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Battery consumption: initial observations?

i know it's probably way to early to start this discussion, but i figure crowd sourcing may yield some insights. in short, after very disappointing battery use, in particular smart watch mode endurance on my 945LTE, i have been hyperaware of how much battery use my 955 Solar is using. just overnight (8-9 hours), i was surprised to see it dropped 3-4%. it may be that the battery gauge is poorly calibrated, but so far, even though one would guess it has a larger battery than the 945LTE, i'm finding consumption not very different.

on the positive side, for my one activity so far, a 70 minute run with Multiband+All satellites, i used up 6% which right on target with spec. (basically zero sun since i ran before and just as the sun was coming up).

i'd love to hear other people's impressions and experiences as some of you have had the watch (just a bit ;) ) longer.

  • i did one run with All+ Multiband and it consumed 6% for a 68min run which is within spec for best accuracy mode. my two runs using All Satellites (middle option) were 62 and 67 minutes each, both were roughly 3% down. (again, lacking precision) spec would suggest 3.45%/hr burn rate, so everything is right in line with what i should be seeing. (probably got a little more solar today than the prior run which was very early in the morning as sun was coming up)

  • I have had some crummy battery life so far. Charged it full 2 days ago and it’s gone down almost 50 percent over that time frame. Have any of you had these issues? This is with no activity too. On demand O2. Wearing it all The time. 

  • Due to the watch only giving battery life in whole percentages (even through connectiq) it makes it a bit harder to estimate usage on the shorter timeframes... I believe during activities usage is fine, with either the full gps/multiband/etc or not.

    During 'normal watch mode' it's harder to say, but last night over evening+night (sleep) it used 2% in 11 hours for ~0.2%/hr.

    I used to have the stryd footpod connected and that always seemed to connect, not just during actitvities or when in use. Perhaps that also added to the drain, disconnected it now (using it in standalone mode anyway most of the time because I'm not really happy with the pace info it returns) so will be giving that a further look.

    Also doing a ~2hr/25k run this morning (still in doubt between gps only which is also more then good enough, or fullband just to test) so that should hopefully give a better idea about usage during activity.

    *edit*

    Just got back from 26k (~2:04) and battery went from 44 to 40% (was sunny so high solar levels in general). That said, on average each ~35 mins drained 1% so it was more in the range of 3.5% depletion I'd say (meaning <2%/hr in GPS only mode, polar oh1+ connected and a running a course so also checking maps/navigation field every now and then). Very nice indeed... next time I'll enable all gps+ modes for a comparsison.

  • I’ve had the same issues as well. Full charge Friday night and one 50 minute run on Saturday and now on Sunday morning, I am at 35%. The battery life for me is crummy. I don’t know what the issue is, but I noticed a few days ago my watch wasn’t syncing to Garmin Connect and battery life was great. As soon as I went for a run and the watch synced, battery life was awful again.

    I powered the watch down and back up, but same issues with battery life. I even deleted the Garmin Connect app and reinstalled, but same issues.  Does anyone have any good tips to possibly resolve the issue?  Should I do a full reset of the watch?  Will I lose the training data I’ve currently accumulated?

  • I have had a good stretch the last day and a half. Charged to 100% Friday evening (8p) woke and watch was at 98% at 6am. Went for 68 minute run with All Satellites and came back at 95%. Then went to 94% at 10am. Drove in car for 3.5 hours with moderate solar intensity on Widget and it didn’t fall to 93% until 4p. It’s now 8am on Sunday and it just dropped to 89%. 

    I’ll try to follow up after this trip and have more extensive info but this short 1.5 day run is impressive. The only caveat is whether the battery behaves linearly or not. 

  • I noticed the gesture back light activating a lot during the day. I turned that off and only have it set to after sunset. Since then battery burn has been better. I may turn off the after sunset option as well since I was always used to a button press to activate the back light on my 945.

  • Just a small update, charged the battery to 100% yesterday (15:00). Went for a 1:45h walk after that, gps only, which used ~3% of the battery and currently battery is on 91%. So that's almost a full day (it's 13:24 now) including a 1:45h activity (gps and ohr) and ~9% used. This would make me happy ;)

    Btw, pretty sunny here atm so that will prolly help a bit as well.

  • Been using since Friday so many hours of setting up on Friday evening, trainings and regular using on Saturday, Sunday, and now on Monday exactly after 3x24=72 h usage 65 % / est. 10 days remaining. Without solar -version. Seems quite same as my previous Fenix 6x pro. SpO2 activated during night-time 21:00-5:45 and do not disturb also / everything on and default watchface, cell-phone announcements etc. on. Waited much worse.

  • I've gone form 65% to 35% today. Solar edition. 1 swim roughly an hour. A short 30 min walk outdoors (sunny day). SpO2 is off. Watch face has battery level, steps, HR, body battery and weather.

    Terrible! 

  • Sorry to hear this. 

    I consider myself fortunate. After three days of carefully monitoring , I’m suitably impressed and see how solar can really help. I’ve been on family vacation driving and today out in the sun a fair but. 

    in three full days since I charged it Friday evening it just hit 76%. This includes

    • 3days smart watch using glance pro with 1hz HR and seconds disabled but active on gesture 
    • fair bit of time configuring and installing some other favorite watch faces. 
    • two early morning (not a lot of sun) All Satellites runs totaling 130min. 
    • two GPS only hikes totaling 120min. 

    lacking precision for the latter two I am guessing the runs used about 6% and the hikes 4%. Which means under 5%/day smartwatch use with the Solar I collected. Truly impressive. I wasn’t out all day but I did get decent sun from riding in a boat and driving. 

    bottom line: very much in line with specs. (Wish the widget/glance for solar gave numbers. )