My S7 Gold SS has been pretty bad on battery, and I’ve had it since launch. Restored from my S4 backup, and the battery has been down to around 35% after about 12 hours of use. AOD is on, and I haven‘t had any workouts the last week either. I don’t even have cellular activated, so I’m not sure what to do. I didn’t wanna set up as new, but I think I may have to.
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‘Always On’ Brightness and Battery Life
- Thread starter iRun26.2
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newellj
macrumors G3
I wonder if there's something about restoring an earlier watch that's affecting battery life and/or charging. Without thinking about it, I set up my launch day S7 as new. It gets great battery life and on the old pucks charges at least as fast as my S6 (which I haven't traded in yet).
Yes, it's certain that AOD will impact battery life.
As @newellj observes, the real question is whether that impact is meaningful to the owner's usage of the watch.
When I first bought my S5, I experimented for a few days with AOD off vs on, logging battery % at various times through the day for a few days with and without AOD. As expected there was a slightly higher drain with AOD on.
That said, there was no impact on my daily usage - the watch lasted all day from wake up to bedtime (charge overnight) whether or not I had AOD enabled.
newellj
macrumors G3
I've never kept AOD on for any long period. I keep looking at the battery life impact (small but noticeable) and the utility impact (minimal, I just don't need to look at my watch that often) and turning it off. Here's the question: my recollection from when the S5 was introduced was that there were a lot of complaints about battery runtime being short. If that's right (it might not be), has Apple improved AOD power management over the S5-S6-S7 evolution?
Having had Apple Watches since Series 2 it seems there's a number of people experiencing battery life issues with every new model. I think I remember it being shorter initially with my S5, but seems like that was fixed in a .0.x or .x update.
That was a couple years ago and apparently didn't make such an impact that I can clearly remember. 😀
What I do know is that with AOD left enabled, and with an hour's run playing music via bluetooth and sometimes streaming over cellular (phone left behind), the battery lasted all day from waking up to going to bed. On days when I might do a 2+hour long run I'd drop the watch on the charger while I showered and then it'd be fine 'til bedtime. My S6 has behaved the same. Didn't buy an S7 so don't know about that model.
WhiteHawk
macrumors 6502a
Yes, but again, light usage, mostly just checking time on the Infograph Modular face, with some messaging and about 9 hours of sleep.
You get 9 hours of sleep?! Wow!! I only get just over 4 hours. I wish I could sleep longer but I just wake up early and can’t sleep any longer.
WhiteHawk
macrumors 6502a
LOL, well no, not really, my sleep is terrible, but sometimes I’m in bed longer than that because I don’t get enough rest as it is. You’re supposed to get 8 but I know some can survive on 4.
haruhiko
macrumors 604
AOD does not really consume that much more energy. Taking it off the charger at 7:30AM every day, usually when I put it back on the charger at 11 - 12PM at night, it’s usually at 50% or at most 40%. This battery life is consistent from S5-S7 in my observation. I don’t use any sleep tracking.
MisterSavage
macrumors 603
I always restore from a backup and my S7 battery life has been great with AoD and raise to wake always on.
Update:
I erased my Watch and set it up as new, and the battery drain is MUCH better now. After 12 hours of use, I’m at 51% of battery remaining with AOD enabled.
There was definitely something funky going on with the restore from a back-up that was depleting my battery.
I too had to restore my watch
I set it up as new when I first got it Friday afternoon and it died in 10 hours with just AOD on and DND on for work.
Updated to 8.0.1 maybe also helped? Not sure. But the restore and update have helped a lot after that
I wonder what it was that caused it to die so quickly
newellj
macrumors G3
firewire9000
macrumors 6502a
When I’m at home I usually turn off AOD specially in the night because I found the light coming from my wirst kinda bothering. So with that I have better battery life since I use my watch a lot, usually I charge it before going to bed at 100 % and after 24 hours or less I have my watch at 20 or 10 %. Disabling the AOD helps me to get to the full day.
haruhiko
macrumors 604
Update: 64% at 6:43PM.
Last edited:
Bazooka-joe
macrumors 603
What’s the watch face on the right hand side. Is it the California one. I tried that and I can’t seem to get a blue face. Just blue digits Like you have on the left.
haruhiko
macrumors 604
Yes it’s the California face. The color is Abyss Blue which is all the way to the right. It should be a fall 2021 color.
That is very impressive! I love how bright the AOD really is. I also like that face. I just wish it had more complications (but then it might look too busy).
I just received an email today telling me that my S7 Apple Watch is on its way…can’t wait!
My battery life doesn't seem great either. Down to around 20% by 8pm or so, but that's after charging to 98% right before bed. Not doing much either. Is sleep tracking and wearing the watch all night going to also drain much more battery than leaving it off overnight?
Boardiesboi
macrumors 603
I've had the S7 for a few weeks now and my experience is that the battery is slightly worse than the S6.
I always have my phone with me, always on display, get notifications from messages and do a 30 min workout tracking every day and no cellular. I usually get up at 6.30am go to bed at around 10.30pm with 40-50% left. On S6 it was around 50-60%.
I always have my phone with me, always on display, get notifications from messages and do a 30 min workout tracking every day and no cellular. I usually get up at 6.30am go to bed at around 10.30pm with 40-50% left. On S6 it was around 50-60%.
heyyitssusan
macrumors 601
Me too! One week for the S7 for me and I just took off charger 25 mins ago and at 98% battery life already. On my S6, would take around an hour or two to go down to 99%. My S6 would average the same as yours by the end of the day. On my 7, would end up around 30-40%
I think that some small differences could be explained by different starting capacities in batteries. Who knows though?
That is a little disappointing. It only makes sense, though, as a larger display would use more power. I was kind of hoping that a new, more efficient type display would be used. Had they done that, however, they probably would bragged about it.
I’ve only had my new S7 for a few days now and I don’t yet have an independent opinion. It seems like it is quite similar. I use it all day and night (with AOD activated) and then exercise for two hours (bike ride or run). I let it charge while I shower and then have supper. So far I have about 15-20% left. That fits my needs. Hopefully it doesn’t get worse really quickly.