Apple Watch autonomy has always been a subject of debate. Personally, I’m one of those people who are happy as long as the watch lasts a full day because I can leave it charging overnight (I’m one of those people who don’t track their sleep). Although I understand those who use it while they sleep because they need the greatest possible autonomy and also a charge that is as fast as possible.
To optimize this autonomy, Apple recently introduced a low battery consumption mode for those who prefer it to the full performance of the Apple Watch and its sensors. So I did an experiment: live with this power saving mode always on for a few days to see if I noticed a difference.
A saving mode that Apple does not want to use permanently
Let’s get into the situation. My Apple Watch is a Series 4, a model that was released in Fall 2018 but still works perfectly for me. I’m just noticing the age of the battery: I’ve been getting battery warnings between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. for some time now. The clock He endures the day that I’m asking him and I’ve told you about before, but it’s beginning to cost him.
One fine day, early in the morning, I turned on low battery mode to see what happened. Theoretically you can double the autonomy (more or less), so I thought that maybe I could only charge the watch every two days.
What I did specifically is turn on the low power mode as soon as I put the watch on in the morning (something that could have been automated in a way) because when you put the watch to charge it turns off. It shows that Apple doesn’t have the idea that you always have it active. On paper, this low battery consumption mode:
- Disables the always-on display (I don’t have it on my model)
- Turn off abnormal heart rhythm alerts
- Stop measuring my heart rate and blood oxygen in the background
- Stop suggesting starting a workout if it detects I’m doing physical activity
- Stop mirroring phone calls when iPhone isn’t by my side
- Stop using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections when the iPhone isn’t by my side
That saves, but doesn’t work wonders with the older models
At the interface level, you’ll know you’ve enabled low battery mode thanks to a small yellow circle appearing centered over the Apple Watch screen. I didn’t notice anything else in my daily tasks, although the heart rate measurements in the Health app have disappeared. This is a normal day:
And this is a day with active power saving mode. My heart rate was only measured when I did a workout:
Usually my workouts don’t last more than forty minutes, I’m not a born athlete to say the least and just trying to live a healthy life. But as long as they last, the Apple Watch’s sensors get to work.
I didn’t notice any changes for the rest of the day either: I even continue to get prompts to get up a little after I’ve been sitting for a long time. And although watchOS warns me that notifications can take a little longer, I haven’t encountered any issues in this regard. I always had my iPhone closed and notifications showed up right away.
And the autonomy? Well, in my particular case, I hardly noticed any improvement. Previously, if I ended the days with a charge between 10% and 25%, I’ve encountered charges between 20% and 30% on the days that I was in low battery mode.
I’m not attributing this to poor watchOS resource management: I suspect the battery in my Apple Watch Series 4 is already degrading, so the power saving mode shouldn’t be able to squeeze out much of the extra power. Which leads me to say that this low power mode not the best choice if the watch has a certain age and signs of wear.
Source : www.applesfera.com