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AMOLED Battery Life - Real Life Experience

NeilJonesOnline
4 months ago

TL;DR - better than advertised!

I received my 45mm AMOLED Instinct 3 on 12th Jan, and fully charged it by mid afternoon.

Since then I've worn it 24/7, with display set to Always On and all other display settings at default, Pulse Ox at night and GPS set to Auto Select. The initial battery estimate it gave me at 100% charge was 6 days, which was a day short of Garmin's advertised "Up to 7 days in always-on" maximum.

However, including 5.5 hours of GPS activities, I got a low battery warning last night (20th Jan), so well over 8 days since the full charge. I suspect it would have made it through the night, based on my previous experience of when the alert comes up, but didn't try. Plus, as the battery hasn't yet been run down to empty so won't have had chance to fully calibrate, it's quite possible that the alert was triggered prematurely and it may have had even longer left in it.

Obviously battery life is dependent on individual customisation and usage, but for context my MARQ2 advertises 6 days of life, and with the same usage as my Instinct 3, that's invariably what I get out of it so it was good to see the I3 exceeding Garmin's numbers. It's also nice to pass the 7-day mark for my usage, as that makes charging it easier to fit into a weekly routine.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member 4 months ago

    Ok... So here is my real life battery experience with my I3 AMOLED 51mm.

    When I first got it, I fully charged it, set AOD to ON, set data recording to every second, and I left all other settings to default. I used the watch as I normally would use a fitness watch, and only used the stock watch faces. I Tracked my activities, sleep, etc. and wore it 24/7.

    As of right now, it has been 9 full days, and the battery is at 29%, and in those 9 days, I have recorded 5 hours of GPS activities.

    So. Based on the spec that says 9 days as a smart watch with AOD, It looks like it well exceeds the spec, because I got 29% battery left with 5 hours of GPS use, along with using it as a smart watch for 9 full days.

    Anyway... This is my "very simple" battery result.

    YMMV

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member 4 months ago in reply to Former Member

    Ok... So here is my real life battery experience with my I3 AMOLED 51mm.

    When I first got it, I fully charged it, set AOD to ON, set data recording to every second, and I left all other settings to default. I used the watch as I normally would use a fitness watch, and only used the stock watch faces. I Tracked my activities, sleep, etc. and wore it 24/7.

    As of right now, it has been 9 full days, and the battery is at 29%, and in those 9 days, I have recorded 5 hours of GPS activities.

    So. Based on the spec that says 9 days as a smart watch with AOD, It looks like it well exceeds the spec, because I got 29% battery left with 5 hours of GPS use, along with using it as a smart watch for 9 full days.

    Anyway... This is my "very simple" battery result.

    YMMV

    Ok... So, got 12 full days, and have 10% battery left with AOD on, and 6 hours of GPS activities.

    I could probably get another full day, but I like to charge mine when it hits 10% or lower.

    It's not rocket science... You use the watch as "you" normally use it, and see how many days "you" get out of the thing. For "me"... it well exceeds the spec.

  • 0 4 months ago

    ...at the end... mine dead in 14 days...

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to Saurax

    Based on what your previous post - this was with AOD off, display set to dim gesture on, hour or so of GPS every other day and the pulse ox on with 45mm amoled?

    I saw dc rainmaker said solars are getting less battery than advertised and amoleds are slightly better than advertised. Your case would back that up.

    Tracking says mine is arriving today, but still not sure I’ll be keeping it.

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to adamMnelson

    Yeah right, I also note that I used the multiband GPS more than previously indicated

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to adamMnelson

    I have the 45mm amoled Instinct 3, gestures on, AOD off and most settings are default, I dont use GPS and im getting about 22-24 days out of a battery, I'm currently on day 12 and still at 56% battery, Its great! I came from the Venu 3 and after an update the battery life dropped from 10-12 days to like 4-5 and Garmin sent me a new one, Same issue, They then offered me to swap to another watch and I chose this. Glad I did. I missed my instinct 2.