Yea, usually podcasts if that makes a difference. With that said, I don't check every day because the Ultra has so much extra battery.
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.
Ultra Battery life
- Thread starter Zonck
- Start date
-
- Tags
- apple watch ultra
- Sort by reaction score
then i dont know whats wrong. Day to day its good with an avarage loss of 2%/h with AOD on.
I've been having an issue with the resetting of the "Last Charged to 100%" indicator - not a real big deal, but a bug nonetheless.
Watch is on the charger. Get notification on phone that watch is 100% charged. Take watch off the charger and swipe to see battery 100%
Go to settings, Battery, shows the previous date that it charged to 100% not "now". Like I said, not that big of deal if you aren't tracking the battery usage...but if you are...
Note: this doesn't happen all the time.
Watch is on the charger. Get notification on phone that watch is 100% charged. Take watch off the charger and swipe to see battery 100%
Go to settings, Battery, shows the previous date that it charged to 100% not "now". Like I said, not that big of deal if you aren't tracking the battery usage...but if you are...
Note: this doesn't happen all the time.
I had the same issue. 9.1 update fixed it. was odd as on my belkin charger it was fine but on my Apple Watch charger it said the last time it was charged to 100%
I have been using the Ultra for 2 weeks now. Very happy with the battery life.
My setup is probably more demanding than most people here.
My Ultra is running on cellular during work days as I leave my iPhone 13 mini at home and carry the Samsung Fold 4 with me. Both are connected to Pixel bud pro (it has multi devices connectivity).
I leave home most days with 90% battery after a night of sleep tracking. The ultra will have around 30% battery left after returning home 9 to 10 hours later.
I use the Ultra to track 1 hour workout, 30 mins to 1 hr phone calls, streaming Apple Music and audio book for 3 to 4 hours. The screen is in max brightness and no power saving.
The lowest battery level was 19% left after getting back home after a day of heavy use, due to longer phone calls and some navigation throw in.
My setup is probably more demanding than most people here.
My Ultra is running on cellular during work days as I leave my iPhone 13 mini at home and carry the Samsung Fold 4 with me. Both are connected to Pixel bud pro (it has multi devices connectivity).
I leave home most days with 90% battery after a night of sleep tracking. The ultra will have around 30% battery left after returning home 9 to 10 hours later.
I use the Ultra to track 1 hour workout, 30 mins to 1 hr phone calls, streaming Apple Music and audio book for 3 to 4 hours. The screen is in max brightness and no power saving.
The lowest battery level was 19% left after getting back home after a day of heavy use, due to longer phone calls and some navigation throw in.
Last edited:
assuming you phone has connected to WiFi at work at least once your watch will connect to it even without the phone present as a known WiFi connection so you might not be using cellular at work as much as it would appear?
Ah, I used to work here too..;-)
CIA headquarters Langley Virginia Stock Photo - Alamy
Download this stock image: CIA headquarters Langley Virginia - WH8JR2 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.www.alamy.com
I can’t either to confirm or deny that! 🤣
I got my Ultra yesterday after waiting for about 6 weeks! I charged it to 100% before I went to bed at 23.00 last night and turned on low power mode. By 7 am it was around 98% when I put it on and around 11.00 I set up eSim. I was trying to set up things on it today and now, with low power more on, I am at 77%. I know that I have to give time for the battery to get set. But my AW6 with low power mode on, with 88% battery health it use to have 75-80% battery left after using for a day. Shall I turn off low power mode and use Ultra as normal?
If you are wondering why I turn on low power mode, when I stay over because of work for a night, I don't take the charger with me, and I switch off AW6 when I sleep so that I can save for the next day.
If you are wondering why I turn on low power mode, when I stay over because of work for a night, I don't take the charger with me, and I switch off AW6 when I sleep so that I can save for the next day.
just use it normally and hte battery gets better over time
After few days with the new Ultra I think the default watch face Wayfinder is heavy on battery. I also used black
wayfinder background but compared to California watch face battery % drops faster on Wayfinder. I don't know if this is related to more complications or GPS usage in background etc.
wayfinder background but compared to California watch face battery % drops faster on Wayfinder. I don't know if this is related to more complications or GPS usage in background etc.
So for anyone interested, I switched my Ultra to low power mode earlier this week and decided to see how long the battery would work. I took it off the charger at 100 per cent at 2:45pm on Tuesday, and it died this morning at more or less 10:30am. 91 and three quarter hours later.
I wore it 24 hours a day, other than to take a shower or two, but otherwise because I was sick this week, it didn't do any workouts or anything. So this is probably as good as it gets. Pretty impressive though.
I wore it 24 hours a day, other than to take a shower or two, but otherwise because I was sick this week, it didn't do any workouts or anything. So this is probably as good as it gets. Pretty impressive though.
Yep, I am extremely happy with the Ultra's battery life. I'm huge on battery life - biggest reason why I dropped the $ on the Ultra.
9:24pm Thursday 11/3 - Last charged to 100%.
Current Time: 9:45am Saturday 11/5 - 67% charged. I'm expecting to be 50%+ at 9:24pm tonight (48 hours) even after a slow waddling run I'm planning here shortly.
Yeah, I'm not an exercise nut but I definitely definitely appreciate this battery. And no, that's not on low power mode. I do sit at a desk all day and AOD is off.
I'm using Modular as a watch face.
9:24pm Thursday 11/3 - Last charged to 100%.
Current Time: 9:45am Saturday 11/5 - 67% charged. I'm expecting to be 50%+ at 9:24pm tonight (48 hours) even after a slow waddling run I'm planning here shortly.
Yeah, I'm not an exercise nut but I definitely definitely appreciate this battery. And no, that's not on low power mode. I do sit at a desk all day and AOD is off.
I'm using Modular as a watch face.
Awww, at 8:00pm I hit 49%.
ALMOST did 50% at 48 hours. lol. So 1.5 hours to go and I hit 49%.I did a 30 min run this morning and that took up almost 8%.
So if one were to round... up.... one could say I hit 50% at 48 hours.
My AW7 I was lucky to get 1.7 days on a charge with the same usage/setup.
It seems the increased battery life is considered by many as the best big new feature of the Ultra.
I dunno, I'm not very impressed. So it increases to ~2 days instead of ~1 day. To achieve this, make the watch thicker and stick a bigger battery in it. Not exactly a stunning technological achievement.
I dunno, I'm not very impressed. So it increases to ~2 days instead of ~1 day. To achieve this, make the watch thicker and stick a bigger battery in it. Not exactly a stunning technological achievement.
1 day with previous apple watches? certainly not for me. More like 15-18 hours. That's not 1 day usage that's for sure.
the whole point of a watch like this is to give option for sleep tracking which is what this watch does. The battery is the most important area along with a bigger and brighter screen. Not sure what you are expecting out of a watch
Ignore the % because they are different batteries. Say for example battery A lasts ten hours and battery B lasts 20 hours. A reading of 50% for battery A will mean 5 hours remaining, yet for battery B a 50% will mean 10 hours.
So comparing the battery purely by percentage against a different battery is meaningless.
I agree. They could have done so much more by better controlling the processor. Downlocking when not needed, etc.
~ means about.
No, that’s not the whole point of this watch.
What I expect is irrelevant, but Garmin owners might expect a week.
My point is that about 2 days battery life is not very impressive, the way they did it - by just making it bigger.
Last edited:
I know Garmin owners and how they talk about 6 days of battery life. However, the advantages of an Apple Watch over a garmin for me is that it allows me to log into my computer, accept password prompts on Mac OS, interacts with my phone, can take/make calls away from my phone, allows me to use Apple Maps out and about without my phone, and allows me to pay for things (again, away from my phone). Integration with Apple Fitness and other health features have been significant to me in my life. I could go on and on.
My Apple Watch 7 got 1.7 days of battery life. That was with a 30 min exercise sometimes every day. (Usually just every other day tho).
My Apple Watch Ultra got to 48 hours on almost 50% battery life with same settings, no attempt to try to “save battery” in any way.
I have yet to test the low power mode. I may turn on the low power mode for workouts because I’m a big guy and I’m not impressing anyone by my waddles. In fact, I’m usually the guy out there making everyone else feel better that they’re not me. Lol.
My opinion? A slight increase in watch size (I am a big person so it looks small on my wrist), more features, the ability to increase battery life even further if I wanted? A solid win for me just from a battery life / feature perspective.
The charging speed is also noticeably faster with an appropriate charger and the included USB C cable. (Charges really slow with the old USB A watch chargers).
If I was a super fit, healthy, awesome runner I might consider Garmin. Variety is the spice of life. I understand for others, they may prefer what the Garmin has to offer and competition benefits us consumers. So I have encouraged some people I know to get Garmin cuz I believed they’d appreciate it more (I have family/people I know with Garmin watches).
TLDR: The Ultra impresses me and I’m nowhere near a fitness expert.
My Apple Watch 7 got 1.7 days of battery life. That was with a 30 min exercise sometimes every day. (Usually just every other day tho).
My Apple Watch Ultra got to 48 hours on almost 50% battery life with same settings, no attempt to try to “save battery” in any way.
I have yet to test the low power mode. I may turn on the low power mode for workouts because I’m a big guy and I’m not impressing anyone by my waddles. In fact, I’m usually the guy out there making everyone else feel better that they’re not me. Lol.
My opinion? A slight increase in watch size (I am a big person so it looks small on my wrist), more features, the ability to increase battery life even further if I wanted? A solid win for me just from a battery life / feature perspective.
The charging speed is also noticeably faster with an appropriate charger and the included USB C cable. (Charges really slow with the old USB A watch chargers).
If I was a super fit, healthy, awesome runner I might consider Garmin. Variety is the spice of life. I understand for others, they may prefer what the Garmin has to offer and competition benefits us consumers. So I have encouraged some people I know to get Garmin cuz I believed they’d appreciate it more (I have family/people I know with Garmin watches).
TLDR: The Ultra impresses me and I’m nowhere near a fitness expert.
Exactly!
I know Garmin fans here need their watches to connect to the power meters on their bikes, they need to be able to go on a week-long excursion in the middle of nowhere without having to carry a charger, they need to do a full Ironman Insanely Ridiculously Extended Version on a single charge, they can’t bear the thought of being parted from the watch for charging more than twice a month, and so on.
That’s all fine and dandy. And that’s why Garmin makes the watches that they do.
None of that means diddly-squat to me.
I want to be able to leave my phone behind and still be able to take and make calls, check (and modify) my calendar and to-do list, send and receive messages, check the weather, get help remembering where I parked the car, get traffic-aware turn-by-turn directions to the new doctor’s place, track my activity, give me spoken cues for which exercise I’m on in my HIIT workout (thanks, WorkOutDoors!), track my sleep, remind me to take my vitamins, be able to withstand my usual klutziness without disintegrating, start some random timer hands-free with a voice command, give me a bright-enough flashlight that’ll let me avoid stepping in the cat puke when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom —
— and do it all without an inconvenient charging schedule.
That’s the Ultra.
(I charge the watch while I’m in the shower, when I wouldn’t be wearing any watch anyway.)
Horses for courses.
b&.
The way they did it was by making the battery bigger…shocking that battery life is great when a battery gets bigger.
Garmins is still a different type of Watch. They have longer battery life but smart watches won’t have same battery life as they simply don’t do anywhere near the amount as Apple Watches. Apple Watches will take more battery due to the data it requires.
It’s 2 days at worse. It can easily be a 3-4 day Watch depending on the modes you use so yes that’s a big difference from any previous Apple Watch
Ok. I'm a pretty light user and don't use my AWU to anywhere near it's capabilities - but, I've just picked up my AWU thinking I'd better check to see if it needs charging before the night shift tonight. The last time I charged it was last Wednesday 2nd November! I have 23% left!
Battery life is an immense improvement over my old Series 5. I typically workout 90 minutes to 2 hours a day, wear the Ultra in bed, and wake up with it at over 60%. Slap it on charge while I shower and have breakfast, less than 30 minutes later it’s 90%+. Feels like a zero compromise experience, unlike my previous Apple watches.
Yeah yeah Garmins 7 days plus battery zzzz, been there done that. Garmin’s are great for all the activities I rarely/never do, but the Apple Watch is far better for the activities I do the most, namely indoors. And more than adequate for the bit of jogging and hiking I do. Plus, the difference in software/smartwatch functionality next to a Garmin is beyond measure.
Didn’t like the design at the keynote, figured I’d stick with my S5 another year. Watched a random review on YouTube about 10 days ago and it grew on me. Saw it was in stock at John Lewis (UK), ordered, arrived next day, and I love everything about it now, including the design. Will buy an orange Ocean Band when it inevitably appears, love the blue one.
Yeah yeah Garmins 7 days plus battery zzzz, been there done that. Garmin’s are great for all the activities I rarely/never do, but the Apple Watch is far better for the activities I do the most, namely indoors. And more than adequate for the bit of jogging and hiking I do. Plus, the difference in software/smartwatch functionality next to a Garmin is beyond measure.
Didn’t like the design at the keynote, figured I’d stick with my S5 another year. Watched a random review on YouTube about 10 days ago and it grew on me. Saw it was in stock at John Lewis (UK), ordered, arrived next day, and I love everything about it now, including the design. Will buy an orange Ocean Band when it inevitably appears, love the blue one.
Last edited: