Apple watch decisions and real world battery life

[nonns]

Please note that nothing I've said here is intended to rubbish any apple products or question the loyalty or love for them that long term Apple users have. If you've taken offence then you're reading this message with the wrong hat on. I like the Apple watch and am having real decision issues especially around battery life.

I've just come back to iOS and an old apple watch series 4 (with 100% battery condition) after two years with Android and a Garmin Fenix 6 pro. My choice is to sell up the Fenix 6 pro and the old apple watch and go for a series 7 apple watch or bite the bullet and buy a Garmin Epix 2. Main reasons for the change is I've got a new job and wanted to treat myself for the first time in several years of misery and I love the amoled screens of the AW and Garmin Epix 2 vs the fenix trans reflective screens.

I'm inclined to hold on for a few weeks whilst I play with the AW4 and optimise the hell out of the watch (background apps refresh etc) and see what the battery life is like but looking at threads on the battery life of the series 7 the advice seems to be.

1) Switch off AOD (I can't help why one would buy a watch with an AOD and then turn off that display just to ensure you can get through the day).
2) Basically have it switch off all tracking on anything you might not be using.
3) turndown the brightness to mins (not really a hardship as brightness seems to be very high even at lowest levels).
4) Charge it when you go shower cos that'll get you just enough juice to keep it going through a day and allow it to track your sleep.

I love the haptics on the AW4 and the wake up alarms which give you a nice gentle wake up rather than a near heart attack (first day with it this AM, I wasn't even sure when I started waking up but found myself awake at the alarm time set - bliss). That said the watch didn't do a full day yesterday as I only got it paired late afternoon and after last night it was down to 63%. I did no exercise yesterday and a pitiful amount of steps. I shudder to think what it would do with a full day (can it even get through a full day???).

Apple is also reputed to be bringing out a watch 8 in September. Should I just wait?

 

[Purga]

the watch will bring you over the day with everything enabled including AOD and 1-2h daily workout - no problem.
With that setting you can expect one and a half days before the battery runs out. It is nearly impossible to deplete it in a day… would need a lot of workout such as a marathon

 

[BillGates1969]

Agreed. The only things I have turned off on my AW S7 are noise and hand washing. Any app that I want to alert me has background refresh on and any I don't doesn't

AOD on, wake on raise on. I think auto brightness is on (but tbh never checked it)

I do on average a 30 min Apple Fitness workout and a 2-3 mile dog walk every day.

I charge in the morning at about 8am to 100% and 24 hours later when I charge it, it is on about 20%

My S5 would struggle for a whole day, but strangely since my wife has had it she gets a full day with the same activity. The battery health on that is 84% though - my launch day S7 is on 98%.

Overall I am happy with the battery life. Hope this helps.

 

[bransoj]

No issues with getting through a day with my AW6. I've got AOD on, anything that alerts on my phone alerts on my watch. Few days i track various exercise and i'm normally around 40 to 45% at the end of the day. I dont bother with sleep tracking these days but i did for a while and i just charged my watch in a morning for a bit whilst i was getting showered etc and they charge quite quickly so generally it would top back up again.

 

[stanza.richi]

Pairing and installing app is more energy consuming than normal activity, I think. My AW4 never went down 35-40% when I used it every day, including tracking monitoring. I charged it during shower and during breakfast and that allowed me a 24h activities monitoring, sleep tracking included, without problems.
Now I switched to automatic traditional watch, but this is another story.

 

[nonns]

Thank you folks for the answers thus far. If you're charging it once a day for a short while or maybe at a push every 1.5 days. Then that's approx 1.5 to 2 years battery life, if you assume 80% battery condition and 500 charges (apples own measures) is where the battery needs replacing. I guess that means that Apple care is a serious consideration then and should be factored into the price.

 

[mk313]

Agree with a lot of what has already been said. If it were me, I'd hold off on doing anything for a few weeks to see how everything pans out with the 4. As someone mentioned, it does seem that battery life in the first few days is usually worse than normal. I think it has to do with indexing, etc, plus the natural inclination to play with the watch when it's new. After a few days, that will calm down & you'll get your true end of day battery life.

If it's still not working for you, then I'd definitely move over to the Garmin. No sense buying something only to struggle with it not meeting your needs for the next several years.

Personally though I fall into the charge it while I'm in the shower group. I do that (plus I take it off at night) and I almost never have issued with battery life (Series 5), even while using cellular to stream podcasts while on bike rides. I know that you mentioned sleeping with it, so that's another consideration, but i you do that, make sure you turn on theater mode at night so that the screen honest turn on while you are sleeping (I can't remember if sleep mode automatically does that or not).

If you do want to sleep on it, but also make it through a full day, but your results aren't what you think they should be after a week or so, then another option is keeping the 4, using that for sleeping, then using the 7 for while you are awake. That should easily get you through the day with no issues (barring some exceptional use case).

I'm obviously in the Apple watch camp, so I'd go that route, but if it were me, since we're almost halfway into the upgrade cycle, I'd try to make do with the 4 until the announce the 8 (unless there is something really compelling about the 5,6,7 that you would like to have, like the Always on display, larger, screen etc). If you plan to upgrade frequently (every year or 2, then it's probably not a big deal, but if you want the watch to last for a while, I hint there's som value in waiting a few months for the 8. That being said, i'm sure the 7 is a great watch & you'll be happy if you end up with it.

 

[Howard2k]

I use the SE and the battery life is pretty good - all things considered.

I usually charge at 30% or so, and charge up to 80% or so. Keeping it within that window means I'm typically just charging once per day. I usually wait until I have an extended period of sitting at my desk or something where I'm not particularly mobile and charge it then.

The S6 introduced faster charging than the S5 (S4, SE, etc), and then the S7 introduced faster charging than the S6. So those watches would be even easier to manage.

While battery life is the bane of my watch-life, I still find it very manageable. If I have a night away and I know I'm going to be back around lunchtime the following day I don't bother taking a charger, but if I know that I'm gone for longer than that then I would take a charger.

I'm thinking that if the S8 rugged/outdoor/G-Shock/whatever edition has multi-day battery life then I may consider replacing the SE with that one. Otherwise I'm really finding that now that I have a routine the battery life is not the issue I thought it was going to be. It's still crap, but it's manageable.

 

[Howard2k]

Thank you folks for the answers thus far. If you're charging it once a day for a short while or maybe at a push every 1.5 days. Then that's approx 1.5 to 2 years battery life, if you assume 80% battery condition and 500 charges (apples own measures) is where the battery needs replacing. I guess that means that Apple care is a serious consideration then and should be factored into the price.

I went with Apple Care. On an iPad or iPhone I would not, and on a laptop it's 50/50 IMO, but on a watch I think AC is worthwhile. Not just for the battery, but because it's really very easy to smack the wrist against something.

I have the aluminium model with the ION-X display. No scratches in my first 12 months using a film screen protector. No scratches in the following 2 months without a screen protecter. Had I purchased a watch with a sapphire type glass would I get AppleCare? I'm really not sure. But to protect the ION-X screen AND the battery I think it's worthwhile.

 

[xraydoc]

I use the hell out of my Apple Watches and I’ve never had one not make it though a day. When new, they’ll easily go 24-36 hours. Even when aged, they’ll still get though 18 hrs. And if your battery’s capacity is less than 80% of standard, you can have Apple replace the battery.

 

[Killbynumbers]

I keep AOD off because I don't need it on. I get 1.5 days between charges on average.

I always buy two watches so when one needs charging, I just switch watches.