The iPad Air series is a thinner, sleeker variant of the classic iPad and has seen a rise in popularity over the last few years as more people adopt tablets for day-to-day use. But just how good is the iPad Air battery life? Are you getting as many hours out of a single charge as other users are? And if you’re not, what can be done to fix the issue? We answer all these questions and more below, so keep reading!
iPad Air Battery Life
At the very least, you should be getting up to 10 hours of normal use out of your iPad Air. And this figure has been consistent over the years, even as newer iPad Air models got much more powerful. Whether you use a second-generation iPad Air or the 2022 iPad Air, you can expect standby time of up to 3 days and usage time of up to 10 hours.
iPad Air Battery Life: Details and Optimization Guide
iPads have always outdone their rivals from other manufacturers regarding battery life. The iPad Air series have also delivered good battery numbers despite being thinner than the original iPad.
Average battery life
Unless you constantly run resource-intensive tasks on your iPad Air, like watching videos back to back at maximum brightness for hours or playing graphics-rich games without breaks, you can expect your iPad Air to be quite efficient with battery life. If you indulge in browsing the internet for a few hours, watching shows on Netflix, or spending a few hours drawing, you can expect somewhere between 10 to 11 hours of use on a single charge. If you own a WiFi+Cellular model, you can shave one hour off that number. If your iPad is dying quicker than usual, read our guide on fixing it!
How to optimize iPad Air Battery Life
If you’re unhappy with your iPad Air battery life, here are a few things you can try to fix the issue. Most of these are common reasons why your iPad Air may be draining its battery faster, so ensure you try out all of them to get maximum battery life.
Background App Refresh
Apple introduced this feature to allow apps to access the internet and refresh apps with the latest content. Background App Refresh works really well for delivery apps, news apps, health apps, and the like. And while we agree this is a valuable feature, having multiple apps in the background constantly refreshing and using your internet connection can be taxing on your battery.
To restrict apps that use this feature or to turn it off completely, follow these steps:
- Open your Settings app, and go to General.
- Scroll until you see Background App Refresh and tap it.
- On the page that opens, you can tap on Background App Refresh and toggle it off, or you could go through the list of apps that use this feature and hit the toggle switch next to each. You will see that many apps use this feature, but in our opinion, many of them don’t need to.
- Exit the Settings menu, and you’re good to go!
Brightness
An overly bright screen can be a big reason you’re seeing your iPad Air battery life die out sooner. We completely agree that the display is stunning and looks best at maximum brightness, but the facts are that it drains your battery and is also bad for your eyes if you use maximum screen brightness all the time.
We recommend you activate the auto-brightness settings on your iPad so that the brightness of your display matches the ambient lighting. The iPad is equipped with sensors that allow it to do so. Simply go to your Settings app and look for Accessibility to turn on this setting. Select this, tap Display & Text Size, and turn on Auto-Brightness.
In the settings menu, you can also activate True Tone, an iPad (and iPhone) feature that adjusts display colors according to the lighting conditions of your environment. To do this, go to Settings > Display & Brightness and hit the toggle switch next to True Tone.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth technology has come a long way and is far more energy-efficient than it was a decade ago. The last three generations of iPad Air models feature Bluetooth 4.0 as the minimum, with the new iPad Air 2022 rocking Bluetooth 5.0. That said, if your iPad is constantly communicating with other devices in the vicinity via Bluetooth, it can cause a strain on your battery life. So you can turn on Bluetooth only when you need it, for example, to connect to your Mac or wireless earphones.
WiFi
While switching off Background App Refresh on your iPad will reduce the battery used by those apps for accessing the internet, switching off WiFi completely will even restrict Apple’s own apps and services from going online, saving you even more power. And you can keep WiFi switched off when you’re not using your tablet unless you use it as your main work computer.
To do this, tap your Settings icon and then tap on Wi-Fi. On the WiFi page, hit the toggle switch to turn off WiFi.
Also Read: If your iPad won’t connect to WiFi.
Location services
Your iPad Air uses location data to serve you customized information like nearby places and directions to specific addresses. It also allows you to see custom weather data and use apps to search for local businesses. But unfortunately, your iPad repeatedly updating location data can take a toll on your battery life.
Luckily, iPadOS allows you to turn off location services altogether or restrict it for some apps. To adjust these settings, go to Privacy in your Settings app, and look for Location Services. Tap on this, and on the next page, you can customize location access for various apps or turn it off altogether by hitting the toggle switch.
Reduce Motion
A big part of the iPadOS experience is the user interface, which Apple has perfected over the years. These graphics, while stunning, do add a bit of load to your battery life. Apple allows you to turn off these animations, too, as some users dislike these effects. To do so, go to Accessibility inside your Settings app. Look for Motion, and hit the toggle switch next to it. You may not notice a big difference in animation while using your iPad, but this will definitely save you a bit of charge while using your iPad.
Update iPad
While the primary role of software updates is to provide security patches to your iPad, the technicians and software engineers at Apple are constantly working on iPadOS to improve performance. So we highly recommend that you always keep your iPad up to date, as it does not slow down your iPad, contrary to what many people believe. Being up to date can make a huge difference to iPad Air battery life.
To check if you have any updates pending, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update. You should now see a notification telling you about updates that you should download, and if your iPad is up to date, it will say so on this page. And while you’re here, turn on Automatic Updates by tapping the toggle switch.
Restart iPad
Once you install the latest version of iPadOS on your tablet, go ahead and restart the device. Restarts are good for electronics as it resets the memory cache and also reboots services that may be causing your battery to offer poorer life than usual. Since iPads don’t offer you a restart option, you will first need to power off the tablet and turn it back on.
The process is different for iPad Air models with and without the Home button. For an iPad Air with a Home button, keep the power button and Home button pressed simultaneously until the power off slider appears on your screen. If you have a newer iPad Air without the Home button, all you need to do is keep the power button, and either volume key pressed together until the power off prompt appears on your iPad.
Once the tablet powers off, wait about 10 seconds before you power it on again. To power on your iPad Air, simply press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
How to change the battery
The first thing to do before you change your battery would be to check the battery health of your iPad Air. Once you do this and determine that you need a battery replacement, you should read a guide we wrote on replacing your iPad’s battery. In short, you should first check if you’re still under warranty or not. Either way, you need to reach out to Apple Support and get an appointment to have your iPad Air’s battery replaced.
iPad Air 2 Battery Life
The iPad Air 2 was the second generation of the iPad Air series and debuted in 2014. While Apple has discontinued the tablet, many users still own it as it was a very good product, and many units are still running well. Let’s look at the average battery life of this device.
Average battery life
The battery life of a brand new iPad Air 2 was pegged at around 10 hours, including an hour of gaming, a few hours of watching movies, and 4-5 hours of browsing the internet. We expect that you could still get at least 8 hours of usage out of the iPad Air 2, given that it’s pretty old and newer Web technologies and apps can cause a strain on its battery.
iPad Air 3 Battery Life
The iPad Air 3 made its debut in 2019 and was even more popular than its predecessor, as iPads had gone mainstream by then. This iPad Air was the first to be compatible with the Apple Pencil and was equipped with the A12 Bionic chipset, making it twice as powerful as the iPad 2. The iPad Air 3 has an 8134mAh cell inside.
Average battery life
Like all other iPads, the iPad Air 3 aimed to hit the ten-hour mark for battery life and succeeded in doing so. If you’re a power user who games extensively or indulges in photo-editing a lot, this number can reduce drastically. This is the first iPad Air to support fast charging as long as you have a Lighting-to-USB-C cable. It can last approximately one week on standby.
iPad Air 4 Battery Life
The iPad Air 4 was launched in 2020 and was the first of the Air models to skip the Home button. The performance of this tablet was excellent, thanks to its Apple A14 Bionic processor. It shipped with a 7606mAh battery and claimed to offer as much battery life as the previous iPad Air tablets, even though the performance was superior. The iPad Air 4 shipped out with a 20W charger in the box.
Average battery life
The iPad Air 4 promises 10 hours of battery life of standard usage, which means a few hours of internet browsing, video-watching, a bit of gaming, and using a few apps here and there.
iPad Air 5 Battery Life
The iPad Air 5 is the newest iPad Air that you can buy as it was launched a few months ago. Apple went wild and packed the incredibly-powerful M1 chipset into the iPad Air. While we were happy about the bump in performance, our biggest concern was battery life, even though the M1 has a reputation for being energy-efficient. Luckily, Apple’s engineers were able to make some magic happen and deliver the same battery life as previous iPad Air models.
Average battery life
With the iPad Air 5, you can expect about 10 hours of watching videos continuously or nine hours of browsing the Web and using random apps, with a bit of messaging thrown in. If you own a cellular model, this number takes a hit as 5G use seems to drain the battery quite rapidly. The iPad Air 5 is compatible with a 30W fast charger.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my iPad Air lose battery so quickly?
The screen is the biggest culprit when it comes to battery drain, so one suggestion would be to reduce the Auto-Lock time. Your iPad battery may drain much faster because the display will always be on unless you lock it. You can adjust this in Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock.
How do I know if my iPad Air battery is bad?
Step 1 would be to go to Settings > Battery and check to see which apps drain the most charge out of your iPad Air battery life. Another suggestion would be to download a third-party battery app that lets you check the battery health of your iPad. If your iPad is more than 4-5 years old, you can get the battery replaced.
Can iPad Air battery be replaced?
You can replace the iPad Air battery either via Apple, yourself, or a local electronics repair shop. Our recommendation would be that you reach out to Apple customer care via their official website so that you can connect with an authorized Apple repair center in your area and get authentic parts for your iPad Air.
Conclusion
Regardless of which iPad Air you own, you should be getting a minimum of 10 hours of battery life out of it. As you’ve seen from the article above, various factors can affect iPad Air battery life; but we also listed fixes for all of them. So go ahead and give those a try and if you run into any issues, feel free to leave us a comment below so that we can help you out!
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