When Apple introduced the original iPad back in January 2010, Apple claimed that you would get up to 10 hours of battery life when surfing the web on Wi-Fi or up to 9 hours of battery life when surfing the web on a cellular network. As iPad models become thinner, their battery capacities get smaller, but at the same time, Apple Silicon also becomes more powerful and more energy efficient. Therefore, Apple has been rating the same battery life for every model throughout the iPad’s history.
Seeing how capable Apple Silicon has been for the iPad in terms of unparalleled performance per watt, Apple announced that it would transition its entire Mac lineup from Intel processors to its own Apple Silicon, and the transition was reallyworth it in the end as Apple Silicon allows MacBooks to have substantially longer battery life. Of course, battery life varies on usage and configuration, but to put things in perspective, previous Intel-based MacBooks lasted around 7-12 hours of wireless web. But newer MacBooks with Apple Silicon can now last around 18 hours of wireless web at least.Even the latest M4 MacBook Pro can go up to 24 hours of video streaming.
Just last week, Apple expanded its in-house silicon technology to develop its own modem chips by introducing the C1 modem on the iPhone 16e, and it provided substantial benefits. Since the C1 modem is the most energy-efficient model ever on an iPhone, its smaller footprint allowed for an improved internal design by making more room for a larger battery. As a result, the iPhone 16e has the longest battery life ever on a 6.1-inch iPhone with up to 26 hours of video playback, even beating out the more premium iPhone 16 at up to 22 hours of that same activity.
So with all of these great advancements in Apple Silicon, we should definitely see the same benefits for Apple’s upcoming iPads. We’re expecting some new iPads around the corner, perhaps a March announcement. Apple will likely announce the M3 iPad Air (11-inch/13-inch) as well as the 11th-generation iPad in the coming weeks, so we should see the C1 modem make its way to the cellular models for those iPads as well. Who knows, we may finally see longer battery life for cellular connectivity once and for all. Ming-Chi Kuo recently rumored that Apple’s been developing its own Wi-Fi chips for its upcoming iPhone 17 lineup, so down the road, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Apple brings its own Wi-Fi chips to future iPad models for even better battery life when connected to Wi-Fi. Apple is also developing the next-generation C2 modem to be used on future iPad Pro models. The iPad Pro was last updated back in May 2024 with the M4 chip, but it also omitted mmWave support. The C2 modem is expected to feature mmWave technology for the first time, so the next iPad Pro could finally bring back the ultra-fast 5G technology once again. The future appears to be brighter for the iPad lineup.
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