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All that and no improvement to battery life. I've been wearing an Apple Watch for a few years, the data collection is good but the abysmal battery life and asso
by hedgehog 2y ago
All that and no improvement to battery life. I've been wearing an Apple Watch for a few years, the data collection is good but the abysmal battery life and associated charge management is a real downer. I'm Apple ecosystem for almost everything but the battery and touch sensitivity issues are enough to get me to do the work to go to a different platform for health data.
- tiltowait 2y agoAt this point, it’s pretty clear Apple targets a specific battery life (18 hours) and builds the techs around that. As a result, I don’t think we will get an improvement in that area anytime soon. However, it does look like they improved the charging story—something like 80% in 30 minutes? Not bad.
- tester89 2y agoYeah, they could've made the size decrease less impressive and boasted of a 24 hour battery life if they really wanted to.
- Menu_Overview 2y agoI've thought about this. How much more battery life would they have to build in for it to be noticeably better? When I charge my watch at the end of the day, I usually have plenty to spare, but not always enough to make it through to the morning (especially if I tracked an exercise). Even if a new watch got 24hrs of battery life, I would still have to charge it at night so I wouldn't really matter. I'd guess that 18hrs it a balance that keeps people content and gives Apple's engineers enough room to fit in all the features they want. Of course, I would love to be able to track a long exercise or a 10-hour hike...but there's a different price tier for that.
- MBCook 2y agoThat’s a good point. Maybe 36-48 hours? Even then you’re still charging every other day, so is that so much better than every day? 18->120 hours would be a real change, but that’s almost a 7x increase.
- Teever 2y agoTo me 72 hours is the right number. I want to put that thing on in the morning on a Friday, get a text message from a friend about some crazy party of weekend event and be able to attend that to make it home Sunday night to get ready for work on Monday.
- mulderc 2y agoApple Watch Ultra in low power mode should do it for you.
- nickthegreek 2y agoFor me I need a routine. Charging daily works well for me, else I would want 7 days. I think Apple targeting super quick charging really alleviates the issue for me all together. I’m on an old series 4, and instantly preordered this one. I’m sure it is gonna feel like a whole new level of luxury compared to what I was already pretty happy with.
- MBCook 2y agoIf you were on a 4 the speed difference, plus the bigger screen, are going to be amazing. Enjoy it!
- hedgehog 2y agoThree days would be solid, that would get me mid day Friday to mid day Monday. Sleep data is a high priority for me and it's go time pretty much from when I open my eyes (little kids) so I wear the watch pretty much 24h/day. On desk work days I charge there (not much activity to miss) but over the weekend or if I'm traveling that gets disrupted.
- npunt 2y agoYep they do this for all their platforms, set a battery target based on ~90%tile daily usage of particular form factor (e.g. 18hr watch/iphone, 10-12hr macbook/ipad) and then let ID & chip teams do whatever they want to hit that. The value add of every additional minute/hour of battery life drops off from there because daily loops for charging are realistically what everyone will do, and there's more value add in other places like making things thinner, faster, or do something new.
- mulderc 2y agoLooks like they target 18 for apple watch 36 for apple watch ultra.
- robwwilliams 2y agoI moved to an Ultra 2 to get an average of two+ days per charge. And recharging if fast. Size? I have small wrist but it feels fine and is reasonably comfortable with the standard wrist band. Impressive screen and tactile UI. Normal use: up to 36 hours Low Power Mode: up to 72 hours
- indoordin0saur 2y agoI got the 2020 version of the watch and this is how fast it charges.
- etrautmann 2y agoThe Apple watch ultra, while expensive, at least has 1.5 to 2 day battery life, which has completely eliminated the issue of charging midday that I used to run into if using gps or fitness tracking for more than a few hours.
- BugsJustFindMe 2y agoYeah but "expensive" is an understatement. It's double the price for barely any functional difference other than battery life.
- etrautmann 2y agomaybe, though I think it's possible there are GPS improvements and other performance improvements under the hood. I'm not sure, and I agree it's quite expensive. It was a gift, though one I happen to irrationally love and it would have been worth it for me if I had bought it.
- tpurves 2y agoYes! Agonizing that 10 years in and the battery still can't get you through more than one day. My pebble from 2013 was a much more practical and useable device than any Apple watch I've owned over the last decade.
- orev 2y agoThe Ultra can go two days, so there’s an option available if you need it.
- GiorgioG 2y agoFor the low low price of 2x the regular watch...where do I sign up?
- MBCook 2y agoThey now state that the series 10 can do 36 hours on low power mode, which is a nice option to have in your back pocket. Wouldn’t want to run that all the time though with all it likely disables.
- grahamj 2y agoI wish they would let us customize low power mode and other features to tailor battery life. I'd trade battery life for less frequent heart rate readings, for example.
- colordrops 2y agoI've got a Garmin epix and it lasts over a month.
- grujicd 2y agoMy 5 years old Garmin 935 still lasts 15 days, same as when it was new. That also means it takes 15 years to have the same number of charging cycles as Apple gets in a year.
- zoul 2y agoGot Garmin Fenix, use mainly for the sports features. Lasts a week on a single charge including several activities with GPS usage. Can’t imagine having another device to charge daily.
- slekker 2y agoIf only Garmin had an unlocked LTE watch, it would be perfect. I had been eyeing the Garmin Instinct Solar, with "infinite" battery and Garmin Pay, but to be able to leave my phone home I'd need LTE
- gonzo41 2y agoGet the instinct X. It has a flashlight, which seems super gimmicky, but it's like the most useful thing in the world.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sensanaty 2y agoI've got the instinct and couldn't be happier with it. Definitely going to be rebuying/upgrading to whatever is next if it ever bites the dust, which it probably won't for a long time since it's also rugged. Without any activity tracking it lasts ~40 days on a charge, and charges in about an hour. If you live somewhere sunny like I do, even with tracking it lasts practically forever cause of the solar panel. The flashlight also seemed like a gimmick at first but it's surprised me in how often I reach for it I don't care about the usual smartwatch crap. I already have a phone, not gonna be sending messages on my watch, but I guess that can be a bummer if you care about it.
- paradox460 2y agoFwiw, Garmin has their inreach platform, and their watches can talk to their transceivers. So not LTE, and not second device free, but an inreach is about the size of a zippo and has global satellite coverage
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- dr_kiszonka 2y agoI don't understand features like sleep apnea monitoring on a device with an "all-day, 18-hour battery life," unless they're expecting people to get one watch for the day and another one for the night.
- katbyte 2y agomy 2 year old watch lasts longer the 24h and i simply charge it when i shower.
- mulderc 2y agoI wear my Apple Watch all the time, even when I'm sleeping. I pretty much just charge it when I'm in the shower or getting ready in the morning. It charges super fast, and I've found that having a regular charging routine is actually better for these gadgets. Funny enough, watches with longer battery life can mess up your charging habits. I had this problem with my old Pebble watch. Yeah, the battery lasted longer, but I'd forget to charge it and end up with a dead watch more often than I do with my Apple Watch. Now, I just pop it on the charger every morning, and I'm good to go. No more worrying about it dying on me out of nowhere.
- detourdog 2y agoWe used to wind our watches in the morning. I think that could be Apple’s thinking. Your positive experience with a daily routine reenforces that idea to me.
- bakul 2y agoBack in the day many of us switched to automatic mechanical watches that didn't require manually winding.
- detourdog 2y agoYes, once it was technically possible. I think interesting idea is from a Human Factors perspective. I contend from human factors perspective using 24ish hours is good technical limit. Most humans operate on a 24 hour cycle so keeping devices on that cycle has a certain simplicity. It is easy to communicate and shares a historic limit with its mechanical ancestors. This could also help in keeping the battery size in check. The engineering of all aspects should be balanced.
- aucisson_masque 2y agowent back to a casio f91w. battery last 7 years, can buy 200 for the price of one apple watch se and no privacy issue. Just get a polar h10 to monitor sport activity and honestly it's as good or better, having to charge it everyday is painfull.
- GiorgioG 2y agoApple is run by a bunch of well-past-middle-age executives who have zero incentive to do anything but coast to the finish line. The sleep apnea feature makes no sense for a product that is charging on my nightstand every night because of it's shitty battery life. Apple has gotten too fat.
- tails4e 2y agoGo garmin. I have a vivoactive 5, it has 11 days of battery and loads of stats. I love it. My wife liked mine so much she dumped her Fitbit and now has the same watch. It's great.
- MikeKusold 2y agoGarmin's own product webpage highlights the biggest problem with Garmin.[0] They have too many options, with very little distinguishing features. Instead of making hardware to justify the number of models, they cripple watches in various ways using software. For example, on my Vivoactive 4, recording a "Hike" activity is impossible. Instead, I have to record all my hikes as "Walks". They should trim their offerings down to fewer than 10 models instead of the 28 currently listed. 0: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/wearables-smartwatches/?currentPage=1 https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/wearables-smartwatches/?curre...
- xelfer 2y agoMy Garmin 965 lasts about a month, I can't believe it compared to my pixel watch which is flat in a day. Haven't touched it since.
- alternatex 2y agoVivoactive doesn't have the best heart tracking, especially compared to Apple watches which are the gold standard for it. Someone who can afford an Apple watch should probably go for Garmin Venu 3. Same hybrid model benefits with a better sensor.
- tails4e 2y agoWhats wrong with it? It seems to be very high resolution, continuous, and accurate whenever I've compared it.
- alternatex 2y agoI follow The Quantified Scientist on YouTube and he's reviewed both I believe. I think the Vivoactive has the older HR sensor and that's why it performed a bit worse in that category.
- TexanFeller 2y agoBattery life is the main thing that made me upgrade to the Ultra model. It has double the battery which gets it to the point I don’t have to worry about battery.
- poulsbohemian 2y agoFWIW: My first gen Ultra can go a couple days without a charge pretty easily, but I did have issues with my previous Apple watches. If battery life is the issue, you might do better off going with the Ultra...