Apple Aiming for 19 Hours of Apple Watch Battery Life With 'Mixed Usage'

[Bubba Satori]

Anyone expecting Apple to transcend the laws of physics has a problem bigger than a watch will solve.

19 hours is exceptional! Combine this with a battery that is so small that it will likely take an hour or less to fully recharge, and you've got a state of the art wearable computer. Pop it on the charger while you have your morning shower and forget about it till the next morning.

Hi Phil.
Tempus fugit.

 

[bobob]

I go back to my army unit for reservist and am out in the field for 3-4 days at a time.

The solid gold Apple Watch would be perfect for manoeuvres!

 

[QuarterSwede]

My Android Wear device will have anywhere from 20-60% of its battery remaining when I plug it into the charger at the end of the day, after 15 hours of normal usage. The Apple Watch battery life quoted is similar. This should not be surprising since it will have similar display technology and size, similar (not identical, but similar) CPU, RAM and flash capacity, and will be interacting with the host device in a similar way. There is a limit to what can be done with the limitations of the form factor, need for connectivity and a readable display, etc. The daily recharge is not a bad thing, and it will charge to capacity in under an hour. I've never had to charge my Android Wear watch in the middle of the day, and I use it pretty extensively. Once it died on me but that was about a 19 hour day where I was using it heavily. I'm assuming the Apple Watch will perform at least as well.

This is the most infomative post of the thread. Thank you for taking the time to post your comparable experience and actually contribute something useful.

 

[andy9l]

Someone use your considerable photoshop skills to transform these misleading pictures of watches into their actual appearance for 22 hours a day - a totally black screen. Enough of this false advertising.

Image

 

[Neodym]

The CR2032 battery in my Cateye bike computer lasted 11 years with 40,000km cycled. That's what I'd call great.

Erm yeah - the Applewatch and a Cateye bike computer are so similar in features and specs, you would think they are twins separated at birth ...

 

[Mildredop]

19 hours is exceptional! Combine this with a battery that is so small that it will likely take an hour or less to fully recharge, and you've got a state of the art wearable computer. Pop it on the charger while you have your morning shower and forget about it till the next morning.

How dirty are you?

 

[meistervu]

The most amazing thing about Watch is no one is forced to buy it.

The most amazing thing about this forum is that most people is not aware of the fact you just mentioned

 

[jmgregory1]

I just don't see people "using" an Apple watch in the same way they do an iPhone. That is, it would be strange to be spending an inordinate amount of time looking at and interacting with a watch-sized device, when you can just as easily use your iPhone where you'll see things much bigger and can properly interact. You have to have your iPhone with you anyway, so continually looking at a tiny screen to see portions of messages or notifications just doesn't make sense to me.

So battery life really shouldn't be an issue, if you're just using the watch occasionally for notification viewing and maybe some minor interaction. Just the idea of playing games on your watch seems silly, at best.

Overall, I just don't buy that the smart watch is going to be the next big thing. Of course I'm a guy wearing an automatic timepiece that is as much a piece of me as my wedding ring is, so a smart watch would need to be REALLY compelling for me to give up what I have, even if I am (and have been for 20 years) a big Apple fan.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Of course I'm basing it off what Apple themselves have purported the Apple Watch to do, smartasses. I readily admit that there may be a list of features that they have yet to announce.

They've hardly announced any features, really. The complete UI and included apps haven't been seen by anyone outside of Apple, nor have we caught more than the slimmest hint of what third-party developers will do with it. I know we all like our rumors, but coming off half-cocked is a great way to be wrong, especially where Apple products are concerned.

 

[Neodym]

Someone use your considerable photoshop skills to transform these misleading pictures of watches into their actual appearance for 22 hours a day - a totally black screen. Enough of this false advertising.

That has a philosophical notion: Does a wrist-worn computer looking like a watch have to pointlessly waste energy to display something on screen even while no-one is looking at it?

Or do the ads just show what the wrist-worn computer will look like when you actually bother to look at it?

 

[nooaah]

Man I know I'll buy it but I ain't gonna like it

 

[IbisDoc]

Image

Thanks for this. Just as I thought. As a watch, it has the striking appearance of Epic. Fail.

Hopefully the Apple lurkers on this board will take your good work back to the Apple executive team, so that future advertising will have some degree of accuracy.

 

[Michael Goff]

The most amazing thing about this forum is that most people is not aware of the fact you just mentioned

According to that line of thinking, Apple could sell anything and it'd be alright. They could, literally, sell a piece of crap and it'd be alright because nobody HAS to buy it. Can't make fun of the product then, right?

 

[ArcaneDevice]

So? I take my watch off at night anyways. No one stays up for more than 19 hours.

That is the most hilarious dumb internet comment I've seen today. Bravo!

Now everyone who has a professional job in any respect please pass along the stories of all-hands fire alarms, deadline busting and on-call emergencies because it's obvious he doesn't have a job.

Hell, I've stayed up 36 hours straight in front of my Mac to hit deadlines!

 

[apolloa]

pfffttt hahaha...

Yeah, I'm SURE ALL the Swiss watch makers are shaking in their boots

These watches are pathetic with these laughable battery times, quite a few smartphones will make it through a day of heavy use, I don't know of any smart watches that can..

 

[garylapointe]

The race for worst case scenario's is on!

The Apple Watch is for full-on participants in a connected world - - if I'm going to be marooned on a desert island, I'll stick with a waterproof, self-winding Rolex.

That seems like the last thing I'm going to plan to bring to a desert island. I'd cash in my Rolex for some solar charging panels, an iPad and a wireless hard drive full of books, movies and music...

Gary

 

[Roessnakhan]

They've hardly announced any features, really. The complete UI and included apps haven't been seen by anyone outside of Apple, nor have we caught more than the slimmest hint of what third-party developers will do with it. I know we all like our rumors, but coming off half-cocked is a great way to be wrong, especially where Apple products are concerned.

That's a fair point.

 

[Rogifan]

According to that line of thinking, Apple could sell anything and it'd be alright. They could, literally, sell a piece of crap and it'd be alright because nobody HAS to buy it. Can't make fun of the product then, right?

Of course not but why get worked up over something you're never going to buy? For me I'll just wait until the product is released and we get reviews. Battery life can't be faked so if it's really crap the reviews will certainly say so.

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pfffttt hahaha...

Yeah, I'm SURE ALL the Swiss watch makers are shaking in their boots

These watches are pathetic with these laughable battery times, quite a few smartphones will make it through a day of heavy use, I don't know of any smart watches that can..

Because smart watches have the same size battery as smartphones.

 

[garylapointe]

19 hrs of mixed use is great for a first gen watch ... as long as it's roughly the same or better than the iPhone. So if my iPhone lasts me all day, and the watch does the same under the same usage profile, its ok by me... this is mainly because I'll have to charge my phone up anyway.

Exactly!

Where the complaints will come in is the first few weeks when everyone is constantly using the heck out of it checking out all the new features and showing it off they'll really be complaining about the battery life. But it'll calm down after a while and they get into normal use of it (they'll think it's the 1.0.1 software update that fixes the battery life, but it's just them using it less).

Gary

 

[SolarShane]

LOL another flop.

 

[brendu]

Good luck, Gen 1 adopters.

I'm going to be a gen 1 adopter. I know fully that this thing isn't going to be the most amazing watch ever. I don't care. It is going to do things I want and I'll deal with the drawbacks. I will get to enjoy it for a year or more before I sell it and get a gen two if the battery life is improved or if I gets wireless charging which I'm really hoping for.

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LOL another flop.

You say that as if apple has had many flops lately... Name one.

 

[spacemanspifff]

From what I can see, this thread has two kinds of people posting. Those that will buy the watch no matter how good/bad it is and those who will never buy it.

Both are coming up with their reasons to love/hate it.

I'm in the "will never buy" camp - this is a non starter of a product for me, it has no value add. My automatic Tag watch displays the time 24/7 (even in bright sunlight) and never needs charging or taking off (even in water). For all the other things the apple watch is supposed to be for - well I already have the iPhone 6.

 

[ohbrilliance]

Erm yeah - the Applewatch and a Cateye bike computer are so similar in features and specs, you would think they are twins separated at birth ...

Thanks for the sarcasm Captain Obvious. The battery lasted 50,000 times 19 hours. It is certainly more than a 50,000th as useful as an iWatch. Sure they may do a lot, but we've been conditioned to accept lousy battery life with modern devices.

 

[apolloa]

Remember how when the Galaxy Gear was announced, and everyone thought a one-day battery life was terrible? And now suddenly everyone is okay with it on the Apple Watch

hahahaha oh yeas, the good ol Apple apologists on here.. 166 up votes for this post at the time, I particularly like the part in bold haha...

Epic Fail.

This is exactly what everyone would say Samsung would come out with...basically an iPod Nano with limited features. And these features are pretty bad and horrible battery life and interface. Relying on 3rd party apps is also bad. Not shocking at all, this is what I expect from an 'engineering/tech spec' focused company and not a design/usability company like Apple.

They did this so they could beat Apple to market so they cannot be caught up in another lawsuit with Apple.

Whatever Apple comes out with will not be a smartphone on your wrist like this thing is.

It will be a new device that combines multiple things into something you won't want to leave home without. From NFC, health monitoring, connectivity and other features along with a design that doesn't look like a watch (I mean seriously, it was SOOOO obvious what Samsungs watch was going to look like).

In fact, Apple will probably not even use the term Watch. They will use something that relates to a wrist band/bracelet/or device always with you.

I also find it funny that people defending Samsung are saying things like "You don't know what Apple will come out with..they could have come out with something just like this" and I think the majority of us know that Apple would never come out with something like this epic fail of technology.

I was going to post the Joker meme "And here we gooooo..." to signal the start of the smart watch wars....but I mean seriously this thing is just so awful I think this is more appropriate of a look from the Joker.

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Because smart watches have the same size battery as smartphones.

Oh really? So your saying that a smart watch actually has a battery the SAME SIZE as the one in a smartphone... please let us in on your quantum computer physics laws bending machine sir, because that's the only way that'll happen!

 

[IbisDoc]

That has a philosophical notion: Does a wrist-worn computer looking like a watch have to pointlessly waste energy to display something on screen even while no-one is looking at it?

Or do the ads just show what the wrist-worn computer will look like when you actually bother to look at it?

Just went over to Apple.com. I need your help.

Checked all of the headings. Couldn't find Apple Wrist Worn Computer. Couldn't find AWWC. I'm lost.

However, I did find a heading entitled WATCH.

I'll keep looking.