A few days ago, we highlighted that some iPad Pro users are experiencing excessive battery drain when paired with the new Magic Keyboard. While the jury is still out on whether this is a software or hardware flaw, are you noticing anything with your iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard?
As we explained in our original story:
A number of users are now airing their frustrations about battery life issues. A slice of Magic Keyboard owners are noticing that their iPad’s battery drops quickly when using the keyboard with the backlight enabled, and some reports indicate battery drain problems arise even when the iPad is idle and not in use.
I’ve been using the Magic Keyboard with my iPad Pro since its release date, and anecdotally I had been noticing battery drain that seemed a tad aggressive. Following our story on Thursday, I decided to test things a bit more closely. I noticed that at around 2 hours of usage (Safari, Slack, and RSS browsing), I had already lost around 45% battery life.
The issue appears to maybe correlate to the backlight, which seems to be a bit too aggressive. For instance, I’m usually in a pretty well lit room, but the Magic Keyboard backlight still likes to hover right around 50% when set to auto adjust. In all actuality, the backlight should be turned off as I can hardly even tell that it’s on because the room is so bright.
Unlike some reports, I don’t notice any excessive battery drain when the iPad is idle. Instead, it all seems to correlate directly to use of the Magic Keyboard.
Some users have had luck replacing the Magic Keyboard under warranty, but I’m still debating on whether or not I’ll reach out to Apple about this, or wait for a potential software fix. In the meantime, are you experiencing battery life issues with your iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard? Let us know in the poll below and share more details down in the comments.
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