iPad battery life, I can handle the truth

I have heard crazy rumors of insane battery life with heavy wifi use. On average how many hours would you say you are getting between charges.

I am starting medical school this year and will be in class 9 to 5 daily, and won't have access to a plug wherever I go. I'm trying to decide if the iPad is a suitable alternative to purchasing a Tablet PC. The main things I need are email, internet, and the ability to edit PDFs of 500+ pages which includes highlighting, underlining, text boxes, and drawing figures and arrows. Thanks.

 

Apple's stated battery life is, if anything, underestimated. Ten hours on 3G is obtainable.

 

Your problem isn’t going to be battery life, it's going to be finding an app that lets you editing/annotating, drawing on PDFs. I don't know of any iPad that will let you do that. I'm getting around the ten hours of charge time with my WiFi model. I watched a number of Netflix streaming TV shows when I first got my iPad, and was still getting full day's operation on a single charge.

 

That is something that concerns me. I have seen a few apps in the Appstore that allow for this like iAnnotate for example. However, with many of these apps, there is an issue with working with large 50+ page PDFs and of course exporting them for use on a PC or Mac.

 

Ya think? I just got my iPad this past Friday and I already took it into the store because the battery life was NOT 10 hours.

Not even close. But they tested it and said it was fine.

 

What were you using the iPad for, that you noticed cost the most battery, Wifi, 3G, or both?

 

Well I have only had it for two days and the battery was charged to 100%. I have had some issues with YouTube and web pages were SO slow. So Apple stated that it was trying to get connected and stay connected, and I didn't know if I had wifi in my house or not.

They said that this drained the battery quicker ~ all videos would freeze. Hell if I know, but I know that it did not last even close to 10 hours.

Turns out I do have wifi through Comcast, but my modem and router are as one and very outdated. They are coming out to replace and Apple said after they do that I should be at top speed on my iPad.

And the battery will last 10 hours.

We shall see ~

 

Interesting. Would you mind posting back with your results?

 

If you have crap signal you're going to get crappy battery life because your iPad is constantly searching for a signal. That's not Apple's fault WHATSOEVER, that's a problem with AT&T and your coverage area. If you are in a low signal area, or even a good signal area but the signal is constantly switching (when I had AT&T, even in downtown Pittsburgh, it would constantly switch between EDGE and 3G because AT&T f*$%&#$% blows), it will CONSTANTLY drain your battery. As in, my iPhone wouldn't last 5 hours of IDLE time in Pittsburgh (if it was doing the switching signal thing, which it didn't do all the time).

I can use my iPad to watch movies for 10 hours straight with no issue. But I have WiFi only. And when I'm not using services like BT, WiFi, etc I turn them off.

But the battery life is WAY under estimated. It's the most amazing battery life I've ever had in any sort of device - period - mobile or otherwise.

 

He's got crap signal, he's going to get crap battery life. Trust me, sitting in class you could easily get 10-15 hours of note taking especially if your turn the backlight down some, and turn off things like bluetooth, wifi, 3g.