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Android wear is all about notifications from your phone to on your watch and interacting with them. Every time a notification pops in, a small vibration draws your attention. As you raise your arm and look at your watch, it lightens up and display that notification. There are three things that consumer battery a lot.
- Vibration
- Screen
- Bluetooth connection.
Right now, the wear powered devices comes with battery power between 300 to 400 mAh, which makes it last for a day max or even less, making you charge your phone and your watch both on daily basis.
Case #1 Wearing it all the time;Use all notifications
This is the worst case scenario where your watch is connected all the time and you have on your wrist for at least 18 hours.
Results are pretty dicey here. Depending on how many notifications you get and how much you interact with your watch will last 12 hours tops.
Case #2 Wearing it only when you go out/travel; Use all notifications
Using watch as a watch. Most of us don’t have the watch on when we reach home though we may have the phone all the time with us.
So when I get home, , un -pair from the phone and don’t even look back till the next morning. The battery is around 30% left and it gets on charging by this time.
Case #3 Wearing it all the time;Use important notifications
Notifications are one of the major cause of battery drain. The lesser you have, less vibrations you get and less you interact with watch and save more battery.
Battery lasts a little better here for around 15 to 18 hours if you cut down your notifications at least by 50%.
Case #4 Wearing it only when you go out/travel; Use important notifications
Welcome to the best case scenario. Your watch can survive for more than 24 hours and you can skip charging at night. However, you will need to charge it again in the morning because it wont last for next 24 hours.
This brings us to same situation as in Case #2. So how will this help? In case you need to stay longer back at work or attend a party, your watch doesn’t give up on your and that extra savings come in handy.
My Tips to Save Battery on your Android Wear:
Video:
Control Notifications:
This can be a personal choice but if you want save battery and be less distracted, control which apps can send you notification and which can stay back on the short. This will help you both in saving battery and let you concentrate more on your work or whatever you are already on. Remember, its not wise to use a phone all the time and the same goes for this.
Don’t Turn of Display, Turn off that Bluetooth or best use Airplane mode.
First, No matter what, don’t turn off the watch display. It just kills the purpose of having the watch on your wrist. It would be wise to turn off your Bluetooth connection instead of turning off or better get into Airplane Mode and it takes care of everything.
Change Brightness:
Android Wear gives you option to lower the brightness which helps you save battery. However, it performs horribly when you are outside in full blown daylight. So if your brightness level is on the lower side, it will be difficult to read notifications and see whats on your screen. So either you can trade of for a medium brightness or make a habit to change it as you go in and out.
Control Battery Consumption By Changing Powermode:
We recently talked about an app, Wear Control, which lets unlocks CPU Governer Mode Android Wear. This has options of Default, Powwersave, Balanced and Performance. The powersave mode can help you extend your battery mode by at least 6 hours. I have tried it personally and with all conditions above and it works like a charm. Now the app says you need root mode but it worked just fine with Gionee S 5.5 without unlocking.
Using Watch as a Watch :
Most of the people who are using a android wear smartwatch end up wearing all the time. This is kind of wrong, unless you are a kind 24 X 7 working type geek. Nobody wears watch all day and nobody expects you to look at your watch all the time. You need to treat this watch exactly the same way. Its an extension of your phone and not your phone and if its not vibrating, you have little reason to look at it.
Conclusion:
Everything depends on how you use the watch and how many times you take on it for notifications but watches are different from phones. They are there as an extension and not to replace your phone. Any wearable that can do its job and distracts you for least, is what one should look as of now.
Android Wear is pretty smooth from that perspective. Gives you a complete control on what is going to appear and what not. You can switch to WATCH only mode and even control how bright your wrist would be.
That said, do you have a tip to share with us ? Hows your experience and what are you looking forward to from Android Wear and its battery love story!!
