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Realistic battery life, fenix 5?

Former Member
Former Member
Hello all,

So last week I bought a fenix 5. Store had it in open box and on the shelf but it was off, I was worried about it having been on for months on the shelf but they told me it had never been powered on, they only had the 5X on display powered up. Bought it, no discount got home and charged it. The battery was completely discharged.

One of my main reasons for buying the fenix 5 vs a 3 or another less expensive option was battery life - as I am starting to run ultra marathons.

Last Saturday ran my first. I started with 95% charge. GPS only mode (no Glonnass). I played occasionally with the watch during the race, and often moved it into view to see my HR (with backlight at 50%). Halfway into the race, 7 hours in, I notice it is at 40% battery. I changed it to Ultratrac in the activity settings menu, and start avoiding using the backlight or play with it(still glancing at it often to see HR).

My race time was 14 hours 30 minutes. When I made it across the finish line, literally 1 minute after, I glance at the watch to stop the activity and it powered down.

I know actual, realistic device times are often lower than what the manufacturer advertises. Still, advertised GPS mode at 20 hours and Ultratrac 60 hours, seems I should have gotten to the end of this race with a good battery reserve. I am planning longer races later in the season so... this watch might not cut it, apparently. My iphone 7 plus in airplane mode, but doing GPS tracking, went through all of this with 30% power left and me taking some pictures and listening to podcasts on the way.

So question to the group - is this the normal battery life I can expect from this device while tracking activities? Or did I get a dud or a battery affected by it being a showroom device?

Unsure if I am just being paranoid and need to enjoy the device and go Ultratrac from the start, turn off the backlight (not needed to be honest).

Thanks all,

Juan
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    After update 12.30 to 12.40 battery drain 0.6/h
    before that in version 12.30 battery drain was 0.3/h
    How i can to back 12.30 ?
  • Thanks for the information BLAU. I did test what you suggested: downgrade to 12.00 then upgrade to 12.21 (I do have the 6.25 sensor hub fro a long time) + hard reset in 12.21 (which made me stay in 12.21, sorry for the misunderstanding before) -> the behavior is still the same .... between 1.2 and 1.8%/hour in watchmode, and between 5 and 8% in GPS mode. I do think it is software related... but do not understand...


    The problem I also think is software related, so Garmin downgrade the version from beta 12.51 to the 12.21, and then 12.30 and 12.40 so ... the extrange is that with 12.21 where most people got fixed, this do not work for you.

    Thanks for your status frem. I'm in version 12.21 now, following suggestion of BLAU, but still the same problem. I do hope we'll find how to solve it. According to the number of people facing the problem on the forum, I guess it is not hardware related...


    Most people got the problem fixed with 12.21 as you could read, but think the only think you got left is to contact with your country support center, and the can give you a hand to face the problem to got fixed or if do not, send a refurbished one.
  • I had a replacement F5 sent to me a few weeks ago, had the first one replaced due to battery drain of 24-27% / day. The new unit started off slow, with battery lasting for ~6 days. Did a full battery recharge cycle twice (down to 0%, charged to 100%), and since the last full load Monday 4.feb -> today (7 full days) the battery is still 39%. I think a big change happened during wed-thursday last week, I guess that's when versions 12.40 was rolled out, it seems the battery consumption is much better since that. Eg it only dropped 2% during last night (7,5 hrs), so now it really seems to be on a good level.
    I haven't used the GPS during the week, basically only in smartwatch mode (one indoor activity of 1,15 hours), but having the pulse meter on, notifications, lights on 10% and using a custom watchface.
    Anyways, now I think the battery consumption is on a really satisfying level so I'm happy with it - finally!
  • just to keep informed, I tried to hard reset also by deleting/formating the watch, but without success yet as the same behavior is there with 1.2-1.8%/hour

    I guess that Garmin is experiencing some issue with batteries, as some people also complain with fenix5 Plus (and some vivoactive 3). I still guess it is software-related, to affect a so large number of product... I will wait a bit before seeing with them for a replacement...
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    I bought fenix 5 at november 2018 on amazon.de. Watch s/n 53 * was discharged with s/w version 8.00. In watch mode they worked about 2 weeks.
    After updating to s/w 12.30, battery drain increased to avg. 0,5+% per hour.
    Updating to s/w 12.40 did not help, then i updated Sensor Hub to v625 (from s/w package 12.21 beta), and battery drain improved to avg. 0,3% per hour.
  • thanks for your input totony. On my side, with 12.40 and sensor hub version 6.25, it does not improve...

    in order to see if any "correlation" would occurs, I suggest people to fill this online form
    https://lite.framacalc.org/LNFSoCYqIF
    with their info.
    Maybe something will come out with respect to FW version, sensor hub version etc...
  • I can confirm that since the last update was rolled out my battery life has more than halved, purely in watch mode with HRM the battery life is now only 3-4 days as opposed to well over a week prior.
  • Hi!

    For the record, I thought 12.21 fixed my watch, but not so... I have returned it to Garmin where they are running some tests on it....
  • I've lost 22% in 12 hours with not activities.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    I have a Fenix 5 5Q1XXX series.

    In the night, my watch loses more power than over day :) Do not disturb during sleep ON. :) It looses 7 percent over 8 hours of sleep. Than over day with notifications and maybe some light used, it loses another 5 percent. That's very odd!

    I also saw that from a day to another, the battery drain is different. The battery percentage is not that great and far from reality.

    Watch is connected to an iPhone. Notifications are on. Activity Tracking on. But test is performed with no activities tracked.

    I have about 7 days of usage of the watch. I read that you all have problems with battery. Does Garmin says anything about this?