Battery Life, watchOS 2 vs 3

[jsd79]

I'm currently running watchOS 2.2.2 on my 38mm Apple Watch Sport and the battery life is acceptable but not outstanding (in my opinion): I finish most days with about 15 hrs of time on my wrist and about 25-30% left on the battery.

I'm considering upgrading to watchOS 3 but I've seen conflicting reports on this forum about whether the battery life improves, stays about the same, or gets worse as the watch gains new software features/design -- hence the poll. (Yes, I realize watchOS is still technically in beta.) Thoughts?

 

[BlueMoon63]

I'm currently running watchOS 2.2.2 on my 38mm Apple Watch Sport and the battery life is acceptable but not outstanding (in my opinion): I finish most days with about 15 hrs of time on my wrist and about 25-30% left on the battery.

I'm considering upgrading to watchOS 3 but I've seen conflicting reports on this forum about whether the battery life improves, stays about the same, or gets worse as the watch gains new software features/design -- hence the poll. (Yes, I realize watchOS is still technically in beta.) Thoughts?

Since beta 4, for sure the battery life is as good as 2.2. If you add third party apps to the dock, it might drain much worse.

For example, which 5 Apple apps in the dock and running a sleep track at night, I wake to 92% on average. I add dark sky or carrot to the dock and I wake to 80%. Hoping that improves once OS3 comes out.

 

[bbeagle]

Running WatchOS 2, I usually ended the day around 50%.

Running WatchOS 3 Beta 5 for the past 2 days, I end the day around 20%.

In both cases 18 hours, 1 hour workout using activity, 2 hours playing music during workout. Maybe 30 alerts. But no other apps used.

So, the battery is worse, but still gets me through 18 hours. I expect it to improve once OS3 is ready, as they'll remove debugging logging

 

[BlueMoon63]

Running WatchOS 2, I usually ended the day around 50%.

Running WatchOS 3 Beta 5 for the past 2 days, I end the day around 20%.

In both cases 18 hours, 1 hour workout using activity, 2 hours playing music during workout. Maybe 30 alerts. But no other apps used.

So, the battery is worse, but still gets me through 18 hours. I expect it to improve once OS3 is ready, as they'll remove debugging logging

Worse for you but better/equal to me. however, I didn't mention workouts. When I golfed with 2.2, I burned 20% for two hours. With the Beta 3 I tuned close to 40% and beta 4 was around 30%+. Haven't tried with beta 5 yet.

Since I wear a watch overnight with a sleep tracker, the betas have greatly improved and even surpassed version 2.2 or equal. The dock has been the wild card.

 

[batristain]

THe few betas for WatchOS 3 were horrible for my 38 MM battery life. However now that i"m at WatchOS4 B4 and my iPhone 6+ is running Public Beta 10.4 the battery life is now back to Watch OS 2 levels.

Cheers,
Bobbie

 

[Thai]

Battery very good on Beta 5...same as before OS2.

 

[jsd79]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. So far the poll results suggest the battery life on the watchOS betas (4 & 5) is the same or a bit worse than on 2.2.2.

 

[fabio.lordelo]

I'm currently running watchOS 2.2.2 on my 38mm Apple Watch Sport and the battery life is acceptable but not outstanding (in my opinion): I finish most days with about 15 hrs of time on my wrist and about 25-30% left on the battery.

I'm considering upgrading to watchOS 3 but I've seen conflicting reports on this forum about whether the battery life improves, stays about the same, or gets worse as the watch gains new software features/design -- hence the poll. (Yes, I realize watchOS is still technically in beta.) Thoughts?

That's odd... I'm running beta 5 on my Apple Watch 38mm and I'm seeing 30 hours of battery life most days. But I had to unpair and repair the watch after I had terrible battery life in beta 3 and after updating to beta 5. Just restoring the watch as new fixed it. Battery has been better than on watchOS 2