Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Series 6 Battery Life - How long does your S6 last?
- Thread starter bluegt
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Right. I’ve been trying to establish a baseline if I can get the same battery life as my Series 5. Many days my usage is exactly as it is here. This is especially true with COVID quarantine. But many other times I’ll use the watch much more and fully expect to get less battery life. Most times I can schedule my charging based on what I expect to need.
But the limited use baseline is needed to make those judgments. When I first got the Series 6 I was getting about 24 hours even with light usage. I found that unacceptable. But either disabling the sleep monitoring of blood oxygen or the 7.0.1 update fixed those problems.
I just completed the 2nd cycle on the SS watch. Got 39.5 hours with just over 5h12m of usage.
Comparing GPS-only with GPS+Cellular (no data plan). I was more active using the GPS model and still got another ~40 mins out of it... but it's too close to say anything conclusive. First post is updated if anyone wants to see the details.
I've also included charging info for the SS model - certainly slower than the previous Aluminium one I had.
Here is a screenshot from ~35min before it died.
Comparing GPS-only with GPS+Cellular (no data plan). I was more active using the GPS model and still got another ~40 mins out of it... but it's too close to say anything conclusive. First post is updated if anyone wants to see the details.
I've also included charging info for the SS model - certainly slower than the previous Aluminium one I had.
Here is a screenshot from ~35min before it died.
Last edited:
I'm pretty happy with the battery here thus far. I'm still at 25% with 12 hours usage and 22 hours in standby so I can now see if you don't really use your watch like some people in this thread how 40 hours is achieved. Its not going to be close to possible for me but I'm really satisfied with the battery.
I put it on the charger at 12% after a 1 hr workout. Pretty solid battery life in my opinion. I am now seeing an improvement over the Series 5, which is great. Nearly 15 hours of usage and over a day standby and still had probably another hour at least before it would have died.
40mm Nike S6:
24% remaining still with the attached image usage.
I have everything on including:
- hand wash detection
- noise detection (active complication)
- altimeter (active complication)
- AoD
I don’t disable anything except walkie-talkie actually.
Sleep tracking on for 7 hours.
10 minute outside walk tracked.
Relatively heavy notification usage and playing with it.
Very impressed, honestly.
24% remaining still with the attached image usage.
I have everything on including:
- hand wash detection
- noise detection (active complication)
- altimeter (active complication)
- AoD
I don’t disable anything except walkie-talkie actually.
Sleep tracking on for 7 hours.
10 minute outside walk tracked.
Relatively heavy notification usage and playing with it.
Very impressed, honestly.
Attachments
I'm one of the bigger critics of the battery, especially the S5 but this has been a pleasant surprise. I'm running about 2%/hour. I haven't gone a full day without a charge so maybe that's not an exact number. I also have AOD off but nothing else designed to save battery life.
I'm not getting killed on regular workouts either, through the Workout. Now, go for a run, with Overcast running, that goes an hour with warm ups, and you are looking at somewhere between 15% to 20% / hour.
I'd still prefer better battery life but this is functional and could technically do everything I need it to do unless I decide to start doing long hikes or marathons, although it could probably limp to the finish on a marathon for most people.
Oh, and GPS seems like it's a tad tighter in this version. Instead of 2% long, it's closer to 1%.
I'm not getting killed on regular workouts either, through the Workout. Now, go for a run, with Overcast running, that goes an hour with warm ups, and you are looking at somewhere between 15% to 20% / hour.
I'd still prefer better battery life but this is functional and could technically do everything I need it to do unless I decide to start doing long hikes or marathons, although it could probably limp to the finish on a marathon for most people.
Oh, and GPS seems like it's a tad tighter in this version. Instead of 2% long, it's closer to 1%.
Which model do you have? I previously had the Aluminum S6 model and got 50% in 30min. The SS I have now is certainly slower.
With AOD turned off, handoff mode turned off, raise to wake turned off, and a good number of apps turned off from background fresh. This is puzzling that I am already down to 96% and I took it off the charger at like 7:15 AM and it's 9:52 AM. I mostly just been sitting at my desk at work. What in the world is draining it so fast?
Got my S6 yesterday. 3% drain per hour yesterday. Charged it to 100% over night. Had it on my wrist for 5 hours today Couple of text messages and one quick phone call plus. Streamed music from my phone to my AirPod Pro's for two of those hours using my watch to select playlists, volume etc. Apart from that very light usage. AOD on. Wash hands off. Still at 88%. Stella battery performance - 44mm Graphite SS.
Received my S6 on Monday afternoon.
I take it off the charger at wakeup, put it on the charger at bedtime. On days when I go for a run I'll typically pop it on the charger while I clean up.
So far it's seemed to behave the same as my S5 did. Good enough for me.
I take it off the charger at wakeup, put it on the charger at bedtime. On days when I go for a run I'll typically pop it on the charger while I clean up.
So far it's seemed to behave the same as my S5 did. Good enough for me.
Isn't that less than 2% an hour? If you took it off the charge at 7.15 and its reading 96% at 9.52 then thats a rate of 4% every 2.51 hours, you would get well over 5 days on one charge.
I’ve been quite inactive the last few days but I’ve just put the watch on charge. 26% battery left after 49 hours (although I had only charged to 98%).
As with my previous post though on battery life, I appreciate I don’t have everything turned on.
44mm and this is actually my second, as the original went back. The first post with similar usage was from the other watch so both have been about on par.
As with my previous post though on battery life, I appreciate I don’t have everything turned on.
44mm and this is actually my second, as the original went back. The first post with similar usage was from the other watch so both have been about on par.
Attachments
Its interesting isn't it that in these forum, for every individual that reports good battery performance, another reports poor battery performance and they blame the OS for it. Yet we all have the same OS so if that were the case, we would all have issues. It all comes down to how people use their watches and what apps they are running and the fact that no two people have their watches or phones configured the same.
Of course, it could be that some have genuine hardware issues or the batteries may be substandard but without running a diagnostic check, its not possible to tell.
Of course, it could be that some have genuine hardware issues or the batteries may be substandard but without running a diagnostic check, its not possible to tell.
Ya so no usage 3hrs 54 mins over two days usage is like not using the watch.
Yep just telling the time and a few notifications coming in. No workouts last few days. But the workouts don’t impact it too much. Well aware that having all the bells and whistles on would make quite a dent but thankfully I don’t need them all. So for those of us who aren’t power users, a couple days between charges is great 🙂
Last edited:
Your battery drain calculates to be 1.528% per hour. Your battery is not draining fast. Apple promises a battery life of 18 hours on a full charge. That calculates to a battery usage/loss of 5.556% per hour.
What are you expectations when it comes to battery life?
Sorry, but your math is way off the mark.
100% / 4% * 2.51hrs / 24hrs = 2.61 days
- The Math Nerd 
Not my fault as there is obviously a bug in the iOS14 calculatorSorry, but your math is way off the mark.
100% / 4% * 2.51hrs / 24hrs = 2.61 days- The Math Nerd
You are quite right and I stand corrected. Embarrassingly I have a degree in Math as well.
I think I have gotten so use the battery life of my iphone 11 pro max that I think every apple product should have similar results. I know crazy.. but I guess that what happened with me and the apple watch lol.