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Apple watch 3 weak battery life. Is it worth it?

Vermifuge said:
AirPods... Granted i take calls on my S0 fairly often and you don't have it up to your face so long as you are in a fairly quiet environment. In other cases just use AirPods or whatever your favorite wireless solution is. If you're (the general you) someone who can't stand wireless.. it's time to get over it...
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How assuming of you. I do actually own a pair of AirPods, I use them everyday. I am a believer in wireless, however the watch is still a poor device for calling on. I actually don't even have my AirPods synced to my Watch because I don't have any music on it. It takes too long to load and I have too much music for it to fit on there. Sure I could sync maybe 1-2 playlists, but then the battery becomes drastically more drained using AirPods. Plus, the Watch doesn't have a dial pad, so if I call a business that prompts me to dial a number I have to switch the call off to my iPhone. Then I have to re-connect my AirPods to my phone which takes at least 20-30 secs, sometimes as much as a minute depending on how finicky they decide to be that day.

The Watch is a good device to answer a call on in a pinch and say 'Hey can I call you in a minute when I'm free?' I'm not going to go phone-less just to connect my AirPods to the Watch, make an hour long phone call, then have to drop the watch back on the charger for at least 30 mins to an hour to get a decent charge. In fact, ever since I got the AirPods, I haven't really had to answer calls on my Watch because I usually always have one of the buds in.
 
iamMacPerson said:
How assuming of you. I do actually own a pair of AirPods, I use them everyday. I am a believer in wireless, however the watch is still a poor device for calling on. I actually don't even have my AirPods synced to my Watch because I don't have any music on it. It takes too long to load and I have too much music for it to fit on there. Sure I could sync maybe 1-2 playlists, but then the battery becomes drastically more drained using AirPods.
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Solved by cellular Apple Watch. 40 millions songs on the wrist.

iamMacPerson said:
Plus, the Watch doesn't have a dial pad
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I believe it has now (in wOS4) but general dialling is easy enough. Just holding the crown and telling siri to dial for you. I rarely use dial pad even on iPhone.
 
matrix07 said:
Solved by cellular Apple Watch. 40 millions songs on the wrist.
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Don’t have Apple Music. And from the battery info that Apple released, I would be surprised if between a pair of AirPods and streaming over LTE that it would last even 2 hours. I’m buying the Series 3, it’s still a huge upgrade for me, but to me these aren’t features. Just fluf.

I believe it has now (in wOS4) but
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general dialling is easy enough. Just holding the crown and telling siri to dial for you. I rarely use dial pad even on iPhone.
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Not what I’m talking about. When you call Target, or Walmart, or a store like that, they have a system where you have a dial a number to be connected to a representative. I know some stores just let it ring through to the operator, but not all do. And in those instances, the Watch is, unfortunately, useless. Unless they added a dial pad on the ‘call in progress’ screen (where you have the mute and hang up buttons), this hasn’t been addressed. You can’t summon Siri during a call for obvious reasons.

EDIT: For some reason this last quote keeps getting split, no matter what I do. Excuse the formatting error.
 
iamMacPerson said:
Don’t have Apple Music. And from the battery info that Apple released, I would be surprised if between a pair of AirPods and streaming over LTE that it would last even 2 hours. I’m buying the Series 3, it’s still a huge upgrade for me, but to me these aren’t features. Just fluf.
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Looks like it's 4 hours at the very least according to the original post. If you're not exercising (not using GPS) it will be much more I imagine.
SoApple said:
“Apple says that when connected to iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 3 should get up to 3 hours of talk time. When connected to LTE, however, that talk time falls to “over 1 hour.” Furthermore... If both GPS and LTE are in use, that estimated life falls to 4 hours.”
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matrix07 said:
You got only 5 hours for Series 2 with GPS so you have one hours less with added LTE (supposedly listening to Apple Music), not a big deal.

4 hours is enough for a marathon.
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Do we know what it is if it's just listening to music? Was planning to use the Watch for just listening to music on the go.
 
Vermifuge said:
4 hours is LTE is on. 10 hours if LTE is off
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Ughh, to be honest I'll probs have my phone on me, it's just if it's an emergency. Do you happen to know whether bluetooth connectivity is good? How far does it stretch I mean, like if I had my phone in my car, no chance of a dropout of connection?
 
GoFlex said:
Ughh, to be honest I'll probs have my phone on me, it's just if it's an emergency. Do you happen to know whether bluetooth connectivity is good? How far does it stretch I mean, like if I had my phone in my car, no chance of a dropout of connection?
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I guess that depends on how much signal your car blocks and how far away you are. you could probably just toggle lte off
 
Vermifuge said:
I guess that depends on how much signal your car blocks and how far away you are. you could probably just toggle lte off
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Nah I mean, I haven't had an Apple Watch so wasn't sure if LTE is off, how far can my phone be away from my watch for me to still be connected??
 
GoFlex said:
Nah I mean, I haven't had an Apple Watch so wasn't sure if LTE is off, how far can my phone be away from my watch for me to still be connected??
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Like at best possible.... 30 feet but probably a lot less if it's inside your car.
 
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GoFlex said:
Nah I mean, I haven't had an Apple Watch so wasn't sure if LTE is off, how far can my phone be away from my watch for me to still be connected??
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About 30 feet is the maximum for bluetooth, 150 feet for wifi.

My phone is in a bag in my trunk, I'm connected while driving in the front seat.

In my house, my watch uses wifi to connect, and can see the phone anywhere it's in the house, even if I'm on the opposite side of the house 2 floors away.
 
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I still haven't made up my mind. I have a 38MM launch day Series 0. The battery life is crappy these days - I have to charge it 2x a day and still charge it all night, every night. Better battery is one reason I want to upgrade. The cellular connection would be nice b/c I'm on call 24/7 and in certain spots in my yard my wifi doesn't work. It would be nice to know I could still be reached by pager (via text) even if I go outside the cone of wifi. But if it's going to be crappy with battery I would be more inclined to choose the none LTE version. I'm not going to pre-order....instead I'm going to wait and read some reviews to see what real life experiences folks report with battery before making a decision.

Cheers,
B
 
willmtaylor said:
... so you talk on the phone the entire time that you go on an hour-long run? Because that’s the only scenario in which your post would be true.
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HR, GPS and music streaming for 1- 2 hours of outdoor exercises ( bicycling could easily take over 2 hours) and the battery will be very low. If i use it for a phone call as i finish the work out, it could die...
 
iamMacPerson said:
Not what I’m talking about. When you call Target, or Walmart, or a store like that, they have a system where you have a dial a number to be connected to a representative. I know some stores just let it ring through to the operator, but not all do. And in those instances, the Watch is, unfortunately, useless. Unless they added a dial pad on the ‘call in progress’ screen (where you have the mute and hang up buttons), this hasn’t been addressed. You can’t summon Siri during a call for obvious reasons.
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As he said before, watchOS4 adds a dial pad that can be accessed while you're on a call. You just swipe up from the bottom while you're on the call screen.
 
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edhchoe said:
HR, GPS and music streaming for 1- 2 hours of outdoor exercises ( bicycling could easily take over 2 hours) and the battery will be very low. If i use it for a phone call as i finish the work out, it could die...
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Yeah, the worry is that it won't totally defeat your battery in one activity, but if you're using it for a day you may have to charge it more than once which is an issue, I see what you mean.
 
matrix07 said:
9to5Mac says 4 hours with LTE and GPS.
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you can check it out for yourself here. https://www.apple.com/watch/battery.html

Audio Playback
Up to 10 hours

Workout
Up to 10 hours indoor workout
Up to 5 hours outdoor workout with GPS
Up to 4 hours outdoor workout with GPS and LTE

Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection

I belive LTE battery life supersedes audio playback.
 
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Vermifuge said:
you can check it out for yourself here. https://www.apple.com/watch/battery.html

Audio Playback
Up to 10 hours

Workout
Up to 10 hours indoor workout
Up to 5 hours outdoor workout with GPS
Up to 4 hours outdoor workout with GPS and LTE

Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection

I belive LTE battery life supersedes audio playback.
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Yep. The exact same as 9to5Mac reported. 4 hours with LTE & GPS.
Audio playback is just mean playing audio from your phone I guess.
 
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Vermifuge said:
you can check it out for yourself here. https://www.apple.com/watch/battery.html

Audio Playback
Up to 10 hours

Workout
Up to 10 hours indoor workout
Up to 5 hours outdoor workout with GPS
Up to 4 hours outdoor workout with GPS and LTE

Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection

I belive LTE battery life supersedes audio playback.
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You can't turn off 'GPS' then, is it just always occuring?? How would you turn off LTE I wonder??
 
matrix07 said:
GPS is automatic like in Series 2, no? With iPhone GPS off. Without it it's on.
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Ah I see. Presumably though you could sort out your music and download it to the watch before you go and then use LTE just for calls which I wouldn't see anyone exceeding over an hour with a day??
 
GoFlex said:
Ah I see. Presumably though you could sort out your music and download it to the watch before you go and then use LTE just for calls which I wouldn't see anyone exceeding over an hour with a day??
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I would say that defeat the purpose in Apple claim, 40 million songs on your wrist. I think we are afraid too much. When the review comes in it will be alright.
 
I don't see a reason to upgrade from my series 2. They discontinued that one in order to show the differences between series 1 and 3.. which are pretty big.. but series 2 to 3.. not really much at all unless of course you want the cellular option, I don't need it. So I'll wait for the rumored new form factor and more than likely bigger battery next year. The watch is just an extension of my phone so I don't need it to be super crazy fast, but battery could be much better than what they are offering right now in series 1/2/3.
 
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