I could use some suggestions on what I could do to improve battery life on the Instinct. It would be the perfect compromise of cost/features for my uses if I could just get half of what is advertised. I'd be content with a week, but I'm not getting close to that. I consistently lose 1 bar (>20%??) in less than 24 hours.
I am not doing any GPS or Activities yet, and wouldn't dare until I figure out how to get decent battery life first. I am currently on 2.76 and have done a complete reset and have tuned down and disabled much of what I would think would help, but am still not getting near 1 week while others including the reviews state with the default stuff enabled they are getting at least a week.
I also have disabled all widgets except the face, HR, steps, and my day, and have even tested this with the phone set to disconnected/off. The below is a summary of how I currently have it configured, and have had this issue on both 2.60 and 2.76.
Please, any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!
2.76 - Software version 20% - Backlight 8s - Timeout 1st (top) - Watch face OFF - Move alert ON - Move IQ OFF - Gesture OFF - All sounds and vibration options SMART - Data recording
Phone: CONNECTED - Status ON - Status ON - Smart Notifications OFF - Alerts
I think the best place to put the battery percentage would be in the eye when you press the menu button. At the moment you get the 5 bar battery meter. On the fenix 3 you get the percentage on the first screen at the top.
Also worth noting, I have NOT sync'ed through my phone app (4.13.5) on my Android Pixel 3 XL a single time over the last couple of weeks (or even opened the app) to help troubleshoot this, and have only sync'ed while plugged into the computer during charge.
I've got 1 bar left now, still not really using any of the features and most of them disabled or greatly dismantled, and am fairly confident at this point that I'm getting roughly 18 to 20 hours per bar, not even 1 day/bar. That would total me out at less than 5 days, or about 1/3 of advertised, which is definitely unsatisfactory.
Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions and info, I greatly appreciate it! Thanks also for confirmation that what I'm experiencing is not what is expected. That said, I give up on this one and will be initiating a return tonight and will start over, hopefully with better luck, on a new Instinct. Thanks again!!
I've charged mine to 100% on Wednesday afternoon. HR monitor ON all the time, synced with phone two times a day, 40 min GPS. Now down to three bars. Is this normal? Not to soon? Should last longer?
Two bars down already - from five on Wednesday afternoon to three at this time...I saw posts that someone after same activity as mine has five bars after 7 days...
Koowall Are you also using it as a Smartwatch... the more "stuff" you have on/use, the more battery drain.
I've never tried to see how far my battery lasts as I just sync it a couple times a day via a PC using Garmin Express. The small amount of time I have it connected keeps my battery up. I guess opportunity charging if you will... if I hike for hours and the battery shows a bar or two down, I usually top it back up the next time I'm idle surfing the web...
It says “Up to 14 days” but there’s a lot that could go into that. How many notifications/calls do you get daily? Do you have Vibration on? What is your backlight % set at?
You don’t need to answer those questions as they’re just examples but there are many other factors that go into battery life.
Hi! I've got my watch in early December. Until 2.8 version it runs for 7 days with 2-3 short syncs and UltraTac and backlight 20%... Now no more than 2 days even more conservative. I've tried also the new beta ... but not an improvement.
Do you see some degradations of battery life after 2.8 upgrade?
