watchOS 3 does not mess up battery life
by Volker Weber
I never use beta software just to be on the latest and greatest. So I did not install any of the watchOS betas. Apple Watch is way to important to me to risk serious bugs. You also needed to upgrade the iPhone to iOS 10 beta, which was even more out of the question.
So I waited patiently for the GMs and upgraded both the phone and the watch. And at first I was under the impression that watchOS was working the battery much harder and that I might run out of power before the day was over. But that was not what was happening. Instead it was me who was stressing out the battery.
Now that the novelty has worn off and I am back to normal, the battery holds up just fine. With about 23 hours off the charger and 68 minutes of exercise (HR monitor continuously on), I am still at 26%.
Comments
What is the 10 in the upper left corner?
Day of the month. Like in September, 10. The other two are 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) clear (sky) and a shortcut to the Workout app.
I couldn't resist and put the GM on my watch. I'm quite happy with the improved performance.
Yesterday was my first full day with the new OS. I tried to measure the power consumption during workout, workout with power saving mode on, and Runtastic:
- Runtastic consumed 10% in 20 minutes
- Workout consumed 10% in 30 minutes
- Workout with power saving on consumed 8% in 40 minutes
Average per 10 minutes is 5, 3.5 and 2 percent.
At the end of the day, the battery was empty at around 10 p.m. I'm hopeful that the battery will still last throughout a full day, even with 2 hours of workout.
As a side note: Runtastic worked fine, but was awfully slow. Not sure if I can convince myself to using this app.
Quick update regarding Runtastic: With the latest update, watchOS 3 is fully supported. Performance is much improved, almost on par with the Workout app. Battery consumption is reduced, 20 percent for approximately 60 minutes of activity.
