Galaxy Watch 4 Classic LTE Battery Life Horror Show

[Sporty Bob]

Have been using the watch for a week now.  I am baffled how much battery use is utilized during a workout.  I had 40% left when I began my workout.  I had pandora playing and activity tracker running.  I had wifi turned off and only had heartbeat being measured and Bluetooth on.  The watch ran out of battery and completely died in less than 2 hours.

1.) Is this normal for this watch?  I cannot believe the battery performance is that bad and my first thought is I have a defect.  

2.) If this is normal, any tips on how to improve the battery life?  WITHOUT turning off the activity tracker, LTE, and music with Bluetooth.  All 3 are essential to my workouts.  (I don't bring my phone with me so need my phone and SMS available in case of emergency.)

Thoughts?

[Anonymous User]

Battery life was the reason I chose NOT to buy a Samsung Watch.

My Huawei watch lasts on average 2 weeks between charges.

[Benji96]

Let's recap: You have a watch with an OS that is known as a power hog, and you're using the most power-consuming features. LTE is known to be an immense power hog on any watch, then you're also streaming music via LTE via the watch to a Bluetooth headset and you're doing an outdoor workout, which means GPS is also enabled. Yeah, the watch can't last longer than that with everything that you've turned on. By the way, no watch really lasts longer during such a usage, because alternatives that last these crazy "one week and more" don't even have an actual application processor, but rather a microcontroller, and can't really do anything by themselves. The training, sleep tracking and such will be shown after the fact because it's processed on the phone, not the wearable itself. No comparable, actual smartwatch has any noticeable improvement in battery performance during your usecase.
The largest power consumant in your watch is the LTE and the GPS being simultaneously enabled, with the LTE being the main power hog.

[AntS]

Hi @Sporty Bob , I moved your topic to the Wearables area. It's worth having a read around on it from others who've experienced a similar thing, and what they've done or been advised by fellow users: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/forums/filteredbylabelpage/board-id/uk-wearables/label-name/batt... , e.g. this topic: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/wearables/watch-4-classic-problems-with-battery-life-any-tips-to... or this one: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/wearables/galaxy-watch-4-classic-battery-life/m-p/3960857 

[AntS]

@Anonymous User , Not that I want to derail Sporty Bob's topic (and we can always spin it off into a new topic if it does), but Benji96 makes a good point about possibly comparing apples with pears. 🤔 It'd be interesting to see a genuine comparison between the usage stats and general spec of the devices in question. 👍

[Potshot2k4]

I've found that playing music is the biggest power drain, spotify youtube etc it takes upwards of 20% or do per hours use. Lte is about 3-4% per hour, workout is another couple or so , all combined it can be roughly 30% per hour

[Sporty Bob]

Thank you Potshot...  That is what I pretty much resulted in where as a 3 hour workout wiped out the entire battery.  I understand the OS is known to be a power hog; however, as a watch that touts health features and fitness, but this is saying a marathon runner who runs a marthon in 3.5 hours cannot use this watch if they want to track their run, listen to music, and have emergency cellular available.  That is just a poor product.  My wife's latest iWatch now blows this out of the water on performance.  (I can't stand Apple, but this has me wondering if Samsung is not serious for these types of users.)

[Sporty Bob]

I fully appreciate now knowing that the OS is known to be a power drain.  But is it too much to ask for someone who bought this to use for fitness to want the ability to run a marathon for 3.5 hours, listen to music, track my fitness, and have cellular available for an emergency and still have some battery left in order to make it home and recharge?

My Garmin which does not have LTE does everything else including GPS and it lasts for repeated workouts for a few days.  Is LTE/cellular that much of a drain?  Or is it as you say due to the OS being a power hog?  

[Potshot2k4]

No problem, I always make sure my battery is 100% before doing any exercise longer than an hour and playing music as well. Mainly in case I need to rely on it afterwards for calls etc till I get my phone or recharge. I think as long as you don't stream/play music the power drain isn't that bad.

[Blessed4life]

Hi all, there's an update out for the Galaxy Watch 4 classic. I have the Lte model, and I just finished updating here in the UK.