Battery Life: What is "smartwatch mode" as described in the manual for 12 days battery usage.

RileyRG said:

What do I need to set on/off for this type of performance? It clearly says activity tracking is ON so I'm not seeing how GPS is not in this case.

"Activity tracking" is Garmin lingo for step count, stair count, HR tracking, etc.

It does not include logged activities, for example a Run activity.

And please don't ask me for a reference. I don't have one. That is just how I have seen the term used.

So in short: If you want 12 days, you must abstain from using your Garmin as a sports watch. Which is probably what they meant by "smartwatch mode".

Thanks. I wondered if that's what they meant. But only using it for activity/sleep tracking the past 3-4 days & I get about 4 days max. I love the device despite some app shortcomings such as the lamentable calendar but the battery life claimed seems a tad optimistic especially since the battery is non-replaceable and my device will be toast in 5 years anyway: still, only myself to blame for that.

As I understand it, "smartwatch mode" is just the default mode of operation. The watch is connected to your phone with Bluetooth, any notifications you get are displayed on the watch. The 24/7 heart-rate monitoring is also the default mode, you can probably turn it off but I've never checked.

By default, automatic activity tracking is turned off. I've never turned this feature on, I've heard that it doesn't work very well. Additionally I only want to track certain things, running outside, biking, indoor rowing, etc. While there are other things I don't care to track like bouldering or rock climbing, as this watch can't really track that (other than your heart rate).

So what Garmin probably means with that statement is that you're just using it as I described above, in its default configuration, maybe tracking a couple runs a week or something. In this mode my watch lasts about two weeks, as Garmin says.

However, when I'm skiing all day and I tell my watch to track my skiing, the watch will last maybe two or three days. This is because it's constantly monitoring GPS, altitude, and logging my position on the map. Tracking about 6 hours of skiing per day puts a big dent in the battery life.

So if you're just using the watch in its default configuration (smart watch mode) and you're only getting 5 days, something's wrong... maybe try resetting your watch to it's default settings?

On my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro it works like this:

After fully charging the watch, the battery life is projected to be 14d, provided PulseOX is switched off. If PulseOX is turned on during sleep only, the battery life estimate drops to 10d. If PulseOX is turned on all the time, the battery life is further expected to drop to 6d.

All of these estimates do not include playing music and/or using GPS to track activities. These, of course, will further reduce the battery life; the estimates of by how much are typically available in the parameters of the power modes chosen for selected activities.

Turning useless MoveIQ off also increasing battery life.

Good point. The need for MoveIQ is dubious indeed, since I guess users select activity manually anyway.

On my Fenix 5+ I haven't seen any difference in battery life, regardless of whether MoveIQ is on or off. I usually get 0.2-0.4 % per hour (depending on battery level, since the battery meter is clearly not linear) with a battery friendly 3rd party watch face.

Do you have bluetooth on all the time? And screen updating every second due to watch setting or HR display?

I can get more than 4 days, but I set all to reduce consumption as much as possible. 

My 0.2-0.4 % per hour is with bluetooth on, by the way. My experience is that unless there's a constant stream of bluetooth notifications from the phone, the watch's bluetooth low energy doesn't use much battery when idle.