Is the Apple Watch's battery going to be a huge let down?

What's right (and wrong) with Apple Watch

Apple has already told potential buyers with the news that the Apple Watch will need a nightly recharge, but rumors are circulating which claim early adopters of this technology are going to have other battery issues to contend with.

According to unnamed sources speaking to 9to5Mac, the amount of real-world usage you get out of the device could be as little as a couple of hours.

The source claimed that Apple is aiming for 2.5 hours of heavy usage such as gameplay, 3.5 hours of standard usage, and 4 hours of fitness tracking per charge.

Worryingly for a watch, it is claimed that the device can only display the clock face for 3 hours per day, which means that for the rest of the time the Apple Watch is going to be showing a blank face.

However, despite these low numbers, sources claim that Apple is aiming for 19 hours of mixed usage per recharge, 3 days in standby, and 4 days in sleep mode, but then goes on to say that "the company may not hit that number in the first generation version."

In other words, each time you fiddle with that Digital Crown, battery life will be ticking away at a frightening rate.

Compare this to the Pebble, which can deliver up to 7 days from a single recharge. And this performance comes from a much cheaper device.

The problem with a daily - or nightly - recharge is that if the owner forgets to recharge it one day, then the next day their prized bauble becomes a wrist-mounted dead screen worthy of ridicule.

This daily recharge also precludes using the Apple Watch as a sleep monitor because it is going to be recharging its battery while you are recharging yours.

I've been a slave to daily - sometimes multiple times daily - recharging of the iPhone for some years, and it wasn't until the iPhone 6 Plus that Apple offered me a device that could give me multiple days of use on a single charge. Daily recharging quickly becomes a grind, and now that I don't have to do it with the iPhone I'm loath to put myself in a position where I have to do it with another device.

Right now, I'm thinking I might be better waiting for the Apple Watch 2... or perhaps the Apple Watch 6 Plus.

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