Related
Options

Misleading Publicity? True "Smartwatch" battery live specs (REDACTED) Default settings are true to claim.

MrSaintz
over 3 years ago

UPDATE: AFTER FACTORY RESET I confirmed 21d with OOB features, Oxymeter is off by default, I honestly do not recall changing it first, honest mistake on my side.

Garmin does have OOB settings that last 21d from my experience.

Hi everyone,

I know maybe this is not new subject, but I'm pretty amazed, this is not the most discussed subject in this forum.

So battery life specifications seem to be misleading, very disappointingly to be honest, we're talking about one of the most expensive smartwatches in the market.

I have a Fenix 6X Pro - Solar Edition and specs state Smartwatch mode battery life can withstand 21 days (+3 days with outside good solar charge)

After day one, first charge, battery life expediency was 11 days, I got it around the end of August by the way.

So what is wrong here? Why is it that, out of the box default configuration, this watch cannot comply with what is publicly shared to any possible consumer being led to buy a 21 day lifespan watch??

What I've figured out so far is that disabling oxymeter, I do get 21 day lifespan!

But then again a misleading message, Garmin never states we need to turn off a default active all day smartwatch feature.

I feel I was lied to my face into buying a 21day smartwatch for almost 1000$ that only lasts actually around half the specified time!!!

And I based my decision between Enduro being less feature rich in comparation, although "apparently" (might be misleading as well) battery lifespan being announced to last 50/65 days!

Only to be told after that I need to turn off oxymeter, a feature I legitimately bought to last 21 days at least! This is wrong!

I've searched in the forum and nobody talks about this bad publicity and misleading messages from Garmin, so there's no way I could have ever known before I got the watch.

What do you think?

Thank you for any possible feedback.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Hi,

    there are quite a few threads about battery life (and how to make sure that you get the 21 days).

    Why would you keep the Oxymeter on the whole day? Which purpose would that serve?

    Anyway, I get (after 18 month of usage) still 20 days in smartwatch mode. Fenix 6 Pro

    Can't comment on the Enduro.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I think you should sell your Fenix, and get an Apple watch instead. I am sure that will meet your battery life expectations.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to schmjoe

    Hi,

    It's not that I want to keep Oxymeter all day, and yes turning it off will allow battery to be extended.

    I could also extend battery life with multiple other settings for that matter but the point is simple, the marketing message is misleading, the simple concept of smartwatch mode is not clear to what monitoring functions will 21day lifespan stands for.

    And it is disappointing, that we are led to consider 21 day minimum, while in truth is far less than that with all monitoring features on oxymeter included, if it's available, it's a valid choice no matter the reason.

    In conclusion the battery was not designed to last 21 days, you can configure the watch to last 21 day, that's the point.

    Cheers and thank you very much for you feedback, by the way, I do find battery discussion on the forum, but not one related to any misleading publicity, can you share a link of that? I would gladly join on that earlier post.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MrSaintz

    So you admit by altering settings you can get  >21 days, or <21 days.

    Nothing at all misleading here, and definitely a little wrong to call Garmin out alone on this. This is like "Electronics Marketing 101". Advertise a best possible scenario.


    What I find most interesting abut these discussions is they focus on "smart" watch- it's not a smart watch, it's a fitness watch. It offers a wide range of abilities and facilities for health tracking, with the ability for the user to customise those facilities in almost limitless ways - and as a result has a wide range of battery life possibilities.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MrSaintz

    No

    There's a subset of settings that can give a 21 day battery life. There's also subsets that give >21, and <21 days.

    www8.garmin.com/.../GUID-694C4E14-D875-479F-AFB1-2A6A582FF506.html


    The "SmartWatch" settings includes all sorts of things that are general to smartwatches... notifications, etc etc. Pulse Ox is a health tracking feature. Much as activity tracking is, hence why the minute GPS tracking is activated, that life will change.

    All of course made moot when you add GPS tracking into the picture. If you're not interesting in that facet, may I suggest an Amazfit Neo be more up your street. You seem more upset about the battery customisation facilities than say GPS maps, full health stats, CIQ etc etc

    MrSaintz said:
    In conclusion the battery was not designed to last 21 days, you can configure the watch to last 21 day, that's the point.
  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MrSaintz

    I thought Garmin specifically gave the information in their marketing material about achieving the smartwatch measurement.

    if you just look at the product specs it does not say how they achieved. Likewise for example the estimated in activity time will vary if I’m doing trendmill with no sensors vs marathon with many sensors vs hike minimal gps vs 2 hours of gps activity per day or using music.

    These are typical or max battery life, you see this on all electrical goods. It’s up to us the consumer to determine  what meets our need.

    To be honest the battery life is really there for long activity rather charges per week or “smartwatch” no activities life. Otherwise charge every 1/2/3 days is more than suitable for almost all of us than the need for long battery life fitness watches.

    There are certainly use cases where we need out side of activity long battery life, where we are not in a position to charge but with the invention of cheap solar charging solutions even these use cases are becoming more and more redundant 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Matt_Barrett
    Matt_Barrett said:
    There are certainly use case when we need outside of activity long battery life as we are not in a position to charge but with the inventory of cheap solar charging solutions even then the use cases are becoming more and more redundant 

    Um Ultra runners? The main target of the original fenix ;)

    No way I'm carry a solar charger on a 12 hour run Slight smile

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Ɛpsilon

    I don't understand what is wrong about me feeling mislead by Garmin and you saying I'm doing wrong in sharing my opinion and actually trying to get feedback on people to understand exactly this. Actually by using Garmin forum I'm allowing Garmin a chance to reply, I'm not posting my point in any other place, so sorry that I don't see how can this be wrong.

    The term smartwatch is used by Garmin itself, again not my words.

    I understand what a fitness watch is however if health tracking like heart, steps, floors and other type of health tracking features are within the 21day lifespan along with many other smartwatch features, so should oxymeter IMHO, and that is not clear in what Garmin calls "smartwatch mode".

    It's interesting because we are talking about money, simple decisions like using a better battery to withstand a marketing claim, our increase profit by just spending 11 day battery lifespan for all features on, and claim it to last 21 on a debatable "best scenario".

    Heck, if I choose I can make it last 40 maybe, I just have to turn off everything for the 11 day battery capacity, when if it was an actual 21day, by choosing to do exactly the same it might last 50/60 whatever days. But that's actually not the point.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MrSaintz
    MrSaintz said:
    I understand what a fitness watch is however if health tracking like heart, steps, floors and other type of health tracking features are within the 21day lifespan along with many other smartwatch features, so should oxymeter IMHO, and that is not clear in what Garmin calls "smartwatch mode".

    But then you have to have some cutoff as to what is "smartwatch" and what is "health". Garmin have put P.Ox in the "health" category, not "smartwatch". Pulse Ox is still quite a new thing and not many other watches have it - so it makes sense to make the "smartwatch" specs as close to something more watches have to make a more realistic comparison

    And yes I agree with "better battery" - but there's a finite amount of room in a small watch, and bigger battery means something else has to go

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Ɛpsilon

    Errm, that was point. If a single long activity you need a big battery but multi day event you generally have the opportunity to charge or you run slower and therefore solar charging does cost/penalises you in race