Can someone please explain the "battery life" complaints?

[joshcls]

I've never worn a watch. I was born in the mid 80s, and by the time I hit high school, I always had my phone on me to tell the time. So up until (hopefully this Friday) my watch has been my phone, and I must charge my watch nightly.

I keep seeing people complain about battery life on the Watch.
They're upset because they think the battery life is terrible because it doesn't last more than a day.

I mean of course extended battery life is awesome, but.
Practically speaking, why would you want/need battery life to be longer than a day?
What would the advantage be?

I just don't get it...

 

[PLamarine]

I don't like to take my watch off...would be nice if I only had to do it once a week. I wear a watch 24/7, not 18/7.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

The 'entire day battery' is defined by specific actions. If you use your watch more than 'expected', then you'll run out of battery. If you go out friday evening, you run out of battery.

 

[joshcls]

The 'entire day battery' is defined by specific actions. If you use your watch more than 'expected', then you'll run out of battery. If you go out friday evening, you run out of battery.

No I get that that would be a concern. (Not necessarily accurate for everyone though, eh?)

I'm talking about the people who want more than a nightly charge.

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I don't like to take my watch off...would be nice if I only had to do it once a week. I wear a watch 24/7, not 18/7.

You sleep with your watch on? Gosh that sounds uncomfortable haha. I even go so far as to set my wedding band on the nightstand for the sake of comfort.

 

[telefono]

The ones that complain should continue using the watch they wear now.

Or they should invent a battery that lasts as long as they want it to last, then sell it to Apple and the others.

I charge my iPhone daily and it doesn't bother me at all. I'd love to have 1 month or even 1 year battery life but it doesn't exist yet.

A few months back someone said Apple is clueless because many years ago LCD watches could last up to 10 years with only a small cell battery.........what a clueless thing to say

 

[Kroxx]

If the watch battery gets too low, it goes into power save mode, then lasts for a further 72 hours as a regular watch....or until charged

 

[leenak]

People have mentioned this over and over in previous threads but I'll give my opinion.

Current activity trackers last well over a day, some last for months. My iPhone even lasts for more than a day. I don't charge my iPhone daily. Other people have reported that other smart watches last more than a day as well.

If you travel internationally, there is a good chance that your watch will go into power save mode or die completely.

If you happen to be away from a power source for multiple days, then you'll have to bring along an extra device to power your watch. In my instance, this is usually summer camping/hiking trips.

Also, many activity trackers have the ability to track sleep and people have found sleep tracking to be a useful tool. So if you wanted to explore sleep tracking with the apple watch, it'd be difficult to do.

And should we really have to worry at the end of the day, especially for a long day whether our watches will have enough power? sure there is power save mode but for those that are looking into activity tracking features, it'd be nice to have it for more than an estimated day.

 

[satterjm]

I'm already in a routine of charging my phone daily, so now I will just have another chord to connect each night.

 

[mbern1008]

Here's my complaint about the battery and I've not heard much about this issue but it is 18 hours of battery life out of the box. At what point while it is still under warranty will apple replace the battery once the life of the battery starts to deplete. Once it hits 80% of it's expected life it will only be good for 14.4 hours. How long from the point you buy it will it get to that level of life? 6 months, a year, 2 years. That is a non-answered question that troubles me. I think within the first two years I should be ok since I did not get applecare but I do get an extra year of warranty through my credit card. Watch batteries are relatively cheap but I've seen rumors watch battery replacement will run $79 which is quite high for such a small battery.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

No I get that that would be a concern. (Not necessarily accurate for everyone though, eh?)

I'm talking about the people who want more than a nightly charge.

My point was that you always have to consider what you do with it. If it had, say 2 day battery life, then people would never have to bother thinking about it but just use it as much as they needed, and then charge when they have the opportunity. It would just be a better product.

 

[chrise2]

Traditional watches last anywhere from a few years to forever and are comparing to that. That's silly. However, it would be nice to get two days so that you're not worried about it lasting 1 day. My 6 Plus is the first phone I've had in a long time that I don't have to think about charging in the middle of the day. That's all I want from the watch. Hopefully, my typical usage will get me that. I'm assuming the battery will last about 2 hours when i first get it as I will be playing with it non-stop.

 

[Cuyler]

...
I think within the first two years I should be ok since I did not get applecare but I do get an extra year of warranty through my credit card. Watch batteries are relatively cheap but I've seen rumors watch battery replacement will run $79 which is quite high for such a small battery.

Is battery replacement covered by AppleCare+? This page says out-of-warrantee battery replacement is $79.

 

[Robert M.]

Because people don't want to charge their watch everyday? I was also born in the mid-80s. We're approaching 30. This shouldn't be too hard to understand. My Apple Watch is on the way, but I don't look forward to charging it every night. It's a hassle, and in reality it'll probably die by 9PM for most people on a busy day.

 

[Piggie]

I've never worn a watch. I was born in the mid 80s, and by the time I hit high school, I always had my phone on me to tell the time. So up until (hopefully this Friday) my watch has been my phone, and I must charge my watch nightly.

I keep seeing people complain about battery life on the Watch.
They're upset because they think the battery life is terrible because it doesn't last more than a day.

I mean of course extended battery life is awesome, but.
Practically speaking, why would you want/need battery life to be longer than a day?
What would the advantage be?

I just don't get it...

Look at is this way.

And of course, everyone's home and possessions are different, but look around your home for every single item that runs on a battery and consider how it would be like to have to charge each one every day.

Could be a wall clock, TV remote control, HiFi remote control, A carridge/bedside clock perhaps? Car electric keyring, perhaps a wireless mouse/keyboard, at work could be measuring equipment.

All these items current last months, if not even years on a set of batteries, imagine charging them every single day.

Anyone being honest, will admit it's a pain to have to charge things daily.
It happened when we switched over to the larger screen colour phones and people just had to accept it.
Unfortunately now it's accepted, the industry has no real incentive to use this as a selling point.

Or rather, it's never been tried.
It would be nice to see Apple offer thicker iphone with longer battery life and see how they sold. But they won't.

 

[Bleedcubbieblue]

My only thing is that if it did last longer I could possibly use it as a sleep tracker...maybe in a few generations

 

[Patriot24]

Most reviewers claim that it isn't really an issue. I've seen several where they basically said they had 30% left at the end of each day.

Joanna Stern said that she routinely ran out near the end of the evening, and then copped to the fact that she was doing multiple workouts on those days (screen on the whole time).

You'll have to charge it, but it doesn't sound nearly as bad as people made it out to be. Shocker.

 

[zmunkz]

Anyone being honest has to admit that charging things daily sucks. My phone battery usually lasts all day, BUT I do have to worry about it. I often get the low battery warning. Particularly if I'm out late I have to ration the battery use, and sometimes it does die and I'm left without.

We all deal with this and its just the way it is, but obviously it is annoying. I dont see why you should be surprised that people were hoping the watch could do better in this area, especially when apple is known for making great strides with battery technology. Myself, I would have expected this to be one of the challenges Apple committed themselves to solving before going to market, but instead it looks like they were satisfied with the existing tech they had.

Its not a dealbreaker, but you cant be surprised people complain.

 

[joshcls]

I guess we'll just have to see how daily use is. People are complaining it won't make it through the evening but haven't even used it yet.

Those that want it to last longer than a standard days use, days, etc. Is really what I'm referring to. It's not a watch, it's a tech gadget. You're already charging your phone, it's just 1 more cable.

Such is the price of early adopting.

 

[scwinsett]

A "battery life" complaint is when someone has a complaint about the battery life. Hope that helps

 

[joshcls]

A "battery life" complaint is when someone has a complaint about the battery life. Hope that helps

WHAT? Seriously? Wow. Thanks.

 

[macduke]

I think the main thing is that people expected Apple to release a "dumbed down" smart watch. Basically the Pebble but with better looks and UI. The Apple Watch is essentially an iPhone 4S in a tiny package on your wrist without cellular or cameras. Maybe closer to the current gen iPod Touch, which is still rocking an A5 chip oddly enough! It's fairly incredible when you look at it like that. However I was hoping for more battery life too.

You sleep with your watch on? Gosh that sounds uncomfortable haha. I even go so far as to set my wedding band on the nightstand for the sake of comfort.

I think many people do. I do. Especially people who started wearing a watch at a young age. Weirdly enough I actually have a dent in my left wrist from my watch since I've been wearing one since 2nd or 3rd grade, which makes it quite comfortable to wear at night lol. It conforms to my wrist since I wear link bands. Probably should have increased the size—but I don't like it too loose or it pulls my arm hairs. I even measured and my left wrist a little smaller than my right wrist. When I got married I didn't get used to wearing a wedding band at night, so I still usually take that off unless I'm so tired I forget.

My point was that you always have to consider what you do with it. If it had, say 2 day battery life, then people would never have to bother thinking about it but just use it as much as they needed, and then charge when they have the opportunity. It would just be a better product.

That's pretty much the case with my iPhone 6 Plus. I just don't have to worry about it because no matter how much I try to use it, it always has plenty of juice left at the beginning of the day. About half the time I can run it two days, and even a few times for three days. However many people don't like the larger size. I'm getting fed up with it myself, so I'm going to downsize on the 6S. To get better battery life we would need pretty large watches—and that market is a bit more niche at the moment.

My only thing is that if it did last longer I could possibly use it as a sleep tracker...maybe in a few generations

I would really like that because some nights I wake up so much or don't get much rest and it would be nice to know more exactly what is going on. It would also be neat if it could measure any snoring and I could try different positions, try some sleep breaking aid products or also lose a few pounds to improve it. I'd just like to see the data. Maybe adjusting my Nest schedule would help too. That's why the data would be useful! Experimenting is fun.

Such is the price of early adopting.

Yeah but I don't really expect it to get much better unless they make some huge strides in technology—not only chips but batteries which have been lagging the overall advancement of the industry. Case in point: The original iPhone usually had about 10% or less at the end of the day. Sometimes a little higher. The iPhone 6 usually has 20-30%. Over seven years of progress and the battery has only improved by that much. I get that iPhones today do a lot more than back then, but Apple watch will probably also get additional features—specifically more advanced sensors for health tracking, and a faster chip to mitigate some of the slight lag people have reported. I could also see them adding a front facing camera at some point.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Sweet! I'm glad we get another thread to discuss the same topic that's been discussed in a lot of other threads already. Sure, it would be really nice if people did their part to help maintain some degree of organization and coherency to this forum, but the forum members have spoken and it's apparent that they prefer to do things differently.

 

[GoingDark]

You sleep with your watch on? Gosh that sounds uncomfortable haha. I even go so far as to set my wedding band on the nightstand for the sake of comfort.

I sleep with my watch on, for a variety of reasons, but here's just one - alarms.
My girlfriend and I have different work schedules, so sometimes when I spend the night at her place I have to get up earlier than she does. Our options are that I set my super-loud, super-annoying iPhone alarm (which wakes both of us up), or I set my Pebble with an alarm that only vibrates my wrist (and leaves her happily asleep).

Now with the Apple Watch I'm going to have to come up with another solution.

 

[Karnicopia]

I'm actually fine with the daily charge I charge my phone every day so I'll just put my watch on a stand every night. That isn't a problem for me. It also sounds like apple understated the battery life from reviews so I don't see getting a full day use being an issue for me.

Where I think the battery does become a concern for me is that they got rid of watch faces like photo and time lapse to save as much battery as possible. Probably can't offer custom watch faces because they have to limit the number of pixels that are on and severely limited app developers so they don't hog battery resources.

So I'd like to see an improvement in battery not necessarily to get significantly past 1 charge per day (which I don't see happening soon) but to get rid of some of these limitations in watch face and apps. Not a deal breaker by any means but that's where I would apply an increase in battery life.

 

[joshcls]

Sweet! I'm glad we get another thread to discuss the same topic that's been discussed in a lot of other threads already. Sure, it would be really nice if people did their part to help maintain some degree of organization and coherency to this forum, but the forum members have spoken and it's apparent that they prefer to do things differently.

Settle down there thread police.