{"id":7102,"date":"2022-06-03T15:13:43","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/06\/03\/its-okay-if-the-pixel-watch-only-manages-a-day-of-battery-life\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:13:44","slug":"its-okay-if-the-pixel-watch-only-manages-a-day-of-battery-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/06\/03\/its-okay-if-the-pixel-watch-only-manages-a-day-of-battery-life\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s okay if the Pixel Watch only manages a day of battery life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/6\/2\/23151748\/pixel-watch-battery-wear-os-3-google-apple-samsung<\/a>
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While Google confirmed last month that a Pixel Watch is on its way<\/a>, there\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t know about the device, like its hardware specs. The rumor mill has been buzzing, however, and the gist is the device will purportedly feature a 300mAh battery<\/a> and Samsung\u2019s last-gen wearable processor<\/a>. The latest report from 9to5 Google<\/em><\/a> claims that the watch will get around 24 hours of battery life on a single charge and that fast charging isn\u2019t in the mix. It might be tempting to cry doom and gloom, but if this pans out? These numbers are par for the course.<\/p>\n

Battery life remains one of the biggest challenges for smartwatch makers. Try to pack in a larger battery to get more juice and end up with a gargantuan watch that excludes anyone with wrists. Try to design a slim and sleek watch, and you\u2019ll end up with something that can barely last the workday. Add an always-on display, an increasingly popular feature, and end up with even worse battery life. Try to cram in as many advanced features as possible, and watch how fast that battery goes from 100 to zero percent. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge burden for consumers, too. If you want to track sleep, having a smartwatch with long enough battery life and \/ or fast charging is a must. The same is true if you\u2019re an active person who does several hours of GPS activity per day. (It\u2019s one reason why many marathoners opt for a Garmin, Polar, or Coros over a more \u201cadvanced\u201d wearable.) It\u2019s also a consideration for folks who use their smartwatches to take calls while on the go.<\/p>\n

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The Fenix 7S has spectacular battery life… but it also has solar charging, doesn\u2019t have an OLED screen, and lacks cellular connectivity.<\/em><\/figcaption>Photo by Victoria Song \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n

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When you smoosh all these factors together, the Pixel Watch having 24 hours on a single charge is decent by today\u2019s standards. I\u2019ve yet to test a Wear OS watch that lasts longer than a day. Apple\u2019s stuck with an estimated 18-hour battery life for all its smartwatches \u2014 even though many models will get you a bit more than that. Samsung\u2019s Tizen watches often hovered around the 24\u201348 hour mark, while the Galaxy Watch 4 is notorious for falling extremely<\/em> short<\/a> of its estimated 40-hour battery life. Meanwhile, Fitbit used to knock it out of the park when it came to battery life, but since it\u2019s added always-on displays to its latest trackers, that\u2019s shrunk to two to three days with the feature enabled.<\/p>\n

Of course, you\u2019ll find fitness watches with battery life that exceeds a week \u2014 sometimes even multiple weeks. I\u2019ve been testing the Garmin Forerunner 255<\/a> for over a week with roughly five hours of GPS activity, and I\u2019ve still got 40 percent battery left. However, that\u2019s because this watch prioritizes fitness tracking, has a low-power transflective screen, and doesn\u2019t have a ton of \u201csmart\u201d features. This is generally the case with multisport fitness watches.<\/p>\n

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Enabling Google Assistant on the Galaxy Watch 4 made the watch\u2019s dismal battery life even worse.<\/em><\/figcaption>Photo by Victoria Song \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n

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You can\u2019t have your cake and eat it too \u2014 not yet. Right now, there\u2019s an inverse relationship between battery life and feature set on flagship watches. The more features you want, the worse your battery life will be. If you want an always-on OLED display, you\u2019re going to have to put up with frequent charging. If you want a digital assistant that can be triggered by a wake word? Sorry, you\u2019ll have to be mindful about charging. If you want to reliably track sleep, you\u2019re going to need a creative charging schedule.<\/p>\n

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