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Apple Watch Series 1 and 2 Owners Noticing 'Great' Battery Improvements in watchOS 3.1
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Some people had absolutely horrible experiences in the upgrade. I was one of them. Hit power reserve twice a day where previously I could go nearly two full days. Often I had over 55% battery after an 18hour day. Sometimes longer. What I found out was that a hard reset of the watch (hold both buttons crown and side until the Apple logo shows) and a hard reset of the phone (hold power and home until the apple logo shows) after eliminating background refresh and all the updated apps that were added to the watch that aren't used, through the watch app. And shutting down all the apps on the phone that were in the background (double click home button, slide up the apps one by one). Now after 12 hours I have 78% battery remaining, so I'll slowly be adding back in some apps and then enable selectively some for background refresh.
And just, what, 18 months later we've proven them all wrong...on different hardware.
This is encouraging, but I'd like to see it last a week. My Garmin, with a terribly unsophisticated, but always-on, display, has a 4-week life per charge (more like 3 with GPS workouts every other day). I wish there were a compromise to get 1-week with an intermediate display.
Myself and most have zero need for battery life that long and would far rather take the additional functionality. The vast majority of folks don't sleep in a watch so charging it at night isn't an issue.
Allways had great batterylife on my gen 0... simply because it sits on charger allways.. batterylife is just fine but the lack of good apps (the ones I use) and the fact that my watch still is very slow.. faster to take out phone and look. Put it on when I go out to check the time etc... but for apple tv and other stuff its faster to go around and search for remote than to wait for remote to show up on watch....toooo slow
That's actually impressive with a work out and 17 hours in. Right on target to Apple's 18 hour battery cycle prediction.
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Interestingly enough, the Gen 1 Watch has the same battery life as the Series 2 Apple Watch, although, the Series 2 has a larger battery internally compared to the Gen 1. The Gen 1 Watch can easily survive 18 hours on this new update.
After I read this thread, and had been holding on to upgrade from 3.0 to 3.1 on my Nike+, I made the move to upgrade it last night, and put it on charger overnight from 7/8pm till this morning 6am. I put on the watch around 7:30am and now it is 10:57am, and it is down 2%. It is impressive to me than 3.0. It would have dropped from 100% to 96% (or even 95%) for the same amount of time standing by. When I had 3.0 on my watch (and my wife's too), her battery level will drop immediately to 99% after fully charged to 100%. it is like we unplugged at 100% after 4-5 hours charging, and then I did a shutdown. mind our own daily routine, and when she is ready to use the watch, turn it on, and it shows 99%. It did the same on my watch (non-Nike+ but it was AW2) and drove me nut. I returned it to apple store and i thought something wrong.
I might hold on the Nike+ for a week to see the battery improvement before I upgrade my wife's AW2 Silver Aluminum.
So far, I am impressive with the improvement. I will take my Nike+ for a run tonight and see how much it will remain.
I might hold on the Nike+ for a week to see the battery improvement before I upgrade my wife's AW2 Silver Aluminum.
So far, I am impressive with the improvement. I will take my Nike+ for a run tonight and see how much it will remain.
just wonder.. what is your battery drop rate looking like?
AW2 Nike+ and it seems dropping battery level 1%/hr. It was holding up 0% drop for the first 2 hours.
does it seem normal or should I worry about any battery hardware issue?
When I first got the battery, I could not even turn it on. I had to charge it for 30 mins before I could turn it on. I thought apple ships out all their devices at least charged 75-80% of the battery before they were shipped out.
AW2 Nike+ and it seems dropping battery level 1%/hr. It was holding up 0% drop for the first 2 hours.
does it seem normal or should I worry about any battery hardware issue?
When I first got the battery, I could not even turn it on. I had to charge it for 30 mins before I could turn it on. I thought apple ships out all their devices at least charged 75-80% of the battery before they were shipped out.
This article actually portrays the Apple Watch in a positive light with internal improvements and you make a snark comment about the Watch Bands? It's comments like these that need to be deleted, because it's frivolous and obscure.
I guess you didn't understand the humor in my comment. Since my comment was obscure, let me explain...
You see, whenever Apple releases new Watch bands, MacRumors' commenters obligatorily complain that Apple isn't doing anything productive, and rather than innovate or fix their software, Apple simply continues to release new Watch bands.
I thought, in this instance, where Apple has actually done something very beneficial to its users by greatly improving the Watch battery life with just a software update, it would be humorous to make fun of the commenters who usually complain about the opposite occurring.
I guess I was wrong though. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.
(I noticed a huge improvement in my Series 2 battery life after the update as well, where I would still have 50% battery left after a full day of usage)
I guess you didn't understand the humor in my comment. Since my comment was obscure, let me explain...
You see, whenever Apple releases new Watch bands, MacRumors' commenters obligatorily complain that Apple isn't doing anything productive, and rather than innovate or fix their software, Apple simply continues to release new Watch bands.
I thought, in this instance, where Apple has actually done something very beneficial to its users by greatly improving the Watch battery life with just a software update, it would be humorous to make fun of the commenters who usually complain about the opposite occurring.
I guess I was wrong though. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.
(I noticed a huge improvement in my Series 2 battery life after the update as well, where I would still have 50% battery left after a full day of usage)
I appreciate your response. Perhaps I misconstrued your original post. I think the overwhelming negative Watch band comments on this site for every article, related or not, is sophomoric and overstated to say the least. Some forum members literally chastise the Apple Watch for no other reason, other than to fill the band wagon hate if you will.
Good to hear your Watch has improved with battery life.
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[doublepost=1478147318][/doublepost]Apple watch2. Last charge was 40 hours ago, with 44% left on buttery.![]()
One week ago, Apple released watchOS 3.1 to the public, bringing various bug fixes and performances improvements to the first version update of watchOS 3. Over the past few days a hidden advantage of 3.1 has been discovered, with users on the MacRumors forums and Reddit mentioning that they have vastly improved battery life on their Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2 following the new update.
In a thread that started last Wednesday, forum member tromboneaholic posted a topic about the "great battery life" found on their Series 1 Apple Watch after updating to 3.1. Sixteen hours after charging the device, it still had 75 percent battery, even "with everything turned on like location services and background app refresh." Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watch owners note the same beefed up battery life in 3.1, with one forum member saying that they "can now comfortably skip charging every other night" if they wanted.
Some users have even managed to get a Series 2 Apple Watch on 3.1 to last all weekend. Most Apple Watch owners have known in the past that Apple's recommended 18 hour battery life could get them through at least one day without a charge, but now it appears watchOS 3.1 has improved that to a point where users can easily get to the two day mark, as long as there aren't many intensive tasks running on the wearable. Understandably, some apps -- like Apple's stock Workout app -- increase battery loss when running in the background, which offsets the statistic for users working out heavily throughout the day.![applewatchbuiltinapps.jpg]()
Some owners of the original Apple Watch, known online as "Series 0," appear to not have gotten the same battery boost, however. One forum member said their Series 0 "has actually gotten a little worse" on 3.1, with the end-of-day battery percentage down by 10 percent on average. Another user worried about their iPhone 7 potentially being the culprit behind major battery drainage issues, but 3.1 doesn't seem to have helped their case. That forum member mentioned their battery "drops like a stone" after each workout, so it's most likely a specific hardware issue and not a widespread bug.
Still, the battery improvements for the newer Apple Watches appear to be one of the more notable changes to watchOS for most users. As one Redditor shared yesterday, on a 42mm Series 2 Apple Watch they managed to keep a battery of around 82 percent after 11 hours of standby and 1 hour of usage. That percentage was with prominent haptics, max brightness, and background app refresh all turned on, as well. Since posting, many have shared similar experiences.
Check out the full watchOS 3.1 battery improvement thread over in the MacRumors forums to see more stories related to the update.
Article Link: Apple Watch Series 1 and 2 Owners Noticing 'Great' Battery Improvements in watchOS 3.1
regular daily use, + total 3 hours workout.
Guys, I know this is old news, but I'm still hyped about it. It's 3:35pm here, I've been up since 7am, on my feet most of the day plus a 25ish-minute workout (circles almost completely full already), checking notifications/weather/stocks/calendar quite a bit, and my battery still shows 95%. Is this real life? What in the world did they change with this software update that made such a drastic difference? It's almost like it is still getting better a little each day since the update, somehow.
This is a fantastic update for battery life. I'm sitting at 70% after a full day, where for the past month I'd be more like at 25% by this time of day. Nice!
