Do you have high expectations for AW Series 8?

[Howard2k]

The vast majority of the time the 18-24 hour battery life is fine for me. But if I'm staying out overnight or want to go away somewhere, or even just forget to charge it, it can be a hassle. But at the same time, if it's at 15% and I'm running out shopping for the afternoon I can bump it to 50% pretty quickly and be out the door. It's not like I HAVE to charge it all the way to 100%.

It's not a massive issue for me but it would be a convenience and quality of life improvement. I'd take a longer battery life for sure.

 

[satchmo]

My biggest ask is also better battery life. Yes, you can recharge every night. But it would be nice if you didn’t have to.
I keep going back to Garmin and how their Venu line can get 5-7 days of battery.

Sure, Apple has more notifications and probably some things going on in the background. But can’t these be tweaked in an watchOS update? Apple has so much history and battery experience that I’m puzzled whey they can’t get more than 2 or 3 days. I’m just hoping they can get to 4-5 days.

 

[PaladinGuy]

My biggest ask is also better battery life. Yes, you can recharge every night. But it would be nice if you didn’t have to.
I keep going back to Garmin and how their Venu line can get 5-7 days of battery.

Sure, Apple has more notifications and probably some things going on in the background. But can’t these be tweaked in an watchOS update? Apple has so much history and battery experience that I’m puzzled whey they can’t get more than 2 or 3 days. I’m just hoping they can get to 4-5 days.

I kind of agree with you, but I really think 7 days is the sweet spot. It’s actually a pain in the butt trying to closely watch a battery throughout the week when you get 3-6 days depending on use. I think a routine is essential. I want to either charge once a day or the same day of every week. That’s my opinion. I’d like to have more breathing room during the day with the Apple Watch though.

The only thing I can think of for how 3-6 days is ideal is if you travel a lot or hike/camp.

 

[edhchoe]

no high hopes. But I do have AAPL stocks. So I always hope they do well every year.

 

[ufgatorvet]

The biggest upgrade ever was the always on display. Always weird to me how people see that as minor. Didn’t want a watch til then

This sums it up for me too. My wife's S1 AW always looked odd blacked out, but I bought the kool aid when AOD came out and haven't looked back ...

 

[zachleft]

Is this page reliable at all?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1461311848058429444

 

[GrandeLatte]

no high hopes. But I do have AAPL stocks. So I always hope they do well every year.

AAPL never really go anywhere unless you've had it for over 10 years. Any time they have a nice quarter, or sales is so fantastic, the stock price still will not budge. ?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Not really wanting flat sides on the watch as I think it will chip in use being a blunt edge. I hope if they introduce flat sides they keep this purely for stainless and titanium models. Fingers crossed.

 

[canyonblue737]

I kind of agree with you, but I really think 7 days is the sweet spot. It’s actually a pain in the butt trying to closely watch a battery throughout the week when you get 3-6 days depending on use. I think a routine is essential. I want to either charge once a day or the same day of every week. That’s my opinion. I’d like to have more breathing room during the day with the Apple Watch though.

The only thing I can think of for how 3-6 days is ideal is if you travel a lot or hike/camp.

I agree but even getting 3 day battery life would still be worth it because it would mean two things...

1. The majority would still charge daily (because like you said that would help to remember) but in the event you couldn't or forgot, it wouldn't be a big deal.

2. 3 day or more battery life likely would mean a jump from 6-8 hour to 24 hour GPS / workout battery life which would go a long way to making the Apple Watch more useful for long duration hikes, triathlons, marathons and the like.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I agree but even getting 3 day battery life would still be worth it because it would mean two things...

1. The majority would still charge daily (because like you said that would help to remember) but in the event you couldn't or forgot, it wouldn't be a big deal.

2. 3 day or more battery life likely would mean a jump from 6-8 hour to 24 hour GPS / workout battery life which would go a long way to making the Apple Watch more useful for long duration hikes, triathlons, marathons and the like.

For sure. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love more battery life, if for no other reason to help make sure that I easily make it through a day with any usage.

I think that’s the minimum next step for Apple. There’s still not quite as much headroom as I’d like for even daily charging.

I admittedly drool over the weeks of battery life that some Garmin watches get.

 

[utzelu]

My first expectation is for Apple not to change the design of the case to the flat sides rumored last year. That was a dull design indeed.

Secondly, longer battery. Even two full days is a significant improvement.

Third, longer battery life, so the battery doesn’t need replacing every 2 years.

 

[MadCar]

it has to be better battery life. In business for me an AOD is important to be able to glance at the time and that gives you that.

I’m down to 30% left after a single day, that’s just not good enough. At least before that I could go away for a night and come back and not need to grab extra cables to charge a watch that just isn’t good enough. It needs to have 2 full days of life to be more viable for most And certainly me.
if they can improve this in that direction that would be brilliant, rivals are getting there Apple needs to offer that.

Some new sensors would be good, but they aren’t really being pushed by rivals so they won’t try that hard yet to stay ahead.

One other software related change is why do I need to buy another app to see my totals. Why can I find out how much activity and exercise I did in December on its own, or all of 2021 or just the last combined year. Nope nothing, yes I can see a graph of activity but not the exact data, the only way to do that is to but a third party app, is it a device to help me improve and exercise or not, come on Apple!!!

 

[Night Spring]

One other software related change is why do I need to buy another app to see my totals. Why can I find out how much activity and exercise I did in December on its own, or all of 2021 or just the last combined year. Nope nothing, yes I can see a graph of activity but not the exact data, the only way to do that is to but a third party app, is it a device to help me improve and exercise or not, come on Apple!!!

You do know that you can see that info on your phone, right?

 

[Rychiar]

My first expectation is for Apple not to change the design of the case to the flat sides rumored last year. That was a dull design indeed.

Secondly, longer battery. Even two full days is a significant improvement.

Third, longer battery life, so the battery doesn’t need replacing every 2 years.

I owned my Apple Watch series 2 for 3 years and my friend has had it for another 2 now and it’s still going strong ??‍♂️

 

[IJBrekke]

This is likely an unconventional take here, but I wish Apple would make a hybrid-style version of their watch that looked and acted more like a classic timepiece. Round, analog hands, e-paper screen/watch face background to display notifications. Still included: gps, fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring. Maybe 5-7 days of battery life. An overall aesthetic that is more watch, less wrist-worn computer. And the sheen of slick software implementation that only Apple can reliably pull off.

I would buy this instantly, as it would do everything I actually use my S5 for and would look better. A “trim the fat” Apple Watch.

Yes, there are other hybrid watches in this overall style made by other companies. All of them are somewhat compromised and don’t quite check all the boxes I’m looking for.

 

[MadCar]

You do know that you can see that info on your phone, right?

The data is there but the ability to see totals on a given period isn't. You can show what you have done in the last month but get a total for a period for example a total from the start of the year or the last quarter you can't. Unless that is you want to add it up and go directly into the data which I don't I want it on a plate as many people do.

 

[basehead617]

One feature most people don’t use, due to the need to charge overnight, is sleep analysis. Charging once a week would let that be more useful.

Power wise mine (S4) is usually fine if i accidentally don’t charge for a night and can’t do so until the next night.

I think there is a lot lot lot more they can do with the apps people use most with the watch. Why can the fitness app only have mile splits and not arbitrary length lap splits? why is there no way to visualize/sort/filter your workouts and find fastest splits and fastest times at different distances?

For the hardware itself i’m sure they have many years of ideas in the pipeline, but technology is often lagging behind ideas.

They need to do something with authentication, maybe reading skin patterns like you read a thumb print. Having to put in a password sucks. Thumbprint scanning was teased for S7 but didn’t happen. Even that is annoying to do though.

They can improve the heart rate sensor to not need as tight a fit.

It could be a lot more configurable too, to enable/disable things as needed which could help battery life.

It could use another even stronger haptic level - even ‘Prominent’ is easy to miss when you are active.

Not sure how but improving workout distances to be more accurate would help, i’ve seen huge variation which must come only from GPS wonkiness. Maybe there’s something it can do with rangefinding and sensors there.

 

[satchmo]

This is likely an unconventional take here, but I wish Apple would make a hybrid-style version of their watch that looked and acted more like a classic timepiece. Round, analog hands, e-paper screen/watch face background to display notifications. Still included: gps, fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring. Maybe 5-7 days of battery life. An overall aesthetic that is more watch, less wrist-worn computer. And the sheen of slick software implementation that only Apple can reliably pull off.

I would buy this instantly, as it would do everything I actually use my S5 for and would look better. A “trim the fat” Apple Watch.

Yes, there are other hybrid watches in this overall style made by other companies. All of them are somewhat compromised and don’t quite check all the boxes I’m looking for.

I’m guessing you’re referring to something like a Galaxy 4 Classic watch.

I hear you, but it isn’t going to happen. I also find round watches more aesthetically pleasing, but this is Apple. They establish a look which over time becomes iconic and identifiable as an Apple product. But if you want Apple integration and a round aesthetic, the closest I’ve found that checks the boxes is a Garmin Venu 2.

Traditional timepieces won’t ever go away, so having one that serves more as fashion, plus a smart watch is what I’ve resorted to.

 

[Night Spring]

One feature most people don’t use, due to the need to charge overnight, is sleep analysis.

There's no need to charge overnight. Newer watches take about an hour to charge. Older ones took about an hour and a half. If you have trouble getting the watch to last 23 hours on a full charge, then charge before going to bed, and top it off in the morning while you are showering/dressing etc. That might feel too fussy to some people, but plenty of people would easily make that part of their routine.

 

[Howard2k]

Same - I don't charge overnight, there's never any need for that in my experience.

 

[GlenK]

New to Apple Watch but my new 7 will charge from 20% to 80% in 30 minutes.

 

[basehead617]

There's no need to charge overnight. Newer watches take about an hour to charge. Older ones took about an hour and a half. If you have trouble getting the watch to last 23 hours on a full charge, then charge before going to bed, and top it off in the morning while you are showering/dressing etc. That might feel too fussy to some people, but plenty of people would easily make that part of their routine.

I didn't mean that it needed to charge all night, just that I assumed most people put the watch on the charger when they went to sleep, rather than not wearing it for some period of time during the day.

 

[Night Spring]

I didn't mean that it needed to charge all night, just that I assumed most people put the watch on the charger when they went to sleep, rather than not wearing it for some period of time during the day.

Well, yes, if you aren't interested in sleep tracking, that's what you'd do. But if you do want to use Apple Watch to track sleep, then you figure out a charging schedule that allows you to do that. It's not that complicated, but it does require a bit of thought.