Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
It could very well be a more efficient version of the same S10. If there’s no die shrink (like from the S9 to S10) with same battery capacity, there’s only so much they could do. :) More efficient screen?

You'd think Apple would tuck in an X, Y, Z suffix to the SiP if that were the case. It's 4 hours more of battery life, well deserving of a letter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soulgifter
They should be ashamed. The AW battery life should be measured in days or weeks not hours. Unbelievable. I think they shot themselves in a foot by not adopting some other architecture with something like microSwift instead of full blown Swift. All other watches with AMOLED (except Google which is also trash) can go for days or weeks. And the apps on any watch don’t need that much powerful processor or a lot of RAM. So yes, other watches have processors and RAM 100 times less/slower but it works fine while delivering exceptional battery life.
 
Those comparing this with Fitbit and Garmin are not making direct comparisons. As Garmin tries to add smart features and better screens, they continue to have lower and lower battery life.

You have a choice. Get a smart watch or get a fitness watch with some partial smart features.

I get it. I’d love multiple days of battery life. Heck, I’d love to not have to charge at all. I just don’t think it’s realistic to expect this device to have a week of battery life currently.
 
Garmin is a fitness watch with some smartwatch features. AW is a smartwatch that can do fitness. Both great devices but not the same device. Totally different power requirements. I really wish people would stop with this silly comparison.
Yes, that's what I'm always told, but I'm always using the SAME features on both. Sports tracking, vitals tracking, weather, playing music via BT, Apple / Garmin Pay, notifications. Nothing else, end of story. Always on display is disabled on both.

The sports tracking parts the Garmin does better and more, I might add.

Yet, the AW lasts for 1 day, and the Garmin lasts for 2 weeks.

What are those "smart" things that the AW does without my involvement, without me asking, without me knowing, in the background, that drains the battery 14 times faster, can you please explain?
 
Last edited:
Yes, that's what I'm always told, but I'm always using the SAME features on both. Sports tracking, vitals tracking, weather, playing music via BT, Apple / Garmin Pay, notifications. Nothing else, end of story. Always on display is disabled on both.
Yeah, that’s why I’ve always asked Apple to release an Apple smartband, a wrist band with just the essentials: time, weather, activity and sports tracking, heartbeat and blood oxygen monitoring, alarm and iPhone notifications. No need for external apps or App Store, browsers or video. Maybe not even phone calls if that drains the battery too much. Just the essentials in a smaller (maybe pill-shaped) and lighter device with ten times the battery life.

But apparently there’s no market for that…
 
  • Like
Reactions: Adam-Jobs
Maybe they stuffed in a bigger battery? I mean, maybe they are using a new battery technology that allows them to pack more mAh in the same space…
No, it doesn't have a 14 times bigger battery (lol). AW10 is 327 mAh while the Forerunner 965 is 420 mAh.

Apple is just sloppy / incompetent, and the sooner the users in denial stop pretending it's okay and stop buying this garbage product, the sooner Apple will start fixing their "smart" watches to not eat battery when not even doing anything useful. The most ridiculous one being that when I pause a GPS workout it drains the battery almost as much as during workout. WTF? Extremely sloppy and no improvements whatsoever over the years.

I also kept saying to others for a while like naaah it's a smaaaaaaart watch and the Garmin is a duuuumb watch, that's why! Without having a clue. I had cognitive dissonance and I was in denial. But at one point I stopped putting up with this cr@p and realized it's just what it is, watchOS is garbage, there's nothing else to it.

Been rocking a FR 965 ever since. I'm doing half marathons, 60 km hikes, etc. Even then it lasts for more than a week.

Do you know how much a 1 hour gym session drains my battery on the Garmin? Between 0 and 1%. Yes, you read that right. On the AW it was around 10%. 10 times worse.

Did I mention that unlike the AW, the Garmin is actually measuring your heart rate CONSTANTLY? Literally constantly, every friggin second. How is it that it still lasts 14 times longer?

Or the fact that the AW restricts music to 25% of the whole storage, because - because there's absolutely ZERO reason to do that, but they did that anyway, they put this restriction in place with watchOS 7 and kept it there ever since. So now I can have a 64 GB smaaaart watch with 16 GB music, maybe 10GB system files, and the remaining 38 GB reserved for NOTHING. Because watchOS things.

Or the fact that the duuuumb Garmin can actually load your GPX files and show you the route on your hike, live, without ever bothering to open your phone? But hey, at least I can put a Stocks complication on my AW screen, that's smarter, right? Because stocks and trading are totally what I'll be doing via my smaaart watch. That's what I buy them for. Yup.

There's just absolutely no excuse. None. Nada. watchOS is cr@p and Apple needs to fix this. Until they do, I refuse to buy a smaaaaart AW, period.
 
Last edited:
No, it doesn't have a 14 times bigger battery (lol). AW10 is 327 mAh while the Forerunner 965 is 420 mAh.

Apple is just sloppy / incompetent, and the sooner the users in denial stop pretending it's okay and stop buying this garbage product, the sooner Apple will start fixing their "smart" watches to not eat battery when not even doing anything useful. The most ridiculous one being that when I pause a GPS workout it drains the battery almost as much as during workout. WTF? Extremely sloppy and no improvements whatsoever over the years.

I also kept saying to others for a while like naaah it's a smaaaaaaart watch and the Garmin is a duuuumb watch, that's why! Without having a clue. I had cognitive dissonance and I was in denial. But at one point I stopped putting up with this cr@p and realized it's just what it is, watchOS is garbage, there's nothing else to it.

Been rocking a FR 965 ever since. I'm doing half marathons, 60 km hikes, etc. Even then it lasts for more than a week.

Do you know how much does a 1 hour gym session drain my battery on the Garmin? Between 0 and 1%. Yes, you read that right. On the AW it was around 10%. 10 times worse.

Did I mention that unlike the AW, the Garmin is actually measuring your heart rate CONSTANTLY? Literally constantly, every friggin second. How is it that it still lasts 14 times longer?

Or the fact that the AW restricts music to 25% of the whole storage, because - because there's absolutely ZERO reason to do that, but they did that anyway, they put this restriction in place with watchOS 7 and kept it there ever since. So now I can have a 64 GB smaaaart watch with 16 GB music, maybe 10GB system files, and the remaining 38 GB reserved for NOTHING. Because watchOS things.

There's just absolutely no excuse. None. Nada. watchOS is cr@p and Apple needs to fix this. Until they do, I refuse to buy a smaaaaart AW, period.
I wasn’t talking about your Garmin device in that post you’re quoting, but rather comparing it with the previous AW 10, and the 4h improvement.

Perhaps a higher density battery? With the same screen and chip I'm not sure what it can be unless it is just software optimization.
Yes this is the most plausible answer I can think of, honestly.
 
I actually checked out Garmin and Galaxy and you're right about battery life, but IMO the Watch's other features completely outshine the competition.
I jump rope for an hour at a time and my Apple Watch doesn’t even notice that I’m exercising.
This is ludicrous.
So while the Apple Watch may “do more things”, do they actually work?
 
I've always been weirded out by these battery figures, myself. I have a Series 8 GPS (no Cellular) and I get 48 hours out of it, easily. I still get that even today, with years of wear on the battery. i.e., I can take it off the charger Monday morning when I wake up and I don't put it back on the charger until I go to bed Tuesday night. And it's still usually around 30% by the time I do that.

It's not in low-power mode or anything, though I admit I certainly don't make use of every feature. Probably the biggest battery saver is I don't use Always-On Display. That always felt like a waste of battery, since I've never had an issue with the display lighting up swiftly when I actually want to look at it. Maybe that makes all the difference?
 
I've always been weirded out by these battery figures, myself. I have a Series 8 GPS (no Cellular) and I get 48 hours out of it, easily. I still get that even today, with years of wear on the battery. i.e., I can take it off the charger Monday morning when I wake up and I don't put it back on the charger until I go to bed Tuesday night. And it's still usually around 30% by the time I do that.

It's not in low-power mode or anything, though I admit I certainly don't make use of every feature. Probably the biggest battery saver is I don't use Always-On Display. That always felt like a waste of battery, since I've never had an issue with the display lighting up swiftly when I actually want to look at it. Maybe that makes all the difference?

AOD and GPS are the battery-killers. I do an hour a day of GPS-recorded workouts, and sometimes 2-4, or more, on the weekends. As of a few months ago, I was killing the battery on my 6 twice a day, with AOD disabled. Even when new, with AOD disabled, I couldn't last a day though a night for sleep tracking.

I keep it disabled on my Garmin now, too.
 
Last edited:
Those comparing this with Fitbit and Garmin are not making direct comparisons. As Garmin tries to add smart features and better screens, they continue to have lower and lower battery life.

You have a choice. Get a smart watch or get a fitness watch with some partial smart features.

I get it. I’d love multiple days of battery life. Heck, I’d love to not have to charge at all. I just don’t think it’s realistic to expect this device to have a week of battery life currently.
Where does the Garmin have less and less battery life? New Fenix 8 Pro 51mm has 14 days of AOD per specs but in reality it is probably closer to 16-17 as any previous AMOLED one had 20% more than advertised. Also screen is now super bright except in AOD low power mode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WinstonSmyth
Where does the Garmin have less and less battery life? New Fenix 8 Pro 51mm has 14 days of AOD per specs but in reality it is probably closer to 16-17 as any previous AMOLED one had 20% more than advertised. Also screen is now super bright except in AOD low power mode.

The MIP models would get measured in weeks and not days, if I recall correctly. I could be wrong though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: G5isAlive
Bro come on man, I’m sleeping the 6 other hours… I still need to charge once a day or during night… When we will get 2 or 3 days battery?
If 24 hours isn't enough, then how could 2 or 3 days be enough? If you can take it off for a half hour in a single day, when would you be able to take it off in 2 or 3 days?
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: nordic_forest
They should be ashamed. The AW battery life should be measured in days or weeks not hours. Unbelievable. I think they shot themselves in a foot by not adopting some other architecture with something like microSwift instead of full blown Swift. All other watches with AMOLED (except Google which is also trash) can go for days or weeks. And the apps on any watch don’t need that much powerful processor or a lot of RAM. So yes, other watches have processors and RAM 100 times less/slower but it works fine while delivering exceptional battery life.
I have never found the battery life to be an issue. My watch was at about 50%, and I charged it while taking a shower, it's now 100%. I would trade less battery life for a thinner watch.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.