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Terrible battery life
- Thread starter Cold_Beaver
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I think that the AW5 battery issues will get resolved.. to the extent of getting the advertised 18 hours of average use.
For those that are OK with it making it through the day and don’t do sleep tracking it will be fine. For those that want it to be a bit more than a day it may not.
I am very curious if the exact same testing procedures that resulted in the AW4 getting 18 hours of usage were used on the AW5. You have to hammer the AW4 to only get 18 hours yet the AW5 is limping across the finish line if it makes it 18 hours.
The cynic in me says the AW4 was sandbagged knowing the battery life of the AW5.. or the testing criteria is not the same.
For those that are OK with it making it through the day and don’t do sleep tracking it will be fine. For those that want it to be a bit more than a day it may not.
I am very curious if the exact same testing procedures that resulted in the AW4 getting 18 hours of usage were used on the AW5. You have to hammer the AW4 to only get 18 hours yet the AW5 is limping across the finish line if it makes it 18 hours.
The cynic in me says the AW4 was sandbagged knowing the battery life of the AW5.. or the testing criteria is not the same.
I hear that 6.1 does fix this issue. Looks like Apple rolled out 6.0.1 so wondering if 6.0.1 fix the battery drain?
You and everyone else. Plenty of folks here installed it yesterday afternoon.
It's of course going to take time to see if it has an effect.
I'm on my second day with my S5 and thankfully battery life seems comparable to my S3. I have the cellular version. AOD is on, Noises is off, background refresh on for selected apps (around 10 apps, I think). I hope this gets straightened out for you guys. S5 is a really nice watch, but you need to be able to get through a normal day without worrying about the battery.
I have the AW4 on 6.0 and it has been OK but not bad. Battery life has been the same for me. Now for anyone on certain betas (phone, not watch) the battery life could be horrible. I was on a few of these public betas that NUKED battery life. The issue was resolved with the next beta #. Happened twice. I think the AW4/6.0 battery issues more prevalent with those who have used the beta or that use backups to restore a watch/phone. I never use backups.
My guess is that Apple will get the AW5 battery life to slightly over a day, including sleeping in the watch... about 30 hours. I am guessing that would satisfy most AW5 owners. I was hoping that the AW5 could match/beat the 48 I get from the 4. I don’t think that is likely. I am not saying that’s bad as everyone has different expectations.
I did not installed it yesterday afternoon and only did it this morning, still being charged. That's why I'm asking others who have installed it.
Hasn't really been out long enough to tell -- especially as with a new install it seems things need to sync / settle in some way -- my S5 battery usage jumped up after installing it yesterday afternoon, but this morning seems much better.
Folks will post their results, no need to worry about that part.
I’ve been for a run for 35 mins and streamed a podcast using cellular. an Hour after I finished my run, it still shows 100%. I don’t believe that and feel it’s gonna die without warning at some point!
I don’t use cellular unless I need it so it is off most of the time.Indeed, as I can't imagine achieving 48 hours on my AW4 even with WatchOS5. Even without any workouts, a typical day in my usage has the watch at 40-45% at bedtime, ~17-18 hours off the charger.
I'm not doubting your claim, I just don't have a clue how you achieve it.
During sleep I use Theater Mode
I only get notifications from about 5, or less, services. I hate getting lots of these.. things/people can wait.
Workouts are usually indoors and less than 45 minutes. Recently, I have not used the AW for indoor rides as it does not pair with the Peloton.
I have/use about 5 complications
My display is on lowest setting and smallest text. The lowest brightness is more than bright enough for me.
I do not enable workout power saving mode. If I am working out I want my HR.
Environmental Sounds - off (is new.. so not really a factor)
I disable the automatic ‘control’ of audio/video. I use my phone when listening/watching
That is all I can think of. If I come off charger at 7AM the majority of the time when I wake up the next day I am around 50%. Yesterday, my AW came off the charger after the update around 1:30/2. It’s 8:30 AM and I am at 67%.
Upgraded my Series 5 GPS to 6.01 yesterday, full charge at 6PM yesterday.
So far .. 13hr 57min standby, 1hr 37min usage battery at 63%
But, at 5AM this morning, the battery was at 90%, so it dropped 27% in the last 3 hours or so. Seems to take a long time to get to 90% or so, then begins to drop quickly after that.
Doing the math, that would give me about 36 hours on a charge without a workout.
So far .. 13hr 57min standby, 1hr 37min usage battery at 63%
But, at 5AM this morning, the battery was at 90%, so it dropped 27% in the last 3 hours or so. Seems to take a long time to get to 90% or so, then begins to drop quickly after that.
Doing the math, that would give me about 36 hours on a charge without a workout.
I am skeptical that 6.1 is going to fix these battery issues. Apple had already made the claim of "same battery life as S4" when testing the watch with OS 6.0. Why does everyone seem to think that OS 6.1 is going to meet that claim when it is finally released?
Case in point: Apple claimed major battery life improvements on the iPhone Max Pro. This is absolutely true and it was true even with the mess that 13.0 was. Apple made these claims for the OS the watch was running on, not the OS that is coming at some point down the road. iOS 13 has been a very buggy release (hence the massive amount of updates we have seen). One thing that was true on day 1 was the stellar battery life regardless of the mess the rest of the OS has been for some people. I don't know why people assume the same wouldn't hold true for the watch. Apple tested the watch on 6.0 and made the claim of battery life based on 6.0.
I just don't think that there is going to be a major fix for this until Series 6 comes out next year with a more efficient processor. There could be marginal improvements for sure with OS updates but not anything major like people are expecting. I think Apple took a pretty big shortcut this year by not giving an update to the processor and I think its going to hamper the battery no matter what they do, unless you turn off the AOD. I hope I'm wrong and I guess we'll see soon enough.
Case in point: Apple claimed major battery life improvements on the iPhone Max Pro. This is absolutely true and it was true even with the mess that 13.0 was. Apple made these claims for the OS the watch was running on, not the OS that is coming at some point down the road. iOS 13 has been a very buggy release (hence the massive amount of updates we have seen). One thing that was true on day 1 was the stellar battery life regardless of the mess the rest of the OS has been for some people. I don't know why people assume the same wouldn't hold true for the watch. Apple tested the watch on 6.0 and made the claim of battery life based on 6.0.
I just don't think that there is going to be a major fix for this until Series 6 comes out next year with a more efficient processor. There could be marginal improvements for sure with OS updates but not anything major like people are expecting. I think Apple took a pretty big shortcut this year by not giving an update to the processor and I think its going to hamper the battery no matter what they do, unless you turn off the AOD. I hope I'm wrong and I guess we'll see soon enough.
Apple Watch series 5 I wrote earlier in the thread about bad battery life on my 5 anyway the battery life is showing signs of improving every recharge I don't know how but it is. Anyone else getting the same results.
Multiple people with S4 have noticed a drop in battery life with os6.0 and multiple people have noticed improvement in battery life after installing 6.1. I get at least the stated 18hrs with my S5 on 6.0. Even after using it for a 5hr round of golf for gps distances, which is a battery hog. I think most here are complaining that they don’t get the life they experienced with prior watches....which is more than the stated 18hrs. BTW now that my watch has settled....On a avg day my S5 drains about 3.8% per hour which would give me about 26hrs. I’m hopeful battery life will increase after 6.0 but if it doesn’t I’m okay with what im seeing...which isn’t too far off from my S2 I had before this.
Battery life will improve towards an optimum over the first few charge cycles. Initially, I suspect that the watch syncs over the first couple of days so that may well be the reason for any initial bad battery issues. Bearing in mind, the number of OS updates from Apple for both the Watch and phone over the last few days, battery performance may be up and down a but until things settle down and we get 6.1 public release, I think we will continue to read about individuals concerns.
I have had no problems, but what I did was restore from the back up from my S4, switch off noise detection, turn brightness up to max. Power cycle the watch and then charge it to max and left it on max for 8 hours. Worked for me.
Yep - the combined 13.1.2 and 6.0.1 updates yesterday knocked my S5 from ~3%/hr to ~5.5%/hr for the rest of the day.
Seems to have settled overnight so far; showing 90% with 4h10m Standby / 46m Usage.
After 5 days on beta 6.1, I can confirm that the battery is really better.
standby 20h15
Use : 3h40 music, lot of notifications, some calls and one hour workout
battery a 50%
AW5 cellular
standby 20h15
Use : 3h40 music, lot of notifications, some calls and one hour workout
battery a 50%
AW5 cellular
Just done a 3 mile walk with dogs and no phone (so LTE kicked in) - took just over an hour and lost 5% on battery that is all.
I'm looking at 11 hours 51 mins standby that includes a 30 min workout and the walk for over an hour and battery on 65%. That is fine for me. AW5 SS 44mm, WatchOS 6.1 AOD on noise off. Much, much better than 6.0 so there are definitely performance enhancements in 6.1. I also think that 13.1.2 on the iPhone has some watch syncing enhancements.
I am even removing the battery complication i put on the face in my paranoia for the first time in about 3 years lol.
I'm looking at 11 hours 51 mins standby that includes a 30 min workout and the walk for over an hour and battery on 65%. That is fine for me. AW5 SS 44mm, WatchOS 6.1 AOD on noise off. Much, much better than 6.0 so there are definitely performance enhancements in 6.1. I also think that 13.1.2 on the iPhone has some watch syncing enhancements.
I am even removing the battery complication i put on the face in my paranoia for the first time in about 3 years lol.
