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Disappointing battery life

I have just upgraded from a Fenix 5 to a Fenix 5 plus and so far I am finding the battery life to be a lot less than I would expect.

I used to get nearly 2 weeks battery life out of the Fenix 5 but so far the Fenix 5 plus has used 25% in 2 days, both watches are set up and used exactly the same.

I know the Fenix 5 plus is supposed to have slightly less battery life but at this rate it is not even going to last a week.

Does anyone know if this will improve if I cycle the battery a couple of times or if this is normal for this model

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0 renton82 over 6 years ago

Reading the list of changes in FW v6, nothing mentioned battery life explicitly, but I wonder if this fix will help:
Fixed an intermittent issue where the device could switch to high power mode, and search for GPS and other ANT/BT sensors while playing music outside of an activity.

I think it's only music related, i have just tried and i still have PABD

0 zetxx over 6 years ago

i can confirm PABD, 4% after activity and restart after it, for a hour

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

completely dead after unboxing. It appears to be a sign of faulty battery

Are you suggesting that a completely dead Garmin from new indicates a problem with the battery? It's possible of course, but may not be applicable to all.

I've just unboxed one and it had a complete dead battery. However, there do not appear to be any problems that are readily apparent with the battery. I've had it on 24/7 for the past few days with about 3h of GPS use connected to external HR, BT on and still have over 80% left. This is the first Garmin I've had over the years that has been completely dead out of the box. Usually there has been some charge.

0 OEAGLEO over 6 years ago

Are you suggesting that a completely dead Garmin from new indicates a problem with the battery? It's possible of course, but may not be applicable to all.

I've just unboxed one and it had a complete dead battery. However, there do not appear to be any problems that are readily apparent with the battery. I've had it on 24/7 for the past few days with about 3h of GPS use connected to external HR, BT on and still have over 80% left. This is the first Garmin I've had over the years that has been completely dead out of the box. Usually there has been some charge.

I believe this is due to stock age, as when I've bought other devices (Fenix 5x, etc) from one retailer (REI) the devices have always had about 1/2 charge, or at least enough I could set it up, and put it on in the car, however, when I purchased my first, (and second) one from Scheels, both devices had dead batteries right out of the boxes. One box was unsealed, and when I got it home, I discovered that it had been a store return (which royally pissed me off) as it had other user information in the directory structure of the watch. The other one was also devoid of any power, and when I charged it, it seemed okay. I later returned it for other reasons, (bad/intermittent HR readings), and purchased another from REI that had a charged battery. None have had any trackable battery issues however, but I was sure to charge for an hour or two past the 100% indication on the watchface. I'm currently doing full power cycles on the Fenix 5+ that I purchased last, to insure a decent cycle. I'm getting about 8% a day on the 5+, we'll see if this improves over time.

0 chatlow over 6 years ago

So acting just as a smart watch with BT on, I am quite impressed with battery life. I see around a 7-8% hit each day which lines up with what they advertise and isn't too far off my previous F5.

I've recently been doing more running outside than cycling and it's here I see a big drop. Using GPS + Galileo as I'm in a pretty built up area with a lot of trees, the activity itself doesn't appear too draining (45 mins with some long pauses between threshold work was 30 total and lost around 4% last night), but the post activity saw another 5% go within a a couple of hours. I did a restart after the run as I have heard this could help GPS drain.

I usually aim for a 1 hour swim, 2 30-45m runs and 3 cycles (2 are indoor ant+ only) as well as 2-3 commutes which are 20 mins each but I resume these workouts later (so paused between 9am and 6pm). I'm confident the watch can handle this with just one charge per week but it will be quite low at the end.

Charged mine to a legit 100% friday 9pm. Currently at 64% with 2 30 min GPS+Galileo runs and the watch was off for 8 hours on Sunday night.

0 Seren over 6 years ago

Same here...not done a full charge/discharge cycle yet but it's looking like 8 days with 1 hour GPS a day, on at night, no steps tracking, blutooth on when needed for sync, 5% backlight after sunset. No noticeable post activity drain. Certainly knocks any other device into a cocked hat on battery life. How are your running tracks shaping up? Have you done any walks with the device yet? If so are you seeing relatively poor track like I am?

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

Same here...not done a full charge/discharge cycle yet but it's looking like 8 days with 1 hour GPS a day, on at night, no steps tracking, blutooth on when needed for sync, 5% backlight after sunset. No noticeable post activity drain. Certainly knocks any other device into a cocked hat on battery life. How are your running tracks shaping up? Have you done any walks with the device yet? If so are you seeing relatively poor track like I am?

How much battery does disabling the steps counter save?

0 GaryHawke over 6 years ago

I charged the Fenix 5 plus before bed last night slept for 7 hours and the watch was still at 100%, went for a two hour run this morning and used Music for the last 30 mins, battery drain was around 14%. Since then the battery is drain around 2% an hour. Meaning that there is more battery drain in four hours then the seven hours of sleeping.

0 Seren over 6 years ago

Unknown...I'd need to run some tests to isolate steps impact on battery. As I have zero interest in steps it might be hard to find the time.

I wouldn't have thought it's much. Alti log is running anyway..just a very small CPU / memory hit and update display if it's a field.

0 chatlow over 6 years ago

GPS track for me is pretty good and consistent. I don't mind if it's not perfect as wouldn't expect this from a watch anyway. Instance pace is still off, but i usually go by average these days or lap. Seems better when using Galileo, but it might be me overthinking it - plus having read that we are not going ahead with the system after all, I am wondering if it's a waste of battery using it (seeing as it's not fully implemented and won't be now) ...

post activity battery drain pretty bad here, so will try a 30-60 min run on weekend with just GPS and see how it reacts afterwards