Not allowing us to set the display timeout is a major blunder

[Spetsnazos]

I understand Apple wanted to keep battery life to meet ALL DAY demands but the display is NOT on long enough. Nearly every time time I wish it displayed for a longer period of time. It's bad enough that it's not always on like most watches.

Pull up the maps, wait for it to pull the data from the phone so it gives you a current location: display turns off before you can figure out your location
Try to read your current heart rate, wait for the sensor to get your HR: display turns off before you get a reading.
Try to see what your HR is during a run: display turns off before you can get a reading.

Then there are those moments when you have to fling your wrist like a madman to just get the watch to turn on so you could look at the time. God forbid you are trying to find out what time it is while you're cycling, it takes 3 awkward tries to get it to work.

Plain and simple, the watch turns off WAY too fast. I keep clicking the screen like a moron just to keep it on while I'm reading an email or looking at the calendar.

I'm going to wait a few more months to see if they decide to patch it. Definitely selling and not buying another one if this keeps up. Fenix 3 looks like a much better choice right now...

 

[Armen]

I understand Apple wanted to keep battery life to meet ALL DAY demands but the display is NOT on long enough. Nearly every time time I wish it displayed for a longer period of time. It's bad enough that it's not always on like most watches.

Pull up the maps, wait for it to pull the data from the phone so it gives you a current location: display turns off before you can figure out your location
Try to read your current heart rate, wait for the sensor to get your HR: display turns off before you get a reading.
Try to see what your HR is during a run: display turns off before you can get a reading.

Then there are those moments when you have to fling your wrist like a madman to just get the watch to turn on so you could look at the time. God forbid you are trying to find out what time it is while you're cycling, it takes 3 awkward tries to get it to work.

Plain and simple, the watch turns off WAY too fast. I keep clicking the screen like a moron just to keep it on while I'm reading an email or looking at the calendar.

I'm going to wait a few more months to see if they decide to patch it. Definitely selling and not buying another one if this keeps up. Fenix 3 looks like a much better choice right now...

Sell it now. Problem solved.

 

[Polaroid]

Yeah would be nice to have some settings to adjust it, I want it left on for a while 30 secs - 1 minute would be great

 

[Mac 128]

A camera would come in handy here. It would sense that you are looking at the watch and stay on as long as it recognizes your face. Likewise, it won't turn on if you raise your arm with no intention of looking at your watch, or otherwise accidentally activate the backlight through arm motions.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I wish it was slightly longer too, especially since I am not having any problem whatsoever with the life of my battery with heavy use and long days.

I love my Apple Watch, but for serious fitness pursuits, my Fenix 2 is still superior...for now. I'm sure by v3 or v4, the Apple Watch will fully surpass the other fitness watch makers and will totally decimate those companies. (Just mentioning this as it came to mind when the OP mentioned their Fenix 3.)

 

[Julien]

Apple could add this at any time, like 1.1. Apple's #1 concern was to avoid having all the web sites reporting about how poor the battery life was. This would have been an out the gate killer. Now that Apple has passed that hurdle we will start to see battery eating things added like maybe a custom time out for the display.

 

[iamasmith]

I think all timings are probably correct. Not maybe what you might want as a new user of the watch but set to the most practical settings for long term ownership.

The more I wear the watch and use it the more I realise that the extra display time etc. is superfluous to me. Different use cases of course might prove this wrong but I think they pretty much got it right.

 

[starbot]

Let the man have his opinion even if he ends in an empty threat.

Fact is, his opinion holds water... I would definitely like to tune this parameter.

And how about that friends button....

Sell it now. Problem solved.

 

[Armen]

I'm so glad Apple doesn't take customer

Let the man have his opinion even if he ends in an empty threat.

Fact is, his opinion holds water... I would definitely like to tune this parameter.

And how about that friends button....

In his mind he already broke up with the Apple watch. Waiting a few months isn't going to change anything if he's already talking about that "other" girl.

 

[zmunkz]

I understand Apple wanted to keep battery life to meet ALL DAY demands but the display is NOT on long enough. Nearly every time time I wish it displayed for a longer period of time. It's bad enough that it's not always on like most watches....

Generally I agree... it should be configurable. It is definitely too short for my needs. But calling it a "major blunder" seems dramatic.

 

[Spetsnazos]

I think all timings are probably correct. Not maybe what you might want as a new user of the watch but set to the most practical settings for long term ownership.

The more I wear the watch and use it the more I realise that the extra display time etc. is superfluous to me. Different use cases of course might prove this wrong but I think they pretty much got it right.

What I want as a user is to be able to set the options myself. I want to personalize the experience. I'm not asking to be able to hack it up and down the street like I can with an Android device, but giving basic options is par of the course when making a consumer product.

 

[Spetsnazos]

Apple could add this at any time, like 1.1. Apple's #1 concern was to avoid having all the web sites reporting about how poor the battery life was. This would have been an out the gate killer. Now that Apple has passed that hurdle we will start to see battery eating things added like maybe a custom time out for the display.

This makes a lot of sense. I hope they do this in the future.

I'm okay with ALLOWING us to turn off the "turn on with wrist wraise" if it allowed us to dictate the time the display is on. So if I tap the screen it should stay on for 1 min. That would be a fine solution for me and the battery life will last forever like they wanted.

Having to keep taping the screen as I'm waiting for the device to respond is not an ideal situation to be living in.

 

[Spetsnazos]

Sell it now. Problem solved.

"dont like it here, move".

As a developer, if I told all my customers that their opinion doesnt matter, I would be out of a job.

 

[NM08SRT8]

What I want as a user is to be able to set the options myself. I want to personalize the experience. I'm not asking to be able to hack it up and down the street like I can with an Android device, but giving basic options is par of the course when making a consumer product.

So your next thread after that option is bashing the watch for poor battery life?

Just wear the watch man. Sheesh

 

[TypeMRT]

Agreed. It can be a simple software change that mimics the brightness control with three display settings. I'd gladly give up some battery life since I usually have over 49% left after a full day. And really, the battery life may actually be better because now I'm tapping the screen to turn the display back on several times a day.

 

[redman042]

I have to ag

Apple could add this at any time, like 1.1. Apple's #1 concern was to avoid having all the web sites reporting about how poor the battery life was. This would have been an out the gate killer. Now that Apple has passed that hurdle we will start to see battery eating things added like maybe a custom time out for the display.

I agree. Apple was super aggressive with battery savings measures out of the gate for PR reasons.

 

[goinskiing]

I understand Apple wanted to keep battery life to meet ALL DAY demands but the display is NOT on long enough. Nearly every time time I wish it displayed for a longer period of time. It's bad enough that it's not always on like most watches.

Pull up the maps, wait for it to pull the data from the phone so it gives you a current location: display turns off before you can figure out your location
Try to read your current heart rate, wait for the sensor to get your HR: display turns off before you get a reading.
Try to see what your HR is during a run: display turns off before you can get a reading.

Then there are those moments when you have to fling your wrist like a madman to just get the watch to turn on so you could look at the time. God forbid you are trying to find out what time it is while you're cycling, it takes 3 awkward tries to get it to work.

Plain and simple, the watch turns off WAY too fast. I keep clicking the screen like a moron just to keep it on while I'm reading an email or looking at the calendar.

I'm going to wait a few more months to see if they decide to patch it. Definitely selling and not buying another one if this keeps up. Fenix 3 looks like a much better choice right now...

I wouldn't call it a blunder necessarily, maybe more a major oversight that is fixable through software. But yes, I agree, it is rather obnoxious, not a deal breaker, but not ideal.

 

[Armen]

"dont like it here, move".

.

As a developer you should know better. You should have gone to https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html
and submitted feedback directly to Apple instead of posting here.

 

[mcdj]

Apple's #1 concern was to avoid having all the web sites reporting about how poor the battery life was.

And they focussed so intently on that, that they forgot to actually make enough watches to sell.

 

[msriotdoll]

I submitted feedback about this to apple. I was excited to get the watch and use it for workouts. Specifically the stopwatch but the screen dims out way to fast. I think for certain functions on the phone like the stopwatch and maybe maps it should stay on for 30sec-1min or allow the user to adjust. I'm trying to do planks and the screen dims and I have balance to try get it back on to see how long I have. Its a bitch.

 

[fischersd]

I think a lot of the customizations simply didn't make it to the first release due to timelines. There's also a bit of a benefit to leaving it until a 1.1 or 1.2 - it gives everyone a better idea of how they would like to use these features. Start with the most conservative settings, let people dial them up later, now that they've gotten used to the product. If they started with everything dialled up to 100% we'd have about 10 hours of battery life and be calling the watch a flop. (yes, an exaggeration, but you get my point)

 

[anez]

I agree. I don't know if I would call it major, but the screen going dark when I'm doing a plank with the stopwatch up is incredibly frustrating. Having to try to balance on one elbow and poke at the screen is bad form, and not always effective.

I'm hoping they will allow this to be customizable with future updates when people have accepted the nightly charge cycle as a given and they don't have to work so hard on battery optimization for PR reasons.

 

[MartyCan]

Major blunder or easy fix in a future release of Watch iOS if enough customers ask for it?

 

[DDustiNN]

I understand Apple wanted to keep battery life to meet ALL DAY demands but the display is NOT on long enough. Nearly every time time I wish it displayed for a longer period of time. It's bad enough that it's not always on like most watches.

Pull up the maps, wait for it to pull the data from the phone so it gives you a current location: display turns off before you can figure out your location
Try to read your current heart rate, wait for the sensor to get your HR: display turns off before you get a reading.
Try to see what your HR is during a run: display turns off before you can get a reading.

Then there are those moments when you have to fling your wrist like a madman to just get the watch to turn on so you could look at the time. God forbid you are trying to find out what time it is while you're cycling, it takes 3 awkward tries to get it to work.

Plain and simple, the watch turns off WAY too fast. I keep clicking the screen like a moron just to keep it on while I'm reading an email or looking at the calendar.

I'm going to wait a few more months to see if they decide to patch it. Definitely selling and not buying another one if this keeps up. Fenix 3 looks like a much better choice right now...

I agree with this, 100%.

Sometimes (or, rather, often) the glances and apps are slow to load or refresh, and the display turns off before you even get to see what you wanted to see. It can get frustrating.

I would like to extend it at least by 2-3 seconds.

 

[Mac 128]

I submitted feedback about this to apple. I was excited to get the watch and use it for workouts. Specifically the stopwatch but the screen dims out way to fast. I think for certain functions on the phone like the stopwatch and maybe maps it should stay on for 30sec-1min or allow the user to adjust. I'm trying to do planks and the screen dims and I have balance to try get it back on to see how long I have. Its a bitch.

Unless you custom adjust your watch backlight for each unique situation you're in, this won't work. I can't imagine I'm going to re-set the backlight every time I go to the gym. Apple is going to have to get a lot more clever than just giving the customer control, though that's a good intermediate step, in order to address every need.

A face recognition camera is one step, so the display is always on when you're looking at it, and never on when you're not. Your plank example is a bit more problematic since you won't be looking directly at it. However, maybe something where the watch will stay lit if it stops moving before the light turns off, even if it doesn't recognize a face, until it moves again. Or specific apps that may have functions requiring continuous monitoring, like a stopwatch. My iPhone stopwatch keeps the backlight on for 5 minutes before it goes off. I can't change that either, but maybe 5 minutes is sufficient for most. Perhaps the watch can dim, allowing you to see it, and run until you shut it off.