Although it’s a workaround, have you tried Low Power Mode? At least when you’re not actively using it for athletics? I don’t use LPM often (my S10 seems remain around 70% by end of day with light use), but I went on a trip and think I got a couple days with it.
What I don’t like about LPM is that it halts the 24/7 tracking, like HR which I track throughout the day to monitor a health condition. But if specific athletic moments are your main use, you might as well conserve battery until you need it. View it as a tool that needs sharpened and maintained to perform correctly.
Plus make sure it’s fully charged before any event. Putting the Watch on a charger or battery pack mid-day is definitely clunky, but you can probably find 30 minutes before an event, during travel or something, etc. There are some battery packs with a built-in Watch charger.
I simply feel there are solutions to your challenge.
My previous S7 was so bad on battery it barely got through my low-activity day. But I wasn’t about to defect to Garmin over it. The solution was either to re-charge it or, ultimately, get a new battery/Watch, and then let the 80% charge limit feature try to keep the battery healthy for longer.
Edit: I just saw your comment about having an S8 with 83% battery health … practically the same percentage as my S7 was. Yeah, you need a new battery or Watch. No wonder you’re complaining. That amount of degradation cannot get through the day let alone sport events.
Sorry if I have to be the blunt one, but your complaint is not dissimilar to taking a dull axe to a tree log chopping contest and wondering why you can’t even get through half the log while your Garmin friends cut through it easily.
Apple vs Garmin is literally not the problem. Your geriatric battery is the problem. Replace it. If you’re going to use the Watch as a professional tool, then respect it like a professional tool and maintain it, not complain about it for wearing out like it’s obviously going to have done since 2022.
Does all your other worn-out sportswear receive the same level of critique and complaint, or just your watch?
Edit 2: Also, just contemplating out loud when it comes to competition, Apple is known more for competing with themselves than anyone else. And this is the way I want it to be.
The rushed and failed Apple Intelligence hype and vaporware is what happens when Apple competes with others. Cook & Co were foolish to 1) miss this bandwagon and 2) rush to jump onto it without a functional product. Apple would’ve been wiser to simply ignore AI while everyone passed them by, and only then release their take on it when ready.
Compared to when they let Jony run wild with form over function, which people complained about with their loss of ports, which then led to the highly acclaimed Apple Silicon MacBook Pro redesign. Apple competed with themselves and lost; so they learned, tried again, and won.
They’ve never cared much about what others are doing, or not doing. That’s why they were the first major player to ditch the CD drive (or something like that), and the first to ditch many separate ports for USB C.
It’s not that they’re pretending Garmin doesn’t exist. It’s that they really don’t care. People who care about Garmin will just go to Garmin.
People who want to stay in the Apple ecosystem will hopefully just get a battery replacement instead of making it a bigger deal than it is…
