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> all-day 18-hour battery life. Is there a standard for what "all-day" means? I think most would initially assume 24 hours, but thinking about it more, it seem

> all-day 18-hour battery life. Is there a standard for what "all-day" means? I think most would initially assume 24 hours, but thinking about it more, it seems reasonable to consider "can work from wake up to sleep" or "can work from sunup to sundown"/

emptybits 7y ago
Yeah, I was a little sad reading this. But I just dug into the specs for my Series 3 and it's only advertised as "18+ hours" also, yet I get 23+ hours from it even after a year and a half of true "all day" use. I wear it for sleep tracking with the AutoSleep app. It's in its cradle 20 mins twice a day when I shower. So yay for conservative Apple specs? Hopefully this means the Series 5 isn't actually a battery downgrade. If it is, then the Apple-approved sleep apps in their App Store may not get the love they have received with older Apple Watchen.
- lalaithion 7y ago
  I have a Series 1. I don't sleep with it, it usually charges all night, but sometimes I wake up and find I forgot to place it on it's charger the previous night. I can usually use it until 1 or 2 PM that day before it dies. That's a 29+ hour battery life.
  - brians 7y ago
    I have a Series 0, and if I use it to track a bike ride, it won’t make it to bedtime. Maybe something about number of charge cycles and heaviness of use?
victorvation 7y ago
"Wake to Sleep" seems to be the generally accepted definition, i.e. you won't have to charge it during the day during normal usage. How long you're awake for can vary though, I've seen anything from 8 hours to 20 hours of battery life be referred to as "all day".
- ocdtrekkie 7y ago
  Clearly this means they don't intend Apple Watch to pick up sleep tracking though. My Fitbit needs to last a few days because there's only a couple chances I really take it off to charge.
  - jedberg 7y ago
    Sleep tracking is a headline feature of OS6. Clearly the marketing department... didn't talk to the other part of the marketing department.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      I wouldn't call it a headline feature, since it's not on this page: https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-6/ https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-6/. Honestly, did they mention it at all?
      - jedberg 7y ago
        I think it didn’t make the cut at the last minute. The code has been in the betas for a while and there have been a bunch of “rumor” articles about it. Usually when there are that many rumors they’ve been seeded by Apple PR.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Accepted by whom? I hate it when marketers get to make up their own meaning of commonly used words, usually making them mean less than they ordinarily do. With "all-day" meaning anything between 6.5 (see parallel comment) and 20 hours, it's becoming a worthless and purposefully confusing term. (Note if that a physical store advertises it's open "all day", you expect it to be open from 00:00 to 23:59.)
  - ogre_codes 7y ago
    Well in this case you don't have to wonder what it means because they say exactly how long—18-hours. Also, nobody says "open all day" in retail because retailers would be more explicit about the fact that they are open at night, thus you have 24 hour convenience stores, not "all day".
GordonS 7y ago
I quite like the idea of a smart watch, but having to charge it every day is much less appealing.
- charlesju 7y ago
  I agree with this sentiment. But then I discovered the Fitbit has a 7 day battery life. That's a game changer.
  - atlasunshrugged 7y ago
    I got a Fitbit for this reason but I've been incredibly dissatisfied with the quality. I'm now on my 3rd device in ~6 months. First one stopped taking a charge, second the screen went out. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm
    - pfranz 7y ago
      I've had all 3 gens of FitBit and never had hardware issues. My gripes have all been on software (refusing to integrate with Apple Health, I don't like the new "sleep score", and I don't want a "premium" monthly payment). I did upgrade when the previous ones were no longer functional, but I had used them constantly for a few years each time. However, I used to leave the charger plugged in my bathroom because I would charge it when I showered. I noticed the charging posts got crud on them and got smaller over time until my FitBit would no longer charge. Eventually, I started unplugging it except for when I was charging and that fixed my issue.
    - dkonofalski 7y ago
      I had the same experience with multiple FitBit devices. Every single one of them had to be replaced, after only a few months, within the warranty period. The only device I ever owned that didn't need a warranty replacement was a FitBit Aria scale and that was a return/replace with the store after the first one was DOA.
    - drewg123 7y ago
      Try a Garmin Forerunner or Fenix. My wife and I have had the same bad luck with most wearables. I went through 3 MS bands, she went through 2 fitbits and all of them physically broke. I had a Motorola Android Wear and Polar M600, both of which degraded to less than 24 hours of battery life after less than a year of ownership of each. I have a Garmin 645M, which I've had since launch, and it still works fine and has days of battery life, even when doing morning runs listening to spotify from the watch. I finally convinced my wife to try a Garmin 245, and she hasn't destroyed it yet.
dgzl 7y ago
All-day, but not necessarily all-night.
sp332 7y ago
For laptops, companies started saying "all-day battery life" around 6.5 hours. It's pretty meaningless.
saagarjha 7y ago
If it's the same as their previous watches, it certainly works "all day" if you sleep more than three hours a day.
drinchev 7y ago
My Apple Watch ( Series 1 ) is still alive and working quite well. It lasts for 8-9 hours if I don't use the heart rate monitor, while doing sports. I think at this point I could say that my Apple Watch is not "all-day" battery life.
- jedberg 7y ago
  Wow, I feel lucky now! My watch (Series 0) will last about 16 hours, 15 hours if I do a heart tracking working. It's been worn every day (and charged every night) since it was purchased.
  - drinchev 7y ago
    How does the battery drains during heat waves? I noticed mine gets depleted too fast when the temperature outside is 30+ degrees ( Celsius ).
    - jedberg 7y ago
      Not sure. It rarely breaks 30 here (Bay Area) and when it does I stay inside mostly. :)
    - warp 7y ago
      I use an Apple Watch series 3 near the coast in Ecuador (30 degrees celsius year round). Battery has been fine for me. I wear it at night for sleep tracking, and charge it when I shower. Even on days when I shower once, I usually manage to get through the day without issue.
    - Shorel 7y ago
      As an unrelated anecdote, I have an e-book reader and its battery lasted the longest when I went to a place with 30+ temperatures. It lasted for two weeks and a half reading about 4 hours a day.
  - codpiece 7y ago
    My series 0 worked great until the glue came off of the screen last week. Screen flapped open, caught on my backpack, and ripped the connector cables clean in half. No indication of problems until catastrophic failure, and I took great care of the thing. Bummed.
slg 7y ago
I think all day depends on the specific device. For example, I would accept a 10 hr battery life for a laptop or wireless headphones as "all-day" because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7. 18 hours for "all-day" on a wearable seems reasonable if the expectation is that it will be used only when the user is awake. A complicating factor is that Watch OS 6 is supposed to include sleep tracking. Making that functionality native would seem to recommend wearing the watch 24/7 in a way that wasn't encouraged when that was handled by 3rd party apps. In my opinion, that changes the definition of "all-day" for this device. EDIT: I am just catching up on all the announcements, while it was expected in the lead up to today[1] there was no talk of native sleep tracking during the event. I wonder if it will be rolled out quietly so Apple could have plausible deniability on 24/7 usage being "recommended" or if they decided to completely scrap it due to battery performance issues. [1] - https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/02/apple-watch-sleep-tracking-revealed-sleep-quality-battery-management-more/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/02/apple-watch-sleep-tracking-re...
- jedberg 7y ago
  > Making that functionality native would seem to recommend wearing the watch 24/7 Exactly! At this point, my expectation is that I would wear the watch at all times except when I shower in the morning, and that is when I would charge it. But it won't charge that quickly. :( Which means I either have to give up sleep tracking or activity tracking to charge it. It sounds like they need to make it so that the bands can store energy so that I can charge one band and wear one band and then switch them each day.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - sbuk 7y ago
    > But it won't charge that quickly. :( Long time Apple Watch owner, currently using the Series 4 - charging while in the shower is exactly how I charge my watch. It has never run out using this way.
    - 7y ago
antoineMoPa 7y ago
1980 watches: battery lasts a couple of months 2019 watches: battery lasts a couple of hours
- felipemnoa 7y ago
  You forgot to mention that in 2019 you are wearing on your wrist what in 1980 would be considered a super computer and occupying several shelves worth of space. Edit: Some info that I found online. According to this article from 2015 [1 ]the apple watch is equivalent to two iPhone4s (Not sure I believe that but if true incredible). Also this quote: "Meanwhile, the Cray-2 supercomputer from 1985, which is the fastest machine in the world for its time, is now only equal to an iPhone 4." Another quote : "The Apple Watch performs about 7 billion FLOPS" According to wikipedia [2]: "The Cray-2 released in 1985 was a 4 processor liquid cooled computer totally immersed in a tank of Fluorinert, which bubbled as it operated.[8] It could perform to 1.9 gigaflops and was the world's second fastest supercomputer after M-13" So assuming that all of the information is correct then it is indeed true that the Apple watch from today is many times more powerful than a super computer from the 1980s. [1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3098315/The-supercomputer-wrist-Infographic-reveals-Apple-Watch-equivalent-two-iPhone-4s.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3098315/The-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_supercomputing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_supercomputing
  - peterwwillis 7y ago
    And the software on these supercomputers is used to tell the time and display a calendar.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - matthewmacleod 7y ago
      Also decodes and plays audio, takes ECGs, monitors movement and sleeping patterns in real-time, communicates with people on the other side of the planet using a high-bandwidth global communications network, and receives and decodes positioning signals sent from space.
Krasnol 7y ago
Every sane person would assume that but because they were unable to meet the "all-day" target, they kept it as a marketing phrase and added the actual life time.
drewg123 7y ago
I retired my previous fitness watch (Polar M600) when its battery life got to be this bad. I moved on to a Garmin 645M with almost a week of battery life. It is nice to be able to travel for a week on business and not worry about carrying a charger. The display is clear and always on.. It plays Spotify so I can run without my phone.
snailmailman 7y ago
For what its worth, my Apple Watch S3 has "up to 18 hours of battery life" and I wear it all day and all night, usually only taking it off to charge while i get ready in the morning. (30 minutes to an hour?) Some days I do briefly end up charging it again in the evening for a while. Some days I don't let it charge enough in the morning (sleeping in, or leaving early) and then end up with not enough battery to make it through the night. I'm curious if you can disable the always on screen for longer battery on the new watch, or how much of a difference that would even make. I don't mind the screen turning off when im not using it.
stesch 7y ago
I charge my Series 0 Apple Watch once a day when it's at about 50%.
loceng 7y ago
In day vs. night context, ~18 hours for day and ~6 hours for night - no comment other than it's an interesting way to frame it as "all-day."
theshrike79 7y ago
18 hours is a practical level for smart watch battery. That way users will recharge it every night and never run out during the day. 24 hours means that people will sleep with it and forget to charge in the morning -> annoyed users. 36 hours would require charging every other night, but then you'd miss every other night's sleep tracking -> annoyed users. There's really no way for Apple to win, unless they jump up to full 7 days or something.
- pfranz 7y ago
  I know this is a completely different class of device, but even though my FitBit can last a few days without recharge, the more important thing is that it can get a full day's charge while I'm in the shower. A 24 or 36 hr battery that recharges during a 15m shower I imagine would work for most people.
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  There are a lot of people who sleep with Apple watches already, since there are a handful of 3rd party sleep tracking apps. Plus, the silent alarm that taps on your wrist is really nice. You don't need to charge it for that long, 15-20 minutes before bed and in the morning is plenty.
  - Yhippa 7y ago
    Does the Apple Watch do native sleep tracking or do you need a 3rd-party app?
    - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
      You need a 3rd party app. I use SleepWatch, Sleep++ and AutoSleep. Since they all use the HealthKit you can use multiple apps for different visualizations.
- Mayzie 7y ago
  Honestly, all I want is something that I can put on charge once during the day, for 30 minutes while showering, and have it last until the following nights shower. I want it to track sleep, and monitor health. That's it at least. My Fitbit Versa works perfectly for this, and hey, it has a bonus that if I forget to charge it one night or over a weekend, it still lasts! No interrupted heartrate monitoring or sleep tracking. I was really hoping Apple would step up their Apple Watch game this year, with a longer battery and native sleep tracking -- that's all I want. Personally, I don't really care about being able to answer calls from a watch when I have my phone on me 24/7. Time to wait another year I guess and keep using my Versa :-)
flurdy 7y ago
Nope. I will keep using my Pebble. Whilst it still works. I just can't get past the 18ish hours battery. I know when I possible eventually actually own and use an Apple Watch, I am sure some of the features trigger the "once you go x you can't go back" type thing, but until then, nope. Though my Pebble is, unfortunately, starting to creak a little, some notifications are not always shown etc, so a Fitbit may be more likely upgrade. They at least have 5 days battery.
- Yhippa 7y ago
  I'm wearing a Fitbit Versa (whose lineage is from Pebble) and as bad as I want to go back to WearOS or jump ship from phone platforms and get an Apple Watch, you can't beat 5 days of battery life.
  - zantana 7y ago
    Unless you have one the early Blackberries. :) Not sure if they still function though.
- cjohansson 7y ago
  Yeah same thing for me. The battery time is the deal breaker. I use my Xiaomi Mi Band with about 10 days battery time even when using sleep tracker and heart rate tracker every minute 24/7. It costs less then 10% of the Apple Watch as well.
  - pzo 7y ago
    Same with me. Even though I'm iOS dev and own apple watch I use it only for development. My Mi Band 3 last round 20 days on single charge which is great. I just wish app had better UNICODE character support
- jkmcf 7y ago
  FWIW, my Series 2 still gets me 2-3 days based on my usage. The main feature I use is the heart/sleep monitor at night, and then sporadically throughout the day (weather and time, usually). I disable all notifications besides navigation.
teilo 7y ago
18 hours has been their standard "all day" battery life since Series 3 came out. Here's the thing: My Series 3 easily lasts me 2 days without using it for things like exercise, bluetooth audio, etc. With exercise it lasts all day. I have never run out of power unless I didn't charge it the previous evening and had multiple exercise sessions on the same charge. This is way better than my Series 0 did. So the 18 hours is really a lot more than 18 hours for most people. My question now, is: Will my battery life really only be 18 hours with this always-on display?
mywacaday 7y ago
I recently got a Garmin Forerunner, 5 day battery life. Hasn't died on me yet, only charge it 2-3 times a week while in the shower and get dressed, 20 mins top. Only gives me call and messaging notifications which I prefer, previously had a motorola smart watch, more apps is not the way forward.
- a2tech 7y ago
  My wife and a friend of ours only charge their Apple Watches while they're in the shower and its enough for them. I can't because I'm a restless sleeper and I end up knocking myself in the face with my watch if I sleep while its on.
sundvor 7y ago
Unlike the Samsung Watch which will do several days with always on display, GPS enabled. But congratulations to Apple for finally making their watches usable as, well, a watch.
- sundvor 7y ago
  Coming from a number of Pebbles, when the last one died it was a requirement for me by then that a smart watch should be able to always display the time. Call me old fashioned if you must. I disabled gesture based display on (with night mode turning it off when asleep) as the first thing when I got the S3 Frontier, then sold it / upgraded to Watch later for improved battery life. It does at least 50% better and is faster as well. Garmin watches also do well for displaying time, even better in fact, but they are a fair bit more expensive.
megaremote 7y ago
The Watch 3 for me lasted 2 days.
gknight 7y ago
>All-day battery life is based on 18 hours with the following use: 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 60-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours. Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) usage includes connection to iPhone via Bluetooth during the entire 18-hour test. Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection and 14 hours of connection to iPhone via Bluetooth over the course of 18 hours. Testing conducted by Apple in August 2019 using preproduction Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) and Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular), each paired with an iPhone; all devices tested with prerelease software. Battery life varies by use, configuration, cellular network, signal strength, and many other factors; actual results will vary. From "Apple Watch Series 5 Battery Information" (https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/ https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/)
virgilp 7y ago
> "can work from sunup to sundown" I would definitely travel to Norway to buy one of those.
jug 7y ago
I don't think there's a standard per se. But I'd like to mention that Apple use to undersell battery life (for once!) and the Apple Watch is known to quite easily last more than 24 hours.

emptybits 7y ago

Yeah, I was a little sad reading this. But I just dug into the specs for my Series 3 and it's only advertised as "18+ hours" also, yet I get 23+ hours from it even after a year and a half of true "all day" use. I wear it for sleep tracking with the AutoSleep app. It's in its cradle 20 mins twice a day when I shower. So yay for conservative Apple specs? Hopefully this means the Series 5 isn't actually a battery downgrade. If it is, then the Apple-approved sleep apps in their App Store may not get the love they have received with older Apple Watchen.

lalaithion 7y ago
I have a Series 1. I don't sleep with it, it usually charges all night, but sometimes I wake up and find I forgot to place it on it's charger the previous night. I can usually use it until 1 or 2 PM that day before it dies. That's a 29+ hour battery life.
- brians 7y ago
  I have a Series 0, and if I use it to track a bike ride, it won’t make it to bedtime. Maybe something about number of charge cycles and heaviness of use?

victorvation 7y ago

"Wake to Sleep" seems to be the generally accepted definition, i.e. you won't have to charge it during the day during normal usage. How long you're awake for can vary though, I've seen anything from 8 hours to 20 hours of battery life be referred to as "all day".

ocdtrekkie 7y ago
Clearly this means they don't intend Apple Watch to pick up sleep tracking though. My Fitbit needs to last a few days because there's only a couple chances I really take it off to charge.
- jedberg 7y ago
  Sleep tracking is a headline feature of OS6. Clearly the marketing department... didn't talk to the other part of the marketing department.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    I wouldn't call it a headline feature, since it's not on this page: https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-6/ https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-6/. Honestly, did they mention it at all?
    - jedberg 7y ago
      I think it didn’t make the cut at the last minute. The code has been in the betas for a while and there have been a bunch of “rumor” articles about it. Usually when there are that many rumors they’ve been seeded by Apple PR.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
Accepted by whom? I hate it when marketers get to make up their own meaning of commonly used words, usually making them mean less than they ordinarily do. With "all-day" meaning anything between 6.5 (see parallel comment) and 20 hours, it's becoming a worthless and purposefully confusing term. (Note if that a physical store advertises it's open "all day", you expect it to be open from 00:00 to 23:59.)
- ogre_codes 7y ago
  Well in this case you don't have to wonder what it means because they say exactly how long—18-hours. Also, nobody says "open all day" in retail because retailers would be more explicit about the fact that they are open at night, thus you have 24 hour convenience stores, not "all day".

GordonS 7y ago

I quite like the idea of a smart watch, but having to charge it every day is much less appealing.

charlesju 7y ago
I agree with this sentiment. But then I discovered the Fitbit has a 7 day battery life. That's a game changer.
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  I got a Fitbit for this reason but I've been incredibly dissatisfied with the quality. I'm now on my 3rd device in ~6 months. First one stopped taking a charge, second the screen went out. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm
  - pfranz 7y ago
    I've had all 3 gens of FitBit and never had hardware issues. My gripes have all been on software (refusing to integrate with Apple Health, I don't like the new "sleep score", and I don't want a "premium" monthly payment). I did upgrade when the previous ones were no longer functional, but I had used them constantly for a few years each time. However, I used to leave the charger plugged in my bathroom because I would charge it when I showered. I noticed the charging posts got crud on them and got smaller over time until my FitBit would no longer charge. Eventually, I started unplugging it except for when I was charging and that fixed my issue.
  - dkonofalski 7y ago
    I had the same experience with multiple FitBit devices. Every single one of them had to be replaced, after only a few months, within the warranty period. The only device I ever owned that didn't need a warranty replacement was a FitBit Aria scale and that was a return/replace with the store after the first one was DOA.
  - drewg123 7y ago
    Try a Garmin Forerunner or Fenix. My wife and I have had the same bad luck with most wearables. I went through 3 MS bands, she went through 2 fitbits and all of them physically broke. I had a Motorola Android Wear and Polar M600, both of which degraded to less than 24 hours of battery life after less than a year of ownership of each. I have a Garmin 645M, which I've had since launch, and it still works fine and has days of battery life, even when doing morning runs listening to spotify from the watch. I finally convinced my wife to try a Garmin 245, and she hasn't destroyed it yet.

dgzl 7y ago

All-day, but not necessarily all-night.

sp332 7y ago

For laptops, companies started saying "all-day battery life" around 6.5 hours. It's pretty meaningless.

saagarjha 7y ago

If it's the same as their previous watches, it certainly works "all day" if you sleep more than three hours a day.

drinchev 7y ago

My Apple Watch ( Series 1 ) is still alive and working quite well. It lasts for 8-9 hours if I don't use the heart rate monitor, while doing sports. I think at this point I could say that my Apple Watch is not "all-day" battery life.

jedberg 7y ago
Wow, I feel lucky now! My watch (Series 0) will last about 16 hours, 15 hours if I do a heart tracking working. It's been worn every day (and charged every night) since it was purchased.
- drinchev 7y ago
  How does the battery drains during heat waves? I noticed mine gets depleted too fast when the temperature outside is 30+ degrees ( Celsius ).
  - jedberg 7y ago
    Not sure. It rarely breaks 30 here (Bay Area) and when it does I stay inside mostly. :)
  - warp 7y ago
    I use an Apple Watch series 3 near the coast in Ecuador (30 degrees celsius year round). Battery has been fine for me. I wear it at night for sleep tracking, and charge it when I shower. Even on days when I shower once, I usually manage to get through the day without issue.
  - Shorel 7y ago
    As an unrelated anecdote, I have an e-book reader and its battery lasted the longest when I went to a place with 30+ temperatures. It lasted for two weeks and a half reading about 4 hours a day.
- codpiece 7y ago
  My series 0 worked great until the glue came off of the screen last week. Screen flapped open, caught on my backpack, and ripped the connector cables clean in half. No indication of problems until catastrophic failure, and I took great care of the thing. Bummed.

slg 7y ago

I think all day depends on the specific device. For example, I would accept a 10 hr battery life for a laptop or wireless headphones as "all-day" because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7. 18 hours for "all-day" on a wearable seems reasonable if the expectation is that it will be used only when the user is awake. A complicating factor is that Watch OS 6 is supposed to include sleep tracking. Making that functionality native would seem to recommend wearing the watch 24/7 in a way that wasn't encouraged when that was handled by 3rd party apps. In my opinion, that changes the definition of "all-day" for this device. EDIT: I am just catching up on all the announcements, while it was expected in the lead up to today[1] there was no talk of native sleep tracking during the event. I wonder if it will be rolled out quietly so Apple could have plausible deniability on 24/7 usage being "recommended" or if they decided to completely scrap it due to battery performance issues. [1] - https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/02/apple-watch-sleep-tracking-revealed-sleep-quality-battery-management-more/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/02/apple-watch-sleep-tracking-re...

jedberg 7y ago
> Making that functionality native would seem to recommend wearing the watch 24/7 Exactly! At this point, my expectation is that I would wear the watch at all times except when I shower in the morning, and that is when I would charge it. But it won't charge that quickly. :( Which means I either have to give up sleep tracking or activity tracking to charge it. It sounds like they need to make it so that the bands can store energy so that I can charge one band and wear one band and then switch them each day.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- sbuk 7y ago
  > But it won't charge that quickly. :( Long time Apple Watch owner, currently using the Series 4 - charging while in the shower is exactly how I charge my watch. It has never run out using this way.
  - 7y ago

antoineMoPa 7y ago

1980 watches: battery lasts a couple of months 2019 watches: battery lasts a couple of hours

felipemnoa 7y ago
You forgot to mention that in 2019 you are wearing on your wrist what in 1980 would be considered a super computer and occupying several shelves worth of space. Edit: Some info that I found online. According to this article from 2015 [1 ]the apple watch is equivalent to two iPhone4s (Not sure I believe that but if true incredible). Also this quote: "Meanwhile, the Cray-2 supercomputer from 1985, which is the fastest machine in the world for its time, is now only equal to an iPhone 4." Another quote : "The Apple Watch performs about 7 billion FLOPS" According to wikipedia [2]: "The Cray-2 released in 1985 was a 4 processor liquid cooled computer totally immersed in a tank of Fluorinert, which bubbled as it operated.[8] It could perform to 1.9 gigaflops and was the world's second fastest supercomputer after M-13" So assuming that all of the information is correct then it is indeed true that the Apple watch from today is many times more powerful than a super computer from the 1980s. [1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3098315/The-supercomputer-wrist-Infographic-reveals-Apple-Watch-equivalent-two-iPhone-4s.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3098315/The-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_supercomputing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_supercomputing
- peterwwillis 7y ago
  And the software on these supercomputers is used to tell the time and display a calendar.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - matthewmacleod 7y ago
    Also decodes and plays audio, takes ECGs, monitors movement and sleeping patterns in real-time, communicates with people on the other side of the planet using a high-bandwidth global communications network, and receives and decodes positioning signals sent from space.

Krasnol 7y ago

Every sane person would assume that but because they were unable to meet the "all-day" target, they kept it as a marketing phrase and added the actual life time.

drewg123 7y ago

I retired my previous fitness watch (Polar M600) when its battery life got to be this bad. I moved on to a Garmin 645M with almost a week of battery life. It is nice to be able to travel for a week on business and not worry about carrying a charger. The display is clear and always on.. It plays Spotify so I can run without my phone.

snailmailman 7y ago

For what its worth, my Apple Watch S3 has "up to 18 hours of battery life" and I wear it all day and all night, usually only taking it off to charge while i get ready in the morning. (30 minutes to an hour?) Some days I do briefly end up charging it again in the evening for a while. Some days I don't let it charge enough in the morning (sleeping in, or leaving early) and then end up with not enough battery to make it through the night. I'm curious if you can disable the always on screen for longer battery on the new watch, or how much of a difference that would even make. I don't mind the screen turning off when im not using it.

stesch 7y ago

I charge my Series 0 Apple Watch once a day when it's at about 50%.

loceng 7y ago

In day vs. night context, ~18 hours for day and ~6 hours for night - no comment other than it's an interesting way to frame it as "all-day."

theshrike79 7y ago

18 hours is a practical level for smart watch battery. That way users will recharge it every night and never run out during the day. 24 hours means that people will sleep with it and forget to charge in the morning -> annoyed users. 36 hours would require charging every other night, but then you'd miss every other night's sleep tracking -> annoyed users. There's really no way for Apple to win, unless they jump up to full 7 days or something.

pfranz 7y ago
I know this is a completely different class of device, but even though my FitBit can last a few days without recharge, the more important thing is that it can get a full day's charge while I'm in the shower. A 24 or 36 hr battery that recharges during a 15m shower I imagine would work for most people.
rhinoceraptor 7y ago
There are a lot of people who sleep with Apple watches already, since there are a handful of 3rd party sleep tracking apps. Plus, the silent alarm that taps on your wrist is really nice. You don't need to charge it for that long, 15-20 minutes before bed and in the morning is plenty.
- Yhippa 7y ago
  Does the Apple Watch do native sleep tracking or do you need a 3rd-party app?
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    You need a 3rd party app. I use SleepWatch, Sleep++ and AutoSleep. Since they all use the HealthKit you can use multiple apps for different visualizations.
Mayzie 7y ago
Honestly, all I want is something that I can put on charge once during the day, for 30 minutes while showering, and have it last until the following nights shower. I want it to track sleep, and monitor health. That's it at least. My Fitbit Versa works perfectly for this, and hey, it has a bonus that if I forget to charge it one night or over a weekend, it still lasts! No interrupted heartrate monitoring or sleep tracking. I was really hoping Apple would step up their Apple Watch game this year, with a longer battery and native sleep tracking -- that's all I want. Personally, I don't really care about being able to answer calls from a watch when I have my phone on me 24/7. Time to wait another year I guess and keep using my Versa :-)

flurdy 7y ago

Nope. I will keep using my Pebble. Whilst it still works. I just can't get past the 18ish hours battery. I know when I possible eventually actually own and use an Apple Watch, I am sure some of the features trigger the "once you go x you can't go back" type thing, but until then, nope. Though my Pebble is, unfortunately, starting to creak a little, some notifications are not always shown etc, so a Fitbit may be more likely upgrade. They at least have 5 days battery.

Yhippa 7y ago
I'm wearing a Fitbit Versa (whose lineage is from Pebble) and as bad as I want to go back to WearOS or jump ship from phone platforms and get an Apple Watch, you can't beat 5 days of battery life.
- zantana 7y ago
  Unless you have one the early Blackberries. :) Not sure if they still function though.
cjohansson 7y ago
Yeah same thing for me. The battery time is the deal breaker. I use my Xiaomi Mi Band with about 10 days battery time even when using sleep tracker and heart rate tracker every minute 24/7. It costs less then 10% of the Apple Watch as well.
- pzo 7y ago
  Same with me. Even though I'm iOS dev and own apple watch I use it only for development. My Mi Band 3 last round 20 days on single charge which is great. I just wish app had better UNICODE character support
jkmcf 7y ago
FWIW, my Series 2 still gets me 2-3 days based on my usage. The main feature I use is the heart/sleep monitor at night, and then sporadically throughout the day (weather and time, usually). I disable all notifications besides navigation.

teilo 7y ago

18 hours has been their standard "all day" battery life since Series 3 came out. Here's the thing: My Series 3 easily lasts me 2 days without using it for things like exercise, bluetooth audio, etc. With exercise it lasts all day. I have never run out of power unless I didn't charge it the previous evening and had multiple exercise sessions on the same charge. This is way better than my Series 0 did. So the 18 hours is really a lot more than 18 hours for most people. My question now, is: Will my battery life really only be 18 hours with this always-on display?

mywacaday 7y ago

I recently got a Garmin Forerunner, 5 day battery life. Hasn't died on me yet, only charge it 2-3 times a week while in the shower and get dressed, 20 mins top. Only gives me call and messaging notifications which I prefer, previously had a motorola smart watch, more apps is not the way forward.

a2tech 7y ago
My wife and a friend of ours only charge their Apple Watches while they're in the shower and its enough for them. I can't because I'm a restless sleeper and I end up knocking myself in the face with my watch if I sleep while its on.

sundvor 7y ago

Unlike the Samsung Watch which will do several days with always on display, GPS enabled. But congratulations to Apple for finally making their watches usable as, well, a watch.

sundvor 7y ago
Coming from a number of Pebbles, when the last one died it was a requirement for me by then that a smart watch should be able to always display the time. Call me old fashioned if you must. I disabled gesture based display on (with night mode turning it off when asleep) as the first thing when I got the S3 Frontier, then sold it / upgraded to Watch later for improved battery life. It does at least 50% better and is faster as well. Garmin watches also do well for displaying time, even better in fact, but they are a fair bit more expensive.

megaremote 7y ago

The Watch 3 for me lasted 2 days.

gknight 7y ago

>All-day battery life is based on 18 hours with the following use: 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 60-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours. Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) usage includes connection to iPhone via Bluetooth during the entire 18-hour test. Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection and 14 hours of connection to iPhone via Bluetooth over the course of 18 hours. Testing conducted by Apple in August 2019 using preproduction Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) and Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular), each paired with an iPhone; all devices tested with prerelease software. Battery life varies by use, configuration, cellular network, signal strength, and many other factors; actual results will vary. From "Apple Watch Series 5 Battery Information" (https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/ https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/)

virgilp 7y ago

> "can work from sunup to sundown" I would definitely travel to Norway to buy one of those.

jug 7y ago

I don't think there's a standard per se. But I'd like to mention that Apple use to undersell battery life (for once!) and the Apple Watch is known to quite easily last more than 24 hours.