I work in an area with really bad cell reception. So bad my phone also struggles. Surprisingly I can go for a run and stream Spotify and rarely get an interruption. I think it’s able to cache enough of the track fast enough to get me through the areas where the service gets really bad.

Another observation I made is I recently switched to T-Mobile which also has bad service where I work but much better than ATT. Suddenly my battery is doing dramatically better. Even on days I don’t run or stream at all. I figured that LTE sat idle if your watch was near your phone and/or connected to WiFi.

Smaller antenna, and less power available, equal poorer connectivity than on a phone. You’ll also notice you only get LTE, again lower power requirement and a smaller antenna keep 5G out of reach. Then again, the most you’ll stream is music, and LTE is a perfectly sound decision to make. It’s not like you’re streaming 8K videos for the watch.