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

7 hours @ 39%

U

ultravorx

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
33
1
So my wife just made the transition from the pebble time to the apple watch. She got the 38mm rose gold sports watch and set everything up last night and charged it up overnight.
She was up at 5am and by noon she was at 39%
She did say she used it a lot, but still seems excessive. Here pebble time with heavy use would still last 5 days.
Could there be an issue, or is it new toy syndrome affecting the life?

Watch came preloaded with 2.0 and phone running 9.02
Ive read where it may need a reset after loading in 2.0 and such, but its a new setup running latest software.
 
Last edited:
In my experience, I've noticed mine does very well on battery, button days where I get a lot of notifications, and use Siri to respond to emails/text, it goes quick.

Today, mine has been off the charger since 6AM, and I'm at 93% Normally, my watch at the end of the night is around the high 30's to low 40's in battery, so from 6AM till 10-10:30PM.
 
ultravorx said:
So my wife just made the transition from the pebble time to the apple watch. She got the 38mm rose gold sports watch and set everything up last night and charged it up overnight.
She was up at 5am and by noon she was at 39%
She did say she used it a lot, but still seems excessive. Here pebble time with heavy use would still last 5 days.
Could there be an issue, or is it new toy syndrome affecting the life?

Watch came preloaded with 2.0 and phone running 9.02
Ive read where it may need a reset after loading in 2.0 and such, but its a new setup running latest software.
Click to expand...
Check her usage in the watch app on the phone to see if she really used it a lot. If she is over 3 hours, I would expect they battery level. Worst case is something many of us have had and either cold boot and recharge or unpair and re-pair. That fixed it for me.
 
BlueMoon63 said:
Check her usage in the watch app on the phone to see if she really used it a lot. If she is over 3 hours, I would expect they battery level. Worst case is something many of us have had and either cold boot and recharge or unpair and re-pair. That fixed it for me.
Click to expand...
Just got her stats:
usage is 3 hours 4 minutes
Standby is 7 hours, 40 minutes.
 
ultravorx said:
Just got her stats:
usage is 3 hours 4 minutes
Standby is 7 hours, 40 minutes.
Click to expand...
That doesn't seem bad then. I would try a cold boot and charge back up and see if it acts the same or drains fast. Then maybe an unpair/re-pair.

I drained my watch fast the first day as I was trying everything.
 
ultravorx said:
Actually she was at the gym for about 2 hours!
Click to expand...
Then that makes sense and she is getting good battery life for a 38mm. Workout has the HR monitor/LEDs running and this eats battery life. 1 hour of running Workout is probably = to about 3 or more hours of average regular use.
 
  • Like
Reactions: foxkoneko
Julien said:
Then that makes sense and she is getting good battery life for a 38mm. Workout has the HR monitor/LEDs running and this eats battery life. 1 hour of running Workout is probably = to about 3 or more hours of average regular use.
Click to expand...
Agreed. My 42mm burns about 10% an hour doing nothing else but running the workout and barely looking at the screen other than to check HR or distance.
 
BlueMoon63 said:
That doesn't seem bad then. I would try a cold boot and charge back up and see if it acts the same or drains fast. Then maybe an unpair/re-pair.

I drained my watch fast the first day as I was trying everything.
Click to expand...
Ok, so last night, around 6pm it shut down on her. Apparently it doesnt automatically go into powersave. So once it got some jusice back, i rebooted the watch for her (even though it may have been redundant) and will report back today.
 
ultravorx said:
She got the 38mm
Click to expand...
I've seen other complaints from folks owning 38mm having poorer battery life. From my research the 42mm isn't that much larger on the wrist and I recommend consider that over the 38mm.

I have the 42mm and it comes off the charger about 5:00am. By 10:00pm I throw it back on and I have anywhere from 60 to 40% of battery life left.
 
With about 1-1.5hours of working out a day, I usually end the day at about 40-47%. If the 38mm has a smaller battery, if she ends the day a little lower than that, then she is probably okay. If she's going to use it more for fitness, she may want to cull down the other things on it.
 
So at noon today, she was at 68%, with about 2 hours gym time.

Almost double of what she had yesterday, but didnt do anything but a reboot.
Tonight i'll attempt a unpair/repair and see if that helps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlueMoon63
ultravorx said:
So at noon today, she was at 68%, with about 2 hours gym time.

Almost double of what she had yesterday, but didnt do anything but a reboot.
Tonight i'll attempt a unpair/repair and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
off the charger at 7am, a bunch of text messages today, and a 1 hour run with both, the Workout App & iSmoothRun running. I'm at 75% at 1pm.

On a 38mm with 2 hours of gym running a constant HRM, I think you are good!
 
aarontsuru said:
off the charger at 7am, a bunch of text messages today, and a 1 hour run with both, the Workout App & iSmoothRun running. I'm at 75% at 1pm.

On a 38mm with 2 hours of gym running a constant HRM, I think you are good!
Click to expand...
So from what ive been reading, it sounds like the 42mm may squeak out a little more life since the battery is a bit bigger?
 
ultravorx said:
So from what ive been reading, it sounds like the 42mm may squeak out a little more life since the battery is a bit bigger?
Click to expand...
yeah, that's what I read too.
the only 2 times I've had issues was right after the OS2 (which the unpair / re-pair fixed)
and one day when apparently an outlet in a hotel was faulty and I thought I had a 100%, but didn't.

=)
 
ultravorx said:
So from what ive been reading, it sounds like the 42mm may squeak out a little more life since the battery is a bit bigger?
Click to expand...

The 42 will have slightly better battery. I believe Apple even claims this in their documents.

Also keep in mind (I don't know if this has any real effect) that because you seem to be un-pairing and re-pairing all the time. The watch has to sync things back up again (like any music on the phone or playlists and photos.) If you're not giving it a bit of time to do this before taking it off the charger and going about your day, this could cause extra drain. (Kinda like how a new iOS install on a phone will index and such for a bit before performance and battery life level out)

I would suggest give it a couple days first before constantly un-pairing and re-pairing.
 
I put my 38mm watch on at 6:30 this am, and used it all day, texting and such. Worked out for about 1 hour 20 minutes, and I am at 28% at 9:30pm. That's actually a little lower than normal... I usually get to 11-11:30 with at least 30% left.

As suggested, let her use it for a few days before you fiddle with it again. And consider lowering the brightness if you haven't already... The lowest brightness setting is more than bright enough!
 
For what it's worth, I noticed more battery drain on my 38mm in the first week or so of using the watch. It settled down soon, so perhaps check in about a week or so to see if battery life is improving (or settling down).
 
Here I am today, including over an hour workout, and currently at 43%:

image.jpeg
 
As far as I'm concerned there are a few things that need to happen to get the best out of your battery.
1. run it down to under 10%, then charge it fully overnight.
2. check what apps are installed, what gives notifications and what glances are there.
3. reduce the display brightness to middle or low.
4. turn haptics to low and if you don't need sounds, put it on mute.

I'm not sure if unpairing and repairing would make a difference, but I have tended to find that the Apple Watch battery performance settles down.
 
davygee said:
As far as I'm concerned there are a few things that need to happen to get the best out of your battery.
1. run it down to under 10%, then charge it fully overnight.
2. check what apps are installed, what gives notifications and what glances are there.
3. reduce the display brightness to middle or low.
4. turn haptics to low and if you don't need sounds, put it on mute.

I'm not sure if unpairing and repairing would make a difference, but I have tended to find that the Apple Watch battery performance settles down.
Click to expand...
Ill have to look at those settings.

As of right now, 1130am, she is at 69%, so it seems the pair/unpair didnt change much. Time to check the other settings!
 
ultravorx said:
Ill have to look at those settings.

As of right now, 1130am, she is at 69%, so it seems the pair/unpair didnt change much. Time to check the other settings!
Click to expand...
Also another battery 'eater' is using the Music Remote :apple:Watch App to control your iPhone's Music while running the Workout App. I have found using this frequently will eat [subjective] about 20% more battery during a Workout session.
 
I wouldn't be so quick to judge the battery life quite yet. Let a few days, maybe even a weeks tops before you begin to really observe battery life. Letting the battery go through a few cycles never hurts. Not to mention, it still has the "new toy" feel to it so therefore, I'm sure your wife is more inclined to be playing with it more than she normally will be in the weeks ahead (C'mon, we all do when we get new stuff).
 
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
Back