Apple’s latest iPhones are, without question, the company’s most impressive iPhones to date. The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus both feature sleek designs, stunning screens and shockingly strong performance that manages to crush most rival smartphones despite Apple’s decision to stick with a dual-core chipset and 1GB of RAM.
But there is one area where the smaller iPhone model in particular definitely lags behind much of the competition, and it looks like the problem is being exacerbated by the brand new Apple Watch.
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Since the iPhone 6 was first released back in September last year, people have had one major complaint: battery life. While many other smartphone makers were focused on extending battery life through optimizations and even by stuffing larger batteries into their phones, Apple instead chose to focus on slimming down its iPhone to just 6.9mm.
The iPhone 6 looks and feels fantastic, but many users argued that they would have preferred a larger battery to a slimmer iPhone.
Now, Apple’s next big thing has been released. The Apple Watch started shipping to some earlier buyers last Friday, and people seem to be impressed for the most part. There are some complaints, however, and one in particular is something of an unexpected twist.
Ahead of the Apple Watch’s debut, rumors suggested the device’s battery might not even be able to carry it through a full day of usage. Now that the Watch has been released we know that’s not the case, but it looks like battery life is still going to be an issue.
As noted by MacRumors, some users are reporting that the Apple Watch is having a very noticeable negative impact on iPhone battery life. The Watch has to be paired with an iPhone in order to work, and the devices use both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to move data back and forth. It looks like those connections, or perhaps the Apple Watch companion app on the iPhone, are causing excessive battery drain on the iPhone 6 and other iPhone models.
Noticed my iPhone’s battery was abnormally low, especially for barely having used it today. So now we know why. pic.twitter.com/9sJuPrpH0Q
— Ryan Block (@ryan) April 26, 2015
This is definitely an issue that will be closely watched by users and by Apple blogs, and it is hopefully something that can be addressed by Apple in a future software update.
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that in theory, users should be using their phones far less than before thanks to the Watch. As a result, any impact the companion app might have on battery life should be negated by the fact that the iPhone remains pocketed more often than not.
