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6x Pro Solar - 20%/day with battery saver

3885614
over 4 years ago

The battery drain is a joke on this watch!

I tried everything, and even with the battery saver on (no Phone, HR or PulseOX) it drains 20% a day!

It said 88 days, down to 63 less than a day after :/ 11,10, tried 12,10 before.

I was looking for a sturdy outdoor watch, recording days long activities, without being a "smart" watch and needign attention every hour or minute. Not interested in features, just plain old GPS, HR for days... Might have to switch back to Fenix 3, becuse this one seems to be worse. 

By my reckoning the watch was going good with initial (5.40?) firmware, drain seem to have started and dont stop since the firmware update.

Garmin, please give me at least the option to rool back Firmware! Or my money back...

Anyone, please, please let me know it you have older Firmware hanging around!

m3hellrot att gmail.com

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to multiades

    I think we’re probably saying the same thing.  A support case might find they are working on a patch as well.  Lots of possibilities.

    I am not suggesting hardware is bad, just different.   I am a fair amount of work with low level Bluetooth hardware and you’d be amazed at how differently “the same” spec component.  I don’t know if that’s the case with our watches, but I’ve experienced it with early iPhones and control devices, so it’s “plausible” as Myth Busters used to say 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 6756224
    6756224 said:
    I think we’re probably saying the same thing.  A support case might find they are working on a patch as well.  Lots of possibilities.

    Support seems to indicate they are aware of it and working on it. I'd say they've had at least 1.5 weeks since I reported it to look for the problem, but I haven't been asked for any log files or anything like that.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to multiades

    Awesome!   I would be cool to know what they say the problem was.  Bluetooth has been a nightmare for a lot of companies - not saying that's the case here, but wondering.

  • +1 over 4 years ago in reply to multiades

    I agree, I have years of professional experience developing firmware. I know for a fact that programmers will deny all responsibility as long as possible, however the smallest mistake in updating one part of the firmware could cause very hardware looking issues. Especially with systems as complex as this.

    It could be one of the sw components failing to update and - or reset - reinterpret presets in the flash the wrong way. One bit wrong, and your charge regulator (solar) going haywire ...

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    Got a replacement watch with 11.20 fresh out of the box, so a very different batch to my original.

    Have it on my wrist with most basic setup (no phone, defaults(HR is on)), and stays 71% charge for two hours now. Also, while outside, solar moves two bars up in heavily overcast weather. So far so good!