Apple Watch 2: New wearable to have bigger battery and smaller body, report claims

The smartwatch is set to be announced alongside the iPhone 7 at Apple’s biggest event of the year next week

Andrew Griffin
Friday 02 September 2016 11:48 EDT
Comments
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about the Apple Watch during a special event at the company’s headquarters in California in March, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about the Apple Watch during a special event at the company’s headquarters in California in March, 2016 (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Apple is about to release its second Apple Watch – with a bigger battery and a smaller body.

The new watch isn’t set to bring many new features, and instead be more of a refinement of the existing watch than a whole re-design of the phone. But it will fix some of the biggest complaints that people have about the existing model – that it’s too big and the battery dies too quickly.

Various reports have said that the battery life will receive a huge upgrade. One rumour suggested that the second version of the watch will see a 35 per cent battery boost, and an electronics shop that claims to have got hold of the watch says that the capacity has been increased to 1.28 WH from 0.98 WH.

It’s not clear whether that extra capacity will actually lead to a longer battery life. The new version of the Watch operating system, which is expected to come out at the same time as the hardware, borrows more computing power from the watch and so might use up more battery – meaning that the extra battery could actually keep the same time between charges, rather than adding extra battery life.

The same report from Byte – which claims to have seen leaked components – also said that the new Watch will have a “noticeably thinner” panel than the existing watch. The display itself is unchanged, but being less deep the watch could be smaller and flatter on the arm, the report says.

In all, the Apple Watch has seen far fewer leaks than the iPhone 7 that it will be introduced alongside. It is reported that it will focus far more on health than other features, and that some long rumoured additions including technology to allow it to work independently of the phone might actually be left out of the model revealed next week.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in