Thanks for that
I wasn’t sure if putting airplane mode affects any data for sleep. Might try that as I’m losing anywhere from 10-14%
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Ultra Battery life
- Thread starter Zonck
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I wasn’t sure if putting airplane mode affects any data for sleep. Might try that as I’m losing anywhere from 10-14%
So, here is my eight day (yes, eight day) two cycle test with the Apple Watch Ultra.
First round, I got the watch last weekend and did the transfer from a prior AW 6 on Monday morning, took the watch off the charger from its FIRST charge at 15:37 PST on Monday. Watch lasted the whole time till 11:45 on Thursday morning when it showed 1% remaining and I put it back on the charger. Switched to AW 6 at the time.
Total of workouts during this period was 2:45 minutes, over three workouts, one weights 1 hour, two 50 minute fast walks. With PHONE with me at the time, so watch was probably NOT using it's GPS alone.
Two nights tracking sleep with Apple Health and SleepWatch
That's just about 68 hours overall. (I'll get to settings in a minute)
2nd test was from Friday at 15:30 PST till today Monday at 12:45 PST
Total of workouts during this period was 2:45 minutes, over three workouts, one weights, two 50 minute fast walks. With PHONE with me at the time, so watch was probably NOT using it's GPS alone.
That's just about 69:15 overall
Here is how I have the watch setup, and this is how I have always had my AW 6 setup which managed to last ~ 48 hours between chargers same usage. So, the AWU is really giving about 50% more life and usage than a prior AW 6 (whose battery is arguably at 89% today)
AOD is OFF
Track for random workouts is OFF
Raise for SIRI is OFF
Listen for "hey siri" is OFF
Screen Brightness is at 1 tick below full, and plenty bright (something does seem to be up with the brightness, when I raise it for a second it is dimmer than when its up, but it's not checking if I'm looking at it at all)
Walkie Talkie is OFF
When I go to sleep, prior to going to bed I put the watch in Airplane mode at 21:00-05:00 daily (but I think WIFI and BT are still active since the watch will get weather and stuff if I use it, but I'm not interested in it updating frequently)
I also have theatre mode on while sleeping to avoid illuminating with movement
I also have DND on while sleeping, although VIP texts or calls can come through and sometimes do.
During the days, weekdays the watch gets about 200 notification alerts from stock alerts, messages, VIP email alerts, ettc. Calendar alerts go off hourly. Not too many calls, only about 5 minutes since I switch to a phone pretty quickly.
For this use case, I think that's all pretty decent. I can't wait to see what algorithm changes they make to move THEIR target up to 60 hours, I wonder what MY use case might deliver, 75-80 hours?
First round, I got the watch last weekend and did the transfer from a prior AW 6 on Monday morning, took the watch off the charger from its FIRST charge at 15:37 PST on Monday. Watch lasted the whole time till 11:45 on Thursday morning when it showed 1% remaining and I put it back on the charger. Switched to AW 6 at the time.
Total of workouts during this period was 2:45 minutes, over three workouts, one weights 1 hour, two 50 minute fast walks. With PHONE with me at the time, so watch was probably NOT using it's GPS alone.
Two nights tracking sleep with Apple Health and SleepWatch
That's just about 68 hours overall. (I'll get to settings in a minute)
2nd test was from Friday at 15:30 PST till today Monday at 12:45 PST
Total of workouts during this period was 2:45 minutes, over three workouts, one weights, two 50 minute fast walks. With PHONE with me at the time, so watch was probably NOT using it's GPS alone.
That's just about 69:15 overall
Here is how I have the watch setup, and this is how I have always had my AW 6 setup which managed to last ~ 48 hours between chargers same usage. So, the AWU is really giving about 50% more life and usage than a prior AW 6 (whose battery is arguably at 89% today)
AOD is OFF
Track for random workouts is OFF
Raise for SIRI is OFF
Listen for "hey siri" is OFF
Screen Brightness is at 1 tick below full, and plenty bright (something does seem to be up with the brightness, when I raise it for a second it is dimmer than when its up, but it's not checking if I'm looking at it at all)
Walkie Talkie is OFF
When I go to sleep, prior to going to bed I put the watch in Airplane mode at 21:00-05:00 daily (but I think WIFI and BT are still active since the watch will get weather and stuff if I use it, but I'm not interested in it updating frequently)
I also have theatre mode on while sleeping to avoid illuminating with movement
I also have DND on while sleeping, although VIP texts or calls can come through and sometimes do.
During the days, weekdays the watch gets about 200 notification alerts from stock alerts, messages, VIP email alerts, ettc. Calendar alerts go off hourly. Not too many calls, only about 5 minutes since I switch to a phone pretty quickly.
For this use case, I think that's all pretty decent. I can't wait to see what algorithm changes they make to move THEIR target up to 60 hours, I wonder what MY use case might deliver, 75-80 hours?
This past weekend I was able to use the Ultra for exactly why I purchased it for. I went out of town for the weekend and didn't need to bring a charger. I charged my Watch Friday afternoon for a short while, then drove 2.5 hours away. Didn't return until Sunday 6pm. Watch still had 40% remaining. Wore it the whole time with sleep tracking, cell, and GPS on. Could have easily went into Monday fine.
I do not use AOD.
I do not use AOD.
I’m s heavy user but I’m currently on 37 hours with 18% left even with over 10-15% battery drain last two night sleeping. Most I’ve gotten is 44 hours which I imagine I could hit today.
I think that’s only if you ordered it online. I don’t believe there’s a way to do this if you purchased the Watch in an Apple Store.
I think we’ve already resolved that
Post in thread 'Ultra Battery life'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ultra-battery-life.2361649/post-31601768
Yep. Sorry. I noticed right after I replied. I couldn’t figure out how to delete my post on my phone.
What follows is completely unscientific.
But I take my watch off to take a shower (etc.) before bed, at which point it still has at least 40% charge, often more. By the time I’m done, it’s charged to at least 80%, often over 90%. I put it back on and don’t take it off again until the next day’s shower.
Whether or not the Ultra has enough battery for “extreme” adventurers doing crazy schtuff in the middle of nowhere I don’t know, and don’t particularly care. It’s clear to me, though, that I could stick to my normal “just charge while in the shower” routine, even if the “day” in question includes a trans-Pacific flight with random delays.
As a practical matter, the battery is plenty sufficient. Even if it lasted a week on a charge … I’d still be taking it off daily to shower, so it wouldn’t make a practical difference to me.
b&
But I take my watch off to take a shower (etc.) before bed, at which point it still has at least 40% charge, often more. By the time I’m done, it’s charged to at least 80%, often over 90%. I put it back on and don’t take it off again until the next day’s shower.
Whether or not the Ultra has enough battery for “extreme” adventurers doing crazy schtuff in the middle of nowhere I don’t know, and don’t particularly care. It’s clear to me, though, that I could stick to my normal “just charge while in the shower” routine, even if the “day” in question includes a trans-Pacific flight with random delays.
As a practical matter, the battery is plenty sufficient. Even if it lasted a week on a charge … I’d still be taking it off daily to shower, so it wouldn’t make a practical difference to me.
b&
One thing to note is that the Ultra and the Series 8 now use their GPS during workouts even when your phone is present.
Maybe someone else can help with the actual Apple documentation link, but DC Rainmaker referenced it in one of his early videos about the Ultra. It's the first thing he talks about in this video.
So my first battery test showed that I got 48 hours of life, after letting the watch settle for half a day, then charging to 100%. That used AOD, brightness at full, cellular and wifi always on, though only actually using cellular while on a couple 20 minute walks. Those walks, plus a 20 minute indoor run, included streaming podcasts stored on the watch in Overcast. I also used the watch for sleep tracking at night.
For my second test though I'm seeing some really interesting results today that if they hold up would be mind boggling. I took the watch off the charger just before midnight last night and went straight to bed with sleep tracking. Settings this go around are AOD with brightness set to the middle setting, cellular off, and while I'm at work I have wifi off too. I'm doing this because my work doesn't allow personal devices onto the wifi (not even the guest network), and cell reception is terrible too. I figure I don't need my watch searching for wifi and cellular, that it will not find, during the few minutes it takes me to go get a cup of coffee. It's now 3:00PM and I'm at 83% still! Now I know this isn't going to keep up. I have physical therapy in an hour (recovering from a torn achillies), which I track as about 30 minutes of functional strength training, and then I'll walk my dog when I get home. Still, I find it very interesting that turning off cellular and wifi, even when then phone is near that entire time, is having this much of an impact.
For my second test though I'm seeing some really interesting results today that if they hold up would be mind boggling. I took the watch off the charger just before midnight last night and went straight to bed with sleep tracking. Settings this go around are AOD with brightness set to the middle setting, cellular off, and while I'm at work I have wifi off too. I'm doing this because my work doesn't allow personal devices onto the wifi (not even the guest network), and cell reception is terrible too. I figure I don't need my watch searching for wifi and cellular, that it will not find, during the few minutes it takes me to go get a cup of coffee. It's now 3:00PM and I'm at 83% still! Now I know this isn't going to keep up. I have physical therapy in an hour (recovering from a torn achillies), which I track as about 30 minutes of functional strength training, and then I'll walk my dog when I get home. Still, I find it very interesting that turning off cellular and wifi, even when then phone is near that entire time, is having this much of an impact.
Quick update after everything I discussed yesterday. I just hit 50% at 8:30AM, or 32.5 hours. If that holds I would hit 65 hours.
That’s becuase the BatteriE ‘s always work better than the Batteries.
I’m actually deleting and re-pairing my AWU. I took it off the charger around 10:50 AM EDT and was already down to 86% doing nothing but sitting at my desk and working. I restarted both he phone and watching, hoping they’d sync up a little bit better but no dice. Battery continued to drain. Hoping this does the trick.
Not entirely sure what change I made that caused my battery to plummet, but I had been averaging 40hrs+ with around 20% battery left, no problem, depending on whether I ran or not. Today I changed one of my complications to show my schedule vs the UV and also changed the Wayfinder inner ring to show elevation instead of lat/long. Suddenly got a warning on my watch that I was at < 10% battery this afternoon after only 30hrs of usage. When I look at the battery graph on the watch it was dropping gradually until midday (which was about the time I made those changes), and after that it was dropping like a rock. Very weird.
I've just rebooted it and put the inner ring back to lat/long and am now charging it to see if that has stopped the major usage. I wish there was a way to see what was using the battery, like there is on the phone.
I've just rebooted it and put the inner ring back to lat/long and am now charging it to see if that has stopped the major usage. I wish there was a way to see what was using the battery, like there is on the phone.
Deleting, re-rapairing and restoring usually fixes this. I have had this issue with EVERY new Apple Watch I have setup with a restore from backup. It has always taken an UN-pair and re-pair from backup to get it to work.
I wore the Ultra for the first time to bed for sleep tracking. Sleep focus mode on from 11pm to 6.30am.
Battery dropped 8%. Does this sound high?
Battery dropped 8%. Does this sound high?
Still early days, but charge dropped from 100 to 60 in 24 hrs including sleep tracking, some texts and a phone call (but no work out). That would indicate about 50-55 hrs in between charges with modest use.
Less impressed with fast charging as it took one hour to get back to 100 with a Belkin fast charging pad and the 20W Apple charger.
Less impressed with fast charging as it took one hour to get back to 100 with a Belkin fast charging pad and the 20W Apple charger.
Had a strange one this morning. Purchased the UWA on Tuesday. It came with around 86% on the baddery. I charged it to 100% and did the usual playing around and setting up. It was going down, but slowly. I was happy with it considering how much I played with my new toy. This morning is was on 50% and then a warning popped up about low battery 'please place on charger.! At 50%? Uh? Very strange. So I popped it onto the charge pad and it got really warm. Not sure if this was a glitch or there's something wrong with it. I did an unpairing and full reset and put it back on the charger. This time is was quite cool while charging. It's now all set back up and still at 100%. I'll have to keep a close eye on it while I'm still in my return period.
Wrapping up my latest test, I was at 6% at 8:00 this morning when I put it on the charger. That marks 56 hours. Very happy with that result. I'm pretty much done testing the battery. I'm now going to try charging it while I shower and get ready in the morning and see if it slowly drifts down to zero, or if I'm able to consistently keep it within the 20-80% range without having to ever think about it. I'm hoping that's the case, as that is what would extend the health of the battery the longest. If that ends up being the case, then I'll only ever worry about charging it up before a trip or something along those lines.
I will say that I am very confident in the battery life I'm seeing. The only reason I've ever upgraded my watch (from series 0 to 4 and then to Ultra) has been because of the battery. I don't want to be spending $800+ on a watch every 4 years. My goal this time around is at least 6 years if not 8. By that point I expect Apple will stop providing software updates, and then I'll make a decision based on the maturity of watchOS at that time. We shall see.
I will say that I am very confident in the battery life I'm seeing. The only reason I've ever upgraded my watch (from series 0 to 4 and then to Ultra) has been because of the battery. I don't want to be spending $800+ on a watch every 4 years. My goal this time around is at least 6 years if not 8. By that point I expect Apple will stop providing software updates, and then I'll make a decision based on the maturity of watchOS at that time. We shall see.
I am charging mine for the second time since getting it on Monday, October 10th and today, October 13th. I got 48 hours of battery life with AOD turned on, sleeping for two nights, getting some activity in, and there was still 15% left. Loving it.