Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Terrible battery life
- Thread starter Cold_Beaver
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My perspective is that if I'm getting certain results with a given usage pattern with one watch quoted at 18 hours, those same usage patterns should produce basically similar results with any other watch quoted at 18 hours.
Now is there basis for a formal complaint? No, on that you are correct.
Yet as a consumer I evaluate the benefits and costs of an upgrade to the S5 from an S4. Benefits of AOD, compass, extra storage, cost of the expense. A previously undisclosed / unknown "cost" in terms of requiring a change to my usage patterns would be a new factor to consider in that assessment.
So no, I'm not complaining per se, but I recognize that my previous evaluation may need re-thinking. I'm not yet sure if it'll be enough to change my mind about upgrading.
My S5 just died at 3pm, took it off the charger around 8:30am. I haven't done anything unique with it all day, it's just been on my wrist. For context, I set this watch up as new and didn't restore from backup.
Something is definitely up, this is not the intended battery life for this thing.
I'm hoping this will be resolved with software optimization and I think Apple knows it and is prepping an update or working on one. Because if not, the S5 launch is a ******** and this watch is being returned next week.
Something is definitely up, this is not the intended battery life for this thing.
I'm hoping this will be resolved with software optimization and I think Apple knows it and is prepping an update or working on one. Because if not, the S5 launch is a ******** and this watch is being returned next week.
The only thing keeping me from returning my S5 is the hope for an update ... oh and the unwillingness to pay a restocking fee with sprint ha
So tempted to just go back to my s4.
So tempted to just go back to my s4.
yeah it's much worse than series 4 but that's the price we pay for AOD. for me it's worth the trade-off. series 6 will probably fix the battery life issue. any major new advance with apple is always compromise at first (e.g. 1st gen Touch ID was a dog).
I've been super happy with it. Anytime I need to check anything additional other than what's on my watch face, I just rotate the crown to bring it out of the "AOD" mdoe. I use a modular watch face and yes it does shrink just a tiny bit when it is on "AOD" mode. It does dim the display based off the ambient light, but the dimness is absolutely just fine for me. I said earlier in the thread that I don't really have a problem even seeing the watch face in the middle of the day on my walks at work. YMMV though.
It's just super nice to be able to glance down at my watch without raising to wake while I am at work, in class, or just trying to be a tad more discrete with checking the time, weather, workout information, activity progress, etc.
Mine is doing well. Took it off the charger at around 8:15am. Did a 35 minute workout around noon. The watch was off my wrist for about 30 minutes after that while I took a shower. Using always on display and I have the Noise app enabled with a complication on my watch face displaying Noise.
It’s now 6:41pm and my watch is at 63%
It’s now 6:41pm and my watch is at 63%
I lost 22% on a 40 minute bike ride today. Caused me to bite the bullet and upgrade to 6.1. Hope it helps.
Yours is doing much better than mine, which is at 64% after I fully charged it around 12 ET when I did the whole reset and set up as a new watch thing.
Could you please keep us updated about 6.1.
I’m going for 2 hour ride tomorrow with my S4 6.0 + phone. I compare the results after an hour.
Both my husband and I upgraded from S3(cellular) to S5(cellular).
We both have the same options turned on.. Raise to Talk, Noise, Walkie Talkie, etc.
Battery life for each of us is drastically different... mine is abysmal, his is fantastic. I can barely get 11-12hrs out of my S5. His S5 lasts all day until we go to bed. We wake up around 7am, work similar jobs (mostly at a desk), go to the gym together, go to bed at the same time. By 6pm gym time, his roughly has 60-70% remaining... mines at around 30%. Running the workout app, mine can't even make it to the end of the gym workout before going into power reserve, shutting down completely before I get home. His is fine.
I assumed something was wrong, so I did an exchange for a new S5 at the local Apple Store. I set it up as a new watch. No improvement in battery life.
The only thing different is we're running different watch face + complications. I had the compass as a complication, he doesn't. Not sure if that's the culprit. But going to change it to something different and see how it goes.
Never had an issue with battery life on my S3.
We both have the same options turned on.. Raise to Talk, Noise, Walkie Talkie, etc.
Battery life for each of us is drastically different... mine is abysmal, his is fantastic. I can barely get 11-12hrs out of my S5. His S5 lasts all day until we go to bed. We wake up around 7am, work similar jobs (mostly at a desk), go to the gym together, go to bed at the same time. By 6pm gym time, his roughly has 60-70% remaining... mines at around 30%. Running the workout app, mine can't even make it to the end of the gym workout before going into power reserve, shutting down completely before I get home. His is fine.
I assumed something was wrong, so I did an exchange for a new S5 at the local Apple Store. I set it up as a new watch. No improvement in battery life.
The only thing different is we're running different watch face + complications. I had the compass as a complication, he doesn't. Not sure if that's the culprit. But going to change it to something different and see how it goes.
Never had an issue with battery life on my S3.
mine is at 64% at 4pm. the watch was on my wrist at 6am and was off my wrist for about 2 hours around midday. so battery life not very good at all.
Today: On 0600, off 2030, 62% left so 38% used in 14.5 hours = 2.6% per hour. AOD on, raise wrist to wake and noise app monitor off, moderate use all day checking time, mail, messages, weather etc. I’m quite happy with that.
Last edited:
I'm also waiting for mine. It seems to be hit and miss. Some are getting good battery life after a day or two and some aren't. I'm going to see how it goes the first week and go from there. Lets hope we are one of the lucky ones with good battery life.
I will. To clarify, I was using the GPS and cellular on the watch — the phone was at home. I went for a ride last week, set up the same way, and the watch went from 100% into power saving mode at a little under four hours. On the S4 and WatchOS 5, that would happen around 5.5 hours.
One thing is for certain, the always on display transforms the utility of the watch when biking. It’s not only a lot more convenient, it’s dramatically safer, as I can keep my eyes on the road or trail more, vs fiddling to get the screen to turn on and stay on long enough for a peak on the S4.
I think there are a few things going on with the current battery issues, given my experience. First, I think that there can be background processes that get hung up in the upgrade process, as resetting the watch and phone made a profound difference on battery life. Second, I think the auto-brightness is too sensitive in the S5, ramping up too far and too fast outside. I am pretty certain AOD is not the culprit. I’m also pretty certain all battery life issues can be resolved with software updates.
The battery life is definitely worse than the S4, but it still easily lasts a day for me. That’s what’s important.
What face are you using? Try one with less color.
When testing complications, the best thing to do is probably just remove them, one or two at a time, without putting something else in their place. Otherwise you chance going from one battery-draining app to another, which will give you a false negative.
Also make sure they’re not in your dock, since those stay active as well.
Same here. Today I charged mine full and unplugged it around 9am and I did hiking, walking and climbing for 3h30m and after 9 hours, my battery went down to 55%. What gives?
Dropping my observations:
Coming from an S3 to S5. I've had it for a week. First day it was bad as expected. I had to turn Always On off not only because of the drain but also because the transition was too slow. I've consistently been getting 10%-30% end of day (light use, office programmer, always on off, brightness low, hearing app off). S3 I was almost always 50% end of day. Both no LTE. I know I've ran into some third party apps that absolutely destroy the battery so I'm wondering if that's the cause.
Coming from an S3 to S5. I've had it for a week. First day it was bad as expected. I had to turn Always On off not only because of the drain but also because the transition was too slow. I've consistently been getting 10%-30% end of day (light use, office programmer, always on off, brightness low, hearing app off). S3 I was almost always 50% end of day. Both no LTE. I know I've ran into some third party apps that absolutely destroy the battery so I'm wondering if that's the cause.
Guys you aren’t seeing better battery life because of iOS 13.1.1. The phone OS isn’t going to magically fix the Watch OS issues.
51% this time, similar usage. Only difference being 13.1.1.
