The Pixel Watch 2 gets through the day with moderate use. The battery life of Android smartwatches will be improved in the future.
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For many years there has been one feature that has been repeatedly criticized about Android smartwatches: the battery life. In 2024 something has finally happened and positive developments have been observed since the OnePlus Watch 2 at the latest.
Why this is important: Wear OS 5 is the next update, due out later this year. One Developer preview is already available for download.
- Improved battery life is “the focus” of the update.
- Google promises to reduce power consumption when tracking a marathon by an impressive 20 percent.
In detail: The improved battery life is achieved, among other things, by a new watch face format that uses significantly less power. However, this format has not yet been integrated into all watch faces.
With the new update, the search engine giant is discontinuing support for older Android-based watch faces. According to Google, access to these watch faces will be restricted with the outdated format.
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As a result, new complications (additional functions for watches) such as weather, fitness goals and UV index are also available.
When will the update come?
- A developer preview of the new Wear OS platform is currently available. The new operating system is currently still being tested.
- It is very likely that the Galaxy Watch 7 and Pixel Watch 3 will be the first smartwatches to receive the update.
Both series of devices are expected to come onto the market in late summer or autumn 2024. More devices will follow.
Wear OS 4 can already achieve long battery life
As mentioned at the beginning, there are already watches on offer in the Android sector that are making a name for themselves with comparatively long battery life.
The OnePlus Watch 2 is equipped with the hybrid interface of Wear OS 4 and therefore relies on a dual chipset architecture that consists of a powerful application processor (AP) and a very energy-saving microcontroller (MCU).
The hybrid Wear OS interface enables intelligent switching between the MCU and the AP, putting the AP into sleep mode when not needed.
To put it simply: Both chips can be active at the same time, but depending on your needs, only one chip is in operation while the other is in sleep mode or completely switched off.
Expressed in numbers, the OnePlus watch achieves a battery life of up to 100 hours, according to the manufacturer.
It remains to be seen whether Google and Samsung will also adopt the dual-chip architecture.
In any case, the evidence so far suggests that the Galaxy Watch 7 series will make a big leap forward in terms of battery life.