Apple Watch battery life reportedly lasts an average waking day, but not much longer

Battery life has been the biggest remaining question mark for the Apple Watch. Tim Cook said it’ll need a nightly charge, but how close to the edge will you push it on an average day? Probably pretty close.

The latest report from 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman, a reliable source for Apple leaks, shares the company’s battery life benchmarks. Apple hopes to provide about 19 hours of mixed use on a full charge: that is, a few hours of active application or watch face use, and the rest of the time spent in standby mode with the screen off.

Gurman’s info comes from Apple sources, who share that as of 2014, Apple wanted the Watch to offer between 2.5 and 4 hours of active use, along with 3 days of complete standby life (while not using the watch at all) and 4 days in a sleep mode. However, the final targets for those last two numbers are more likely to be in the 2-3 day range, sources claim.

Playing games or directly interacting with graphics-intense apps is likely to tax the battery more, which could generate the lower figure of about 2.5 hours of active use, while less-intensive apps should give it more screen-on time during the day. And fitness tracking shouldn’t be a big drain, as the report says the Watch is expected to hit nearly 4 consecutive hours of data recording.

If those numbers all seem underwhelming, it’s probably due to Apple’s use of higher-end components. The S1 chip inside is said to be similar in performance to the A5 chip in the iPod touch, allowing the crisp Retina-quality display to deliver bright, colorful images at 60 frames per second.

But if you’ve got an especially long day and/or plan to spend a lot of time fiddling with Watch apps, then you might find yourself searching for a wall outlet before you’re ready to call it a night. Hopefully Apple’s made some recent strides to close the gap before its first wearable releases in a few months.

Source: 9to5Mac