Does using Radio on Apple Watch drain battery faster than streaming?

[swandy]

I just sold my Apple Watch 7 and used the credit towards a Series 8 (in hopes of it lasting till the Series 10 is released). Anyway I went out for a run this morning - about 1 hour/5.25 miles - using the Watch for GPS and listening to an Apple Radio Station using my AirPods Pros. I started the exercise with the Watch battery at about 99% and after I was back in the house for a while the battery was at 52% - so figure the watch was worn for about 3 1/2 hours including the 1 hour exercising. Seems a little extreme - especially for a Watch I have only had for about 10 days. Even when the battery health on my AW7 was down to 82% I didn't see a drop like that - though I would generally walk/run with downloaded music, not using cellular for the Radio on the Watch.
Spoke to Apple and the senior tech commented that the Radio portion of Apple Music will drain the battery much quicker (especially on the Watch as opposed to the iPhone) and than just streaming Apple Music from a playlist or an artist in my library. I said I assumed that any streaming (radio or Apple Music Library) would be harder on the battery than playing downloaded music, but not that dramatic a difference.
Any thoughts to those who have used their Apple Watch with the Radio portion of Apple Music when outside streaming? Thanks.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Yes if you are using cellular on the Apple Watch it really does hammer the battery ridiculously quickly.

 

[swandy]

Yes if you are using cellular on the Apple Watch it really does hammer the battery ridiculously quickly.

Yes, I understand that. But when I explained what I saw on my previous Series 7 and I didn't see it that dramatic, she said that using the RADIO for streaming as opposed to playing an artist or playlist from Apple Music it is worse.
My question is have users seen their battery drain much faster using RADIO on Apple Music rather than just streaming an artist or playlist. Thanks.

 

[mk313]

I know this won't answer the question, but it kind of makes sense to me. When you are streaming a playlist or whatever, you can download all of the data at once, but if it's streaming a radio station, it would have to continuously download content over the cellular connection.

As an aside, I don't know what you were seeing before, but that ~50% drain over 3 hours while including an hour of exercising, seems about right from my usage. I don't really use the radio very often, but just listen to music or podcasts, and that seems to be close to what I see normally (Series 6). Although I will say that my experience varies dramatically depending on the strength of the cellular signal. If it's weak, it will drain super quickly.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Oh I see, sorry when you say radio you literally do mean a radio station as opposed to the built-in radio (cellular).

 

[swandy]

I know this won't answer the question, but it kind of makes sense to me. When you are streaming a playlist or whatever, you can download all of the data at once, but if it's streaming a radio station, it would have to continuously download content over the cellular connection.

As an aside, I don't know what you were seeing before, but that ~50% drain over 3 hours while including an hour of exercising, seems about right from my usage. I don't really use the radio very often, but just listen to music or podcasts, and that seems to be close to what I see normally (Series 6). Although I will say that my experience varies dramatically depending on the strength of the cellular signal. If it's weak, it will drain super quickly.

That is sort of the "explanation" that she gave me. She said I have a few days to return the watch and get a new one - but she doubted it would make a difference. Might just have to go back to downloading music to exercise with. (Though I do like the four Apple Music "created for you" playlists because they automatically update every week, where most the Apple Music playlists/essentials either are never updated or it is done rarely. Ah well - guess you can't have everything.
I am just concerned if I let the few days go past (I think I have until Monday or Tuesday) I won't be able to exchange it for another Watch. Thanks.

 

[swandy]

Oh I see, sorry when you say radio you literally do mean a radio station as opposed to the built-in radio (cellular).

In Apple Music (both on the Watch and iPhone) there is an option to listen to Radio with lots of "stations" like the Smooth Jazz that I like when walking. Not a separate app on the Watch, just Apple Music.