Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
My 44mm cellular watch is doing great even though I am still playing with it all the time - but something is now sucking the life out of my iPhone 8.
 
Its quite backwards that lots of people here turning off loads of features just to get a decent battery life out of their AW4. i keep off from a purchase and keep a much closer eye on this thread and other reports regarding battery issues.

I want the AW4 LTE as my daily phone and leave my iphone at home as i seldom call/get calls anyway.
But if the battery barely makes it through a single day just idle doing nothing besides being on my wrist it would be a pass and i wait another year for the S5 and instead buy a S3 LTE second hand to get a feel for the AW for half the price.
 
Its quite backwards that lots of people here turning off loads of features just to get a decent battery life out of their AW4. i keep off from a purchase and keep a much closer eye on this thread and other reports regarding battery issues.

I want the AW4 LTE as my daily phone and leave my iphone at home as i seldom call/get calls anyway.
But if the battery barely makes it through a single day just idle doing nothing besides being on my wrist it would be a pass and i wait another year for the S5 and instead buy a S3 LTE second hand to get a feel for the AW for half the price.

Mine went 12 hours today and is down to 80%. Reading forums isn't a good way to judge whether it will work for you.
 
I think it would be helpful for each of us to list which Watchface we are using and what complications we are using on that watchface.

I'm using infographic with : digital time, weather, battery , breathing, activity, earth, date, heartwatch.

Today I've had the series 4 LTE Watch on for 13 hours. I did a 1 hour cross training workout while listening to a podcast through my Bluetooth headphones. I made a couple very quick phone calls- 1 min each. Read texts and emails throughout the day.
The battery is at 36%.

My series 3 LTE with OS4 would have been at around 60% with a similar day. (With listening to music instead of podcast).
 
  • Like
Reactions: SantaFeNM
Battery life series 4 blows.... could get two days out of my S3 text, music, calls throughout the day..... S4 is usually at 20-30 percent the end of the day using the same behavior patterns 5am-11pm
 
  • Like
Reactions: SantaFeNM
Battery life series 4 blows.... could get two days out of my S3 text, music, calls throughout the day..... S4 is usually at 20-30 percent the end of the day using the same behavior patterns 5am-11pm
What version do you have? Do you run it off LTE without the phone? anything you do during the day on the watch?
 
I use to end my day with an almost dead battery by 10 PM at night with S3. However, with the S4 I am now ending my day around 10 PM with between 50 and 60 % battery life. So, I charged it for a couple of hours while relaxing before bed and then just when I am getting in the bed I strap it on to track my sleep and it stays on my arm until 10 PM the next evening. I am happy with battery life. I got the GPS version.. no cellular, but I do use it for calls a several times a day, but it's through my iPhone and not LTE on the watch itself. LTE on the watch I get the point, but the batteries are just not big enough for that. Glad I didn't waste my money on with cellular. I also read and respond to text, get several different notifications. I do work out for about an hour and half each day, not to mention all the walking and moving around I do through-out the day.
 
Last night I did my usual sleep
Tracking and the watch battery is now dead. Less than 24hrs from a full charge. Something is wrong. Series 3 was way better than this
 
  • Like
Reactions: SantaFeNM
I use to end my day with an almost dead battery by 10 PM at night with S3. However, with the S4 I am now ending my day around 10 PM with between 50 and 60 % battery life. So, I charged it for a couple of hours while relaxing before bed and then just when I am getting in the bed I strap it on to track my sleep and it stays on my arm until 10 PM the next evening. I am happy with battery life. I got the GPS version.. no cellular, but I do use it for calls a several times a day, but it's through my iPhone and not LTE on the watch itself. LTE on the watch I get the point, but the batteries are just not big enough for that. Glad I didn't waste my money on with cellular. I also read and respond to text, get several different notifications. I do work out for about an hour and half each day, not to mention all the walking and moving around I do through-out the day.

Same experience / usage here and I have a SS with cellular but it's not connected, just wanted it for the SB & Sapphire screen. The more I read the contrasting responses here, the more it sounds that some apps have not yet been optimised for AW4, Watch OS5 or Both. It only takes one rogue app to ruin battery performance.
 
Think my battery life is fine now

After the day of the day. 11.30pm the battery life was on 58%. Was off charge at 11.00am. Will settle for that
 
Despite the slightly shorter battery life, I think she's a keeper. For me, personally, I find the display, design and extra features compelling enough that I'll happily sacrifice a bit of battery time. Also, it might be helpful if someone more knowledgeable that I posted a list of the settings that might be tweaked to maximize battery life eg: brightness, auto workout tracking. Just my $.02.
 
While not as good as the series 3 I can't see apple doing much as its still the 18 hours quoted life and more.

It is annoying though that it is no longer good for sleep tracking
 
While not as good as the series 3 I can't see apple doing much as its still the 18 hours quoted life and more.

It is annoying though that it is no longer good for sleep tracking
Why is it no longer good for sleep tracking? I wear mine every night and even after a morning workout from 45-75 minutes, the battery is in the 80+% range. Shower and get ready and it is back to 95-100% depending on how long I take to get ready. The only other time I charge is at night for 30-45 minutes.
 
Let’s see if updates can improve the battery life. There is hope, as some series 3 owner also report a decline with WatchOS 5.
 
Let’s see if updates can improve the battery life. There is hope, as some series 3 owner also report a decline with WatchOS 5.

Yes, my battery is horrible on my S3 GPS after updating. For many months I ended the day at 73%. In the past few months I've been going as low as 50%, although I couldn't ascertain why such a big drop in a short amount of time, and some days I'd still be at around 65%. Still, nothing worth being worried about. Now, on OS5, I end up at about 10% by the end of the day. This is after repairing, force restart, turning off a ton of stuff I had active on OS4 (like a lot of backgroud refresh, which was not an issue on OS4).

I am actually taking my watch in on Monday as my Force Touch stopped working, and my watch is less than a year old, so I'm wondering if I have a larger battery issue of some sort. But I don't stream music, make calls or anything intensive on my watch. I do hope a future update fixes whatever the mythical battery drain is.
 
Here's my last 24 hours. 51% left.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0668.jpg
    IMG_0668.jpg
    265.2 KB · Views: 163
Honestly this thread is like trying to choose a new restaurant to try from online reviews.

“Great food, great service. Will definitely be back!”

“Server was terrible, food was cold and underseasoned. Manager did nothing. We’ll never be back.”

“Had the best time. Really enjoyed their signature dish. Manager came around to see how we were and gave us free dessert!”

“Took 20 minutes to get drinks. Another hour to get food. Server was apologetic but would not bring manager over.”

“We had a great time. Drinks and apps came out right away and mains followed at a perfect time!”


Anyone seeing a common pattern here? :p
 
I'm at 83% now after putting it on yesternight for sleep tracking (theater and airplane mode on); and today. 10 hours stand by and 01:21 hours of usage (theater and airplane mode off). Overcast was draining a lot of battery so I turned off podcast autosync. Turned off detect gym equipment and some apps on background update. Seems fine now.
 
Today is day one for me with the S4. After reading a lot of comments, I do wonder this...

The first thing I do with my Apple Watch is a clean install, not restore. I immediately disable automatic app installs and also background app refresh. For the latter, is there any legitimate reason to have it on? My Series 3 would last 3 days, with 10% battery left on the third evening. I'll have to wait and find out how the S4 will now last.
 
Last edited:
Almost a week with my AW4 44mm GPS, aluminium grey: charged 21 hours ago, still shows 71% of battery charge (but I didn't exercise at all in the meanwhile).

FYI, screen brightness set at minimum level and "wake screen on wrist raise" deactivated.
 
After reading this thread I too was worried my S4 battery life was poor having come from a S3. I looked at what people were tinkering with and decided that switching off ‘detect gym equipment’ was a good idea as I would never use it.
And I have to say, battery performance is much, much better than the days previous.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.