Apple Watch Battery to Support Five Hours of Heavy Usage, Will Last All Day With Mixed Use

[randymac09]

It's not as much about the specific apps but about Apple's want for app devs to develop apps for the watch. They obviously want people to use the watch for more than just small bits of information or else they wouldn't have given devs the option to do more with it.

They would have stuck with simple notifications that users will have to pull out their phones to interact with. And what would be the point of that when there are already products on the market that do the same thing, but with better battery life?

It just seems like there's a lot of goalpost moving going on here.

People were ecstatic when Apple was coming out with a watch because of its potential and all it will be able to do. But now that news is coming out that battery life won't be so great, now it's all about being frugal with the device and only using it for simple tasks and notifications.

I don't get it.

Maybe my previous experience with a smart watch, Pebble Steel, has my expectations in the right place, but I didn't intend to use it for more than notifications. I do think Apple has greater goals for the watch, but they have also informed the devs that their apps should be used for glancing.

If someone tweets me and my Apple watch allows me to favorite or retweet it, that process wouldn't take me any more than 10 seconds. I have been informed and I was the informant in that scenario, and it only took me .055% of battery to do so. I can do 1799 more 10 second actions before it dies (if the rumors are true)

 

[spectrumfox]

Maybe my previous experience with a smart watch, Pebble Steel, has my expectations in the right place, but I didn't intend to use it for more than notifications. I do think Apple has greater goals for the watch, but they have also informed the devs that their apps should be used for glancing.

If someone tweets me and my Apple watch allows me to favorite or retweet it, that process wouldn't take me any more than 10 seconds. I have been informed and I was the informant in that scenario, and it only took me .055% of battery to do so. I can do 1799 more 10 second actions before it dies (if the rumors are true)

Why would Apple need devs to create their own apps for that kind of thing then, when they could simply use Apple's Push Notification system that is already in place in iOS?

 

[McScooby]

Of course, the knock on effect that no-one's clocked onto in the last 8 pages, is by using the watch to control your phone means the screen on the phone isn't firing up the whole time ergo more efficient & prolonged use of the battery of the iPhone, aside from maybe occasionally using gps a bit more.

 

[smiddlehurst]

I wonder if people realise how little we really use our devices in a 'heavy use' mode. For instance I just looked at my iPhone 6+ and in 24 hours since last charge have only racked up 3 hours of use. For a watch with a small screen what, exactly, are folks going to do that'll chew through 5 hours of screen time?

 

[Sharkey311]

Care to elaborate?

Just read this thread or any thread about the watch. People think it's entirely dependent on the iPhone, people claim that android phone batteries are better than the 6 Plus, people are expecting the watch to have week long batteries, comparing it to the Pebble or even, ludicrously, a Fitbit. I could go on.

 

[Binarymix]

I wonder if people realise how little we really use our devices in a 'heavy use' mode. For instance I just looked at my iPhone 6+ and in 24 hours since last charge have only racked up 3 hours of use. For a watch with a small screen what, exactly, are folks going to do that'll chew through 5 hours of screen time?

My thoughts exactly.

Even if you 'glance' at your watch 2000 times per day for say 3 seconds.

2000x3=6000/60=100/60= 1.6 hours of usage.

 

[NT1440]

I wonder if people realise how little we really use our devices in a 'heavy use' mode. For instance I just looked at my iPhone 6+ and in 24 hours since last charge have only racked up 3 hours of use. For a watch with a small screen what, exactly, are folks going to do that'll chew through 5 hours of screen time?

They'll be the type of user that will be meticulously monitoring the time with an atomic clock next to them to really test the claim of accuracy to 50 milliseconds.

You know, the technological equivalent of hypochondriacs....

 

[randymac09]

Why would Apple need devs to create their own apps for that kind of thing then, when they could simply use Apple's Push Notification system that is already in place in iOS?

For notifications, yes, for interactions, no. The types of interactions each app allows has to be set by the creator. Apple would have to personally create each app in order to allow interaction. That's not reasonable. You can't interact with any app on your phone via notification center without having an app. None that I know if. With the exception of things like Twitter, FB and Flikr that are preconfigured into the phone.

 

[Keirasplace]

You'd be right about the M8 equivalent, but its called the S1.

The S1 is some kind of packaging for all the internal circuitry, they're not equivalent. The M8 is a small embedded processor by NXP. In the S1, there's probably the main processor a few helper processos .

 

[dannyyankou]

Five hours of heavy use doesn't sound like a lot, but let's be honest: how often will you use your iPhone compared to your Apple Watch? Most likely a lot more. I have a feeling there'll be plenty of battery to spare at the end of the day.

 

[Rogifan]

Why would Apple advertise all of these apps that will be available for the device if they don't expect you to be the informant?

If you were simply going to be informed, Apple would have stuck to simple apps like Email, Calendar, Notifications, etc.

But no, Apple WANTS you to use the watch like you would your iPhone.

When did Apple say they want you to spend lots of time in apps on the watch? They specifically tell app developers interactions should be in seconds not minutes. These apps aren't copies of your iPhone app. They're glances, notifcations, quick bits of information. Not something you're supposed to be spending a lot of time interacting with.

 

[randymac09]

Just read this thread or any thread about the watch. People think it's entirely dependent on the iPhone, people claim that android phone batteries are better than the 6 Plus, people are expecting the watch to have week long batteries, comparing it to the Pebble or even, ludicrously, a Fitbit. I could go on.

That's actually perfect. I wasn't sure which way you were leaning with your previous comment. Maybe I didn't read it properly, but I just assumed you were saying it negatively. That's why I wanted more. My apologies. I agree with what you're saying.

 

[CarlJ]

So now people that want to use their watch for more than 5 hours a day have no life?

Wow, the excuses people come up with here for substandard battery life is amazing. Anything for Apple.

Apple has always focused on making products that people will enjoy using and find useful, rather than having the best spec numbers. Those focused on the numbers, rather than usability never seem to quite understand this point ("yeah, but, but, look at these numbers!"). I don't give a <expletive of your choice> how many milliamp-hours the battery in the watch has, I care about how it works on a typical day. We'll start hearing those reports from the field after the watch comes out, or when the journalists who get them early are able to publish. Until then, agonizing about such specs is even more pointless than it will be after we know the details.

I often wear a watch more than five hours a day. I never spend anything remotely close to five hours a day staring at it. I don't expect that I'd spend more than 20 minutes a day staring at an Apple watch - it's designed to impart useful current information *quickly* when you glance at it. It's not designed to run Excel - if you're trying to use it that way, you've missed the point. (And I don't really care if some other watch *can* run Excel.)

 

[NT1440]

For notifications, yes, for interactions, no. The types of interactions each app allows has to be set by the creator. Apple would have to personally create each app in order to allow interaction. That's not reasonable. You can't interact with any app on your phone via notification center without having an app. None that I know if. With the exception of things like Twitter, FB and Flikr that are preconfigured into the phone.

Methinks you have not looked at the SDK for the watch. As of now there are only very specific types of interactions you can do:

https://developer.apple.com/library...x.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014992-CH3-SW1

 

[randymac09]

Methinks you have not looked at the SDK for the watch. As of now there are only very specific types of interactions you can do:

https://developer.apple.com/library...x.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014992-CH3-SW1

Just glancing at the SDK, it appears you can have buttons that have actions correct? The interactions I am referencing are just simple actions. Like, favorite, retweet. Things like that.

The point I was trying to make is that Apple can't decide which actions each app that is in their app store is going to have. Which goes along with the previous commenter stating why would Apple have devs coming to work on their apps if they didn't want heavy interactions.

 

[NT1440]

The S1 is some kind of packaging for all the internal circuitry, they're not equivalent. The M8 is a small embedded processor by NXP. In the S1, there's probably the main processor a few helper processos .

If you watch the keynote again, I understood their explanation as basically being several sensor coprocessors all tied into one package (with circuitry to only use the ones needed).

 

[unplugme71]

Yeah, but only for 75 minutes at full strength. Piece. Of. Sh**.

bummer haha

 

[Sharkey311]

That's actually perfect. I wasn't sure which way you were leaning with your previous comment. Maybe I didn't read it properly, but I just assumed you were saying it negatively. That's why I wanted more. My apologies. I agree with what you're saying.

No worries! I try not to be negative, but good hell some of these users post the most asinine things about it.

 

[Keirasplace]

Methinks you have not looked at the SDK for the watch. As of now there are only very specific types of interactions you can do:

https://developer.apple.com/library...x.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014992-CH3-SW1

Even Apple said that by the end of the year, dev will have direct access to the watch. They probably didn't want to do that because no dev had the watch in their hands right now and they're trying to avoid battery hog apps on the phone at launch. Of course, the API on the watch itself will be restricted. Nobody's going to "run free" on that watch .

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Curious about the FitBit heart rate monitoring

you say it's off about 10%, but under stressful excercise is this the same? is it an average, just trying to get an idea of accuract.

I've been debating getting a smartwatch for monitoring my heart rate while I play hockey and the wrist based solution is really my only choice. But if it's wildly inaccurate, that really limits me.

I only compared it under "stressful" situations, i.e., when I was running since thats the only time I wear a chest strap. The Fitbit always had my HR 10% lower than the chest strap. So chest strap was reporting 158, Fitbit said low/mid 140s. +/- 10% is fine if you just want your HR doing casual activies but not useful if you are monitoring to stay in a specific HR zone.

We'll see if the Apple Watch is any better otherwise I'm going to go with the tech isn't really sports-grade yet.

 

[Gasu E.]

Will you be tapping on your wrist for more than 5 hours each day?

Tap tap tap... tap tap tap... hel-LOOOOO?

 

[iSee]

If only there were some sort of dock to make it easy to charge...

Image

I think this is actually huge... it is yet another device to charge. This plug-less, magnetically guided charger is going to make it almost painless.

 

[Jakewilk]

Guys, the iPad gets 10 hours of heavy usage and it's twenty times the size. Half that is pretty good for a wristwatch

 

[LordVic]

I only compared it under "stressful" situations, i.e., when I was running since thats the only time I wear a chest strap. The Fitbit always had my HR 10% lower than the chest strap. So chest strap was reporting 158, Fitbit said low/mid 140s. +/- 10% is fine if you just want your HR doing casual activies but not useful if you are monitoring to stay in a specific HR zone.

We'll see if the Apple Watch is any better otherwise I'm going to go with the tech isn't really sports-grade yet.

Thank you, I would rather it be too high though than too low

had a heart scare a couple years back, and Hockey is very VERY stressfull on the heart. I'm looking for a way really of monitoring the peaks. if the monitor is too low than its not really going to give me the readings i want.

Maybe not the place to ask (pm me if you want), but do you know of any that works better? you seem to have tested these things out with a real heart strap for comparison, I don't currently know anyone who has done any comparitive testing.

unfortunately a chest strap is a safety hazard for me and is not an option

 

[NT1440]

The S1 is some kind of packaging for all the internal circuitry, they're not equivalent. The M8 is a small embedded processor by NXP. In the S1, there's probably the main processor a few helper processos .

Actually, it looks like you're completely right: