Solar Charge Test: Your experience?

Hi everyone, have any of you carried out any tests regarding solar charging? I have a Fenix 7X Solar and today I think I have charged it for several hours.

In the first hour, the sun was far from the balcony, so I couldn't see the effects well.

In the next two hours I walked to the beach, recharging the watch but it was not in power save mode and no activity (simply walking on the beach with the watch on my wrist) .

In the last two, however, the phone was in power mode and the sun was almost always at 100%.

The charge was 89% since I started testing at the begin of the day. Then, I turned off the watch for a moment (thinking that something not work) and turned it on again, it was at 90%.

In total today I have stored 247k lux / hour.

Is this normal behavior?

I have had a Garmin Instinct Solar in the past, which would have recharged at least 3-4%.

In the next few days, when the sun will be strong, I will carry out new tests.

However, I leave attached a photo of the solar charge.

What are your experiences and what do you think of mine?

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0 akiakic over 3 years ago

I just got my F7X a few days ago so will test it. Keep us posted on your results.

0 chillbun over 3 years ago

I was also hoping for the ability to charge via solar, especially with the upgrades to solar panel size and efficiency, but sadly with the fenix I think it uses too much power to be able to get the battery percentage to increase with just solar. I would try with the fenix in battery saver mode and see, thanks for testing!

0 C.sco over 3 years ago

It can charge the batter, it's just slow when the watch is on because it draws a lot of power even in smartwatch mode (waaaay more than Instinct). If you want it to charge faster, either put in in battery saver mode or turn it off and leave it out in the sun.

I haven't tried just laying it out in the sun to charge it (because I bought the watch to wear, not to leave it out in the backyard haha) but I did make a note of the battery level yesterday before I began my sunny drive home from work, and it was at 81%. But the time I got home, after holding the watch towards the sun most of the drive, it said 82%. A huge increase? No. But it proves that it can not only offset the battery drain, but also add a little positive charge as well.

Also keep in mine that the 7X battery is like twice the size of the instinct, so 1% charge on the 7X is about the equivalent amount of power as 2% on the instinct.

0 Ludovico84 over 3 years ago in reply to C.sco

How many hours have you driven?

0 C.sco over 3 years ago in reply to Ludovico84

It was just about 45 minutes.

To be fair it was a totally unscientific test. There's no way to know if it had 81.99% when I started and 82.01 when I finished, or if I truly got a whole 1% charge from it. The sample size is simply too small to really draw any accurate conclusions from, besides just to say that it "charged some".

0 aryanabdulla over 3 years ago

It's odd I can't find any videos or any mentioning about solar charging capabilities on the fenix 7 as it's on of the biggest improvements on the fenix line

0 spinnekopje over 3 years ago in reply to aryanabdulla

aryanabdulla said:
It's odd I can't find any videos or any mentioning about solar charging capabilities on the fenix 7

Have you checked dc rainmaker?

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/01/garmin-fenix7-7s-7x-in-depth-review.html#solar-features

You can also find his review on youtube (you can also just click on the video on the top of the page.

0 aryanabdulla over 3 years ago in reply to spinnekopje

Yeah I saw it . But I don't really enjoy watching " professional reviewers" as they are not get very specific about nerdy things

0 C.sco over 3 years ago in reply to aryanabdulla

That's the first time I've ever seen someone say that DCRainmaker doesn't get specific enough about nerdy things

His Youtube videos are truncated, because nobody wants to watch a 3 hour video of anything. If you want lots more nerdy specifics, read his "In-Depth Review" on his blog, it's a solid hour-long read that dives quite deep into specifics.

0 aryanabdulla over 3 years ago in reply to C.sco

I haven't ever seen him get out to the sun for 8 hours test a watch to see if it charges or not .. he has no time to do that and his audience expect more from him..