Screen Resolution Vs Battery life

Of course I use IQ stuff - like most F6 users do.

This is significant part of the Garmin ecosystem which is also a point against choosing other brands. Battery life is supposed to be good knowing the compromise if we enable all F6 features which do consume more energy.

I'm not sure what your source is for claiming 'most f6 users do' - I suspect actually most DON'T. If you look at the number of downloads vs. number of Garmin devices sold, I think this clearly backs up that IQ is minority interest at best, and in fact most people are NOT using it.

I find 99.9% of stuff on the IQ store worthless in all honesty, seems to be apps and alternative watchfaces for the sake of it, rather than adding real value. 

GeorgeMakrypoulias said:

Of course I use IQ stuff - like most F6 users do.

Certainly not the people who attach great importance to battery life. I will stick with it. Posting a thread about the screen solution in connection with battery consumption, but then using IQ Stuff just doesn't make sense from my point of view. Each IQ app consumes much more power than the difference in screen resolution ever will. And your shown watchface is not exactly known for being economical with battery.

The watchface I currently use (GearMin) has more than 81.000 downloads and previous version has 167.000 so I think many people use IQ watch faces. I never had drain issues compared to stock. I am pretty satisfied with the ability to custom my watch and its part of how I use all watches since my F3. I also design my own faces (I did for Samsung and Amazfit) according to my needs and aesthetics so its something I prefer to do!

I understand your concerns though

GeorgeMakrypoulias said:

IQ watch faces. I never had drain issues compared to stock.

Yes, I know Gearmin. Show me a comparison that shows that this WF does not require at least three times more battery than a stock wf.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to badmouth IQ stuff. However, to place value on low battery consumption and to make a comparison of different screen resolutions is out of proportion. If you really want to save battery, uninstall IQ stuff. Then you can afford a screen resolution that so far no watch offers.

I agreed with bluefish. Even you use the native Garmin watch face and still have "uninstall" IQ watch faces in Garmin Connect, you should uninstall all IQ watch faces for saving battery life because "uninstall watch face still run in the background. The IQ watch face always consumption more battery life than the native watch face; the least or more consumption depends on the developer's good.

silentvoyager said:

I am the opposite. I think there is too much information on the map screen even in high contrast / low detail mode and would like the map screen to be simpler - using bolder lines and fewer details. That is because I want to be able to glance at the map screen while running without having to stop. For me the map has the value not in full blown navigation, e.g. figuring out what's around me but as a way to assist following a course. For example I want to be able to clearly see all side roads and trails, creek crossings, and other important terrain features along the way, as well as some points of interest and my own waypoints, but that is about it. I very rarely need to pan the map and would like a simplified UI which makes it easier to zoom but perhaps moves ability to pan further away. 

Depending on what I'm doing and where I am, I certainly would agree with that sometimes. I wish Garmin gave us more control over what features we want to display or hide on the maps - for example, even if I do want the "park bench" icon, maybe I don't want the giant label on it that says "PARK BENCH" written out across the screen. Hiking handheld GPS's are great for that, they let you change all kinds of map display settings. For some reason their watches only let you pick high, low, or medium detail (which, honestly, I can't really tell much difference between those settings).

When I'm out in the wilderness, for example, I want as much detail as the map can give me. If there's a trash can and a picnis table on the map, I'd love to see that. Even power lines would be neat. But at Disneyland, for a very different example, I don't want all of that, because the screen ends up so garbled with junk and labels that I can't even see the underlying map.

So, ideally, it would be great if we all had more ability to configure the maps, so we could choose how much (and what kinds) of data to display. And getting back to the topic of the thread - I think if they gave us more ability to manage the map display settings, then we would all benefit from having a higher-res, larger screen, to be able to display more info if/when we choose to. Also, those of us using BirdsEye Imagery would greatly benefit from better pixel density and, especially, 10-bit color (versus the current 8-bit color). But, of course, Garmin doesn't make screens, so they can only get what the manufacturers offer, and I'm not sure if anyone yet makes a PIM screen like that (and I, like most of us, don't want Garmin to switch to OLED/AMOLED displays)

If you want your CIQ stuff to use less battery life, then talk to the authors of the CIQ stuff. That's not a Garmin issue. The people who make those apps and watchfaces are not Garmin employees. What you're doing here is exactly like someone yelling at Apple because the Minecraft game they downloaded is killing their iPhone's battery life. "Your phone should be able to run Minecraft and EVERY OTHER 3rd-party app in the app store without any consequence to the battery life!"

I've used tons of CIQ stuff over the years. And some of the watchfaces are fantastic, like Gearmin. But they are battery killers. Sorry, but that's just a fact. You have to decide if you prefer battery life over a fancy CIQ watchface. A long time ago, I decided I preferred battery life, so I went back to using a factory watchface and got rid of all but a few CIQ widgets and datafields.

On One Plus Watch announced today, there's claims vs reality to check but 1.4" OLED with 326ppi and 14 day battery life, 25h in GPS mode (includes GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou) in an 11mm thick case for $159 - not quite my style but impressive battery life for nice screen and shows what's possible. Bummer won't support iOS, only Android, otherwise might have seriously considered jumping ship depending on what Garmin puts out for F7

www.oneplus.com/oneplus-watch

"Actual battery life varies depending on the features and apps used, frequency of calls and messages, number of times charged, and many other factors. A single charge lasting up to 14 days of battery life is based on the following usage case: all-day wear, intelligent heart rate detection enabled, night time sleep detection enabled, message notifications enabled (up to 150 messages, 6 calls, 3 alarms per day), the screen lights up 100 times a day, 30 minutes of Bluetooth calls per week, playing music 30 minutes per week, and an average of 90 minutes of exercise (GPS enabled) per week."

Biggest gotcha there is it's not with always-on-display. I really hate looking down at a blank screen and having to perform some exaggerated "lifting wrist up" gesture just to see the time, and outdoors/sunlight visibility sometimes suffers if the OLED brightness isn't boosted.

Other AMOLED smartwatch/fitness trackers like the Huawei GT2 Pro also claim 2-week cycles, but that's also without AOD. I think the Fenix's dim-ish display, lower resolution and lack of color depth/accuracy are a bit of a compromise, but absolutely the right one for a super-long-lasting, true fitness/sports oriented device. 

Personally I'd love to see a new generation of MIP LCD that has higher contrast between blacks/whites than an OLED.