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Kills iPhone battery life

B

BrandonPrice31

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 16, 2014
88
0
Huge flaw with the watch.. You have to keep Bluetooth connected in your phone all day.

My iPhone 6 Plus battery is at 40 percent by 2:00 in the afternoon and I usually get close to 10 hours screen on time.

What do you guys think? Is the Apple watch even practical?
 
Right, people say it saves iPhone battery because you're using the Apple watch instead it, but the iPhone Bluetooth is always on and constantly sending info to the watch draining it's battery

I can't even imagine how bad the iPhone 6 battery is with an Apple watch, good thing I have the 6 plus so it won't be dead by 5pm
 
I have a mophie case with my 6+, hopefully when my watch arrives it will be good
 
I always had Bluetooth on anyway, so for me I am getting better battery, less iPhone usage for sure.
 
I've noticed a slightly accelerated battery drain on my iPhone 6, but since I keep my phone near a charger at my desk I don't really have a great sense for before vs. after. Some of this might be fixed in software (for instance, if it isn't making good use of the Bluetooth LE profile, or is "pinging" too often).
 
Not really noticed anything. Battery is now at 46% and I've been connected all day, even watched a few things on my phone etc. (iPhone 6).

I've always got my bluetooth on anyway so maybe it's not much different for me.
 
If you're a person that always had bluetooth turned off and now you have to turn it on for the watch of course you're gonna se a decrease in battery life. Can't blame the watch because you can't use your battery saving technique any more
 
I have a Bluetooth headset connected all day on my 6+ and no battery issues. Has to be a wayward app or apps that need optimizing.
 
My iPhone battery drained really quickly the first day to the point that I had to use my "emergency external battery pack" by mid-afternoon or my phone would have died. However, levels remained normal all day yesterday (and today so far.)
 
iwayne said:
If you're a person that always had bluetooth turned off and now you have to turn it on for the watch of course you're gonna se a decrease in battery life. Can't blame the watch because you can't use your battery saving technique any more
Click to expand...

And another reasonable possibility
 
Not getting it...

I'm just wondering what the OP is doing for 10 hours of screen on time. My phone has BT on all the time and I get at least a full day of use (usually 2days before I need to charge the phone.
 
This should greatly improve when native apps are available later this year.

It might actually help the watch battery too? Very much looking forward to WatchOS 2.0
 
Wow some of you guys really surprise me with lack of knowledge.. There is a difference between having Bluetooth on (low battery) and Bluetooth on and connected to a device (high battery usage).
 
Slim Boy Fat said:
I have my Garmin Vivosmart connected via Bluetooth constantly and don't run into these problems.
Click to expand...

Don't forget, with the way WatchOS 1.0 works, the parent app on your iPhone is doing all the calculation and sending it back to the watch app.

The Apple apps are probably native apps, but any third party apps you use could drain your iPhone battery depending on what the parent app is requested to do.

The parent apps will run in the background and you will not notice. I bet those seeing high battery drains are using 3rd party apps a lot
 
Branskins said:
Don't forget, with the way WatchOS 1.0 works, the parent app on your iPhone is doing all the calculation and sending it back to the watch app.

The Apple apps are probably native apps, but any third party apps you use could drain your iPhone battery depending on what the parent app is requested to do.

The parent apps will run in the background and you will not notice. I bet those seeing high battery drains are using 3rd party apps a lot
Click to expand...

If it was a hardware issue I'd be worried but software can always be optimized with future updates.
 
When I first got my Pebble Steel months ago I noticed that watch faces that had any sort of weather reporting drained my iPhone's battery much quicker. I assumed it was because the watch was always pinging the phone for weather updates. Once I broke the connection to weather reports the drain on iPhone became more reasonable and really wasn't an issue any more.

I wonder if the same is happening here with the Apple Watch. I've noticed my iPhone battery is draining a bit more than usual again. Perhaps turning off weather would have a similar effect? Just a thought ...
 
Natzoo said:
I have a mophie case with my 6+, hopefully when my watch arrives it will be good
Click to expand...

Mophie case on a 6+, that would be gigantic, how much battery do you use? I can only kill the battery with crazy amount use
 
I had my Pebble watch connected to my 6+ along with bluetooth headphones that were on all day long and there was no significant battery impact. Same applies with the Apple watch.

There is no "flaw".
 
Heavy battery use the first day due to the following.

1. Initial setup of watch

2. Transfer apps.

3. Sync apps.

4. Personalized setup of settings.

5. Transfer of music.

6. Transfer of photos.

7. New toy syndrome.

8. Please add what I am missing.
 
I don't think I've ever turned Bluetooth off and get excellent battery on my 6+. Battery drainage to that extent suggests something else is going on. Perhaps the Watch is attempting to pull information in low signal areas?
 
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