Influence of turned-on features on the estimated displayed battery life (on the example of a F6xPro Solar)

Battery at 100%- nothing additional enabled: 41 days

with only enabled BT: 26 days

with only enabled WHR: 30 days

with enabled WHR/BT: 21 days

with enabled Music/BT: 19 hrs

with enabled Musik/BT/WHR: 19 hrs

with enabled Musik/BT/WHR/PulseOX: 18 hrs

with enabled WHR+PulseOX (all day): 11 days

with enabled WHR+PulseOX (all day)+BT: 10 days

Pairing other Sensors, use of GPS*1, use of IQ apps, widgets, watch faces, WiFi (syncing with gcm/Explore, downloading Music*2) playing around with the device, weather influences (hot/cold), backlight*3 etc. will still further influence the battery life

*1= GPS+ Glonass or GPS+Galileo takes some more battery/hr (about 5-7% - the Sony GPS chip is more power-efficient than the MTK GPS chip)

*2= downloading music via WiFi (Deezer/Amazon/Spotify) takes a lot of battery (can be > 10%; depends on the amount of music files-  normally you get a message to use a wall charger)

*3 =backlight (nothing else enabled) for example: always on/brightness 100%: 7 days;  brightness 50%: 12 days; brightness 20%: 21 days)

All these values are showing estimated displayed battery lifetimes (in theory; the practice may look different!).

Here is a very interesting post about the battery consumption with GPS for the F6xPS:

forums.garmin.com/.../933885

Some Watch faces, widgets etc. from the Garmin IQ Shop are taking a lot of additional battery, some even during an activity (in the background - so my observations/assumptions).

So if you find a high battery usage (if not bt, music, whr/PlusOX is responsible for it), ask yourself what additional IQ stuff you have installed. Then uninstall it and try out whether the battery consumption has (significantly) lowered. With the installed IQ data field "battery up down" you can then possibly look in Garmin Connect Mobile, how the battery consumption behaves. But these are only my experience, maybe it behaves differently with you.

With some IQ stuff:

with some removed IQ stuff:

Looks much better, don´t know why it is increasing at the last 1/4 (maybe bad gps reception?).

We have additional the Power Modes (https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=UKdcLjyUEZ4xdiX5HWzgp7),

which are used in each activity (hike, bike etc.) You can use a given one or customize one. You see the (estimated battery) life with the settings made. But I have noticed that the for the Power Mode shown hrs differs from the hrs in reality. First, the shown hrs in Power Mode are estimated. Here an example what I am talking about.:

I am starting my hike app. The Power Mode in the app is showing 60 hrs of use. After 3 hrs of real use, the Power Mode is showing 54 hrs. Wait, 54 hrs? 60 hrs - 3 hrs= 57 hrs. That is a difference of 50%! Ok,estimated hrs, but really 50% difference? I have searched in the settings for the Power Modes:

The use of the map page isn´t included in the shown hrs for the used Power Mode (if you en-/disable the map in the Power Modes, you see: "varies by use"- so it has no effect on the displayed hours). So if you use the map page intensively (like me), you burn a lot of battery, which isn´t inclouded the shown Power Mode hrs. So there seems to be energy saving potential with me.

To save more battery, you can set in the used Power Mode the display to "time out". After 7 seconds the screen shut of. Any button press will wake the display up again (for 7 seconds). I have to test, if an action (for example a turn information) wakes the display up.

 

  • At the moment I am running an 1 hr test (same place, same settings as before) with main use of a data side on the display (tests before always with map page mainly on the display). I am curios to see, how many Power Mode hrs I have burned and how many battery. If this test is successful (less battery/less Power Mode hrs burned, I will do a longer test...).

    Today no sun available, so no solar input as support available (will perhaps repeat this 1 hr test, if sun is available). But heavily cloudy, so maybe a little difficult conditions for a comparison.

    So, test ended:

    about 3% battery/hr and Power Mode time from 56hrs down to 54hrs for 1 hr real use without using the map page. I had hoped for another result. When it comes to battery consumption, bad weather has perhaps played a role (heavy influx, light drizzle). Will repeat the test under sunny conditions.

    No idea what caused the strong energy consumption in 1st third (perhaps bad gps reception?).

    Another one:

    again without using the map page. 1 hr real activity, Power Mode hrs down from 53hrs down to 51hrs (still 1:2).