Sources at Apple report that the smartwatch has a battery life of “about a day”.
The Apple Watch is the company’s first piece of wearable technology, but one feature that was missing from its announcement was the device’s battery life. John Paxzkowski at Recode reports that sources at Apple peg the current battery life at about twenty four hours. “It’s about a day right now,” says one source, who also commented that Apple is working on improving the battery life before the watch’s release in 2015.
Apple has not commented on how long the watch will run on a single charge, but Apple spokeswoman Nat Kerris says that users are expected to charge the watch daily. “There’s a lot of new technology packed into Apple Watch and we think people will love using it throughout the day,” says Kerris. “We anticipate that people will charge nightly which is why we designed an innovative charging solution that combines our MagSafe technology and inductive charging.” Inductive charging is wireless, allowing devices to be charged using electromagnetic fields. Usually, this means the device is placed on a charging pad instead of plugged into a charter. Some smartphones, from Nokia, Google, LG, and Samsung, support wireless charging using the Qi standard, and a standard for wirelessly charging laptops is in development. Earlier this year, Starbucks announced it will be installing Powermat wireless charging spots in its stores so that customers can charge their devices right at their tables.
Compared to some other smartwatches, the Apple Watch’s battery life isn’t unusual. For Android-compatible smartwatches, Both Motorola’s Moto 360 smartwatch and LG’s G Watch last about a day on a single charge. Sony’s Android-compatible SmartWatch will last up to a week on low usage, but as little as one day for heavy usage. The Pebble smartwatch and the Meta Watch, each of which are compatible with both iOS and Android, last 5 to 7 days on a single charge. Would you wear a smartwatch that you had to charge each night? I own a Pebble watch, and even with its long battery life I occasionally find myself out of power, with nothing but an expensive bracelet left on my wrist.
Source: Recode
