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New iPad isn't fully charged until 2 hours after saying so

The new iPad might say it's 100 per cent charged, but it won't actually be for another two hours.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Reports have surfaced online that the new iPad carries on charging once it says it's fully juiced. So what's going on?

Ray Soneira from DisplayMate Technologies Corporation has looked into it. His findings suggest the new iPad isn't fully charged until two hours and 10 minutes after it says it is, ZDNet reports. So if you want to get the full nine or 10 hours out of it (depending on what you're using it for), you'd be advised to leave it charging that little bit extra.

According to Soneria, it's tricky for the charge indicator to work out how much more time it needs to be fully juiced up. He notes: "So there is something wrong with the battery charge mathematical model on the iPad. It should not say 100 per cent until it stops recharging and goes from the full recharging rate of about 10W to a trickle charging rate of about 1W."

Two hours after saying it's fully charged, the iPad starts reducing the charging power. Ten minutes later, it drops to the 1W trickle charging rate.

Bit of an oversight, and not something I've noticed on any other Apple devices. Let's hope Apple fixes it soon in a software update though. The new iPad also reportedly had an overheating problem, though our US cousins took their model to the labs and didn't find much wrong with it.

The highest temperature recorded was 36.7C -- hotter than Apple's claim of 35C, but still cooler than a lot of laptops. And nothing on the scale of antennagate that plagued the launch of the iPhone 4.

Have you noticed you're not getting enough life out of your new iPad? Do you think the overheating was blown out of proportion, or is it a real problem? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.