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Realistic battery life, fenix 5?

Former Member over 7 years ago

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

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Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago +1 verified

If you are experiencing rapid battery drain, where your watch is only lasting a few days, first verify on latest software version. If you are using any third-party Connect IQ watch faces, try changing…

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0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I came across this thread searching for information on the battery life of the Epix, which supposedly is longer than that for the Fenix 5. The Epix has let me down so often, I am not selling it because I guess the Fenix would be worse. Maximum battery life with HB chest strap on, normal GPS tracking (no Ultra Trac, which is not very helpful if you are following a track) and nothing else on but auto-pause, is 7-8 hours. If you have the map screen on permanently, even less. I always carry a battery pack, but charging the device mid-track will register whatever you record after the charge as a new activity. Garmin replaced my unit, but the new one performed as bad. All this talk about using less feaures to prolong battery life is ludicrous. It is as if you bought a car and the dealer adviced you to use the heating sparsely because it may damage the engine. If Garmin promises 24 hours battery life, that's what it should be. RAM memory (also supposedly larger than the Fenix 5's) is not enough for holding an entire map on the screen at higher speeds, which is what happens when you cycle down a fast slope. It starts to appear in half-screen chunks, not very convenient for knowing where to turn. I guess some of us users are suffering from brand love or want to feel good about our purchase, so we excuse whatever defects. Besides replacing their units fast with the same below-promised-standards ones, Garmin offer no solutions. Garmin, are you reading this?!

0 Przemeq over 7 years ago

I Have Garmin 5sapphire.
I use it as my primary watch (wearing every weekday 7.30 - 18.30) + ~6h per weekend day. Wifi disabled, Wrist HR enabled, BT Enabled, paired with phone. Normal office user - ~20 calls/day + 100+ notifications/day
Usually I run 4-6hour per week outside with GPS (mostly default settings) and then I get little over 2 full weeks of charge.
Last 3 weeks I was unable to run outside, did trainngs on treadmill and water rower (with new GPS HRM RUN4) ~4h/week, and it still holds charge. After 3 weeks and 3 days tt still has 12% of charge left.

Bottom line - it has impressive battery. I'm very happy

0 RemiM over 7 years ago

Fenix 5 without Sapphire;
On from 5AM to 8PM;
Off during night;
No HR except the day after hard training;
No notification;
BT enabled only to sync with GC;
5-6 runs per week (road + trail + track), with GPS only & HRM Run;

I usually get 3 weeks per charge, and charge the watch at ~10/15%.
Very impressed by the battery, and globally very happy with the watch.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Just did a 50 mile ultra on Saturday, Smart, GPS only, no custom faces, compass, altimeter, compass widgets, Bluetooth to phone for alerts, finished in 13 hours and Fenix 5 had 49% battery left

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I Have Garmin 5sapphire.
I use it as my primary watch (wearing every weekday 7.30 - 18.30) + ~6h per weekend day. Wifi disabled, Wrist HR enabled, BT Enabled, paired with phone. Normal office user - ~20 calls/day + 100+ notifications/day
Usually I run 4-6hour per week outside with GPS (mostly default settings) and then I get little over 2 full weeks of charge.
Last 3 weeks I was unable to run outside, did trainngs on treadmill and water rower (with new GPS HRM RUN4) ~4h/week, and it still holds charge. After 3 weeks and 3 days tt still has 12% of charge left.

Bottom line - it has impressive battery. I'm very happy

which whatchface do you use?

0 Przemeq over 7 years ago

which whatchface do you use?

Digic watch - 30%
BuildIn Classic analog - 70%,

0 Biermann over 7 years ago

I'm quite pleased with battery life of F5. I have it for one week, so it's on a first charge and after 7 days with 24/7 OHR and 4:15 of GPS activities it's still at 50% of battery. When I take into account that F5 has always-on color display, then I think it's a good number.

0 LTomBerry over 7 years ago

I started with 100%, ran a 3:36 marathon with 1sec, GPS, Glonass, Chest strap HRM, RD Pod, Stryd, Tempe, 2 connect IQ datafields, Livetrack, and finished with 85%.

0 MONSTERRR over 6 years ago

Guys, you are using gps or glonass,
not both.. GPS is better btw...

0 mcbadger over 6 years ago

The settings on the watch are GPS alone, GPS+GLONASS, and GPS+Galileo. So, yes they are using both.