Reports disclose Apple watch processor and battery life

[Castdeath97]

 

 

Apple hasn't disclosed much information about their apple watch so far, however some sources are already claiming the watch to contain a A5 class chip.

 

 

 

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.

 

For battery life things don't look too impressive however, reaching 2.5 hours with heavy use (seriously who would play intensive games on a watch?) and 3.5 hours of continuos app use.

 

 

 

Our sources say that Apple is targeting 2.5 hours of “heavy” application use, such as processor-intensive gameplay, or 3.5 hours of standard app use

 

Apple initially stated that their watch should be able to make it through a day and go through nightly charging cycles, and they expected around 19 hours of combined usage (including passive times).

 

 

 

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…

 

source: http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/22/apple-targets-for-apple-watch-battery-life-revealed-a5-caliber-cpu-inside/#more-362448

[Victorious Secret]

So...

Bad battery life? 

 

[Castdeath97]

So...

Bad battery life? 

 

Not really, average.

[Sauron]

That's so stupid. It's literally the opposite of what I'd be looking for in a watch.

[Victorious Secret]

Not really, average.

 

I guess Im just too used to the battery life of my "dumb" activity monitors. I get a week consistently with my Charge, 2-3 days would be a big downgrade. 

 

[mansoor_]

If the battery could be integrated into the strap, that would be great step forward in terms of capacity. 

[Subduck]

That's so stupid. It's literally the opposite of what I'd be looking for in a watch.

Completely agree dude.

[Trik'Stari]

*plot twist* Watch has micro SD slot.

on a serious note: I don't get the whole smart watch thing.

[Castdeath97]

If the battery could be integrated into the strap, that would be great step forward in terms of capacity. 

^^this, except it could get heavy.

[QueenDemetria]

I don't have a problem with that battery life, but I wish they would have 1 up'd Android wear.

[Castdeath97]

To put its battery life in comparison my old iPhone 4s used to get 3 hours out of average use, wow even the apple watch is better (my old iPhone is miserable).

[Mao_Zedong]

The pebble is the only smartwatch that makes sense to me, I would only want it for notifications and the pebble does that amazingly. At the prices of the pebble and pebble steel, tey are a steal compared to other smartwatches. For now I'll just stick with my current mechanical watch. 

[Sauron]

*plot twist* Watch has micro SD slot.

on a serious note: I don't get the whole smart watch thing.

 

Me neither. I can see the point of having messages pushed to your wrist, but giving up battery life and relatively low prices for that seems a bit pointless to me.

[Suika]

I guess Im just too used to the battery life of my "dumb" activity monitors. I get a week consistently with my Charge, 2-3 days would be a big downgrade.

Yea, I mean just my Pebble gets like 5 days, anything less than two days would become a problem for me and not worth consideration.

Really wish we could have nicer batteries, but oh well.

[Tataffe]

I'm still waiting for the smart watch that can extend it's battery life by charging via wrist movement, just like automatic mechanical watches are charged.

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

To put its battery life in comparison my old iPhone 4s used to get 3 hours out of average use, wow even the apple watch is better (my old iPhone is miserable).

I used to get  trough a full day with my old 4S and still have ~40% at the end of the day, and I used to play heavy games on it(RR3, Infinity Blade 3).

How the hell did you manage to get 3 hours of AVERAGE use? What's average for you?

[totjup5]

That's pretty terrible actually....

[mansoor_]

^^this, except it could get heavy.

I think you will be surprise how light electronic watches are in comparison to quartz crystal or mechanical watches that most people wear, so this would make up for that delta. Then again, extra 100g for extra 5 hours of battery life, a compromise anyone in their right mind would take. 

[harrynowl]

I hope it's a Cortex A53 design, a single core ~1GHz chip should be fine, it'd still be faster than the Moto 360s Ti Omap 3360.

[LAwLz]

The pebble is the only smartwatch that makes sense to me, I would only want it for notifications and the pebble does that amazingly. At the prices of the pebble and pebble steel, tey are a steal compared to other smartwatches. For now I'll just stick with my current mechanical watch. 

Yeah the Pebble seems to be the best smartwatch out there.

 

For me it's still not good enough though. For me to get a smart watch it would have to meet these criteria:

"Cheap" - Like 100 dollars would be good but up to 200 should be fine. Anything more and I will become very uninterested though.

 

Water proof - This is a must. I don't want to worry about my watch when I wash my hands, or walk in the rain, or pick up something wet.

 

Color screen - We've had color TVs for over 100 years now. I'd rather not go back to that time.

 

~7 days of battery life - That's with the time being displayed at all times. If I am going to wear a watch I want to be able to just look down on my arm and see the time, not do some gesture or press a button. As soon as I have to do that I might as well just pick up my phone.

 

Seems like the Apple Watch will only meet 1 out of those 4.

Oh and actually allowing me to do something special with my watch would be good too. Most of the things I see smart watches being used for can easily be done by simply pushing the top of my phone out from my pocket. All notifications and things are displayed at the top of the screen so I only need to expose about 1/4 of the screen to see everything that would be displayed on my watch.

Make it shoot lasers or detonate bombs or something. Then we'll talk.

[brownninja97]

3.5 hours, what in the literal name of fuck, thats shamefully bad, how can this even be a thing.

[LAwLz]

3.5 hours, what in the literal name of fuck, thats shamefully bad, how can this even be a thing.

It's 2.5 hours of "heavy use" like playing games.

That doesn't really tell us much about regular use though.

[zanduh]

All I want to know is the passive + sparatic app checking time. Because I don't use a smartwatch like a phone, I use it for quick things and then leave it be. 

 

The ONLY time I could see myself using this actively is if I was using the map feature for directions while running or checking my heart rate/speed. 

[Mew]

It's 2.5 hours of "heavy use" like playing games.

That doesn't really tell us much about regular use though.

 

With the previous estimate of about a day of battery or was it you need to charge every night, that seems about right. Although...what is heavy use on a phone? I doubt there will be games on a watch- any touchscreen game will be covered by your fingers lol. Standby battery life is a strength of iOS devices, so at least 12 hours of standby battery life with push and all connectivity turned on seems very possible. 

[shermantanker]

And this is why I'm waiting until gen 2. I'll keep my pebble another year.