Initial thoughts on Solar utility/usefulness?

On my 7X SS solar charging is totally useless. I love everything else on the watch. By the way, 955 is an awesome watch as well.

So far, I haven’t had the chance to get significant solar input. My personal record is 150 k lux per day and it happened only once. Maybe on the Instinct series solar produces visible results but on Fenix series I see no battery benefit. It’s really marginal or non-existing for me. The only “bonus” is the ugly solar ring. Anyway, both 7X and 955 are fantastic watches. Enjoy your watch, it’s one of the best watches on the market.

thanks for the encouragement. i like the watch overall. too bad the current Glance/widget doesn't provide information like the Fenix/Epix one showing total insolation for the day. (it only shows a graph of the last 3 hours)

i like the solar ring actually, looks cool on the 955 imo.

i find i get to 100% just walking outdoors in CA. it's hard to say exactly how much it helps or not

Early days yet, but I'm happy with solar.

I think the copper color ring just inside the bezel looks pretty cool.

This a.m. I went for a 10k run in full sun. Started at 92%. Finished at 90%. With my 945 I typically noticed 1% per km drain, so i was suitably impressed.

OTOH, right afterwards about noon I went for a long drive in my car with the sunroof open and full sun directly on the watch for 30 mins. Started at 89%...ended at 89%.

So who knows. I'm not really counting on solar, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to drain the battery right down to zero before a recharge, and occasionally have the watch die before finishing a run.  

Generally I am extremely pleased with the 955 so far, and looking forward to having a few weeks of personal metrics in its database.

i am finding that i get decent amount of solar charging while driving and running thus far since the watch face is horizontal so that panel is facing vertical.  walking, however,  less so since the watch face tends to to be pointed horizontal (ie, not directly towards the sun).

well, i have to be a bit lame and respond to my own thread. i just got back from a 4 day trip where i spent a few hours driving so my wrist was in the sun for parts of the drive, and also some boating and other short hikes and i can definitively say in such circumstances, the solar feature is a noticeable boost in battery endurance. 

i'm just about exactly four days from when i charged to 100% and it is sitting at 72% (just flipped to it less than an hour ago). in these four days, i also did over 2 hours of running with All Satellites (~6%+)  [all early in the morning so minimal Solar) and 2 hours of hiking with GPS only (~4%? -- some sun on and off through tree cover and then exposure, etc.). conservatively, that would mean smart watch usage (Glance Pro showing tons of fields, but seconds and HR only activated to 1hz by gesture), it used on average 4.5%/day smart watch mode which to me is truly impressive. i also still continue to do a fair bit of playing around with things and even installed a few other watch faces and configured them (but stuck with Glance Pro for 98% of the time). 

most striking anecdote was today was during a drive, the watch actually went up 1% in battery charge.

i'm very pleased with the Solar feature and the battery endurance relative to my 945LTE (which has been a huge disappointment in not coming close to specs).

of course, i should note, normally, i won't get this kind of sunlight, but it shows what the Solar is capable of so i am looking forward to the extra range i should get while backpacking.

thanks for updating. i dont think mine has been as good but that makes me want to test a bit more.

Thanks Derek, this is the information I was looking for before making the leap from 945 to 955 solar, hoping for a quick SW stability