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I just picked up my 2017 iPad Pro. It was last charged Nov 15. Been sitting by the bed mostly unused since. Currently at 80% charge. I haven’t experienced what

I just picked up my 2017 iPad Pro. It was last charged Nov 15. Been sitting by the bed mostly unused since. Currently at 80% charge. I haven’t experienced what you’re describing on an Apple device since they switched the laptops away from Intel chips. In my experience, the OS does matter. I can’t believe how bad the rest of the industry is at this. Amazon’s Kindle line is incredible at this IME, but those are pretty atypical devices. Screenshot from said iPad’s battery screen: https://postimg.cc/xcHpy5Sr https://postimg.cc/xcHpy5Sr

bluSCALE4 3y ago
iPhone does not reflect these gains. I did own a Huawei and I felt those really had slow drain.
- artimaeis 3y ago
  I'm not sure I've gone more than a day without looking at my iPhone in years probably (not great, I know..) but I've not had any notable standby drain issues. That is, I've never left it at something like 80% and come back to it hours later for it to be drastically lower. I'm pretty religious about what apps are allowed background data, and notifications in general. But I never turn off any of the radios.
gamblor956 3y ago
I recently picked up my Surface 3 for the first time since 2017. It had a 66% charge from the last time I used it... It's not so much the OS as the device firmware, since the Surface 4 runs the same OS but has significantly worse battery performance.
- JBiserkov 3y ago
  That's a joke, right? The battery held a charge for 6 years?!
  - gamblor956 3y ago
    It did. I was surprised myself since I thought the battery would be completely dead (as in, 0 charge and incapable of holding a charge) but I am using right now and it still has about the same battery life as it did before.
JBiserkov 3y ago
And that's without power saving mode? Impressive! Have you configured anything like "disable background network activity"? Do you force close the apps?
- sherry-sherry 3y ago
  >Do you force close the apps? Don't do this unless an app is unresponsive/not working correctly. It will just make apps slower to restart, using more power than it would if left to suspend/un-suspend as it's meant to.
  - yunohn 3y ago
    TBC the discussion is around idle battery usage. Presumably, backgrounded apps will contribute to that. FWIW I do notice a difference, especially depending on what apps are open. Whether closing apps increases battery drain during reopening them for intentional activity is a different question.
  - deely3 3y ago
    Issues is: how can I know is app working correctly? I have 15 apps "in memory", my phone started lagging, what should I do?
    - artimaeis 3y ago
      If it's an iPhone, then iOS will suspend background apps in favor of foreground apps. If your phone is lagging it's almost certainly because the foreground app is resource-intensive. If the foreground app requires more resources than are available due to background apps, it will suspend background apps to free up those resources. Apps don't really have much they can do to get around this, assuming you're not jailbreaking or installing local profiles. Well-built applications will have already saved state with every interaction. When they go to the background they will start unloading unnecessary resources and prepare for possible suspension by saving any additional data. Then when they're suspended, their state is saved to a snapshot that they can load in later so it's as though they never were suspended. There _is_ more capacity in recent versions of iOS for an app to use background resources, and to start a background process automatically. Still, the system treats background processes with a lower priority and terminates them for using too much power way more aggressively.
glandium 3y ago
I have the exact opposite experience. My 2013 MBP can keep its charge for months while suspended/hibernated. My first-gen M1 MBA will deplete the battery in a week under the same conditions.
- FooBarWidget 3y ago
  My 2016 MBP drops from 65% to 30% in a month even when it's turned off.
- apexalpha 3y ago
  My M2 Air will sit comfortably for weeks with little depletion at all. It's the only laptop I've ever owned where I comfortably walk out of the door without a charger with 35% battery.
- aikinai 3y ago
  Does the latter have Power Nap enabled?
  - vladvasiliu 3y ago
    Don't have my MBP (late 2013) on hand to check, but IIRC the power nap was enabled only when plugged in. That's the issue with regular PCs: most don't have the choice anymore to use S3 suspend. They default to "modern standby", the half-assed copy of Apple's power nap.
    - mananaysiempre 3y ago
      IIUC both Intel and AMD haven’t supported S3 on their CPUs for a couple generations now. The functionality is still technically in the firmware, but it’s broken to a varying extent.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  Suspend and hibernate are not the same thing. The latter actually fully powers off the device. As far as the hardware is concerned, it's the same as "shutting down". Windows does a similar thing on pcs with "modern standby": it will switch to hibernation if it's unplugged for a while. I don't know the specifics, but my work pc running windows 11 will be hibernated in the morning if I leave it unplugged going to bed.
lopis 3y ago
An android device in standby in airplane mode will last a week in a single charge easily, in my experience. But if you have radio on, yeah, 2 days tops.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  What device is that? It doesn't sound all that exceptional. The longest I've had my iphone 14 pro unplugged was around 3 days, with very light use (I'd say 2 hours of active use, randomly browsing HN and reading a newspaper on its app). It barely went below 50%, with all radios on.
  - throitallaway 3y ago
    This is going to depend heavily on a number of factors. Background apps, processing notifications, screen brightness, signal strengths, etc. all play a role.
criddell 3y ago
Which Kindle do you have? A couple of years ago I finally upgraded to an Oasis and the Oasis battery life is significantly worse than my previous Paperwhite. It’s still good enough — I have to charge every two weeks — but the Paperwhite was better. The Oasis is still my favorite Kindle (it’s my third).
- artimaeis 3y ago
  I've got an Oasis 3rd gen (2019). My last Kindle before that was the 3rd gen "Kindle Keyboard" (2010). I'd say the Oasis has a longer-living battery than the old one, but I've always been pretty aggressive about turning off its radios and 'smart' features. I love the Oasis, I'd like it if they made a slightly larger variant with USB-C. Basically the form of the Scribe, but I'd rather skip the pen input.
- technothrasher 3y ago
  I'm still holding on to my 2015 Kindle Voyage. I don't like any other model I've tried, and they stopped selling these Voyages many years ago now. So I have to deal with the old battery. But it still lasts for a week or so, I just have to charge it on weekends. When it was new it would go for about six weeks. I know you can buy Chinese replacement batteries for it, but I worry about the quality control of those, so until the battery goes completely dead I'll stick with it. Then I might try an aftermarket battery out of desperation.
kbf 3y ago
iPads feel like they last forever in standby. I remember there was a period of time where I was using my 6th gen mini very little (but I was using it) and it lasted me close to 3 weeks on a charge.
martin82 3y ago
I have the exact opposite experience. I'm not joking, I have an iPad Pro and the main reason why I NEVER use it is because EVERY time I pick it up and try to use it, the battery is completely drained. To the point, where you have to charge it for five minutes just so that you can power it up again. In those five minutes I lose interest, so I don't use the iPad. At some point, I remove it from the charger. A week later, I pick it up again.... aaaaand it's dead again.

bluSCALE4 3y ago

iPhone does not reflect these gains. I did own a Huawei and I felt those really had slow drain.

artimaeis 3y ago
I'm not sure I've gone more than a day without looking at my iPhone in years probably (not great, I know..) but I've not had any notable standby drain issues. That is, I've never left it at something like 80% and come back to it hours later for it to be drastically lower. I'm pretty religious about what apps are allowed background data, and notifications in general. But I never turn off any of the radios.

gamblor956 3y ago

I recently picked up my Surface 3 for the first time since 2017. It had a 66% charge from the last time I used it... It's not so much the OS as the device firmware, since the Surface 4 runs the same OS but has significantly worse battery performance.

JBiserkov 3y ago
That's a joke, right? The battery held a charge for 6 years?!
- gamblor956 3y ago
  It did. I was surprised myself since I thought the battery would be completely dead (as in, 0 charge and incapable of holding a charge) but I am using right now and it still has about the same battery life as it did before.

JBiserkov 3y ago

And that's without power saving mode? Impressive! Have you configured anything like "disable background network activity"? Do you force close the apps?

sherry-sherry 3y ago
>Do you force close the apps? Don't do this unless an app is unresponsive/not working correctly. It will just make apps slower to restart, using more power than it would if left to suspend/un-suspend as it's meant to.
- yunohn 3y ago
  TBC the discussion is around idle battery usage. Presumably, backgrounded apps will contribute to that. FWIW I do notice a difference, especially depending on what apps are open. Whether closing apps increases battery drain during reopening them for intentional activity is a different question.
- deely3 3y ago
  Issues is: how can I know is app working correctly? I have 15 apps "in memory", my phone started lagging, what should I do?
  - artimaeis 3y ago
    If it's an iPhone, then iOS will suspend background apps in favor of foreground apps. If your phone is lagging it's almost certainly because the foreground app is resource-intensive. If the foreground app requires more resources than are available due to background apps, it will suspend background apps to free up those resources. Apps don't really have much they can do to get around this, assuming you're not jailbreaking or installing local profiles. Well-built applications will have already saved state with every interaction. When they go to the background they will start unloading unnecessary resources and prepare for possible suspension by saving any additional data. Then when they're suspended, their state is saved to a snapshot that they can load in later so it's as though they never were suspended. There _is_ more capacity in recent versions of iOS for an app to use background resources, and to start a background process automatically. Still, the system treats background processes with a lower priority and terminates them for using too much power way more aggressively.

glandium 3y ago

I have the exact opposite experience. My 2013 MBP can keep its charge for months while suspended/hibernated. My first-gen M1 MBA will deplete the battery in a week under the same conditions.

FooBarWidget 3y ago
My 2016 MBP drops from 65% to 30% in a month even when it's turned off.
apexalpha 3y ago
My M2 Air will sit comfortably for weeks with little depletion at all. It's the only laptop I've ever owned where I comfortably walk out of the door without a charger with 35% battery.
aikinai 3y ago
Does the latter have Power Nap enabled?
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  Don't have my MBP (late 2013) on hand to check, but IIRC the power nap was enabled only when plugged in. That's the issue with regular PCs: most don't have the choice anymore to use S3 suspend. They default to "modern standby", the half-assed copy of Apple's power nap.
  - mananaysiempre 3y ago
    IIUC both Intel and AMD haven’t supported S3 on their CPUs for a couple generations now. The functionality is still technically in the firmware, but it’s broken to a varying extent.
vladvasiliu 3y ago
Suspend and hibernate are not the same thing. The latter actually fully powers off the device. As far as the hardware is concerned, it's the same as "shutting down". Windows does a similar thing on pcs with "modern standby": it will switch to hibernation if it's unplugged for a while. I don't know the specifics, but my work pc running windows 11 will be hibernated in the morning if I leave it unplugged going to bed.

lopis 3y ago

An android device in standby in airplane mode will last a week in a single charge easily, in my experience. But if you have radio on, yeah, 2 days tops.

vladvasiliu 3y ago
What device is that? It doesn't sound all that exceptional. The longest I've had my iphone 14 pro unplugged was around 3 days, with very light use (I'd say 2 hours of active use, randomly browsing HN and reading a newspaper on its app). It barely went below 50%, with all radios on.
- throitallaway 3y ago
  This is going to depend heavily on a number of factors. Background apps, processing notifications, screen brightness, signal strengths, etc. all play a role.

criddell 3y ago

Which Kindle do you have? A couple of years ago I finally upgraded to an Oasis and the Oasis battery life is significantly worse than my previous Paperwhite. It’s still good enough — I have to charge every two weeks — but the Paperwhite was better. The Oasis is still my favorite Kindle (it’s my third).

artimaeis 3y ago
I've got an Oasis 3rd gen (2019). My last Kindle before that was the 3rd gen "Kindle Keyboard" (2010). I'd say the Oasis has a longer-living battery than the old one, but I've always been pretty aggressive about turning off its radios and 'smart' features. I love the Oasis, I'd like it if they made a slightly larger variant with USB-C. Basically the form of the Scribe, but I'd rather skip the pen input.
technothrasher 3y ago
I'm still holding on to my 2015 Kindle Voyage. I don't like any other model I've tried, and they stopped selling these Voyages many years ago now. So I have to deal with the old battery. But it still lasts for a week or so, I just have to charge it on weekends. When it was new it would go for about six weeks. I know you can buy Chinese replacement batteries for it, but I worry about the quality control of those, so until the battery goes completely dead I'll stick with it. Then I might try an aftermarket battery out of desperation.

kbf 3y ago

iPads feel like they last forever in standby. I remember there was a period of time where I was using my 6th gen mini very little (but I was using it) and it lasted me close to 3 weeks on a charge.

martin82 3y ago

I have the exact opposite experience. I'm not joking, I have an iPad Pro and the main reason why I NEVER use it is because EVERY time I pick it up and try to use it, the battery is completely drained. To the point, where you have to charge it for five minutes just so that you can power it up again. In those five minutes I lose interest, so I don't use the iPad. At some point, I remove it from the charger. A week later, I pick it up again.... aaaaand it's dead again.