The Apple Watch depend less and less on the iPhone and this is confirmed a little more in terms of GPS. The new models, namely the Apple Watch Series 8, SE 2 et Ultra have a different behavior compared to older models.
The Apple Watch relies less on the iPhone
On a support page, Apple noted :
Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8, and SE (2nd generation) use Apple Watch’s built-in GPS, even when your iPhone is nearby. To preserve battery life, older Apple Watch models use your iPhone’s GPS when available.
It’s no surprise that the Apple Watch Ultra is able to do this. The battery provides at least twice as much autonomy than the Apple Watch Series 8. The decision to include the Apple Watch Series 8 and SE 2 is interesting, however, because the hardware hasn’t changed much from the Series 7. And yet, this model still has to rely on the iPhone’s GPS if it is nearby.
The takeaway is that Apple seems much more confident regarding the battery life of its latest Apple Watches, whether standalone devices or devices used with the iPhone. For autonomic activity tracking on cellular models, nothing has really changed. On the other hand, if you take your iPhone with you, outdoor workouts won’t drain your phone’s battery as much. You can train longer outdoors without having to keep an eye on your iPhone battery.
As for the watch battery, Apple has also added a new low power mode to watchOS 9 that extends battery life without sacrificing GPS or heart rate data.
As a reminder, the first Apple Watch in 2015 relied exclusively on the iPhone’s GPS. This continued with the model released a year later. Built-in GPS debuted with the Apple Watch Series 2.
