Watch 7 LTE Ultra - battery drain and feedback

[Richard-Tx]

First, I have had/used every Galaxy Watch (i.e. S3 Gear thru Watch 6 Classic).  Very familiar with using the features and removing unwanted apps and disabling unused features.  My only purpose for these watches are the health apps, LTE (enabled via TMobile), step counter.  Do a lot of running in hot/cold weather.

Last year, I had to return the Watch6 LTE classic due to logistical and technical issues and went back to my Watch 5 Pro LTE (W5P).  Have had the W5P since day 1 and the battery is rock solid, even after almost 2 years.  I look at two major areas of a watch.  Battery life and how it handles very hot weather.  Watch 5 Pro was perfect in both areas - Never a complaint from me.  However, I decided to get the new Watch 7 Ultra (W7U).  Even though I was not very impressed by the specs, I figured it was time to upgrade and that I got a great trade-in value for the W5P.  In addition, it had a 590maH battery - same as the W5P.  My display is never on unless I tap screen.  (i disabled "Always On").

So, getting to the point on my W7U experience after using it so far:

-  Ordered on Day1, received on July 19.  (faster than what was originally stated - good).

- Watch is a bit thicker and seems heavier.  Marine band is a bit wider.

- These are newer style quick-release bands.  Can't use previous bands (pin style).  These are not D-Buckle bands.  I really liked the original D-Buckle bands because I could get an exact fit/adjustment on my wrist.  In addition, with the D-Buckle, very quick to put on/take off the watch.  W7U bands take extra time now to put on / take off.  😞

- Speaker/Sound more powerful than W5P. - Great improvement over W5P.

- Titanium casing, just like the W5P.  This is good for better heat dissipation.  I have not had a change yet to try the W7U in >100 degree weather, whereas we have not seen the high tempt this year (yet).  The W5P easily handled 100+ weather.  Just don't make LTE phone calls in 100+ degree or else the watch will overheat.

- Quick button has very limited usage.  Why Samsung????  Anyways, I set it for the water lock feature.

- You can't place the W7U flat on a charging pad because the band prevents the watch from sitting flat on the pad.  However, once you place the W7U flat on the pad, you can put something on top of the watch to keep it flat.  Then it will make electrical/magnetic contact with the pad and start charging.

- Touch screen very responsive.  No delay in scrolling thru each menu.

- Screen very bright.

- The home and back buttons are directly on the side, which is different from the W5P which had the button on the side as well, but at a slight angle.  The W5P made it easier to press those two buttons.  When the buttons are directly on the side, you have to torque your finger/hand slightly to make contact with those buttons.  (of course everyone will have a different opinion on this button placement.

- Samsung still has NOT fixed the infamous problem where when you swing your arm, the display screen turns off.  WHY SAMSUNG??  Why do you turn off the screen when you swing your arms?  Didn't you learn/listen at all from all the complaints us runners informed you since the W5P.   Leave the display on and rely on the screen timeout to turn off the display when not in use.

Anyways I could go on-on, however, there is one item that I take the most concern with now is the battery life on the W7U.  As previously stated, my W5P battery life has been perfect from day 1 and still is solid after more then 1.5 years.  My W5P and W7U settings are manually set by me to be identical. 

However, I have noticed that the W7U seems to drain the battery by 35-40% faster than my W5P.  Yes, you read correctly.  I have watched my battery usage like a hawk on the W5P and it has aways been consistent and sturdy.  Never had a concern even as I speak now.  But, on the W7U, the battery drain is excessive.  As an example, while sleeping,  the battery went from 66% to 44% over a 7-hour period, as compared to my W5P that would go from 88 - 82% over that same period.  It's not clear to me why the excessive drain on the W7U, but even with power management turned on, the drain is still excessive. 

The only two items that could cause this are maybe the LTE signal or the health sensors.  Will soon experiment by turning these off to see if this makes a difference.

Overall, the W7U does not really offer any more "exciting" as compared to my W5P, but I really need to see what is happening to this battery.  Not happy about this battery drainage.   Curious if other W7U (LTE) users have the same battery issue.

[PeninaD]

Similar with the 40mm W7. Not used to seeing this last so long after receiving a new Galaxy Watch.

[GW7BatteryBad]

Yeah same

[user6RaI46r1cT]

Same. I am returning (GW7 44mm.no LTE). Told Samsung that I can't use a watch that can't even make 12 hours (with all power saving, etc.).  My Watch 5 made about 28 hours. I just need about 24, but apparently it is way beyond the capability of the current generation of watch.

[GW7BatteryBad]

How did you do a return?

[Czechammers]

I have the 7 ultra and battery is "OK" till I tried to listen to a podcast over the cellular service. 30% loss in one hour. No display on or anything.  That's crazy bad. I tried one more time and same results. I really wanted to like this watch but if I can not get through my work shift I'm returning 

[userOXWrKdfwHN]

First off, watch is under 2 days old.  There is no new firmware.

Title says it all. Watch drained from 100% to power off in 16h. That's unacceptable for a $650 watch.

It's under 2 days old. There is no new firmware. I just set it up 1.5 days ago, factory reset didn't fix it. Having to reset a 36h watch is a special level of disappointing.

Let's see if I get a real answer or the canned answer to update it, reset it then this will be marked as solved when it 100% will not be solved.

[realaud]

Two days.  The watch is still learning your usage patterns.  The first day there is enormous power usage due to setup, looking for updates, self-testing and the fascination of people playing with and looking at it.  It takes 4-7 days of normal usage for the watch to establish your pattern.  If you've had a watch before, you know this.  If this is your first watch, now you know.  16 hours got you through the day, and it's not like you have to go out of your way to charge it up at any point.  Adjust the measurements to intervals rather than continuous, turn off AOD, turn off gestures and use tap or push button to turn on the screen. If, after the watch normalizes, you are still unsatisfied, return it and get a refund, but do wait more than a week.

[userOXWrKdfwHN]

It's not my first watch, but 16h is well outside the 48-60 advertised for the watch. In my experience the learning only gave me a slight boost to power use, not a 300-400% boost. It would be irresponsible of Samsung to ship something that inefficient.

In the end, poor customer service and technical support from Samsung just convinced me to return the watch. $650 is too much for a faulty product Samsung won't stand behind to correct

[LongHiker]

@userOXWrKdfwHN I've only had my Watch Ultra a few days. I do NOT have LTE enabled. I get 58 hours (2 days 10 hours) on a charge.

[The_Chief]

I agree - make sure AOD is turned OFF and you have a watch face (not that there are many options yet) that will automatically change to night mode in low light conditions. I've had my Watch Ultra for a week and it will easily go upwards of 5 days on a charge (and that's without power saving mode). The trick is to get everything set up so you aren't constantly playing with it and using screen time setting things up. Once it's set up and done, I think you'll be happy with it.