Hands-On With Apple Watch Reveals Battery Life Details

It’s looking almost certain that Apple will dish the details on its upcoming wearable this Monday, with invitations and preparations already in place for a special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. While we already know quite a bit about Apple Watch thanks to the introduction during September’s keynote, the tech world has since speculated on some important factors, notably pricing, features and battery life. Now, a new report gives us a ballpark indication of how long the wrist computer will last before running out of juice, and as alluded to a short while ago by CEO Tim Cook, it appears that every wearer will need to get into the habit of overnight charging.

As per sources of 9to5Mac, who have gone hands-on with Apple Watch, users will be able to muster up to five hours of heavy app usage as opposed to 2.5 hours indicated earlier, and should be good to go for an entire day of mixed usage. Apple has faced an ongoing battle to increase the battery retention rates of its latest export, with some success it would seem, but while the company was reportedly trying to up the one-day battery life many months ago, Apple Watch users will have to accustom themselves to (at least) one charge per night.

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The so-called ‘Power Reserve Mode,’ which was reported on just a few days back, will play a major role in battery management, continues the article. Elaborating on those previous reports, it seems that Power Reserve Mode will be activated through Battery Glance, or indeed via the Settings app found on the Watch itself.

Of course, when in Power Reserve Mode, the display will dim, and you’ll lose certain functionality not deemed pivotal to the experience, but it’s still better than wearing an unresponsive gadget with a blank display.

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The device, which packs a heart-rate sensor that’ll apparently provide accurate readings, will likely ship with 8GB of on-board storage, and while the UX is said to be slick and smooth just like the standard iOS on iPhone and iPad, installing excessive amounts of apps and such will, quite naturally, put the brakes on this fluidity.

All should be confirmed in this regard come Monday, and as you’d expect, we’ll have all of the major announcements covered here.  

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