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945 APAC firmware 4.50 massive battery life!

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

Just thought I'd share how impressed I am with the battery life of my 945 APAC. I had a really long mtb ride yesterday and required my garmin to record all day. After making just 2 setting changes (smart recording instead of per sec + turned off phone connection), the watch easily survived 12.5 hrs of recording. And still had 60% battery life left!! I'm not sure if this was due to the 4.50 update, but I had seen some battery life improvements prior to my ride. 

I do leave Pulse Ox off as this used to cause a big drain and I'm not fussed about it anyway. Maybe I could turn it on now. Anyway, very pleased with this update!

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  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I think this is how it used to be.

    Earlier this year (January 2020), I finished a 100km trail running race and I did it 19 hours. It still had 30-40% battery remaining after the race. I made it GPS only, every second recording, firmware version 4.00.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Thanks for sharing and congratulations to APAC users for getting the update ahead of RoW Grinning

    Finally some good news on batter life!!! 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Hope the update comes in the next few days to the RoW

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Smart recording vs per second shouldn't impact battery life. It's not about how often a position is determined by gps but how many points are stored. 

    See also what dcrainmaker tells about it: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/03/configure-watches-datafields.html

    "It’s so I don’t ‘lose’ data. Smart recording only records every 3-7 seconds (typically), so I’d lose bit of heart rate data or running data (i.e. cadence). Now in cycling with a power meter, the unit actually always records in 1-second, regardless of what you set it as.

    As for battery, nope, zero impact there. The only thing it impacts is storage, but even that is a holdover from the old days. So much so that Garmin’s latest wearable (Vivoactive HR) goes to just 1-second recording, ditching smart recording. To put things in perspective. My 2ish hour ride yesterday with a power meter was 350K (.35MB). The Edge 520 has roughly 90MB of storage space, so enough for 540 hours of riding before I’d have to download (at 1-second recording)."

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to StephanK.
    StephanK. said:
    what is apac ?

    Garmin has two versions of their products: Asia and Pacific (APAC) and the other for the rest of the world.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Elbo

    so they already have FW 4.5 Slight smile

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to StephanK.

    I would not pay too much attention to the specific number. APAC's does not follow RoW order. I use an APAC since 2019 and what I've seen is that we have two types of updates, one for adding Asian characters and fixes for the gps, and the other ones for meeting RoW firmware updates' improvements. Usually, we have to wait one month or so to reach RoW's ehehehe and the number never meets them.

    Honestly, I don't believe this time is different hehehehe

    btw. In my specific case, I have not seen any major improvement in battery life yet

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Although the conversation is mainly focussed on 1-sec recording vs smart recording and a new software version, the part about turning off phone connection is somewhat overlooked. Switching off bluetooth (and WiFi as well) are major battery-savers.

    Is there someone that has some experience with enhanced battery-life with only the new firmware?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to eberends

    not in my case. I haven't changed anything else but the firmware and it drains the battery at the same pace it used to do. 

    All in all, with everything activated, it lasts between 4 and 5 days... as I said, no major differences 

    Personally, I've seen more improvements  in battery life changing watch faces than updating firmwares xD