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Comment by tuckwat | Hacker News Reader

30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day.

I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!

The charger on the 4 both sucks and blows. Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%.

The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band.

WearOS Apps are trash.

I wish I had gone garmin. ;(

My experience is so different from this. I love the stock strap. I've never found the watch at 0% on the charger. The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging. The apps do everything I need them to do, but maybe you're asking more of the watch than I am?

My only complaint is that the charger has its own cable instead of a plug that I can use with whatever charger I want.

> > Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%.

> The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging.

It's possible to dock it in the charger enough for the charging display to start showing, but not enough for it to actually charge. But the watch notices this itself after about 5 seconds, and it switches to "not charging" display and sends a notification to your phone. I've had my Pixel Watch 4 since January and I've only had this happen twice, so it's fairly rare, but certainly possible.

I tested out Pixel 3 (or 4 .. i don't remember at this point). The 30 hours is when you have all the functionality enabled all the time. Like the always on display, always on notifications etc ...

I used to auto set the watch into DnD / battery saving mode at night, and used the "raise hand to turn on the display" functionality.. I used to get 3-4 days of continuous use.

Charging used to be like "put the watch into charger after waking up. It'll be ready by the time you get ready for office".

I did miss the 30 day battery life of my Amazfit bip and 2 week battery life of Pebble before that.. but charging once a week wasn't all that bad...

But again, I mostly used my Pixel watch as a fitness tracker. Didn't really care for most of the apps - except maps.

I have all the features enabled on my Garmin watch (vivoactive 5), including always-on display, and still get at least 4-5 days of battery.

AOD is a must for me, other thing can be disable, a watch that i cannot tell time at a glance is no more than a brick to me

My Fenix 8 lasts for about a month with 10 hours per week of training. 30 hours with everything enabled is pathetic for a smart watch.

fenix is huge so it's understandable

The mid-size Fenix that I'm talking about is 47mm. The Pixel 5 with this shitty battery life is 45mm. And the also-shitty Ultra is 49mm. So, no, size is not the difference at all.

Oh, for sure, but Garmin's watches do operate under a different principle. They got a lot of SOC's doing specific tasks more efficiently vs software and their OS is more limited in terms of apps. Android/Apple watches are more like miniaturized smartphones. To each their own. The only reason I don't wear a garmin is that the interface navigation is much less intuitive vs my pebble

Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me.

I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.

The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout.

I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 945M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case).

The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.

I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking.

Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger)

And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two.

Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.

I love how light and comfortable the fitbit air is, but I find that the data quality blows. Both steps and sleep (pretty much the only two things it can really track) are not super accurate when comparing to other devices. Hopefully they can sort it out with software updates

> and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life

Hell yeah! Don’t let dreams be dream

I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.

I don't like having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I could forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...

Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.

What series are you using? I have the S11 and in 15 minutes it easily charges from 10-20% to 80-90% which gets me through the next 24 hours.

Series 9, which I'll probably be upgrading this fall anyway.

The 10 and 11 definitely charge faster than the 9, but also you need a decent power supply too, like 25W at least to reach the max speed.

Not the parent but I have the Ultra 2 and it lasts around two to three days on a charge, which is nice, but there's no charging routine that looks attractive to me. I end up sucking it up and trying to place it on the charger when I wake up, under the assumption that I'll pick it back up once it's fully charged (and not only the next time I go out or to sleep)

I decided I was just gonna get the Fitbit air as an accessory to a smart watch for sleep tracking. 7 days of battery life and a 5 minute charge for a full day battery is enough for that. And it's not nearly as clunky as a smart watch.

> I don't like having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking.

Feels like I've been replying the same thing everywhere, but people aren't charging their smart watches while they're in the shower?!

I was very surprised by work put into making replacing the battery easy on the Pixel Watch 4. They designed in screw actuated clamps for the back face. Hopefully this carries over to the 5th edition.

https://youtu.be/3pQWBFBIU2U?si=HEefZLDiIurcBj5K&t=61

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+Watch+4+Battery+Re...

> I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day […] Will never buy another one

The later models are way better. When I switched from a Pixel Watch 1 to a Pixel Watch 4, my battery life increased by at least double. And this is me comparing both watches when they were new, before any battery degradation. The charging is also twice as fast with the newer models, so it's much quicker to charge if you forget it.

  I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that.

Good news: PW2 will reach End of Support come October, perfect time to buy the PW5! /s

https://support.google.com/product-documentation/answer/1279...

It's less of a big deal than I thought it'd be.

I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed.

Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.

I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.

But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep

At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches

I charge mine (older Pixel Watch model) when sitting down and coding. Or when showering if on the weekend and not coding. It charges very quickly.

Just charge it while you're doing something lazy at night (reading, watching a show). 30mins and you're set.

> But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep

Some people do. Personally I've had a smartwatch for some years and have never been interested in sleep tracking.

I only put it on when I'm leaving the house, so it generally has plenty of time to charge.

If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.

You sound like the sales rep at the Apple store. I was perplexed.

Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.

I leave my apple watch on a charger for at most 15-20 minutes in the morning and that gets it from the 10-20% in the morning to about 80-90% which is enough to go the whole next 24 hours even with a 30 minute lunch walk and 2-3 hours of pickleball fitness tracking as well as having the always on display on.

Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.

Apple Watch has never lasted the full night for me. I'm super happy with my Garmin Instinct 3. A full blown iOS device on my wrist was too stimulating anyways. I'll take charging once every ~25 days-ish over the color + capacitive touch screen.

The Garmin Instinct 3 is my favorite tech purchase I have made in a very very long time.

Yeah, I dunno, I have a S10 42mm. I charge it to 80-90% in the morning while in the bathroom, and it lasts me until the next morning with 10-20% left.

I have always on display on, and all the tracking stuff on like Afib, sleep apnea, wrist temperature, noise levels, fall detection, etc. I typically do a 30 minute walk during lunch that I do a fitness activity for, and a 2 hour pickleball session most days of the week where I also fitness track it. I do not use low power mode, and by the next morning it's got the 10-20% left. It only takes about 15 minutes to charge from 10-20% to 80-90%.

I usually wake up place my watch on the charger grab the clothes I'm wearing go brush my teeth take a shower get dress and get ready for the day then grab the watch off the charger and it fully charged everytime.

I don't get the people that need to wear it 24/7 for days at a time.

My watch (Garmin VivoActive 4) lasts ~1 week. The charger is one less thing I have to:

- keep on my nightstand

- take with me if I go away for a few days

It wouldn't be the worst thing to build charging it into my daily routine, but it sure is liberating to not need to.

> I don't get the people that need to wear it 24/7 for days at a time.

I think that's kinda expected when the device itself is supposed to give you the illusion it is always there tracking your health (even when sleeping)

With these health-tracker watches with weeklong battery life, and people leaving their watch on when they shower??

Missing 15min of data isn't going to change anything.

Not tracking every minute of REM sleep isn't going to change either, the unimportance of the data is not what they are selling though

I'm perplexed how anyone would have trouble charging their smart watch 30-45 minutes per day, unless they have an unusual schedule like (near-constant travel). This is something I almost never think about or have issues with.

For me it's a mix of 2 things:

1. If I do end up traveling, I now have to deal with remembering to charge my watch while sleeping on the airplane or something

2. If I go on a camping trip, extra long hike, etc, I can end up with a dead watch (12 hour hike with navigation, early start, so I don't get my morning charge, etc)

With my Garmin, I just charge it once a week or so, and all is good. I do think it comes down to what you're looking for though - mini phone strapped to your risk vs adventure companion.

Many people with long hair and lengthy (body) skincare routines take showers which take half an hour daily. Probably depends on what you include in the shower time.

This is almost fine until god forbid you forget to charge it. My old phone had to be charged every night (or occasionally every other night). Charging once a week at most is night and day difference. Charging every other week would be wonderful.

So I have to bring a charger when going camping/multi-day hike etc... This is a rather big deal-breaker. I can go up to the glacier for a few days of mountaineering with my Garmin and not worry about it. (the same as if I had an apple watch ultra)

Yeah, I bought a Pebble Time 2, and I can't imagine buying any other watch now. Having a 3+ week battery life is a game-changer.

Plus its screen is practically always-on, I've never seen any lag, it's half the price, and I have yet to feel like I'm missing any features over Wear watches.

If you disable heart/pulse tracking, it's 6+ weeks for me, just in case people are wondering.

You can get a forerunner that can also last many days and MIP display and it'll cost about the same. Now the question is rather what platform you like. I find PT2 Ui much more intuitive

My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit

If all you're looking for is a step counter in your watch, check out Casio ABL100WE. The battery lasts for two years (CR2016).

I'm enjoying 20 days of battery life on my Pebble Time 2

I've been using a Withings Steel HR for 10 years now, the battery still easily last a month, activity tracking is good and has some basic notification support. I can't imagine having another thing to charge daily.

My WiThings ScanWatch lasts a full month. But it's not a phone-on-my-wrist, it looks more like an analog watch and just has some sensors in it.

I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.

Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone.

[1]: https://gadgetbridge.org/

garmin watches are unbeatable for battery life - my Pixel 5 - would last close to a month. now it's close to 2 weeks since it's pretty old now :(.

but Garmin software sucks. my next watch will be an Apple Watch.

Apple watch, even with most things disabled barely makes it to the next day. Pretty but etrash.

Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.

Keep in mind Google owns Fitbit and Fitbit has watches with 7 day battery life.

Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.

Fitbit is probably gone by the end of the decade.

The Fitbit app has been replaced by the Google Health app. Other than the Fitbit Air released this year and the Fitbit Ace for kids, the last Fitbit device was released in 2023. Both of those newer devices are reduced functionality versions of older Fitbit products.

Maybe. If they do kill it I'm sure they'll keep something sport oriented though.

My watch charges itself while I wear it and it only has three hands. That’s all I need from a watch.

The Garmin Tactix with solar is good.

pfft, only 2 weeks + wearing garmin brick on hand? I would rather go with Pebble Time 2 than Garmin if I had to buy something new (used Bip for 15-20USD is still the best deal), it had decent thickness and better battery life

Amazfit Bip user (10mm thickness, still 4 weeks battery life)

> 30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker.

Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit:

"When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time."

Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?

I just charge mine as part of my nighttime routine, sometimes it's only five minutes, sometimes it's 20. In the morning I just throw it on the charger while I'm showering/brushing my teeth. It's almost never full, but it never dies.

I thought about the Fitbit air, but being able to see your heart rate is kind of nice.

>Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection

It's more accurate than what? Which is how accurate? This does not feel like a meaningful statement.

I'm not sure it's what Google does, but on YouTube, The Quantified Scientist compares smartwatches against a dedicated EEG headband.

Especially when Garmin and some other watches last a week or more.

> I don't want to charge my watch every day

Apple Watch SE 2 has a life of barely 8 hours :-)

I had an Apple Watch Series 6 for about five years and the battery degraded to the point it needed just about two charges a day.

Then I found out about the new Fitbit Air in June and picked one up. Advertised battery life is 7 days; I tend to get closer to 6. It does the sleep/activity tracking I want (though not quite as good as the AW if I'm honest).

The extra benefit is I've cut out smartwatch features from my wrist. I got tired of having notifications on a watch and rarely needed special apps or anything either. I really only used the AW for telling time, date, temp/weather conditions, and payments; but most of the time I have my phone or I'm near a computer anyway.

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