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Apple Watch battery life could be 2.5 hours with ‘heavy’ app use

Apple Watch users may get a maximum of 2.5 hours of battery life out of the smartwatch when using processor-intensive applications, according to new reports on Thursday.

9to5Mac’s sources claim to have revealed Apple’s internal targets for battery life, which all indications have suggested will need to be charged every night.

The report claims after stress testing the battery, Apple expects the watch’s cell to last for 2.5 hours when gaming, 3.5 hours when using standard apps and 4 hours when tracking exercise.

If the Apple Watch clock-face display is left on, the battery will last around three hours when accounting for the ticking animations.

When combined with active and passive use, 9to5Mac claims Apple is “shooting for roughly 19 hours of mixed usage every day.” However, the report also claims Apple may struggle to obtain that figure with its first iteration of the Apple Watch, reportedly due out in the United States by the end of March.

The issue of poor battery life has plagued the smartwatch sector since the first devices began arriving a couple of years back and it now seems clear Apple’s first efforts will do little to redeem the situation. In the meantime, dedicated fitness trackers which can last for weeks and sometimes months at a time on a single charge have continued to grow in popularity.

Read more: Apple Watch review – our first impressions

Elsewhere in the report, sources claim Apple has deployed a processor akin to the A5 chip available in the company’s iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The display will also be “Retina-class” it is claimed, capable of refreshing at 60 frames per second.

Both of these factors will doubtless add extra stress to the battery life within Apple’s long awaited entry into the wearables market.

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