Moto 360 Battery Life and Snowboarding

bleached

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I have been using the Moto 360 for a month now and love it. Normally I take it off the charger at 7am and put it back on at 11pm with ~50% battery left. I never use ambient mode as I don't like my wrist glowing all the time. Battery life has been awesome.

Now that snowboard season has started I have tried wearing the 360 while riding. It barely makes it a couple hours before it is dead and I don't understand why. I see the 360 to initiate My Tracks in the morning and occasionally will send a text message or use voice commands from the watch.

Is it the cold? The constant moving? I cannot imagine My Tracks takes much battery from the watch. Any ideas?

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Green_Laser

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Could be cold, but could also be screen brightness. I'd imagine with light reflecting off of snow, and the sun, the watch, when on, could be jumping to highest brightness if set to auto brightness.. Maybe, that depends also on how much you look at watch while outside before/during/after activity.
 

Rukbat

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If the battery is exposed to temperatures that keep snow from melting, it's being hammered if it's being used. At -4 degrees F, a lithium battery stops functioning, so at 20 degrees or so, it's like a one-legged marathoner, it's being pushed past its limits. Use at low temperatures can also damage the battery, because a weaker cell can have a negative potential forced across it. (Lithium cells that can function at -40 degrees exist, but they're not in the same price class as computers - and the discharge rate is much lower at low temperatures. You'd need a battery as large as a Note 4 to power a watch.)
 

dcastillo

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Are your sleeves covering the watch, or can you see the face while you ride... My guess is your movement causes the screen to turn on constantly...

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Evilnut

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I work outside for a living. When I wear my rain gear, for some reason when my rain gear touches the screen, it turns on. My battery would drain in about 4 hours. My remedy is to pull my shirt sleeve over my 360 when I wear my rain gear. Maybe that is what is happening to you?

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bleached

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It is under my sleeve, but maybe my jacket is keeping it on. It isn't exposed and shouldn't be too cold at all. My Nexus 5 makes it the whole day easily while running My Tracks and streaming music to my Bluetooth headphones and it is just in my outer pocket, more exposed to cold.

Being able to lock the screen would be nice. I bet that is what the problem is. I will try again today and see what happens.

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dcastillo

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Temperature isn't the problem of your wearing it and it's covered..
It's definitely the screen turning on over and over again...

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bleached

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It is definitely the screen turning on and off. I went skateboarding for a couple hours yesterday and it killed the battery just as fast as snowboarding. Ambient mode doesn't help either. It really needs a screen lock option. It sucks that the battery cannot last more than a couple hours of hard activity. This is the first issue I have has with the 360.

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motorcycle_monkey

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I wish the ambient light sensor could help with letting the watch know when it's in a sleeve. Lift your arm, but it's completely dark, don't turn on screen. You can always override with the button. Or as others suggested, maybe a way to lock the screen off until long press or some button press combo.

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Rennat

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According to the phandroid article detailing all the new features that are slated to come with the 2.0 update in December the theater mode should fix the problem of the screen turning on unless your clothes somehow trigger a double tap action well enough.
 

bleached

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I had hopes that the theater mode was going to solve this issue, but it doesn't. I rode this morning and the watch still dies in a couple hours. Gonna have to contact Motorola I guess. Not sure what causes this issue.

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