Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Watch Battery to Support Five Hours of Heavy Usage, Will Last All Day With Mixed Use

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,482
30,719



With just over two days to go until Apple's big March 9 "Spring Forward" event that's said to be heavily focused on the Apple Watch, information on the device is leaking out at a rapid pace. Apple's been relatively quiet about battery life, stating only that the Apple Watch will need to be charged on a daily basis, but 9to5Mac has a few more details on how long we can expect the Apple Watch to last between charges.

According to the site's sources, final software tweaks and optimizations to the device have led to a battery life of approximately five hours of heavy application usage. The device reportedly will not run out of battery life "during a typical day of mixed and passive use," but it will need to be charged on a nightly basis as Apple has previously said. There's also been little said about how the Apple Watch will affect the battery of the iPhone, but 9to5Mac's sources say that there is no "meaningful" observed battery drain while using the device.

applewatchgraystainless.jpg
A Power Reserve Mode can be activated within the watch when the battery in the device becomes critically low, ensuring that it's primary function -- telling the time -- is always available. Power Reserve Mode can be activated at any time via a Battery Life Glance screen.
Power Reserve Mode can even be accessed when the Watch has a full 100% charge, and it is not solely activated when the Watch's battery life is low. The mode noticeably dims the display, slows down communication with the iPhone to an on-demand level, and puts the display to sleep after roughly two seconds of inactivity. One unit tested allowed access to all Apple Watch functions while in Power Reserve mode, while another unit was limited to the Clock face.
Click to expand...
The Apple Watch is also said to have an interesting method of displaying remaining battery life. At 20 percent, the Battery Life Glance (which is just one of many default glances on the watch) will turn an orange/amber color to let users know that battery life is running low, and at 10 percent, it will turn from amber to red.

Along with battery life, there are also some new details on onboard storage. We've known for awhile that the device will have dedicated storage for features like music storage, but the exact amount of storage has not yet been shared. It appears that prototype devices have 8GB of storage, suggesting at least some devices will ship with that amount of storage space. Like with the iPhone, there may be several storage options that are available at an additional cost.

In just a few short days, we'll have a wealth of information on the Apple Watch. Apple is expected to share more details on battery life, storage space, pricing tiers, and accessory options at its upcoming March 9 event. Apple is planning to live stream the event, and MacRumors will also provide live coverage, both on MacRumors.com and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

Article Link: Apple Watch Battery to Support Five Hours of Heavy Usage, Will Last All Day With Mixed Use
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/06/apple-watch-battery-five-hours-heavy-usage/
R

randymac09

macrumors regular
Aug 18, 2014
202
469
Maryland
I think we will be ok.

Maybe I just haven't seen it, but in the back and forth about battery life, no one has mentioned that Tim Cook, the one who stated the watch would have all day batter life, probably has a way more connected life than any one here.

Someone did mention his routine of waking up early and staying up late. However, no one has brought up the idea of how many notifications he receives a day. How many times he has to check his watch to see when his next appointment is, or if he will be on time for that appointment. He gets emails, texts, calls, all sorts of notifications throughout the day. If the watch can survive a day of use on his wrist, I think that it will do for most.

Or I could be wrong and everyone can laugh at me. Either-or.
 
gate5blues

gate5blues

macrumors member
Jun 7, 2007
59
39
we need more power scotty

maybe we'll be able to crank the crown to add power on and as-needed basis :cool:
 
C

cleirac

macrumors 6502
May 7, 2014
465
0
Force Touch, FTW.

The coming weekend will be all about the prices ...


(yet from unconfirmed reports again).

At least, this leak is not from Tim. Or he and co., saving it right before the event on Monday. :p


Yes, what matters is the reveal on Monday! :p
 
Last edited:
alexmarchuk

alexmarchuk

macrumors 6502a
Jun 28, 2007
695
271
New Jersey
Yet another device to put on charge overnight. Another device that you could look at that will be dead on your wrist.

The only thing that would make it viable is if there was a "dock" of sorts to lay your watch into to charge it when not in use. I don't want to be plugging in a watch like I plug in my phone and Macbook every day.
 
FrankySavvy

FrankySavvy

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2010
1,583
760
Long Island, NY
5 hours of heavy use is alot guys. thats like sitting down fiddling with it for five hours straight. I don't think most of us are gonna even come close to that. Its always gonna be on our wrist, say we use it for a solid 10 minutes per hour of our waking day, thats a little over two hours of constant use, the rest of the time the display will be off, so i think this is great news!
 
T

TreyCox

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2012
220
328
Washington, DC
I'm accustomed to charging my devices at night, anyway. This is no big deal for me. I'm ready for this thing to be on my wrist.
 
T

troop231

macrumors 603
Jan 20, 2010
5,822
553
Let's say worst case and most unlikely scenario: you interact with your Watch for 30 seconds each time, so with the stated 5 hours of life, you could get potentially 600 30 second interactions which should be plenty!

Again, this is worst case scenario and Apple is recommending 10 second interactions to devs for app designs. :)
 
LordVic

LordVic

Cancelled
Sep 7, 2011
5,938
12,458
the battery revision is starting to sound more reasonable. Though, we will have to wait till the official reviews are in. if they can manage 2 days on a charge under extenuating circumstances, it will be a lot more useful.



with that band it actually doesn't look half bad.

still don't like square face. maybe v2
 
nezr

nezr

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2010
257
693
Vancouver, BC
charging every night? How will it track my sleep data?

Sleep tracking is half the reason I would want this thing.
 
M

MacOSXI

macrumors member
Oct 21, 2014
67
89
I hope the Apple Watch 2 will have a movement charging battery... And why not solar too ?
 
Piggie

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,015
randymac09 said:
Maybe I just haven't seen it, but in the back and forth about battery life, no one has mentioned that Tim Cook, the one who stated the watch would have all day batter life, probably has a way more connected life than any one here.

Someone did mention his routine of waking up early and staying up late. However, no one has brought up the idea of how many notifications he receives a day. How many times he has to check his watch to see when his next appointment is, or if he will be on time for that appointment. He gets emails, texts, calls, all sorts of notifications throughout the day. If the watch can survive a day of use on his wrist, I think that it will do for most.

Or I could be wrong and everyone can laugh at me. Either-or.
Click to expand...

Why would you take any notice of what the person trying to sell you something tells you anyway?
 
D

DotComCTO

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2006
311
41
nezr said:
charging every night? How will it track my sleep data?
Click to expand...

You beat me to it! While demonstrated not to be quite accurate at measuring sleep tracking, I do like this feature of the FitBit. That said, I still want the watch.

:cool:

--DotComCTO
 
LordVic

LordVic

Cancelled
Sep 7, 2011
5,938
12,458
AppleWarMachine said:
here your $10,000 gold watch...with 5 hours of battery life :eek:
Click to expand...

thats not 5 hours of battery life.

thats 5 hours of heavy onscreen usage. not typical everyday usage.

to put it in comparison, they're managing 5 hours of onscreen time under heavy usage on what is probably a 400mwh battery.

in comparison, except for very few android phones, they're only managing 3-4 hours of typical onscreen time out of 2600+Mwh batteries.

screens, especially densely packed screens with fast refresh rates do take up a lot of power relative to their size.

i'm curious what Apple is doing to extend battery.

IMHO, if they cut the screen refresh rate from 60fps to 30fps. it would not pose a significant impact to user experience, but if it increases battery life by even 1/2 a day, it would be worth it
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,124
31,156
Nice. :)

A designer familiar with the quality of mobile device screens who has used the Apple Watch says that the “screen is the best [smartwatch] screen I have ever seen,” noting that “it’s like vibrant digital paper, and does not look rendered,” with especially “great” black levels.
Click to expand...

Sources have praised the Watch’s next-generation force-sensing touchscreen interface, saying that “the screen feels like a giant button than you just want to press in the manner needed for Force Touch.” A source added that the feature “feels natural” on the small screen.
Click to expand...
 
K

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Really doesn't sound appealing to me. Watch face going amber then red to constantly remind me how crap the battery is. Lovely.
 
hovscorpion12

hovscorpion12

macrumors 68030
Sep 12, 2011
2,585
2,533
USA
I'm not surprised. it took Apple until the iPhone 6 Plus to upgrade the battery to a decent 2,915 mAh which still is horrible compared to the 3,200mAh on the Galaxy Note 4 and 3,000mAh on LG G3...etc. Android wear smartwatches come with 300-400 mAh and last up to 2-3 days depending on usage. My ASUS Zenwatch lasts 3 days. My Michael Bastian Cronowing smartwatch lasts up a week and a half long of battery life. 5 hours of battery life on heavy usage is what 80% of users will using. With the newly announced LG Watch Urbane with 300 mAh and Huawei Watch with 400 mAh, they will truly outshine Apple watch as Android smartphones have performed circles on iPhones since 2010 and will continue to do so unless Apple wakes up and actually innovates.
 
LordVic

LordVic

Cancelled
Sep 7, 2011
5,938
12,458
JayLenochiniMac said:
A watch that lasts you all day is the reason you won't be buying one? How's this any different from the iPhone (or any iDevice for that matter)?
Click to expand...
because watches have an entirely different usage scenario than your phone or ipad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom