What Apple Watch really needs is a battery that lasts longer than a day

[u/Sumit316]

https://www.cnet.com/news/what-apple-watch-really-needs-is-a-battery-that-lasts-longer-than-a-day/

[u/FANGO]

Nope, batteries will never last a week and it's not a matter of "battery tech not being there yet." They won't last a week because they don't need to last a week and, importantly, people don't want them to last a week.

But you say "but I just said I wanted them to last a week!" and sure enough, lots of people say this. But when you are given the choice between a phone which is smaller and cheaper or larger and more expensive, and yet both phones have the same practical capabilities, you will pick the smaller and cheaper one. When you are given a choice between a phone that uses more power to give you more capabilities or one that uses less power to make it so you only have to plug it in once every two days instead of once every day, you'll pick the more capable one.

And if you are one of the very few people who do want/need a phone that will last a week, you buy a battery case. These are readily available. Yet are they universal? No way. People don't use them that often because they offer no actual benefit. Because the difference between plugging in a phone every night and plugging it in every few nights is literally nil. Heck, plugging it in every night is better/easier since it makes an easy habit, and you won't forget for a few days in a row and end up with a dead battery because of it.

This all goes for phones, watches, cars, laptops, everything with a battery. The battery storage size is a result of usage patterns, not battery technology (which btw does improve at a rate of about 5-10% per year, and has for decades - and yet today's batteries don't last a week as compared to the original cellphones which lasted a day, because people care more about size and capabilities than multi-day usage).