Battery life really THAT bad?

[FaintDeftone]

I was thinking about jumping on one of these smart watches and the Samsung Gear Live looks like my favorite of the bunch, plus I would prefer Android Wear since it is more universal and I currently own a Nexus 7 tablet and Galaxy S5 phone. The one thing preventing me from pulling the trigger on a purchase is the reports of the battery life being horrible and not even lasting an entire day. Can any owners give me some impressions on this issue?

Thanks!

 

[worldspy99]

Ars Technica has a good review on LG G Watch and Samsung Gear along with battery life. Read that to help you make a final decision.

 

[jschu22]

I'll have a better grasp of this tomorrow but in the 4 hours Ive had it on, Its burned through about 20-25%. This does not take a full charge into consideration as I started using it with the 58% it came with.

 

[FaintDeftone]

Ars Technica has a good review on LG G Watch and Samsung Gear along with battery life. Read that to help you make a final decision.

I will certainly give it a look. Thanks man.

 

[robber]

I took it off the charger 5 hrs ago and it is down to 73%. Obviously playing with it quite a bit so I think it is okay. Tizen is good for at least 2 days under almost any circumstance, I don't think Live will be that good.

 

[GeekMoxie]

Generally I'm hearing (reading) that the battery life in comparison to other Smartwatches is lackluster. However, if you usually charge your phone every night, then you would just add this watch to your routine. It should be able to get you through your work day and up to the "standard" bedtime.

 

[FaintDeftone]

I think I'm going to actually hold off until they vastly improve the battery life on these things. I don't mind charging it every night but I don't want to have to worry about it dying on me towards the end of the night. Maybe I will jump on board for next year's model.

 

[mush10]

I received mine on the 7th. I used it a little that afternoon and charged it all night. On the 8th, I put it on my wrist around 7 am. It was connected to my Nexus all day except for a run I did. I received the 20% warning around 7:30 pm. If that doesn't improve it is going to be hard to justify. I am only looking for it to get through a solid day, but given that scenario any work dinner, etc... would leave me running out before 9 pm.

I love the concept and found myself using it to view notifications and act on them all day, but I need to know it can last. I would like to see something with a solid 2 day battery life. I would still charge every night, but would know I can comfortably make it through the day.


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[indianajonze]

with all the talk about the watch battery life, has anyone noticed phone battery suffering as well? i believe (maybe wrong) that this connects via BT LE, so i can't imagine it would sap much power at all, but still...

 

[phatboy29m]

I got mine yesterday at about 4pm est. I charged it to 100% by 530. It is 300pm est on the next day and I have 70% left. The only thing I have done is turned the always on feature off.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[mush10]

I will try the always off feature tomorrow. I liked the idea of actually being able to see it, but since it turns on as you bring it up, that may work.

I was hoping since it had a dark sleep mode the always on would not have that big a hit. How many notifications do you get?

I did not take note of phone battery. Truthfully it may save it a little because I can delete meaningless messages without taking the phone out of my pocket. It definitely lessens phone screen time on.


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[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Screen brightness is a big factor, as is the amount of notifications you receive, since they light up the screen.

I'm testing things with full brightness and all my notifications coming in (and our AC gmail accounts get tons and tons of mail) and battery is at 27% in just 5.5 hours :-/

With brightness at it's lowest setting, and "important" notifications coming in (the way I like to use it) I get about 35 hours before the battery dies completely.

 

[phatboy29m]

I have brightness set at 4 and I get maybe 6-10 notifications am hour between email, texts, and social media.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[bujin]

I wonder if some apps that persistently connect drain battery. For example, the "find my phone" type apps?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[bujin]

Screen brightness is a big factor, as is the amount of notifications you receive, since they light up the screen.

I'm testing things with full brightness and all my notifications coming in (and our AC gmail accounts get tons and tons of mail) and battery is at 27% in just 5.5 hours :-/

With brightness at it's lowest setting, and "important" notifications coming in (the way I like to use it) I get about 35 hours before the battery dies completely.

Jerry, are you also testing with and without "always on"? Curious to find out what your experiences are.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Jerry, are you also testing with and without "always on"? Curious to find out what your experiences are.

Posted via Android Central App

Yes.

First round is with always on enabled. Will do the same with it disabled.

For reference, we get 20 or more each of emails, twitter notifications, G+, etc. per hour on top of our "normal" personal notifications through AC accounts. Makes for a good way to test this with them enabled.

Spoiler: it makes a huge difference

 

[mush10]

I used always on off from the time I posted earlier today until now and have 28% left. I do have brightness all the way up. I will go a full day tomorrow with always on off and see what it does. I get about 50-60 notifications an hour during the day. I will tweak those too, but I want to make sure I can comfortably get from 6 am to 2 am when necessary. (That is a rare need these days, but......)

All that being said I have no issue charging nightly. Just don't want to be getting their on fumes.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Jasondelliott]

First full day with the device. Unplugged at 6:45 am, 10:40 pm now and at 15%. Did not take it easy on the watch at all, but the screen is set to not be always on. Dealt with every text with the watch, most emails, and did a 1 hour Strava ride (not sure how badly this effects the battery), and also a lot of day one fiddling with it. Overall meets my needs charging every night is not a big deal.

 

[bujin]

I think the 'always on' is a large factor. I had it on this morning and burned through 5% in a half hour. I turned it off and went for a walk, including having a podcast running (and thus the controls connected through Wear) and generally going about my day, and only used 6% in 2 hours.

I don't want to jinx my battery life today, and will try to get a baseline today. Tomorrow I want to try keeping the step card on, because I'm curious if having an ever-changing card affects the battery.

 

[mush10]

I am going off today so I will see what I end the day with and report back.

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