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Apple Watch battery life: the good, the bad and the ugly

Updated Mar 9th, 2015 4:30PM EDT
Apple Watch Official Battery Life and Specs

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One of the potential issues with the Apple Watch is that it might not deliver a long-lasting battery life, and this appears to have been one of Apple’s main concerns for the product. The company, however, was able to somewhat fix battery life issues, and revealed more details about it during its media event on Monday.

For the latest breaking news from Apple’s huge event, be sure to check out our event hub!

According to a recent report, the Apple Watch should offer up to 5 hours of intense applications use, and should last through a day if used moderately. That’s supposed to be even better than the initial 2.5 hours to 4 hours internal goal Apple had for intense apps usage on the device.

However, the company revealed during the even the actual battery-related characteristics of the product, saying the gadget will be good enough for 18 hours of use, confirming that the gadget will hold a charge for a day with moderate use.

The device will have a special MagSafe charging port, which will let users easily take it off and place it on the charging dock at night (which also happens to be the box of some models according to reports), or whenever the gadget runs out of energy.

The company did not reveal the actual capacity of the Apple Watch battery during the event, though it’s likely such details will be uncovered during the first teardowns of the product.

Apple has provided more details about the Apple Watch’s battery life on its website. The device is supposed to offer 18-hour of life after an overnight charge, “factoring in things like checking the time, receiving notifications, using apps and doing a 30-minute workout.”

But the company also measured usage in various other instances, as follows:

  • up to 3 hours of talk time
  • up to 6.5 hours of audio playback test
  • up to 7 hours workout test
  • up 48 hours of watch test
  • up to 72 hours of power reserve

As for charging times, the company says that it takes about 1.5 hours to reach an 80% charge and about 2.5 hours to 100%.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.