The Apple iPad, set for release on April 3, 2010, features a built-in 25 Watt-hour lithium-ion polymer battery. Lithium-ion polymer batteries, more commonly referred to as lithium polymer batteries, are secondary cell rechargeable batteries. The voltage of a lithium-ion polymer cell varies from around 2.7 volts to roughly 4.23 volts when it is fully charged. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery.htm Overcharging a lithium-ion polymer battery can result in an explosion or fire, and was suspected as being the reason behind a number of cases of exploding iPhones in 2009, which Apple has denied. http://news.timtechs.com/iphone-explosions-caused-by-battery-overheating.html

In an attempt to maximize the iPad’s battery life, Apple engineers employed the lithium-polymer used in the Mac notebooks. This resulted in a battery that can be used for up to 10 hours for web surfing on Wi-Fi, watching videos and other media, or listening to music. http://www.apple.com/ipad/design/

Critics took to testing the battery’s functioning and stand-by life in an attempt to see just how close it lived up to Apple’s 10-hour claim. Most tests of the iPad’s battery life were consistent: finding that the battery met and exceeded the expected 10-hour usage time. Walter Mossberg, of the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital, states: “I was impressed with the iPad’s battery life, which I found to be even longer than Apple’s ten-hour claim, and far longer than on my laptops or smart phones. For my battery test, I played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died. This stressed the device’s most power-hogging feature, its screen. The iPad lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes, about 15% more than Apple claimed. I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation, before the battery died midway through an episode of The Closer. http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100331/apple-ipad-review/

In mid March 2010, Apple released the details of its iPad battery replacement plan, which is similar to that of the iPhone’s battery replacement plan. The iPad replacement plan is available to any iPad owner, given the device has not been damaged via “an accident, liquid contact, disassembly, unauthorized service or unauthorized modifications.” http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100331/apple-ipad-review/

Customers will have to pay a fee of $99, plus $6.95 in shipping fees, and taxes set according to the customer’s location, in order to have a replacement device shipped to them. The replacement device will not be the original iPad shipped to Apple, but a refurbished machine sent out soon after the defective one is received. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361358,00.asp