Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. The good news is that the iPad Pro 9.7 has excellent battery life that has lasted me 24 hours with steady use. The company sells a Lightning-to-USB C cable that provides a quick charging boost for its big 38.5Wh battery.
iPad Pro 9.7 (2016) review
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. The good news is that the iPad Pro 9.7 has excellent battery life that has lasted me 24 hours with steady use.
The company sells a Lightning-to-USB C cable that provides a quick charging boost for its big 38.5Wh battery.
How long do iPads last?
A newer iPad Pro, which has more storage and features, will likely last longer than an older or lower-end model. A newer iPad Pro, which has more storage and features, will likely last longer than an older or lower-end model. If you use your iPad every day and play video games or work with graphic design programs, it’ll wear out more quickly. If you use your iPad every day and play video games or work with graphic design programs, it’ll wear out more quickly. If you update your iPad software regularly, clean it often, and keep its parts in working order, you’ll increase its lifespan. But if you use your iPad a lot or if you use it in extremely hot or cold temperatures, your battery may die more quickly.
Luckily, replacing an iPad battery that’s no longer working as it should is a simple and fast repair. But every time the company launches a new operating system, it stops supporting some of the older models.
Sometimes you can live with a tiny blemish on your screen, but cracks and scratches on your iPad will only continue to get worse. They make your device more vulnerable to damage from liquid and dirt and, not to mention, can lead to cuts on your fingers.
If you have an older iPad and none of the fixes in our guide worked, it’s possible your device may not support the latest operating system updates. When you can’t run the latest update, your older software will eventually stop working.
If you’ve previously replaced your iPad battery and it’s running out of juice, it’s probably time to upgrade your device. If storage is tight on your iPad, there are a few things you can try, like deleting apps you don’t use or moving files to the Cloud.
How do you know if your iPad battery is a…
With every full recharge cycle, the overall battery capacity will be reduced by a tiny amount, this being cumulative. Ever so slowly, the battery will lose performance, both in its maximum usable capacity – and its ability to supply peak power demands in some circumstances. If you have any concerns for your battery capacity, you might directly contact Apple Support and request a remote diagnostic test.
How long does Apple support iPads?
If you have an iPad already or are thinking of picking up an older one, maybe a refurbished model that would save you some money, it’s a good idea to find out how long it will still be able to use apps and services. Here’s a quick guide to how long you should expect an iPad to remain usable.
The crucial thing is whether Apple will update the operating system software that runs on your iPad if it discovers a security flaw.
While Apple only issues updates with new features for the current version of the iPadOS, it does issue security updates to older versions of iPadOS, in order to keep older iPads secure.
While full iPadOS updates often require system resources that can be too much for older devices, security updates work under the hood and can usually keep an older model going for years after the point where it can receive a new version of iPadOS. This means that the real defining element of how long an iPad can last is security updates.
Currently iPads that run the following versions of iPadOS are supported with security updates: It’s interesting to note that iOS 12, which runs on some iPads, was last updated in January 2023, but we don’t expect those devices to have coverage in the future. Despite this iOS 12 coverage, it is best to assume that anything prior to iPadOS 15 is no longer supported with security updates.
The key is to know which version of iPadOS your iPad can run, that way you can identify whether Apple is still committed to updating it with security-related fixes. If Apple drops support for iPadOS 15, then we can add the following to the list of unsupported iPads: As an example of a model that’s still supported by Apple, the iPad Air 2 made its debut in 2014, but received the iPadOS 15.7.9 update in September 2023, meaning that it’s still going almost nine years after its initial release.
Another senior model that received that update was the iPad mini (4th Generation) which came out in 2015. This means that in January 2023 Apple was supporting ten-year-old iPads with security updates, while in September 2023 the company issued a security update that was compatible with the then nine-year-old iPad Air 2. While security updates are important because they protect the user from those with malicious intent, if your iPad goes wrong you will want to know whether it will be possible to fix it. Between five and seven years after Apple stops selling products it moves them into the Vintage list.
Then around seven years after Apple stops selling products they are moved into the Obsolete list. Therefore if it has been five years since Apple stopped selling an iPad you are unlikely to be able to get replacement parts if something goes wrong. So it’s not surprising that when iPadOS 17 launches the following iPads will fall off the supported list since they are already vintage: Say your battery life falls off a cliff, you’ll need to still be within your one-year warranty period to have it repaired for free. Apple does have a battery replacement service though, usually costing $99/£99 for a replacement and fitting, so this could prolong the hardware side of things for a good while (essentially up until it was moved to the vintage list five years after Apple stopped selling it). Apple offers hardware servicing and parts for a range of older iPads, all at a cost of course. Naturally, a ten-year old iPad is an impressive feat of durability, but they won’t be as fun or powerful as a new one.
The 9.7″ iPad Pro Review
Apple has always advertised a ten hour battery life for iPads, and that generally held true in our old test which did static page loads. Unfortunately I no longer have the Tab S2 for comparisons to a non-Google Android tablet in this test, but when it comes to battery life the 9.7″ iPad Pro lasts a bit longer than the Nexus 9 and significantly shorter than Google’s Pixel C. The Pixel C is also significantly thicker and heavier, but its LTPS display also helps it to drive down platform power, and I wouldn’t expect to see the iPads approach it any time soon with Apple’s continued focus on driving down mass and thickness, and reliance on IGZO displays to achieve their switching refresh rate. You can see that the Pixel C still leads the pack, and the Tab S2 is close behind it even though it’s incredibly thin and has a relatively small battery, and this is due to its AMOLED display using much less power in low APL videos than your typical IPS LCD on a tablet.
), as our video playback test is conducted in airplane mode with no background tasks or location services, so there’s not much room for software variance. In general the performance is still very stable, and the throttling is not near as serious as what I’ve seen on competing Android tablets running the old T-Rex test with its lighter workload. When you use an iPad all the time for writing with Apple Pencil it will most certainly be nearly dead when you get home, and that means you can’t use it for the rest of the night unless you keep tethered to a power outlet.
iPad Pro 9.7 battery draining faster than…
Any thoughts or suggestions ar appreciated…otherwise I’m tempted to swap it for another one back at the Apple store.
9.7-inch iPad Pro – Battery life, iOS 9.3 and verdict Review
Apple’s implementation of multi-tasking is good, but it feels very much like a first-generation attempt that will see improvement over the coming years. The Slide Over feature lets you pull a separate app out momentarily – to check the football scores on Twitter, for example – and videos can be put into a floating box. Still, its tablet app support is leaps ahead of both Windows 10 and Android Marshmallow – and that’s the all-important fact.
Multiple hours of having two apps open, a video playing and the Smart Keyboard attached, however, will bring down this figure dramatically.
I’ve tried charging it with a typical phone block and it takes significantly longer to juice up – at some points it even drops more battery than it recoups. For the larger iPad Pro it is possible to pair a Lightning to USB-C with a USB-C-enabled wall port to achieve some sort of quicker charging.
Sometimes you just want a USB port, an SD card reader and the ability to run lots of apps at the same time. It takes all the oomph from the comically large iPad Pro 12.9-inch and crams it into an incredible thin and beautiful chassis.
The Pixel C is the only real Android competitor, but Google’s OS simply isn’t there yet when it comes to actually “getting things done”. The True Tone display, booming speakers, improved performance and support for the Smart Connector set it apart from the iPad Air 2, and the bump in cost is just about worth it. £499 for the base tablet, £79 for the Apple Pencil and £129 for the Smart Keyboard (both of which aren’t required, but are necessary to get the most out of it) add up to a pricey investment. It won’t replace your laptop, but the 9.7-inch iPad Pro makes tablets interesting for the first time in years.
We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the tablet as our main device over the review period.
Your iPad has a hidden battery health feature — here’s how to check it
Knowing how to check your iPad’s battery health might sound easy, but it’s actually strangely hard information to find, despite how important that data is. Batteries degrade over time, so it’s handy to know how your long-serving tablet’s faring, or how healthy an iPad is if you’re trying to buy or sell it second-hand. That’s why it’s really annoying that Apple hasn’t brought the Battery Health part of the Settings menu to iPads, at least not in iPadOS 16 or the upcoming iOS 17/iPadOS 17 update. Instead, you’ve got to do things manually — fortunately we can show you how to check battery health on iPad right here. The annoying thing is you have to enable the analytics, then comb through the technical gobbledegook to find the figures, unless you use a handy shortcut we’ll share with you shortly. Open a file at the top, then copy the final block of text (Image: © Tom’s Guide) Open one of the files at the top of the list, then scroll down to the bottom and copy the final block of text.
The figure listed by MaximumCapacityPercent is, as the name suggests, the current capacity of your iPad’s battery compared to what it was when it was new. If you want to know the full state of affairs in your iPad battery, and especially if you’re confused that your MaximumCapacityPercent is over 100, follow the next step to learn more.
The manufacturing process means some cells of otherwise identical specs can carry a greater or lesser charge. This is why electronics companies give battery size as a “typical capacity,” as they can’t guarantee a specific one. If you’re interested in checking how many complete charging cycles your iPad’s been through (another indicator of battery wear), search for CycleCount. Installing this Battery Stats shortcut (courtesy of Reddit’s r/iPad and users u/nairazak and u/ericswpark) allows you to quickly get your key details with the Analytics file open in the Settings menu.
How to Check an iPad’s Battery Health
Instead, if you want to find out your iPad’s battery health status, you need to apply workaround solutions. You’ll either need access to a macOS or Windows computer and a third-party app that specializes in performing different maintenance tasks for devices such as the iPad. iMazing is a handy bit of software that you can install on both macOS and Windows computers. This program resembles iTunes because you can use it to back up your iPad files and perform similar tasks. In the bottom right-hand corner of the window, click on the Battery icon. The pop-up window will give you a full run-down of your iPad’s battery health. You will see a green circle that will indicate the battery health of the device. The iMazing app works perfectly well on both macOS and Windows computers.
You’ll see how many times your iPad has been charged, what its capacity is, the manufacturer, and all the other relevant information. If you’re losing charge quickly, more than 1% a minute, then that’s a sign your battery isn’t as good as it used to be and might need to be replaced sooner rather than later.
Then, you have to tap on Battery Health and then read the percentage next to Maximum Capacity. Lithium batteries have a longer shelf life, though, and are less expensive and easier to make.
You can charge your iPad hundreds or even thousands of times and have fewer battery cycles on your hands. Your iPad’s battery cycle is relatively “buried” into the device and could seem like an odd process, but it works. Scroll down to the section of data that starts with log aggregated and click on the last one in the list. Follow the directions shown above to view the battery cycle on your iPhone.
Hopefully, Apple will ensure the iPad has the built-in Battery Health feature in the future. The third-party apps mentioned in the article work well and will give you a good estimation of your battery health, and a little bit more than that as well.
Be First to Comment