Apple Watch - using Apple Music Radio Stations and battery usage.

I just sold my Apple Watch 7 and used the credit towards a Series 8 (in hopes of it lasting till the Series 10 is released). Anyway I went out for a run this morning - about 1 hour/5.25 miles - using the Watch for GPS and listening to an Apple Radio Station using my AirPods Pros. I started the exercise with the Watch battery at about 99% and after I was back in the house for a while the battery was at 52% - so figure the watch was worn for about 3 1/2 hours including the 1 hour exercising. Seems a little extreme - especially for a Watch I have only had for about 10 days. Even when the battery health on my AW7 was down to 82% I didn't see a drop like that - though I would generally walk/run with downloaded music, not using cellular for the Radio on the Watch.

Spoke to Apple and the senior tech commented that the Radio portion of Apple Music will drain the battery much quicker (especially on the Watch as opposed to the iPhone) and than just streaming Apple Music from a playlist or an artist in my library. I said I assumed that any streaming (radio or Apple Music Library) would be harder on the battery than playing downloaded music, but not that dramatic a difference.

Any thoughts to those who have used their Apple Watch with the Radio portion of Apple Music when outside streaming? Thanks.

Apple Watch Series 8, watchOS 9

Posted on Jun 16, 2023 12:23 PM

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Posted on Jun 16, 2023 1:32 PM

The LTE cellular radio is the hardest battery draining circuit on the Apple Watch

Apple Watch - Battery - Apple

Scroll down to the Apple Watch Series 8 section. When you are streaming music it is similar to LTE Talk Time.


So steaming music via the LTE cellular radio, while using the GPS, and tracking your exercise can easily consume half your battery life when exercising for an hour.


AND if you are in areas where the cellular signal is weak, that LTE radio must use more power to stay in touch with the cellular towers. That will affect the life of the battery as well.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 16, 2023 1:32 PM in response to swandy

The LTE cellular radio is the hardest battery draining circuit on the Apple Watch

Apple Watch - Battery - Apple

Scroll down to the Apple Watch Series 8 section. When you are streaming music it is similar to LTE Talk Time.


So steaming music via the LTE cellular radio, while using the GPS, and tracking your exercise can easily consume half your battery life when exercising for an hour.


AND if you are in areas where the cellular signal is weak, that LTE radio must use more power to stay in touch with the cellular towers. That will affect the life of the battery as well.

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Apple Watch - using Apple Music Radio Stations and battery usage.

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