Does Smartwatch Drain Phone Battery?
Is your phone battery draining too quickly? Does it seem like the battery is draining quicker than usual when you have a smartwatch paired with your iPhone? If so, this blog post might be of interest to you. Read on to find out how much power your watch consumes and what factors can affect your phone’s battery life.
Does a smartwatch drain phone battery?
Smartwatches use Bluetooth to connect with their paired phones and that drains the battery. So technically smartwatches do drain phone batteries. However, the Bluetooth itself doesn’t require a lot of power. Watches also have GPS capabilities which means they’re constantly trying to find a signal from satellites while simultaneously seeking cellular network data – that will take its toll on any smartphone.
Highly recommended: Does Apple Watch Drain iPhone Battery?
Smartwatches may be cool (depending on who you ask), but before rushing out there and buying one of those sleek-looking devices, think about how much worse off your already struggling cell phone might become if left coupled with this new device. This is because not only does the smartwatch itself require excessive amounts of power just so it can function properly when connected via Bluetooth, but it also sends that power through the connected phone.
As I said before, Bluetooth doesn’t require much battery to connect devices, but that’s only when you talk about short-distance communication over a few meters. Anything more than that, you start draining the phone faster and faster because of the constant handshakes.
To maximize your smartwatch experience, you want to have a full battery for as long as possible. Activities like mountain biking, for example, require long-lasting batteries. Be sure to check out the best smartwatch for mountain biking.
If you wear your watch every day and use it often, consider charging both devices simultaneously. This means that you should charge them when you get home from work.
If charging both devices at the same time seems inconvenient to you, then consider using a docking station or stand for your smartwatch. Having them docked and paired will eliminate unwanted battery drain by not waking up the watch every time you raise your wrist or receive a notification.
How to make your phone last longer with a smartwatch?
There are few things you can do to lower the amount of battery life your smartwatch will take:
Turn off the always-on display the always-on screen feature is convenient for glancing at your watch to see the time – but it drains battery power, especially if you’ve set it to be on permanently. It also means that the backlight will stay illuminated, which gobbles up even more energy. So instead of leaving it always on, toggle off the setting and activate it only when you need it.
Turn off notificationsSmartwatches connect to your phone via Bluetooth and notify you of calls, texts, emails, and other notifications. You can disable this feature to conserve battery life. Disable the settings for email newsletter updates and social media channels (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), which continually refresh, updating your feed even if you don’t want them to.
Disable checking for updates
If you use an app on your smartwatch, it will remain active in the background on your phone and continue to update and sync. To save battery life:
- Turn off auto-update options to avoid this happening. You can do this by opening up the Google Play Store app on your smartphone and tapping ‘My apps.’
- From here, tap the app you want to alter and then select ‘Auto update.’
- Turn off any apps that don’t need updating to save power.
Disable connection alerts
Disabling connection alerts will help save your smartphone’s battery life. Open up the ‘Settings’ app on your phone and scroll down to ‘Connected devices’ or ‘Bluetooth.’ Turn off these settings for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi not to search for smartwatches, speakers, or other devices that are nearby.
How to stop your Apple Watch from draining your iPhone battery?
The reason for that may not be related to the smartwatch itself, however. Instead, you might have to investigate your iPhone first.
Apple has a recommendation on how to fix that. First, you have to unpair your watch and iPhone. Then wait 10 seconds before re-pairing them. Instead of just swapping the two devices back to their original setup (as Apple has previously recommended), however, you should follow this process instead:
Open up the Watch app on your iPhone. Scroll down to the My Watch screen, and tap on ‘General.’ Hit the Reset option, which will wipe out any extra data lingering on your watch. Then hold down both the side buttons until you see a screen that says ‘Power Off’ followed by an Apple logo. After 10 seconds, press-hold down the button to boot up your Apple Watch again.
That process should clear away any kind of glitches that initially caused the battery drain problem on your watch (and, if so, you can turn off this tip). But, in some cases, it will still happen. So, of course, Apple’s first solution is to reset your smartwatch to its factory settings. Not only does that get rid of any weird bugs, but it also resets several settings back to their defaults.
Some of you asked me whether they should upgrade to the Apple Watch Series 7. I have had mine for 3 months and the iPhone battery does not drain so fast with it. Here is what I had to say about that: Is It Worth Upgrading to Apple Watch Series 7?
How much does Bluetooth drain your phone battery?
This is the biggest misconception surrounding the use of Bluetooth technology, as it does not draw any power from a device when not being actively used. You can turn on Bluetooth and connect your phone to other devices without it affecting the battery. Unless you use a Bluetooth speaker to play music, which would reduce the battery life of both devices.
As I’ve outlined above, power consumption is highly dependent on the specific use of Bluetooth. For example, streaming music to headphones does consume more power than Bluetooth LE for a connected smartwatch or using location services like GPS.
It’s also worth mentioning that other factors than just Bluetooth can consume more significant amounts of power. For instance, a large, brightly lit screen (as many smartphones have) can be a major power hog.
On the one hand, turning off Bluetooth can save you small or negligible amounts of power. But, on the other hand, you can rest assured that having it turned on won’t drain the battery – and will make future connections to devices all that much easier.
How can I tell which app is draining my battery?
For Android: When you have an Android, tap Settings -> Device -> Battery or Settings -> Power -> Battery Use to monitor the battery consumption of all your apps.
For iOS:
- Tap Settings. Tap on Battery.
- You can view battery stats for the last 24 hours or the last 10 days.
- Swipe down to view power consumption by the app.
What drains your phone battery the most?
GPS is the most aggressive power hog of them all. It is more than happy to chew through your smartphone battery because it uses a ton of power.
GPS is the main culprit when you leave your phone on for too long or don’t use it at all. If you aren’t using GPS to navigate and still have “location services” turned on, it can take a severe toll. If you are playing Pokémon Go or using any kind of navigation app, then GPS is constantly tracking your location and updating the map as you go along. That requires a lot of power which means more battery consumption.
Brightness level, push notifications, background apps, phone roaming, and Wi-Fi can also consume a significant amount of power in your phone. How much these things consume will depend on how often you use them. For example, if you leave the brightness setting complete and receive 100s of push notifications each day – you can expect rapid battery drain.
What kills battery health?
You should be familiar with how fast the battery can become degraded with time. Some things can destroy battery health and make your phone’s battery degrade more quickly than usual:
- Using the incorrect charger for your smartphone.
- Cold weather conditions.
- Leaving your phone in a hot car or direct sunlight for a long time.
- Screen brightness.
- Using apps downloaded outside of the App Store.
Read more: Best Smartwatch For iPhone
Wrapping up
Most of the time, having Bluetooth on will not cause battery drain. However, if you use many apps that require location services and GPS, then it may be worth turning off your Bluetooth to conserve power.
It is also essential to consider how much other factors like screen brightness can affect battery life when considering whether or not to turn Bluetooth off.
