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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 Artivis over 6 years ago

The 5.53 Beta firmware changelog says:

Fixed an issue introduced in version 5.52 Beta that could cause high battery drain

Maybe it will help those who have battery problems.

To all those reading.. NOT EVERY FENIX 5 PLUS OWNER HAS PROBLEMS WITH BATTERY LIFE.. my F5+ generally uses 8-10% of battery per day (without GPS activities or listening to music but with custom watch face and BT notifications from phone - that means 10-12 days battery life )..

I also didn't notice any post activity drain, and the last 4 hours GPS hike took 23% from battery (which gives an approximation of 17h GPS battery life)

0 SAHO over 6 years ago

NOT EVERY FENIX 5 PLUS OWNER HAS PROBLEMS WITH BATTERY LIFE..

+1!

0 renton82 over 6 years ago

I hadn't any battery drain problem with 5.52 but i however update to 5.53...

0 renton82 over 6 years ago

Obviously, battery meter bug is still here, charge jump to 95-97% to 100% and after reboot drop to 95%...

0 fjelsten over 6 years ago

Just want to add my +1 to this. I am seeing a significant increase in battery drain after a GPS workout.

I am seeing this as well on 5+

0 jimoestman over 6 years ago

My experience with my 5+, FW 5.1

+1 Battery drain in smartwatch mode as advertised by Garmin (around 8 % per 24h, watch on and worn entire time, HR on and connected to cellphone)
+1 "Battery drain" after GPS activity above drain in smartwatch mode (1 hour after stopped and saved activity, battery gauge has dropped roughly 2%. Could use 1 decimal to get more accurate reading.)
-1 Battery gauge jumps down from 100% after charging and rebooting the watch - I have tested for this and experienced no such behaviour

Some have these issues and some do not.

As the battery % is an estimate of the state of charge, I don't know yet if I would call the the "post activity drain" a battery drain issue or an inaccuracy in information given to user due to the complex algorithms used to come up with the estimated percentage.

0 SAHO over 6 years ago

Obviously, battery meter bug is still here, charge jump to 95-97% to 100% and after reboot drop to 95%...

Yes, I've seen this too - but really, how does it matter?
I've seen this behaviour in both ends of the battery scale from a lot of chargeable devices over the years, be it cell phones, ipods, head sets, laptops and you name it.

Could it be better? Yes, of course.
Does it degrade the typical usability of the F5+? No.
Does it degrade your quality of life? I certainly hope not.

My experience with my 5+, FW 5.1

I will add my +1 to all of jim's findings.

0 renton82 over 6 years ago

Yes, I've seen this too - but really, how does it matter?
I've seen this behaviour in both ends of the battery scale from a lot of chargeable devices over the years, be it cell phones, ipods, head sets, laptops and you name it.

Ok, not a major issue, but it's not good that you can't estimate how long could last battery especially before a long trip... Take Suunto 9 for example, it can exactly estimate how long can last battery, for a 700€ toy i must expect maximum grade of precision!

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

... for a 700€ toy i must expect maximum grade of precision!

That's exactly the point.
Garmin takes the money but doesn't deliver... and even worse.. doesn't care at all
Even a 100,-$ chinese Finow X5 smartwatch with integrades GSM, GPS, BT etc. is able to show the correct battery state.

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

+1 on Jim's findings.

I am not sure we can say 'Garmin don't care', I think they do, but failing to find these bugs that have been ongoing for a while is frustrating. It would be nice for Garmin to acknowledge there is a problem but I think from previous posts they are struggling to replicate them.