8 ms·

I keep hoping they're going to announce battery life that lasts longer than a day, not this time...

by haney 5y ago

gnicholas 5y ago
Yep, I'm hanging onto my Pebble until that happens. The battery life is deteriorating, but I can still get 5 days out of it if I put it in airplane mode overnight.
- dimitry12 5y ago
  Oh, that's a nice hack!
  - gnicholas 5y ago
    It doubles as DND, which is good for work-life balance!
theshrike79 5y ago
Not going to happen. The only upgrade that makes sense is 7 days. 2-3 day battery life means that people will forget to charge, because there is no routine. And then they run out of battery and blame Apple for shitty battery life. 45 minutes from 0 to 80% isn't that much. You won't be ending many days at 0% and don't need a 100% every day.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  2-3 day battery life makes sense with sleep tracking, since you can sleep a couple of nights with it before you have to charge it.
  - mwint 5y ago
    I sleep with my watch; my routine has become “charge it while showering”. The ten minutes or so a day is usually plenty to keep up with my usage. Series 6 40mm GPS only.
- haney 5y ago
  I know there are limits to battery technology but I'd much rather see the watch track towards 7 days than see additional sensors / a larger brighter screen. This may be compounded by the fact that the watch needs its own special charging cable, my main pain point is that I always forget to pack the watch charger when I travel so my watch always dies if I'm going for a night.
  - laurent92 5y ago
    We’re in 2021, why wouldn’t a watch last a month. I don’t know, use e-ink, use something else than bluetooth, have a solar panel behind the screen, innovate!
    - ben_w 5y ago
      If you want a watch whose battery lasts that long, it can’t be a smart watch. All the other stuff these things do use too much power for to get that battery life from just switching to a even a (not physically plausible) 100% efficient photovoltaic e-ink screen. It could be a fitness tracker like the Fitbit Zip (advertised at 4-6 months), or a plain watch like the Casio F-91W (when I had those as a kid, the battery outlasted the straps), but it can’t be a smart watch.
      - quitit 5y ago
        It's like people speaking fondly of their old nokia phones with week-long battery life, while ignoring that it only had a 2 hour talk time. The Apple watch lasts all day when used normally (workouts, apps etc) - for people who are just using it to receive notifications, a bit of siri and telling the time - it easily gets up to 30+ hours. All of this is moot anyway, it can get 8 hours of sleep tracking in 8 minutes, or fast charge in 45 minutes to 80% - these are far better metrics than if they managed to get it to last 2-3 days.
      - nradov 5y ago
        You can get a smart watch with battery life over 30 days: Garmin Enduro. https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/702797 https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/702797
- paxys 5y ago
  2-3 day battery life is perfect for weekend trips without worrying about charging.
  - sauwan 5y ago
    Right, I have a Garmin 245 that I regularly get 3-5 days on a charge (lots of GPS runs though) and I don't have a problem finding an hour here and there to charge it. Once a day would become a big frustration though, because I typically have a days window where I know I'll need to charge in the next 24 hours and can be flexible.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - turtlebits 5y ago
    If you have a daily routine like charging your phone, why not just charge your watch as well? Seems like more cognitive effort to change routine just because you take a weekend trip.
    - fomine3 5y ago
      It's fine if I don't need a different additional cable.
- tommi 5y ago
  45 minutes can be a lot if you keep it in hand over night for sleep tracking. You'd then need a to find a 45 minute slot every day to charge it and be consistent with it. With one day battery life you can't forget to charge it every morning for example. Or what if you didn't bring a charger with you for an overnight trip? Anything less than a full two day battery life is a deal breaker for me.
  - _rs 5y ago
    I've found the iPhone notifications to be very handy in this regard though - I throw my watch on the charger when I shower and then pick it up whenever my phone notifies me it is done charging. https://daringfireball.net/2021/03/your_watch_is_fully_charged_notifications https://daringfireball.net/2021/03/your_watch_is_fully_charg...
  - theshrike79 5y ago
    It takes 8 minutes to charge for a full night's sleep tracking according to Apple. That's about the time it takes to wash and floss your teeth coincidentally :) I usually take my AW2 off when I wake up and put it in the charger while I do my morning stuff. Same with showering etc.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Since I wear my 6 at night, I need to charge it in the morning. That takes about an hour. The last 10% is at about one quarter of the bulk charging rate. If life interferes, and I have to pull it off the charger after 40 minutes, the watch typically won’t make it through the following night. Two days would be helpful. Either that, or cut the charging time down to 30 minutes, which is about the time it takes me to get ready in the morning.
- dkdbejwi383 5y ago
  I imagine that in the near to medium future at least, they'll optimise for fast charging. 45 minutes to 80% is good, but 20 minutes to 80% would mean that you could just charge it while having a shower and it should be practically fully charged.
- nradov 5y ago
  Several of the higher end Garmin smart watches have battery life longer than 7 days (depending on GPS use).
alphabetting 5y ago
Is it really that low? My fitbit sense gets around 4 days but I just use it for health tracking and nothing else.
- haney 5y ago
  Sometimes I get it to go 36 hours but that's only with very light use
Etheryte 5y ago
Likewise. I suppose an always-on display is a big boon for most customers, but I would like if I had the option to opt out of that and get considerably longer battery life instead. Conceptually I really like the watch with all the health-related sensors and such, but until the battery life improves, it's hard to be convinced.
- adeelk93 5y ago
  Then turn it off? It’s in the display settings
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  You can opt out. I have, my wife hasn't. It definitely has an impact on the battery life (we both have the series 6). My watch easily makes it a full 24 hours, I charge it in the mornings when I work from home, or in the evening when I'll be at the office the next day. Hers lasts about 18 hours right now, though I also suspect that the fact she drops it on the charger both in the morning and as soon as she gets home from work has impacted the battery life in her case. I wouldn't like it for camping or long hiking trips (not day hikes since I'd be able to charge it at some point easily enough), the Garmin's are definitely better for that if you want something for tracking your hike and heart rate.
  - philliphaydon 5y ago
    I have Series 6 with the always on display enabled and make it to 30 hours. I have 55% left after 18 hours.
    - Hamuko 5y ago
      Do you do any workouts with it? I can't see going through 24+ hours on my Series 5 with always-on display and workouts.
      - philliphaydon 5y ago
        Ah, no I don't. Once I can workout again I'll definitely watch the battery life if that is a drain.
philliphaydon 5y ago
How long do you want/need it? I have the series 6 and get around ~30 hours. I've been wearing it since 9am and it's now 2:52am, it's still 55% remaining. It turned out to be more battery than what I thought (18 hours?!?)
- moonchrome 5y ago
  Do you use workout tracking ? If I went to the gym it would significantly impact my galaxy watch. These days I use a withings scanwatch hybrid - it lasts 20 days and is more low-key than a giant screen on your hand. But still has ECG/HR/activities/sleep and notifications (so I can keep my phone muted all the time l). The only feature I'm missing is find my phone.
  - philliphaydon 5y ago
    > Do you use workout tracking ? Nope :( I had not considered this impacting the battery, due to being stranded in Singapore I haven't been working out. But now that you and someone else mentioned it I will definitely monitor battery to see how it impacts me when I can get back into a gym.
    - parthdesai 5y ago
      More than the gym, it's when you're biking/running or anything that uses active GPS tracking. That is the real killer. My garmin can last 7 days without GPS, and 7 hours with active GPS tracking.
  - Tagbert 5y ago
    I’ve never seen a hit from normal workout tracking, though anything with the gps does hit the battery. It still would normally get through a full day and night with sleep tracking unless I were doing a multi-hour walk/run tracking session, too.
ngcazz 5y ago
My Series 5 definitely lasts longer than a day…
- kerng 5y ago
  Do you use it for anything?
jjtheblunt 5y ago
my series 6 definitely lasts way longer than a day, and i use it for tracking gps on hikes almost every day. i think being judicious with screen brightness is very impactful.
mehrdada 5y ago
I just use two watches and alternate every night.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jaypeg25 5y ago
I wish it had a charger similar to the Whoop fitness band. It's a separate battery that you place on top of the band while wearing it, so it can charge while you're sleeping or even while you're just wearing it throughout the day.
scrollaway 5y ago
Same. Not into smart watches until they have a week long charge at least. The Steel HR from Withings is the perfect middle ground for me. Doesn’t look like a slab, 3 weeks charge, still some smart features.
gfiorav 5y ago
It charges to 80% in 45 mins. I don't wear it overnight, but some friends who do, charge it in the office without much of an impact to usage. For me it's never been a problem, it wouldn't have changed my usage pattern to have 1 week of battery.
- t0mas88 5y ago
  I charge it when I shower and get ready to go to bed, then put it back on to wear overnight because I like the sleep tracking. Never runs out of power.
- pwagland 5y ago
  The challenge, at least for those that want to use the watch for sports, is not the "daily" use, but that the watch runs out of juice so quickly when using its location tracking, aka GPS sucks battery. So, the reason that I want longer battery life is not, per se, to charge once a week, but so that I can use it on a longer run, and not be afraid that the battery will give out as I get close to the finish line.
  - quitit 5y ago
    Without any special preparation my apple watch will last a full day of hiking while recording the GPS/heart rate/etc. (i.e. 5-7 hours hikes in the mountains.) Cellular, on the other hand, can drain the watch relatively quickly. Mine lasts 2-3 hours when streaming music from the cloud and relaying to bluetooth headphones during a workout (i.e. when it can't piggy-back off the phone's cellular.)
    - ncr100 5y ago
      would be nice to reverse-charge from phone to watch - is this possible?
      - herbstein 5y ago
        The S10-line from Samsung has that feature so it's certainly not impossible
tw04 5y ago
I feel like a broken record but I'm in the same boat. I can't stand a watch that has to be charged daily or is useless. After switching from an early android wear with ~30 hours of battery life to a Garmin watch I just can't imagine being stuck with nightly charging anymore. Countless times I forgot the charger at home on a trip and basically had a fancy bracelet for the week. I don't understand why there seems to be 0 focus on extending battery life, I can't see buying an Apple watch until they get it to at least a week with normal wear and 3+ days if I'm doing hour+ fitness activities every day.
- xchaotic 5y ago
  same here - I went for 600km MTB marathon and Garmin devices lasted the whole trip. I had to bring a charger for my iPhone though :(
lcfcjs 5y ago
My series 6 lasts all day, I just put it on charge while I shower, and for 20 minutes before bed (I wear it through the night for measuring my sleep).
rcarmo 5y ago
My series 5 lasts from after breakfast to when I wake up the next day (I sleep with it, it charges while I eat, shower and dress). If that isn’t all day, I don’t know what is. But I miss my Pebble’s ability to last the week…
tomjen3 5y ago
Or at least decently fast charging. The new onePlus can get you 0 to 100 in 30 minutes. Knock it down to 20 minutes and you can charge the watch while you shower in the morning.
Tagbert 5y ago
It does last longer than a day, but not a full 2 days; more like 30 hrs or so (even with sleep tracking). Using GPS does ding the battery quite a bit.

I keep hoping they're going to announce battery life that lasts longer than a day, not this time...

by haney 5y ago

I keep hoping they're going to announce battery life that lasts longer than a day, not this time...

Yep, I'm hanging onto my Pebble until that happens. The battery life is deteriorating, but I can still get 5 days out of it if I put it in airplane mode overnight.

dimitry12 5y ago
Oh, that's a nice hack!
- gnicholas 5y ago
  It doubles as DND, which is good for work-life balance!

theshrike79 5y ago

Not going to happen. The only upgrade that makes sense is 7 days. 2-3 day battery life means that people will forget to charge, because there is no routine. And then they run out of battery and blame Apple for shitty battery life. 45 minutes from 0 to 80% isn't that much. You won't be ending many days at 0% and don't need a 100% every day.

Hamuko 5y ago
2-3 day battery life makes sense with sleep tracking, since you can sleep a couple of nights with it before you have to charge it.
- mwint 5y ago
  I sleep with my watch; my routine has become “charge it while showering”. The ten minutes or so a day is usually plenty to keep up with my usage. Series 6 40mm GPS only.
haney 5y ago
I know there are limits to battery technology but I'd much rather see the watch track towards 7 days than see additional sensors / a larger brighter screen. This may be compounded by the fact that the watch needs its own special charging cable, my main pain point is that I always forget to pack the watch charger when I travel so my watch always dies if I'm going for a night.
- laurent92 5y ago
  We’re in 2021, why wouldn’t a watch last a month. I don’t know, use e-ink, use something else than bluetooth, have a solar panel behind the screen, innovate!
  - ben_w 5y ago
    If you want a watch whose battery lasts that long, it can’t be a smart watch. All the other stuff these things do use too much power for to get that battery life from just switching to a even a (not physically plausible) 100% efficient photovoltaic e-ink screen. It could be a fitness tracker like the Fitbit Zip (advertised at 4-6 months), or a plain watch like the Casio F-91W (when I had those as a kid, the battery outlasted the straps), but it can’t be a smart watch.
    - quitit 5y ago
      It's like people speaking fondly of their old nokia phones with week-long battery life, while ignoring that it only had a 2 hour talk time. The Apple watch lasts all day when used normally (workouts, apps etc) - for people who are just using it to receive notifications, a bit of siri and telling the time - it easily gets up to 30+ hours. All of this is moot anyway, it can get 8 hours of sleep tracking in 8 minutes, or fast charge in 45 minutes to 80% - these are far better metrics than if they managed to get it to last 2-3 days.
    - nradov 5y ago
      You can get a smart watch with battery life over 30 days: Garmin Enduro. https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/702797 https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/702797
paxys 5y ago
2-3 day battery life is perfect for weekend trips without worrying about charging.
- sauwan 5y ago
  Right, I have a Garmin 245 that I regularly get 3-5 days on a charge (lots of GPS runs though) and I don't have a problem finding an hour here and there to charge it. Once a day would become a big frustration though, because I typically have a days window where I know I'll need to charge in the next 24 hours and can be flexible.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- turtlebits 5y ago
  If you have a daily routine like charging your phone, why not just charge your watch as well? Seems like more cognitive effort to change routine just because you take a weekend trip.
  - fomine3 5y ago
    It's fine if I don't need a different additional cable.
tommi 5y ago
45 minutes can be a lot if you keep it in hand over night for sleep tracking. You'd then need a to find a 45 minute slot every day to charge it and be consistent with it. With one day battery life you can't forget to charge it every morning for example. Or what if you didn't bring a charger with you for an overnight trip? Anything less than a full two day battery life is a deal breaker for me.
- _rs 5y ago
  I've found the iPhone notifications to be very handy in this regard though - I throw my watch on the charger when I shower and then pick it up whenever my phone notifies me it is done charging. https://daringfireball.net/2021/03/your_watch_is_fully_charged_notifications https://daringfireball.net/2021/03/your_watch_is_fully_charg...
- theshrike79 5y ago
  It takes 8 minutes to charge for a full night's sleep tracking according to Apple. That's about the time it takes to wash and floss your teeth coincidentally :) I usually take my AW2 off when I wake up and put it in the charger while I do my morning stuff. Same with showering etc.
wrycoder 5y ago
Since I wear my 6 at night, I need to charge it in the morning. That takes about an hour. The last 10% is at about one quarter of the bulk charging rate. If life interferes, and I have to pull it off the charger after 40 minutes, the watch typically won’t make it through the following night. Two days would be helpful. Either that, or cut the charging time down to 30 minutes, which is about the time it takes me to get ready in the morning.
dkdbejwi383 5y ago
I imagine that in the near to medium future at least, they'll optimise for fast charging. 45 minutes to 80% is good, but 20 minutes to 80% would mean that you could just charge it while having a shower and it should be practically fully charged.
nradov 5y ago
Several of the higher end Garmin smart watches have battery life longer than 7 days (depending on GPS use).

alphabetting 5y ago

Is it really that low? My fitbit sense gets around 4 days but I just use it for health tracking and nothing else.

haney 5y ago
Sometimes I get it to go 36 hours but that's only with very light use

Etheryte 5y ago

Likewise. I suppose an always-on display is a big boon for most customers, but I would like if I had the option to opt out of that and get considerably longer battery life instead. Conceptually I really like the watch with all the health-related sensors and such, but until the battery life improves, it's hard to be convinced.

adeelk93 5y ago
Then turn it off? It’s in the display settings
Jtsummers 5y ago
You can opt out. I have, my wife hasn't. It definitely has an impact on the battery life (we both have the series 6). My watch easily makes it a full 24 hours, I charge it in the mornings when I work from home, or in the evening when I'll be at the office the next day. Hers lasts about 18 hours right now, though I also suspect that the fact she drops it on the charger both in the morning and as soon as she gets home from work has impacted the battery life in her case. I wouldn't like it for camping or long hiking trips (not day hikes since I'd be able to charge it at some point easily enough), the Garmin's are definitely better for that if you want something for tracking your hike and heart rate.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  I have Series 6 with the always on display enabled and make it to 30 hours. I have 55% left after 18 hours.
  - Hamuko 5y ago
    Do you do any workouts with it? I can't see going through 24+ hours on my Series 5 with always-on display and workouts.
    - philliphaydon 5y ago
      Ah, no I don't. Once I can workout again I'll definitely watch the battery life if that is a drain.

philliphaydon 5y ago

How long do you want/need it? I have the series 6 and get around ~30 hours. I've been wearing it since 9am and it's now 2:52am, it's still 55% remaining. It turned out to be more battery than what I thought (18 hours?!?)

moonchrome 5y ago
Do you use workout tracking ? If I went to the gym it would significantly impact my galaxy watch. These days I use a withings scanwatch hybrid - it lasts 20 days and is more low-key than a giant screen on your hand. But still has ECG/HR/activities/sleep and notifications (so I can keep my phone muted all the time l). The only feature I'm missing is find my phone.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  > Do you use workout tracking ? Nope :( I had not considered this impacting the battery, due to being stranded in Singapore I haven't been working out. But now that you and someone else mentioned it I will definitely monitor battery to see how it impacts me when I can get back into a gym.
  - parthdesai 5y ago
    More than the gym, it's when you're biking/running or anything that uses active GPS tracking. That is the real killer. My garmin can last 7 days without GPS, and 7 hours with active GPS tracking.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  I’ve never seen a hit from normal workout tracking, though anything with the gps does hit the battery. It still would normally get through a full day and night with sleep tracking unless I were doing a multi-hour walk/run tracking session, too.

ngcazz 5y ago

My Series 5 definitely lasts longer than a day…

kerng 5y ago
Do you use it for anything?

jjtheblunt 5y ago

my series 6 definitely lasts way longer than a day, and i use it for tracking gps on hikes almost every day. i think being judicious with screen brightness is very impactful.

mehrdada 5y ago

I just use two watches and alternate every night.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jaypeg25 5y ago

I wish it had a charger similar to the Whoop fitness band. It's a separate battery that you place on top of the band while wearing it, so it can charge while you're sleeping or even while you're just wearing it throughout the day.

scrollaway 5y ago

Same. Not into smart watches until they have a week long charge at least. The Steel HR from Withings is the perfect middle ground for me. Doesn’t look like a slab, 3 weeks charge, still some smart features.

gfiorav 5y ago

It charges to 80% in 45 mins. I don't wear it overnight, but some friends who do, charge it in the office without much of an impact to usage. For me it's never been a problem, it wouldn't have changed my usage pattern to have 1 week of battery.

t0mas88 5y ago
I charge it when I shower and get ready to go to bed, then put it back on to wear overnight because I like the sleep tracking. Never runs out of power.
pwagland 5y ago
The challenge, at least for those that want to use the watch for sports, is not the "daily" use, but that the watch runs out of juice so quickly when using its location tracking, aka GPS sucks battery. So, the reason that I want longer battery life is not, per se, to charge once a week, but so that I can use it on a longer run, and not be afraid that the battery will give out as I get close to the finish line.
- quitit 5y ago
  Without any special preparation my apple watch will last a full day of hiking while recording the GPS/heart rate/etc. (i.e. 5-7 hours hikes in the mountains.) Cellular, on the other hand, can drain the watch relatively quickly. Mine lasts 2-3 hours when streaming music from the cloud and relaying to bluetooth headphones during a workout (i.e. when it can't piggy-back off the phone's cellular.)
  - ncr100 5y ago
    would be nice to reverse-charge from phone to watch - is this possible?
    - herbstein 5y ago
      The S10-line from Samsung has that feature so it's certainly not impossible

tw04 5y ago

I feel like a broken record but I'm in the same boat. I can't stand a watch that has to be charged daily or is useless. After switching from an early android wear with ~30 hours of battery life to a Garmin watch I just can't imagine being stuck with nightly charging anymore. Countless times I forgot the charger at home on a trip and basically had a fancy bracelet for the week. I don't understand why there seems to be 0 focus on extending battery life, I can't see buying an Apple watch until they get it to at least a week with normal wear and 3+ days if I'm doing hour+ fitness activities every day.

xchaotic 5y ago
same here - I went for 600km MTB marathon and Garmin devices lasted the whole trip. I had to bring a charger for my iPhone though :(

lcfcjs 5y ago

My series 6 lasts all day, I just put it on charge while I shower, and for 20 minutes before bed (I wear it through the night for measuring my sleep).

rcarmo 5y ago

My series 5 lasts from after breakfast to when I wake up the next day (I sleep with it, it charges while I eat, shower and dress). If that isn’t all day, I don’t know what is. But I miss my Pebble’s ability to last the week…

tomjen3 5y ago

Or at least decently fast charging. The new onePlus can get you 0 to 100 in 30 minutes. Knock it down to 20 minutes and you can charge the watch while you shower in the morning.

Tagbert 5y ago

It does last longer than a day, but not a full 2 days; more like 30 hrs or so (even with sleep tracking). Using GPS does ding the battery quite a bit.