Charge Time on New iPad Significantly Increased with Larger Battery

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.

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.

Related Roundup: iPad

Buyer's Guide: iPad (Don't Buy)

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Menopause

94 months ago

That's quite understandable and IMO a small trade-off compared to what we're getting in return. I'll just charge it overnight :)

Rating: 6 Votes

dongler

94 months ago

Time for Magsafe?

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)

Rating: 5 Votes

GunZi

94 months ago

Considering it has the retina display and the boost in graphics, i don't mind charging it longer. :)

Rating: 4 Votes

GeekLawyer

94 months ago

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.

Rating: 3 Votes

newdeal

94 months ago

...

Well I guess we know now that the only way to get a high res retina like display in a macbook pro is to ditch the superdrive so it can be replaced by more battery and that there is no way they could do it in the air. Guess we can apples 2012 roadmap

Rating: 2 Votes

justinfreid

94 months ago

So retrofitting an iPad 2 with this new battery tech would yield how many hours on WiFi?

Rating: 2 Votes

vrDrew

94 months ago

Engineering is about compromises. Good engineering is picking the right things to compromise on.

I'm going to withhold judgement on both the recharge time and case "warmth" till I've had it in my (sweaty?) hands for a while. If history is any guide, Apple will have erred on the right side.

Regarding the recharge time, I think the key measure isn't going to be how long it takes to get battery state up to 100%. (It always takes a long time to get those last few milliamp hours into the battery.) Its going to be how long it takes to get it from ~5% to 50%. IOW, "almost outta gas" to "enough juice to get me through the day."

Rating: 2 Votes

ArcaneDevice

94 months ago

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.

Rating: 2 Votes

bse3

94 months ago

Now, THIS is how rumors spread.

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

Rating: 2 Votes

ArcaneDevice

94 months ago

For all the advancements we make in technology, it seems that battery tech is always lagging behind. There are constantly new articles about amazing new battery tech being developed at XYZ Super University and it never happens.

Yup. Creating new and ever increasingly super powerful mobile gizmos each year is becoming a wall that the tech world is going to hit sooner rather than later.

It's as if all the auto world just ignored the price and availability of oil and continued to build bigger and bigger engines just so they could go faster, with no regard to how much fuel they use.

There just isn't enough interest or investment in portable power. Batteries are just not as sexy as flashy graphics or shiny materials and that's going to be the anchor that holds the world back.

I've said it before. Apple needs to spend it's money acquiring cutting-edge battery research. If they could push development forward in a huge leap that would benefit everyone. Not just Apple products.

An iPad that charges once a week and has a run time of 48 hours? That would be something.

Rating: 2 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]