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Comment by the_watcher | Hacker News Reader

> 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"/

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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-re...

> 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.

> 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.

I read this comment 10 minutes ago and until it clicked for me just now I assumed you had some kind of weird in-shower charging device.

Or just really, really long showers.

I also charge it while doing my morning routine, though that includes making lunches, some coffee, showering, etc. It can easily last through to the next morning, though occasionally I charge for a bit in the evening just to make the number look better.

I imagine as the battery fades this might be less workable though.

Same here. I sleep with the watch on and charge it while I shower/get dressed. I usually get a full charge during that time and, most times, the watch lasts way more than 18 hours.

Some people are in and out of the shower in less than 5 minutes, others 60 minutes.

Shower takes 5m, shaving in shower +3m, dressing an additional 5m. Add in breakfast and/or coffee and you’re looking at close to 30m - grab watch on the way out - my series4 is usually fully charged.

Quite a lot happening in the morning, before you go out. Those are many steps which are not reported on the daily summary.

I guess I am always rushed, What you described as 30m schedule takes me less than 10.

Nah, it's fine. I charge my Apple Watch for 15m before bed (to make sure it'll last the night) and while I get ready in the morning, and that's all it needs to stay on my wrist literally the rest of my life without ever coming close to running out of power.

It appears you are not a G-Shock wearer (need to remove for shower?? ha!)

While sleep tracking is possible the single most useful thing I could get out of a wearable, I just have never been able to sleep with a watch or band on. Until there's something as low profile as a reminder band (think Livestrong), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get sleep tracking (the Oura ring is promising, but the price point is too high for its limited applications to me).

I use a Beddit for this very reason - https://www.beddit.com

I didn't realize Beddit kept going after they were acquired by Apple. I had the first couple versions as review units but I ended up just stopping using them because they didn't tell me anything I basically didn't already know. Which is sort of how I feel about sleep tracking generally. I didn't get enough sleep last night? You don't say.

(I do think they're potentially useful for someone who feels tired a lot and doesn't understand why. I'm less convinced by the value of ongoing tracking.)

The Beddit devices I tried ended up breaking due to either wireless communication issues or sensor damage. I gave up on it. I’m thinking if I end up with a spare Apple Watch for whatever reason that I’d use the old spare while sleeping.

There is also the Withings device https://www.withings.com/us/en/sleep which I use and works well.

Beddit is $149. Expensive. Why not Fitbit Inspire which starts from $69 and includes sleep tracking and a lot more.

GP specifically said they have trouble sleeping with most wearables.

I don’t see an option I don’t need to wear, unless I’m looking at the wrong thing.

I have the same issue as the original poster in that I find wearing something on my wrist while I sleep uncomfortable. The Beddit is a strip that goes under my sheets. So I guess that’s why not.

For Android, Sleep as Android has a contactless option (they emit ultrasonic audio and then sense the changes in the audio field): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid...

Oura ring is a wonderful sleep tracker. While certainly a tad pricey, its incredibly effective at its given purpose. I didn't realize 1) how much quality sleep impacted my overall health and 2) how consistently quantifying sleep quality impacts daily decisions (working out, drinking, eating, etc). Highly recommended.

I've also found it uncomfortable to sleep with an Apple Watch on.

I started using a Whoop band a couple of months ago for mostly that purpose and I often forget that I'm wearing it.

I don't mean to be sarcastic - but how is sleep tracking useful? What practical benefit do you get out of knowing how long/how you sleep?

When you wake up exhausted (or not) you can see what/when contributed to that.

I used such for a couple years. Best part was specifying what time range I wanted to wake up, and it would watch for the best actual time to wake me. Much happier mornings then.

This is what I miss too. Sleep Cycle alarm clock used to do that for me but it stopped working a little while ago and I can't figure out why.

I gave my old watch to my girlfriend and having her use it for sleep tracking has been super helpful in tackling her sleep issues. Once she saw her numbers for deep sleep every night, it kind of kicked her into action to address the root cause. Sometimes just quantifying something is really helpful. It's also been somewhat useful in comparing the various approaches (prescriptions, marijuana, vitamins, exercise, etc etc), because sometimes it's hard to judge how good of sleep you got one night if you're constantly getting terrible sleep every other night.

There is few literature on the effect of marijuana on sleep. It mostly looks like it decrease your REM sleep while increasing your deep sleep when you take any of it (the process inverse when you stop). Actually, any open data or even feedback would be of help.

There is a business school cliche: what gets measured gets managed

For me, it helps figure out if my sleep apnea is getting worse and I need to talk to somebody about my CPAP machine or not.

I find that placing my device on my ankle is significantly more comfortable for night-time tracking.

The band I have is of a suitable length for both wrist and ankle use.

Interesting, I don't mind sleeping with a watch band on and there are a few 3rd party sleep tracking apps for the apple watch already that are decent.

My biggest complaint is there's no way to disable the screen that's good enough for sleeping. In theater mode it still wakes up if you tap the glass and I accidentally bump it way too often when lying in bed. I really want a better night time mode where only pressing the crown will light up the screen. If they do add an officially supported sleep tracker I hope they'd run into this issue and fix it.

Have you looked at the Xiaomi Mi Bands? They do sleep tracking, are fairly low profile and easy to find on Amazon for under $30. I switched my mom over from a buggy Fitbit to one last year and it's been better in every way. Given the cost of most of its competitors, it kinda boggles my mind that I don't see more of them.

The killer feature of Mi Bands is battery life. 25 days easily. And price. Quite amazing value for the price.

I've had the Amazfit Bip (a Xiaomi brand) watch for maybe a year and it's still doing around 40 days per charge with an always-on transflective screen, without notifications.

I don't like the privacy policy of the Xiaomi Mi Bands. But what I found out, is that there's an excellent firewall on Android called NetGuard, and it can block network traffic on a per-app basis. So I just block the Mi Fit app, and it doesn't seem to influence anything.

FWIW, I’ve been using an Apple Watch for a few years now including nights. I just charge it while I shower/get ready/prepare breakfast (~45 min) which seems to be enough to last till the next morning. Not sure what the battery life on the new ones will be though.

I have a Watch 4, and contrary to how battery expectations usually go, the life on it is actually really solid. I’ve gotten close to 2 days on it before. I often wear it overnight, then put it on charge when I first wake up, it’s usually close/if not fully charge by the time I head to work.

I don’t have hard stats to back this up, but with the new watchOS 6 it recently improved quite a bit for me, also on Watch Series 4. It’s particularly improved with workouts, though I would still love to have a feature that can “Undo” pausing a workout or vice versa, undo a workout that ran 20 hours longer than it was supposed to. Don’t get me wrong, great watch, great improvements, just... not perfect. Also, being able to track my activity between sleeping periods instead of only midnight to midnight would also be nice to have.

Same here with my Series 4 Apple Watch. I can push close to 2 days between charges, which I think is great. It was frustrating having to charge my Series 1 watch at odd times every day.

Given that sleep tracking is one of the prime uses of my Apple Watch, I prefer to have it on my wrist all night, and charge during the late mornings usually, at me desk when I am in the middle of a block of coding.

I personally think the sleep tracking is being held back while they validate it. They’re going to look to categorize your sleep phases, and will probably try to get FDA certification of some sort. The play is to make the watch a diagnostic device, cover a lot of the basics for healthcare providers. My guess is that sleep tracking lands next year.

>because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7

Just expand that for a bit.

For people doing Coding, that might have meant every second of it, for normal people on a computer, There will be likely be 20%- 50% of times you idling ( in computer terms ) or doing something else.

So it is not just 24/7, you just aren't really using the computer for every minutes every seconds.

>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/)

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

I agree with this sentiment. But then I discovered the Fitbit has a 7 day battery life. That's a game changer.

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

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.

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.

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.

Garmin or Suunto provide much better quality than Fitbit, Fitbit is a cheap quality. Garmin, Apple and Suunto aren't. Just check what the pros are using :)

Can you make a call from your Fitbit?

Considering how fast Apple Watch charges, a 7 day battery life isn’t that compelling considering how much you get from an Apple Watch compared to Fitbit.

If you need a watch that can make phone calls then the Fitbit is not a good watch choice. I personally don't like making any phone calls and if I have to, my phone is usually near by. But that's a very personal choice.

Take a look at Withings. You can get weeks to months of the battery life with limited but very useful features set.

Have you tried the new Withings with ECG? I'm curious about that, this winter I'm going to switch to something new and it's basically between the Withings and the Apple Series 5

My Xiami Mi Band 4 has 4 weeks of battery life, basically does same things as Fitbit

I could certainly live with charging every 4 weeks. But isn't that more a "fitness tracker watch", rather than a "smartwatch"? When I think of smartwatches, I'm more thinking of ones running an Android or Apple OS, with apps available etc.

I thought the same, but after I got one, I really haven't minded. To be fair, I've never been able to sleep with a watch on, so putting it on its charger has just reduced the likelihood I forget where I put it down in the morning.

Sleeping with it on is like half the reason why I wear a wrist watch in the first place

I sleep with it on (sleep tracking app) and use it all day -- I charge it for about 15 minutes twice a day while I shower in the morning and as I get ready for bed only.

Never used Apple Watch, my GF had v3 for a long time. I ordered a Withings sport a while back and when she saw that it tracks pretty much the same stuff, has notifications and doesn't need to be charged for 20+ days she got one in a week. I remember a couple of instances where she would forget to charge it and didn't have the charging cable with her - probably less of an issue with newer models and wireless charging, but anyway she said it was annoying to keep track of another battery.

People are saying "charge it during showers" - IMO that's just too much inconvenience for no benefit - I shower in the gym - do I go and charge it then ? Or when I'm tired and want to go to bed - another thing I can easily forget. I like the idea of a smartwatch - would be nice to have a better screen and more rich interface than my Withings - but sub 3-4 days battery is a no-go for me. I've seen some smartwatches that fit that criteria tho - so will need to do some shopping around and see the tradeoffs

I keep a charger on my desk at work and if I remember I top it up sometime in the afternoon, if not I charge it in the evening.

I do miss the week long battery from my Pebble Time, but having to charge it daily hasn't been a real problem. The main nuisance is needing to bring the proprietary charger when I travel for a couple days.

> proprietary charger

Yikes, that would be a total deal-breaker for me. I have enough chargers and cables to remember as it is.

Kind of difficult to see why they'd use anything other than micro-USB anyway?

I could see making this argument with a nice cable like USB-C, but micro-USB is legacy garbage.

It’s an inductive puck thing that the watch aligns itself to with magnets, honestly a lot nicer than needing to plug and unplug a cable. Feels like it will last longer, and it’s much more reliable than Pebble’s spring loaded charging pins were.

Would be even better if it could charge on standard Qi pads, but no such luck. Maybe there’s something about the size of the coils, who knows?

Apple could have made ”mini Qi” if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. It’s been their MO for decades.

It can charge on many, but not all, standard qi pads. I’d swear that launched years ago. I use one when car-camping.

Ah, OK, that does make a difference. I have a Plantronics headset that has a similar charging point, and it is great to be able to almost throw it onto the charger and just have it work.

But - the heatset also has a micro USB port built in, so if I don't have the charging point (or the charging case, which it also came with), I can just use a USB cable. This seems the best approach, IMO.

Just like your cell phone and laptop? My Apple Watch 4 lasts for 2 days. I still throw it on the charger most nights along with my phone.

That's my point though - I have enough devices to charge already. I'm also very used to charging my phone and laptop - I change my watch battery once every couple of years or so.

My phone lasts more than a day of typical use on a charge ("Standby time: Up to 10 days"). When I'm using my laptop for anything more than an hour, it's easy (and not inconvenient) to find an outlet and plug in.

For a watch, 18 hours might not even cover a full work day.

Like these sibling comments, after owning one, I really don't mind. I waited until the 4th generation Fossil Explorist started to go on sale and got it for well under $200. I plug it in when I plug my phone in. About the only issue is that I ended up buying a $4 surge protector because I'm low on outlets near my bed.

Offtopic, but the ”splitter” is called a surge protector in NA? How interesting. Seems like calling your car an exhaust filterer.

Not all splitters are surge protectors, but most surge protectors are splitters (though single outlet surge protectors do exist). It is likely that when OP said "surge protector", they meant something like this: https://imgur.com/qHR9UFu

Yes. We often say "power strip" to better indicate that you plug in one end to get a strip of outlets to use. Ideally it's also a surge protector, so if something goes badly wrong, the things plugged in are protected.

I use a Fitbit, as does my girlfriend. Hers (Charge 2) has a life of about a week, mine (Versa) has a battery life of about 4 days.

You pretty much throw it on the charger when you put down your wallet when getting home. I put it down when I get home, wear it to sleep, charge it again when I wake up and shower, then wear it all day. It's a few seconds added to my routine.

Same. This is something I wouldn't have anticipated before buying the watch. Somehow, my habit formed around charging it when it needs charge rather than overnight.

The problem for me is “putting it down when I get home” as I’m either still using it, or trying to do a workout. Inevitably if I’m not careful about battery life, it will die in the middle of said workouts. I’m honestly thinking I might get a second cheaper Watch just to keep motivated. I just wish there was broader support for fitness equipment compatibility, then maybe it could reduce battery life drain while tracking workouts...

I have the AW 4. I keep it on from wake, through my workout, and throughout the day until I go to bed then I just take it off and toss it on my charger.

I use it to roughly track calorie burn and movement throughout the day so I like to keep it on as much as possible. I don't track my sleep metrics except for time.

It goes on the charger when I go to bed at the same time, and right beside my phone. It works. The most tedious thing I do is change the band from my leather one to silicon that I wear during my time at the gym.

This is why I stopped wearing mine. You can have the coolest stand in the world on your nightstand that makes it super easy to plop onto every night, but having yet another device you have to mentally track the battery for just isn't worth it.

>mentally track the battery for

Meaning what? I can't even think of a single time where I actually had to think about what the battery level is and I only charge it while I'm in the shower in the morning.

Meaning literally ever worrying about finding yourself in a situation where your watch is dead. Or looking at the battery throughout the day and worrying about whether it'll make it through. Or worrying about bringing its charger on trips, etc.

If you enjoy your watch, that's cool and totally great. I stopped wearing mine and it was mentally freeing not having one extra device's battery to monitor throughout the day. Would definitely recommend.

>mentally freeing not having one extra device's battery to monitor throughout the day

I don't have to do that, though. That's my point. It wouldn't free me from anything because I currently don't think about it ever.

It's great to hear your watch never dies on you, and you never have to worry about its battery. Surely you've worried about your phone, laptop, or headphones/earbuds batteries before -- if you want to sympathize, it's kind of like any of those. It adds to the list of devices you worry about. Subtracting from that list means less worries.

Are you being intentionally obtuse? If you never have to worry about the battery on the watch, what's the need to sympathize? You say "it adds to the list of devices [I] worry about" but I'm explicitly telling you that it doesn't add to that list because I don't have to worry about it.

Okay? I'm saying I worried about it. My watch died during the day sometimes because the battery only lasted about a day per charge. It also died whenever I forgot to charge it, and occasionally when I was out longer than expected (out late after work, etc).

I'm not claiming you worry about it or even that everyone else worries about it. I'm saying some people like myself worry about it, and not having to worry about it is nice. If you don't have to worry about it _and_ wear it, that's nice too.

I don't understand what you're trying to argue here, but I'm done with this thread.

Considering that you repeatedly used the phrase "you have to worry about it" or "list of devices that you worry about", I was arguing that your assertion isn't accurate. I don't worry about it, it doesn't add to the list of devices I have to worry about, and, based on the comments from others on these threads, it wouldn't be something you'd have to worry about either unless you intentionally didn't charge it at night. Worry implies that you're expecting it to die on you or that you have to monitor it throughout the day and we're telling you that's not the case.

I consistently get away with charging every other day with my S2, hoping the S5 performs similarly.

Depending on what you want the watch to be able to do, there are much better options.

The Garmin Fenix can last up to two weeks on a charge - I usually charge mine once a week, and with 5 workouts where I have chest band in use it's usually down to about 47% when I connect the charger. I mainly use it for the fitness tracking, but I have notifications enabled for text messages and other chat apps and the calendar.

"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".

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.

Sleep tracking is a headline feature of OS6. Clearly the marketing department... didn't talk to the other part of the marketing department.

I wouldn't call it a headline feature, since it's not on this page: https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-6/. Honestly, did they mention it at all?

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.

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.)

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".

It’s no better or worse than the old “lifetime” warranty which varies from guarantor to guarantor. Oh, it means “service life,” oh it means “while original owner uses it”, etc. They are all bad. They should say what they mean and not hide behind their own definitions (which can change over time).

"Accepted" by marketers, which I guess is your point. The term is meaningless

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.

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.

Unless you have one the early Blackberries. :) Not sure if they still function though.

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.

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

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.

I'm honestly not even sure where they're getting 18-ish hours for the battery life. My Series 3 watch still gets me 30+ hours on a single charge and I only charge it when I'm in the shower/putting my clothes on.

I don't know what I'll do after my Pebble Time Steel dies (hopefully a few years from now). It's so un-intrusive and I want E-ink (reflective LCD) screens on everything.

I even wrote a little JS app for it to pull down transit in real time - I know Apple Watches have Citymapper etc but there's something about being able to hack it on the fly.

You can make/Hack your own Apple Watch apps with Xcode..

Though I have to admit my helicopter-parent side is considering an Xplora for my kids. If it gets better battery life (2-5 days currently). An Apple Watch is out of the question.

https://go.myxplora.co.uk/about/

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Does the Apple Watch do native sleep tracking or do you need a 3rd-party app?

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.

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 :-)

That's what I used to do with my Pebbles. I recently tried an Android Wear watch (TicWatch C2) for a few months, and it failed to live up to my expectations for battery life. I'm now using a Fitbit Ionic, and it fits the bill quite nicely.

I do this with my Apple Watch S3 and it works just fine. Maybe a bit more than 30 minutes in the morning? I don’t keep track. I leave it off for shower and breakfast.

Granted, there’s no native sleep tracking (yet?) but there are some 3rd party apps.

oura ring fills this use case.

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.

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.

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.

All-day, but not necessarily all-night.

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.

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.

How does the battery drains during heat waves? I noticed mine gets depleted too fast when the temperature outside is 30+ degrees ( Celsius ).

Not sure. It rarely breaks 30 here (Bay Area) and when it does I stay inside mostly. :)

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.

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.

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.

Well I guess the good news is that you can get the newly lowered price Watch 3 and have a major upgrade! :)

Sorry about your watch though, I'd be bummed too if that happened.

This happened to my Series 0 last summer. Obviously, it was out of warranty by over 2 years.

I took it to the Apple Store. They gave me a brand-new stainless steel Series 0. Apparently the battery swells sometimes, in the older watches, after a lot of use, and pops off the screen.

That's what I call customer service. That's the experience I get over, and over, and over again, from Apple. That's why I keep coming back.

Apple backs up its products.

Take your Watch in, and give it a try.

Yeah mine's been off the charger for about eight hours today and I'm only down to 70%. You'd think a launch-day Series 0 would be suffering more battery degradation by now.

> "can work from sunup to sundown"

I would definitely travel to Norway to buy one of those.

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.

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.

1980 watches: battery lasts a couple of months

2019 watches: battery lasts a couple of hours

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-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_supercomputing

Funny joke but disingenuous.

With watches like Casio's A168WA-1 the battery lasts for seven years!

1980 supercomputers: 5 tons and cost $10m

2019 watches: 30g and cost $400

That's a no-brainer, look at the price by weight. You can get over 6 times as much 1980's supercomputer for a dollar as you can 2019 watch.

1980 watches: 30g and cost $35

https://www.timex.com/browse/collections/ironman/

(sorry)

1995: battery lasts a couple of years at least, but I’m not sure exactly because the strap breaks first

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."

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

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

The Watch 3 for me lasted 2 days.

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.

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.

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