Lowest power settings configuration?

Rich D said:

They mentioned it’s possible to configure the 7 to run for over a year.

Which review is that? If this is possible, I suspect that the settings would be so limiting, it would render the watch useless.

I agree the watch will be rendered useless, but if I ever end up on Gilligans Island, I want battery life as good as their radio had

Guess you could just turn if off

At what point is "over a year battery life" mentioned? I've already watched this video twice and even took notes. Don't make me watch it again.

I'm checking for the Zombie Apocalypse mode.

That's simply battery saver unless I'm missing some hidden option. Only the solar variant would be able to run for a year. For the 7 (47mm) solar model it would take close to 4 hours of daily sun to run for more than a year (50k lux which is cloudy conditions, in bright conditions and perfect battery state & temp it could more than double the charge but uncommon). It would take 4.5 hours daily at 50k lux to run forever in theory (=100/57 / (100 / 57-100 / 73)).

At 10:15, they show the graphic I screenshot above. Look at the 7x with solar column, in red “1yr+”.  Just before at about 10:13 was the 7 pro graphic with same numbers.  I’m just wondering if that is with a specific watch face too?

 I don’t fully understand the power modes, are they only when you activate an activity, ie I use hiking a lot, only then?

What is the formula you cited?  How derived? I don’t recall reading about 4.5 hrs at 50k lux running for ever etc, where can I find that please? That’s interesting, I’m going on a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour on the SS Minnow soon

See DCR's settings walkthrough of battery saver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7M7PS59joM&t=1980s. Different watch but very similar on the Fenix series (ignore the estimates though since 255 is different, use instead table above).

Basically in max battery saver mode it will only update the watchface every 60 seconds (and it won't show seconds). Also everything is disabled (wifi/BT/tracking...).

You can disable only the lower power watchface but that takes roughly 30% I think in battery hit. See otherwise the table above.

These are derived from the Garmin specs. So I was using here the 47mm Fenix 7:

% drain per hour in battery saver (all disabled & watchface updates only once per minute): 100/57 = 1.75% per day (UPDATE: corrected from hour)

The potential % charge per hour is taken from the GPS numbers since these assume 100% sun at 50K Lux (cloudy conditions):

100/57 - 100/73 (solar charge) = 0.4% charge per hour

So dividing 1.75/0.4 is bit more than 4 hours a day of sun in cloudy conditions. This in theory could double in perfect sunny with not too hot conditions. This sounds great but more likely you will get a sunburn first potentially, second it also has to be perfectly angled towards the sun. Typically it's more like 10-20% extending battery life for most people.