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Always on display - thoughts?
- Thread starter ChrisKe
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I love the always on display. I'm a former watch snob -> pebble -> apple watch guy, and it was the thing I missed most from the Pebble. Haven't noticed an adverse effect on battery life, but I also charge it every night.
If you charge every day, or multiple times a day, AOD is not going to hit you all that hard. If you like to try to do 1.5 days or a full day without charging, AOD is going to have an effect on battery life.
Personally, I'm not a fan of AOD because you still have to raise your hand to "activate" the display for other complications. It bugs me to see my display being activated throughout the day as I move my hands on my keyboard. Since I work at a computer, I have it off - I have access to clocks everywhere.
AOD is pretty cool tho. Makes checking time in a social setting a bit less obvious. Exercising with AOD is nice.
I've decided I don't mind raising my wrist for that added battery life. Definitely try both for a few days if you're curious.
Personally, I'm not a fan of AOD because you still have to raise your hand to "activate" the display for other complications. It bugs me to see my display being activated throughout the day as I move my hands on my keyboard. Since I work at a computer, I have it off - I have access to clocks everywhere.
AOD is pretty cool tho. Makes checking time in a social setting a bit less obvious. Exercising with AOD is nice.
I've decided I don't mind raising my wrist for that added battery life. Definitely try both for a few days if you're curious.
Apparently S6 fixes this problem. I am interested to hear if that in fact is the case.
From Apple:
"Always-on access.
Swipe down for Notification Center, swipe up for Control Center, or tap complications in the wrist‑down state. No need to wake your watch for simple interactions when you’re in a meeting or otherwise occupied."
Edit: I just tried this on my S5. It appears WatchOS 7 has fixed this on the S5 too:
"Access Complications from the Always On Display
Prior to watchOS 7, users needed to tap on the Apple Watch display to wake it up and use complications. Now, you can directly tap on the complication to see the details. No need to wake up the screen first."
Woo Hoo!
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Apparently, the series 6 has a bigger battery, but the battery life is about the same, thanks to the added drain of the always-on altimeter and AOD. So if you were happy with the battery life of your series 4, you should be okay.
I also upgraded from the 4 to the 6, and I’m leaving it on for now, to see how I feel about it, and how the battery life works out.
I also upgraded from the 4 to the 6, and I’m leaving it on for now, to see how I feel about it, and how the battery life works out.
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Yup, ifixit confirmed the following listed below:
“Apple is using a 1.17Wh battery in the 44mm Apple Watch Series 6, which is just a slight increase (3.5 percent) over the battery used in the prior-generation Apple Watch Series 5. That should come as no surprise as the Series 6 continues to offer the same 18-hour "all-day" battery life as prior models. The 40mm model, which iFixit also took a look at, has a 1.024Wh capacity, an 8.5 percent increase over the 40mm Series 5.”
I really like it. I just got a Series 6 after having a Series 4 so it took a day or so to get used to seeing it on in the corner of my eye. I love how some faces actually change the design slightly (to look after battery) and that when doing a workout, the split seconds (that are constantly racing) fade out when you lower your wrist. Nice little touches and consideration for your battery. So far, so good!
On the s6 can you adjust the brightness of the always on display? Since it’s 2x brighter now when in that state. I wonder if you can lower the brightness and get it to last longer
Prior to Apple Watch, I'd worn a Garmin running watch for years, and a Polar before that.
So I missed having an always on display, but the other benefits of AW made up for it enough to stick with AW.
Finally, AOD on the S5 finally fixed that.
For me there's tons of situations where it's really nice to simply glance at my wrist to see the time without having to move.
So I missed having an always on display, but the other benefits of AW made up for it enough to stick with AW.
Finally, AOD on the S5 finally fixed that.
For me there's tons of situations where it's really nice to simply glance at my wrist to see the time without having to move.
You misunderstand.
The AOD brightness range on the S6 is extended. It *can* get up to 2.5x brighter in conditions where the S5 AOD maxed out.
In less bright situations, from what I've seen in reviews, the S6 AOD maintains similar brightness levels to the S5.
I sleep with my watch on, is the AOD active at night as well or is there a way to set a time for it to be off?
Correct. Tailosive Tech did a comparison and he made the same mistake, stating that if he didn't know which watch was which he wouldn't be able to point out the one that's supposed to be brighter. Problem was he was indoors with studio lighting.
With WatchOS6 you could turn on Theater mode and the screen would be dark unless you woke it up.
I think WatchOS7 has a Sleep Mode that does similar but haven't tried it so I'm not sure.
Do you use the Bedtime feature? Mine automatically goes into DND mode as soon as my sleep schedule kicks off.
SE on the way so no AOD for me. My only thought about this is I do think it would make the watch look better. More like a “real” watch rather than just the blank rectangle.
I do not, I used AutoSleep to track my sleeping but ill try bedtime feature when my 6 comes in!
I don’t use the whole bedtime thing, but when I was falling asleep last night (my first night with the 6), I swiped up and selected the bed icon. It turned on DND and turned off the display until I reactivated it this morning. I might do that going forward.
Beyond the Bedtime application, I'd just like to be able to schedule AO to turn off at night, and also when in Theater Mode. It bothers my wife when we're sleeping (I wear my watch all night). It should be able to be treated like DND, or maybe incorporated under DND as additional, watch-specific settings?
I really like the AoD display. The only time I don’t want to see it, is in bed and that is when I use the Apple sleep app to completely turn it off and keep it off, unless I purposefully turn it back on.
The AOD can only be adjusted ON or OFF. There isn't the ability to adjust the brightness of the AOD.
Series 6. I like AOD with some watch faces e.g. white on a black background. What I don’t like is that if you have a colour watch face (colour background) the colour is only displayed when you raise your wrist. On digital displays with seconds switched on, the seconds disappear when you lower your wrist. Essentially, with some exceptions, if I want to see my chosen watch face I still have to raise my wrist and can only see a variant of my chosen watch face otherwise. I hid sensitive complications for a while but it hid things I don’t consider sensitive e.g. Activity progress so have turned this off too. Hope to see some configuration options in future WatchOS releases so we can choose what is “sensitive” and what isn’t