Disappointing battery life

7 days of activity tracking, minimal notifications, 10-12 garmin pay transactions
Battery started @ 100%, now 41%.
Battery gauge shows a consistent drain

2nd charge after purchase

Update no. 3.

Watch in the end dropped only 9% on day two, and after 24 hours day 3, dropped only 3%! Again not able to do activities at the moment, still on 1st charge. Battery issues seem non event, but ll do a run tomorrow to see.

Just a point of clarification. The battery drain occurs after an activity that uses the OHR. I see a lot of people posting about daily smart watch use with no issues. I agree...the watch does not exhibit abnormal behavior in smart watch mode. The problem occurs when you use the OHR during an activity.

Third day in a row of switching off the OHR for 2 hours after a run and not seeing the excessive battery drain. If you are still having this issue, I would suggest switching off the OHR for a bit after you finish your activity.

Yeah I agree, there's now lots of posts on from people are saying their battery drain falls in line with the advertised specification, but they\re not actually doing any activities which is really what the main issue seems to be - excessive battery drain for a short period following an activity (aka PABD), for which the possible culprit might be either:

OHR
Wi-Fi
Sensor connectivity

I know there's also an issue of the inaccuracy of the battery level indicator, but that seems to be a separate issue as the battery drain experienced by some is very real. I've gone from fully charged (f5+ charging for over 10 hours) to dead (device shutting down) in 48hrs with just two x 1hr GPS activities - and that's without using anything like music, smart notifications or Garmin Pay.

I'm now on my second f5+ but unfortunately won't have the chance to record any activity on it for a couple of weeks due to travel.

Did a nearly 8 hours ride yesterday. I wasn't doing a pre-defined course, but checked the map I'd say for about 10% of the time. With a chest strap the watch went down from full charge to 57%, I'd say it is pretty impressive for a really long ride. It could do a whole day recording.

Also, doing breast stroke in open water I strap it to the googles, makes a lot better reading not being under the water surface during the swim.

40% drop in charge by 1.5h running with GPS, HR & music
20% drop in charge by 1.5h running with GPS, HR
10% drop in charge by night with HR

Just a point of clarification. The battery drain occurs after an activity that uses the OHR. I see a lot of people posting about daily smart watch use with no issues. I agree...the watch does not exhibit abnormal behavior in smart watch mode. The problem occurs when you use the OHR during an activity.

Third day in a row of switching off the OHR for 2 hours after a run and not seeing the excessive battery drain. If you are still having this issue, I would suggest switching off the OHR for a bit after you finish your activity.

I notice the PABD when I do an activity with a chest strap and not the OHR. I'd say that it was the GPS but I don't do enough activities that don't use the GPS to make that statement with confidence. I've also noticed that I start to see an increased battery drain after the watch has been on for a while even without an activity during that time. I wonder if there could be a memory leak in some driver or module.

I created a spreadsheet to track the battery drain to look for patterns. Here is a screenshot of my rough draft.

[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","height":"599","width":"1603","src":"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/Uvqrzog.png"}[/IMG2]

I notice the PABD when I do an activity with a chest strap and not the OHR. I'd say that it was the GPS but I don't do enough activities that don't use the GPS to make that statement with confidence. I've also noticed that I start to see an increased battery drain after the watch has been on for a while even without an activity during that time. I wonder if there could be a memory leak in some driver or module.

I created a spreadsheet to track the battery drain to look for patterns. Here is a screenshot of my rough draft.
[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","height":"599","width":"1603","src":"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/Uvqrzog.png"}[/IMG2]

This ties in with my experiences.

When I usually walk I use GPS & OHR and get #PABD.

When I cycle I use GPS & HR strap and get #PABD.

When I do a gym workout I do not use GPS and use a HR strap and do not get #PABD.

Yesterday I went for a walk using GPS & HR strap and got #PABD.

So given all these scenarios it would appear that GPS is the common factor for getting #PABD, however the only combination I have not tried is no GPS with OHR.

Just a point of clarification. The battery drain occurs after an activity that uses the OHR. I see a lot of people posting about daily smart watch use with no issues. I agree...the watch does not exhibit abnormal behavior in smart watch mode. The problem occurs when you use the OHR during an activity.

I was hopeful about this but sadly, after some testing, I cannot confirm this. I see #PABD whether I turn OHR on or off after the activity. I also see #PABD after activities with HRM Run as well as OHR only. As was pointed in replies above me, this seems to be connected to GPS, not OHR. Activities without GPS don't exhibit significant #PABD, while activities with GPS do.

I have plenty of samples of a three types. I hike a long hikes with OHR only and get terrible battery drain. I run short and long runs with HRM run and get a battery drain. I do relatively short Strength training sessions with OHR and no GPS and get no battery drain. The only thing I haven't extensively testes is no GPS and HRM Run.

So most likely PABD is connected to GPS use. But it could also be that my Strength training sessions are simply too short to exhibit significant #PABD.