Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Series 3 LTE battery life is great!

C

CJRhoades

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2007
548
210
Lafayette, IN
Just finished up my first (work) day with my Series 3 watch and I'm incredibly impressed with the battery life. I was very excited with the prospect of a watch with cellular connectivity because I'm not allowed to carry my phone at work (NDA/no cameras). Being able to stay connected all day sounded great but I was worried about the battery life. I'm happy to report however that after a full 18 hours of usage, 9 of which being cellular, I'm going to bed with the battery at 40% remaining. That's about 25% more left in the tank than my Series 0 would leave me with.

To be fair, I'm not the heaviest user. I only received a couple dozen messages and emails throughout the day with no phone calls on the watch and other than that I only really used it to check the time, weather, calender, activity, and some reminders. Still, I think it's great they managed to make the LTE modem so power efficient.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sgt93, Applemacfan and KarimLeVallois
CJRhoades said:
Just finished up my first (work) day with my Series 3 watch and I'm incredibly impressed with the battery life. I was very excited with the prospect of a watch with cellular connectivity because I'm not allowed to carry my phone at work (NDA/no cameras). Being able to stay connected all day sounded great but I was worried about the battery life. I'm happy to report however that after a full 18 hours of usage, 9 of which being cellular, I'm going to bed with the battery at 40% remaining. That's about 25% more left in the tank than my Series 0 would leave me with.

To be fair, I'm not the heaviest user. I only received a couple dozen messages and emails throughout the day with no phone calls on the watch and other than that I only really used it to check the time, weather, calender, activity, and some reminders. Still, I think it's great they managed to make the LTE modem so power efficient.
Click to expand...


That’s amazing battery life. Seems like standby is about 9 hours. Could you please keep reporting your daily battery life. Thanks.
 
LTE standby seems way longer the 9 hours. He had 9 hours of LTE Stanby and total of 18 hours and still had 40 percent left.

Tdadlani said:
That’s amazing battery life. Seems like standby is about 9 hours. Could you please keep reporting your daily battery life. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Orangeman13
Interesting. I am seeing a pretty significant battery drain. I am on wifi most of the day too. Cellular with minimal texts and emails of about an hour a day and I am hitting power reserve around 7pm. Less than 12 hours of total usage. Hmmm.
 
richard371 said:
LTE standby seems way longer the 9 hours. He had 9 hours of LTE Stanby and total of 18 hours and still had 40 percent left.
Click to expand...

Correct, and similar results again today. Ending the day with over 40% remaining. Usage was the same as yesterday with the addition of about a dozen Siri requests on LTE. People kept asking me for the score of the Cubs game.
 
bthompson said:
Interesting. I am seeing a pretty significant battery drain. I am on wifi most of the day too. Cellular with minimal texts and emails of about an hour a day and I am hitting power reserve around 7pm. Less than 12 hours of total usage. Hmmm.
Click to expand...

How's it been over the last few days?
 
I wonder if he was on WIFI at all at work? Usually at some point, someone has joined a local WIFI network. That info would make its way to the watch (including credentials) and therefore, one could have been in the WIFI bubble for much of it. Not saying, just thinking. I know my colleague was saying his LTE watch worked as well as his non LTE watch and I asked him to start tracking what it was connected to. Indeed, it was on wifi nearly the entire time he was in the office, as well when he was in the CAR driving home, it was connected to the hotspot in his car (which his phone have been connected to in the past)

It would be good if apple made SOME info available and connected status throughout the day - a summary list.
 
AJ Muni said:
How's it been over the last few days?
Click to expand...

Not great. I paired and re-paired the watch to see if that will help. I am on wifi 90% of the day but still seeing a pretty quick battery drain :(. Today I'm at 65% after about 5 hours away from the ipHone
 
I am seeing about a 15% per hour battery drain for LTE usage data only. Not standby. Using SIRI and sending a few texts and getting notifications.

Have not tested all day usage but about an hour or two. At this rate can use the watch for several hours on a full charge but def not an all day gadget.
 
tivoboy said:
I wonder if he was on WIFI at all at work? Usually at some point, someone has joined a local WIFI network. That info would make its way to the watch (including credentials) and therefore, one could have been in the WIFI bubble for much of it. Not saying, just thinking.
Click to expand...

Nope, the WiFi networks are all locked down and for administration use only. My phones never been connected to any so there's no way the watch was connecting to them either.
 
What size watches (38mm or 42mm) are you wearing? It is sounding more and more that the 42mm is getting much better battery life than the 38mm with LTE, way more so than with previous series.

I know the there has always been a battery size difference, causing less drain in the 42mm than 38mm, but it almost seems that it can last twice as long with the Series 3. Any thoughts on this?
 
I can’t say S3 has great battery as I can’t figure out the differences. I use AutoSleep every night and with the S2, I can go from 100% to 99% after 7+ hours of sleep and with the S3 the same hours is usually 95%. With LTE off it is still 95%. Same apps as it was just a restore. During the day it is usually better on the S3. Mowing my yard with LTE in and Bluetooth music and no iPhone, it burns about 10% and hour while the S2 would be no more than 2-3%.

Given that the S2 is a year old, I can’t decide on the big change to make the S3 burn more over night. I understand LTE will cause some and neither was a concern for 24 hours of use. S3 seems to charge twice as fast so 15 minute shower and charging adds about 12% on the S3 while the S2 was about 8%
[doublepost=1506781931][/doublepost]
Phima256 said:
What size watches (38mm or 42mm) are you wearing? It is sounding more and more that the 42mm is getting much better battery life than the 38mm with LTE, way more so than with previous series.

I know the there has always been a battery size difference, causing less drain in the 42mm than 38mm, but it almost seems that it can last twice as long with the Series 3. Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I don’t buy twice as long under any condition. That would assume a battery twice the size under same usage. Hour or two more? Maybe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: edhchoe
BlueMoon63 said:
I can’t say S3 has great battery as I can’t figure out the differences. I use AutoSleep every night and with the S2, I can go from 100% to 99% after 7+ hours of sleep and with the S3 the same hours is usually 95%. With LTE off it is still 95%. Same apps as it was just a restore. During the day it is usually better on the S3. Mowing my yard with LTE in and Bluetooth music and no iPhone, it burns about 10% and hour while the S2 would be no more than 2-3%.

Given that the S2 is a year old, I can’t decide on the big change to make the S3 burn more over night. I understand LTE will cause some and neither was a concern for 24 hours of use. S3 seems to charge twice as fast so 15 minute shower and charging adds about 12% on the S3 while the S2 was about 8%
[doublepost=1506781931][/doublepost]
I don’t buy twice as long under any condition. That would assume a battery twice the size under same usage. Hour or two more? Maybe.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the insight, I’ve not heard about the quicker charging.

In this thread below, it is implying that there’s significantly more drain with the 38mm than 42mm. But as we know there are a lot of variables to take into account, most importantly LTE usage over Bluetooth or WiFi. Just curious to see if I can hear similar usages with the 38mm as the 42mm and get a ballpark on average drain. I have an S2 but would like the LTE option. However, if even a little LTE usage equates to less than a waking day’s battery life, that might be a tough sell. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/lets-post-our-series-3-battery-life-here.2072374/
 
I would not say it is great. It is not completely inadequate for my use and it is improved. I would consider it great only because the bar was already so low.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phima256
I’ve had good battery life as well. If I walk for 1.25 hours (outside/GPS) while playing local music with Bluetooth headphones and receive 1-15 text messages (replying to half of them) and have a 5 minute phone call — i Went from 98% battery down to 65% battery. Sounds like a lot, but it’s really not.

I just plop it back on the charger while I take a shower and it’s back up to 80% — perfect for the rest of the day....

I just wish they would add the LTE signal dots to the rest of the watch faces.... why can’t they?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlueMoon63 and Ladyc0524
Does anyone notice that the LTE watch drains the iPhone battery? I notice my iPhone battery draining faster with the new watch.
 
Teride said:
Does anyone notice that the LTE watch drains the iPhone battery? I notice my iPhone battery draining faster with the new watch.
Click to expand...
Haven’t noticed. Though people are saying iOS 11 has a battery drain problem in general.
 
SackboyDad said:
I’ve had good battery life as well. If I walk for 1.25 hours (outside/GPS) while playing local music with Bluetooth headphones and receive 1-15 text messages (replying to half of them) and have a 5 minute phone call — i Went from 98% battery down to 65% battery. Sounds like a lot, but it’s really not.

I just plop it back on the charger while I take a shower and it’s back up to 80% — perfect for the rest of the day....

I just wish they would add the LTE signal dots to the rest of the watch faces.... why can’t they?
Click to expand...

What size are you wearing, 38mm or 42mm?

I was hoping for the dots on all the faces as well. Do they have it as a complication option at least?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back