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If you do Sleep Tracking, when are you going t charge your Apple Watch? (Serious)
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I think the idea is to take it off when you wake and place it onto the charger. Then go do your morning stuff, shower, breakfast etc. Check the charge via your iPhone and then grab it from the charger before you leave for work etc. I'm thinking I will put my charger next to my car keys so I remember to grab the watch before leaving.
IMHO the battery life will never be as good as the Fenix or other devices and personally I'm happy with that. There is huge compromise on display quality compared to the Fenix and a huge compromise on feature quality compared to other devices. I guess right now we cant have everything.
As others have mentioned Im happy with what AW does while Im awake and personally I find sleep tracking a bit of a novelty, but that's only my opinion. That's the beauty of AW its many things to many people but doesn't always suit everyone.
Old style tracking was a gimmick, but now you can track REM sleep, awakenings, etc and its actually helpful. You can actually validate the importance of better sleep hygiene as you see the reduction in the number of awakenings, or you can track REM progression over night that give you a pretty good idea about refreshing sleep and sleep debt. It's good stuff.
I see that charging can become a subconscious automaton process, but if you have kids, they can easily break any of your routines including making you forget to put the watch back on etc. Like when they refuse to wear the yellow flamingo shirt because they want to go to school in their rocket PJs, they throw a fit because they want a 3rd cup of cocoa or that they refuse to put on matching socks. x10 and you get the idea...
I have been using the apple watch to track my sleep for more than a year now. I realise that using the apple watch while sleeping doesn’t consume a lot of battery in the first place. The few percentage points that you lose can quickly be regained by recharging the watch upon waking up. Then I go ‘watchless’ while showering, brushing my teeth, making breakfast and reading or watching the news before heading to work. By that time, your watch should be fully charged to face the day.
In the evening, when i’m back at home, I immediately put it back to charging. The few hours in the evenings and just before bed, I don’t use the watch at all. In fact, I try to minimise getting notifications at night as a way to digitally detox, and unplug myself before heading to bed.
Thus, your morning routine before work and evening routine after work are ample opportunities to charge your watch.
In the evening, when i’m back at home, I immediately put it back to charging. The few hours in the evenings and just before bed, I don’t use the watch at all. In fact, I try to minimise getting notifications at night as a way to digitally detox, and unplug myself before heading to bed.
Thus, your morning routine before work and evening routine after work are ample opportunities to charge your watch.
I imagine this is setting up devs/bug-catchers for a head start on the software, with a S6 Apple Watch to be released this fall, complete with a large gain in battery life and a quick-charge feature.
Just looked it up, it takes 1.5H to charge it 80%. That's a long shower.
Not to be a "nay-sayer" here, but when I had the Galaxy Active 2, the battery would last 2 days, WITH sleep tracking. Then, if I charged it every morning, the thing would go from about 60% battery to full in about 30 minutes max. I sold the Galaxy setup because I like the Apple ecosystem, but I have to say, if Samsung can do it, why not Apple?
There are hints that the AW6 will drop force Touch, thus freeing up space for a bigger battery, that’s my guess. Obviously for thsie of us sticking with an older watch makes it trickier.
I have an 4 with cellular, charge it in the morning during morning routine, and on the evening during reading in bed. Never really falls below 30%. Will likely keep it another year or two, unless there is a killer hardware feature on the 6.
I have an 4 with cellular, charge it in the morning during morning routine, and on the evening during reading in bed. Never really falls below 30%. Will likely keep it another year or two, unless there is a killer hardware feature on the 6.
Pre-covid, I would charge my watch at work. Long hours sitting at the desk, easy enough. Non-work days, I have to remember to charge it at some point before 2 or 3 pm, or worst case I can eke enough to charge in the evening just before bed, if I haven't used GPS tracking (outdoor exercise usually). So with low-normal use, I can get 36-40 hours in a charge. I have a keychain charger for the watch that I can get two full charges from, which is what I tend to use on weekends.
Yeah. I wear mine all day and all night, then it charges while I stagger around getting me mornin' tea, etc.
At night, I switch to a big-numerals/all-red face (so I can read the time without my glasses) and put it on Theater Mode so it only lights up when I tap it.
This has been my way of using the Watch since my Series 0. (I now have a Series 5 and wear the S0 while the S5 charges.)
So now I'm gonna have to stand 13 or 14 hours to close my rings if I'm charging for an hour or 2 during the day?
I probably just won't use sleep tracking. The results, whether positive or negative, will not affect my decision making in any way so I don't care whether I flopped around 4 times or 10 times while I slept.
I probably just won't use sleep tracking. The results, whether positive or negative, will not affect my decision making in any way so I don't care whether I flopped around 4 times or 10 times while I slept.
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This is the kind of feature that will be more useful when the next generation of Apple Watch inevitably has better battery life. It's tough like people have said getting ready in the morning/showering is a good time to charge it but that likely isn't enough time for the current watches. So you'll need to charge it for a longer period of time sometime during the day every other day or so. I don't really want to take off my watch at all during the day so that's not ideal. Maybe in the evening before bed?
I top up my battery twice a day. I immediately put it on the charger when I get home from picking my kids up after work, and when I wake up in the morning. It’s usually on the charger no more than 45 minutes to be fully charged. I’ve never had a issue where it died.
You say easy....but surely like me when I’m getting ready for work I will be using my watch rather than the phone because I’m in different rooms prepping for leaving the house.....I want leave my phone on the side until I’m ready to leave I don’t want to be messing about with a phone 📱 while brushing my teeth and looking for something to wear, that’s the whole point of a watch on your wrist, so you can check the the time and receive notifications and reminders.
Agree 100%. You become the slave of your watch if you always have to think forward about charging.
I don't own an AW at this point but I didn't see anything in OS7 that would make me buy one. Seriously, hand-washing? An app for something that already has a good app (autosleep).
The problem is still battery life. I don't need the theoretical 21/24 days I get on my Fenix, which is actually under a week with music, GPS, HRM and Stryd for 3-4 running workouts / week. The AW is more efficient with music and I wouldn't need a HRM with it but it just chews 3% / hour of battery in normal use and that's just not good enough. It means dedicated charging time most days beyond being in the shower.
Give me a reliable 2-days and I'd give it some thought.
The problem is still battery life. I don't need the theoretical 21/24 days I get on my Fenix, which is actually under a week with music, GPS, HRM and Stryd for 3-4 running workouts / week. The AW is more efficient with music and I wouldn't need a HRM with it but it just chews 3% / hour of battery in normal use and that's just not good enough. It means dedicated charging time most days beyond being in the shower.
Give me a reliable 2-days and I'd give it some thought.
I’ve not quite had 3% an hour drain in my normal usage so far.
I did however use it on a 3 hour walk yesterday, GPS, LTE, heart rate, streaming music, a couple of short phone calls and a handful of texts. Left my XR at home and had my enacfire (non-AirPod) Bluetooth earphones constantly connected. Used 60% battery by the time I returned home, at first it seemed excessive until I realised just how much I had accomplished from a tiny little watch!
Try a Sport Loop band. When I wear that band, I don't know my Watch is even on my wrist.
I second this! Sport loops are the yoga/sweat pants of watch bands! So comfy!