Real life battery duration in the wild

Former Member over 8 years ago

I purchased the fenix 5X largely in part for the battery life during ultras. I'm coming from a suunto A3P. I've had the fenis for 8 days. I'm still getting used to the garmin system and managing the features on the watch. So far the watch has been great and the gps seems to be very accurate.

I disabled most of the apps, gestures are turned off, and backlight is set to 20%.

29 hours into owning the watch I did 2 runs with gps+glonass. It was about 9 hours of recording time including pause time and my battery level dropped to 39%. I've linked the activities below. Is this a reasonable battery drain for the 9 hours of gps+glonass use on 29 hours of total watch time? it was fully charged when I started. All the activities were at 1 sec recording.

https://www.strava.com/activities/914462258

https://www.strava.com/activities/915741633

I did another run on a full charge with gps only. 4 hours 45 minutes total time and my battery dropped to 75%

https://www.strava.com/activities/921242215

Any suggestions on managing the settings to maximize battery life? I would like to get at least 18 hours of gps activity on a single charge with out having to go to ultra trac. Does anyone have experience using ultratrac recording?

Thanks

0 meste7 over 8 years ago

Has anyone noticed, sometime in the last week on the Garmin official spec sheet for the 5X, the Ultra-trac battery is now stated as "35 hours" What the hell?

And F5 from 100 to 60hrs in ULTRATAC mode!!! I own a F5 and I am angry with this... Bought this model to get 100 hrs not 60! Am I allowed for a refund, I wonder? Or there is a disclaimer somewhere... NO, actually I do not want to return it, I am only upset. I hope they will fix it!!! Hey Garmin, keep your promises, always, like I teach my daughter never to break a promise...

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

And F5 from 100 to 60hrs in ULTRATAC mode!!! I own a F5 and I am angry with this... Bought this model to get 100 hrs not 60! Am I allowed for a refund, I wonder? Or there is a disclaimer somewhere... NO, actually I do not want to return it, I am only upset. I hope they will fix it!!! Hey Garmin, keep your promises, always, like I teach my daughter never to break a promise...

That's a huge reduction. WTF

0 fulmar2 over 8 years ago

Black vs White background.

white background ...

You guys think a black background uses less power? Anyone tested this?

0 tickerguy over 8 years ago

It will not matter; this is an LCD transflective display, not OLED (where it DOES matter)

0 newtonfb over 8 years ago

Did a self battery test in my backyard. Bluetooth was off and on 1sec recording and OHR on. At 21:30 hours it was at 4%. So might of got 1 more hour

0 bglover11 over 8 years ago

I've been satisfied mostly with the battery life on my f5, not drastically different than my F3 (which isn't great compared to my old 920xt) until today. Checked it at around 4:00pm and it was at 55% (been losing about 5-10% per day using GPS once a day for 45 to 70 minutes). Less than 2 hours later it's at 33%. I thought erroneous and sporadic battery level readouts were reserved primarily for my iPhone

0 newtonfb over 8 years ago

So i just did an Ultra-trac battery test....it got 28hrs.....Thats unreal

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Did a self battery test in my backyard. Bluetooth was off and on 1sec recording and OHR on. At 21:30 hours it was at 4%. So might of got 1 more hour

I'm assuming you just left the watch in the back yard while you went on about your day? If so if the OHR is turned on but it doesn't read anything does it turn itself off and then only check periodically for a heart rate? I would think that might make a difference in battery life.

I'm hoping to get an 8-9 hour run in tomorrow with 1 sec recording and OHR turned on GPS only with a preloaded course. Only using two data screens plus the map screen. The map screen will not get much use. I've turned the backlight down to 10 percent. The display is amazing in direct sunlight.

0 jburchm1 over 8 years ago

I ran a 24hr race this weekend. Started with 100% battery. GPS+GLONASS, 1sec recording. Using the wrist HR with all other sensors disabled and Bluetooth off.

At 13 hours I was down to 26% battery and started charging the watch. That's slightly better than my fenix 3, which hit the battery alert in about the same time at a similar race I ran last year.

All in all, I'm satisfied with the battery life. The charger is idiotic and was more of a pain to deal with than I expected while running.

0 newtonfb over 8 years ago

Just finished my second Ultra-trac test. This time with OHR off. It barley got 34hrs. Thats only a 10 hour bump from 1sec and OHR on.

So far results
GPS 1sec OHR on BT off = 23hrs
GPS Ultra-trac OHR on BT off = 28hrs
GPS Ultra-trac OHR off BT off = 34hrs