Terrible battery life

[bwb]

I'll turn AOD back on tomorrow or later today to see how much the discharge rate increases.

Another update, after another hour with AOD off I checked and was seeing the same ~2.8% discharge rate (7 hours into this test). I then turned AOD on, starting around the 82-83% remaining marker. After 35 minutes I'm already down to 78%, indicating a discharge rate of around 8%. This is a pretty short data point, so will monitor it over the next couple hours, and then turn AOD back off.

I think many people were hoping that AW S5's idle power draw with AOD turned on was on par with the S4's idle power draw. I didn't own an S4, but did own an S3... so far while it may qualify for 18 hours 0-100% with light usage, this is seems to me that under light usage the battery is around 2.5x _shorter_ with AOD on.

Hopefully this is a symptom of watchOS 6.0 and watchOS 6.1 will improve AOD power saving... I was really hoping for ~3.5-4%/hour under light usage, and comfortably at least 18 hours with moderate (say, 5%/hour moderage usage, 3.5% light usage). Pretty tempted to just return it, save $100, and get a Series 4 at this point now, however.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Another day, another disappointment. Wife's 1 year old S4 40mm is at 54%. My brand new S5 44mm 35%. Minimal usage. Think I'm going to purge 3rd party apps but I'm not gonna do anything drastic till I can try out 6.1 final release.

 

[Aetherhole]

Just wanted to chime in here with my experience. I had an Aluminum AW4 which was having major problems with battery life since about a week before IOS 13 and WatchOS 6 dropped. Tried resetting, re-pairing, setting up from backup, setting up as new, powering off, etc. Nothing was helping. IOS 13 and WatchOS 6 didn't improve things at all. I was consistently seeing 10-15% drain per hour. That was with most everything off, background app refresh, walkie talkie, etc. I couldn't even make it a full 12 hours before it going into power reserve was more like 8-10 hours of bare-minimum usage.

I took the opportunity to upgrade to what I really wanted with the AW5, getting SBSS with milanese loop, which I got yesterday afternoon. I started with it at 80% out of the box and decided to test to see how long it would take to drain. Picked it up and began using it at about 4:30PM. Wore it non-stop, including sleeping, and by the time it got to about 10:30AM, I was at 24%. So that equates to about 3% drain per hour. Charged it up and put it back on my wrist at about 11:30pm at 100%. AOD is on and I decided to turn off raise to wake. Everything else is on except walkie-talkie and noise. Also used 40 minutes in the workout app for outdoor walks. So with all that, that averages to less than 2% drain an hour. Now it's almost 4:30PM and it's still at 92%.

Insanely different experience. Not sure what exactly was causing the AW4 battery draining, but it seems to be on par if not fairing better than my AW4 did prior to it's sudden battery issues. I wouldn't be able to make it 2 whole days on my AW4 even from when it was brand new. At this rate, technically I should be able to do more than 48 hours on a full charge with the AW5.

And I think I will keep raise to wake off because the AOD is bright enough for me to quickly glance at the screen even including in direct sunlight.

 

[Shadowbech]

Hmmm definitely not the same as yesterday's result.

 

[deeddawg]

14:15 standby, 3:15 usage, 36% with a couple hours until bedtime.

Kinda "meh" in my opinion. Likely within spec but riding pretty close to the edge.

Will see if/when 6.1 comes (or a 6.0.1) and if has an effect, but otherwise I may step back to my S4 and wait it out to the S6. I do like AOD, and I do like having more storage and compass, but not willing to trade off the S4's not-having-to-think-about-it battery life.

 

[Fynd]

S5 44mm

37%

Basic usage. No workouts. No cellular. Just steady but minimal notifications.

 

[sguser]

Count me in as another S5 owner with a terrible battery life. The watch was restored from a previous S2 backup. I'm trying restoring the S5 as new, without backup, and see if it helps.

 

[JulesK]

I can't do a direct comparison between my old S4 with my S5 (both 44mm Cellular) because I never installed Watch OS 6 on the S4, but battery life is noticeably much shorter on the S5 for whatever reason. After a full day with my S4, it'd be very unusual for it to have less than 60% battery left. I could get 2 days on a single charge in a pinch if I turned it off overnight. My S5 can make it through a day (without workouts), but generally with not more than 30-35% battery left. If that's the price of the AOD, so be it, because it's worth it, but I'm hoping it's the new OS. Maybe Apple can optimize the software to improve battery life. What's surprising is the seemingly random rapid drops in battery life on the S5.

 

[johnasch]

Much better for me today. Installed iOS 13.1 and that was the only difference. If it stays like this I’ll be a happy man.

 

[Neeldenn]

My girlfriend is using my old series 3. We’re both on watchOS 6 and our day starts at 7am. Yesterday we did the same workout and the only thing that might differ is that I get slightly more notifications. At 8pm she had 71% on the series 3 while I was at 44%. I never even realized how good battery life on the S3 was. I hope they can improve it via an software update...

 

[Denis1987]

My update: I am getting around 50% of battery life after 12 hours of use (1h workout included) on AW5 44mm.

But isn't it obvious thast Always on display will eat some battery compared to display turned off? If high percetnage of battery means so much to someone, you can always turn Always On display off and then it should be the same as AW4.

 

[24se7en]

I have everything turned on and I’m good! I’m at 76% been off the charger since 1 this morning

That looks awesome! Did set up watch as new do the trick then?

 

[puke]

I know it's mostly about the AW5 in this thread but people are thinking it might be watchOS6.
I'm still going with my AW4 44mm SBSS simply because I felt the extremely small changes is not worth it for me to upgrade. But i'm still going with watchOS6 and i'm getting around the same life as I did with watchOS5. With around 1 exercise (running) a day, around an hour and "normal" notifications and with the California watchface (only date) and no numbers around the dial, black background i'm easily getting 48h+ before I need to charge it. I usually have around 20-35% when I put it on the charger after around 48-55h. Really happy with it.

 

[Boardiesboi]

Off the charger at 7am and 72% at 2.30pm.

Better results than the last couple of days.

Not sure why but when I go into usage it says “usage times will be shown after Apple Watch is fully charged“.

But it was fully charged when I took it off the charger this morning?

 

[Nütztjanix]

But isn't it obvious thast Always on display will eat some battery compared to display turned off? If high percetnage of battery means so much to someone, you can always turn Always On display off and then it should be the same as AW4.

Well, I can’t speak for S4, as I come from a 42mm S3. But battery life is horrendous - with AOD off.
Right now it’s 57% left, with 1:47h usage and 3:47 standby. No workout. Ridiculous.

 

[Nütztjanix]

Interestingly, my S3 on watchOS 6 has not really changed regarding battery life - about 3%/hr. The new S5 is shockingly poor - about 13%/hr.

 

[ginkobiloba]

Yeah, i also noticed much shorter battery life on my aw4 after the update. Hopefully it will return to normal soon as some have suggested.
Also, I’ve just turned off the noise monitoring today, maybe that will help.

I'm happy to report that switching the noise monitoring off has completely restored my aw4 battery performance. In fact, it might even be lasting a bit longer than on watchOS 5

 

[SeanZy]

My update: I am getting around 50% of battery life after 12 hours of use (1h workout included) on AW5 44mm.

But isn't it obvious thast Always on display will eat some battery compared to display turned off? If high percetnage of battery means so much to someone, you can always turn Always On display off and then it should be the same as AW4.

That is not how this is supposed to work. Apple claimed the same battery life with AOD on, and it should get the same battery life with AOD on.

Turning it off takes away the biggest reason to upgrade this year, so why should anyone deal with that?

 

[Denis1987]

I understand that but I didnt see any claims that AW5 with AOD on wouldnt get you through the day. I still have 50 % of battery left at evening. But of course it won't last 2 days.

 

[Easttime]

Went from S0 to S5, set up as new. Second full day yesterday. On wrist at 0430 and off at 2100: 39% left = 3.7% per hour. Everything on. Played with it quite a bit. Watch OS 6 and phone iOS 13.1. I’m OK with that but hope it improves. Will turn off raise to wake and noise monitor today.

 

[danmart]

I am growing convinced that the difference is ‘background app refresh’. It is much more aggressive than it was previously. For example, when I use the Home app to control lights in my house it is operational in under a second (S4, wOS 6) where as on the previous version of wOS it would spin the ‘busy’ icon for several second before becoming operational.

I have trimmed the apps with background refresh active to only the ones I use frequently and my battery life is much closer to what it was. I still have auto raise, hey Siri and noise alert turned on, too.

 

[The Game 161]

3 hours into my first day with watch and it’s down to 89% already with AOD on

 

[Easttime]

3 hours into my first day with watch and it’s down to 89% already with AOD on

That’s 3% per hour. Is that bad?

 

[bsmr]

That’s 3% per hour. Is that bad?

Sounds perfect.

 

[BillGates1969]

Think I know why AOD kills it for me. You guys and girls with it on, do you have your watch exposed or under a sleeve? I have noticed that it dims a lot more if under a sleeve to almost not being on. I work form home and am in a t shirt constantly so the AOD is almost as bright at the active display.