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

[diamond.g]

There's so kind of comedy in what people write here...
You do know there is TWO APPLE WATCHES sizes coming.

So, which one are you talking about hey!
Just for fun, here are some stats

The largest Apple Watch is 13% smaller than the G Watch
The smallest Apple Watch is 40% smaller than the G Watch..

So, what Watch does the 19h apply too?
Which watch did they have to really work on to get to 19h...
Well, Its a pretty decent guess that the smallest one would be the one giving the trouble.

More impressive then hey, especially considering that in the small watch, there's very little space for any battery (most of it is filled with the same electronics as the big one).

Doesn't quite fit your narrative doesn't it?

Also, the G watch's screen resolution is substantially less than than the big watch and doesn't even match the small one. I could go do this watch, by watch but what would be the point. You make graphs... That obviously trumps "everything" (sic).

The screen on the smaller Apple Watch is 25% smaller, and that is the biggest power draw.

Image

All I was pointing out was that the Moto360 which every one here said had crap battery life has, reportedly, the same battery life as the Apple Watch. Whichever edition can't possibly matter as 13% can't possibly double battery life.

You have to remember most Android Wear watches, excluding the Moto 360, were designed to have the display on in a low power state all the time. Apple should be able to have the same functionality, but it is looking like that isn't possible. Moto 360 can't even keep the display on all the time and they are using LCD, which many claim here is power sipping compared to OLED.

 

[APlotdevice]

All I was pointing out was that the Moto360 which every one here said had crap battery life has, reportedly, the same battery life as the Apple Watch. Whichever edition can't possibly matter as 13% can't possibly double battery life.

You have to remember most Android Wear watches, excluding the Moto 360, were designed to have the display on in a low power state all the time. Apple should be able to have the same functionality, but it is looking like that isn't possible. Moto 360 can't even keep the display on all the time and they are using LCD, which many claim here is power sipping compared to OLED.

A reflective or transflective LCD is power sipping compared to OLED. And displays that are either bistable or have pixel memory, such as the one in the Pebble, offer even greater efficiency since they can maintain an image without constant input. However, as far as I can tell, the Moto360 uses a transmissive LCD, and therefor offers no benefit to battery life compared to OLED.

 

[batistuta]

4 hrs fitness tracking while still having to rely on the gps (and possibly the M8) of your phone?!
Wake me when the watch includes the gps and can handle a full day of skiing or biking, and not only a quick trip to the gym.

 

[Switchback666]

I'm more concerned of the battery impact the watch will have on the phones; if it give us 4hrs "screen time" would be good for a first generation watch and whe all know apple devices offer great standby time.

Good times for us tech heads

 

[uknowimright]

goal posts, they are moving

 

[jrswizzle]

And that's the reason why watches with battery life measured in decades will still be around.

There are times when I am out for days on end without access to a power outlet. Like when I go back to my army unit for reservist and am out in the field for 3-4 days at a time. Or when I am on a camping trip with my pupils. Sure, one can argue that these are edge cases, but I find it irritating that I may have to switch back to an old G shock watch just for this.

I feel the pebble watch nailed it with its 7 days of battery life, though admitably, it achieves this by not doing very much itself.

To expect a gen 1 product to hit every niche use case is unrealistic.

While I agree, it sucks if you fall into that category, it's not unexpected and Apple shouldn't be crushed for it. It's simply not in the cards for a device the size and with the capability the Apple Watch is/will have to have a week long battery life.

Current battery technology simply won't allow it.

Until someone comes up with new battery chemistry/tech, we'll continue to see it as the biggest limiting factor in advancement. Displays and processors are hitting a wall as they are progressing faster than content quality and use case demands.

Whoever can crack the battery will win BIG.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Hmm so do you guys think the pulse sensor won't be always on and it's only meant for tracking during exercise?

They might do it the way the MS Band does it where depending on the mode (normal, exercise, sleep), the sampling cycle changes

IE MS Band exercise mode = samples continuously
normal mode = samples for 1 minute, turns off for 9 minutes, repeat

 

[saturn88]

As of 2014, Apple was reportedly aiming for 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use with 19 hours of active/passive use, plus 3 days of pure standby time and four days if the watch was sleeping.

Does not sound good.

I get 3+ days of regular use of my Samsung Gear S watch.

 

[grahamperrin]

Apple Watch Thought of the Day

Apple Aiming for 19 Hours …

goal posts, they are moving

Yeah, I can't imagine people finding it really attractive until Apple aims for 24 hours … Watch of the Day … da da da daaaa dada da da daaa da daaa dada da da

 

[Keirasplace]

Does not sound good.

I get 3+ days of regular use of my Samsung Gear S watch.

Unless you define "regular use" it is POINTLESS. BTW, no reviews anywhere have those numbers so I'll call your bluff on that one unless regular use is not much use at all...

Also, considering all the tech in your watch is less customized (hardware and software) than the Apple watch (mostly off the shelf), why do you think you'd get less use with something more efficient of almost the same size (slightly smaller in the case of the bigger one). I find that logic totally bizarre.

Another thing, there are also two size Apple watches. One is much smaller than the other. The quoted numbers undoubtedly refer to the small ones since it also needs to last all day. The bigger one would have a much bigger battery than the smaller one since most of the extra volume (30% bigger) would be battery.

 

[Keirasplace]

All I was pointing out was that the Moto360 which every one here said had crap battery life has, reportedly, the same battery life as the Apple Watch. Whichever edition can't possibly matter as 13% can't possibly double battery life.

You have to remember most Android Wear watches, excluding the Moto 360, were designed to have the display on in a low power state all the time. Apple should be able to have the same functionality, but it is looking like that isn't possible. Moto 360 can't even keep the display on all the time and they are using LCD, which many claim here is power sipping compared to OLED.

Don't get your logic at all. Does the Moto 360 get twice the rumored battery spec of the smallest Apple Watch? The smallest watch has 40% less volume than the typical Android watch, which severely restrict battery space since there are also the electronics that need their own space.

If they get a whole day of the use from the smallest watch, then that's really something. The extra 30% space in the bigger watch (30% more than the smallest one) will be mostly battery, so I'm guessing it could get to 30h instead of 19h). That means even with a quite heavy usage for a smart watch, the watch would last the day.

The tech of the Moto 360 are off the shelf and less efficient than the ones in the Apple Watch, that's the fact. LCD uses on average more power, especially for dark content. LCD colors are more stable traditionally long term, though this is less the case lately.

The Apple watch is off when you don't look at it. Please go on the web site because you obviously you haven't really got the whole info.

 

[swy05]

To expect a gen 1 product to hit every niche use case is unrealistic.

While I agree, it sucks if you fall into that category, it's not unexpected and Apple shouldn't be crushed for it. It's simply not in the cards for a device the size and with the capability the Apple Watch is/will have to have a week long battery life.

Current battery technology simply won't allow it.

Until someone comes up with new battery chemistry/tech, we'll continue to see it as the biggest limiting factor in advancement. Displays and processors are hitting a wall as they are progressing faster than content quality and use case demands.

Whoever can crack the battery will win BIG.

No one's asking for a week of battery life. That's just being ridiculous.

But 19 hours of active/passive use is downright garbage.

People on here may bash Samsung all they want but I've been using a Gear 2 Neo for a while and the battery life is one of it's high points.

Took it off the charger Thursday 6:30am and it's now Monday night 10:30 and it still has 11% battery. Granted I do take off the watch when I come home from work at about 7:30pm but this is with notifications constantly coming through during the day and night and with other active/passive usage. Watch is never turned off either.

So, asking for a week's worth is being ridiculous but asking for more than 19 hours is more than reasonable.

 

[Keirasplace]

No one's asking for a week of battery life. That's just being ridiculous.

But 19 hours of active/passive use is downright garbage.

People on here may bash Samsung all they want but I've been using a Gear 2 Neo for a while and the battery life is one of it's high points.

Took it off the charger Thursday 6:30am and it's now Monday night 10:30 and it still has 11% battery. Granted I do take off the watch when I come home from work at about 7:30pm but this is with notifications constantly coming through during the day and night and with other active/passive usage. Watch is never turned off either.

So, asking for a week's worth is being ridiculous but asking for more than 19 hours is more than reasonable.

ThaT's 4h of notification on screen. When your not looking at it, the screen is off but the watch is still working. That's probably several hundreds notifications/reply, about one per 4 minutes all day long. I rarely rarely reach a 100 myself; about 50 average. That's competitive with the number your stating with a much bigger watch.

Bigger watch you say... Yes, because there are TWO WATCHES... And it goes to reason that the small watch (1/3 the size of the large one, 40% smaller than your watch), with less battery, is the one that gets to 19h.

 

[Aniseedvan]

Just to throw this in here...

Garmin's newly announced vivosmart watch is 8mm thick, will run the GPS for 10 hours and "up to 3 weeks" battery life. Given the vivosmart has an "up tp 7 days" life, and I regularly exceed that (with notifications on), I'd hope this would be reasonably accurate.

Garmin being Garmin, the ConnectIQ will be a right bag of mashings for 6 months, then they'll slowly iron it out. From past experience, their software offerings haven't been good, but they know how to do the hardware.

If I could action notifications, send the odd canned response back (i.e. talk later I'm in a meeting), I'd have pre-ordered this for £200. Filtering what gets through to my watch (e.g. VIP emails) is a USP for me.

 

[diamond.g]

Don't get your logic at all. Does the Moto 360 get twice the rumored battery spec of the smallest Apple Watch? The smallest watch has 40% less volume than the typical Android watch, which severely restrict battery space since there are also the electronics that need their own space.

If they get a whole day of the use from the smallest watch, then that's really something. The extra 30% space in the bigger watch (30% more than the smallest one) will be mostly battery, so I'm guessing it could get to 30h instead of 19h). That means even with a quite heavy usage for a smart watch, the watch would last the day.

The tech of the Moto 360 are off the shelf and less efficient than the ones in the Apple Watch, that's the fact. LCD uses on average more power, especially for dark content. LCD colors are more stable traditionally long term, though this is less the case lately.

The Apple watch is off when you don't look at it. Please go on the web site because you obviously you haven't really got the whole info.

I have an idea of how it is supposed to work.

The Moto 360 gets (on average) the same amount of battery life as the Apple Watch (probably the smaller on) is currently being reported with.

Which isn't bad, never said it was. I only, additionally, pointed out that the Moto 360 gets worse battery life than the other Android Watches with the screen always on and what would be considered a heavy/constant load.

Luckily for us Apple doesn't appear to be giving us the option of having the screen always one, therefore battery life won't be comparable to the other Android Watches as they all have the screen always on by default.

----------

ThaT's 4h of notification on screen. When your not looking at it, the screen is off but the watch is still working. That's probably several hundreds notifications/reply, about one per 4 minutes all day long. I rarely rarely reach a 100 myself; about 50 average. That's competitive with the number your stating with a much bigger watch.

Bigger watch you say... Yes, because there are TWO WATCHES... And it goes to reason that the small watch (1/3 the size of the large one, 40% smaller than your watch), with less battery, is the one that gets to 19h.

How did you come up with 4h of notifications? Are you referring to Apple Watch?

 

[swy05]

ThaT's 4h of notification on screen. When your not looking at it, the screen is off but the watch is still working. That's probably several hundreds notifications/reply, about one per 4 minutes all day long. I rarely rarely reach a 100 myself; about 50 average. That's competitive with the number your stating with a much bigger watch.

Bigger watch you say... Yes, because there are TWO WATCHES... And it goes to reason that the small watch (1/3 the size of the large one, 40% smaller than your watch), with less battery, is the one that gets to 19h.

Haha. How did you get 4 hours of notification on screen? Did you make up some random number?

 

[jrswizzle]

No one's asking for a week of battery life. That's just being ridiculous.

But 19 hours of active/passive use is downright garbage.

People on here may bash Samsung all they want but I've been using a Gear 2 Neo for a while and the battery life is one of it's high points.

Took it off the charger Thursday 6:30am and it's now Monday night 10:30 and it still has 11% battery. Granted I do take off the watch when I come home from work at about 7:30pm but this is with notifications constantly coming through during the day and night and with other active/passive usage. Watch is never turned off either.

So, asking for a week's worth is being ridiculous but asking for more than 19 hours is more than reasonable.

We'll see when it's released.

I reserve the right to actually experience the Apple Watch before bashing it. Just as you've found the Gear 2 Neo to be competent when it comes to battery life, I'm pretty certain the Apple Watch will be just fine.

Besides - we don't even know what that 19 hours refers to....."mixed usage"? Who the heck even knows what that means? Usage varies a lot from user to user.

I think it's a lot of hype over something we know very little about. Wait until the device is released and we see what the battery life is based on standard tests. If it sucks then, feel free to bash.

FYI: Samsung lists the battery life for the Gear 2 Neo as 2-3 days of "typical usage". If anyone has any clue what that means, you let me know.

 

[kdarling]

Just to throw this in here...

Garmin's newly announced vivosmart watch is 8mm thick, will run the GPS for 10 hours and "up to 3 weeks" battery life. Given the vivosmart has an "up tp 7 days" life, and I regularly exceed that (with notifications on), I'd hope this would be reasonably accurate.

And yet another smartwatch maker wanting more running time:

The Asus Chairman has said that he wants his next Zen watch model to last at least seven days... perhaps by dropping Android Wear or by using a simplified version of it.



A year ago I would've bet that Apple would not come out with a smartwatch that only lasted a day. Maybe they have something up their sleeve (pun intended) to improve their time between charges.

 

[saturn88]

Unless you define "regular use" it is POINTLESS. BTW, no reviews anywhere have those numbers so I'll call your bluff on that one unless regular use is not much use at all...

Bluff is your statement that "no reviews anywhere". Just say you did not bother read any reviews. This Samsung Gear S review says "since Tizen is quite optimized, you will get two and a half days worth of battery life with heavy usage, and a day or two more with normal usage" which means 4+ days with normal usage, according to the review.
http://www.sammobile.com/2014/12/05/review-samsung-gear-s-sm-r750/

For me 'normal use' means getting email/meeting/facebook notifications, looking at my health stats, stock quotes, time, receiving a couple of short phone calls, reading email, calendar, responding to text message.

Also, considering all the tech in your watch is less customized (hardware and software) than the Apple watch (mostly off the shelf), why do you think you'd get less use with something more efficient of almost the same size (slightly smaller in the case of the bigger one). I find that logic totally bizarre.

"More efficient" Apple watch - is your wishful thinking. And Gear S is not "off the shelf". It has written from scratch Tizen OS, very special custom designed curved OLED display, optimized processor and more.

 

[bobob]

Bluff is your statement that "no reviews anywhere". Just say you did not bother read any reviews. This Samsung Gear S review says "since Tizen is quite optimized, you will get two and a half days worth of battery life with heavy usage, and a day or two more with normal usage" which means 4+ days with normal usage, according to the review.
http://www.sammobile.com/2014/12/05/review-samsung-gear-s-sm-r750/

That review was written by SamMobile: Everything for your Samsung Mobile.

Perhaps a more objective review would be supplied by a website that doesn't just specialize in Samsung products, such as this review from Cnet...

The 300mAh battery on the Gear S runs down quickly if you're using it as a phone. I didn't even power-use it much, but found it lasted about one full day. With 3G off, the Gear S did better, making it through a couple of days...a little better than other Android Wear and Samsung Gear watches.

Samsung did think ahead here: an included Micro-USB wall charger fits into a clip-on dongle that charges the Gear S, and the dongle snaps off to become its own 350mAh battery. When the Gear S runs low on batteries, you can clip on the battery pack for a recharge. You can't wear it with the battery on, but it saves a trip to an outlet. It's better than not having it, and it's included in the box.

What would be cooler, of course, would be if the Gear S was able to last even longer on a charge. But battery life isn't really where the Gear S fails.

 

[saturn88]

That review was written by SamMobile: Everything for your Samsung Mobile.

Perhaps a more objective review would be supplied by a website that doesn't just specialize in Samsung products, such as this review from Cnet...

"runs down quickly if you're using it as a phone"

Image

Even that site in the review I posted says that battery life is much lower when using it stand alone, so nothing new here. But battery life of a Samsung watch used stand alone as a phone is not relevant for this comparison, since Apple watch is not capable of that.

I am using Samsung watch as a companion watch linked to my mobile phone - the same way Apple watch would be used. And I am getting good 3 days of battery life.

 

[bobob]

I am using Samsung watch as a companion watch linked to my mobile phone - the same way Apple watch would be used. And I am getting good 3 days of battery life.

Considering that the Gear S appears to be about three times as big as an Apple Watch - - that sounds about right!

 

[Elvergun]

Even that site in the review I posted says that battery life is much lower when using it stand alone, so nothing new here. But battery life of a Samsung watch used stand alone as a phone is not relevant for this comparison, since Apple watch is not capable of that.

I am using Samsung watch as a companion watch linked to my mobile phone - the same way Apple watch would be used. And I am getting good 3 days of battery life.

LOL -- bobob basically proved your point with his post (and link).

The Gear S battery lasts longer than an Apple Watch...and you can actually call your contacts. The Apple Watch battery will not even last a day...and all you can do is send heartbeats, ugly drawings and taps to your contacts (perfect for people who know Morse Code).

Too bad the Gear S is ugly as sin (like most of the stuff Samsung makes).

 

[cyb3rdud3]

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

So my £59 pebble lasts about six days, and I can swim with it as well. 19 hours WTF it has to be a week at least to catch my interest.

Edit: and includes misfit recording directly in the phone and Bluetooth Le sync to my iPhone 6+.

 

[saturn88]

Considering that the Gear S appears to be about three times as big as an Apple Watch - - that sounds about right!

Actually it looks sexy on the wrist of the lady, nice pict! Yes, it is a little bigger. But the screen is curved which makes feel smaller. And it looks more futuristically cool, while providing larger screen size. The curved retina OLED screen is very impressive. Larger screen also allows for a soft keyboard: you can text, add/edit contact data, dial phone etc - something you can't do with Apple Watch.

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LOL -- bobob basically proved your point with his post (and link).

The Gear S battery lasts longer than an Apple Watch...and you can actually call your contacts. The Apple Watch battery will not even last a day...and all you can do is send heartbeats, ugly drawings and taps to your contacts (perfect for people who know Morse Code).

Too bad the Gear S is ugly as sin (like most of the stuff Samsung makes).

Yes, you can do more with the Gear S, and, unlike Apple Watch, you can actually purchase it.