Series 3 Battery Life!!

[Timmy D]

I have to say that the battery life of the series 3 is amazing. I should say I haven't used it for calls or listened to much music, but I am using it as much as my series 0. All the app notifications etc... when I would get home from a day of work I would have maybe 50% and I would just take it off and charge. this series 3 is at 88%. I put it on at 7am this morning and still have it on at 812pm with 88%

 

[xraydoc]

Agreed. I was really pissed at what watchOS 4 did to the battery life on my S0 - before OS4, I’d have 35-40% left when I took it off at night. With os4, it was close to death by the same time.

With my brand new S3, with only two hours until I normally take my watch off, I have 77% left!

Very impressed.

 

[Timmy D]

I sold my S0 the week before watchOS 4 came out so I didn't get to experience anything negative

 

[Benz63amg]

the Series 2 is just as good in regards to battery life(The battery life you are seeing is not unique to the Series 3) , i have similar battery life stats as you on my now Year old Stainless Steel Series 2, they really improved the battery and efficiency in the Series 2 and Series 3 Watches compared to the Series 0

 

[44267547]

I sold my S0 the week before watchOS 4 came out so I didn't get to experience anything negative

As of right now, watchOS 4 has not really benefited the first generation Apple Watch from my experiences. Perhaps other WatchOS updates throughout the year will help rectify some of the battery issues, but I don't think the first generation Apple Watch will make it to watchOS five. So it likely wss a good idea that you sold your first generation Apple Watch, as they don't have much value right now anyway.

 

[Macsperts]

In agreement here. I had series 0 (the first Apple Watch) prior to purchasing the Series 3. After a full day and then a 1.5 hour workout I’d be at 10% at best. With Series 3 doing the same, by bedtime I’m still in the 70% range. I feel confident I could go at least 2+ days without charging it up. What I typically do now is either leave it on my wrist overnight or on the nightstand not on the charger. Then when I wake, I’ll charge it for the 30 minutes it takes me to shower and get ready for work. It’s usually at or close to 100% by the time I put it on my wrist and leave. Absolutely loving Series 3. Don’t use the cellular connectivity a lot, but have, and find it very convenient when I have to leave my office to go out on an appointment. I do tech support for Apple products, so when my clients see that I have left my phone at the office and am doing whatever I need on watch (have iPad Pro 10.5 with me also, in case) it turns out to be a pretty darn good endorsement for the Series 3.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Not sure why anyone is surprised that a new lithium battery lasts longer than an old one, given similar parameters of use?

Everyone does realize that the more a lithium ion battery is charged and discharged, its ability to hold the same amount of charge is diminished? Your perception is simply skewed.

 

[cenetti]

been wearing last 8 hrs. connected to the iphone whole time. I am at 93%

 

[waw74]

Not sure why anyone is surprised that a new lithium battery lasts longer than an old one, given similar parameters of use?

Everyone does realize that the more a lithium ion battery is charged and discharged, its ability to hold the same amount of charge is diminished? Your perception is simply skewed.

Yes they do,
what is surprising is that what used to be a battery at 10-20% by the end of the day, is now 70-75% at the end of the day.
my series 0 was maybe 20-30% when it was new, 10-20% after it aged, and before i swapped out to a series 3.

i could probably get 24-28 hours on a new series 0, but with the 3 that jumps to close to 48-60. and with a watch with a faster processor.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Yes they do,
what is surprising is that what used to be a battery at 10-20% by the end of the day, is now 70-75% at the end of the day.
my series 0 was maybe 20-30% when it was new, 10-20% after it aged, and before i swapped out to a series 3.

i could probably get 24-28 hours on a new series 0, but with the 3 that jumps to close to 48-60. and with a watch with a faster processor.

Better technology also helps, i didnt mean to skip over that so non-chalantly. The series 3 has the new S3 CPU with W2 chip, the later giving the watch (in non-lte mode) a supposed 50% jump in battery life over the previous models.

 

[gsucyclist]

I have been wearing mine for a little over 12 hours. No LTE really today and I'm at 87%

 

[rdavis41]

I have been wearing mine for a little over 12 hours. No LTE really today and I'm at 87%

I’ve experienced the same. If you don’t use LTE the watch lasts a long while. If you use LTE expect a battery drain of about 1% every 10-20 minutes.

 

[Macsperts]

Not sure why anyone is surprised that a new lithium battery lasts longer than an old one, given similar parameters of use?

Everyone does realize that the more a lithium ion battery is charged and discharged, its ability to hold the same amount of charge is diminished? Your perception is simply skewed.

Actually, I was going to, but didn’t for some reason, add that I do not leave the watch or my phone on chargers overnight for that reason. My point was just to emphasize that, yes, this new generation of watch out of the box has far superior battery life to its 2015 brother. It isn’t shocking, but makes for a much more usable daily device.

 

[puckhead193]

i'm shocked at the battery life. using it about the same as i did my S0. and at the end of the day i would usually have to go into power reserve mode but now i'm at like high 70s low 80s

 

[iThink Apple]

LOVE the battery life so far! Not sure why people complain.....If you are looking to do a lot of things with it then might as well use a bigger screen and use your iPhone.

 

[ideal.dreams]

Coming from a S0, the battery on my S3 is incredible. I had it on from 8 AM until 3 AM last night with 66% battery left, and that's with a couple dozen notifications an hour, a workout logged, and frequency use throughout the day. I'm strongly considering shutting it off at night and leaving it off the charger so I can get two days out of the battery.

Based on this calculation, I can actually get almost 23 straight hours of battery, an extra 5 over what Apple says. That being said, I suppose that 18 hours is for the 38 mm, not the 42 mm.

I've had it off the charger since 9 AM this morning and it's now past 1 PM and my battery is at 96%. It was at 100% for the first couple hours.

 

[leebroath]

I now have Usage 4 hrs 51
Standby 1 Day 15hours

Battery is sitting at 50%, LTE version but this hasn’t been switched on at all

42mm and just daily normal tasks, nothing too stressful on the battery

 

[Leica Dad]

42mm is significantly better than the 38mm. By end of the day the 42mm usually had 25-30% more than the 38mm under the same use condition.
I believe the 18hr is the baseline for 38mm and Apple didn’t really want to make clear that 42mmlast a lot longer.