This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

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
  • Hi,

    You are not detailing very much, are you using lot of GPS, music, backlight, notifications....??? or the eating of 25% was only in Watch mode?
  • Hi,

    You are not detailing very much, are you using lot of GPS, music, backlight, notifications....??? or the eating of 25% was only in Watch mode?


    Just in smartwatch mode, had a couple of emails, GPS for 30 minutes.
  • You're not the only one. My Fenix 5 plus went from 100% to around 75% in the first 24 hours. This included 50ish minutes of activities with GPS on, which can account for maybe 5% drain, but even then, 20%/day in watch only mode is unacceptable for this watch. This is with OHR and notifications but otherwise very much a stock setup - no music, no custom apps or watch faces installed, nothing. I tried restarting the watch which might have helped a bit, but it's too early to say.

    It's true that these batteries are not a their strongest on the first power cycle or two, so I don't want to draw premature conclusion (that's why I didn't post first), but i's very unlike Fenix 5 who had about 1/3rd battery drain since the day one (I should know, since I got it recently).

    On the good note, battery draw during activities seems on par what I would expect. It lost about some 3% in half an hour of running. Though it did loose another 3% in following half an hour in watch mode, which is harder to explain. Maybe it has some issues syncinc...

    I think we'll just need to wait for more data.
  • I’m not sure what’s going wrong for you guys. I charged my 5 Plus to 100% after a run yesterday morning. Since then (30+ hours later) I’ve recorded a 15 minute bike ride to the gym (GPS+GALILEO), recorded a 50 minute strength training activity with headphones paired playing music throughout, recorded a 15 minute bike ride home and then a 15 minute bike ride to work (total of 45 minutes of GPS active around bike rides and all with LiveTrack enabled). I have my phone connected to the watch throughout and my backlight is set to gesture on. After all of that I’m only down to 81%, with the 50 minutes playing music seeming to be the single biggest drain (around 6-7% from memory).
  • I’ve upgraded from 5 too. I’ve run three times (12 km) and swam twice (open water 40 minutes each). The battery drain in this three days has been online 26%. So far pretty good, even better than muy Fenix 5.
  • I'm a bit concerned about it, but sometimes batteries need a full charge cycle before the % is accurate. Running with music certainly took its toll on the battery. 20% drain on a 45 minute run. That had Galileo turned on too.
  • I've to confirm the same observations as the thread openers. For me it was the same: the watch showed some unusual high drainage while just wearing it. During a run itself it was ok for me and sounded reasonable (music as well as Galileo enabled).

    Anyway, I don't want to judge too early. The watch was on it's first charge. When I unboxed it, it showed "67%" and I just charged it up to 100%. Maybe the battery just wasn't at it's full potential by this initial charge.
    Yesterday evening I charged it back to 100% and this morning it still showed 100% (I don't wear it while sleeping). Obviously this sounds ok :-)
  • Hi,

    Could it be that the battery measurement on the watch is not calibrated. It does not know the true 100% and 0%.

    I would let the watch drain till it powered down by itself and then charge it up to 100% over the night or extended time. (Even if the watch shows 100%, the battery may not be fully charged)
    It is not uncommon and I've had this issue on iphones and other devices.
  • Just to report back:

    24h later it was still showing 100%. That was too good to be true of course. :cool: Therefore I rebooted the watch and then it showed 93%. This morning it was at 90%.
    So from my point it's ok now and it looks like that it just was caused by the initial charge and probably the missing calibration that jimoestman mentioned.
  • Why did you reboot it? You could have it at 100% forever. :D

    I haven't charged mine, but after initial high drain (25% in 24 hours), and after reboot, in next 48 hours it drained 23% (to 52%). Including 30 minute run with GPS and another non-GPS activity. Though I had notifications off for a while to check if it makes difference (it does a bit). Still, it definitely looks more promising and much closer to my expectations, and hopefully will get even better on next charge.

    I also installed Battery Widget which is reporting pretty reasonable numbers (right now it claims I still have 7 days left). At this point, I am tentatively optimistic that what we're seeing is only initial charge issue.