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Comment by theshrike79 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

You can get a smart watch with battery life over 30 days: Garmin Enduro.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/702797

Huh, I’m genuinely surprised! Thank you :)

> Get up to 80 hours of battery life in GPS mode[1], up to 300 hours in max battery mode[1] and up to 65 days in smartwatch mode with solar charging[2].

My aged Pebble Time Steel lasts 8 days (fresh from factory, it was 10!). I still consider it the pinnacle of smart watch tech.

The tradeoffs are that the screen is "e-paper" without touch functionality. Personally I think it's the right choice: always-on tech and having tactile controls vs a clumsy touch-screen (due to small size).

The watch itself is pretty small so there's room to increase battery life by making it bigger.

2-3 day battery life is perfect for weekend trips without worrying about charging.

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.

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.

It's fine if I don't need a different additional cable.

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.

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_charg...

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.

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.

Several of the higher end Garmin smart watches have battery life longer than 7 days (depending on GPS use).

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.

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.

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