Apple has a bit of controversy on its hand with the new iPad’s battery, which it was revealed last week isn’t quite at full charge despite showing 100 percent on the display. And there’s more: Apple is telling CNBC that charging the new iPad past 100 percent may actually cause more harm than good.
The new iPad’s curious charging habits were first noted last week by Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation, who revealed the battery on the new iPad is actually only 90 percent charged when it shows 100 percent -- potentially robbing owners of an additional 1.2 hours running time, since an actual fully-charged battery nets 11.6 hours of use while a new iPad displaying 100 percent charge only nets 10.4 hours of use.
Over the weekend, Jon Fortt of CNBC reported that charging the new iPad beyond 100 percent might do more harm than good -- advice which apparently comes straight from Apple themselves, who claims overcharging “could actually harm the longevity of the battery.” This may not be a big issue to those who upgrade to the latest and greatest model each year, but what about the rest of us?
“Damaging the longevity of the battery is then exactly what the new iPad’s internal battery charging hardware and software are doing since it is their responsibility to properly control and manage the battery recharging process,” Soneira writes in a new update published on the DisplayMate website Monday morning. “It’s pretty obvious that if the new iPad knows that it is fully charged then it should automatically stop the charging! So according to Apple the new iPad is configured to damage the longevity of its own battery if it isn’t manually disconnected from the AC charger when the 100 percent indicator appears. Anyone that recharges their iPad unattended, especially overnight, will be doing this.”
Dr. Ray believes that Apple needs to “immediately fix the iPad battery charging algorithm or they may be held responsible for replacing all iPad batteries” -- or “rescind their own remarks,” which he refers to as “shocking.”
But hey, at least it’s taking our attention off the new iPad getting too warm, the potentially poor Wi-Fi and gobbling up data too fast using 4G LTE… right?
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(Image courtesy of iFixIt)
DaveT
March 28, 2012 at 8:26pm
"But hey, at least it’s taking our attention off the new iPad getting too warm, the potentially poor Wi-Fi and gobbling up data too fast using 4G LTE… right?"
Oh so you're ok with being distracted from the faults you list just because you want so badly to be "cool" with your new iToy right? Thanks for showing you put 'looks' over 'quality' or 'performance'.
REReader
March 26, 2012 at 9:22am
Soneira and CNBC appear to have failed to update their information on lithium batteries at any point in the past 15 years or so. Such batteries can no longer be "overcharged."
j_j_montez
March 26, 2012 at 9:49am
They're only reporting what Apple said. Despite what I know about L-ion batteries, this does add more hesitation to me recommending the new ipad to anyone. 1st and 2nd gens are where it's at.
