Battery Life

[FAiello]

Coming from a Pebble I am very disappointed in the battery life of the Gear S2. I have done everything the recommend to get the best battery life. My brightness is set to 2, I only have 4 applications sending me notifications (calendar, Gmail, Message, and incoming call, and I use a black color watch face. I have never made it through a full day without it asking to put in power saving mode around 6 PM. I was hoping to use the Golf Pad app this weekend but am afraid it will not last through a full round of golf so I will continue to use my Pebble for that. I am dissapointed but yet how can I be since it was free.

 

[tonnerdmhe]

I wear my watch all day, it tracks my runs, I and use a sleep tracking app overnight. Initially it wouldn't last a whole day, but now lasts 1.5 days or so. I turn off all notifications while sleeping (my samsung phone is typically not far away tho). I think a 20 or 30 minute conversation on the phone will drain the battery tho, so I don't actually answer calls on my gear when it rings unless I don't have my phone with me.

 

[FAiello]

I use it Bluetooth only, location and wifi turned off

 

[PsychDoc]

I use it Bluetooth only, location and wifi turned off

And I have the exact opposite experience. I find that BT drains the battery a lot faster than wifi.

 

[FAiello]

And I have the exact opposite experience. I find that BT drains the battery a lot faster than wifi.

So you use wifi only? That's great for home and at work but not when you are out and about and especially on the golf course.

 

[Pinmac]

I have brightness set to 6, wifi and NFC off, screen timeout to 30 seconds and I get 2 full days from the S2. It does seem to have improved since I first had it but that's probably because I have stopped constantly fiddling with it. You may find that it improves after a while.

 

[smalba]

I just got mine a few days ago and I too only get about 9 hours out of it. I'm okay with that for now because I only need it at the gym and maybe work but would be nice to get more out of it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Frank Aiello]

I have brightness set to 6, wifi and NFC off, screen timeout to 30 seconds and I get 2 full days from the S2. It does seem to have improved since I first had it but that's probably because I have stopped constantly fiddling with it. You may find that it improves after a while.

How do you turn NFC off? I have tried but it will not let me.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mountainbikermark]

Coming from a Pebble I am very disappointed in the battery life of the Gear S2. I have done everything the recommend to get the best battery life. My brightness is set to 2, I only have 4 applications sending me notifications (calendar, Gmail, Message, and incoming call, and I use a black color watch face. I have never made it through a full day without it asking to put in power saving mode around 6 PM. I was hoping to use the Golf Pad app this weekend but am afraid it will not last through a full round of golf so I will continue to use my Pebble for that. I am dissapointed but yet how can I be since it was free.

What watch face are you using? Though not mentioned often, the watch face could be using cpu when the watch is idle, thus battery. When I first got my S1 it had horrible battery life and the culprit turned out to be the watch face that I'd bought. If you're using a non stock one try a stock generic one for about half a day and see if the battery life improves.

 

[qdigga]

I was getting awesome battery life (almost 1.5 full days). I updated the gear app yesterday and went from 80% to 0 in just 5 hours. I had also downloaded a new watchface that same evening, so one of these could be the culprit. I tend to agree, that sometimes you might have a watchface that taxes the CPU continually, thus chewing through your battery. I went from a pebble to the original S1 some time ago and THAT was an eye opening experience (battery-wise). Coming from that S1 to the S2 Classic, has been a great experience. My wife gets even longer battery life then I was. She uses ONE watchface (lol) and has like 4 notifications and she consistently gets 2 days...

 

[Pinmac]

To turn NFC off, on the watch go in to Settings, Connections, scroll down to NFC and if it is on (green), press to turn off (grey). I don't understand why you can't use BT when out and about e.g. on the golf course? You just need a connection to the phone and it uses its 3G/4G signal to stay connected online and then updates the watch with and that you have chosen to show.

 

[mountainbikermark]

I was getting awesome battery life (almost 1.5 full days). I updated the gear app yesterday and went from 80% to 0 in just 5 hours. I had also downloaded a new watchface that same evening, so one of these could be the culprit. I tend to agree, that sometimes you might have a watchface that taxes the CPU continually, thus chewing through your battery. I went from a pebble to the original S1 some time ago and THAT was an eye opening experience (battery-wise). Coming from that S1 to the S2 Classic, has been a great experience. My wife gets even longer battery life then I was. She uses ONE watchface (lol) and has like 4 notifications and she consistently gets 2 days...

I get 3 days+ on my S1.

 

[fkpalm]

I use 5% or less an hour and easily get 15 hrs with no problem

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[h2osun]

I routinely get 3 to 5% per hour. Use Bluetooth and location, no WiFi. Dark watch faces. Awake gesture, awake with new notifications. I find that when i switch to a different watch face (i change them according to situation), rebooting the watch really helps with the battery life. Also recharging at night with the watch off.
I stay away from animated faces and really busy ones (lots of actively updating info, like weather, hr, activities. Etc).

 

[Frank Aiello]

I turned off Gear Network and now getting thru the day with about 28% left on the battery. Anyone know what Gear Network is?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tstreete]

My S2 wifi (non-3G) has always given me a full day +, and often is around 50% or better when I take it off and put it on the charger at bedtime. Brightness set at 5, wifi and bluetooth on, lots of notifications through the day. I find a mostly-black watchface helps a lot, and using wifi is also a big battery drain. If the OP is on a non-3g watch, then there might be a problem with the watch. [edit: and I turn off "always on"; that feature reduces battery life rather dramatically for me]

It might help if folks specify if they have 3G or non-3G watches, as the 3G ones use more juice and have unique settings that can make quite a difference in battery life.

 

[Frank Aiello]

I have the 3G version. Turning off Gear Network solved my problem.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Swamp55]

How do you turn NFC off? I have tried but it will not let me.

I have the same problem. The NFC setting refuses to change from On to Off.

 

[cwbcpa]

I've had my WiFi version for a week. I put it on at 6am and take it off at 11. It's at about 45-50 percent consistently. I don't need better than that since it gets charged every night.

 

[Patsfan66]

I have the 3G version (AT&T) of the Gear S2 and overall fairly satisfied with the battery life. The problem I have is playing music while walking. The battery will hit 15% (from 90+%) in about 1.5 hours. Is this normal? I am using BT to a pair of Motorola headphones. Are there any settings that I can tweak to improve this? I do have GPS, WiFi and NFC turned off. Any suggestions would be appreciated.