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6S real world battery life?

gustavbl
over 4 years ago

Hey guys and gals with the 6S. What are your experience as far as real world battery life with the 6S. I previously had the 5S Plus and with that I got about 40hours total which included about 3 hours worth of GPS time, and one hour with music. This meant I had to charge it every other day and I could forget about traveling away for the weekend and leave the charger at home. It was a huge pain. I also felt that the display was quite dim. For these reason I sold the watch. I ended up replacing it with a used Polar V800 which has amazing battery life and the best screen I've ever seen on a "modern" exercise watch. Unfortunately it's heavy and ugly.

So the new 6S is looking quite sexy. But there is no way I'm spending that amount of money if the battery life still is terrible. I use about 1.5 hours of GPS time 5 days a week and 30 minutes of music a day. I figure I need at least 96 hours of battery life, including these activities to justify the purchase. What kind of battery life are people on here getting?

I did actually have the regular F5 before the 5SP, and that gave me very decent battery life. Unfortunately my wrists are one the smaller side so it just didn't look very good on me.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jkny

    Very surprised by your experience. I have a 6s Pro. It lasts a week or so with 5 to 7 activities in the period, including 2 x 45 min runs. It charges quickly (within an hour when battery has 2d left). That been said, GPS + music drains a lot of battery as well as Pulse Ox. Don't see the point of Pulse Ox always on personally. I check it once in a while, it's more than enough for what I do with the information.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 5787350

    You should get much more than 48 h without Pulse Ox, turning it off doubles my battery life...

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jkny

    You might switch battery to show the traditional percentage left, not days left.  The days left is estimated dynamically based on whatever the current watch situation and maybe the recent past usage. So when the watch is "idle", the 9d it's showing is assuming just like that.  GPS uses more, and music even more still.  I believe there's a way to see days left even in the middle of an activity but I'm not sure.  As others have said, PulseOx, especially set to all day, uses a lot.  You can also set data logging off every 1 second to save power during activities.

    I've also found with all the Garmin products that if you keep your phone connected, that uses more power, but especially if you separate your watch and phone.  One time, I burned a full charge in about a day (no activities) because my phone and watch were right at the edge of bluetooth range.

    Bottom line, depending on how much beyond 26mi your ultras are, I would expect the 6S to last with the proper settings (ie, no music).  I think the 645 is a larger watch (more on par with the fenix 6), so you could always stick with the 645, or go to a 6 or 6x.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jkny

    PulseOx is a big drain, as is running with music. But I would never dare suggest anyone run without their beats, so PulseOx is the one I would suggest killing.

    Other large power drains are backlight, using GLONASS/Gallileo in addition to GPS, and active mapping, so you may want to play with those settings. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to mcalista

    Thanks all for your suggestions.  I turned off PulseOx this morning to see how this helps.  I didn't know it was such a big drain and it was on automatically when I first received the watch so I had left all those features running.  I guess other than measuring it periodically it's not really telling me much!  I also turned on battery percentages so now it shows days and %.  Yesterday afternoon it was at 34% I did a 6.2k run (28mins) with music followed by a 3k (45m) walk no music and it went down to 20%.  That seemed like a lot compared to my 645.  Overnight it went down another 10%.  Possibly the night mode PulseOx.  If I initiate an activity it now tells me at the top of the data screen I have got 2 hours battery left for running which is handy to know.  Not sure if that factors in music.  A week in I am just learning the features.  Will give it a charge back up to 100% and time how long it takes!  Thanks. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jkny

    Fenix 6s charge from 8% to 100% via Garmin usb cable on the laptop 2hrs 20 mins.  645 music from 5% to 100% in 1hr 10 mins. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jkny

    This, and the message of yours before that in totally in line with what I found on my 6s Pro, coming from an 645:

    https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/247298/what-s-your-charging-current-speed-on-6s-pro-half-than-older-645

    And by the way 645 is pretty much the same size as the 6s Pro, not to mention years older. It seems they share a similar battery capacity, with the 645 charging at double the current/speed.

    Plus, when the 6s Pro is idle (no pulseOX, identical watch face), it shows around 0.568%/hr of battery consumption, while on my older 645 is often between 0.333%/hr and 0.400%/hr.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    What is typical battery life suppose to be for the 6S? It's been only a week of ownership for me but I'm so far only getting 4 days of battery life. I have HR on smart, vo2 while I sleep & notification on all day. I've done 2 hours of gym work, 1 hour of outdoor riding, & 15 minutes of walking. So is 4 days normal for type of usage or should I be getting a little over 5 days?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to PizzaQueen

    I guess it's a rather typical battery life, maybe I'd get a day more or two with PulseOX off.

    I charge it every day during the shower and it mostly recharge what's consumed during the day.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I bought one cause it's a lot smaller than my previous Fenix 3. for 6 months, the batteries were working well.. up to 4 days on Smartwatch mode with activity tracking and 24/7 wrist-based heart rate monitoring, though it says that should be 9 days. For the past 2 months, it's been down to only 1 day.