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profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,167
6,319
Good to know, that’s pretty close to my day 1 result. 1.5 hrs workout on LTE, took 40% battery life from my 38mm.
Thanks for sharing, I assume you have the 42mm?

Yup, should have mentioned that (42mm). For comparison, when I did the same with my Series 2 it would be 20-25% hit on the battery per hour of running.

I know there’s only so much they can do with a tiny battery powering HR, GPS and cellular, but I wish we could use it for longer events.
 
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Phima256

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2011
223
29
Cleveland
Yesterday was my first day with the S3 (I upgraded from S2). My routine is to put my watch on the charger when I get up, since I use it to monitor sleep. After it's charged, I wear it continuously until the next morning.

With my S2, it would generally have 40-70% charge left in the morning when I would put it on the charger. this morning, my S3 LTE had just 8% left. I never saw anything that low with the S2. Yesterday was a normal day for me, just a bunch of notifications, three brief phone calls to test it out, and playing some music on an hour walk. I am hoping battery life improves.

On a bright note, it appears to charge very quickly.
Do you have a 38mm or 42mm?

Did you make your calls, notifications and play your music on LTE?
 

Samut

macrumors regular
Oct 1, 2017
181
174
Good to know, that’s pretty close to my day 1 result. 1.5 hrs workout on LTE, took 40% battery life from my 38mm.
Thanks for sharing, I assume you have the 42mm?

I appreciate your efforts on sharing details on battery usage of the apple watch. Did you use bluetooth to listen music while exercising?

I am still debating wherher to buy apple watch as I am uncertain whether the 38mm lte versions battery is good enough.The question is whether it has enough power in the following cases:
-3 hour exercise without phone, lte, bluetooth music, gps and hr on
-2 hour exercise as above but enough battery left for a couple of hours on lte

Generally it would be interesting to know what is the hourly battery consumption on 38mm without phone on lte and gps models with hr, gps and bluetooth music on.

Regarding battery life tests on this topic. There seems to be big impact on battery life even on gps only watch depending on whether you have phone with you as it will use phones gps. Therefore it would be important to note if exercise is done with or without phone.
 

Blas

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2017
22
3
I went 33 hours on standby with 8 hr 40 min of use. I had 9% battery left. No workout during that time. One 6-7 minute LTE call took me down from 20~% to 10~%. On a day with no workout, no LTE calls, basically just lazying around, I will probably end up with 60-70% battery by the end of the day.
 

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Maui19

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2007
252
52
Do you have a 38mm or 42mm?

Did you make your calls, notifications and play your music on LTE?
42mm. Calls were on LTE. Notifications were on a mix of Wi-fi (75%) and LTE (35%). Music was Bluetooth only.
 

HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
So far today at 11 hours off the charger and 4 hours of use, with a 75 minute workout on bicycle, and I'm at 70%, and I still have 4-5 hours before I hit the bed.
 

HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
42mm S3 with LTE - bought Friday 9/22 but not successfully set up until Wednesday (9/27):

(1) 2 days ago I was off the charger for 16 hours with 6 hours of use and went to 55%
(2) Yesterday was off the charger for 14 hours with 5 hours of use and went to 64%
(3) Earlier today I posted at 11 hours off the charger and 4 hours of use, with a 75 minute workout on bicycle, and I'm at 70%, and I still have 4-5 hours before I hit the bed.
(4) And now, ready for bed at 16 hours unplugged and 5 hours of use, and I'm at 67%
 
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Maui19

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2007
252
52
Yesterday was my first day with the S3 (I upgraded from S2). My routine is to put my watch on the charger when I get up, since I use it to monitor sleep. After it's charged, I wear it continuously until the next morning.

With my S2, it would generally have 40-70% charge left in the morning when I would put it on the charger. this morning, my S3 LTE had just 8% left. I never saw anything that low with the S2. Yesterday was a normal day for me, just a bunch of notifications, three brief phone calls to test it out, and playing some music on an hour walk. I am hoping battery life improves.

On a bright note, it appears to charge very quickly.
Today I had exactly the same performance, however I checked and found that I had 40%+ charge when I went to bed. So something is eating up 32%+ of my battery charge overnight. I have a couple ideas about what it might be.
 

laro

macrumors newbie
Aug 21, 2017
16
2
Today I had exactly the same performance, however I checked and found that I had 40%+ charge when I went to bed. So something is eating up 32%+ of my battery charge overnight. I have a couple ideas about what it might be.

Me too. But i‘ve no idea what‘s eating my battery. Which Apps do you think off? Standby and usage Time are the same in my case, so there must be an App or a process eating up my battery.
[doublepost=1506953962][/doublepost]
Battery isn't as good as my series 2 was. In the watch app, usage and standby figures are identical.
Me too. Standby and usage Time are the same in my case, so there must be an App or a process eating up my battery. First i thought it was a Problem of 4.1b but now i‘m thinking it‘s not the case.
 

mzanker

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2008
315
114
United Kingdom
Me too. But i‘ve no idea what‘s eating my battery. Which Apps do you think off? Standby and usage Time are the same in my case, so there must be an App or a process eating up my battery.
[doublepost=1506953962][/doublepost]
Me too. Standby and usage Time are the same in my case, so there must be an App or a process eating up my battery. First i thought it was a Problem of 4.1b but now i‘m thinking it‘s not the case.
Also running 4.1b1 here and 11.1b1 on the iPhone. Hopefully battery life will improve with future betas.
 

jekim

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
161
39
I thought there was no always on option for the Apple Watch? Has that changed?

Off/On is referring to Raise to wake. You can keep it off so that you have to tap the screen or turn the dial on series 2 or newer to see the screen when something comes across. I have to assume that all of these great battery life stories are with the screen off. No one has really mentioned that either way but in my own testing with the screen off I’m currently at 4 hours 53 minutes usage and 1 day, 3 hours standby with 34% left. I did 2 15 minute outdoor walks on lte playing music, 1 15 minute walk with my phone and about 25 minutes of lte only time while I went to the store to achieve those stats.
 

Fastskis

macrumors newbie
Sep 24, 2017
14
5
This video shows the battery drains 3-4% an hour on the 38mm model, which I’m getting similar battery life too:
If I knew the 42mm last almost 2x as long, I would have order the 42mm instead...



My Series 3 has been pretty good on cellular.

I got the Smatree charging cast on Amazon which is great to pop watch into and it charges up quickly as well as protecting watch or popping in bag.
 
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Orangeman13

macrumors 6502a
Aug 3, 2015
796
694
what is everybody getting for LTE standby? anyone able to leave LTE on throughout the day?
 

madgalaxy

macrumors regular
Apr 11, 2015
122
69
what is everybody getting for LTE standby? anyone able to leave LTE on throughout the day?
I am testing this today. My phone is at home and on. I left the house at 6:30am with only my watch and iPad. Watch was at 100%. It is now almost 3pm and I am at 50% left (LTE only, No WiFi).

I have done a couple Siri queries, received various notifications, some Swarm check-ins, 20 minutes of music and checking the weather and once opened the News app. No phone calls (I rarely talk on the phone anyway). I have been using my iPad for most of my messaging though - which is normal for me at work.

It is odd because I do have my work WiFi saved on my phone so I am unsure why the watch is not picking it up. I would assume the battery would be better if I was on my work WiFi.
 
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grouch92

macrumors regular
Sep 13, 2016
195
312
I'm getting better battery life than on my AW2. I had to charge it every other day. Of course I've only made a few phone, brief phone calls and no workouts. I'm half way through day 3 of constant wear with about 29% battery life left!

Usage = 5 hours, 30 minutes
Standby = 2 Days, 4 hours
Power reserve - > 2 days.
 

SoCalGadgetGuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Saturday's stats:

This is for my 8th full day of use since receiving the Series 3 (42 mm with cellular/LTE).

After 26 hours, battery down to 50%. Most of my activity is the same as my previous battery stats posting (Post #8 above), which includes Sleep Watch sleep tracker that records all night, with the exception of the following:

  • Went 4.5 hours on LTE only (iPhone was turned off). Received two phone calls, but purposely did not answer.
  • Listened to Sirius XM radio for about an hour via iPhone, but controlled by my watch (play, pause)
  • Use the watch's flashlight feature for about 1 minute.

This equates to an average battery drain of 1.92% per hour.
 

jekim

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
161
39
As the original poster of this thread, all the data that I have shared has been with both the "Wake Screen on Wrist Raise" and "Wake Screen on Crown Up" set to "On".

That’s amazing that you are getting those numbers with it on. I can’t come close to what you have on by keeping it on. When I have it off I’m seeing the great battery life. However, I’m content with leaving the screen on and just charging it at night before I go to bed and top it off in the morning while in the shower.
 
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SoCalGadgetGuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
That’s amazing that you are getting those numbers with it on. I can’t come close to what you have on by keeping it on. When I have it off I’m seeing the great battery life. However, I’m content with leaving the screen on and just charging it at night before I go to bed and top it off in the morning while in the shower.
Do you have the 38mm or 42mm watch? What is your "On Tap" setting? I have mine set for 15 seconds (not 70). I also am not "playing around" with the watch all day. I don't talk on the phone with it, either.
 

jekim

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
161
39
Do you have the 38mm or 42mm watch? What is your "On Tap" setting? I have mine set for 15 seconds (not 70). I also am not "playing around" with the watch all day. I don't talk on the phone with it, either.

I have 42mm, my on tap is 15 seconds and I only turn it 10 or less times an hour when I get a buzz or to check the time. My job consists of typing all day so I wonder if the movement is making the screen come on. I can deal with it as long as it makes it though the day....I’m just jealous I can’t get your numbers without the screen off.
 

Neodym

macrumors 68020
Jul 5, 2002
2,495
1,120
what is everybody getting for LTE standby? anyone able to leave LTE on throughout the day?
Saw a battery drain of around 7% per hour today when on LTE. Standby only, one short call, two outgoing tries. Total measure time ca. 3-4 hrs. So a full day could be a challenge, depending on use case.

Edit: 42mm.
 
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