iPad How often do you charge iPad?

[mgmueller]

I can't do without WiFi. So my iPad does maybe 7 hours. I have to charge it every day, sometimes even twice per day.
That's no problem. Most of the time I use it at home. I easily could connect to the power supply instead of draining the battery.
But it's way more convenient of course as a mobile unit. And that's the main reason, why I don't read on iPad. The battery would drain even faster. Second reason is the weight of iPad, btw.
I'd be interested to see whether I'm a power user, charging iPad every single day. So I'm interested in the duration you can do on a single charge, whether you've got WiFi and/or 3G on, whether you read on iPad.

Multiple answers of course are possible.

[HarryT]

You certainly are a "power user", in the sense that you're using a lot of power .

As I've said in another thread, my iPad spends most of its time in "airplane mode", with WiFi and 3G turned off. In that mode, reading for an hour uses about 2% of the battery, and I only recharge once a week, at which time the battery charge is normally around 30-40%.

[hgwlackey]

I plug it in every night when I go to bed whether it needs it or not. I don't think I've ever had to charge it more than once per day, despite always having WiFi going, but then I mostly just use it for web and reading. (I use it for a lot of reading, but still, it's just reading.)

[tyche]

I leave wifi on all the time just to make my life simpler. I find I get a good 8 hours. Reading has no adverse affect on battery for me. Some of the fancier games do.

This translates into about 2 days before I plug in. A lot of the time I simply have it attached to USB while I'm doing something else and it gives it enough juice to continue without a full plug in for the night.

For example Thursday I fully charged for when I got home from work and it's Saturday a.m. and I'm at 85% but I've not used the wall adapter and i've been surfing, reading, arching TWiT streams all last night and this morning.

[Crowl]

I always leave wifi on, power saving will tend to mean that it doesn't clobber your battery unless you are actively using it and it is just more convenient to use it that way.

I tend to charge it daily even if it doesn't need it, I used to travel a lot with work so my tendency with gadgets was to assume I might not get the chance to charge one when I needed it so it is better to keep them charged when I can.

Mostly I use mine for comics, books and air video.

[Yoshi 1080]

On the dimmest brightness setting my iPad consumes about 1% per 10 minutes watching video, which would theoretically lead to about 1000 minutes(!) tops. That’s still pretty bright when using in the dark (I like to watch movies this way). On the brightest setting the battery drains rather quickly and lasts for only about 6–7 hours. In average my iPad’s battery lasts for about 9–10 hours (rough guestimate, haven’t stopwatched it yet). Wifi is always on. 3G is on as well, but usually not actively used (since I’ve got Wifi access most of the time). Sometimes I also use VPN, but I haven’t figured out the affect on battery life yet.

Playing 3D games obviously drains the battery a little faster, but nonetheless I don’t think I have ever gotten below 6 hours on the brightest setting. Oh, and I charge my iPad roughly every two days.

I am extremely pleased with the battery life of my iPad.

[Maggie Leung]

I get about 10 hours per charge. I'm greedy and want more. I sometimes charge twice a day, because I don't like to get below 20 percent battery life.

I keep my brightness setting on lowest and keep 3G or wi-fi on all the time, unless I'm traveling and trying to save juice. I like Stanza and its dictionary, but the latter requires a constant connection. I could use iBooks and its dictionary without a connection, but I don't buy iBooks because I don't want my content tethered to one company's hardware. I'm looking forward to the Kindle app introducing a connection-free dictionary.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I like Stanza and its dictionary, but the latter requires a constant connection. I could use iBooks and its dictionary without a connection, but I don't buy iBooks because I don't want my content tethered to one company's hardware.

I don't follow you, Maggie. Using iBooks as a reader doesn't force you to buy content from the iBookstore; you can load your own content, just as you can with Stanza. iBooks will read any DRM-free ePub file.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't follow you, Maggie. Using iBooks as a reader doesn't force you to buy content from the iBookstore; you can load your own content, just as you can with Stanza. iBooks will read any DRM-free ePub file.

You're right, Harry. I am too lazy to load content to iBooks, and I don't want to buy from iBooks, which would save me converting but tie my books to iDevices. My preferences lead to my battery issue in this case.

[HarryT]

Fair enough. The only reason I use iBooks is because I think it's an absolutely excellent bookreader. I love the built-in dictionary, and how easy it is to highlight and annotate text. I spend a lot of time proof-reading the books that I create, so good annotation is a vital feature of a reader for me.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Fair enough. The only reason I use iBooks is because I think it's an absolutely excellent bookreader. I love the built-in dictionary, and how easy it is to highlight and annotate text. I spend a lot of time proof-reading the books that I create, so good annotation is a vital feature of a reader for me.

iBooks is a nice reader, from what I've seen. I'm not that picky, so I could accept any of the reading apps, but I like to have a dictionary. I use Stanza for public domain mostly, maybe just out of habit. Many of the books I buy come from Amazon, which is why I'm wanting an on-board dictionary on the Kindle app. (Hear me, please, Kindle gods.)

[HarryT]

One option is to use a separate dictionary, of course. I have the "Chambers Dictionary" App, which is very good indeed. It's a pay App, but well worth the money.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One option is to use a separate dictionary, of course. I have the "Chambers Dictionary" App, which is very good indeed. It's a pay App, but well worth the money.

Yes, I'd be willing to buy a dictionary, but I like being able to click and return to reading as quickly as possible. I like Stanza's way, which has dictionary, annotations and sharing all in one box. Not perfect, but works for me so far and is free to boot. I'd give Stanza money for the same dictionary feature alone if they could move it offline, but my understanding is that that's complicated by Apple requirements.

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I can't do without WiFi. So my iPad does maybe 7 hours. I have to charge it every day, sometimes even twice per day.
That's no problem. Most of the time I use it at home. I easily could connect to the power supply instead of draining the battery.
But it's way more convenient of course as a mobile unit. And that's the main reason, why I don't read on iPad. The battery would drain even faster. Second reason is the weight of iPad, btw.
I'd be interested to see whether I'm a power user, charging iPad every single day. So I'm interested in the duration you can do on a single charge, whether you've got WiFi and/or 3G on, whether you read on iPad.

Multiple answers of course are possible.

Do you have bluetooth on? Bluetooth eats battery life for dinner.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by nikkie

Do you have bluetooth on? Bluetooth eats battery life for dinner.

No. But I've got WiFi on permanently. And I've got the brightness on medium setting. Compared to what others get, I guess I'm in range.
I don't really have any problems with 7 hours, still a bit more than my average notebook or my UMPC.
But I wouldn't add reading on top, for this I stick to my ePaper units.