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Battery Life in Smartwatch Mode

Former Member
Former Member over 6 years ago
Hi, I just bought the Forerunner 945 and used it over the last couple of days. While it is a great watch, I am a bit underwhelmed about the battery life. It should last up to two weeks in Smartwatch Mode but it seems to use 12-14% per day with little usage which would just give me half of that (this is without doing exercises...as said, minimal usage, which is checking pulse from time to time or reading an incoming msg). I have mostly just factory settings on. I also already checked the tipps on the garmin side of how to optimize battery life (but not going to switch off pulse measurement as this should be part of a Smartwatch Mode). I have it paired with an iPhone Xr. Any views or similar experiences?

Many thanks,
Marc
  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to biondi27

    I have been very disappointed as well.  I just contacted customer support and the immediately asked that I send it in to Garmin to be exchanged for a new one.  

  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to jmto

    I just contacted customer support and they instructed me to return it for a new one. I will be shipping it to garmin this afternoon.  Luckily I still have my 935 to use until the new on arrives. Though based on all these battery comments, I am not confident that this will correct the problem. 

  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to jmto

    I think I didn't charge the 935 to 100% when I gave those number.

    But I did charge it again yesterday... and now around 17 hours and I've lost only 4%. Which is 2% more than 935 in the same time, but the 2% difference can be easily explained with the notifications and BT-communication with mobile.

    Calculating from this it would give about 6% per day, which would give over 16 days.

    I haven't changed anything.

    My estimate seems to be in line with https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-945/162620/battery-life-in-smartwatch-mode/887758#887758

    And then the comments that it will need some cycles, seems to be the case... Or one should keep it some hours on the charger even it's saying 100% for initial charge or something.


  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago

    I'm very happy with battery life.

    Charged it to 100 % sunday morning, now, after 4days and 12hours, I still have 71% left, so very pleased with that.

    Bluetooth connected, no activities, stock watchface, pulse ox off, notifications on

  • 0 over 6 years ago

    I was happy with the battery life...hope to still be. But I was on about 50% last night, woke up and it was dead...so what happened? I’m hoping beyond hope it was a glitch and won’t happen again...anyone else experience anything like this? 

  • 0 over 6 years ago

    I had a Fenix 5x plus and got two weeks with smart watch and about 2 hrs of gps activity a week.  I've had the 945 for just 24 hrs now, with a 40 minute activity, and already down to 88%.  However, I've spent a lot of time fiddling with it, changing settings, adding widgets, and so on.  So it's not a good comparison yet, but still seems high.  I hope after a few charge cycles and normal usage it improves.  I don't have SPOx on.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago

    ...after 6 days in smartwatch mode (HR on, notifications on, bluetooth 24/24 connected, pulse ox off) I'm at 64%. 

  • 0 over 6 years ago

    Battery in 945 works in my case max 5 days and without oxy or with oxy

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    Some smartwatches have battery problem, after some there battery doesn't work properly.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    i figured it out i think 

    go into garmin app on your phone

    go to your devices

    choose the 945

    music>uninstall the music apps if you don't use them

    activities, apps, and more>activities and applications>remove all the stuff you don't do

    data fields>remove strava relative effort

    go to widgets> remove anything you don't use 

    i have a theory that the more widgets you have on your watch the more battery it uses to feed those widgets because they're always on... ESPECIALLY MUSIC