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

Let's Post Our Series 3 Battery Life Here!

Interestingly, my S3 LTE's battery life has improved greatly over the past week. It has just gotten better and better and better, without any change in my usage habits whatsoever. Today I am going to end the day with about 70% left, and have been finding well over 50% charge left when I get up in the morning (I wear it overnight for sleep tracking).

I have also noticed a similar steady improvement in battery performance with my iPhone, where it has steadily improved its battery performance since the upgrade to 11.0.1.
 
Last edited:
42mm Nike Sport watch.
Not using the LTE, one or two workouts a day.
Am averaging approx 50% per day at the min.
Still early days and finding my feet with this, but if I can get comfortably over 24 hours then will be happy, as can charge when driving or at work. I want to use it for sleep tracking so dont want to be charging over night.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leica Dad
66% left on the 42mm LTE(didn’t use LTE, tether through iPhone)
 

Attachments

  • 7B0AA3DF-8E5A-48BE-B682-205F7AD7F6A4.png
    7B0AA3DF-8E5A-48BE-B682-205F7AD7F6A4.png
    573.8 KB · Views: 197
  • Like
Reactions: profets
Wow, just checked mine. 3 hours into the day, started a 90 minute run with battery showing 100%. LTE, GPS, HR and playing music to AirPods during the run. Battery now at 54%. I tend to average a solid 30%/hour of outdoor running with all of those things on.
 
Same observation here: about 30% reduction per hour with heavy use. About 10% reduction per hour with LTE standby and occasional text
 
Had a pretty disappointing battery experience with my AW LTE this morning.

Went out for this week's long run – 16 miles – with 87% battery. Got the Reserve Power notification with more than smile left to go, and ended the run with only 7% power remaining.

Used the Nike app, Apple Music (with songs stored on the watch), AirPods and that's it. The run was under 2:20, so I would have expected the battery life to have been better.

Another odd thing is that the Nike app shut down three times during the run. When I started it back up, it resumed where it was previously. But as a result, I lost about 1.5 miles compared to what my Garmin reported. Not sure if the built-in app will perform better or use less battery.

For me the appeal of using the AW with LTE was the ability to leave my Garmin and phone home. As it is, I think it falls short for me for long runs.
 
PatrickNSF said:
Had a pretty disappointing battery experience with my AW LTE this morning.

Went out for this week's long run – 16 miles – with 87% battery. Got the Reserve Power notification with more than smile left to go, and ended the run with only 7% power remaining.

Used the Nike app, Apple Music (with songs stored on the watch), AirPods and that's it. The run was under 2:20, so I would have expected the battery life to have been better.

Another odd thing is that the Nike app shut down three times during the run. When I started it back up, it resumed where it was previously. But as a result, I lost about 1.5 miles compared to what my Garmin reported. Not sure if the built-in app will perform better or use less battery.

For me the appeal of using the AW with LTE was the ability to leave my Garmin and phone home. As it is, I think it falls short for me for long runs.
Click to expand...
16miles was how many hours?
 
PatrickNSF said:
Had a pretty disappointing battery experience with my AW LTE this morning.

Went out for this week's long run – 16 miles – with 87% battery. Got the Reserve Power notification with more than smile left to go, and ended the run with only 7% power remaining.

Used the Nike app, Apple Music (with songs stored on the watch), AirPods and that's it. The run was under 2:20, so I would have expected the battery life to have been better.

Another odd thing is that the Nike app shut down three times during the run. When I started it back up, it resumed where it was previously. But as a result, I lost about 1.5 miles compared to what my Garmin reported. Not sure if the built-in app will perform better or use less battery.

For me the appeal of using the AW with LTE was the ability to leave my Garmin and phone home. As it is, I think it falls short for me for long runs.
Click to expand...
Yikes, that is disappointing. What size watch do you have, 38mm or 42mm?
 
I got the LTE because it was required for the Nike Loop I got, but I'm not activating it with my carrier. Too much & not really worth it. I'm assuming battery life with be much better.
 
Phima256 said:
Yikes, that is disappointing. What size watch do you have, 38mm or 42mm?
Click to expand...

42mm. I think it's probably fine for a half marathon or less, assuming you'll be able to top it off later in the day. And that's assuming you leave LTE on and are playing locally stored music through AirPods. Not sure how Apple Streaming would affect this.

If I didn't have a Garmin and needed to race with the AW, I'd probably turn LTE off for the race and then just turn it back on when meeting people after. For training runs, though, I'd like to be reachable so I'd leave LTE on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: profets
PatrickNSF said:
Just under 2:20.
Click to expand...

Damn, that's rough. I did 1.5 hours and it consumed 45%. It was with the workout app though (not sure if that makes a difference). Also, signal strength for cellular I'm sure will come into play, but can't imagine how badly it'll affect battery life.

edhchoe said:
80% battery used in 2.4 hours..
Tim or Phil said AW3 will last 4 hours on LTE standby/unused, IIRC. When in use with exercise app and BT Airpods, I guess that is expected.
Click to expand...

The Series 2 when used solo for outdoor workout (GPS, HR and listening to music) was rated for about 5 hours, and I saw that pretty consistently myself. I think the same thing for Series 3 with cellular on in addition to GPS & HR is 4 hours total? Though with my experience so far my watch would die around 3:20.
 
profets said:
Damn, that's rough. I did 1.5 hours and it consumed 45%. It was with the workout app though (not sure if that makes a difference). Also, signal strength for cellular I'm sure will come into play, but can't imagine how badly it'll affect battery life.
Click to expand...

Today's run was in San Francisco, and I didn't really notice any loss of LTE (which I think is indicated by a red "x" near time). Maybe it was the Nike app? My recollection is that I got one iMessage, and maybe a Gmail. And then notices that I was closing my rings. But there didn't seem to be much else going on that would drain the battery.

Again, I think it's totally fine for a casual running, especially if you're traveling and want access to maps, etc. without carrying your phone. But it's probably not best suited to training for long races when you want LTE access and music streaming.
 
HeadphoneAddict said:
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%
Click to expand...

HeadphoneAddict said:
16 hours standby and 4.5 hours of use = 67% battery remaining tonight.
Click to expand...

HeadphoneAddict said:
5th day and I'm at 16 hours standby and 4 hours of use = 65% battery left by bedtime. This seems to be pretty consistent, and I should be able to go 35-45 hours on a single charge with my typical use, but at the longer end of the range if I'm sleeping for 8 hours of that time.
Click to expand...

HeadphoneAddict said:
Today I had 135 minutes of exercise with the watch off the charger for 12.5 hours (and 6 hours of active use during that time per the watch app measurements) with 57% remaining.

Half way through the same workouts on bicycle, my wife's 18 month old Series 0 38mm went down to 6% after only being off the charger for 9 hours. Her watch kills the battery during workouts twice as fast as my original Series 0 42mm watch, so I might have to take it to the Apple Genius to see why it always dies so fast with workouts.
Click to expand...

Today I'm at 15 hours off the charger with 4 hours of usage, and 40 minutes of that was exercise = 70%
 
Today's stats on 42mm
Current charge 75%

Off charger for 24 hours.

Siri watch face
Background app refresh on for all
Hey siri enabled
Location enabled
Reduce transparency on (just doesn't look right on a small screen)

Was a very easy day yesterday. No workouts. No breathe.
 

Attachments

  • 5C6DC4C1-922F-42F7-AB5E-71FD4C1D52E3.png
    5C6DC4C1-922F-42F7-AB5E-71FD4C1D52E3.png
    247.8 KB · Views: 158
So it's interesting to see the difference between the 42 and 38mm side by side.

My boyfriend and I bought S3 non LTE AW's at the same time, him 42mm, me 38mm (42 would just look ridiculous
on me and is just right for him).

I knew the battery life was different but I wasn't expecting such a difference. We have fairly similar usage throughout the day, my 38mm over the first full week last week consistently drained to about 50% by 11pm (charged until 7am-ish). Just not enough to know you'll get through another day, so I've charged my AW overnight every night except for last night. It was at 41% by 7am, and now (almost 3pm) is at 20%. So I've got 8 hours max to go which would actually get me to 11pm but I'm not so sure that will work. I will stick it out but I don't like the idea of it running out at the wrong moment.

The 42mm on the other hand has been good for two days, so taken off charger at 7am, used overnight and put on charger again around 11pm the next day with about 30%. Over the weekend he even managed three days with 10% left at the end of the third day. I've checked usage in the iPhone's watch apps and it's not like his usage is much lower than mine.

I was prepared for the idea that I would be charging my AW overnight (I'm not that interested in sleep tracking and I really don't like wearables while sleeping) and that's fine, I do the same with my iPhone and daily or every other day with my iPad, but I wasn't expecting this big a difference in battery life
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ravi_MR and Leica Dad
KarinvdB said:
So it's interesting to see the difference between the 42 and 38mm side by side.

My boyfriend and I bought S3 non LTE AW's at the same time, him 42mm, me 38mm (42 would just look ridiculous
on me and is just right for him).

I knew the battery life was different but I wasn't expecting such a difference. We have fairly similar usage throughout the day, my 38mm over the first full week last week consistently drained to about 50% by 11pm (charged until 7am-ish). Just not enough to know you'll get through another day, so I've charged my AW overnight every night except for last night. It was at 41% by 7am, and now (almost 3pm) is at 20%. So I've got 8 hours max to go which would actually get me to 11pm but I'm not so sure that will work. I will stick it out but I don't like the idea of it running out at the wrong moment.

The 42mm on the other hand has been good for two days, so taken off charger at 7am, used overnight and put on charger again around 11pm the next day with about 30%. Over the weekend he even managed three days with 10% left at the end of the third day. I've checked usage in the iPhone's watch apps and it's not like his usage is much lower than mine.

I was prepared for the idea that I would be charging my AW overnight (I'm not that interested in sleep tracking and I really don't like wearables while sleeping) and that's fine, I do the same with my iPhone and daily or every other day with my iPad, but I wasn't expecting this big a difference in battery life
Click to expand...

That is what I found too. I had a 38mm at first and found the battery life is not so good, especially compare to people who has 42mm. So I borrow a 42mm and test them side by side(yes, wearing both watches, I looked ridiculous). I found by the end of the day 42mm usually has 25-35% more than the 38mm.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ravi_MR
Battery life is subjective. Each person uses it differently and your chosen settings can affect it. So I wanted to see how my life is.

At time of taking this I'm at 10% and it wanted to go into low battery mode. Using all day. Siri watch face. All background app refresh is on. Heart rate on during workouts which are daily.

Battery life is the one reason I was apprehensive about the watch. Apple still claiming 18 hours use and that normally means under light use. Quite heavy use and here we are, 51 hours later and with an estimated 6 hours still left in the tank.
 

Attachments

  • 40F8C26F-F56B-4D5F-B11A-1892971166ED.png
    40F8C26F-F56B-4D5F-B11A-1892971166ED.png
    252 KB · Views: 217
  • Like
Reactions: QuarterSwede, Leica Dad and predation
Mercenary said:
Battery life is subjective. Each person uses it differently and your chosen settings can affect it. So I wanted to see how my life is.

At time of taking this I'm at 10% and it wanted to go into low battery mode. Using all day. Siri watch face. All background app refresh is on. Heart rate on during workouts which are daily.

Battery life is the one reason I was apprehensive about the watch. Apple still claiming 18 hours use and that normally means under light use. Quite heavy use and here we are, 51 hours later and with an estimated 6 hours still left in the tank.
Click to expand...
Wish our phones were like this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leica Dad
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back