[Official] Version 1 battery life thread

[drexappeal]

Doesn't going into Settings --> Adjust Brightness, and then selecting a brightness level effectively disable the ambient sensor?

I didn't think the ambient sensor was connected to auto brightness. I was under the impression it was only linked to the "ambient screen" setting. I have that setting turned off and my battery life is more than fine, for my own needs. I was simply looking forward to their taking it off, just to allow for a full circled image on the front of the watch.

 

[Mittar]

I didn't think the ambient sensor was connected to auto brightness. I was under the impression it was only linked to the "ambient screen" setting. I have that setting turned off and my battery life is more than fine, for my own needs. I was simply looking forward to their taking it off, just to allow for a full circled image on the front of the watch.

It's absolutely connected to the auto brightness feature. It's the only reason it's there. The ambient screen does the same thing, auto adjust brightness, it just dims it when you're not looking at it.

 

[drexappeal]

It's absolutely connected to the auto brightness feature. It's the only reason it's there. The ambient screen does the same thing, auto adjust brightness, it just dims it when you're not looking at it.

I see. That's interesting. I thought that the ambient screen setting was what the ambient sensor was for, where it would dim the watch (but keep the watch face on all the time).

I will have to see how the battery life does, if I switch off auto brightness and just adjust manually, depending on where I go (kinda like what I did with my Gear).

Thanks for chiming in on that. I hope you're right. If you are, that means I may be able to get even better battery life out of my 360.

-Side Note- For those of you that are fans of using the 360 as a music remote, check out Music Boss for Wear. The one thing I should say, as a pre-cursor, is be sure to turn off the notification from staying on the phone, so that it's easy to launch. That definitely seemed to have added to my battery drain yesterday. By the time I got home, my 360 gave me the 15% warning after 14 hours. I'd typically have been at 30% by that time.

 

[Outatime]

Yeah I have the auto brightness turned off all the time. I just set it to 1 or 2 and it's plenty bright. I haven't used ambient more than 20 seconds. It's too dim to be useful.

Edit: Just for fun I turned them both on, just to see what happens to my battery. The day is almost done so I can put it right on the charger when I get home.

 

[drexappeal]

While at work, it dawned on me that there's one thing I can do that would absolutely save battery life (I'm hoping this will extend battery life).

During the day, while I'm at my desk, I really don't need my reminders/messages being pushed to my watch. I get Pushbullet messages on my browser on the cpu. And, while I'm in the car, I'm not a fan of looking at messages while on the road and with A2DP bluetooth and Samsung's S Voice, I can have text messages read to me, if it's really important.

Answer=Mute notifications, while driving or at my work desk. I can't really test how much battery life this will save me, but I think this will help me accomplish the 2 day (48 hour) timeframe that I'm hoping to accomplish.

The battery life, with extremely heavy activity, has been enough to get me through 12-14 hours. When somewhat standard activity, I barely get to 24 hours. And, it's so simple to Mute/Unmute, that it'll be no problem getting in a habit of toggling back and forth, depending on whether I'm walking/driving/working.

 

[frodub]

Is anyone else using "beautiful watches" as their face replacement?

The reviews rave about it, but I think it's a battery hog! I used it yesterday and was down to 38% after 12 hours... Compared to using a "clocki" face, in which I went down to 38% after 22 hours.

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Outatime]

I have tried a LOT of different faces off of the Play Store. The only one that's battery friendly right now that I've found is Facer.

 

[john30308]

Add me to the list of folks that have NO battery problems with Facer.

 

[atrain311]

Add me to the list of folks that have NO battery problems with Facer.

Same.

 

[drexappeal]

Okay, mute/unmute slightly made things drain less fast, but the unmute is not extending battery life longer.

 

[Biaviian]

So I am in normal running mode (not playing with it like a child when he finds his...) and I am getting great battery life. I am a professional (working in an office) so I get a good number of emails, texts, some calls, etc... and I can get through 24 hours (8ish is sitting on a table while still powered on) with a good 60%+ left. The last few days I've been charging it for 20 minutes (from 60%) each morning at work and leaving it on until the next morning's refresh charge. I see no issue with it lasting through a weekend with no charger.

Oh, I am using Facer and that mini launcher app.

 

[Clementine_3]

See, I think something is wrong with mine now. I get about 14 hours with light use (~15% remaining). If I actually use it to respond to texts and read email (not just swipe the notification away) then it's obviously less.

I have ambient off, facer, wear mini launcher, where's my phone, trusted BT and the brightness set really low.

I'm not disappointed with the battery life but don't understand why some folks seem to get so much more than I do.

 

[merrill77]

I'm noticing a very big difference in battery life. I've run a stock face for the past few days and have had 40-60% left after 16-18 hours. I'm a fairly light user: 30-80 notifications in a day is typical (I'm guessing...never counted). No navigation on those days, or sending any emails or IMs by voice.

On days when I use a custom face, I am at 0-20% after 18 hours. One face I tried took me from 50% to 20% in ~2 hours. None of the custom faces come via Facer.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or tried to track the difference? Does anyone here use one of the stock faces?

Chris

 

[drexappeal]

okay, muting the notifications seems to do the trick for me. I am at 76%, having been off charger since 730a PST.

 

[Outatime]

The only non-stock faces I've had luck with is Facer. I use it almost exclusively and get good battery life.

 

[tgtmkt]

I used one of the Speeds faces and my battery drained very quickly. Once I switched back to a Facer, the battery went back to "normal." After a day at work, battery still had 57% at 6:00 PM with Facer face.

 

[Outatime]

I love a lot of the faces that Smartwatch Bureaux did and bought a few of them. He does claim that battery life has improved, I haven't tried them since I first got the watch and they were horrible on battery. I keep meaning to check them out again...

 

[drexappeal]

One other note to mention. Auto Brightness vs. manual adjustment doesn't have a significant impact for me at all.

 

[charliecc]

A question with regards to ambient mode.

Quite often I go to look at my watch and the screen doesn't turn on. It seems to need the full obvious wrist swivel to light it up. Often, however I just want to take a glance.

I have therefore decided to switch ambient mode on (as of 2 hours ago) and see how it goes wrt battery life.

However, I've noticed that the screen turns off when in ambient mode when your watch face isn't facing upwards. Has this always been the behaviour, or did it used to be permanently on?

I like the ambient mode being on, it's kind of like a super sensitive mode, and because it still turns off a lot of the time, I'm wondering if in fact I'll get some decent battery time out of it.

 

[Outatime]

Have you guys seen this?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.npi.wearbatterystats

It's written by the same guy that wrote that launcher program. It shows you your drainage per hour which is pretty cool.

 

[Clementine_3]

I installed it late last night and was going to post it here! So far it seems good.

I just turned trusted BT off, curious to see what sort of hit that was taking on the battery, if any. I'm still only getting ~12-14 hours. Again, not complaining. lol

 

[Outatime]

Anyone notice that Battery Stats program seems to be a battery hog itself? I uninstalled it and will see if I improve.

 

[Clementine_3]

I didn't keep it installed long enough to know really. I decided to uninstall and see how it went with just trusted BT off. It is making a difference, getting a few more hours without it connected.

 

[Outatime]

How do you turn trusted BT off?

 

[Clementine_3]

In security settings on the phone. Where you set your PIN/pattern etc.

I don't need it on all the time so will just leave it off. When I go somewhere I'll enable PIN/trusted BT.

The battery saving isn't huge, but it's noticable for me anyway.