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

[vrDrew]

Unlike most other watches, it really doesn't matter if the Apple Watch runs out of battery power. Its not as if the owner has to go to the trouble of manually resetting the time and date (a hassle on pretty much every mechanical, quarts, or digital watch.)

So in that respect I don't think battery life is going to be as critical as some might think.

Of more importance is going to be the relationship between charge time and battery life. If I forget to fully charge the Apple Watch overnight - how long does it take the next morning for it to get to a battery state that will let you wear it all day?

 

[samcraig]

Can someone link me to the numerous comments when Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc announced their watches and everyone said it was a complete fail if battery life wasn't more than a day?

 

[Piggie]

Moto 360 vs Apple watch

Glass cover!
Apple Watch: Sapphire glass
Moto 360: Gorilla glass

Display!
Apple Watch: Retina
Moto 360: 320x290, no retina

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

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: One da
Apple Watch ???

Operating system!
Apple Watch: iOS
Moto 360: Android Wear

Image
Image

You appear to have posted a actual, raw, unedited image of the Motorola device, and a computer rendered 3D model of the Apple device.

 

[nikhsub1]

So what? Who sleeps with their watch on?

You take it off every night before going to bed.

I do. And no, I do not take it off every night before bed. It never needs a battery, it never needs to be charged and it never needs to be wound. It has 50 hours of reserve power when it isn't being worn. It will never go out of style, will last a lifetime and is built like a tank. It can be submerged in water to 1000 feet. It is also accurate to within 1 second per day. Pretty amazing for a mechanical watch. And, the best part - the older it gets, the more valuable it becomes.

 

[snorkelman]

I think there's going to be a whole lot of tiresome juggling going on to eek out the batteries of both devices. Not dissimilar to the choices they make with one device at the moment, but now spread over the two.

Folks will get fed up enabling X Y or Z on the watch thanks to the negative impact those place on the phones battery

and likewise will minimize using the watch instead of the phone for A B or C because of the impact that has on the watches battery

 

[Locoboof]

Maybe just an adapter lightning -> magnet charger? Because usually you'll be able to find a lightning cable.

I hope that's the case,but we'll see. I could totally see apple asking 29.99 for each new magnet charger.

 

[Vaga8ond]

It's a cool tech device, looks nice. Bravo to the engineering and design teams and everyone involved that brought this to life.

But it's still not my cup of tea, I may purchase one in the far future but I probably won't be wearing one in the coming years.

Those are my thoughts exactly. I didn't buy an iPhone until the 3GS as I thought it was too soon and needed to wait for the tech to mature.

 

[milo]

Yes. The Apple has the shortest battery life of any 'wearable.' By far.

The sony, LG, and moto smart watches all list about a day of battery life. Pebble is longer but functionality is much less. What "wearables" have similar features but battery life better "by far"?

 

[JoEw]

Yes. The Apple has the shortest battery life of any 'wearable.' By far.

If you want a fitness watch, the Polar FT80 has a battery life of about a year. It is also $30 cheaper.

That is not really a fair comparison since it really only does health and fitness, they mean watches like the Galaxy Gear or the Moto or Sony's wearable.

 

[sounak100]

Simple Notifications

Apple Watch and Android Wear are a step in the right direction but not yet ready for prime time with their less than perfect battery life and dependency on the phones.

For my need a very simple band like Nike Fuel Band is enough if it had added functionality of seleted notifications (e.g. only notify me if I am getting a message or call from my girlfriend or family or close friends).

Since I anyway have to carry a phone along with the watch, a simple notifier like the above would let me know if I need to pull out the phone or not. Plus it can be a great fitness tracker with much better battery life. The price would be low as well.

I can see myself playing Tennis with my phone in the sidelines and the watch or armband notifying me if I need to attend to a meesage or a call.
This would be great for driving as well.

 

[rGiskard]

I don't know why people are so set on it lasting more than a day. I go to bed, I charge my iPhone, if I was going to buy an iWatch I'd do the same thing. Not so difficult. Now, the worries about just what 'a day' actually means in RL, I understand.

Because in 6 months it won't last quite a day, and in one year it will need charging twice a day.

By the looks of the case, only Apple will be able to swap in a new battery, probably for around $100 or so.

 

[TechRemarker]

Irrelevant?

The battery life of the watch is kind of irrelevant no? Since it only really works with the iPhone so once your iPhone battery dies which will be long before the watch does, your watch will be relatively useless and also your wallet because useless since you won't be able to pay for anything unless your carry your cards with you. Meaning it will never really be a replacement for carrying your wallet as the website suggests.

So it doesn't really matter if it's a full work day or 24 hours unless you have a backup battery for your iPhone which the average user does not. Each year the only feature I want more than anything is a battery increase. Yes the batterys are getting better but they add bigger screens so the net increase is close to nothing.

Also Apple has talked about all the sleep app integrations but if you have to take it off to charge it every night, how will it ever monitor your sleeping habits?

Also you need touch id to pay with your phone but since there is no touch id on the watch how do you pay with your watch? Do you have to take out your phone and press your thumb? Wouldnt that defeat the purpose of using your watch. Or if you don't have to use touch id with your watch, isn't defeating the purpose of the extra touted security of touch id?

 

[Rogifan]

Can someone link me to the numerous comments when Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc announced their watches and everyone said it was a complete fail if battery life wasn't more than a day?

And Apple Watch will join them if Apple can't improve battery life before it goes on sale.

 

[gbc204]

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.

Do we know for certain that all models need the iPhone to work? In the presentation, Cook said the Watch needed the phone, and would start at $349. Did he mean the Watch, as opposed to the Watch Sport and Watch Edition. Their confusing naming system has left it pretty vague. It would be nice if the Sport and Edition didn't need the phone, even if there's a hefty premium involved. If they could build them like ipads with Wi-Fi only and cellular-enabled versions, that's be a huge difference maker.

 

[pdaholic]

I'll charge it while I'm in the shower since it's not water resistant, either.

And yes, I have to take long showers, cause I'm dirty.

 

[MNJohn]

Newton 2.0

In spite of its numerous functional limitations, fugly design, and appearance of positioning itself as a solution in search of a problem, I'm sure Apple will sell quite a few of the first generation Apple Watchs to those segments of the population that are too geeky to notice or will buy anything new Apple offers for first bragging rights.

CNBC: "Stagnant iPhone growth and a "lack of compelling features" on the Apple Watch, has pushed investment bank Pacific Crest Securities to downgrade its view on Apple (AAPL) shares"

For the general population, my prediction is that the first generation of the Apple Watch will have all the mass distribution success of the Newton.

 

[6836838]

its the end of Apple!

Just the beginning of your bad grammar.

 

[organerito]

Insert unreasonable expectations here: _________________

Insert all your excuses here:_____________________________________

 

[samcraig]

And Apple Watch will join them if Apple can't improve battery life before it goes on sale.

Also interesting to wonder about is how both devices working together affect battery life since the watch needs the iPhone so heavily. Will having both in tandem crush battery life on the iPhone?

 

[PocketSand11]

appleWatch--
This on top of the high price, non-Swiss-beating design, and total lack of functionality without an iPhone. Sorry, if the smart watch market is going to exist and be useful, Apple has to do better.

 

[Milese3]

Fine by me.

 

[cube]

"About a day". Optimistic translation: 10 hours

 

[mattster16]

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

Not useless. If you want to use as a sleep monitor find another time during the day to charge it. Maybe while you're at your desk or while you're driving or maybe in the evening before bed.

Even if it has a 3 day battery life you still have to charge it SOMETIME. Would you just use it for 2 nights as a sleep monitor and skip every 3rd night?

I don't get everyone's gripes. Sure a longer usage time would be great, but the technology just isn't there yet. A day is about the best they can do and about the minimum most people would accept.

I charge all my devices daily already. I don't like having a low battery and I like to minimize charge cycles so my devices last longer.

 

[Neodym]

And Apple Watch will join them if Apple can't improve battery life before it goes on sale.

Apple may currently be working on integrating a "solid state battery" into the watch, which would promise significant improvements over today's mass-produced batteries. See my former posting.

 

[euvnairb]

The 1 day battery life doesn't bother me as I'm already charging a slew of other devices on a daily basis. It's the lack of GPS that is a deal breaker for me. A major component of this watch is health and activity. If I'm trying to be active, I sure as hell don't want to lug my (now) giant iPhone with me when doing activities such as running, biking, etc... I would love to use this watch as a replacement for my 6th gen nano when I go running but it looks like I will have to wait for a new iteration. In this case, less is more (no iphone).