Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Battery life is worse than I expected
- Thread starter /dev/toaster
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
42 mm here, 6 hours of stand by use, 3 hours of usage, i went on a 2 hour hike and used the workouts app, also monitored my process throughout my hike and took about 5-10 heart beat checks, I'm currently at 56%, i unplugged it at 11:00 am, it's now 5:00 pm. Seems pretty good IMO.
I was experimenting with an alternate "weekend" face since during the week having calendar prominent is important, but on the weekend obviously not. Last night I set it to the solar system / earth one cause it was cool.
This morning I started fully charged and while sitting here reading the forums and hardly interacting with the watch over 1.5 hours I had gone all the way down to 94%. That's not good...
Then I set it to the modular face, recharged it to 100% (didn't take long) and then went about my day. It was at least several hours later that I noticed I was still at 100% and now 12 hours later after being very active doing yardwork (very far from my phone...ie on wifi) I'm at 30%.
Moral of the story: watch face makes a huge impact on battery even when idle. I'm guessing that the solar face requires a lot of location information frequently since even when you aren't "using" the watch, the screen does come on as you raise your wrist even if you didn't intend to interact. YMMV
Fwiw: My current face includes the weather info in the center of the modular face.
This morning I started fully charged and while sitting here reading the forums and hardly interacting with the watch over 1.5 hours I had gone all the way down to 94%. That's not good...
Then I set it to the modular face, recharged it to 100% (didn't take long) and then went about my day. It was at least several hours later that I noticed I was still at 100% and now 12 hours later after being very active doing yardwork (very far from my phone...ie on wifi) I'm at 30%.
Moral of the story: watch face makes a huge impact on battery even when idle. I'm guessing that the solar face requires a lot of location information frequently since even when you aren't "using" the watch, the screen does come on as you raise your wrist even if you didn't intend to interact. YMMV
Fwiw: My current face includes the weather info in the center of the modular face.
Last edited:
As I posted earlier, took my watch off charger at 7am now at 8:33pm, still doing great, I'm at 55%
Have had it off the charger since 8:30 ish been using it all day, 55% and 100% brightness. I'm blown away by the battery life.
I'm choosing to take a wait and see approach. There's plenty more to learn to experience and to enjoy. Being the first generation of the product I expected compromise and bugs. Nothing is perfect.
On @ 8:00 am: several alerts, some directions (driven and waking), eight messages, lots of trying to figure out reminders, several checking "glances", two phone calls. Died at 6pm.
Would have liked it to last a couple hours more (so close to my workout goal), but I did use it a lot more than I will once I get used to it.
Would have liked it to last a couple hours more (so close to my workout goal), but I did use it a lot more than I will once I get used to it.
Day 2.
It's 2.17am
Usage at 4hrs 14mins
Standby 19hrs 16 mins
Battery at 28%
Popping it on the charger, night all!
It's 2.17am
Usage at 4hrs 14mins
Standby 19hrs 16 mins
Battery at 28%
Popping it on the charger, night all!
Update, it's now been 12hrs and I'm on 69%, battery life is fantastic. But I treat mine like a watch, only checking it now and then, not staring at it making calls in it, using the heart sensor all day etc.. Because if you do that then it's going to run down.
Going to go for a 30 min soon so will see how much that kills it using the heart monitor etc.
Going to go for a 30 min soon so will see how much that kills it using the heart monitor etc.
I changed my watch face to modular and wow, what a difference. The butterflies look amazing but REALLY kills your battery.
Thanks for the tip. I've been using the Simple watch face and have been very happy with battery life. I used it for 15 hours yesterday and still had 50%.
I've yet to drop below 60%, even on the first partial day when I didn't charge it before wearing it.
Had excellent battery all weekend. Used all day yesterday and put on charge at 11pm with 40% battery. No idea what's different today but took off charger at 8am, it's now 6:30pm and I've gone into power reserve mode (10%). Definitely haven't been using it more as I've been at work all day.
Only difference is its been connected to my 4G all day, not wifi like at home. Would this be it?
Only difference is its been connected to my 4G all day, not wifi like at home. Would this be it?
Not normal. I've had mine on since 7:30am and it is now past 1:30pm. I'm at 79% and I've used Siri, answered calls, listened to voicemail, received a variety of texts, etc.