones and iPods.) So not quite 10 years. The point was iGo made a good battery that lasted a long time for me. Didn't have enough current for the iPad though.

Secondly - according to this article
iFixit Successfully Unloaded iPad 2, Using Battery 6930 mAh Li-Po | News, Reviews, Gadget Database
The battery is 6930 mah - so 6000 mah should be close to double time for the iPad 2 at least. As I said - I seem to get double the time - only 1 charge when plugged into the Sparq.

That makes so much more sense. Ha!

Cool product, thanks for the info.