Likewise. I suppose an always-on display is a big boon for most customers, but I would like if I had the option to opt out of that and get considerably longer battery life instead. Conceptually I really like the watch with all the health-related sensors and such, but until the battery life improves, it's hard to be convinced.
You can opt out. I have, my wife hasn't. It definitely has an impact on the battery life (we both have the series 6). My watch easily makes it a full 24 hours, I charge it in the mornings when I work from home, or in the evening when I'll be at the office the next day. Hers lasts about 18 hours right now, though I also suspect that the fact she drops it on the charger both in the morning and as soon as she gets home from work has impacted the battery life in her case.
I wouldn't like it for camping or long hiking trips (not day hikes since I'd be able to charge it at some point easily enough), the Garmin's are definitely better for that if you want something for tracking your hike and heart rate.
Workouts use a lot more sensor and GPS data. Series 6's 18-hour quoted battery life includes an hour workout. However, if you want to run it with a continuous workout, you can get "up to 11 hours indoor workout, up to 7 hours outdoor workout with GPS and up to 6 hours outdoor workout with GPS and LTE".
> I would like if I had the option to opt out of that and get considerably longer battery life instead
If you would really like that you would have clicked on display settings and realized that they’ve had the option to opt-out since the day Always-On Displays were announced.
