Apple Watch Impacts iPhone Battery Life... One Way or the Other

[saintforlife]

Really, most people being happy with their device, which is what seems to be the case, is the reason you don't by gen 1? Well, nice to see they're selling the reality distortion field in your neck of the wood.

Yeah, please continue to make excuses for Apple. They thrive on fan boys blindly defending their every misstep. How could you possibly take Apple's side when it is quite obvious that this first gen Apple Watch is half-baked both hardware wise and especially software wise?

 

[Albert00000]

Really my iphone still lasts the same both are pretty good haven't noticed any change in battery life with my iPhone
And my watch the battery life is surprisingly good!!!!
I have the 38mm

 

[Honemch]

I have found the MapMyRun+ app to be the culprit... I installed it so that I could have the watch app.... When I check battery usage on the phone... it accounts for 30% !

 

[Tragic Gnome]

Well the watch uses the latest Bluetooth technology, so I doubt there would be a an improvement due to that.

Yes it is the companion app which is causing the drain, combined with, I suspect- people using their shiny new watches all the time! The watch relies on the phone for all its online functions, so the radios are being used regularly, especially if you are like me and can't leave the damn thing alone!

On the serious side, unlike the Pebble, the Apple Watch functions just fine without the companion app running, so just close the app when you are not using it. I was slightly alarmed at how quickly my phone battery was running down until I experimented with closing the app. Just shut it down when you are not using it. It's not difficult.

Just out of interest, what does the Companion App actually do for the Watch? Is this what pushes the notifications and such? (Genuine question, I’ve not received mine yet to try out.)

 

[brinary001]

Seeing as how I sat this first generation out...

 

[Iconoclysm]

For reference, Microsoft Health had 36% of my battery usage yesterday because my iPhone is paired with Microsoft Band that I wasn't even wearing. The Apple Watch app? 12% and I was using it extensively.

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Really, most people being happy with their device, which is what seems to be the case, is the reason you don't by gen 1? Well, nice to see they're selling the reality distortion field in your neck of the wood.
Yeah, please continue to make excuses for Apple. They thrive on fanboys blinding defending their every misstep. How could you possibly take Apple's side when it is quite obvious that this first gen Apple Watch is half baked both hardware wise and especially software wise?

Easy to say without any comparison to the competition. The biggest excuse for Apple is probably the 20 other smartwatches that perform even worse in every single way. I bet you excuse those, though, huh?

 

[KPOM]

I'm definitely noticing faster battery drain on my iPhone 6. I do use the Watch to read mail, check weather, etc., and get notifications from Bloomberg. I'm guessing this is a software issue of some sort that will be sorted out with a new Watch OS and/or iOS release.

 

[CChrisG]

No problems here

 

[Eduardo Forneck]

Now we now why did apple put this horrible (like ever) battery in the iphone 6: if you want it to last 'till the end of the day you need to buy the watch.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Now we now why did apple put this horrible (like ever) battery in the iphone 6: if you want it to last 'till the end of the day you need to buy the watch.

Brilliant marketing and design on Apple's part, wouldn't you say? Unfortunately, it seems they screwed up because half the people have the opposite experience.

 

[HenryDJP]

This is why you never buy a first gen Apple product. Let someone else be Apple's beta testing guinea pig. #S-Upgrade-Cycle-4-Life

Well if one "never" buys first-gen Apple product then there would be no beta testers right?

 

[charlituna]

The battery drain is likely a result of people who got their watch on Friday spending so much time playing with their new toy.

Once people start to calm down and start using them in a more normal way, I expect the reported battery problems to go away.

I suspect this is a part of the issue. Also it's possible that some folks have software issues on the phone that could use a restore. Might be affecting Bluetooth connections or other such

 

[Technarchy]

While I understand your optimism, radio power doesn't become more efficient, just because the CPU does. In fact, most of the time the CPU is idle doing very little when background tasks like this are happening.

Know what would drain battery life significantly, using location services constantly.

No.

By going 14nm, overall device power consumption will be down, giving the Apple Watch more latitude to work without greatly impacting the most important metric of total screen time per full charge.

 

[RotaryP7]

I haven't received my watch yet.. It needs to be connected to the iPhone's Bluetooth at all times correct? Why wouldn't this drain the iPhone battery? Is it noticeable?

 

[BCWorld]

This is bad news, you pay 17k for the watch plus $650.00 for the iphone and get 2 Cent battery life in return. Thanks apple.

 

[LatinaC09]

Same battery life for me. I haven't noticed any differences. I'm actually shocked at the great battery life I'm getting on the Watch. This thing seems to last forever.

 

[citi]

My battery life has improved as I am using my iPhone 6 much less. Absolutely loving my Sports Watch after 2 days of use.

I just experienced this, can some one let me know how this works? I left my iPhone at home, rode my bike to my gf's house with my Watch on, when I got to her house and inside (she has wi-fi) my Watch started dinging and I was seeing incoming texts and could send replies as well as emails too.

Is this because my iPhone has been on this network before? But how freaking cool is this? I can start leaving my phone home more often now and still be in touch/contact. Dang Apple!

P.S. My other watch, a Sports with black band which said 4-6 weeks, just got charged to my cc and is preparing for shipment! Wooohooo!

It using the same iMessage and mail protocol like on your iPad or MacBook. It likely saves all keychain wifi locations to your watch and of course the open ones.

 

[jon3543]

And why exactly is anyone surprised?

Exactly. Tim Cook can't take a dump without people on MacRumors complaining it drained their iPhone battery, bent their phone, gave 9 out 10 people motion sickness due to parallax, etc.

 

[The Doctor11]

Impacts battery?!?! Way to say to nicely. It rapes iPhone battery! It's ok though I love my watch so much I don't care at all

 

[thesaint580]

What I have noticed is that when I am connected to Bluetooth with iPhone, the battery drains faster on iPhone. I have tried to disconnect from Bluetooth and use only wifi while at home and this seems to have helped. Not really sure if this makes sense as its too early to judge. And not sure if Bluetooth has to be enabled all the time to be connected to Apple Watch.

 

[tdale]

Clearly, pairing with an Apple Watch uses more iPhone battery, no argument, thats a fact.

The key issue is does the Watch user use the iPhone less? If so, less drain from screen, more time on sleep. If they still use the iPhone a lot, as well as the Watch, it will drain faster, its just physics and math

 

[ohbrilliance]

How could you possibly take Apple's side when it is quite obvious that this first gen Apple Watch is half-baked both hardware wise and especially software wise?

By not agreeing that it's half-baked?

 

[dtich]

This is why you never buy a first gen Apple product. Let someone else be Apple's beta testing guinea pig. #S-Upgrade-Cycle-4-Life

huh?!? what, why? cause most every post on here is people kinda loving their new apple gen 1 device???


just keep mumbling in your soup, wipe the crumbs from your mouth....

 

[QCassidy352]

This is why you never buy a first gen Apple product. Let someone else be Apple's beta testing guinea pig. #S-Upgrade-Cycle-4-Life

My first generation iPhone remains the best tech purchase I've ever made by a wide margin. So I don't agree with your premise.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Yeah, please continue to make excuses for Apple. They thrive on fan boys blindly defending their every misstep. How could you possibly take Apple's side when it is quite obvious that this first gen Apple Watch is half-baked both hardware wise and especially software wise?

Apple Maps was a misstep, MobileMe was a misstep, Apple Pippin was a major misstep.
I don't see the watch being much of a issue as even the iPad first gen, and iPod first gen had problems.