Battery Life

[carldc]

Ok, that makes sense. Now, that would also mean that battery life on the phone would be worse, right?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[KoukiFC3S]

If you are always next to your phone then you will be using Bluetooth, and not cellular for your connection to the phone. In fact I believe the cellular network gets turned off when you are in Bluetooth range.

So basically you are using a lower power method of communicating.

I suspect that being at the edge of BT range with both on might be a battery killer because it is swapping back and forth a lot. But I've done no testing of that.

The Gear S waits 30 seconds after the Bluetooth pairing disconnects before turning on the data connection.
It shouldn't use that much more battery if the watch reconnects within the 30 seconds.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Patrick Felgner]

I have noticed that standalone eats batt pretty quick. I leave mine bluetoothed and on auto switch. Light use batt is really good, mod use can barely make throughout a normal day. Heavy is short life. Depending on my plans for the day I put the dock in my pocked for backup charge.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[PookiePrancer]

One thing I've found: All else being equal, there's not a single third-party watch face that sips the battery like the built-in ones, even with "always on." So I use them for a different look every now and then, but for best battery life, I switch to built-in.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mikeyking]

Can someone with more time than me do the comparison between having the clock always on compared to having the motion detection on. i.e. I like both but which one will give me more battery if I turn it off - I'm undecided!

 

[dov1978]

For me having clock 'always on' gives me around 24hrs use. Motion activated gives me at least 48.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[drjosephkim]

I've heard some people report that the Verizon Gear S has better battery life over the T-Mobile. CDMA vs. GSM shouldn't matter if you're connected via BT (and not Mobile Network), but maybe there are some other internal differences between the CDMA vs. GSM models of the Gear S. Will you please indicate which version you're using as you share your stories about battery life?

I'm on a T-Mobile Gear S. I've set my gesture to wake on. Notifications are on with 5 apps. Wifi off. GPS off. Only connecting through BT. Mobile networks off. S voice wake is off.

After about 12 hrs of moderate use, I'm usually around 30-40%.

 

[mountainbikermark]

My day starts just before 6am and ends at 1030-11pm.
Brightness, auto, data radio, auto, Wi-Fi off, location on, auto wake on wrist raise off, screen time 15 seconds, lots of notifications enabled in phone, vibration weak, volume off,s voice wake off.
I use between 45-55% per day if I leave it on at night but if I power it off at bedtime. I've had a few days that I made it almost 3 days until it got below 5% if I powered it off at night, turned both location and data radio to off.
I used it the other night tethered remotely over Wi-Fi to my phone and the battery dropped like a rock and every time I even turn Wi-Fi on I see a discernible drop within minutes. My AT&T shows "4g" when using the data radio but I don't know if that's 4g or 4glte and nobody at AT&T seems to know which one either.
I've found my data radio uses less battery than my Wi-Fi and when using Opera Mini to my hearts content I've used a whopping 130mbs of data over a 3 week period so I don't worry about the watch causing me to go over my limit.
I've written to Samsung and asked if they could add the watch battery stat into the notification on the phone that it's connected and they wrote back that they'd pass the suggestion to the Gear app developer. I just thought it'd be kinda cool to know what my watch battery has left without looking at the watch sometimes.

Support Our Troops!!!
<><
Noteate

 

[xendula]

My AT&T shows "4g" when using the data radio but I don't know if that's 4g or 4glte and nobody at AT&T seems to know which one either.

I can answer that: it's not LTE. Support for LTE is not built into this iteration of the Gear S, but now that LG will be selling an LTE watch, Samsung may follow suit.

 

[mountainbikermark]

I can answer that: it's not LTE. Support for LTE is not built into this iteration of the Gear S, but now that LG will be selling an LTE watch, Samsung may follow suit.

Thanks.
I'm still easily getting 2 days of normal use between charges. I did have 1 day where I used the GPS for a couple of hours to map a route ,using s health, while connected via data radio that clobbered my battery. Other than that I have had pretty regular ~40% per day usage.

 

[xendula]

In my case, I only connect it to my phone to sync up run and sleep data, then use it in stand-alone mode. The software on my Note is the problem. Either the latest update that was pushed to it causes it to drain my poor Gear S battery, or the fact that I bought a Gear 1 a few weeks ago and had to install some other Gear software update in order to even get the Gear 1 set up. Something funky is going on.

I miss notifications from my Note on my Gear S, but I mostly bought it for its stand-alone capabilities, and those still work. Stand-alone and unconnected, I get about a day of battery life even with location on and data on, and a daily 1-1.5 hour run I track via GPS and Health app.

 

[ShaggyKids]

thats weird got up at 9 and by 3 mine was dead battery life is shocking no way people are getting 20 hours

I was getting 24'ish hour battery life until the upgrade. Now it's horrible. Have had it go dead after 10 hours.

 

[mountainbikermark]

In my case, I only connect it to my phone to sync up run and sleep data, then use it in stand-alone mode. The software on my Note is the problem. Either the latest update that was pushed to it causes it to drain my poor Gear S battery, or the fact that I bought a Gear 1 a few weeks ago and had to install some other Gear software update in order to even get the Gear 1 set up. Something funky is going on.

I miss notifications from my Note on my Gear S, but I mostly bought it for its stand-alone capabilities, and those still work. Stand-alone and unconnected, I get about a day of battery life even with location on and data on, and a daily 1-1.5 hour run I track via GPS and Health app.

I'm probably preaching to the choir but have you tried uninstall the Gear app then install again? That's weird that the Gear 1 didn't work with it because I thought they had unified it to work from Gear 1 through S. A couple of Gear app updates ago I had 2 Gear apps on my phone after I updated it until I rebooted my phone then the old one disappeared. Same icon, same look when opened. I had a shortcut (not true shortcut but I don't know what you call it when you drop an app icon on your home screen) for the old one that also disappeared and I had to a new one back on. There were a ton of complaints about it and my last update was a few days after that. Mine has been fine since the last update .

 

[teejay69]

I get a solid two days of use, and if I turn it off at night while sleeping, 4 1/2 days!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dorrien12]

I get a solid two days of use, and if I turn it off at night while sleeping, 4 1/2 days!

Posted via the Android Central App

What's your settings; brightness, display, motion sensor, etc.

 

[ShaggyKids]

I get a solid two days of use, and if I turn it off at night while sleeping, 4 1/2 days!

Posted via the Android Central App

No wayyyyy!

 

[mountainbikermark]

No wayyyyy!

Today is Saturday. I haven't charged mine since Wednesday night. I'm also turning mine off when I go to bed. It's been connected to Bluetooth the whole time, never standalone, haven't used the browser any this charge, auto brightness but mostly inside, GPS off, Wi-Fi off, only replying to texts and a few composures of them. I haven't played any games or anything else that uses cpu and screen for long periods. I'd consider my usage over the last few days as light. My clock is Low Energy Clock.

 

[glenner05]

Today is Saturday. I haven't charged mine since Wednesday night. I'm also turning mine off when I go to bed. It's been connected to Bluetooth the whole time, never standalone, haven't used the browser any this charge, auto brightness but mostly inside, GPS off, Wi-Fi off, only replying to texts and a few composures of them. I haven't played any games or anything else that uses cpu and screen for long periods. I'd consider my usage over the last few days as light. My clock is Low Energy Clock.

with always on mode or motion?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Sammuel1973]

Today is Saturday. I haven't charged mine since Wednesday night. I'm also turning mine off when I go to bed. It's been connected to Bluetooth the whole time, never standalone, haven't used the browser any this charge, auto brightness but mostly inside, GPS off, Wi-Fi off, only replying to texts and a few composures of them. I haven't played any games or anything else that uses cpu and screen for long periods. I'd consider my usage over the last few days as light. My clock is Low Energy Clock.

That is quite impressive. For me, battery is down 50% from 100% after just 30-45 mins at gym with music (mp3) playing.

 

[mountainbikermark]

with always on mode or motion?

Posted via the Android Central App

No I don't ever have that on
Samuel, like I said it's been a light usage, no music via the built in player or even controlling the music on my phone with it. When I use it "normally" I use about 40% per day. Normal would include some music,a little web surfing, an ~ half hour stand alone exercise session using s health and the gps and a little bit of playing billiards game or other games along with notifications and replying to texts and emails. Since I quit changing stuff ,like clocks, often and showing others how it works my battery life has increased drastically. Wi-Fi is my biggest battery vampire so I use it sparingly.

That is quite impressive. For me, battery is down 50% from 100% after just 30-45 mins at gym with music (mp3) playing.