Wesley's Tool-Box

As many people including myself noticed, iOS 9 beta 1 and watchOS 2 beta 1 had horrible battery life. After two weeks of bearing this, beta 2 of both OSes arrived on June 23 (June 24 in Korea), amidst the hope that they would fix or lessen this battery problem. The one for Apple Watch was pulled just after release, but then re-uploaded a few hours later. I was able to have these betas installed on my iPhone 6 Plus and my Apple Watch as soon as I could.

It's now been more than two full days since and Apple Watch has finally been launched in Korea with people lining up in front of the store despite the rain. For those people who were now wondering if the new beta is anything worth diving into for their shiny new watch, here's my verdict. Yes, it's better than 2.0 beta 1, but no, it's not quite as battery-efficient as 1.0.1. As for the iOS 9 beta 2, its battery life is back to being as good as 8.3 for my iPhone 6 Plus, which was excellent.

This is good news for iPhones, but for Apple Watch, sticking to a non-beta version is still recommended if you value long battery life. As you've seen before, 1.0 / 1.0.1 version delivered about 26 hours of continuous usage on average for me, which included daily exercising and moderate interactions. 2.0 beta 1 effectively halved this, often getting only 12 hours and conservative use barely pushing it to 18 hours. So I'd say that's roughly 15 hours per charge, to be generous. With 2.0 beta 2, I've been getting about 21 hours of use daily so far, barely good enough for one-charge-a-day routine but lacking any comfortable margin.

Meanwhile, the apps do run smoother again, almost like 1.0.1, making the experience less annoying overall. There are still some noticeable bugs, like the one that prevents scrolling with digital crown in certain notifications. This has been persisting since beta 1. Another problem I am seeing is that the voice call volume is quite low and rebooting doesn't fix it. This one seems to be new for this beta. Anyone who's seeking cutting edge, beware.

Apple Watch's Korean launch is just a few days away (June 26) and I'd like to offer you a nicely consolidated list of all my reviews for your convenience. I hope this will help you get some idea on whether you should get one and how you should use it if you do.

Preview	Summary
	1. One of the first Apple Watch in Korea
	Sent three days after the official release in the US and arriving about a week later, one of the first Apple Watch to land in Korea gets prompt unboxing and gets ready for a full review.
	2. Getting the Apple Watch up & running
	I have the bands installed in place and the battery wirelessly charged up, so that I can pair the Apple Watch with my iPhone 6 Plus and make it work.
	3. Basic screens & buttons of the Apple Watch
	Apple Watch's many screens are explored, including the watch face, lock screen, home, and favourites. I also try out the digital crown and the side button.
	4. Notifications & contacts on Apple Watch
	As one of the primary functions, I took a look at how the notifications appear and interact. Then I tried contacting someone with Apple Watch, either through text or voice.
	5. Apple Watch's daily life tracking
	Fitness tracking with Apple Watch is explored, including the heartbeat measurement with an integrated sensor and the daily activity logging through a three-ring system.
	6. Running, swimming with Apple Watch
	I had both Nintendo Wii Fit Plus and Apple Watch record indoor running sessions to see how they compare. Then I went swimming with my Apple Watch to see if it'd actually work.
	7. Apple Watch as an extension, stand-in
	I tried using Apple Watch as a replacement for membership cards. Then I remote controlled my Apple TV and iPhone 6 Plus camera with it, as well.
	8. Battery life of the Apple Watch
	I recorded my Apple Watch's battery life for three weeks, through international travels and all sorts of exercises, to see if Apple's claims stood up.
	9. More Apple Watch observations
	I took a look at how fast the Apple Watch charges up and how step counting data are consolidated. Also, I have some more tips and observations on its daily use.
	10. 45 days with Apple Watch & watchOS 2
	Seven weeks later, the hardware of Apple Watch Sport is still standing up quite well. But early watchOS 2 and iOS 9 betas are incredibly rough to use.

As it's about a week away from Apple Watch's official launch in Korea (and other 2nd wave countries), I wanted to provide an update on the current state of my watch. This is to hint at its durability and upcoming functions.

On the durability side, things are more or less as expected. As I went traveling in New Zealand, the watch accidentally brushed with the walls of the buildings a few times while walking around. It left two slight scratches, one on the aluminum frame and one the glass. The latter is nearly invisible unless seen at a right angle under a bright light. Sapphire glass would've fared even better, but the ion-hardened one on this Sport version seems to be alright, too, given that's all it's gotten after kisses with rough surface.


As for the band, the front side had no visible changes. The back side had been showing marks where rubbings happened only a few days after wearing, but they had no effect on the functional and performance aspects of the band. So unless you take the watch off your wrist to see the marks, you won't be able to tell the difference from day 1 to day 45 use.

Considering all this, I think Apple Watch Sport should be quite usable for a long time, under normal circumstances. Meanwhile, I also had the chance to explore the upcoming OS, watchOS 2, as WWDC 2015 event unfolded nearly two weeks ago.

1. Charging Speed

I knew that my Apple Watch gets charged in about two hours, but I couldn't do charging test because it's rare to see it drained to 0% on normal use and I was collecting battery use data for the first three weeks. Now that this was done, I induced the watch to drain until it went into Power Reserve mode as it hit below 1%. Then I put it on the charger to see how it went back to 100%. During the time, no notifications were received by the watch and the only time the screen was on was when I checked the charging status every 5 minutes.

Apple's official document claims that a (38mm) Apple Watch would charge up to 80% in 1.5 hours, and take another hour to hit 100%. In testing my 42mm watch, it charged to 82% in 1 hour 20 minutes, getting about 5 to 6% charged every 5 minutes. 37 minutes later it became fully charged, taking slightly less than two hours (1 hour 57 minutes) total. Perhaps Apple's estimates were conservative.

Seeing as I generally have 20 to 30% of battery left when I charge it daily, this means I can put my watch back on after about an hour and a half of charging. Less downtime is good.


2. Water, Cleaning, & Touch Screen

In the first two weeks of use, I didn't let my Apple Watch touch flowing water. I simply wiped off any dirt or sweat with a cloth. Interestingly, the digital crown began to feel sticky. It used to be that it would effortlessly spin when touched with a finger, but this was not the case anymore.

Seeing that the device was water resistant, I thought it would make sense to clean it with water to resolve the situation. And indeed, after a light dip in the running tap water, the stickiness was gone. To prevent any future occurrences and for good hygiene, I have the watch washed at least once daily these days.

As I wash the watch, the flow of water onto the touch screen usually turns the screen off. But occasionally the screen gets turned back on and certain flows of water get interpreted as finger touches, resulting in unintended button pushes or swipes. This seems to be the culprit of a minor annoyance when swimming with the Apple Watch. Midway through a swimming session, it sometimes decides to stop logging, and an errant press on the (X) button on the screen might have happened.

With some of the smart watches or bands lasting a few days to a week, Apple Watch's claim of an 18-hour use for a typical day in case of the 38mm version was viewed as being too short and even the worries about the device not lasting a full day came about. Apple did claim that the 42mm version had a larger battery and would last somewhat longer. With all these in mind, I decided to log the daily battery status of my 42mm Apple Watch Sport for the past three weeks.

So how was it? First of all, Apple Watch doesn't say anything outright about its battery status unless it drops to 10%, at which it displays the warning you see above. (You could check the exact amount of battery left from one of the Glances whenever you want, by the way.) Personally, it was rare for me to even encounter this message at the end of a normal day, as you'll see later. So that alone tells you that the device is good enough for a full-day use. If you do get to see the warning, you could choose to enter the Power Reserve mode or ignore.

Power Reserve mode shuts down every function except the the time-telling ability like you see above so that it'll function as a watch as long as possible. When the battery does go near 0% (I think it happened around 2% remaining), it'll automatically enter this mode anyway. It's a last ditch effort to maintain its identity until you're able to charge it back to its normal life, so it'll be good if it could be avoided as much as possible.


This graph shows the result of the three-week use, which included all sorts of different usage patterns. Some involved heavy testing; some days I was traveling overseas; and some days I wasn't doing much but mostly sit around the office. All these were boiled down to these coloured bars - green bar represents the actual use time for the day, and the violet bar is the estimated time left until the battery runs out based on the remaining battery percentage noted on the far right.

On average, I got 22 hours and 12 minutes of use per day, with 6 hours and 17 minutes of use left, or about 22%. At no time did the combined time dip below 18 hours. These all clearly indicate that the 42mm version can last one full day of use. And if you forgot to recharge before going into sleep, you still have a good chance that it'll at least last the morning until you can get a two-hour charging session then.

What's also clear is that it will not realistically last full two days unless you use it really sparingly, so you need to get used to a daily recharging routine. Personally, I try to recharge about two hours before bedtime and get into sleep with a fully charged watch. I'm fine with this, but for those wanting to minimize the gap as much as possible, it might be disappointing.

As a smart device that's nearly always on your body, it has the potential to extend or replace existing things better than a smartphone, lessening the need to pull out or find the bulkier device to do the same thing. As I've moved to a fairly large smartphone - iPhone 6 Plus - this is something to look forward to.

One of those things I thought up was the flurry of membership cards that once occupied the wallet. Most of them now sit in a barcode form inside my iPhone, making the wallet considerably thinner. But now those could be moved to the Apple Watch, and I could just pull up my wrist to accrue reward points instead of reaching for my phone.

Because the Passbook app only sent QR codes to the watch, I looked around the Apple Watch App Store and found a couple of apps that can put the card number and the barcode on both types of devices. Eventually, I settled with Stocard, as you can see above. The cards stored on the iPhone app are automatically sync'ed to the Apple Watch app, enabling you to display the wanted barcode from either of the devices. Or, at least that was the idea.


As I loaded up the card data, I noticed that the barcodes were fairly small. It was only about 20.5mm (0.81") wide on my 42mm Apple Watch, which is even smaller than the UPC barcodes found on a product. I wondered if this would be scanned at all.

As a field test, I tried out on two of the biggest hypermarket franchises in Korea: Lotte Mart and Emart. To my surprise, the barcode readers at the stores were able to pick up the numbers without a problem as long as the reader was held close to the watch. The high-density 326ppi display may have helped this.

It's not all completely convenient at this point, though. Because the Apple Watch app has to rely on the iPhone to provide the data due to current SDK limitations, loading speed is slow with my 24-card collection. I have to load the app and make sure the barcode is up before going to the cashier. Hopefully, this will be resolved with the SDK updates later this year.