The Apple Watch Ultra will get one other battery-saving exercise setting

The Apple Watch Ultra can now final even longer on a single cost. In watchOS 9.1, Apple has added a exercise setting that extends battery life to an estimated 60 hours by decreasing GPS and coronary heart price readings.

Battery life estimates for the Ultra could be a little powerful to parse. The official line is that the watch lasts as much as 36 hours with regular use and as much as 12 hours throughout an outside run. However, Apple additionally launched a Low Power Mode in watchOS 9 that limits or disables sure options to final sufficient to complete an Ironman race — roughly 14-15 hours. But to get that 60-hour estimate, you must allow each Low Power Mode and the brand new “Fewer GPS and heart rate readings” setting.

The vanilla Low Power Mode turns off the always-on show and limits background options and sensor readings like auto-workout detection and irregular coronary heart price notifications. And whereas you should use mobile options on demand, it’ll solely fetch updates about as soon as an hour. Otherwise, steady coronary heart price and GPS readings are left untouched while you’re understanding. The Low Power Workout Mode, nevertheless, reduces how usually the Ultra takes these coronary heart price and GPS readings as nicely. Instead, you’ll solely get coronary heart price readings as soon as per minute, whereas GPS readings might be lowered to as soon as each two minutes.

As identified by tech reviewer DC Rainmaker, enabling this setting means your exercise knowledge received’t be fairly as in-depth. For instance, you received’t get real-time tempo or distance on the wrist or superior operating metrics. Your GPS map additionally received’t be as correct.

To allow the brand new setting, you’ll should first replace to watchOS 9.1. Once that’s accomplished, go to Settings > Workout > Fewer GPS and coronary heart price readings. Like Low Power Mode, this setting will also be used with any watch that helps watchOS 9.

That 60-hour estimate, nevertheless, is predicated on Apple’s personal particular testing situation for the Ultra. What you’ll really get in actual life might differ relying in your utilization. Your mileage can even range in case you use this setting on a Series 8, second-gen SE, or an older Series mannequin. For instance, though the Ultra is rated for 36 hours with regular use, I repeatedly get round 48-50 hours. Once, throughout a lazy weekend, I bought as much as 60 hours with no battery-saving options enabled. It’s potential that Apple’s 60-hour estimate with these settings enabled might also be conservative.