With features like ECG, Trip detection and Oxygen monitoring, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is an attractive smartwatch. The best part is that it balances fitness-focused features with smart features nicely. However, things are not looking good when it comes to battery life.
When I got the Galaxy Watch 3 it only lasted a day. I slept at 42% one night and the next morning the battery was dead. I am not kidding.
Compared to previous smartwatches, Galaxy Watch 3 has a shorter battery life. For example, the 46mm Galaxy Watch will last up to 4 days on a single charge.
However, I fiddled with the watch a bit and made a few changes and thankfully the battery lasted a little longer. If you’re seeing terrible battery life on your Galaxy Watch 3, here are some changes you can make.
1. Disable Always On Display
He agreed that the Always On Display (AOD) was one of the watch’s attractive features. However, it is one of the main reasons for battery drain, especially on fancy watch faces. AOD helps you see the information on your watch without waking your watch or raising your wrist. However, if your watch’s battery is running low, it’s time to put it down.
To disable it, pull down the Quick Settings menu and tap the Always On Watch option.
If you are not in the habit of clicking the Home button or the Back button to wake your watch, enable Wake-up gestures. You can find this in the Galaxy Wearable app under Settings > Advanced.
2. Disable Wi-Fi
As far as I can see, enabling the watch’s Wi-Fi has a serious impact on the battery. This was an issue with my Watch Active 2 smartwatch and the Galaxy Watch 3 is no exception. For notifications and calls, handy Bluetooth is more than enough if your connected phone is within pairing distance.
Turning off Wi-Fi is simple. Like the method above, you need to pull down the Quick Settings menu and turn on the switch.
The same goes for other connections like NFC, provided you don’t use them often. I found that turning off the Wi-Fi connection significantly helped battery life.
3. Use Dark Watch Faces
Of course colorful watch faces look fancy and all. But they are also big battery enthusiasts. Solution? Use dark watch faces.
The wearable app and Samsung store have multiple AMOLED-friendly watch faces that are compatible with your smartwatch and will help you save battery life in the process. On AMOLED screens, black area means that the pixels are turned off, which saves battery life. The mantra here is to opt for blacker watch faces to conserve battery juice.
You can get several AMOLED friendly watch faces in the Galaxy Wearable app. Also, you can visit Galaxy Store for more. To do this, open the Wearable app and tap the Explore tab at the bottom.
When you’re done, tap the Search button at the top, search for AMOLED and that’s it. Once you find the one you like, apply it after you finish installing.
4. Optimize Battery If You Use Too Many Apps
Galaxy Watch smartwatches may not have as many compatible apps as the Apple Watch, but it’s safe to say the numbers are pretty good. And if you can’t do without the already limited options, the best solution would be to keep an eye on the status of the app.
Like older smartphones, apps can continue to drain battery even when you’re not actively using them.
Optimized Battery mode on your watch takes care of such issues. So be sure to optimize the clock battery from time to time. To do this, go to the Quick Settings menu and tap the battery-shaped icon, which will take you to the Power Saver screen.
Rotate the bezel clockwise and you will see the Optimize option. Battery Optimization mode also takes care of when the screen brightness and screen time are set too high.
Besides that, you can also check your watch’s battery stats to see which app draws the maximum juice.
To do this, select About Phone in the app and tap the Battery icon. You can see that Samsung Health consumes maximum energy as I am using a non-Samsung watch.
5. Reduce Brightness and Screen Timeout
This is not rocket science. The screen tends to eat most of the battery juice and if the brightness of the screen and the screen times out.
To reduce the screen timeout to around 30 seconds, go to the Wearable app and select the View option.
As for brightness, pull down the Quick Settings menu and tap the brightness icon and you’ll know the rest.
6. Heart Rate Monitoring
Can you afford the heart rate monitoring to run every 10 minutes? As you can imagine, keeping it on all the time will drain the battery quickly.
To change the heart rate monitoring frequency, go to the Heart monitoring widget on your watch and scroll down until you see the Settings option. Once inside, tap on Every 10 minutes.
7. Stay Updated
Whether it is a smartphone or a smartwatch, it is recommended to always keep it updated, unless the update is full of bugs, of course. For example, my watch previously lasted a little over a day. After updating to the latest version, I can see that the battery lasts for about 2 days with the Wi-Fi turned off.
Don’t forget to check that Auto Download over Wi-Fi is enabled (under Watch software update). As the name suggests, this will prompt you to install the OTA when the time comes.
Use It Correctly
If your watch is connected to a Samsung phone, you are in a safe zone (in terms of battery). When connected to a Samsung phone, syncing won’t drain the battery too much. Conversely, when connecting to a non-Samsung device, the battery drain is huge and there isn’t much you can do for now unless you turn off Bluetooth. Bummer, I know.
As for the above steps, you cannot actually follow them all as they will deprive you of a smartwatch. The mantra here is to find what works best for you. For example, I can afford to keep the Wi-Fi off and run the heart rate monitor every 10 minutes. I’ve also enabled notifications for only a few select apps like Slack.
Naturally, turning on GPS when you go for a walk, run, or bike ride will drain the battery faster when GPS is turned on. Again, if you can bear to keep it turned off, you can do so from Connections > Location > GPS.
Next: Are you bothered by the constant accumulation of sweat under the band? Check out the article below and discover some pretty amazing fitness bands for Galaxy Watch 3 that won’t strain your skin.