The highly-anticipated Apple Watch may be very disappointing in terms of battery performance, providing just 2.5 hours of battery life with processor-intensive application use.
When first announcing its smartwatch, Apple estimated that the device would not be able to provide more than a day of battery life. If that sounds disappointing, the latest news is even more disastrous. Apple has still not offered any specific details on how long exactly the device's battery will last, but for the first time some information has surfaced in this regards.
According to a new report from Apple-centric publication 9to5Mac, sources familiar with the development of the Apple Watch have disclosed specific performance targets for the wearable's battery.
"According to our sources, Apple opted to use a relatively powerful processor and high-quality screen for the Apple Watch, both of which contribute to significant power drain. Running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, the Apple S1 chip inside the Apple Watch is surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple's A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch, while the Retina-class color display is capable of updating at a fluid 60 frames per second," reveals the report.
"Apple initially wanted the Apple Watch battery to provide roughly one full day of usage, mixing a comparatively small amount of active use with a larger amount of passive use. As of 2014, Apple wanted the Watch to provide roughly 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use versus 19 hours of combined active/passive use, 3 days of pure standby time, or 4 days if left in a sleeping mode. Sources, however, say that Apple will only likely achieve approximately 2-3 days in either the standby or low-power modes..."
Apple has reportedly been stress-testing the battery of its smartwatch with pre-loaded and third-party applications. The same sources said that Apple now hopes to get 2.5 hours of "heavy" application use or 3.5 hours of standard application use out of its wearable's battery. Processor-intensive gameplay, for instance, would quality as heavy application use.
At the same time, the company reportedly expects to get nearly 4 hours of use on a single charge when tracking straight exercise through the gadget's fitness tracking software.
When it comes to basic watch purposes, because the Apple Watch is, after all, a timepiece, the company has reportedly run numerous tests to estimate how long it can last exclusively in time-keeping modes. According to 9to5Mac, the Apple Watch should be able to last for roughly three hours on a single charge, displaying its clock face complete with watch ticking animations, but only if the device is not used for anything else.
Buying an expensive Apple Watch just for its time-keeping purposes, however, seems highly unlikely, and it's also unlikely that consumers would purchase the device if it only works as a watch for three hours a day. It's worth pointing out, however, that it would offer approximately three hours with the clock face turned on, but it would require less energy with the display powered off.
To get a full day of usage out of the Apple Watch, users would have to actively interact with the smartwatch only once in a while, for short periods of time. Apple has reportedly been targeting approximately 19 hours of mixed usage per day, but it may not be able to achieve that performance.
Lastly, the publication's sources bolster previous rumors that battery life concerns were among the contributing factors for delaying the retail launch of the Apple Watch. Nearly 3,000 Apple Watch test units are reportedly out and about, as the company is still testing the real-world performance of the gadget. Most of those units are reportedly the stainless steel model of the Watch.
The Apple Watch is expected to ship by the end of March, but it remains to be seen how it performs on the market if such battery life estimates turn out to be accurate.
