"Always on" delay – any way to shorten?

[PatrickNSF]

Apologies if this has been covered already.

I notice a small delay for the screen to activate on my S5 compared to our S4. It's short, but very noticeable. Am I correct in assuming that there's no way to shorten this to have it back to S4 performance (other than turning AOD off)?

For those of you running the 6.1 betas, is there any improvement in this?

 

[th1nk]

I guess this is only a bug that will be fixed sooner or later. Because sometimes it is instant and sometimes it takes up to 5 seconds for me.

 

[PatrickNSF]

I guess this is only a bug that will be fixed sooner or later. Because sometimes it is instant and sometimes it takes up to 5 seconds for me.

Thanks for the feedback. Mine always seems about the same, and it's never instant. When I switch back to the S4 I'm always struck by how fast the screen activates compared to the S5.

 

[iamasmith]

There may of course be an element of tuning associated with this that the display gives 'some' information before being awake and eargerly switching to full display may reduce battery life. I don't think we can totally liken Always off to the Always (semi?) on screens on the S5. I'm just curious though since you mention you had an S4.. if you turn off always on display does it go back to the switch performance you mentioned with the S4. To me with the S5 with always on turned off the raise transition is instantaneous.

 

[PatrickNSF]

Yes, when I turn off the AOD of the S5 the performance matches the S4. But I'm starting to realize that I prefer the way the S4 works compared with the delay the AOD introduces in the S5.

 

[iamasmith]

Yes, when I turn off the AOD of the S5 the performance matches the S4. But I'm starting to realize that I prefer the way the S4 works compared with the delay the AOD introduces in the S5.

For me it's geat, I really wanted the always on display when swimming to just be able to look up lengths without fully waking the display.

Each to their own I guess

 

[PatrickNSF]

For me it's geat, I really wanted the always on display when swimming to just be able to look up lengths without fully waking the display.

Each to their own I guess

I use a Garmin for running and cycling, so I primarily use the AW for non-sports use. I'd be content if the delay for the full display equalled the S4.

 

[Strangedream]

Either will get improved in a future WatchOS update or you'll hear Apple boasting their "new S6 CPU with 25% faster AOD wake capability" next September.

 

[PatrickNSF]

You’re probably right, which is why I asked if anyone saw any improvement in the 6.1 beta.

This reminds me of adding retina to the iPad 3 – a great idea in theory but a bit ahead of its time in practice.

 

[xraydoc]

You’re probably right, which is why I asked if anyone saw any improvement in the 6.1 beta.

This reminds me of adding retina to the iPad 3 – a great idea in theory but a bit ahead of its time in practice.

Not sure if there's much that can be done -- just a theory, but if the screen is refreshing at 1Hz (once per second) in AOD mode, it may be unable to come back to life any faster than that fraction of a second it currently takes. It may only respond to a full-speed (60Hz) refresh command every so often in low-power mode.

 

[mk313]

Yes, when I turn off the AOD of the S5 the performance matches the S4. But I'm starting to realize that I prefer the way the S4 works compared with the delay the AOD introduces in the S5.

I agree. I love my series 5 (coming from. A series 3) but I can’t stand the delay. I turned off aod and haven’t missed it at all.

 

[a.y.n]

The delay has a lot to do with the animation from the always-on face to the regular face, there's no way to disable that without disabling always-on entirely.

 

[Mercenary]

Have you tried on the watch going into Settings > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Off

This will remove a lot of animations which slow down the watch and makes it snappier. Not got an AW5 myself to see how it affects AOD but chances are it will do something (or not).

 

[PatrickNSF]

Have you tried on the watch going into Settings > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Off

This will remove a lot of animations which slow down the watch and makes it snappier. Not got an AW5 myself to see how it affects AOD but chances are it will do something (or not).

That was the first thing I did after reading a.y.n.’s post, but it doesn’t seem to have an effect on the AOD delay.