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KarinvdB

macrumors member
Apr 3, 2016
46
48
The Netherlands
Seems my 38mm battery life is improving a bit. Instead of 50% I had just over 60 left last night, and I’m at the end of my second day now with 10% left. 1 day 14 hours standby, 6h24m usage.
 

Leica Dad

Suspended
Sep 28, 2017
143
178
Seems my 38mm battery life is improving a bit. Instead of 50% I had just over 60 left last night, and I’m at the end of my second day now with 10% left. 1 day 14 hours standby, 6h24m usage.
That’s is really good result especially on a 38mm.
Did you tweak any sitting to achieve that battery life?
 

gymratjudy

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2016
307
212
SG 38mm: usage: 5hours 30 minutes standby: 1 day, 11 hours and I still have 26% at 8:45pm today. This includes 3 apps that I used overnight for sleep monitoring: pillow, sleep watch and heart watch. I haven't used it for any workouts-broken ankle.
 
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KarinvdB

macrumors member
Apr 3, 2016
46
48
The Netherlands
That’s is really good result especially on a 38mm.
Did you tweak any sitting to achieve that battery life?
Haven't changed anything that I can remember. I do have the brightness on low but I had that before when I had around 50% at the end of the day.

I know this may spark discussions about how batteries work but in spite of what they say about Li Ion batteries not having memory like older Nickel based batteries, I do believe that batteries tend to do better if you cycle through them from full to close to empty instead of charging them every chance you get. I wasn't pleased to have to put it on the charger with 50% to go, so I started charging it a bit while in the shower so I could last until the end of the next day. So that's all I've done differently and it seems to work. It may just be the software that is being conservative about the percentages until you've gone through a few cycles.
 
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Mercenary

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2012
1,243
627
Haven't changed anything that I can remember. I do have the brightness on low but I had that before when I had around 50% at the end of the day.

I know this may spark discussions about how batteries work but in spite of what they say about Li Ion batteries not having memory like older Nickel based batteries, I do believe that batteries tend to do better if you cycle through them from full to close to empty instead of charging them every chance you get. I wasn't pleased to have to put it on the charger with 50% to go, so I started charging it a bit while in the shower so I could last until the end of the next day. So that's all I've done differently and it seems to work. It may just be the software that is being conservative about the percentages until you've gone through a few cycles.
Lithium batteries are happier when they are topped up. They like a full tummy
 

Maui19

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2007
252
52
I think the battery management software figures out how you use your watch and learns how to manage battery life for you. My AW3 started out barely holding a charge for 24 hours (like 4-8% remaining). It gradually got better over time, and now generally has around 50% left after 24 hours. This is with no change in usage by me.
 
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theaudiobully87

macrumors regular
Mar 11, 2013
100
159
Picked up my first Apple watch 2 weeks ago. Aluminium Space Grey Series 3 Nike + 42mm GPS.

So far I've been very impressed with the battery. I'm currently say at 30% with 2 days and 5 hours since the last full charge.

I turn off raise to wake function as I find it annoying when I'm at work as I can just see it light up out of the corner of my eye. I much prefer a quick 'tap' of the screen.

Since the last charge I've had moderate use. I've sent a fair few messages, been on a couple of runs and have just generally been fiddling with it.

Overall I'm really happy with it and think the battery life is great (for what I use it for).
 
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skillwill

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2008
480
661
Battery life is great. I always have a dilemma though as after 2 days usage I generally still have about 35-39% left, but I always charge it overnight after the second day as I'm always worried 35% might not quite get me through a full third day... but it's so close to being a full 3 days! (S3, GPS)
 

SoCalGadgetGuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Battery life is great. I always have a dilemma though as after 2 days usage I generally still have about 35-39% left, but I always charge it overnight after the second day as I'm always worried 35% might not quite get me through a full third day... but it's so close to being a full 3 days! (S3, GPS)
Remember, it's not good to let li-poly batteries run down all the way.
 
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predation

macrumors 65816
Apr 3, 2013
1,237
867
Remember, it's not good to let li-poly batteries run down all the way.
Not even to recalibrate?
I ran my 7+ down til it shut off the other day since I was having erratic battery discharge rate and having exhausted every other solution sans setup as new.
 

SoCalGadgetGuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Remember, it's not good to let li-poly batteries run down all the way.
Not even to recalibrate?

I'm speaking strictly from a chemistry and general li-poly battery point-of-view. What devices do to avoid such extreme discharging is up to them (IMHO, many do, but most don't).

When I owned a Volt, when the display showed 100% charged, in reality it was only 80% charged. When the display showed 0% charged, it was really 20% left. The electronics wouldn't let the battery be charged/discharged beyond those levels. This avoided the 0% and 100% extremes, which is known to shorten the overall life of lithium-ion batteries.
 
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Bryan Bowler

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2008
4,067
4,441
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.

There must be something going on with your Watch. Something must be running in the background or it’s a problem with the new version of the Nike software. You should be getting at least 4 hours if not closer to 5. Be sure to power down and back up and let us know how your next long run goes.

I’m hoping the Apple Watch lasts 4-5 hours when running with GPS, LTE, and locally stored music or it will be disappointing to me. I’m in my 2-month off-season right now, but during my 10-month training season, I have a 4-5 hour run nearly every week and I’m hoping the Apple Watch will do. For my really long runs, I’m still using my Garmin Fenix, which lasts for a good 12-13 hour run.
 

PatrickNSF

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2011
765
448
There must be something going on with your Watch. Something must be running in the background or it’s a problem with the new version of the Nike software. You should be getting at least 4 hours if not closer to 5. Be sure to power down and back up and let us know how your next long run goes.

I’m hoping the Apple Watch lasts 4-5 hours when running with GPS, LTE, and locally stored music or it will be disappointing to me. I’m in my 2-month off-season right now, but during my 10-month training season, I have a 4-5 hour run nearly every week and I’m hoping the Apple Watch will do. For my really long runs, I’m still using my Garmin Fenix, which lasts for a good 12-13 hour run.
I had a little better luck using the new Stryd app – I use their footpod when I run with my Garmin 935 – but I still wasn't thrilled with the battery like when using GPS, LTE and music streamed to AirPods. I don't expect to use to for marathons, but I'd love to be able to rely on it for non-speed/strength and tempo runs so I can run without my phone.

On that note, I'm curious how you utilize using both the fenix and AW. Do you run with both? Which do you use for tracking g daily activity (steps, sleep, etc.) if you track it.

The appeal of just using my Garmin as my daily wear watch (in addition to running) is that it makes life much simpler without having to swap watches during the day. On the downside, not being able to reply to messages – even with simple canned responses – is a real loss.
 
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Bryan Bowler

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2008
4,067
4,441
On that note, I'm curious how you utilize using both the fenix and AW. Do you run with both? Which do you use for tracking g daily activity (steps, sleep, etc.) if you track it.

I only ran with both for a little while to compare data. Now, most of the time the Apple Watch is for runs of 4 hours or less and the Garmin is for the longer runs. The Apple Watch is so much lighter and offers so much more.
 

HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
A while back I discovered that keeping Find My Friends in the AW dock was killing my battery. Some apps in the dock that run all the time will suck the life out of the watch.

My Series 3 LTE is usually at 2/3 juice remaining after a 16 hour day, with about 6 hours of use and 60 minutes of exercise. I now only keep 6-7 items in the dock including workout, activity, heart rate, phone, messages, stopwatch, and wallet.

Today I'm at 75% with 14 hours standby and 4 hours of use and 45 minutes of exercise. So I think 36-48 hours per charge without trying to baby my watch isn't bad. But I always have my phone with me.

I'd like to test battery life without my phone, but I want my phone with me in case of emergency, and want it on so that it can relay text/sms messages to my watch. Will turning off phone Bluetooth and staying away from known wifi hotspots (so that the phone is only on LTE and the watch isn't connected to the phone) do the trick for this test?
 
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RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Jun 16, 2016
1,639
1,155
I have a lot of notifications turned off as I get about 1000 iMessages a day plus other Slack notifications etc. Its been 2 whole days of what id call typical use for me without charging it over night and we are at 31%. Id say that is damn impressive. I take a few phone calls. Reply to a few texts. I breath, stand etc.
 

jjk454ss

macrumors 601
Jul 10, 2008
4,496
513
Sorry if this is answered, searching GPS comes up with every mention of someone having a GPS model or GPS/LTE model. Has anyone tested the battery drain per hour using GPS for a run/walk/hike?
 

TallManNY

macrumors 601
Nov 5, 2007
4,780
1,649
Well I just switched from the Series 0 to the current Series 3. Both 42mm. I got the GPS only since I don't plan to spend much time without my iPhone X (whenever I actually get it). Anyway, I took it off the charger this morning, I used it all day, including a 1.5 hour basketball session with it in tracking that work out. And I'm at 71% at 12.30 a.m.

So basically the battery life issue is done as far as I'm concerned for the watch. The watch has now entered the same mode as the iPad where I have to simply forget to charge it during convenient moments. I could easily spend the night at my GF's house after today, go to work, and then come home and the watch would easily last until I got home. If I charge it tonight (which is no harder than placing it on its charger next to my bed), then I will be fine for another two days. If I'm not planning on a workout, then I suspect it would last a weekend away (pick it up from the charger on Friday morning and return it to charger on Sunday night) without an issue. Once I have an inductive charger for my iPhone and watch, that will be what I take on trips. Simple and hopefully not too large. Remembering to bring the inductive charger has been an issue for my Series 0 over the last few years. But now I have a second day of buffer. Easily enough to get through the typical one day stay on a business trip since I don't normally get a workout in during those trips.

Apple has done it again.
 

nexus96

macrumors newbie
Jun 10, 2017
9
1
Hi guys! How is your battery overnight? Mine is strange, usually over 14% both in airplan or connected to iPhone (no sleep analysis)
 
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