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Series 5 Always On Display Owners...

HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
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Los Angeles, Ca
Does the AOD reduce battery life? Significantly?

I’m really wanting to purchase this for my grandma but am not sure if I should get her this model or the Series 4.
 
HappyDude20 said:
Does the AOD reduce battery life? Significantly?

I’m really wanting to purchase this for my grandma but am not sure if I should get her this model or the Series 4.
Click to expand...
The S5 with AOD in my case drains battery significantly faster than my S4 did. Routinely got at least 24 hours on my S4 with normal use but closer to the advertised 18 hours with my S5 and AOD on.
 
Itinj24 said:
The S5 with AOD in my case drains battery significantly faster than my S4 did. Routinely got at least 24 hours on my S4 with normal use but closer to the advertised 18 hours with my S5 and AOD on.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the quick reply. What you stayed sounds most realistic for most new S5 owners.
As much as I want my grandmother to have the latest and greatest I’m thinking the S4 might suffice. As for myself, this is making me want to hold out another generation or two until I get an Apple Watch. Perhaps I’d even get the Series 3 to stage me off till Series 6 or 7.
 
HappyDude20 said:
Does the AOD reduce battery life? Significantly?

I’m really wanting to purchase this for my grandma but am not sure if I should get her this model or the Series 4.
Click to expand...

It makes it threw the day for me and I am a heavy wrist raiser and notification guy. I play sports and coach them. Plus 1.5-2 hour workouts 6 days a week. I make it all day. your grandma will have no problems with battery life. And WatchOS 6.1 is coming out soon which will make it even better battery life. I have got 18 hours with 4/5 hours usage.

I think AOD would be better for your grandma Cause all she has to do is look at her watch versus look and touch it. Less physical action for her..
 
HappyDude20 said:
Does the AOD reduce battery life? Significantly?

I’m really wanting to purchase this for my grandma but am not sure if I should get her this model or the Series 4.
Click to expand...

It’s noticeably shorter than my series 2. Initial observations is that it loses about 5% battery life an hour, and this is me using it for little more than passive notifications, music control (not even streaming) and a bit of fiddling around with apps here and there.

My series 2, with a 3-year old battery, ends with more battery life (in percentage terms at least).

That said, I am still a little mixed on the utility of the AOD. I guess it’s nice being able to see what the time is at all times, but this was something which never really bothered me before. But everything is just faster and the larger screen is nice too and Siri actually talks back to you now.

The nice thing about getting the series 4 is that they should be cheaper, and you are really getting the same thing. If you find one for cheap, I say go for it, but personally, I prefer to get the latest and greatest if I were to pick up something.

But that’s just me.
 
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Of course it uses more battery, it would be a miracle, if it wouldn't. But it's in no way possible "significantly".
I can easily go from 8:00 AM to 1:30 AM with 40 % to 50 % battery left, sometimes even more. The worst I got one time was 20 % left, but there I had a usage from almost 6 hours somehow.
 
Coming from a Series 3-it’s a bit disappointing. It chomps through battery in my experience.

I’m within the 2 week returns period and will probably send back and wait and see if 6.1 is significantly better. It’s all fine now having to charge once a day (my series 3-every 2 days), but once this battery has degraded over about a year-I’ll be charging twice a day which is unacceptable for me.

I don’t have money to buy a new one every year, or even two years. Need to know it’ll last 3 years which at this price-I don’t think is an unreasonable expectation.
 
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Yup AOD is a bit of a battery drain. When I had my S2 I could make it through the end of the day with 50-55% battery left easy. On the other end my S5 with AOD barely makes it past 30% at the end of the day. Since I charge my watch every night it's no big deal for me.
 
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I have alway-on-display enabled and noise detection on as well on my stainless steel AW5, from 9:00 to 17:00 still have 82% battery left.
I used to be an AW1 owner and I know how short-life the battery can be, I have to say Apple really improved it on AW5.
 
Same as above for me. Haven't noticed any real difference. I have AOD on and the S5 goes 2 days without a recharge with room to spare. I think the noise checker is a bigger drain.
 
HappyDude20 said:
Does the AOD reduce battery life? Significantly?

I’m really wanting to purchase this for my grandma but am not sure if I should get her this model or the Series 4.
Click to expand...
My S5 (now that I've quit futzing with it every five minutes) is getting roughly the same battery life as my S4 did.
 
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I have an S5 40mm so smaller battery. Put it on Wednesday night fully charged at 11pm right before bed. Two sleep apps on with DND, airplane mode, theatre on woke up with 94%.
Used it all day Thursday, AOD on, raise to wake on, noise off, refresh off except for a few apps, light notifications, a couple of 20 minute workouts, messages: 3 hr usage with 23 hrs of standby and still had 25% left at11:30pm. It seems that the watch just has to go through a few charge cycles before it settles down.
 
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I have an S4 SB and a S5 Nike. It “feels” like i get less battery life with the S5, but it lasts at least a day for me.

Yesterday I put it on fully charged around 8am, did an hour GPS workout, another 25 min GPS walk and kept it on for sleep tracking. I woke up with 18% battery. I mostly use the Nike hybrid face and keep AOD on.

Edit: Just realized those GPS workouts yesterday were both with the phone, so I expect battery life to be considerably less for GPS workouts without the phone.
 
I'm still early into ownership but so far it's been pretty great. Just a tad lower by end of day compared to my S3. For some context, I went to bed with 64% left last night after having it off the charger for 13.5hrs standby and 2hrs usage.

AOD on, Raise to wake on, Noise meter off.
 
Renho said:
It makes it threw the day for me and I am a heavy wrist raiser and notification guy. I play sports and coach them. Plus 1.5-2 hour workouts 6 days a week. I make it all day. your grandma will have no problems with battery life. And WatchOS 6.1 is coming out soon which will make it even better battery life. I have got 18 hours with 4/5 hours usage.

I think AOD would be better for your grandma Cause all she has to do is look at her watch versus look and touch it. Less physical action for her..
Click to expand...
No need to touch the watch. Just raise your wrist.
 
Strangedream said:
Yup AOD is a bit of a battery drain. When I had my S2 I could make it through the end of the day with 50-55% battery left easy. On the other end my S5 with AOD barely makes it past 30% at the end of the day. Since I charge my watch every night it's no big deal for me.
Click to expand...
If you just charge it every night I don’t think battery life is even an issue. Doing this I see no difference between my S4 and S5 watches.
 
Of course, it drains a bit more battery, but it's not a problem for me.
AOD ON, all settings to default except noise set to OFF
Typical day: wake up at 6.15, 1hour running with GPS + LTE on + 45mn with LTE on, the rest of the day with my iPhone and when I go to bet at 23.00, 20% left
If I don't use LTE and run, I have around 50% when I go to bed ...
So, no problem
 
Blizzardman said:
I've heard the beta will improve battery life (i hope). I have AOD on and am losing around 5% battery life an hour with relatively light usage.
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Have you performed a hard reset? do it on both the iphone and the watch. If after doing the above it remains the same, then you will have to unlink it from the iphone and link it again as a new watch
 
Blizzardman said:
I've heard the beta will improve battery life (i hope). I have AOD on and am losing around 5% battery life an hour with relatively light usage.
Click to expand...
I have EXACTLY the same battery usage with 6.1 beta than with 6.0.1.
No improvement, no regression.
Around 3%/hour with AOD ON
 
zozomester said:
What new hardware? Same CPU and Same Display. by the way I was thinking of software from a third party ....
Click to expand...

No, the display is different.

Go and look at the keynote or read any number of threads on here talking about the new LTPO display and light sensors enabling the S5 to do this.
 
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