The Apple Watch’s battery life basically makes it useless

Apple’s smartwatch may look like a sleek piece of tech, but like pretty much all first-gen wearables, there’s at least one flaw that makes us want to cry (and also not buy one). That flaw is, as usual, reportedly terrible battery life.

According to 9to5Mac, the Apple Watch will only offer between two and four hours of application use on a single charge, even less than many of the already-dead-in-no-time wearables out right now. If you basically rock the watch like a very expensive wrist ornament and refuse to use it, you can expect around three days of standby time.

The reality is that most users will have to charge the device every single night and will probably struggle to make it through the day, which is one headache we could all do without.

Apple has reportedly kitted the Watch out with a full, tailored version of iOS dubbed “SkiHill”. You’ll also find a processor equal to the Apple A5 and a “Retina-class” display capable of pushing 60 FPS, both of which are likely to place significant power demands on the device’s tiny battery.

Apple reportedly set out to deliver a watch which lasts a full day of usage, but even those barn-sized targets have proved difficult to meet. Instead of offering a watch which will last the average user 24 hours, it’s now apparently aiming for two and half hours of intensive app use, or a straight four hours when running the watch’s fitness monitoring app.

The source also stated that the watch can only display a watch face for approximately three hours before the battery is fully depleted, which is likely to harm its appeal as a luxury timepiece.

Issues with battery life and slow recharging have apparently remained a source of consternation for Apple for the last year, and these problems are said to be behind the company’s decision to scrap the Christmas 2014 launch date in favour of a spring 2015 one. While they’re reportedly nearing their revised targets, it’s fairly safe to say that users might be better off waiting for generation two before splashing a hefty amount of cash.