Fenix 6X Pro. Normal battery drain, and best settings?

I installed a simple battery widget and it looks like I'm averaging about 0.25%/hr of drain, including phone notifications, and 30min runs 4-5 days a week using GPS + music. 

That's basically fine (great even), as it works out to more than 2 weeks between charges. Even so, I'm always looking for settings to prolong the battery, not that I really need it. So far, I've done things like:

1. Disabled pulse ox (huge drain)

2. Set backlight and vibration settings conservatively

3. Disabled Wifi (does this really help)?

Are there are any other good tips/tricks on maximizing battery life?

In particular, does the music format/quality matter? I have music downloaded from my YT Music account as m4a, but is the watch more efficient with mp3s and lower bitrates?

Anything else that makes a difference? Is it worth messing with GPS settings/disabling constellations?

  • The best setting I've found is to turn off the "worry about battery life" in my brain. A 6X will go for ages without a charge.

    If you want the best battery life, don't use any CIQ/downloaded watches. Even better, just turn on Battery Saver mode all the time.

    Turn off the link to your phone, just sync via cable.

    It's purely a features vs battery life trade off.

    But honestly, why worry? I've got a 6Pro (not X) and it's battery life is insane.  Yours is twice that. Enjoy it.

  • Good questions.  To save a little juice, probably avoid the 3rd party app and faces.  They are notorious for consuming battery.  And a battery widget, it would minially have to wake up with some periodicity to check things.  Its small, but adds up.

    I'd be curious to hear others view on the music. I find it hard to believe that one music format is worse than another, but I supposed the more compressed something is, the more the processor in the watch is needed to decode the files.

    I used the default garmin watch/battery widget.   Though I admit the data is often weird.

    like long term avg.  -1891.788%/hr   whats that mean ..LOL
    0.052%/hr since last Chg.    Last change? change of what?  or is Chg -- charge

  • Avoid installing CIQ apps or watchfaces - its the equivalent of getting junk mail through your letterbox.

    Enable battery saver when you go to sleep, I don't have a X just the Pro and I tend to use 1% overnight. Still tracking heart rate, nothing else.

  • Hi,

    I use my 6X Pro Solar mainly for HRM and golf course distances.

    The main thing I've found after using the GOLF app is to shutdown the 6X by holding the LIGHT button for 30 seconds, leave for at least a minute the press light to restart, my battery usage drops quite a lot.

    Cheerz :) :D ;)

  • I forgot to mention, I don't use any 3P watchfaces, and the only CIQ app I have is Battery Monitor (I understand it may contribute to some drain itself, but I'm only using it temporarily to satisfy my curiosity, and it doesn't require background run permissions, which most battery apps seem to need).

    Despite the appearance of my post, I'm really not super-obsessive about all this, just interested in how the watch works and what each option affects it.  The fact that Garmin provides such a wide range of options/flexibility of course is what invites questions about those options :)

    What is the default battery widget? I was looking for something pre-installed that just told me when my last charge-to-100% was, before resorting to a 3p app. 

  • There is no default battery widget.

    In the *beta* firmwares, there is a Widget you can add that shows you a few things of interest, mostly what has been running and for how long, but not "you've lost X over Y" or anything.

    The official (non-beta) firmwares do not have this Widget though, it's a debug feature.

  • Hold Up/Menu
    Widgets
    edit
    add+ MYBATTERY

    that is what I'm referring to. Its not a 3rd party app. Its a part of that core garmin/widget firmware

  • Wait a minute. You sure about that? I originally downloaded two CIQ widgets, "Battery Monitor" by Flipstone, and "Battery Widget with automatic charge detection" by dsapptech. I uninstalled the second one because I only needed one widget, and that one used background run permissions.

    When installed on my watch, "Battery Widget with auto charge" shows up as "MYBATTERY" in the Widget Add screen. But if I uninstall the widget using CIQ, it disappears. I don't see a native 1p Garmin widget with that name anywhere.

    I'm thinking we may have just downloaded the same 3p app?

  • One other suggestion would be to use the Power Manager, and the Battery Saver function During Sleep. This will automatically shut off things like the phone connection, and Low Power screen settings each night, while still getting 24/7 HR, etc. It may not seem like much, but if the watch is spending 1/3 of its time in the Battery Saver mode, it can add up over 2-3 weeks.

    Using GLONASS/Gallileo in addition to GPS uses about 40% more power - obviously only while you are doing an activity. If you are going for a 30 minute run 3 times a week, it's pretty small (and non-existent if you are using the treadmill indoors over winter). If you are doing a 5 hour hike each weekend, then the increased power usage is quite significant. Generally, GPS only is fine for accuracy - it is only when you have a narrow horizon (eg. narrow valley, urban canyon) and few satellites are visible that dual constellations improve accuracy.

    I'm not sure it is the music format that really matters, it is the high amount of bluetooth chip uptime communicating with the headphones that is the big power draw. Perhaps someone with more audio tech knowledge than me can comment?

  • Hold Up/Menu
    Widgets
    edit
    add+ MYBATTERY

    that is what I'm referring to. Its not a 3rd party app. Its a part of that core garmin/widget firmware

    Sorry, but that is a third party CIQ Widget that you have installed.  It is NOT a native Garmin Widget.

    HTH