Apple says iPad battery charging works as intended

Concerns about the iPad's battery arose last week when an analysis was publicized claiming that the new iPad "prematurely" reports that it is fully charged by two hours. Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate claimed that the iPad actually finished its charging cycle some two hours after it reports a full charge.

That's by design, Apple's Michael Tchao said to All Things D on Tuesday. All iOS devices, including the new iPad, will display that they are 100 percent charged just before the device reaches a fully charged state. The device will then continue charging, then discharge a bit, and recharge once again — a cycle that will continue until the device is unplugged.

"That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like," Tchao said. "it's a great feature that's always been in iOS."

Apple's battery percentage display is simplified so that users are not confused by the constant cycle of charging and discharging while a device is plugged in. But Apple's approach allows all of its iOS devices to maximize their potential battery life.

Apple has boasted that the new iPad offers the same 10-hour battery life as its predecessor, even with the inclusion of a new quad-core graphics processor and 3.1-million pixel Retina Display. The new high-speed 4G LTE model also offers 9 hours of battery life when using a wireless network.

In particular, the Verizon model of the new 4G LTE iPad can serve as a mobile hotspot for more than 24 hours when sharing a high-speed data connection with external devices over Wi-Fi. That's upwards of five times longer than most standalone 4G LTE hotspots.