Still on S4 but saw your note - the same is true (in my opinion) with all versions of wOS on the S4. Minimum brightness is always enough, even in bright direct sun, and occasionally too bright (dark rooms).
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
Still on S4 but saw your note - the same is true (in my opinion) with all versions of wOS on the S4. Minimum brightness is always enough, even in bright direct sun, and occasionally too bright (dark rooms).
This is helpful. My AW4 loses 25% every 12 hours. I can’t go with less battery life than that so holding out on upgrading.
Crossing all fingers and toes that 6.1 is the solution. Even if battery life ultimately is a bit less than OS 5.x on the 3 or 4 (which could go 36 hrs for me), I’m afraid in its current state, the S5 won’t make it from waking to bed for me.“Overnight“ doesn’t mean anything. Do you sleep 10½ hours like I did or 6?
I can confirm that 6.1 increased the battery life. Here’s another screenshot of the usage. AOD on and two 30 min workouts including an outside run (with GPS). Could have definitely gone another 12 hours.
Tomorrow (Monday) will be my new S5’s first real test. This first weekend was too atypical of a schedule for me to make a good assessment.
On 4 hours, 23 minutes on standby with 1 hours, 53 mins usage on 80%
Seems about same as previous days
Seems about same as previous days
This is 100% software, 6.1 clearly fixes this as my last three days have shown. AOD seems to have no battery impact because I’m back to my S4 battery performance (including LTE streaming AirPod outdoor watch only runs). Be patient or return and rebuy when software updates are out.
I'm under bright florescent lights at work all day and the AOD isn't a problem with many of the faces. The time in Solar Dial is too small for me to see well when dimmed but Infograph Modular, which is a little bigger time is fine.
My wife and I upgraded from the AW3 - definitely much worse battery life. We both got easily 2 days of usage out of our watches.
Now, my wife's AW5 40mm GPS dies in the middle of the night if she doesn't charge it after the morning at least once.
My 44mm AW5 GPS will be at 20-40% in the morning after a full day and evening, but I have AOD off, noise off, Siri off, etc... I turned all this (except AOD/Noise) off on my AW3 so this is normal for me.
After reading this thread - I am now turning off fall notifications and turned off 80% of background app refreshing to see how that goes.
I really want AOD on but like some noticed in this thread, the raise to wake sensitivity is easily 2-3x as sensitive as my AW3. Drives me nuts though, to have to tap the watch when it buzzes with raise to wake off so... I think that'll have to stay on.
Also agree with the thread that brightness monitoring is always changing - almost always too bright even though I have brightness all the way down.
Since I charge every morning, I'm happy. My wife isn't too happy but if she turns off AOD and some of the other unnecessary things (noise/fall/etc...), then I bet she'll get similar to my usage.
We're not even considering returning our AW5s. We're pretty happy with them. We will be putting our extra AW chargers at work though. If we had AW4s we'd be unhappy I think.
Now, my wife's AW5 40mm GPS dies in the middle of the night if she doesn't charge it after the morning at least once.
My 44mm AW5 GPS will be at 20-40% in the morning after a full day and evening, but I have AOD off, noise off, Siri off, etc... I turned all this (except AOD/Noise) off on my AW3 so this is normal for me.
After reading this thread - I am now turning off fall notifications and turned off 80% of background app refreshing to see how that goes.
I really want AOD on but like some noticed in this thread, the raise to wake sensitivity is easily 2-3x as sensitive as my AW3. Drives me nuts though, to have to tap the watch when it buzzes with raise to wake off so... I think that'll have to stay on.
Also agree with the thread that brightness monitoring is always changing - almost always too bright even though I have brightness all the way down.
Since I charge every morning, I'm happy. My wife isn't too happy but if she turns off AOD and some of the other unnecessary things (noise/fall/etc...), then I bet she'll get similar to my usage.
We're not even considering returning our AW5s. We're pretty happy with them. We will be putting our extra AW chargers at work though. If we had AW4s we'd be unhappy I think.
They need to release that 6.1 ASAP
Second day with 6.1 beta
AW5 Cellular
Always on display: Enabled
Wake Screen On Wrist Raise: Disabled
Environmental Noise: Disabled
Refresh background : disabled
Usage: 1h15
Stand-by : 8h10.
79% battery
between 2-3% per hours. Good for me.
I need to see on the cellular mode how it goes
AW5 Cellular
Always on display: Enabled
Wake Screen On Wrist Raise: Disabled
Environmental Noise: Disabled
Refresh background : disabled
Usage: 1h15
Stand-by : 8h10.
79% battery
between 2-3% per hours. Good for me.
I need to see on the cellular mode how it goes
Still going great on 6.1 beta, hope beta 2 is soon as I want that meridian face back 
AW5 Cellular 44mm
Always on display: Enabled
Wake Screen On Wrist Raise: Disabled
Environmental Noise: Disabled
Refresh background : Enabled
Brightness set to two bars on the watch settings
Usage: 52mins
Stand-by : 6hrs 5mins.
88% battery
AW5 Cellular 44mm
Always on display: Enabled
Wake Screen On Wrist Raise: Disabled
Environmental Noise: Disabled
Refresh background : Enabled
Brightness set to two bars on the watch settings
Usage: 52mins
Stand-by : 6hrs 5mins.
88% battery
I've seen this on my AW3. I have a Kill-A-Watt reader and found that sometimes my AW3 would charge for up to 2 hours after showing 100% on the screen, then last 3-4-5 hours on 100% before dropping to 99%. But this would not happen consistently. Sometimes once it hit 100% it would stop drawing current (most of the time). Other times, it would charge for hours past 100% and last forever on 100%.
Seeing similar behavior on my AW5.
8-9 times out of 10 charges though, it stops charging at 100%.
It’s almost certain.
I remember the first days how I worried that I wouldn’t finish the day but not anymore
After 12 hours :
Attachments
Just asking.. it sounds like one has to turn off all the things that make the 5 a 5 and still not the battery life of the 4. The 4 battery life is good for an AW, 48 hours for me
Looks like mine is back to my AW4 levels.
12 ½ hours standby
4 hours usage
battery 60%
AOD on
Background refresh on
Noise off
wake to raise off
1 hour walk workout
35 mins gym workout
AW5 SSG 44mm. WatchOS 6.0 iPhone 8+ iOS 13.1.1
12 ½ hours standby
4 hours usage
battery 60%
AOD on
Background refresh on
Noise off
wake to raise off
1 hour walk workout
35 mins gym workout
AW5 SSG 44mm. WatchOS 6.0 iPhone 8+ iOS 13.1.1
What I will say is my old AW3 SSSB 44mm had the best battery life of any Apple watch I have had. My AW4 didn't come near it. AW3 easily 2 days and some. AW4 I would get 1 day and charge in the morning.
AW5 near to my AW4 now.
For those coming from a AW3 I think you would have been disappointed with a AW4 battery life.
AW5 near to my AW4 now.
For those coming from a AW3 I think you would have been disappointed with a AW4 battery life.
Day two. After my post yesterday I let the battery reach zero and charged over night. I turned it off and back on before I put it on at the same time today. This time yesterday I was on 10% today 65% with same usage.
What gives? Crazy there’s such a huge difference considering I haven’t changed anything.
Either way I’m happy! Back to s4 levels!
What gives? Crazy there’s such a huge difference considering I haven’t changed anything.
Either way I’m happy! Back to s4 levels!