Your precious iPad is little more than an expensive paperweight if it runs out of juice, so it’s worth learning a few tricks for nursing the battery through a long day.
In theory, an iPad’s battery life should get you through the average work day. However, your mileage will vary depending on how much you use it and what you’re using it for. The battery life will also diminish with age, like any rechargeable device.
Do you find your iPad tends to run flat when you’re out on the road? It might be worth investing in a car charger or a portable battery so you can top up the iPad during the day. When the battery is running very low, you can also engage low-power mode. This is handy in an emergency but reduces performance and disables many background services.
Battery life tricks
Before you spend money on extra chargers, there are a few simple tricks you can use to extend your tablet’s battery life. This way, it won’t leave you in the lurch when dealing with clients away from the office.
Two of the biggest drains on an iPad’s battery are the screen and the built-in wireless receivers. The auto-brightness setting is enabled by default, which dims the screen when appropriate. However, you can turn this off if you want to override it – the setting is hidden under Accessibility > Display Accommodations in iOS11. You can also shorten the Auto-Lock timer under Display & Brightness to turn off the screen more quickly when you’re not using the device.
When it comes to internet access, connecting to Wi-Fi chews through less power than relying on mobile broadband if you have a 4G LTE iPad. If you’re away from Wi-Fi networks and forced to rely on mobile broadband, try turning off Wi-Fi so your iPad doesn’t waste power constantly searching for nearby networks. When you don’t need internet access at all, you can conserve a lot of power by switching to Aeroplane Mode. Also, turn off Bluetooth when you don’t need it.
More ways to increase battery life
Apps running in the background are also guilty of your chewing through your battery. This is especially true if they’re constantly checking for updates or monitoring your location via GPS. Look at the Battery menu to find the major culprits.
Scroll to the bottom of the Settings menu and you can change the options for individual apps, such as cutting off their access to mobile data and restricting their ability to monitor your location to just times when you’re using the app.
You can scroll through the Privacy > Location Services menu to see which apps are using GPS. You might also dip into the Background Refresh menu to curb the behaviour of some apps, as well as change how often your iPad checks for new emails. Try switching from push to fetch.
Taking the time to fine-tune all these options can significantly extend your iPad’s battery life so you can rely on it as a productivity tool during the busiest days.
Click here to see the full range of tablets at Hire Intelligence.
