One interesting note on the new iPad revealed in TechCrunch's review is the observation that charging time has increased significantly over previous models. While the increase is not necessarily a surprise given the significant 70% boost in battery capacity from 25 watt-hours in the iPad 2 to 42.5 watt-hours in the new iPad, it is an issue that many users may not have considered.
It appears that they’ve had a fairly major breakthrough in their battery technology. While the new battery clearly isn’t much bigger than the old one, it can hold much more juice (42 watt-hours versus 25-watt-hours). The downside of this is that I’ve found it takes quite a bit longer to charge the new iPad. As in several hours — you’ll probably want to do it overnight.
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Logic board and battery of new iPad (Source: iFixit teardown)
The increased battery capacity is undoubtedly being used to power such enhanced components as the Retina display and LTE networking technology, while also maintaining the same battery life (10 hours on Wi-Fi, 9 hours on cellular data) of the previous iPad.
TechCrunch also notes that the increased power of the new iPad also seems to manifest itself in the device becoming "noticeably warm" in the lower left corner, something that had not been observed to such a degree in earlier models.
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(View all)Seems like the iPad is going to have to move to using MagSafe for charging, and ship with the same power supply as the Air. Of course, they could still let you charge over USB if you needed to.
It seems inevitable given that the new iPad battery is larger than the one in the 11" Air (40W/hr vs 35W/hr)
TechCrunch also notes that the increased power of the new iPad also seems to manifest itself in the device becoming "noticeably warm" in the lower left corner, something that had not been observed to such a degree in earlier models.
I believe I read in one of the other reviews that this heating in the lower left corner was related to LTE use...No surprise that a "larger" battery takes longer to charge.
I'd rather have a significantly lighter device that has a run time of 8-10 hours (but have to charge it daily).
Gary
You are missing the big picture. The answer is not to pack a hundred cells into a device.
The answer is to redefine the technology used to make batteries.
The basics of LiPo and NiMh rechargeable batteries hasn't changed in 30 years and the NiCd has been around 100 years.
While the new battery clearly isnt much bigger than the old one
This is what techcrunch wrote. Though, they are referring to an article at zdnet, wich says:its highly unlikely that the battery is significantly bigger
What the **** is wrong with people?ars technica writes:
Earlier speculation suggested that Apple had somehow significantly improved on the power density of the cells, but our calculations show otherwise