10 ms·

I 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 supe

I 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 ago
We 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 ago
  Back in the day many of us switched to automatic mechanical watches that didn't require manually winding.
  - detourdog 2y ago
    Yes, 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.
4thgenrustcoder 2y ago
[flagged]
51Cards 2y ago
A personal habit thing perhaps? My Pebble Time is still going strong but I religiously charge it every couple days (around 60%)... as you mentioned, while I showered. Before the most recent battery change I was down to about 48 hours on a charge. I do love taking weekend camping trips and not needing to take a charger. I have tried a couple other smart watches but I keep going back to my Pebble as it does all I care about. Until they can get to a solid 4-5 days of life (or Rebble stops working) I don't know that I'll be too tempted to replace it permanently. The Garmin line is interesting though.
- outofpaper 2y ago
  Time Steel here n exactly the same boat as you. How the world upgraded to a worse battery experience is beyond me. All I want is a watch that tells the time for days and it's nice to have smart features.
  - ValentineC 2y ago
    I used to use the Pebble, then the AmazFit Bip (with something like 40 days battery life) after that — finally only switching to an Apple Watch when Series 5 came with an always-on display. Apart from telling time, I like how it tracks my steps and sleep, and can send music to my earphones so I don't have to bring my phone out for a run. I also like being able to use the watch as a camera viewfinder/remote. One huge plus of the Apple ecosystem is the sheer number of watch straps I get to choose from, which lets me dress up the watch if I have to. And to top it all off, I get a nice screen. I wouldn't have made the switch if the battery life was incompatible with my lifestyle, but so far, so good.
ValentineC 2y ago
+1 to this. I charge whenever I'm in the shower as well, and this routine works for me.
- ProfessorLayton 2y ago
  To each their own, I wear my watch in the shower so I can change the song on my bluetooth speaker.
  - mulderc 2y ago
    I feel like if you are making it through more than a couple songs, your shower is too long.
    - sgarland 2y ago
      I do a lot of thinking in the shower. I’ve unblocked myself on many problems from shower thoughts. Also, it’s just enjoyable.
      - bigfudge 2y ago
        I like that you like it, but as a minor PSA many people who care about the environment might not realise that a really long shower is probably one of the easiest wins in terms of carbon reduction they can make. I really enjoyed showing in my last place because we had solar hot water heating, but I’m always mindful of just how much energy it takes to heat water.
  - stouset 2y ago
    I know the Apple Watch is water resistant, but that doesn’t necessarily include the effect of soaps and detergents. Be careful with those, even if your gear is rated for the water itself.
    - ProfessorLayton 2y ago
      That would be a very nice excuse to upgrade since I've been waiting for my S3 to kick the bucket for years. It's very scuffed, and have been wearing it to the shower since it was new, and even taken it river rafting. Yet somehow it's reporting 90% battery capacity. I might finally upgrade anyway, since it's the only device holding me back from enabling advanced data protection on iCloud.
kurthr 2y ago
The other good charging time/place is your car/bike when commuting. If you have a 20min commute each direction you can get most of the way charged and make it through the night!
- kyleee 2y ago
  Yep, just work in short frequent charges during downtime like that. I was worried about being annoyed by the charging too but in reality it’s not been a problem at all
grujicd 2y ago
When you notice your Garmin is under 10% it still means full day or enough battery to track 2-3h activity and still have some battery left. I'm surprised Apple watch battery is still - more or less the worst in the industry. Even if we forget about Garmin, comparable Samsung watches are multiday devices.
- mulderc 2y ago
  Garmin is great, but it is a fitness sports watch first and less of a smart watch. Once Garmin can have apps like overcast and omnifocus on them I will think of them as being in the some category as the apple watch.
  - nradov 2y ago
    Garmin has apps like Overcast. There are multiple music services built in like Spotify and YouTube that support podcasts. And there are additional third-party podcast apps on the Connect IQ store. https://apps.garmin.com/search?keywords=Podcast https://apps.garmin.com/search?keywords=Podcast
- seanhunter 2y ago
  With my Garmin, I know 10% battery is probably almost enough battery for it to get a GPS lock. Maybe. If I keep still for about 20mins and there aren't any buildings around. And it's not a cloudy day.
nradov 2y ago
Charging your wearable device shouldn't require "habits". If they do then the device is defective by design. Competing watches from Garmin don't seem to have this design flaw.
- WillPostForFood 2y ago
  Not to mention the Chinese smart watches. I have an Amazfit Bip that will go 60+ days between charges, no problem. https://i.imgur.com/4HT2Q6G.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/4HT2Q6G.jpeg
  - fragmede 2y ago
    > Amazfit Bip I thought you had typoed but no, that's really what it's called.
    - WillPostForFood 2y ago
      Chinese naming can be pretty interesting. Probably would pay for itself to hire some native English speaking naming consultants. I've got my Bip on a Niziruoup rubber strap..
  - sanswork 2y ago
    How often do you track exercise with it? That watch looks like it doesn't actually run anything on it except a heart rate monitor and is just a passive bluetooth enabled notification display so that would definitely explain the difference in power usage.
    - WillPostForFood 2y ago
      Yes, for sure it does much less. It just has basic health monitoring, steps, heartbeat, sleep. I have the continuous heartbeat monitoring off, and turn it on for workouts 3-4 times a week. It will show messages, email, or other app notifications. For me that's most of what I want from a smartwatch, and I'm willing to trade the more advanced features for the battery life.
tshaddox 2y ago
> Funny enough, watches with longer battery life can mess up your charging habits. My experience with Kindles!
- mulderc 2y ago
  Yep! Funny how often I am traveling and get to the hotel and open up my kindle to find it needs a charge.
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  During the night, my wireless charger base on my nightstand charges my iPhone. When I get up in the morning I take my iPhone and put my Kindle on it during the day.
hedgehog 2y ago
I don't mind charging my watch daily when I go to my desk to do e-mail, I just want the watch to be handle skipping that for a few days due to travel or a weekend or whatever.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  I mean it's literally a few minutes on a charger to go from 5% battery to 60%. Would it be more convenient if it went longer? Sure, but as it stands, if you carry a watch charger in your bag, like... even the most minuscule time on a USB port will have it ready to roll. I've got an SE at current (had a 4 before it finally keeled over, and this one has essentially identical features and was readily available) and I just don't get the battery griping. Mine only uses a scant 70% ish of it's available capacity. I wear it every day while sleeping and to/from work, then come home and toss it on the charger till bed time.
  - hedgehog 2y ago
    I have a handful of watch chargers including one at my desk and one in my laptop bag. A full day of kid activities and work around the house doesn't really see either of those though. Do I detour to top up the watch a couple times a day? Yes. Does my watch run out of juice some days? Also yes. Would a Fitbit or Garmin have this problem? No. It's a bit of a slog moving my health data out of Apple's ecosystem which is why I haven't done it yet.
wubrr 2y ago
[flagged]
- nozzlegear 2y ago
  Did you have any specific critique about what they said and why it's wrong, or did you just feel that you needed to call them a fanboy?
  - wubrr 2y ago
    The specific critique is literally right above. Did you read the comments we're talking about, or are you just triggered by the word 'fanboy'? In case it's too difficult to grasp: >Reasonable person: 'The battery life is shit' >Apple fanboy: 'That's actually a good thing'
    - nozzlegear 2y ago
      Sorry, I was actually asking what your critique of their comment was, specifically. Someone else offered a great critique of the product; someone else followed up saying they don't feel it's an issue; and then you came in throwing the word fanboy around with little critical thinking applied, and now you're using the original person's critique as though it's your own.
      - wubrr 2y ago
        [flagged]
    - wlesieutre 2y ago
      Their comment isn't wrong though, I had the same experience with Pebble. It wasn't part of my daily routine, so I would forget to charge it. With my Apple Watch I don't. That being said, the Apple Watch has issues of its own, like sometimes draining substantially faster for (as far as I can tell) absolutely no reason. Rebooting the watch and phone has sorted that out for me, and it's only happened a couple of times, but it's not a good problem to have on a device where you may need the whole battery to get through a day.
m463 2y ago
I have a garmin watch. Charge it every day while I'm taking a shower and it's always ready. ...but I can miss a day... or 12 days. 13d = full charge
- mulderc 2y ago
  I don't think a Garmin watch and an Apple Watch are truly comparable. The Garmin is primarily a fitness watch, while the Apple Watch is a smartwatch. When a Garmin can run apps like OmniFocus, Overcast, a Mastodon client, an Instagram client, and even join a Zoom call, then I'll consider it a smartwatch.
  - delecti 2y ago
    Everyone has their own list of needs for a smartwatch though. Mine are always on display, steps and heartrate tracking, and notifications. I can't imagine ever caring about running any of the apps you listed on a watch, and I don't think I'm in the minority.
serf 2y ago
every single Apple feature or change creates this kind of weird negative-metric-reinforcement no matter the product whenever the number slides backwards or keeps parity Battery doesn't last long? Well, let's forget that the entire market has trended towards catering to a customer desire for long-life batteries -- it's a feature to help coordinate 'charging habits'!... whatever that is. Less keyboard space and battery life? No worries because that touch-bar is going to increase productivity so many more times than without it! "No user replaceable battery? Of course not -- those are dangerous!" which eventually devolves into : "Well, my reception is terrible, but I was holding it wrong " It's not really a grievance of mine, it's more like an utter amazement that somehow Apple and Tesla are the only companies that seem to be able to foster that kind of behavior in their fans. The price points of both groups make me think it's sort of an advanced 'buyer's remorse' , but I don't know.
- matrix2003 2y ago
  I largely agree with the parent comment. As of the series 7, charging became a non-issue since it’s so fast. It was painful before that. And don’t _dare_ compare the charging situation to the touch bar. Let’s just all agree that was an abomination.
- kalium-xyz 2y ago
  Worst / funniest case of this (if you have a grim sense of humor) is when early unibody macbook pros would get 70C or so to the touch and physically burn the users to the point of minor scarring. People who’d complain about this would be berated by apple defenders stating that “its not a laptop and apple never called it a laptop. yet at the time a simple search for “laptop site:apple.com” sure seemed to indicate that they are referred to as laptops by apple.
  - indoordin0saur 2y ago
    I save a lot of energy in the winter because I can turn down our home heater and the hot laptop keeps my fingers warmed up and typing fast!
- sneak 2y ago
dmix 2y ago
What do you use to charge it? I haven't found a good base station for it
- JoBrad 2y ago
  I just put mine on the Apple Watch charging cable.
Baeocystin 2y ago
I use a Pixel Watch 2, not an Apple watch, but my charging behavior is pretty much as you describe. It goes on to charge during my morning loop, and is always full by the time I'm ready to head out the door. It's good enough that I don't have to think about the charge state at all through the day, it'll last regardless of usage, and that's all I need.
ajdude 2y ago
I still wear my series 6 that I bought in 2020. It usually tops off within 15 minutes of charging, And then it's good for the day.
jcul 2y ago
I know what you are talking about with longer battery life :) I have a "dumbphone" with a battery that lasts 1 to 2 weeks depending on use, it's such a surprise when the battery goes that I'm often stuck without it being charged.
your_drunk_dad 2y ago
You are literally trying to show an enormous flaw of an otherwise amazing watch as a something positive which makes no sense to me. My Garmin also charges fast but lasts almost 3 weeks and I just plug it in when it tells me it needs to be plugged in and I don't need a "charging routine" for that.

detourdog 2y ago

We 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 ago
Back in the day many of us switched to automatic mechanical watches that didn't require manually winding.
- detourdog 2y ago
  Yes, 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.

4thgenrustcoder 2y ago

[flagged]

51Cards 2y ago

A personal habit thing perhaps? My Pebble Time is still going strong but I religiously charge it every couple days (around 60%)... as you mentioned, while I showered. Before the most recent battery change I was down to about 48 hours on a charge. I do love taking weekend camping trips and not needing to take a charger. I have tried a couple other smart watches but I keep going back to my Pebble as it does all I care about. Until they can get to a solid 4-5 days of life (or Rebble stops working) I don't know that I'll be too tempted to replace it permanently. The Garmin line is interesting though.

outofpaper 2y ago
Time Steel here n exactly the same boat as you. How the world upgraded to a worse battery experience is beyond me. All I want is a watch that tells the time for days and it's nice to have smart features.
- ValentineC 2y ago
  I used to use the Pebble, then the AmazFit Bip (with something like 40 days battery life) after that — finally only switching to an Apple Watch when Series 5 came with an always-on display. Apart from telling time, I like how it tracks my steps and sleep, and can send music to my earphones so I don't have to bring my phone out for a run. I also like being able to use the watch as a camera viewfinder/remote. One huge plus of the Apple ecosystem is the sheer number of watch straps I get to choose from, which lets me dress up the watch if I have to. And to top it all off, I get a nice screen. I wouldn't have made the switch if the battery life was incompatible with my lifestyle, but so far, so good.

ValentineC 2y ago

+1 to this. I charge whenever I'm in the shower as well, and this routine works for me.

ProfessorLayton 2y ago
To each their own, I wear my watch in the shower so I can change the song on my bluetooth speaker.
- mulderc 2y ago
  I feel like if you are making it through more than a couple songs, your shower is too long.
  - sgarland 2y ago
    I do a lot of thinking in the shower. I’ve unblocked myself on many problems from shower thoughts. Also, it’s just enjoyable.
    - bigfudge 2y ago
      I like that you like it, but as a minor PSA many people who care about the environment might not realise that a really long shower is probably one of the easiest wins in terms of carbon reduction they can make. I really enjoyed showing in my last place because we had solar hot water heating, but I’m always mindful of just how much energy it takes to heat water.
- stouset 2y ago
  I know the Apple Watch is water resistant, but that doesn’t necessarily include the effect of soaps and detergents. Be careful with those, even if your gear is rated for the water itself.
  - ProfessorLayton 2y ago
    That would be a very nice excuse to upgrade since I've been waiting for my S3 to kick the bucket for years. It's very scuffed, and have been wearing it to the shower since it was new, and even taken it river rafting. Yet somehow it's reporting 90% battery capacity. I might finally upgrade anyway, since it's the only device holding me back from enabling advanced data protection on iCloud.

kurthr 2y ago

The other good charging time/place is your car/bike when commuting. If you have a 20min commute each direction you can get most of the way charged and make it through the night!

kyleee 2y ago
Yep, just work in short frequent charges during downtime like that. I was worried about being annoyed by the charging too but in reality it’s not been a problem at all

grujicd 2y ago

When you notice your Garmin is under 10% it still means full day or enough battery to track 2-3h activity and still have some battery left. I'm surprised Apple watch battery is still - more or less the worst in the industry. Even if we forget about Garmin, comparable Samsung watches are multiday devices.

mulderc 2y ago
Garmin is great, but it is a fitness sports watch first and less of a smart watch. Once Garmin can have apps like overcast and omnifocus on them I will think of them as being in the some category as the apple watch.
- nradov 2y ago
  Garmin has apps like Overcast. There are multiple music services built in like Spotify and YouTube that support podcasts. And there are additional third-party podcast apps on the Connect IQ store. https://apps.garmin.com/search?keywords=Podcast https://apps.garmin.com/search?keywords=Podcast
seanhunter 2y ago
With my Garmin, I know 10% battery is probably almost enough battery for it to get a GPS lock. Maybe. If I keep still for about 20mins and there aren't any buildings around. And it's not a cloudy day.

nradov 2y ago

Charging your wearable device shouldn't require "habits". If they do then the device is defective by design. Competing watches from Garmin don't seem to have this design flaw.

WillPostForFood 2y ago
Not to mention the Chinese smart watches. I have an Amazfit Bip that will go 60+ days between charges, no problem. https://i.imgur.com/4HT2Q6G.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/4HT2Q6G.jpeg
- fragmede 2y ago
  > Amazfit Bip I thought you had typoed but no, that's really what it's called.
  - WillPostForFood 2y ago
    Chinese naming can be pretty interesting. Probably would pay for itself to hire some native English speaking naming consultants. I've got my Bip on a Niziruoup rubber strap..
- sanswork 2y ago
  How often do you track exercise with it? That watch looks like it doesn't actually run anything on it except a heart rate monitor and is just a passive bluetooth enabled notification display so that would definitely explain the difference in power usage.
  - WillPostForFood 2y ago
    Yes, for sure it does much less. It just has basic health monitoring, steps, heartbeat, sleep. I have the continuous heartbeat monitoring off, and turn it on for workouts 3-4 times a week. It will show messages, email, or other app notifications. For me that's most of what I want from a smartwatch, and I'm willing to trade the more advanced features for the battery life.

tshaddox 2y ago

> Funny enough, watches with longer battery life can mess up your charging habits. My experience with Kindles!

mulderc 2y ago
Yep! Funny how often I am traveling and get to the hotel and open up my kindle to find it needs a charge.
FireBeyond 2y ago
During the night, my wireless charger base on my nightstand charges my iPhone. When I get up in the morning I take my iPhone and put my Kindle on it during the day.

hedgehog 2y ago

I don't mind charging my watch daily when I go to my desk to do e-mail, I just want the watch to be handle skipping that for a few days due to travel or a weekend or whatever.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
I mean it's literally a few minutes on a charger to go from 5% battery to 60%. Would it be more convenient if it went longer? Sure, but as it stands, if you carry a watch charger in your bag, like... even the most minuscule time on a USB port will have it ready to roll. I've got an SE at current (had a 4 before it finally keeled over, and this one has essentially identical features and was readily available) and I just don't get the battery griping. Mine only uses a scant 70% ish of it's available capacity. I wear it every day while sleeping and to/from work, then come home and toss it on the charger till bed time.
- hedgehog 2y ago
  I have a handful of watch chargers including one at my desk and one in my laptop bag. A full day of kid activities and work around the house doesn't really see either of those though. Do I detour to top up the watch a couple times a day? Yes. Does my watch run out of juice some days? Also yes. Would a Fitbit or Garmin have this problem? No. It's a bit of a slog moving my health data out of Apple's ecosystem which is why I haven't done it yet.

wubrr 2y ago

[flagged]

nozzlegear 2y ago
Did you have any specific critique about what they said and why it's wrong, or did you just feel that you needed to call them a fanboy?
- wubrr 2y ago
  The specific critique is literally right above. Did you read the comments we're talking about, or are you just triggered by the word 'fanboy'? In case it's too difficult to grasp: >Reasonable person: 'The battery life is shit' >Apple fanboy: 'That's actually a good thing'
  - nozzlegear 2y ago
    Sorry, I was actually asking what your critique of their comment was, specifically. Someone else offered a great critique of the product; someone else followed up saying they don't feel it's an issue; and then you came in throwing the word fanboy around with little critical thinking applied, and now you're using the original person's critique as though it's your own.
    - wubrr 2y ago
      [flagged]
  - wlesieutre 2y ago
    Their comment isn't wrong though, I had the same experience with Pebble. It wasn't part of my daily routine, so I would forget to charge it. With my Apple Watch I don't. That being said, the Apple Watch has issues of its own, like sometimes draining substantially faster for (as far as I can tell) absolutely no reason. Rebooting the watch and phone has sorted that out for me, and it's only happened a couple of times, but it's not a good problem to have on a device where you may need the whole battery to get through a day.

m463 2y ago

I have a garmin watch. Charge it every day while I'm taking a shower and it's always ready. ...but I can miss a day... or 12 days. 13d = full charge

mulderc 2y ago
I don't think a Garmin watch and an Apple Watch are truly comparable. The Garmin is primarily a fitness watch, while the Apple Watch is a smartwatch. When a Garmin can run apps like OmniFocus, Overcast, a Mastodon client, an Instagram client, and even join a Zoom call, then I'll consider it a smartwatch.
- delecti 2y ago
  Everyone has their own list of needs for a smartwatch though. Mine are always on display, steps and heartrate tracking, and notifications. I can't imagine ever caring about running any of the apps you listed on a watch, and I don't think I'm in the minority.

serf 2y ago

every single Apple feature or change creates this kind of weird negative-metric-reinforcement no matter the product whenever the number slides backwards or keeps parity Battery doesn't last long? Well, let's forget that the entire market has trended towards catering to a customer desire for long-life batteries -- it's a feature to help coordinate 'charging habits'!... whatever that is. Less keyboard space and battery life? No worries because that touch-bar is going to increase productivity so many more times than without it! "No user replaceable battery? Of course not -- those are dangerous!" which eventually devolves into : "Well, my reception is terrible, but I was holding it wrong " It's not really a grievance of mine, it's more like an utter amazement that somehow Apple and Tesla are the only companies that seem to be able to foster that kind of behavior in their fans. The price points of both groups make me think it's sort of an advanced 'buyer's remorse' , but I don't know.

matrix2003 2y ago
I largely agree with the parent comment. As of the series 7, charging became a non-issue since it’s so fast. It was painful before that. And don’t _dare_ compare the charging situation to the touch bar. Let’s just all agree that was an abomination.
kalium-xyz 2y ago
Worst / funniest case of this (if you have a grim sense of humor) is when early unibody macbook pros would get 70C or so to the touch and physically burn the users to the point of minor scarring. People who’d complain about this would be berated by apple defenders stating that “its not a laptop and apple never called it a laptop. yet at the time a simple search for “laptop site:apple.com” sure seemed to indicate that they are referred to as laptops by apple.
- indoordin0saur 2y ago
  I save a lot of energy in the winter because I can turn down our home heater and the hot laptop keeps my fingers warmed up and typing fast!
sneak 2y ago

dmix 2y ago

What do you use to charge it? I haven't found a good base station for it

JoBrad 2y ago
I just put mine on the Apple Watch charging cable.

Baeocystin 2y ago

I use a Pixel Watch 2, not an Apple watch, but my charging behavior is pretty much as you describe. It goes on to charge during my morning loop, and is always full by the time I'm ready to head out the door. It's good enough that I don't have to think about the charge state at all through the day, it'll last regardless of usage, and that's all I need.

ajdude 2y ago

I still wear my series 6 that I bought in 2020. It usually tops off within 15 minutes of charging, And then it's good for the day.

jcul 2y ago

I know what you are talking about with longer battery life :) I have a "dumbphone" with a battery that lasts 1 to 2 weeks depending on use, it's such a surprise when the battery goes that I'm often stuck without it being charged.

your_drunk_dad 2y ago

You are literally trying to show an enormous flaw of an otherwise amazing watch as a something positive which makes no sense to me. My Garmin also charges fast but lasts almost 3 weeks and I just plug it in when it tells me it needs to be plugged in and I don't need a "charging routine" for that.