Apple's iPad - The AnandTech Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on April 7, 2010 9:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mac
- Apple
- iPad
- Mobile
Honest Apple: Battery Life
I mentioned this in my iPhone 3GS review and I believe it bares repeating: Apple's battery life estimates have been ridiculously accurate over the past couple of years. I swear Apple must have my office bugged because my battery life numbers almost always equal theirs and they have no access to my test files.
To test battery life on the iPad I ran a modified version of the process I use for smartphones. I use the WiFi connection to browse a series of 20 web pages varying in size, spending 20 seconds on each page (I timed how long it takes me to read a page on Digg and came up with 36 seconds; I standardized on 20 seconds for the test to make things a little more stressful). The test continues to loop until the battery dies. This test is designed to simulate a relatively heavy, but realistic data load on the phone. We're stressing the WiFi radio, SoC, memory and display subsystems here. This should also be the sort of battery life you get when you are using any apps that use data (but not 3D acceleration). The display brightness was set to 50% on the iPad.
That's the test I use for smartphones, but to make it a little more stressful on the iPad I continuously played music using the iPod app, one of the only apps that's allowed to run in the background. I also told the mail app to automatically check my AnandTech email account every 15 minutes. I get a good amount of mail so this constant checking would add another realistic component to the workload. I also ran this same test on ASUS Eee PC 1001P:
The iPad came in just shy of Apple's 10 hour claim. At 9 hours and 45 minutes, it's long enough to get you through the greater part of a day. But calling Apple's battery estimates conservative is misleading. A single charge won't last you all day.
The iPad does last longer than ASUS' 1001P, however ASUS tells us that the 1005PE will buy you another 2 hours of battery life for an extra $79.
What about watching movies? Our resident smartphone expert Brian Klug put together a 6 hour loop of The Bourne Ultimatum. This was from a 1080p source but re-encoded using Handbrake's Normal profile resulting in a 1.3GB 720p rip that was looped three times.
I imported the movie into iTunes, synced it to the iPad and looped the already 6 hour loop until the iPad died. Display brightness was set to 50%, auto brightness control was disabled, automatic email downloading was also disabled.
Video playback is actually a fairly light use case. In these SoCs there's usually a dedicated video decode block, most likely the PowerVR VXD (same as in the iPhone 3GS). This block decodes each frame and sends it to the display output engine. The only things working in this case are parts of the CPU, the video decode engine, memory bus and the display engine. There's no 3D rendering and the vast majority of the CPU is idle. With this in mind, it's no surprise that the iPad can last 13.6 hours when playing back a 720p H.264 movie.
| Apple iPhone 3GS | Apple iPad | ASUS Eee PC 1001P | |
| H.264 Video Playback | 9.5 hours | 13.6 hours | 5.3 hours |
The iPhone 3GS however can almost hit 10 hours performing the same test. This gives you an idea of how much power the display is consuming on the iPad. The netbook doesn't stand a chance by comparison. The iPad was made for watching lots of movies on a single battery charge.
My final battery life test was a 3D gaming benchmark. I ran Real Racing HD on the iPad (and Real Racing on the iPhone) until the devices died. The cellular network was turned off on the iPhone 3GS and brightness was set to 50%.
Anything GPU intensive is going to be the worst case scenario for these SoCs. Here we’re stressing the CPU, GPU and memory subsystem. The added load is reflected in the battery life numbers:
| Apple iPhone 3GS | Apple iPad | |
| 3D Gaming | 3.9 hours | 8.8 hours |
The iPhone 3GS approaches 4 hours, while the iPad manages almost 9 hours while gaming. I’d also consider this to be a best case scenario gaming benchmark. A more intense 3D game could easily drop these numbers even further.
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BeAloud - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
The rumored new smaller iPad could solve the ergonomics flaws of the current device. I would probably be interested in getting one if these rumors are true!http://www.bealoud.com/technology/ipad-mini-rumors...
Lunarlog - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
I read your article and it was well-written. I do have to disagree that it is a disappointment. In fact, I find the contrary. Part of the issue is that we are coming out of an economic recession - some people are still on hold as to whether or not to part with $500 when they already have a computer. Was is the same spree as the first iPhone? No. But I wouldn't expect it to be - not in these times. I wrote two articles as well on the topic. I'd appreciate it if you would give them a glance:This article came out the day after the iPad was released:
http://www.lunarlog.com/ipad-review/
This article was written shortly after the iPad's initial announcement:
http://www.lunarlog.com/the-apple-ipad-the-good-an...
TheHolyLancer - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
only when a pokemon rpg comes to the ipad, either with an emulator or otherwise, will it be a gaming platform for it's targeted audience. or maybe let it double as a guitar hero / rock band instrument.of all the games one there, rts is the only one that seems to be fleshed out. fps, driving, action games involving the taps are mostly broken. only rpgs or tower defense / rts games seems to be the games that should have a better experience on touch based input. who don't want to be like a commander that directs battles via the touch interface.
Sahrin - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Anand, I've got to say the Apple conversion you've gone through has really cost you a lot of respect in my eyes. I know, as an Apple fan, this won't matter to you (as facts don't). But the reality of it is, Apple is ultimately like religion. When push comes to shove, there is no quantitative difference between Apple and everything else. What it comes down to is technological laziness, and a blind acceptance of Apple as superior to everything else. Jon Stokes at Arstechnica had the same problem. He OC'ed one too many CPU's, or troubleshooted one too many oddball configurations - and something broke, he just gave up; surrended all his technological know-how and competence to the quiet, white cell provided by Apple. I don't mean to say either you or he got 'dumber' - just that, rather than "do it yourself," rather than apply your knowledge on a daily basis you've just declared yourself smart enough and handed over control and understanding of what you do to Apple. It's like the engineer who builds his own car from scratch finally going over and buying a Ford. Is there anything particularly 'wrong' with that? No. But it's a kind of ... lessening of the man to see him surrrender a passion to something because it's easier.I'm really sad to see someone as intelligent as you are (certainly smarter than I am) give yourself over to this kind of laziness. AT is one of the most trusted review sites on the web; and I hope that over time it doesn't erode the way Ars did into a whining, fawning mess.
splatl - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
WTFSilverBack - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
The IPad is junk, inflated price and virtually no feature set, why would anyone want this?No USB? WTF!
manicfreak - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
I also feel the same way.samirotiv - Saturday, April 10, 2010 - link
You are an ass, a hypocrite, and you're absolutely nobody. I don't think you can comment about Anand's intelligence. Your unwarranted hate towards Apple makes you feel that anybody who appreciates an Apple product is unintelligent.You say there's no quantitative difference between Apple products and other products. So can you tell me another currently existing tablet that I can buy that's half as good as the iPad? Is it the pathetic JooJoo?
If you don't want the iPad because it doesn't have some feature you think you need, then don't buy it. Vote with your money. Stop trolling. I think Anand has mentioned most of it's drawbacks in the review.
Even if a tablet as good or better than the iPad exists, just writing a favourable review doesn't make Anand unintelligent. I think the review was quite unbiased.
Your armchair psychology makes your post sound even less credible. Someone ban this clown.
BTW that was an excellent review Anand, like every other review of yours. Keep up the good work..!!
splatl - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Apple said from the beginning this is not a laptop replacement it is intended to be a device between a Smart Phone and a Laptop. For all waiting for Slate to come out it is still HP crap.ds1817 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Always refreshing to read a review on Anandtech. The thoroughness and attention to detail are why I've been reading your website for 12 years now. Keep up the good work!