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marjen

macrumors member
Jul 24, 2002
53
13
For me the ultra 2 is way way better than my 6. I would need to charge my 6 every night. I would wear it from about 7 am till 10 pm and it would be at 15-20%.
I have had my ultra 2 on for 54 hrs and still have 24% left.
 

akidokraja

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2013
418
491
To all of you saying that Ultra 2 can last 3-4 full days I have one question. How in the world? Do you turn off AOD, turn off cellular, what else is turned off? With both Ultra 1 and 2 I barely pass 48 hrs with no gps on, no exercise. I do have cellular on all the time and AOD on on lowest brightness.
 

iosuser

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2012
1,005
753
To all of you saying that Ultra 2 can last 3-4 full days I have one question. How in the world? Do you turn off AOD, turn off cellular, what else is turned off? With both Ultra 1 and 2 I barely pass 48 hrs with no gps on, no exercise. I do have cellular on all the time and AOD on on lowest brightness.
I had AOD on for half a day when i first set it up. For me I don't find it necessary and turned it off. Cellular is off. I do exercise at least every other day. On my first charge that lasted 3 days I had two exercise sessions. I am using the modular ultra face with all the complications active. The compass and elevation are constantly updating, and I imagine they use up some battery.

I do find that it charges a lot more slowly than my S5 did. Perhaps due to a bigger battery? I am still using the charger from the S5, using a 5W iPhone charger. I'm OK with it. Maybe I'll just charge it to 80% on each charge which should still last two days for me, and help with battery longevity. I've also set my iPhone 15 Pro to 80% charge.
 
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akidokraja

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2013
418
491
I had AOD on for half a day when i first set it up. For me I don't find it necessary and turned it off. Cellular is off. I do exercise at least every other day. On my first charge that lasted 3 days I had two exercise sessions. I am using the modular ultra face with all the complications active. The compass and elevation are constantly updating, and I imagine they use up some battery.

I do find that it charges a lot more slowly than my S5 did. Perhaps due to a bigger battery? I am still using the charger from the S5, using a 5W iPhone charger. I'm OK with it. Maybe I'll just charge it to 80% on each charge which should still last two days for me, and help with battery longevity. I've also set my iPhone 15 Pro to 80% charge.
Thanks for the info. That would make sense with AOD off and cellular off.
 

M33-1

macrumors 6502
Jun 15, 2010
395
292
To all of you saying that Ultra 2 can last 3-4 full days I have one question. How in the world? Do you turn off AOD, turn off cellular, what else is turned off? With both Ultra 1 and 2 I barely pass 48 hrs with no gps on, no exercise. I do have cellular on all the time and AOD on on lowest brightness.
I have found on both my Ultras that having cellular turned on, even when connected to phone, eats up more battery than when cellular is off. I am guessing having cellular on powers up the cellular chipset even though it is not active which consumes power. I turn my cellular off unless I go for a walk or go to the mall and leave my phone behind.
 

cwanja

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2010
742
436
Texas
I have found on both my Ultras that having cellular turned on, even when connected to phone, eats up more battery than when cellular is off. I am guessing having cellular on powers up the cellular chipset even though it is not active which consumes power. I turn my cellular off unless I go for a walk or go to the mall and leave my phone behind.
Would be really interesting for Apple to automate this functionality. If your phone is disconnected, your cellular is turned on. And visa versa.

Trying to think of the downside to not doing that.
 

laffnvegas

macrumors 6502
Oct 26, 2014
427
641
Desert South West
¾ of a day if im lucky.
Are you using the apps a lot especially the fitness app? I also have the 5 and I find if I use my fitness app more than 40 minutes I only get about 10 to 12 hours out of it for the day. My Battery Health is setting at 75%. I did just order a new SS9 and trading in my 5. I find using the apps uses up battery as well as the day I set up my new 15pm and paring it to the new phone it used up 100% of the battery in about 10 hours. Since that day a week ago it has been a lot better.
 

PatrickNSF

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2011
764
447
I have found on both my Ultras that having cellular turned on, even when connected to phone, eats up more battery than when cellular is off. I am guessing having cellular on powers up the cellular chipset even though it is not active which consumes power. I turn my cellular off unless I go for a walk or go to the mall and leave my phone behind.
You're the second or third person to point this out recently, and I'm now following the same practice. It never dawned on me that the cellular chip would draw power even when you're not using cellular. Great find!
 

Ravox

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2020
154
122
Florida
For those who turn off AOD , do you turn on Wake on Wrist Raise? Or wake the watch touching it to save battery?
 

mwjdavies

macrumors member
Jul 14, 2008
73
42
Uk
Dont have AOD on, as dont look at it much! And am coming from a series 4, so used to not having always on lol
I got just over 4 days (Had approx 2 or 3 % left at the 4 day mark)
Am very happy and impressed. Was hoping for 2 days lol
 

Bryan Bowler

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2008
4,067
4,441
I’m stunned at how good the battery is on my U2. I have not taken it out for a long run yet, but with an hour long run each day with everything always on and sleep tracking every night I have around 35-40% left on the morning of Day 3.
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
11,001
5,470
192.168.1.1
I’m sure the U1 was similar, but the battery in the U2 is crazy. Put on at 100% in the morning, do an hour workout, use it throughout the day at work, use it throughout the evening, wear it all night for sleep tracking, wake up, work out again, and it’s still at over 60%. And that’s with display brightness set to full that whole time.

Yes, it’s a thick boi compared to my 45mm stainless, and the battery is only like a week old, but still amazing.
 

Zest28

macrumors 68030
Jul 11, 2022
2,573
3,908
With the Ultra 2 (with my iPhone left at home and thus using cellular outdoors), if I go for a 1 hour excercise + 1 hour streaming of Apple music (to the Apple AirPods Pro), the Ultra 2 still has less battery drain than my Series 6 (Wifi only and doing pretty much nothing).

Totally insane battery life.

It can probably get 4 days of battery life if you want to. I never tried it, because when I take a shower, I put the Ultra 2 on the charger.
 
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Fozziebear71

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2014
639
1,662
The Ultra 2 is better for sure because it is based on the same chip that M2 is derived from.

The chip inside the Ultra 1 is much less energy efficient as it is still on 7nm and the high-efficiency cores are nowhere on the same level as M2 / A15.

It is why avoided the Ultra 1 as it had a super old chip inside (same one in the Series 6).

That's the primary reason I never purchased the first Ultra. I am contemplating getting the Ultra 2 today now that it actually has new internals and not years old.
 

akidokraja

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2013
418
491
I’m sure the U1 was similar, but the battery in the U2 is crazy. Put on at 100% in the morning, do an hour workout, use it throughout the day at work, use it throughout the evening, wear it all night for sleep tracking, wake up, work out again, and it’s still at over 60%. And that’s with display brightness set to full that whole time.

Yes, it’s a thick boi compared to my 45mm stainless, and the battery is only like a week old, but still amazing.
Is that with cellular and AOD on?
 

Mr. White

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2015
29
52
New Jersey
Posted this in another thread but maybe someone will find it useful here:

U2, coming from Garmin 965, battery is much worse obviously but better than expected. Charged to 100% at 11pm on Thursday, was at 30% when woke up today (Sunday). Default settings, default watch face, only changes from default: always on display OFF, AFib History on as I want as frequent as possible HRV measurements. Wearing the watch 24h, had two, 40 mins long GPS workouts in the process as well.
 

danpass

macrumors 68030
Jun 27, 2009
2,761
590
Glory
“Last charged to 100% Sat 10:47pm”

Currently at 51% battery, an elapsed time of almost 39hrs.

-
 

nph

macrumors 65816
Feb 9, 2005
1,049
214
How can i see the data shown above on Watch 9, how long since last charge etc?
If I pick battery in system pref I only see percentage left.
I would say i get at least 24h with reserve t spare but I use it a lot, for notification and tuning and other physical tasks.
 

Can Inelli

macrumors member
Feb 12, 2011
87
19
Ultra 1 used to be great in terms of battery life before Watch OS10, now I barely get 48 hours with AOD off, Cellular off and with just 1 hour of pool swim activity. I used to get 3 days before the update and with more activity and GPS on. Unbelievable how Apple has ruined the whole experience.
 

danpass

macrumors 68030
Jun 27, 2009
2,761
590
Glory
“Last charged to 100% Sat 10:47pm”

Currently at 51% battery, an elapsed time of almost 39hrs.

-
Currently at 20% battery, an elapsed time of 60 hours.

So this Ultra 2, normal power mode, sleep tracking on, no AOD, no cell, minimal workout (working on that lol), is averaging about 1.3% per hour.

I figure that charging every other evening, between 8-10pm sort of thing, will be a smooth charging habit while still leaving a full day of use in case one forgets to charge.

-
 

akidokraja

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2013
418
491
Hmm. I wouldn't expect the watch to use any power for cellular unless you are away from your iPhone and a known WiFi hotspot. I'll have to turn mine off and see if it makes a difference.
Exactly. Why would it not shut off cellular radio if iPhone is close by? This should be an option at least.
 
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M33-1

macrumors 6502
Jun 15, 2010
395
292
Exactly. Why would it not shut off cellular radio if iPhone is close by? This should be an option at least.
That is incorrect. If Watch cellular didn’t use any power when it’s connected to your phone, then Apple would not have put a software switch in the control center to manually turn it on and off. Even when connected to your phone with cellular turned on, on the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch consumes more power because it is waiting for the phone to disconnect so it can turn on and connect to cellular.

Turning off this feature will save power on the watch.
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,854
4,594
That is incorrect. If Watch cellular didn’t use any power when it’s connected to your phone, then Apple would not have put a software switch in the control center to manually turn it on and off. Even when connected to your phone with cellular turned on, on the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch consumes more power because it is waiting for the phone to disconnect so it can turn on and connect to cellular.

Turning off this feature will save power on the watch.
Huh? They have the switch so you can turn off the cellular when disconnected from the phone and WiFi. Why would it use power waiting to be used? That doesn't make any sense. I did turn it off for several days and didn't notice any difference in battery life. Apple says that in low power mode, cellular only turns off when your iPhone isn't nearby. (Also turns off WiFi).

Use Low Power Mode.

Low Power Mode turns off these features when your iPhone isn’t nearby​

  • Wi-Fi and cellular connections
  • Incoming phone calls and notifications
 
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