Battery life thread. 🔋

[mlblack16]

So, I know people have made random comments about reviews and battery life, but I think it's valuable to share our real world use and results.

I pulled my GW4 Classic off the charger at 7am this morning. It's 1:15pm and so far I have 86% battery. I have received probably 6 notifications (set up light up display when received) changed the watchfaces several times, downloaded and updated 4 apps.

The one thing I haven't done yet is to turn on always on display. I do have the wrist gesture, so it has turned on the display a ton of times today either incidentally or intentional.

So far, I'm not too worried about battery life . I'll have to check to see if the continuous monitoring of things like blood O2, etc are turned on, but I installed the Samsung Health Monitor, so it's up and running.

 

[Talderon]

I never worry so much about battery life as I charge mine every morning when I shower (I have the Watch 3 LTE). I normally have my watch on 23 or so hours out of every day. My watch is normally at 65% to 75% daily when I put it on the charger and almost never takes more than 30-45 mins to get to 100%. The only notifications I have turned on are for my email accounts, text messages, Calls and a couple other apps that don't make too much noise for notifications. I have AOD ON and Gestures OFF. I can't wait to see what I get with the Watch 4 Classic (non-LTE)!!!

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

It's only day 1, but so far it's not looking great... Set it up after fully charging at about 15:00-16:00, just put it on the charger at 18% and it's 22:05.

 

[Talderon]

It's only day 1, but ago far it's not looking great... Set it up after fully charging at about 15:00-1600, just put it on the charger at 18% and it's 22:05.

Ewwww... Well, will need to see what kind of tuning can be done to help maximize the battery.

 

[mlblack16]

It's only day 1, but so far it's not looking great... Set it up after fully charging at about 15:00-16:00, just put it on the charger at 18% and it's 22:05.

Which version, LTE?

I've played with my watch throughout the day today, turned AOD on about midway, rebooted just for maintenance and it's 530p with 72% battery. I took it off charger at 7am this morning. At the moment, I'd estimate on a usual day this would be probably still > 80%.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

Which version, LTE?

I've played with my watch throughout the day today, turned AOD on about midway, rebooted just for maintenance and it's 530p with 72% battery. I took it off charger at 7am this morning. At the moment, I'd estimate on a usual day this would be probably still > 80%.

Bluetooth, 46mm.

Your Battery seems similar to what I get on the watch3. Hopefully it's just first day wonk and it'll settle down.

 

[mlblack16]

Bluetooth, 46mm.

Your Battery seems similar to what I get on the watch3. Hopefully it's just first day wonk and it'll settle down.

If not, you may want to dump it off and get a replacement while replacements are all still new.

 

[arunma]

So I'm not sure how many people have this particular use case, but every morning I take my watch on a 1 hour jog using LTE and Spotify streaming. On the GW3 it dropped from 100% to 60% at the end of the hour. I got about the same results on the GW4 today.

On an unrelated note: I wanted to see if they fixed the "watch cooling" issue that occurs when you try to do anything intensive on Spotify like download over LTE while also streaming. Yeah...that's still a problem.

All that said I'm still pleased. I must say I love the new Spotify app for Wear OS. On the Tizen app I couldn't search for podcasts. Only way I could listen to them was by adding them to a music playlist. Now I can actually find podcasts on Spotify. This alone is worth the upgrade!

 

[Rhyalus]

I think we need to give the watch some time to settle…apps are updating, it figures out usage patterns, etc.

Also don’t forget that the watch has more sensors and features… if you have been taking regular ECGs and fat tests, it’s gonna drain.

I like that the charging puck is small and I can easily bring it on business trips. It’s a shame it isn’t Qi compatible though.

R

 

[Rose4uKY]

So I'm not sure how many people have this particular use case, but every morning I take my watch on a 1 hour jog using LTE and Spotify streaming. On the GW3 it dropped from 100% to 60% at the end of the hour. I got about the same results on the GW4 today.

On an unrelated note: I wanted to see if they fixed the "watch cooling" issue that occurs when you try to do anything intensive on Spotify like download over LTE while also streaming. Yeah...that's still a problem.

All that said I'm still pleased. I must say I love the new Spotify app for Wear OS. On the Tizen app I couldn't search for podcasts. Only way I could listen to them was by adding them to a music playlist. Now I can actually find podcasts on Spotify. This alone is worth the upgrade!

Oh I just realized why music wasn't playing on my watch I need the app on my watch you tube music which I have since Google Play Music went away. So I will download it and try again. I don't use Spotify my husband does he has a subscription. I may have to get my husband to add me to his Spotify account to try it.

 

[Rose4uKY]

I think we need to give the watch some time to settle…apps are updating, it figures out usage patterns, etc.

Also don’t forget that the watch has more sensors and features… if you have been taking regular ECGs and fat tests, it’s gonna drain.

I like that the charging puck is small and I can easily bring it on business trips. It’s a shame it isn’t Qi compatible though.

R

Can you still charge the watch on the back of your phone if needed?

 

[Rhyalus]

Can you still charge the watch on the back of your phone if needed?

Yes…but so far it seems a bit flakey…could be the case….

Nothing as clean as charger puck that came with the phone.

R

 

[Rose4uKY]

Yes…but so far it seems a bit flakey…could be the case….

Nothing as clean as charger puck that came with the phone.

R

Just Curious I never did it before well I tried it once or twice whole working but yeah I like having the extra puck from my A2.

 

[jlangner]

I noticed after several days it seems to charge a lot faster than first day. Also now that battery no longer says learning it seems to be lasting longer as well. 2 Days but I typically chargein mornings when taking shower/getting ready and that seems to be keeping it up.

 

[Rose4uKY]

I noticed after several days it seems to charge a lot faster than first day. Also now that battery no longer says learning it seems to be lasting longer as well. 2 Days but I typically chargein mornings when taking shower/getting ready and that seems to be keeping it up.

I see where mine says it's learning. I charge mine every day to while showering for work.

 

[arunma]

I noticed after several days it seems to charge a lot faster than first day. Also now that battery no longer says learning it seems to be lasting longer as well. 2 Days but I typically chargein mornings when taking shower/getting ready and that seems to be keeping it up.

Good to know! I'm still seeing the 40% drop in battery life when going on a run (granted, I am taxing it pretty heavily with streaming music, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.). But with normal use I do see it discharging pretty slowly.

My watch has finally started reporting estimated lifetime. It's telling me I've got 17 hours on a charge. I'm not sure how seriously to take that though, since my GW3 was telling me I had two hours per charge (needless to say, I got much more than that).

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

Man the battery is horrible on this. 12 hours of usage at 11%. I have it set up the exact same way as my watch 3. I don't care if I have to charge every night, I just want it to make it that far. I'm more critical on watch battery then phone battery since you can't just plug it in, you need the charging plate.

Even on the watch 3, the first few uses didn't drop it that fast. Google web OS always took more battery power. I'm starting to think Samsung screwed up leaving tizen. They better start looking at bigger batteries if they want to continue this path.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

Yeah it's definitely worse than the watch3. I've gone from just about 2 days to just about a day...

Always thought it was the bad Qualcomm silicon holding wear OS back, but it seems it really is a pig.

 

[cohoman]

Wow, poor battery life is really concerning since I've been contemplating upgrading from my Gear Sport with Tizen to a new Watch 4.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

Wow, poor battery life is really concerning since I've been contemplating upgrading from my Gear Sport with Tizen to a new Watch 4.

I would pause that thought for a bit to see if the battery life settles down.

For the record I have the LTE version, but connected Bluetooth most the time. Even on the watch 3 if I locked to LTE only all day I would still have 30%+ by end of day.

On the watch 4 imagine using maps navigation the battery hit. I used it less then 5 minutes and according to battery usage it was 2.4% battery usage.

I paid $35 activation for the watch 4, and if I return it I'll get hit with $50 restock fee. I'm thinking about trying to get Verizon to wave the restock fee. I'm going to give it a few more days first