iPads finally get battery health info and adaptive charging, but only the new ones

The just-released iPad Pro and iPad Air have a new Battery Health menu option that includes an optimized charging option and provides more data about the battery. As reported by MacRumors, the new menu matches the settings introduced on iPhone 15, which lets users set their device to not charge past 80 percent, which can help extend the usable life of the battery.

You can get to the new menu on iPad by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, which will also provide datapoints for charge cycle count, the date the battery was manufactured, and when the battery was first charged. It was introduced in iPadOS 17.5, but isn’t available on older iPad models.

MacBook users have had a similar battery health manager (now called Optimized Battery Charging) for years that helps keep them from fully charging too often. It’s common for people to keep their laptops plugged in at a desk, especially due to the work-from-home prevalence that stemmed from covid. Now iPad users, too, can keep their devices from charging over 80 percent, which is appropriate since they look more like MacBooks than ever.