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Should I upgrade my Series 3 Apple Watch to WatchOS 6?

M

moshmike

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2018
29
7
Hey everyone! My concern is the obvious one when you upgrade older devices to the newest OS: is battery life on par? Are the apps’ load times worse? What about the overall “snappiness” of the device?

My 42mm silver aluminum Apple Watch speed and general feeling is actually pretty decent on WatchOS 5.1.2, thus the hesitation to upgrade.

As you readers of this forum know, you can’t downgrade OS on Apple Watch, so it’s a one-way ticket. Suggestions? Thanks in advance!
 
I have an s3 on os6 and it’s been fine - I’d only hold back if you’re really worried. 6.0.1 is out today and I imagine 6.1 won’t be far off though...
 
marmiteturkey said:
I have an s3 on os6 and it’s been fine - I’d only hold back if you’re really worried. 6.0.1 is out today and I imagine 6.1 won’t be far off though...
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Thank you for your reply marmiteturkey! Have you noticed any significant lag vs. Watch OS 5? Thanks again!
 
moshmike said:
Hey everyone! My concern is the obvious one when you upgrade older devices to the newest OS: is battery life on par? Are the apps’ load times worse? What about the overall “snappiness” of the device?

My 42mm silver aluminum Apple Watch speed and general feeling is actually pretty decent on WatchOS 5.1.2, thus the hesitation to upgrade.

As you readers of this forum know, you can’t downgrade OS on Apple Watch, so it’s a one-way ticket. Suggestions? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Definitely update. I noticed my series 3 is a lot faster loading apps compared to version 5 OS. Its a great update! Made controlling my Tesla bearable. Before version 5 would take forever to turn on switches in HomeKit. And it made locking, unlocking, opening the trunk unbearably slow that it wasn’t worth doing so in OS 5. But watch OS 6 made this possible to use. It’s definitely not as fast as my series 5 but its a big jump in performance.
 
I wouldn't update and so far I haven't updated my S3. Far too many issues with notifications not working, raise to wake lag, reminders not syncing and battery issues. Hold off until 6.1 is my recommendation.
 
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I did and my battery life is terrible.

Before the update I could go my entire day and have 20-30% left.

My watch just died after five hours of use, sitting at my desk.
 
geecka said:
I did and my battery life is terrible.

Before the update I could go my entire day and have 20-30% left.

My watch just died after five hours of use, sitting at my desk.
Click to expand...

I am alway amazed to see that different people experience completely different results with what should be the same equipment, and that’s why I have not yet updated myself.

May I ask how long ago you have updated? Did your give the watch time to settle?
 
Wando64 said:
I am alway amazed to see that different people experience completely different results with what should be the same equipment, and that’s why I have not yet updated myself.

May I ask how long ago you have updated? Did your give the watch time to settle?
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Battery life was horrible for about a week, so I did an unpair/repair and set it up as a new watch Friday night. Yesterday seemed to be back to a normal day in its life...
 
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My wife is on a S3 LTE and is running wOS 6.0.1. Battery life is fine for her. You need to curate the background app refresh list to maximise your battery life.
 
danmart said:
My wife is on a S3 LTE and is running wOS 6.0.1. Battery life is fine for her. You need to curate the background app refresh list to maximise your battery life.
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Shouldn't have to change anything that you're already using after an OS update to maintain similar battery life. Turning things off is not a solution, it's a workaround. WatchOS 6 is flawed in its current form.
 
Tony_YYZ said:
Shouldn't have to change anything that you're already using after an OS update to maintain similar battery life. Turning things off is not a solution, it's a workaround. WatchOS 6 is flawed in its current form.
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Except that, in previous versions of wOS only apps in your dock or active complications had background app refresh; now every app has by default.

So you weren’t previously using it and I am recommending that people trim it back to what they will actually use.
 
Purely anecdotal, but I think my battery Life has actually improved. have not noticed any functional changes so a pretty inert upgrade for the AW 3
 
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