Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hal~9000

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 13, 2014
2,184
2,183
Just curious from other Series 1 owners who have updated to WatchOS 4 if I should make the jump or keep my Series 1 on 3.2.3? How's the battery life?

Sucks that we can't try out the update for a few days / weeks and downgrade if we don't want it like we can on the iPhone :oops: (at least before Apple stops signing the old iOS version).

Thank you for the input :)
 
Last edited:

ross7777

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2014
69
5
MN
Not great for me since I re-paired to a new iPhone 8 yesterday. It seemed to be ok on iOS11 with my iPhone 6.
 

H1JJY

macrumors member
Sep 4, 2014
98
24
My S0 was shocking for the first few days and wasn’t even lasting a day. But it now seems to be better then ever. Had 60% left after a 20 hour day
 
  • Like
Reactions: broadbean

broadbean

macrumors 6502a
Jun 10, 2007
782
333
My S0 was shocking for the first few days and wasn’t even lasting a day. But it now seems to be better then ever. Had 60% left after a 20 hour day

I'd love to hear how you go over the next few days. What about the speed of watchOS 4 on S0?
 

Hal~9000

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 13, 2014
2,184
2,183
My S0 was shocking for the first few days and wasn’t even lasting a day. But it now seems to be better then ever. Had 60% left after a 20 hour day

Did you change any settings after the first few days on your watch to achieve this?
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
11,013
5,478
192.168.1.1
Stay on WatchOS 3.x for now.

Series 0... used to be >30% when I went to bed. Since updating, it never makes it to bed time. Dies beforehand. Battery life sucks on 4.0. And yes, it’s been rebooted multiple times (as has the phone).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Daves0024

H1JJY

macrumors member
Sep 4, 2014
98
24
Did you change any settings after the first few days on your watch to achieve this?
Battery life still good, 90% at the moment and been wearing it for 7 hours so far today.
The only setting I’ve changed is the Wake Screen settings - turn off auto for music apps.
To stop my watch always showing what was playing on bluetooth in my car.
 

ross7777

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2014
69
5
MN
The new Siri watch face was the culprit for me. Just having it on the watch was draining my battery. It seems to pull location data 24/7 even when it’s not my current watch face. After I removed it, my battery is back to normal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppleKarma

ross7777

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2014
69
5
MN
Strange. Is your location icon always active? Mine was solid blue and after removing that face its now just an outline.


I don’t have that face enabled. My phone is on 43% now at 15:45. Would normally be that at bed time.

Progress!
 

zhenya

macrumors 604
Jan 6, 2005
6,931
3,681
S0 and battery life is slightly better than it was on WatchOS 3. I generally make it about 24 hours of continuous wear.
 

Frankfurt

macrumors 6502a
Dec 4, 2016
740
889
USA
Same here. Upgraded S0 and there are no issues with running watch OS4. Battery life is about the same, i.e. about 24-30 hrs with light use (time & notifications, some texts).
 

Heithel

macrumors member
Jul 25, 2017
42
36
Hi guys, I’ve recently upgraded to a Series 1 for a steal, trading in my Series 0. At the moment I’m still holding back my Series 1 from this last update as I thought that a 4.0.1 will be soon released, much like it’ll happen to the buggy iOS 11 once iPhone X gets out in the wild.

Do you have any comment or impression on the battery life of the Series 1 with watchOS 4? I’d like to update but I don’t wanna get stuck with a watch which wouldn’t get me through the day eating battery for nothing. Now I’m hugely satisfied with the battery life and I’d like to keep it this way.

Thanks!
 

KrisLord

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2008
1,748
1,880
Northumberland, UK
There were issues during beta, but it’s fine now.

42mm Series 1 here with 61% battery left. I’ve worn it since 7am (8pm now) but not done any workouts.
 

broadbean

macrumors 6502a
Jun 10, 2007
782
333
Do you have any comment or impression on the battery life of the Series 1 with watchOS 4?

Yes, I do. Series 1 and Series 2 are no different! Series 1 is the Series 2 guts inside a Series "0" Case. There is no way Series 2 (and 1) Watches would suffer that much if at all by going to watchOS 4!
 

uknation87

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2016
249
191
Just curious from other Series 1 owners who have updated to WatchOS 4 if I should make the jump or keep my Series 1 on 3.2.3? How's the battery life?

Sucks that we can't try out the update for a few days / weeks and downgrade if we don't want it like we can on the iPhone :oops: (at least before Apple stops signing the old iOS version).

Thank you for the input :)

As weird as this might sound, it took my S1 Sport AW about 2 days before the battery life was "back to normal". Some days the battery is outstanding and others it's just "average".

If I don't workout, I can end my day of normal use (16 hours with notifications, texts) with almost 70% battery life left over. When I add in my workouts I will end the day with about 60% or so.

Now, has anyone noticed that the "charging ring" has gone away when charging your AW? My AW simply shows a "green bolt" where the lock icon is for about 5 seconds then nothing... it is getting a full charge but I honestly don't know until I swipe up to check. Anyone else having this issue?
 

Hal~9000

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 13, 2014
2,184
2,183
As weird as this might sound, it took my S1 Sport AW about 2 days before the battery life was "back to normal". Some days the battery is outstanding and others it's just "average".

If I don't workout, I can end my day of normal use (16 hours with notifications, texts) with almost 70% battery life left over. When I add in my workouts I will end the day with about 60% or so.

Now, has anyone noticed that the "charging ring" has gone away when charging your AW? My AW simply shows a "green bolt" where the lock icon is for about 5 seconds then nothing... it is getting a full charge but I honestly don't know until I swipe up to check. Anyone else having this issue?

I've heard that it's hard to judge an updated effect on battery life since early on the device is "indexing". Not sure if I know the specifics of what that term truly means but I'm curious how WatchOS4 affects the S1 battery life after a clean install / reset and after the first few days...
 

macdragonfl

macrumors 6502a
Jan 11, 2006
581
305
Ft. Lauderdale,Fl
From the beta testing WatchOS 4 on a series 0, its been great. One thing though I learned is to hard reset the watch after any update. If you do not you will get bad drain in most cases. The battery life is not as good for a week or so then returns to normal in my case better than ever on WatchOS 4.
 

uknation87

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2016
249
191
I've heard that it's hard to judge an updated effect on battery life since early on the device is "indexing". Not sure if I know the specifics of what that term truly means but I'm curious how WatchOS4 affects the S1 battery life after a clean install / reset and after the first few days...

I have had the OS4 update for a few days now and I have seen a little bit of a swing of battery life.

Example - Monday of this week I put the watch on after a full night charge around 6:30AM. At 10:30AM I still had 100% charge. I had just over 70% at the end of my night which was around 10:30PM.

Tuesday started around the same of 6:30AM. At 10:30AM I was down to around 92% battery life and didn't notice any major difference in notifications, texts, or heart rate checks (which is what I mostly use it for outside of a workout 3 -4 nights a week). I ended the day under 60% life.

Yesterday reflected Monday almost to a tee with the exception of being around 68% at 10:30PM last night.

Again, no major change and unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to do any workouts this week so really there is no rhyme or reason to the swing in battery life so far.

All that said, it's still really strong in my opinion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hal~9000

roccobladr

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2011
335
153
anyone else having really bad battery life on series 1 with watch os4?

Before Watch os4, id wear my watch from about 5am to 9pm, record at least 1 30 minute workout and still get to bed with at least 40-50%+ life left.

Now, with the same usage on watch os4, I haven’t been able to get to bed before getting into power reserve mode most days. At best, I’d have 15% battery life left.

I tried turning off the location services (though the little location arrow still shows up on my watch) and i turned off the auto music controls. This seemed to helped a bit but there still seems like some type of issue going on.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.