Apple Watch Battery Life Performance Targets Revealed?

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Posted January 22, 2015 at 8:32pm by iClarified

Apple hasn't said much about the battery life of its upcoming Apple Watch, only revealing that the smartwatch will need to be recharged nightly. However, sources have now leaked new information on the company's battery life performance targets to 9to5Mac.

Due to its powerful S1 processor and high quality screen that supports updating at 60fps, Apple has struggled to maximize the battery life of its smartwatch, despite the watch running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill.

Apple initially wanted the Apple Watch battery to provide roughly one full day of usage, mixing a comparatively small amount of active use with a larger amount of passive use. As of 2014, Apple wanted the Watch to provide roughly 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use versus 19 hours of combined active/passive use, 3 days of pure standby time, or 4 days if left in a sleeping mode. Sources, however, say that Apple will only likely achieve approximately 2-3 days in either the standby or low-power modes…

Apple has been testing the battery life of the Apple Watch with pre-bundled and third-party applications. Sources say that Apple is currently targeting 2.5 hours of 'heavy' application use such as gaming or 3.5 hours of standard app use. Notably, when using fitness tracking software, the watch is targeted to have 4 hours of straight exercise tracking on a single charge. When using the device as just a watch, it should be able to display a watch face with animations for three hours straight. While, this seems like a short period of time, in typical daily use the watch face would be off until you wanted to check the time. Apple is shooting for 19 hours of mixed usage each day but it may not reach that for the first version of the device.

Poor battery life has been a concern for Apple and is apparently why the retail launch was pushed back from late 2014 to early 2015. The company has reportedly circulated nearly 3,000 test units of the device to gather data from.

Another issue has been the MagSafe-based inductive charging mechanism which was taking longer than expected to recharge the device. Apple has developed both a plastic and a stainless version of the circular charger. Presumably, the plastic version would ship with the lower end models of the Apple Watch; however, as Apple has only shown the metal variant they may only launch that version of the charger.

It's believed that the Apple Watch is on track to ship by the end of March.Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates.

Apple Watch Battery Life Performance Targets Revealed?

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StupidMe - January 25, 2015 at 1:51am

wait a minute did I read this right "Due to its powerful $1 processor and high quality screen that supports updating at 60fps, Apple has struggled to maximize the battery life of its smartwatch, despite the watch running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill. so then A watch that has to be charge every day, so the battery will last what? 2 month after charging over and over, nice going apple.

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gamerscul9870 - January 25, 2015 at 2:30am

so far. This is a challenge that Apple makes compared to others die due to how much work is put into that battery uses.

dk2013 - January 27, 2015 at 2:42pm

If I'm not mistaken, an iPhone battery has an expected lifetime of over 500 charges. Presuming the same kind of battery for the Apple Watch, that'd be over a year and a half. Not two months. But that doesn't mean that at 500 it stops working, it just means that the battery holds less charge.

gamerscul9870 - January 27, 2015 at 10:01pm

genneo, the motion powered the charger. Couldn't be happier.

Tech Jedi - January 23, 2015 at 4:02am

Samsung watch lasts 4 hours if you touch it. In standby it lasts 12 hours.

gamerscul9870 - January 23, 2015 at 2:26am

Just because Apple uses plastic means nothing cheap. Lightning connector is made of plastic and so are the EarPods, but they to are made with metal but that's the structure part, but why release the watch now? The moto didn't do much because it didn't have enough thought out in it enough. Not a single iphone ipad or Mac was bad anyway, how can you go wrong with a watch? It's bad enough for iphone because it has battery packs and wireless charging cases for it, but on the other hand to a watch, you have to constantly take it on and off to charge it (currently) day after day, I say rather wait until we really know the results. I wouldn't just waste money right away and find out battery is short than expected, but Apple holding back doesn't mean a damn thing about failing just because of some material.

SimonSays - January 22, 2015 at 11:58pm

I'll wait for version 2.

gamerscul9870 - January 22, 2015 at 11:36pm

Johnny is the designer but not even close with the British accent or even bald. He's not even the battery designer. To answer your question though, similar technology can't do it because it's not coded or may not fit in some things like Apple products. It's what fits the watch like finding the right battery.

Yaqoob - January 22, 2015 at 10:27pm

Don't know about 6 or 6 but 5s battery sucks big time !!!

krishnakant26 - January 22, 2015 at 10:14pm

You can buy a e ink watch for better battery. For a stunning display you will need more power and till now battery tech is not that advanced to give more power to small batteries.

Aik - January 22, 2015 at 10:08pm

Can't believe people wana get this, don't see the point of it

gamerscul9870 - January 22, 2015 at 10:10pm

I can't believe you assume it to do very little. What's the point you ask? Watch the videos from Apple.

Quickitus - January 22, 2015 at 9:21pm

As kind as its at least a full day I'm good

Al - January 22, 2015 at 9:08pm

So effectively a person needs another backup watch?

gamerscul9870 - January 22, 2015 at 9:13pm

Jus wait until wireless charging comes. Intel did it for computers, cases on phones and tablets allow all to do it, soon, smart watches will do the same.

dk2013 - January 23, 2015 at 12:07am

You really don't understand what wireless charging is, do you. It's not magical electricity from nowhere, dude.

farpthor - January 22, 2015 at 8:37pm

Charge a watch everyday? What a joke.

gamerscul9870 - January 22, 2015 at 9:11pm

Joke? Why not charge for a day. You have it with you all day, pick a place to stay for the night, and charge the watch. If it was less than a day, yes it's a joke.

Apple Fanboy - January 22, 2015 at 9:57pm

If you don't like something don't buy it.

Stevenk - January 22, 2015 at 11:21pm

If you don't like my views you dont have to necessarily share the same. Like I said its my view. You do not have to comment like a hurt baby for everything.

farpthor - January 23, 2015 at 11:41am

You're right. Sorry.

gamerscul9870 - January 23, 2015 at 12:06pm

lol jk