Is Your Apple Watch’s Battery Dying Faster Than Ever? You’re Not Alone
Credit: MKBHD
Always-On Display?
Followers of the tech and Apple blogosphere probably noticed the following tweet this morning from YouTube Marques Brownlee, or MKBHD.
Brownlee tested the Apple Watch Series 5 over a two-week period and reported that the always-on display mode caused his Watch’s battery to drain about 30 percent faster than normal.
The YouTuber didn’t offer any additional details. For example, it isn’t clear if he meant 30 percent faster than the Series 4 or the Series 5 with always-on display disabled.
Gave it a 2-week shot, but I’m finally gonna have to turn off the always-on display on Apple Watch Series 5.
It nukes through battery about 30% faster with it on and I don’t care about it enough to keep it. Back to gestures ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/w9b8a8Tos0
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 27, 2019
Other Apple Watch Series 5 users have chimed in and reported similar battery drain issues.
Man the always on display for this new Apple Watch destroys the battery life. Mine went from 78% to 18% in about 4 hours. I had to disable it.
— Jonathan Casey (@JonathanCaseyYT) September 21, 2019
Not sure the series 5 Apple Watch meets the battery life that Apple claims. Wether this is because of the always on display or just a software related issue. Hopefully something that will be fixed/ improved in future watchOS 🤷🏻♂️
— Dylan Hudson (@appletechwizard) September 26, 2019
It’s worth noting, however, that we’ve also seen users report battery life drain that’s comparable to Apple Watch Series 3 or Series 4 devices.
There’s a lot of tech inside the new Apple Watch Series 5 that makes the always-on display a possibility. According to Apple, it should have about the same “all-day” battery life as the Series 4, even with the display constantly on.
It would be surprising if the Series 5’s battery estimates were actually way off and the always-on display was a big battery drainer, because reviews of Apple’s 2019 iPhones, for example, have found that its estimates were spot-on.
To be clear, 30 percent faster battery drain on a device sporting 16 to 18 hours of battery life still means that the Series 5 will have enough juice to last the average user all day. But, of course, there could always be something else going on.
watchOS 6 Battery Drain?
Maybe the battery drain issue isn’t tied to the Apple Watch Series 5’s always-on display and is instead a bug within watchOS 6.
For example, we’ve noticed a couple of our own Apple Watch Series 3 models draining faster than normal after updating them to watchOS 6.
More than that, some users have reported that an Apple Watch Series 5 with the always-on display mode disabled still saw poorer battery life than previous models.
Seriously thinking about returning the Apple Watch series 5. I thought the always on display was draining my battery. So before bed, I turned it off and charged up the watch to 80%. Today I woke up 6 hours later, it’s at 40%.
40% loss in 6 hours of doing nothing.— Mark’s Tech 📱 (@Marks_Tech) September 22, 2019
Some users have theorized that the Apple Watch battery drain is due to a software bug in watchOS 6 and not a hardware issue on the Series 5. If that does turn out to be the case, it hopefully means that Apple could squash the bug in a future update.
I definitely have noticed a decrease in battery life in my Apple Watch Series 5 over the 3. I haven’t gotten the 10% battery warning yet, but it has gotten close.
Hopefully this is less an issue with the always on display and more something that can be solved with watchOS 6.1
— Joe Wituschek (@joewituschek) September 27, 2019
There are some contradictory reports, however. Some Apple Watch users have reported better battery life after updating to watchOS 6. So it’s not clear what exactly is going on.
In the meantime, you can try disabling raise-to-wake on your Series 5, which some users have reported success with.
A great way to save Series 5 battery is not to disable the always on display (travesty!) but wake on raise. Just tap to wake instead. It even feels nicer like this, no constant display flashing pic.twitter.com/ef5qrflcwy
— Slaven (@slaven) September 26, 2019
For older Watch owners, it looks like you may just have to wait for a new watchOS release and see if it fixes the issue.