Battery life: real world burn rates vs specs

I will try to use a widget to monitor / log numbers more reliably, but anecdotally I feel like the discharge rate is higher than I'd expect.  My activities are kind of all over the map though with some indoor rides, GPS runs w/ phone (no LTE), GPS runs w/ LTE etc...

Recent numbers:

• Overnight w/ pulseox: ~14% / day rate estimated by Battery Info widget
• 90 minute indoor spin: ~1.5% used (per fit file data), estimated full capacity 83.33 hours
• 90 minute GPS run w/ LTE:: 13% used (per fit file data), estimated full capacity 12.18 hours
• ~30 minute open water swim, phone in buoy, unsure if LTE was running: 13% used, estimated capacity 6 hours
• ~30 minute open water swim, no phone in buoy, LTE probably on: 4% used, estimated capacity 14.58 hours
• 27 minute open water swim, no phone in buoy, LTE should be on but no LiveTrack received: 10% used, estimated capacity 3.4 hours
• 1:15 triathlon, no phone on me, LTE on: 14% used, estimated capacity 8.93 hours
• 3:40 ride (elapsed time 4:10, 3x flat tires, water stops), BLE, No LTE, GPS+GLONASS, Power Meter, HRM, Varia: 15% used, estimated capacity 28.89 hours.  For what it's worth, my Edge 530 had an estimated capacity of 24.73 hours on the same ride.

All somewhat one-off data points.  Many from 2.10 SW, some may have been 3.04 beta.  From two different watches so nothing really conclusive I guess.  The one swim looks really weird, not sure what happened there.  Maybe I'll see if I can repeat it on a future swim.

Edits:

• Add LTE status for triathlon and fix swapped tags for the 90 min run and 90 min indoor spin (they we’re backwards)
• I generally do not use Music so none of the above are while playing music
• Added long outdoor bike ride

thanks for sharing your experiences, nord0296. some of those numbers are really low. was your triatholon with LTE enabled?  i'm usually not one to live on the bleeding edge with betas, but i may dive in at some point. my replacement 945LTE came last night so i am just setting it up and want to see how works with FW2.10 before i consider the beta. at the very least, the buttons on this 2nd watch have more reliable tactile feedback. i don't expect its battery performance, however to be that different from the first watch, but we will see.

Yes, the triathlon had LTE enabled and in use.  I have not done any activities with the “Low Power Mode” LTE yet (reduced update rate to save battery)

interesting. i can't recall what DC Rainmaker said the spec was for LTE+GPS but no music...

also, are you using GLONASS or Galileo?

I think he noted 10-14 hours w/o Music (but with LTE), but could be mistaken there...

I'm using default settings for GPS, I think - which seem to be GPS + GLONASS.

good to know. you are right, the default on the watch from the factory is GPS + GLONASS. at least with my 935, i never saw any notable difference in performance at least in my usage. so I've opted to use plain GPS to save myself 20% (roughly) in battery usage.

so, some updates. i'm on my 2nd 945LTE which i've had a a week to get some idea of how it is performing (first one was replaced due to horrible buttons...this one is much better).

for this watch, i'm estimating a 8-9%/day in smart watch mode for the same watch face that was 6%/day on my 935.

on the other hand, with a few more hours of GPS activities experienced, i think i'm getting close to a 3%/hr burn rate with vanilla GPS (no GLONASS, or Galileo), 1 sec recording.

Aside, just like my 935: it goes quickly down from 100 -> 96% and then it slows up appreciably. this is even after leaving it on the charger for an hour after hitting 100%.

I am contemplating using my 945 LTE for a 100 miler with a 30 hour cutoff but I am worried. I ran a 50 mile race in some mountains (so connection was a bit of a challenge). LTE off and no music but it was connected to my phone. After about 14:40 hours it had 51% battery left which leads me to believe it will last about 29-30 hours. A little disappointing. 

in my experience using plain GPS (not GLONASS or Galileo), this is one area where the 945LTE seems to be on spec. i am getting a burn rate of slightly less than 3% per hour both cycling, running, hiking. but i am not connected to buy phone so that perhaps makes difference. 

if i were you, i would run a test if you can and leave your watch outside and running with no phone connected and see what your burn rate looks like.

I do have a Fenix 6X Solar which will handle the race no problem. You think I should just wear that one?  I do like the look and feel of the 945 though