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Anyone noticing worse battery life on Apple Watch Series 4 over the Series 3?

JAZJB

JAZJB

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2014
169
133
So I knew the battery life on the AW4 wouldn’t be any better than the Series 3, but I didn’t think it would actually be WORSE! I’m comparing battery life to my AW3 in terms of what I get out of a normal usage day, and the AW4 is losing about 10-15% battery over my AW3. I also notice it starts draining soon after a full charge; I charge it about 2 hours before I go to bed, and on the A3, battery would still hold at 100% when I went to bed. I never saw it drop to even 99%. The A4, however, goes down to 92-93% before I even get to bed!! WTH? I don’t have any new apps installed and I’m still following my normal usage schedule. I’ve done the reboots which, on the AW3, always made a difference in performance, but they have no effect on the AW4. I just shut off the workout reminders and gym equipment detection, so I’m hoping that’ll help? Has anyone tried that and seen a difference? Is this battery drain normal? Is this just how it is with the AW4?
 
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I don’t remember where, but I have read that the S3 does surpass the S4 with battery life. This is why I just upgraded to the S3 instead of buying the S4. Even opted for the 42mm.
 
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I’ve only had my AW4 LTE for 2 days, and I’d concur with your 10-15% less battery life than my AW3 LTE.
I’m going to give it a few more days, but so far unimpressed, except for the ceramic back design which gives much better signal reception. Settings, everything the same between both. Updated to WatchOS5 and 5.01 immediately. So software-wise, an equivalent scenario.


JAZJB said:
So I knew the battery life on the AW4 wouldn’t be any better than the Series 3, but I didn’t think it would actually be WORSE! I’m comparing battery life to my AW3 in terms of what I get out of a normal usage day, and the AW4 is losing about 10-15% battery over my AW3. I also notice it starts draining soon after a full charge; I charge it about 2 hours before I go to bed, and on the A3, battery would still hold at 100% when I went to bed. I never saw it drop to even 99%. The A4, however, goes down to 92-93% before I even get to bed!! WTH? I don’t have any new apps installed and I’m still following my normal usage schedule. I’ve done the reboots which, on the AW3, always made a difference in performance, but they have no effect on the AW4. I just shut off the workout reminders and gym equipment detection, so I’m hoping that’ll help? Has anyone tried that and seen a difference? Is this battery drain normal? Is this just how it is with the AW4?
Click to expand...
 
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Freakonomics101 said:
I don’t remember where, but I have read that the S3 does surpass the S4 with battery life. This is why I just upgraded to the S3 instead of buying the S4. Even opted for the 42mm.
Click to expand...

I had the 42mm S3 and it was great! I just wanted the bigger face 44m, that was my biggest issue with the AW3. Enjoy your new watch!!
[doublepost=1539056089][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
I haven’t seen that, only that Series 3 has a larger battery but Series 4 is more efficient.
Click to expand...

Yes, I will say everything runs very smoothly and my apps load much faster! I think I found a fix for the battery life, I might post my results later.
 
BA2020 said:
I’ve only had my AW4 LTE for 2 days, and I’d concur with your 10-15% less battery life than my AW3 LTE.
I’m going to give it a few more days, but so far unimpressed, except for the ceramic back design which gives much better signal reception. Settings, everything the same between both. Updated to WatchOS5 and 5.01 immediately. So software-wise, an equivalent scenario.
Click to expand...

Sounds like my experience for sure! I think I found the fix, which I inadvertently wrote in my first post! I turned off all of the exercise reminders under the Workout settings, also the “gym equipment detection” setting (don’t get me started on how weird that one is). I did that just before I posted this thread, and since then, I’ve only lost 1% battery!!! I still have all the activity settings to close my rings, but I don’t need those workout reminders to be on. Maybe you can try turning them off and see if it helps!
 
From my experience it’s just as good as the Series 3 battery. Gets me through each day with plenty of juice and that’s all that really matters since I charge it every night bedside.
 
BA2020 said:
I missed reading this article before, but just stumbled upon it. Explains your 10-15% exactly.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ite-same-up-to-18-hours-battery-life.2142996/
Click to expand...

Wow, that article explains a lot! Thx for the link. I read some of the comments and seems like people are split on the 10-20% battery drain. I think those workout settings have something to do with this, people who know to turn those settings off to make battery more efficientl. Why Apple turns these on as default is ridiculous, and yet the “fall detection” is set to “OFF” unless your over 65. Like the rest of us don’t fall. Ever. I’d rather my watch detect a potentially dangerous fall rather than the dang treadmill!
 
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JAZJB said:
Wow, that article explains a lot! Thx for the link. I read some of the comments and seems like people are split on the 10-20% battery drain. I think those workout settings have something to do with this, people who know to turn those settings off to make battery more efficientl. Why Apple turns these on as default is ridiculous, and yet the “fall detection” is set to “OFF” unless your over 65. Like the rest of us don’t fall. Ever. I’d rather my watch detect a potentially dangerous fall rather than the dang treadmill!
Click to expand...
I imagine Apple knows more about how their products work than we do.

For example, maybe through testing they discovered that people who are active tend to trigger more false positives for fall detection, so they only turned it on by default for people over 65.

Also, maybe they took into account the risk factors faced by the group above 65 and decided the benefits to fall detection outweighed the risk of accidental calling 911 for a false positive.
 
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