Apple launched its Series 5 Apple Watches on 20th September at Apple’s 2019 Fall event. One of the exciting features of the new Apple Watch is the Always-On display. Using this feature, you can make sure that some part of the display shows the time every time irrespective of whether you lift your hand or not.
Having an Always-On display obviously means that there will be more battery consumption than usual but Apple claims that the battery life will be unaffected when the feature is used. To save battery life, the refresh rate of the screen goes down to 1Hzwhen you lower your wrist. However, this clever trick doesn’t seem to be as effective as Apple would like it to be. Many Apple Watch users have posted complaints on the Apple Support forums regarding the battery life of their new Apple Watches.
The Problem with watchOS 6
According to the forum posts, most of the users are seeing a decline of 5% battery every hour even when the watch is not in use. People are also reporting that upon turning off the Always On feature, the battery life improves significantly.
People are complaining that the Apple Watch Series 5 has a worse battery life than its predecessor -the Apple Watch Series 4. However, the problem seems to be associated with watchOS 6 as previous generations of Apple Watch running the watchOS6 software are also seeing a decline in battery life.
One of the most battery draining apps in watchOS 6 is the Noise app. The app constantly analyzes nearby sounds and warns the users if they can cause hearing loss. This constant recording of ambient sounds seems to be the culprit for the quick battery drain. Some users think that cellular connectivity may be the problem, but we are seeing complaints from both cellular and GPS variants of the Apple Watch Series 5.
Some users at the Macrumors forum have reported that their battery life drops suddenly from 30 percent to 0 percent. When they connect their watches to power, charging starts right from 25 percent instead of 0 percent. This seems to be a manufacturing defect and Verizon is replacing any -Apple Watches sold by them, which have this defect.
The solution to the Problem
If you are facing battery life issues on the Apple Watch Series 5 or any other model running the watchOS 6, you can try turning off the Noise app and see if that helps. This is a temporary solution and Apple is currently working on watchOS 6.1, which has some battery performance fixes. The beta version of watchOS 6.1 is available for beta testers.
If you are facing sudden drops in battery percentages, you can approach the Apple support team or your carrier for a replacement.