14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s iPads trumped competition in “Which?,” an electronics endurance test that measures battery life for gadgets. The full-size iPad zoomed past competition with a 811-minute score, leaving tablets like the Xperia S in a trail of dust.
Every tablet was tested in lab conditions with the screen brightness set to 200 nits (measured using a light meter) to see how long each one lasts when browsing the web and watching videos on Wi-Fi.
They divided the gadgets into separate groups by display size. In the 10-inch department, Apple’s iPad with Retina display took the crown with 811 minutes, followed by the iPad 2 with 590 minutes.
The third place was occupied by the Sony Xperia Tablet S with 534 minutes. Fourth and fifth were the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with 532 minutes and the Microsoft Surface RT with 501 minutes.
The Google Nexus 10 faired similarly poor with just 488 minutes of battery life.
“Apple wins this category by quite a margin,” reports Which? “The Apple iPad with Retina display not only beats the competition comfortably, it surpasses the Apple iPad 2 by almost 4 hours.”
“The iPad 2 still manages around an hour longer than the next nearest challenger the Sony Xperia S which managed close to nine hours and two minutes longer than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, which lasted 532 minutes,” the testers said.
The best “7-inch tablet” was the iPad mini with a score of 783 minutes. While some may argue that the iPad mini is almost an 8-inch tablet, the bigger screen would only mean more battery consumption.
Trailing the iPad mini was the Amazon Kindle Fire HD with a score of 591 minutes, followed by the Nexus 7 with 550 minutes, the Amazon Kindle Fire with 437 minutes, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with 425 minutes.
The testers also took into account how long the battery takes to fully recharge, giving higher marks to the gadgets whose cells replenished the fastest.