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

[anomie]

Why the FSCK do you need it for more than 1 day? You take off your watch every single night before sleep. What kind of idiot sleeps with their watch?

Maybe those idiots who like to go on a hiking trip with no electricity available at anytime.
Does not happen in your nerd life of course
But Apple was talking so much about health and fitness and delivered nothing but short battery life crap.
Bit of course you'll love it any play since Apple told you to do so.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Buying this version of the Apple Watch will be a bit like buying the first generation iPad: There's some cool technology there, and a lot of potential - but you know that in a year or so there'll be a second generation that's thinner, has better battery life, and has built-in cellular data and GPS.

poor example -- i bought an ipad1 on day 1, and received a year's worth of value out of it before putting it into the secondary market. wouldnt do it any other way.

 

[Zxxv]

I think most of the people here are too young to remember or are forgetting when watches first came out they had to be wound by hand, by the crown, multiple times throughout the day. Just a little here and there, sounds familiar

 

[whiteboytrash]

Couldn't tell you...but I think I you're on the right track with lithium-ion.

I'd speculate just from how well the gamut of manufacturers have done so far we've hit a wall as far as battery performance goes for watch sector just due to size:capacity of Li-ion. The only reason why the pebble does that well is because the display uses next to no power and the battery takes about 2/3 of the internal space. During the Kickstarter project it got BT LE because backers pushed for it - not because it was part of the original design. I wonder how much juice they saved just by going that route.

The Garmin Forerunner has GPS. Its thick. Gets 10 hours in GPS mode. But I believe its GPS light or not GPS II or III which tracks better. When you upload to the Garmin Connect website it "normalizes" a lot of the data because its known to drop so often.

Its a big watch. I know people who use it. But its a secondary watch, just for running and not to wear all the time.

In watch mode they get a 6 week battery life but its doing no where the heavy lifting the Apple Watch is doing.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Having a watch that works for more than a day at a time. Unreasonable, isn't it?

people said the same when smartphones (iphone) hit the scene, yet they displaced longer-lasting feature-phones anyway. why? because they did more.

 

[ClayMac]

I think that the strap is wasted space here. The strap could be used as a way to expand/integrate a flexible architecture that could scale adapt to user demand. The strap could also hold a small battery bank as well thereby opening up space in the watch itself and allowing for battery switching during the day. Obviously the watch would larger and more substantial, cumbersome even, in the beginning, but at least it would be independent and adaptive. Ideas people. Bring ideas.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I think most of the people here are too young to remember or are forgetting when watches first came out they had to be wound by hand, by the crown, multiple times throughout the day. Just a little here and there, sounds familiar

Quite right, I am old enough, but my memory does not go back to the 19th century.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Sometimes the most simple thing is the most brilliant, which Apple gets, but apparently not everyone else. So, in answer to your question (which isn't one, I know), let's say the interface, how you interact with it, the apps it ships with and the potential of apps to come, the simplicity of communicating with others (sometimes a fish is more than a fish).

Taking time to draw a fish on a tiny watch face is not the simplest way to communicate fish

 

[whiteboytrash]

Maybe those idiots who like to go on a hiking trip with no electricity available at anytime.
Does not happen in your nerd life of course
But Apple was talking so much about health and fitness and delivered nothing but short battery life crap.
Bit of course you'll love it any play since Apple told you to do so.

True but that's one very specific albeit extreme use case you state is not how a popular mass market device would be built/marketed. You know that.

I've seen many hikers carry residual power for their hiking trips along with using dedicated Garmin GPS/navigation systems for their hiking purposes. A dedicated hiker doesn’t buy an Apple Watch for Navigation, they buy a professional grade navigation system like Garmin produce. Just like a professional grade photographer would buy a fully featured DSLR camera and not an iphone to take photographs.

If your objective is to pick out extreme use cases for analysis then at least apply some intelligence and logic to that train of thought before posting.

 

[Dorje Sylas]

people said the same when smartphones (iphone) hit the scene, yet they displaced longer-lasting feature-phones anyway. why? because they did more.

Only after they started getting more than a day of battery life, and more functionality.

This "thing" is where the iPhone started life, which is not good. It should tell everyone that it IS NOT market ready. It's for cash flush early adopter tech heads only. This needs at least 5 years to mature into a viable device.

 

[kreasonos]

How many would still rather have a Rolex? Just curious.

 

[Duane Martin]

Edit : Please note, the apps that people will design for it are not Apple tech. Make sure to strike that off the list. Regardless, enjoy your revolutionary watch and phone!

I disagree: The fact that Apple can consistently create devices that people want to write apps for deserves credit. Oh, and they are not my watch and my phone. They are Apple's.

 

[OreoMuncher]

Battery life is not the biggest problem with the Apple Watch.

The biggest issue I see is that, for most functions, it must be tethered to your iPhone to work. Whats the point of being able to use Maps, Messages, etc when you could just pull your phone out of your pocket and get a better experience on a bigger screen? It has no GPS chip so you can't even use it to track your hiking/running route like most GPS watches.

Clearly, it's been designed with untethered use in mind. But current GPS chips and cellular radios couldn't fit in to the Watch without unacceptable battery drain.

Buying this version of the Apple Watch will be a bit like buying the first generation iPad: There's some cool technology there, and a lot of potential - but you know that in a year or so there'll be a second generation that's thinner, has better battery life, and has built-in cellular data and GPS.

Because that would require a sim card tray, 3g/4g radio's, a bigger battery, and a shorter battery life, People are already complaining about the battery life expectancy, with all those radio's it'd be dead in 2 minutes.

 

[kreasonos]

I disagree: The fact that Apple can consistently create devices that people want to write apps for deserves credit. Oh, and they are not my watch and my phone. They are Apple's.

People don't want to write apps for Apple's new device. People want to make money. Writing apps for Apple's new device is irrelevant.

 

[Fabio_gsilva]

I trully liked the watches, and I can see a huge market for it.

In my opinion, Apple nailed it and it is aiming for a lower age public that is crazy about iphone and ipods. I can see a bunch of teenagers wearing it and exchanging drawings, notes, pokes, and whatever on each one’s phones.
For us, older guys, we can still get our hands on them, play with them a little, start discovering the benefits and uses of such a thing after deciding if it is worth in the long run.

My main concern is battery life, as about a day can easily means charging during the 2pm to endure the rest of the day, and this would be a hassle as we would need another set of the special charger, as they don’t use the iPhone’s connection.

 

[cube]

My Rolex stops running after one day if I'm not wearing it and all it can do is tell the time. Whah Whah I think many of the guys on this forum would be pouting if it ran for only 7 days. The iPod nano watch only last a day and it doesn't do crap.

You need to buy a newer and/or more expensive Rolex.

 

[flur]

The problem is, as others have stated above, this makes it useless as a sleep monitor, which is something that a few of us are interested in. A device that can sense your sleep cycles and wake you up at the best time. Other than that, i don't see an issue with charging at night

Does anyone actually know if the watch provides this feature? It wasn't in the presentation.

 

[Olivier Giround]

Because that would require a sim card tray, 3g/4g radio's, a bigger battery, and a shorter battery life, People are already complaining about the battery life expectancy, with all those radio's it'd be dead in 2 minutes.

Then maybe such a device isn't ready for the market?

 

[newdeal]

Someone who is spending $900 dollars on a tech gadget is not worrying too muchc about the upgrade costs. You're probably not the target for those watches . But, even tough, they'd be obselete after 2 years, they'd still look good and be usefull for probably 4-5 years. Not bad as gadget go.

actually I would love to buy the gold one, and I have the money to buy the gold one easily. But just like I bought the iPad 1 and then the iPad 2 blew it out of the water and I had to buy that also, I don't want to be buying a gold watch this year and then have to buy another gold watch next year because its half the weight and 30% thinner (which in my opinion the thickness is my only complaint at this point)

 

[Olivier Giround]

I can see a bunch of teenagers wearing it and exchanging drawings, notes, pokes, and whatever on each one’s phones.

A bunch of teenagers with $350+ to spend on a phone accessory?

To exchange pokes, notes and drawings?

 

[Populism]

Battery life will be a big issue for me, because I will be using this watch to...

Hmmm. On second thought, I can't think of anything I'll be using this for. So, I guess I'm ok with a 24-hour battery life.

 

[Fabio_gsilva]

Here's the problem I have in the near-term with the watch. I'm sure Apple is aware also, but there's likely not much they can do about it at this point:

You include a gold option watch to meet the fashion requirements, and I'm going to guess it will cost north of $700, close to $1000. Apple also hired Bunch of really smart individuals this year, whose contributions need to be rolled into version two as soon as possible. They release the device in February, let's say.

When does version 2 come out? Do we keep the fall schedule and take advantage of the holiday shopping season? You obviously can't release a new device every year in the couple months after Christmas and not profit on the shopping season. I'm also assuming they don't let close to two years pass before the second iteration comes out, considering the momentum they want to build in the space. So, Apple are left with releasing a better, thinner, lighter, more advanced version 6 to 8 months down the road.

Who wants to spend $1000 on a gold device that becomes obsolete in nine months at most??

IMHO, you are not seeing in its best light. The Apple Watch is, by what we saw, a watch with really cool other features - and those features will keep running as long as the watch does. But it is mostly a watch.
In this sense, it is just a regular watch you purchase today: it is only a watch, with the functions that was designed by in its creation process. Usually, next year collection of watches changes the form, add or adjust some functionalities, colors, whatever, and your watch is still your watch and you will still be able to do the same with it that it was designed to do.

Apple Watch 2 will or 3 or 4 will not render your watch obsolete, it will probably have newer and/or advanced capabilities that yours do not, but the core use that is serve as a watch, and a smart one with a calendar, payments, notification, everything, will keep rolling indefinitely.

Like the iPhone 1, it is still usable as a phone, to send and receive text messages, to navigate the internet, to send and receive emails… not as fast, with not as much advancements as a iPhone 6, but It is still and iPhone nevertheless.

Moreover, any traditional watch, by definition, are already obsolete as this newer ones also serve to register time and many other things...

 

[whiteboytrash]

A bunch of teenagers with $350+ to spend on a phone accessory?

To exchange pokes, notes and drawings?

Facebook's market value was $100 billion based on exchanging pokes, notes and pictures and Facebook didn't tell you the time.

What's the price on human interaction?

 

[Fabio_gsilva]

A bunch of teenagers with $350+ to spend on a phone accessory?

To exchange pokes, notes and drawings?

What is the reason to have Santa Claus for, otherwise?

I see millions of teenagers with 700+ dollars phones... So why not?

 

[Olivier Giround]

Facebook's market value was $100 billion based on exchanging pokes, notes and pictures and Facebook didn't tell you the time.

What's the price on human interaction?

How much does facebook cost to use?