I'm getting 24 hours out of my 44mm S5. It was awful for the first week I got it. Much better after the 6.01 update. NOT running any beta software. Only have the apps I need installed on the app; no extraneous garbage.
AOD on, LTE on, background refresh on but for a few select apps (rest are off), raise to wake on; sound level off, Hey Siri off (Siri on crown press on); brightness at medium (2/3); generally on black California face with one complication, black Meridian with 4 complications or Infograph Modular face w/ 5 complications + date. None of my displayed complications show heart rate FWIW. Watch spends about 85% of the time connected to my iPhone via Bluetooth and rest of time on WiFi. Rarely connects to LTE -- maybe only 5-10 minutes per average day, if at all.
Most of day is spent indoors in a low general brightness office setting, so watch face brightness doesn't ramp itself up too high usually.
Usage pattern: I charge overnight. Put on at 5:30am, do 45 minutes of stationary bike or treadmill run, put back on charger while showering & getting dressed. Back to 100% or close to it when I put it back on at about 6:45am. Head off to work. Lots of email and other notifications throughout the day; often respond on the watch itself, so it gets a fair amount of actual use. Generally do another 30 minutes of tracked indoor and outdoor walk (usually with my phone in my pocket) in the afternoon without recharging. Usually around 60% by 6pm when I head home. At that point, usage tends to be much lower and I typically put back on charger at 11:30pm with ~35% or more to spare.
My old watchOS 5.x 42mm S3 would do the same with >55% remaining, but of course it didn't have an AOD.
tl;dnr: my stainless 44mm S5 gets from 6:45am to 11:30pm with ~35% battery to spare with my typical use pattern and configuration. So about 3.8%/hr or less combined. Sucked at the beginning but now is totally sufficient for me.
AOD on, LTE on, background refresh on but for a few select apps (rest are off), raise to wake on; sound level off, Hey Siri off (Siri on crown press on); brightness at medium (2/3); generally on black California face with one complication, black Meridian with 4 complications or Infograph Modular face w/ 5 complications + date. None of my displayed complications show heart rate FWIW. Watch spends about 85% of the time connected to my iPhone via Bluetooth and rest of time on WiFi. Rarely connects to LTE -- maybe only 5-10 minutes per average day, if at all.
Most of day is spent indoors in a low general brightness office setting, so watch face brightness doesn't ramp itself up too high usually.
Usage pattern: I charge overnight. Put on at 5:30am, do 45 minutes of stationary bike or treadmill run, put back on charger while showering & getting dressed. Back to 100% or close to it when I put it back on at about 6:45am. Head off to work. Lots of email and other notifications throughout the day; often respond on the watch itself, so it gets a fair amount of actual use. Generally do another 30 minutes of tracked indoor and outdoor walk (usually with my phone in my pocket) in the afternoon without recharging. Usually around 60% by 6pm when I head home. At that point, usage tends to be much lower and I typically put back on charger at 11:30pm with ~35% or more to spare.
My old watchOS 5.x 42mm S3 would do the same with >55% remaining, but of course it didn't have an AOD.
tl;dnr: my stainless 44mm S5 gets from 6:45am to 11:30pm with ~35% battery to spare with my typical use pattern and configuration. So about 3.8%/hr or less combined. Sucked at the beginning but now is totally sufficient for me.
