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helicopter96

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 30, 2014
97
29
Chicago
Took my Apple Watch off the charger 5 minutes ago and the only activity I've done on the watch is unlock it, yet I'm still down to 97% battery....
 
Are you sure it was at 100% when you took it off the charger? It's been my experience that the watch charges to 100%, trickles down to about 97% and will charge back up again.

Mine has been anywhere between 97-100% every morning since I've had it. Just depends on where it is in the charge cycle when I wake up.
 
Yes, it does last all day, so I guess it is a bit of a non-issue. I just don't want this becoming an issue in the future.
 
Slight hijack to this thread.

How are you guys dealing with a watch that battery only last a day or so? Did you wear a watch before this product? What is the maximum time you've been getting with the Apple watch with minimum use?

I'm curious about getting an Apple Watch but I'm really turned off by the idea of carrying around another charger and looking for more open outlets at hotels, airports, etc (I travel a lot).
 
Took my Apple Watch off the charger 5 minutes ago and the only activity I've done on the watch is unlock it, yet I'm still down to 97% battery....

Apple chargers have a logic built in to protect the health of the battery. It will charge your device to 100%, let it bleed to 97%, charge it to 110%, let it bleed to 100% and keep doing this until you unplug it. Are you sure you didn't catch it at the 97% cycle as you took it off the charger?
 
Slight hijack to this thread.

How are you guys dealing with a watch that battery only last a day or so? Did you wear a watch before this product? What is the maximum time you've been getting with the Apple watch with minimum use?

I'm curious about getting an Apple Watch but I'm really turned off by the idea of carrying around another charger and looking for more open outlets at hotels, airports, etc (I travel a lot).

I wear it 19 hrs a day which includes 1 hour of using the exercise app and it hasn't dropped below 25% so far.
 
I have noticed on mine that when I wear it for the first hour or so it drops to about 95%. No big deal. But if I charge it again for 10 minutes and get it back to 100% it stays at 100% for an hour and a half or so. Odd but it does it every time.
 
I've had mine 8 full days now (received 8am on 4/24) and I haven't once yet come close to depleting the battery. I wear it 6:30am to 12:30am daily, and it's nearly never dropped below 30% for me. Maybe once it hit 25%. And that's with a lot of emails and iMessages.

I take it off and charge it while I sleep. I wouldn't wear a conventional watch to sleep, either, so it's been no different.

Battery life is of no concern to me. The battery indicator is no longer one of my displayed complications.
 
I am wearing mine from 5am until 9pm and run with it three times a week so far. Haven't gotten below 52%. Super impressed with the battery life actually. Have had mine on for 3 hours so far today and am at 98%.
 
I woke up today with the same issue, the watch starting at 97% and it charged all nigh. I have be getting excellent battery life though going all day from 630am to 10pm and still having 45% battery life. i think this is similar to the phone where the device goes in to conditioning mode to maintain the battery.
 
I've been wondering about my battery life too. I went for a hour and half walk today and used the workout app. Was at 95% when I left and just hit 71% on finishing. Anyone know if this is typical drain?

I also used the music play app and sent a message or two on my walk too. Thanks for any feedback #
 
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I had the same problem let it die all the way to zero and turn off then charge back up to 100. Now the watch is at 50 when I goto bed
 
Same thing happened to me. Went from 95 to 72 after a rigorous 90 minute workout using the HR monitor. Because of working out I usually end the night with 15% battery.
 
I take it off and charge it while I sleep. I wouldn't wear a conventional watch to sleep, either, so it's been no different.

Battery life is of no concern to me. The battery indicator is no longer one of my displayed complications.

This is my experience as well, screwing with it all day and I still end up with 15% left after starting at 730 am and quitting about 1 am. I think I'll delete the batt indicator too....at first I thought having a device only lasting a day would be a problem, but I charge everything else at night, so now the watch too, just another spot taken on my power strip!

LOL
 
Same thing happened to me. Went from 95 to 72 after a rigorous 90 minute workout using the HR monitor. Because of working out I usually end the night with 15% battery.

Thanks for the info! I'm seriously happy with the watch, but I want to know my battery life is just as good as the next guy. Usually I'll go to bed with 35 or 40% , but that's without the workout and moderate use. I think my battery has been steadily improving over the last week. The first night I charged it after a full day, it was at 20%. Anyone else notice this?
 
ok so Friday was basically my first full day of using the Apple watch, from 9am until night (about 11pm) and I used it somewhat often throughout the day, as I would probably on a normal day, with the odd checking notifications and frequently checking time. Had a somewhat active day, ultimately logging 20k steps/1172 calories.

So today (saturday) I worked, which is in retail/customer service where I would normally not carry a phone, so I just wore my watch but on airplane mode/do not disturb/silent mode, just checking the time once in awhile. I thought that having the watch disconnected from the phone and supposedly doing nothing but checking time and tracking my activity the battery would last, especially compared to friday when it was connected to the phone and being used? But by the end of my 8hour shift I only had about 20% left!! And activity just logged like 300cal/5k steps.

So any Ideas on what might have caused the battery to drain so fast when the watch wasn't even being used or connected to iPhone? Any apps or something that may be running in the background taking up battery? I'm very confused right now haha. Also I know there is a battery reserve feature, but I do wish to continue tracking my activity while i'm working, and if I understand correctly battery/power reserve function would not track any activity?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
 
ok so Friday was basically my first full day of using the Apple watch, from 9am until night (about 11pm) and I used it somewhat often throughout the day, as I would probably on a normal day, with the odd checking notifications and frequently checking time. Had a somewhat active day, ultimately logging 20k steps/1172 calories.

So today (saturday) I worked, which is in retail/customer service where I would normally not carry a phone, so I just wore my watch but on airplane mode/do not disturb/silent mode, just checking the time once in awhile. I thought that having the watch disconnected from the phone and supposedly doing nothing but checking time and tracking my activity the battery would last, especially compared to friday when it was connected to the phone and being used? But by the end of my 8hour shift I only had about 20% left!! And activity just logged like 300cal/5k steps.

So any Ideas on what might have caused the battery to drain so fast when the watch wasn't even being used or connected to iPhone? Any apps or something that may be running in the background taking up battery? I'm very confused right now haha. Also I know there is a battery reserve feature, but I do wish to continue tracking my activity while i'm working, and if I understand correctly battery/power reserve function would not track any activity?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
This is a good question (and I've thought alot about this of late, as how often you have to charge an AppleWatch is the only thing that worries me, more than just a bit if I'm honest). Even charging once a day is going to be overkill for a watch, and I dread to think how bad it's going to be once I put a bunch of Apps in it, etc. Kinda made me feel like perhaps they should have used less features until they've figured out the technology to make the battery last longer. I've even considered writing to Apple and suggesting that they launch a version that instead of trying to do what your iPhone already does anyway, to instead just dedicate the Watch (and ultimately its battery power) to just the useful things that the iPhone doesn't do (like for example the Fitness tracker element, etc.) -Cause let's face it, the main reason I was most looking forward to about the AppleWatch is the fact that it's like an improved version of the fitbit that I currently use. (in the sense that it has added a proper heart rate monitor for use during workouts) -By that I don't mean the pointless gimmicky 'being able to send the icon of your heartbeat to people.' I think most people consider that part as just useless fluff.

That being said, while certainly I think it will help, the more I think about it, the more I'm beginning to think that this alone won't solve the battery issue. (and sorry for going slightly off on a tangent for a moment there), but in answer to your question, consider that although regular watches and fitness trackers just use an LCD display, and the AppleWatch uses a fully functional touch-screen. Imagine how much more power it takes to power the thousands of pixels of a touchscreen display in comparison to just a few liquid crystals. This could potentially explain why it's such a power guzzler.

I feel your pain though, so annoying as it is, I guess the real question is, will we feel over time that having to charge the AppleWatch 1-2 times a day is a worthy tradeoff? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Apple, and I've ordered the AppleWatch aswell, so I want to encourage them rather than simply gripe. But I won't lie when I say that I'm worried that the frequency of charging is going to drive me nuts after a while to the point where I lose my tether with it and stop using it. But I'm more of a pro-active kinda person, so I think better to just put the feedback out there, so that they have all the info they need to improve things. I'm sure if anyone can pull it off, Apple can. Anyways, in case anyone finds it useful, Apple Actually have a dedicated feedback page for stuff like this, so I'll provide the link below so that we can all work towards getting things perfect. Here it is...
http://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

Hope this helps. ;)
 
I have not had the battery go below 30% on any day since I got it the morning of the 24th, and since I already charge things at night, it has become an easy part of my night-time routine to charge the watch. I don't see it as any extra hassle or anything.

Also, as it's been noted elsewhere in this forum, if you use the workout/exercise app then it's using the HRM to constantly track your heart rate, which will cause a greater battery drop during that time frame (unless you change that app to power saving mode in the watch app). Once you end the exercise, the HRM goes back to its every 10 minute check.
 
General question … Have any if you used any battery pack to try to charge your watch? I don't have my watch yet, but previously I invested in several battery packs to charge my phone, and iPad. I'm wondering if these battery packs will work with the watch.
 
I have the 38mm SS and with very light usage it goes down around 3% per hr. Work-out app drains the battery more but even with a 1hr workout over lunch and unplugging at 7am I still have 20%+ left when I go to bed...
 
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