Over the last 4 days I've tested the Varia radar when paired to my Edge 520. The Edge 520 is set at 20% brightness with 15 second timeout. In addition to having the radar paired to it, I have a Garmin magnetless speed sensor (no cadence), a Shimano D-Fly (Di2) sensor and my Sony Xperia Z5 Compact paired via BT.
The radar is set to flashing light mode and on the Edge 520 I have the alert tones set to off as I never hear it anyways. At the start of this 4 day / 4 ride test both the Edge 520 and the Radar were charged to 100%. They were not charged during the testing period.
Battery life for the radar is shown on the Edge 520 as a battery icon with 5 bars inside of that icon. I assume each bar is 20%. It would be nice if future update would display the radar battery life in a % instead of the battery icon. Since there is no real way to know the radar battery level, I am assuming battery usage here based on the level of the bars inside the battery icon.
Day 1:
Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Edge 520: Started at 100% and ended at 83%. Battery consumed 17%
Radar: Started at 100% and ended at an estimated 80%. Battery consumed is estimated 20%
Day 2:
Time: 2 hours and 21 minutes
Edge 520: Started at 83% and ended at 64%. Battery consumed 19%
Radar: Started at estimated 80% and ended at estimated 60%. Battery consumed is estimated 20%
Day 3:
Time: 2 hours and 17 minutes
Edge 520: Started at 64% and ended at 45%. Battery consumed 19%
Radar: Started at estimated 60% and ended at estimated 40%. Battery consumed is estimated 20%
Day 4:
Time: 2 hours and 24 minutes
Edge 520: Started at 45% and ended at 24%. Battery consumed 21%
Radar: Started at estimated 40% and ended at estimated 20%. Battery consumed is estimated 20%
4 day totals without being charged:
Time totals: 9 hours and 22 minutes
Edge 520: Started at 100% and ended the 4 days at 24%. Total battery consumed 76%
Radar: Started at 100% and ended the 4 days at estimated 20%. Total battery consumed is estimated 80%
All in all these numbers are very good. I cycle in medium to heavy traffic so the radar is almost always flashing in increased mode for traffic and the Edge 520 almost always has the radar on it's display.
