Apple Watch will have ‘Power Reserve’ mode for saving battery life

By

apple-watch-stainless
The Apple Watch in stainless steel. Photo: Apple

The Apple Watch will have a special battery-saving feature that will essentially turn it into a basic timepiece.

The previously unreleased detail about the smartwatch’s functionality showed up Sunday in a New York Times story that digs into Apple’s development of the long-awaited wearable.

“The company also developed a yet-to-be-announced feature called Power Reserve, a mode that will run the watch on low energy but display only the time,” reports the Times.

Apple says the Watch’s battery will last a full day and require nightly juicing through its inductive charger. It’s also been reported that the Watch will run only a couple of hours at full use. But interactions with the Watch are designed to be brief, which should help offset the lack of battery life.

A Power Reserve mode would certainly help conserve battery in a pinch, but limiting the Watch to functioning only as a timepiece sounds like a less-than-ideal solution. It’s unclear whether the feature will be shown off at Apple’s March 9 “Spring forward” event, which is assumed to reveal even more about the upcoming smartwatch.

Additional pricing, specific availability details surrounding the Watch’s April launch and third-party apps for the wearable are all expected to be revealed next Monday.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.