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

I find the whole fad of smart watches boring and uninspired, the companion device model (ie you still need to have your phone with you) makes it even less interesting to me.

So much that the current faux issue of battery life "mine lasts longer than the others" laughable.

Are we so out of feature ideas that a watch that lasts 19 hours instead of 12 such an amazing selling point?

Before I get shot at, I'm not yawning at Apple here, I don't find the Moto or LG or Samsung watches any better or worse, they're all the same boring gizmo to me.
 
I am sure a lot of people will buy one of these.

However for me I would have to think any watch ish thing would need to run 4 days without requiring a recharge.
 
IbisDoc said:
LOL....this product is a disgrace. A watch that displays time for 3 hours.

Epic. Fail.
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It takes perhaps 1 second to check the time on a watch. Say you check the time every 15 minutes. That is 4 seconds an hour or 96 seconds a day. The rest of the time the watch face could be blank for all I know. They are giving enough battery to look at the watch constantly for four hours - which is slightly more than the 1 minute and 36 seconds required.
 
satcomer said:
Never been in the military?
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Right, because a soldier out in the field is going to be using an apple watch with their apple phone...because lord knows they need to be tracking their fitness as they kill terrorists out in the middle east :cool:
 
So I'm assuming it activates when you move it to look at it or something?

So if you move around a lot it will be flashing on and off all day whether or not you intended to look at it?

Or do you press a button to see the time? Which would be useless.
 
KPOM said:
How often does anyone stare at a watch for 3 hours in a day?

Sure, the Watch will be better once it can last 2-3 days between charges, but right now the only way to do that is to make it bigger. People are already complaining how big it is.

I still plan to get one to see how it works.
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This "watch" is for people that don't need a watch. LOL at your suggestion that a watch should actually be totally dark until you push a button to activate the screen and check the time. Isn't that....your phone?

As a WATCH, it is an Epic. Fail.
 
We’re told that the Watch should be able to display its clock face for approximately three hours, including watch ticking animations, if nothing else is done with the device.

Hmm. My Tissot ticks for approximately three years before I have to change the battery. Looks nicer too. ;)
 
It can display time for 3 hours. Displaying time is probably the least processor intensive thing you can do on it. Battery life is going to drop like a rock the second you actually use it for anything more than checking the time.
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Having worked for Steve, twice, this project was in the works while he was still alive.
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Then you'll know that Steve killed / tabled tons of projects that were "in the works" that he had previously approved because the finished product didn't seem complete, ready, or "perfect" to him.

This seems like something that he probably thought was a good idea, something that would develop along, but I can't imagine him giving the thumbs up to a watch that won't even last a full 24 hours before needing a recharge.
 
jessejarvi said:
So? I take my watch off at night anyways. No one stays up for more than 19 hours.
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I know lawyers who sometimes work close to 24 hours. Ambulance drivers/EMT's and doctors frequently work 20+ hours.

My longest work shift was from 6 AM (up at 5 AM) to 9:30 PM. Went to bed close to mid-night. That's almost 19 hours of being up right there.
 
Yeah, I've been really thinking about this the past couple of weeks and have decided I will definitely pass on first-gen Apple watch.

If Pebble had a watch with a heart rate monitor I think I'd be all set.
 
s1m said:
It takes perhaps 1 second to check the time on a watch. Say you check the time every 15 minutes. That is 4 seconds an hour or 96 seconds a day. The rest of the time the watch face could be blank for all I know. They are giving enough battery to look at the watch constantly for four hours - which is slightly more than the 1 minute and 36 seconds required.
Click to expand...

Hey, stop talking sense.
 
bobob said:
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.
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19 hour is max with light use . How exceptional is it for heavy users ? Are you part of the apple watch marketing team or just a cheerleader . Exceptional, state of the art..... You forgot magical and amazing to name a few :rolleyes:

2.5 at the lowest is scrap ! Yes crap. I can handle charging it once a day, not multiple times a day. Maybe Apple should have launched this state of the art wearable when it was ready. As a fitness tracker it even sucks, there are lots of active people that keep active beyond what apple is trying to achieve.
 
dannn said:
Right, because a soldier out in the field is going to be using an apple watch with their apple phone...because lord knows they need to be tracking their fitness as they kill terrorists out in the middle east :cool:
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LOL, they need to track their kill score! :)
 
IbisDoc said:
LOL....this product is a disgrace. A watch that displays time for 3 hours.

Epic. Fail.
Click to expand...

Who needs a watch to display the time every minute of the day? Raise your wrist when you need to see the time and boom it's there. Lower your wrist and it goes back into sleep mode. Not complicated.
 
Well there were some rumors of Apple going back to the drawing board at least once because of battery life concerns and I was hoping we'd see a device that would last a couple of days on a charge. However this 19 hour figure is just complete rubbish.

Also, isn't iPhone 4 level performance and a 60 Hz screen update frequency a tad excessive for a smart watch? I know Apple always needs to one-up it's competition when they release a new device, but with this it does seem like they're shooting themselves in the foot so to speak. The user experience will probably be a lot smoother and more refined than the competition, but only for as long as the battery lasts.

I've tried some of Samsung's smart watches at my local Samsung store and they came across as very low power systems and thus pretty jerky in their operation. I haven't had the chance to get my hands on an Apple watch, but if the demos from when they announced it are anything to go by, it does seem to work pretty much buttery smooth, a major departure from the Samsung equivalents that I've tried.
 
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bobob said:
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.
Click to expand...

avanpelt said:
Have you seen anything reputable that addresses the recharge time for the watch? I definitely haven't. "An hour or less" to recharge would be nice if that turns out to be reality for a Gen 1 product.
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Based on the maximum available volume for a battery inside the Apple Watch, I estimate it will have a capacity of ~350mAh.

I'm basing my estimate of recharge time for the Apple Watch on the fact that the the iPhone 6 with a 1810 mAh battery takes 2.28 hours to recharge.
 
sw1tcher said:
I know lawyers who sometimes work close to 24 hours. Ambulance drivers/EMT's and doctors frequently work 20+ hours.
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You can always come up with exceptions. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that 90% of the population will not need more than 19 hours of CONTINUOUS usage per day.
 
IbisDoc said:
This "watch" is for people that don't need a watch. LOL at your suggestion that a watch should actually be totally dark until you push a button to activate the screen and check the time. Isn't that....your phone?

As a WATCH, it is an Epic. Fail.
Click to expand...

I don't believe you push a button. I think it uses a variety of sensors to detect when you are moving it.
 
KPOM said:
How often does anyone stare at a watch for 3 hours in a day?

Sure, the Watch will be better once it can last 2-3 days between charges, but right now the only way to do that is to make it bigger. People are already complaining how big it is.

I still plan to get one to see how it works.
Click to expand...

I thought the watch would display the watch face all the time with the other functionality starting either from a push from the phone or when the user interacts with it. My vivosmart display is off until I raise my wrist/double tap, which works OK, but not all the time, and there are some times when it lights up randomly.
 
CoMoMacUser said:
Still trying to figure out why I'd need or even want a smart watch from Apple or another vendor when it 1) has to be tethered to 2) my phone, which already does just about everything the watch does. Seems like a solution to a non-problem.
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I am in the same boat. I just don't get these things. Maybe the light will go on when I actually see and touch an Apple Watch. Right now, it seems difficult for me to justify $350 for a device that is largely dependent on carrying an iPhone, which is almost always with me anyway and is significantly more capable and easier for these older eyes to read. I am not sure what I gain, except the convenience of not removing my phone from my pocket.

The thing is....my life isn't so perfect that this convenience is going to move the needle on my happiness. For me, it doesn't seem to be worth the cost and hassle of frequent recharging and of wearing something on my wrist. I understand that others might feel differently, such as serious athlete that want more continuous and precise measurement of their activity.
 
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