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Apple Watch Battery Life Currently 'About a Day', but May Improve for 2015 Launch

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rGiskard said:
Nope, no GPS in a Smart Watch, not until battery tech improves or an external battery pack is added to the watch.
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FTR, Timex is launching the Ironman One GPS+ watch this fall - and while it's not exactly a smartwatch it does have GPS and 3G messaging without needing to carry a phone (or an external battery pack).

timex-ironman-one-gps-plus.jpg


Go for a run. Listen to music. Track your location. Get messages. Don't bring your phone. That's the elevator pitch for the Timex Ironman One GPS+, a stand-alone smartwatch that doesn't need any phone to connect to: it gets its own cellular signal, and connects with AT&T's wireless network to get messages and even send them, too.

Sound too good to be true? Well, if you're a fitness nut who hates running with a phone, this might be your dream device. It's a product that, while novel, has its own quirks to consider: a high price ($400 in North America, pricing and availability for other regions has not yet been announced), and necessary cellular data service among them. But it could be an indicator that future smartwatches are going to try to stand on their own, too.

The Timex Ironman One GPS+ looks like it fell out of someone's early-2000s technology time capsule: an ugly plastic design and boxy display give it a weird, specialty-device look. But, that's really what the Ironman One is meant to be: a rugged, durable watch for on-the-go fitness and connectivity, not a sleek fashion watch.

In a lot of ways, this Timex watch seems like the Adidas miCoach Smart Run that debuted last year, minus the onboard heart-rate tracker, meshed with the Qualcomm Toq. Except, this watch can also get cellular data. If you're not completely immersed in the smartwatch world, just consider this a type of super-smart runner's watch.

This is also, as I said above, a smartwatch without a smartphone, and that's the chief advantage which sets it apart from other phone-tethered smartwatches out there already. That means you can get email and messages, and respond to them via a pop-up onscreen keyboard.

AT&T will include a year of free data service to the Ironman watch for US and Canadian customers, but beyond that it'll cost to stay connected. It's not clear how much. The watch has HSPA connectivity and uses a cloud-delivery service powered by Synchronoss.

More interesting is the watch's ability to send alert messages in case you're hurt or need help. That could be a killer app, if done properly. Find Me mode also sends out the wearer's exact location in the event of emergency.

The watch can track speed, distance and pace and pair with popular fitness apps Runkeeper, Strava and MapMyFitness. It also works with external heart-rate monitor bands you wear around your chest. You can order your Ironman watch bundled with a monitor for $450. It's also water-resistant up to 50 meters, which you'd expect from an outdoor sports watch.

An 4GB of onboard storage can be filled with music for offline playback via Bluetooth headphones.
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Here's the promotional video.
 
acedout said:
The Sport does NOT have Sapphire glass
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Moto 360 vs Apple watch

Glass cover!
Apple Watch: Sapphire glass - ION X Glass
Moto 360: Gorilla glass

Display!
Apple Watch: Retina, unknown resolution
Moto 360: 320×290.

Protection:
Apple watch: ceramic cover, sensors protected by Sapphire glass
Moto 360: stainless cover, sensors not protected

Features:
Apple Watch: NFC, unlock a doors, payments, Heart rate sensor, Accelerometer
Moto 360: Heart rate sensor, pedometer

Variations:
Apple Watch: two sizes, various materials like "aluminum", "stainless steel" and Gold,
the watch wristbands can be changed !
Moto 360: one size, two colors ! 

Battery life:
Moto 360: 12 hours
Apple Watch ???

Operating system!
Apple Watch: iOS
Moto 360: Android Wear
 
coolfactor said:
Bear in mind, this is Apple's first foray into wearables, and they've done an amazing job balancing industrial design with software features with usability. Future watches will get better. Are you expecting them to outdo every single competitor in every single way? That would be unrealistic. Your comparison is poor with that logic in mind.
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I love Apple and think they are on the right path. My gripe is that they are marketing fitness, yet have none of the feature necessary for fitness. Fake hype.
 
Shame I was hoping it could do sleep monitoring like some other wrist devices but seems like that's not gonna work if you have to charge it every night.

Hopefully the 2nd generation has much better battery life.
 
JoeBlow74 said:
I will not buy. This is a total useless product.
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I won't buy one either, but that doesn't make it a useless product. Someone would find it useful, just not the both of us.

JoeBlow74 said:
Besides, whi has not owned a watch that has not been scratched, banged up, or dropped while wearing on the wrist? I have had many watches over the years and all have been destroyed.
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You must be pretty tough on your watches.:eek:

I've never had a watch dropped while wearing one on the wrist. I guess certain women's bracelet watches could slip of the wrist, but mine sports a manly leather strap.:D

I still have a 20+ year old Seiko 7005 my dad gave me for my graduation. It's still in near perfect condition (slight dent on the clasp) even after wearing it for years. I still wear when I take the kids to visit the grandparents, but I brought a Seiko 5 as my daily beater. The wristband needs to be replaced soon, but the watch is still in great shape, no dents, no scratches.
 
Asclepio said:
How about the iPhone battery life that is continuously connected to this?
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This has been answered multiple times on this thread. It will have little impact b/c it uses BTle (I think that's how it's stylized), which uses very little battery power (comparable to Handoff/Continuity).
 
I don't see this replacing my nice Swiss watch I wear everyday but I would definitely buy an Apple Watch instead of a Polar, Garmin, Suunto watch to use while running, biking, at the gym, etc... Those watch with heart monitors cost easily way more than $349 and come with a very annoying chest band that the Apple Watch would eliminate the need. I guess TAG, Rolex, etc... couldn't care less for the Apple Watch but it is a huge blow for Garmin and other companies in the health/sports segment.
 
Alith said:
Why would it brick within an hour? We have no idea how long the usage time is on the HRM and accelerometer. GPS watches generally have poor battery life because of the GPS, which is in the phone.
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"Brick" - Metaphor for carrying a phone on a run. Wearables should reduce what you have to carry, not make you heavier, if you are using it for fitness.
 
bobob said:
FTR, Timex is launching the Ironman One GPS+ watch this fall - and while it's not exactly a smartwatch it does have GPS and 3G messaging without needing to carry a phone (or an external battery pack).

Image



Here's the promotional video.
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8 hour battery life while using GPS + Cellular connection, and if you are listening to music while tracking your run, battery life is only 4 hours. So, not really an option. The 72 hour standby time is nice, however, that likely means screen off, not logging / doing anything of value. I don't see how you are getting out of the need of a battery pack. ;)

It is a tempting device, however the lack of application support, or an open API won't make it a good for for those of us looking for a more portable extension of our smartphone.
 
2 things they could of done IMHO to have made is a little nicer.

1: The screen is too small given the size of the case.

You don't notice it at first, but there is actually a large black dead bezel area around the actual display. The screen should be almost out the the edge, not stuck in the middle of the black area.

This hurts the looks as all the watch face designs you see are set well in from the sides of the case.

2: A perhaps slightly curved screen would of looked a little more designed and modern, not just a flat lump

If it was a little curved to make it more ergonomically shaped and the display pretty much fitted the black screen area, it would of helped a fair bit I feel.
 
Not a buy with only a day to the battery...it would need to be 2-3 days at the minimum...and that's with very heavy usage to make it practical - IMO. Some folks might be fine with a day on the charge...but we hike and can be gone for a couple days at a time. Might have to wait for round two...
 
I will definitely be getting this on Day 1 since I wasn't able to start the iPhone on day 1 (first one was the iPhone 4 for me) and I won't mind upgrading.
 
ashawley said:
I do not get all the consternation about this. Do you people never sleep? Do you not have a plug next to your bed? Would you sleep with your watch on? I wouldn't. Seems to me, you go to bed plug in your watch (and your phone) and ta-da wake up the next morning with a full on charged watch and phone.

Rinse and repeat..

What am I missing here. Is everyone on Macrumors only sleeping every 24 hours or something?
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The real issue is that having "a day" of battery life is that when you use it intesively it won't last a day. On top of that, after a year the battery has died down a bit, making it last even shorter.

Take you smartphone. "A Day" battery life, sure. You can even get a couple of days if you don't do ***** with it. But if you use your GPS for an hour, do some calling and surf a little in between, you battery is dead pretttty fast.
 
techporter said:
Not a buy with only a day to the battery...it would need to be 2-3 days at the minimum...and that's with very heavy usage to make it practical - IMO. Some folks might be fine with a day on the charge...but we hike and can be gone for a couple days at a time. Might have to wait for round two...
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Ok, I've seen this multiple times, so let's make this very clear: v2 is not going to up battery life significantly. It's not going to do a 100% jump. Why? B/c battery technology is so far behind modern products that it is the anchor holding said products down. Apple/Samsung/etc. don't do battery research. Such research is being done by Tesla, etc. Until a major breakthrough in battery design comes through, there will be no major increase in battery life. Any increase in battery life will be due to software
 
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