Is my AW6 suffering from excessive battery drain, or is this normal?

[Capeto]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded from a 42mm GPS AW3 to a 44mm GPS AW6. On my AW3, I typically ended the day with about 60-70% of battery left, depending on what kind of workout I did and for how long. Most settings were pretty standard, and I did not have Hey Siri or Raise to Listen on.

On my AW6, I'm finding that I end the day with about 35-40% battery left. While I still don't have Hey Siri or Raise to Listen enabled, I have enabled other settings that were not available on my AW3: Fall detection, Loud noise notification (80dB threshold, I believe), Handwashing alerts (both when detecting you're washing your hands, and a reminder when I get home), and AOD.

While I understand that these settings and features consume power, I was wondering if seeing this level of battery drain is normal for the AW6. I would like to try it for sleep tracking, but with only 40% left at the end of my day I'm not too sure if it would make it through another 8 hours. Is this typical for my settings, or am I suffering from the dreaded battery drain others are reporting with WatchOS 7?

 

[jdb8167]

Sounds about right. While sleeping you generally use less power. Getting through the night should be a lot less than 40%. More like 10-15%.

I wouldn’t worry about Siri and Raise to Listen. I doubt they take up much battery. For me on the Series 6 it seems like the big new battery drain was measuring blood oxygen while sleeping. After turning that off, I get about the same for my Series 6 as I did with my Series 5.

 

[Markgnyc2]

That is about what I am getting. I have never run so low on battery on an Apple Watch and I had a series 0 and then a series 4. Doesn't make sense. Others are raving about their battery life. Strange.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you are ending your day with plenty of Apple Watch battery left, there is nothing to be concerned about.

 

[Capeto]

If you are ending your day with plenty of Apple Watch battery left, there is nothing to be concerned about.

It's not necessarily that I don't have enough (I wish my SE2020 had 40% left at the end of the day), but rather the discrepancy compared to my 3-year-old AW3.

Again, I understand these new features consume power, but given this watch's increased battery capacity and processor improvements, I'm wondering if this discrepancy is warranted.

I guess I could try turning all this stuff off so that the settings match those I had on my AW3 and finding out for myself.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It's not necessarily that I don't have enough (I wish my SE2020 had 40% left at the end of the day), but rather the discrepancy compared to my 3-year-old AW3.

Again, I understand these new features consume power, but given this watch's increased battery capacity and processor improvements, I'm wondering if this discrepancy is warranted.

I guess I could try turning all this stuff off so that the settings match those I had on my AW3 and finding out for myself.

Don’t compare battery life with the series 3. They are two different watches.

Use your new watch and stop being so obsessed about battery life.

 

[jdb8167]

It's not necessarily that I don't have enough (I wish my SE2020 had 40% left at the end of the day), but rather the discrepancy compared to my 3-year-old AW3.

Again, I understand these new features consume power, but given this watch's increased battery capacity and processor improvements, I'm wondering if this discrepancy is warranted.

I guess I could try turning all this stuff off so that the settings match those I had on my AW3 and finding out for myself.

It should be quite easy to get 40+ hours by turning off features. Many on these forums have done just that. I easily get 36 hours regularly.

But the features of the Apple Watch are generally very helpful and you really don’t gain much by only charging every day and a half vs. every day. The extra battery gives you some flexibility on when to charge but on average you are going to charge your Apple Watch about once every 24 hours.

I usually charge just after I wake up while getting ready for the day. I frequently still have 40-50% battery which means the charging time is relatively short. I generally don’t worry if I get to 100% before I take the watch off the charger. If I know that I’m not going to be able to charge at my normal time or expect to use the watch more heavily than average, then I can top the watch off before bed. It usually takes less than an hour to get to 100% in that situation.

Don’t over think it. Charge when you get under 30% or when you have time. Keeping a spare charger at work can help too. I have a USB-C charging puck that works with my iPad Pro or MacBook Pro that I can use to top off if I’m just sitting at a desk.

 

[bodonnell202]

My series 5 is typically in the 40-50% range, so that's believable between the brighter always on display and blood oxygen monitoring.

 

[0906742]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded from a 42mm GPS AW3 to a 44mm GPS AW6. On my AW3, I typically ended the day with about 60-70% of battery left, depending on what kind of workout I did and for how long. Most settings were pretty standard, and I did not have Hey Siri or Raise to Listen on.

On my AW6, I'm finding that I end the day with about 35-40% battery left. While I still don't have Hey Siri or Raise to Listen enabled, I have enabled other settings that were not available on my AW3: Fall detection, Loud noise notification (80dB threshold, I believe), Handwashing alerts (both when detecting you're washing your hands, and a reminder when I get home), and AOD.

While I understand that these settings and features consume power, I was wondering if seeing this level of battery drain is normal for the AW6. I would like to try it for sleep tracking, but with only 40% left at the end of my day I'm not too sure if it would make it through another 8 hours. Is this typical for my settings, or am I suffering from the dreaded battery drain others are reporting with WatchOS 7?

Similar experience here. My over 3 year old AW3 (still has 100% battery health BTW!!) vs new AW6 is that the old one has noticeable better battery life. I can constantly get 48 hours with about 1/3 battery left. My AW6 is around below 15% the same time without AOD. Also seem to drop percentages during the day much faster, almost every time I check it battery level goes down 1%.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

AOD will always drain the battery and just remember that Apple have always said that the battery life for the Apple Watch is 18 hours

 

[Itinj24]

I have everything turned on and I’m seeing about 2.5-3.5% battery drop per hour on my AW6 (44mm Ti). I sleep with it on too. I easily get 24 hours out of it but it’s usually 30 or more. A nice change from my AW5 (44mm SS) which was burning 5.5-6.5% per hour. My AW4 (44mm Al) was somewhere in between. Of course, everyone’s use case and thusly, battery drain will be different.

 

[0906742]

I have everything turned on and I’m seeing about 2.5-3.5% battery drop per hour on my AW6 (44mm Ti).

Mine is maybe around 3-4% drop per hour with AOD on and display brightness at lowest.
All other but fall detection, hand wash and loud noise detection on. It was a little less when I had AOD off but sill very very far from what my over 3 year old AW3 still gives today (I can easily go 48 hours between charges and I still have around 30% left!!). I once managed to get 48 hours out of my AW6 but battery was nearly empty (10-15% left or so).

Also not sure what happened when I let my AW6 go below 15% since it went kind of a dead looking for a moment. It was not waking up when I tapped the display or pressed button, it would only vibrate when I pressed side button?? Then after little moment (maybe 1-2 minutes later) display finally woke up with battery still showing 15%, and there was something on the screen but I was wearing my contact lenses and I could not see what it said. Then I saw Sygic navigation program was running there (I did not start it) and not sure if the text I saw first was related to it. So not sure it caused some strange issue then. Anyone seen similar happening?