The Apple Watch Series 10 deserves a battery life of more than 18 hours

Early impressions of the Apple Watch Series 10 are pretty positive. Not only does it have the largest display yet on an Apple Watch (despite a smaller overall case size than the 49mm Ultra 2), but it also weighs less and is somehow thinner than before. The screen isn’t just bigger, it has improved brightness when viewed from an angle, and the always-on display can refresh once per second when idle, rather than once per minute as before.

In addition to the updated display and some nice new case options (the new polished titanium and jet black aluminum look pretty fantastic), the Apple Watch is also getting a new health feature: sleep apnea detection. It’s not exclusive to the Apple Watch Series 10, as last year’s Series 9 also got it, but it was still a major highlight of Apple’s presentation and another example of how they want you to wear the Watch all day and night.

The only problem with that? Battery life is still rated at 18 hours, or 36 hours in battery saver mode (half of what Apple claims for the Watch Ultra 2). That means if I wake up at 7 a.m. and put my watch on, it’ll be dead overnight. Of course, the reality of this isn’t as extreme as I’m making it sound. While Apple has touted an 18-hour battery life since the Apple Watch first launched in 2015, recent models have easily surpassed that, despite changes like an always-on display. It’s not unreasonable to wear it all day and night to track your sleep, then charge it in the morning to be ready for the next day. Apple has focused on fast charging in the last few models to make that more feasible — the Series 10 can charge to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.

The problem, at least in my experience, occurs a year or so into an Apple Watch’s lifespan. I had a Series 7, and the battery health dropped below 90 percent capacity after less than a year, and below 85 percent capacity after about 14 months. That made a noticeable difference; if I wanted to wear my watch at night to track my sleep, I would have to charge it halfway through the day. It was even worse when I went for a run using LTE and left my phone at home, since streaming music and tracking a workout could easily sap more than 25 percent of my battery. My Series 9, which I got last December, seems to fare much better, however, with the battery health still hovering at 100 percent. Maybe my Series 7 was a bad purchase, but I think Apple has made some serious charging optimizations to keep things fresher here.

The Apple Watch’s day-to-day performance is on par with the Pixel Watch 3, though it lags behind Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatches. But the comparison starts to deteriorate when you consider Garmin’s line of fitness-focused watches, all of which can essentially go well over a week without needing a charge. Granted, they’re different from Apple and Google wearables, which are tightly integrated with every aspect of your phone’s operating system, but that’s beside the point. If you’re looking to get the most out of your watch, wear it at night to track your sleep, and not think about it the next day, the Apple Watch is far from your best option.

Which brings me back to the Series 10. How excited would we all be if Apple said this thing had three days of battery life? Even matching the Apple Watch Ultra’s 36 hours would be a win, since chances are you’ll get closer to two days in real-world use. Instead, Apple did what it often does and made the Series 10 thinner. Sure, comfort is key when you’re talking about a wearable, but I would personally trade a 1mm reduction in thickness (about a nine percent change) for a bigger, longer-lasting battery.

Instead, we’ll have to make do with faster charging, which, don’t get me wrong, does make a difference. It’s easy to imagine a world where you wake up, put your Apple Watch on the charger for 45 minutes while you get ready for the day, and then don’t think about it again until the next morning. But that’s just another time to think about this thing that’s supposed to live on your wrist. Overnight charging isn’t necessarily the best option anymore, but charging it every day without fail is still a bummer. I wish I had an Apple Watch that I could forget about and just throw on the charger every few days to charge it up. Maybe next year.

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