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I'm convinced watchOS 11 is hinting at an Apple Watch 10 with better battery life
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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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The current watch’s battery life makes it a non-starter for me. Sleep and health trackers would be nice, and might convince me to make the leap. But no way to do that without charging the current ones twice a day, which is ridiculous. In a perfect world it would go for a whole week before charging.
I can charge mine when I shower and get dressed, and sometimes when I brush my teeth and feed the pets at night - about 30-60 minutes a day total. I wear it the other 23-23.5 hours, including sleep with the AutoSleep app. It sometimes gets down to 20% before charging.
If it didn’t charge so fast then it would be an issue for me.
Exactly what I do with my ancient series 3, I have had no issues unless I forget my charger. I can go maybe 36 hours before a charge, closer to 30 if I do a few workouts.
That all being said, my fiancée and a friend both have series 3s that can’t even stay alive for 12 hours. I had my watch for a year longer than they did, so it’s not an age thing, I just think the batteries are very hit or miss.
Wife does the same thing. She wears it all but for an hour in the morning while getting ready. I HATE wearing mine overnight. I’m device free, but I also sleep great so I don’t bother tracking it. Makes a great alarm clock. Battery life for both of us has never been an issue.
I don’t think anyone is charging it twice a day. I would assume the standard is to have it charging overnight.
Right, but if you want it to track your sleeping….
Think mine charges up in about 30 minutes as I setup for bed.
Really not trying to sell you on one. I was hesitant to ditch my simple Casio on my first one and I only lasted about a month after that one broke until I got my second one. The stickiness of silly features like setting timers for routine things like cooking meals just didn’t translate well to trying to run them on my phone.
They charge fast when the battery is fresh and healthy. When the battery health gets shitty the software automatically switches it to slowly trickle charge to preserve it, although you can go into the settings and re-enable the previous fast charging.
My SE is currently at 75% of its original battery capacity. I put it on at 8AM this morning after charging it all night, tracked one workout during the day and it is now almost 10PM and it is at 16% charge and dropping fast.
Yeah, I guess I’m only considering my ~1y old one. My previous SE was struggling around 4y - workouts would kill it and the battery eventually ballooned enough to separate the screen.
I don’t think you understand how long the battery does last on the latest generation watches. I wear it all day and all night, and I track my sleep, and there’s usually at least 20% remaining. I only charge in the morning while getting ready for work. It doesn’t last a week, but it’s totally fine for what I use it for.
Are they actually that bad still? My OnePlus Watch 2 lasts multiple days on a charge, and I keep it topped off just by charging while I shower every 1-3 days. I don't even worry about it on my frequent two night camping trips. I kinda assumed Apple was in the same realm by now.
Your usage must be different. I put mine on in the morning and it will last until the following morning with a trip to the gym and workout tracking, too. It’s a couple years old, still makes it pretty much a full day.
I honestly don't wear a watch at all, my phone is always with me and fulfills every function I could ever need from a watch. The only exception I can think of is vitals monitoring, which I don't need.
If it could replace my phone, I'd get one. But until then, it's just another accessory that needs to be charged and can spy on me. I'm honestly kinda interested in those kids watches that can make and receive calls, but they're chonky and don't have interesting apps.
So smart watches in general are a nonstarter for me until they can replace my phone. I only really need calls, texts (receive only), alarms, Libby + bluetooth support, and a couple TOTP apps (one for work, the other for personal). Bonus points for a simple calculator.
I’m with you, for the most part. There are a couple vitals I would like to track for my own reasons, but yeah same otherwise. There are a few handy tools but none I can’t live without.
You can get the Apple Watch with cellular to receive calls, but I think it will only be a companion to your main phone.
I thought it always needed the phone nearby, no? I'm really only interested if it's 100% standalone.
If it has a SIM slot or eSIM then probably standalone.
Need the phone to sync, the watch can keep track of health data until it gets back close to the watch. If you have the cellular version, and an applicable data plan, you can make and receive calls with it without your phone, too.
Strictly speaking, they also have wifi, but power management on them (due to the limited battery) makes it pretty difficult to actually use effectively.
I honestly don't care about health data, and would prefer it to not track that anyway for privacy reasons. I'm pretty healthy, so it's really not a concern I have.
I just want to carry less crap when I'm riding my bike.
I guess. Haven’t paid attention to battery life claims, but my series 6 lasts through the night and reliably wakes me up. I’ve been charging it once a day, while I’m getting ready in the morning, since I got it. Same with the series 3 I had before that
Yep, it tells me how poor my sleep habits are