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How's battery health after 2-3 years of use?

K

Kraizelburg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 10, 2018
437
113
Spain
Hi all, I'm thinking to get the series 4 40mm. This would be my first apple watch but I'm worried about battery lifespan after some years of use. Does battery degrade a lot after years of use?

Opinions are welcome.

Cheers
 
b0fh666 said:
it does degrade, but still works fine. same as phones.
Click to expand...
My question is by how much as usually smaller batteries degrade faster than large ones.
Basically I just don't wanna buy something that is useless after 1-2 years.

Thanks
 
I change my watch every year but all my 42 & 44mm watches had mega performance after 12 months so I would imagine that you would be good for two years with battery performance.
 
I'm still wearing an apple watch series 0 which was bought on day one. I still get a full day of usage I.e I take it off the charger at around 7.30am and it usually give me a 10% warning at about 10pm. If I go to bed at midnight, then it is usually dead by that point. It's closing in on being 5 years old, so that is pretty good. It's still the original battery.
 
Kraizelburg said:
Hi all, I'm thinking to get the series 4 40mm. This would be my first apple watch but I'm worried about battery lifespan after some years of use. Does battery degrade a lot after years of use?

Opinions are welcome.

Cheers
Click to expand...
My wife and I started with the original watch, I guess that would have been series 0. I had the 42, she got the 38. My battery life was great, could go 2 full days with no problem before charging it if I wanted. She never could go a second day but it was fine for one day. We still had them when watchOS 4 came out. That decimated battery life on both. I was still fine for one day, she couldn’t make it through the day without recharging it.

We both upgraded to series 3. This time I convinced her to get the 42. Battery life was great for both of us. Now we’ve got series 5, I got the 44. It is bigger than series 3 so she didn’t want something as large so she got the 40. My battery life is adequate, no problem getting through a full day with my normal routine. She’s barely getting through a day, sometimes doesn’t. There have been many complaints about battery life with watchOS 6 so that may be some of this. But there is a major difference in battery performance between the larger watch and the smaller version. My advice is that the larger watch gives you greater legibility and far better battery life. I have smaller wrists, the bands I use are strapped to the very ends of their length but there is no way I would ever get the smaller version unless the cost of the larger one was completely prohibitive. She’s thinking about returning her watch but we’re hoping to see if watchOS 6.1 is released soon. Many have reported much better battery life with the 6.1 beta. If so she’ll be ok, if not she’ll either return it or be stuck with a mistake.
 
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johnmccurdy said:
I'm still wearing an apple watch series 0 which was bought on day one. I still get a full day of usage I.e I take it off the charger at around 7.30am and it usually give me a 10% warning at about 10pm. If I go to bed at midnight, then it is usually dead by that point. It's closing in on being 5 years old, so that is pretty good. It's still the original battery.
Click to expand...

I’m also still using the original Apple Watch bought on the first day. It stills gets through a non work out day but I have to charge it after going to a gym if I want it to last the rest of the day. I recently had the battery checked at an Apple Store and apparently it’s still good and doesn’t need replacement.
 
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My wife finally had enough. We’re heading to the Apple Store to return her 40mm series 5 and get the 44. The 40 has barely been able to get through about 14 hours or so without going completely dead. The batteries themselves may hold up over time but battery life on the smaller ones, especially with this current watchOS is poor.
 
I have two series 3 watches that will be two years old in December. They still last longer per charge than my series 4 44mm watches do. I bought my series 4 watches in April.
 
I had expected some reduced battery life because of the always on display and so far it’s acceptable on the 44. My wife’s 40, not so much. She now has the same 44 I have and should be much happier.
 
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