Bad battery life

I am using an iPhone to pair with the watch. I started from a full charge and estimated 26 days of battery life, with the following settings:

  • activity tracking + move iq
  • no gps
  • no move alert
  • no sleep pulse ox
  • 20% backlight
  • no backlight gesture

I also had good sunlight exposure almost every day. The watch lasted 15 days. I brought the device in my local Garmin shop, but they only reset the settings, which lead to no changes, as the next test with the same settings resulted in 16 days battery life.

Judging by what is supposed to be normal (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-A298EB1C-21D9-430F-8D06-A2CC74E5D5E9/EN-US/GUID-BCA44331-7CAC-4734-9222-6066B05C32AB.html), I am planning to return it to the shop once again. Does anyone else experience this issue? I am interested in what you guys think.

  • Exactly the same with me. It won't change. The calculated number of days is an estimate that was set into stone when the watch released, with probably very optimistic values even then. With three hours of sun daily, you should get 20 plus 34 days, but in reality, even with a fair amount of daily sun, you will barely scratch the 20 days promised *without* sun. Garmin doesn't care. Overpromising, underdelivering. Tech support is hopeless. Live with it or give it back. I had two, with serial numbers more than 20.000 apart, and there was exactly the same battery depletion in both. Here, mostly fanboys will try to put you in your place and ridicule you. It is possible that newer firmware versions and especially the SensorHub 5.00 / 6.01 vs 4.00 made battery life worse. Deeply frustrating.

  • Thank you for this answer. If you got Garmin to replace your watch, how did you manage to do that? When I brought mine to the store, they brushed the problem off and acted like it's all good. Maybe next time I need to bring some charts and advertised battery life so that they can take me more seriously?

  • Only via Amazon. Garmin's tech support in my country basically said I'm holding it wrong and could send it in for prolonged analysis, after which in a best case scenario I would get a used one in exchange. It beggars belief. Pure tribalism and disinterest.

    I basically posted exactly the same as you a few weeks ago. Nothing happened. Nothing will happen. Oh, sorry, no, they locked the thread 'because we don't want people to read that on Google, do we?'

    The one thing I can say in Garmin's favour is that they principally allow discussions like these on their forums at all.

    I am beginning to have mixed feelings about DC Rainmaker, DesFit and all those other YouTube influencers that make a living from this. I am not saying they are corrupt, but of course they don't want to endanger the good working relationships they have with the companies.

  • Oof, bad luck. I bought it from Garmin directly. Regardless, I will stop by their store and give you an update. Maybe they won't bulls**t me this time.

    Interestingly enough, DesFit's review made me choose this model.

  • See, that's what I mean. Soft advertising works. The Instinct Solar is a cool watch basically, but it simply does not hold what it promises.

    And please keep me posted.

  • You have new watches, you keep playing with them, it does a lot. It consumes energy. It will last me over 30 days in a similar setting. I have 5% backlight and I see it perfectly. Update values once a minute. I don't know how often you are in the sun. That is then an estimate.

  • I keep seeing you around this forum. I really hope you're getting paid for the fine job you're doing, it would really be a waste of time to shill so hard for nothing in return.

  • I had absolutely no idea that you know how much I play with my watch. Fascinating. And I am in the daylight a lot, and I can clearly see the solar indicator of the last six hours.

    Also, the only watch face that allows more than one widget / complication is the digital watch face that totally unnecessarily updates every second as soon as the slightest movement gets detected. So no 'update values once a minute'. Pure falsehood.

  • Probably an inaccuracy in the translation. The update rate setting once per minute is in the settings and does not affect the seconds. I don't know how much you play with watches, but when they are new you probably try. Is there a lot of fiber about battery life, did you see them at all before you asked questions?