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battery life when using navigation/maps?

Is there anybody who used a 955 during a long ultra run (e.g. 100 miles)? I am wondering if i can afford to use navigation (looking at the map screen only from time to time) or if this has a huge impact on battery life.

Theoretically i would also be fine with just loading the course (showing a line on the map), without actual navigation. Is this possible? I assume this wouldn‘t have much impact on battery life.

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0 5994630 over 2 years ago

The guy to ask for that one is Dave from Chase the Summit. He did a video on it: www.youtube.com/watch

0 Heikoo over 2 years ago in reply to 5994630

Thanks for mentioning the video. Unfortunately the guy did not use any navigation. However, with anything set to „low power“ (bluetooth off, min backlight etc.) he burned less than 50% in 25 hours. This seems encouraging. It seems i need to do some battery tests myself then ((with/without navigation).

0 Andrew over 2 years ago in reply to Heikoo

Do you have solar or normal 955?

0 dagorg over 2 years ago

For what its worth I did a marathon last year with everything enabled navigation, notifications, phone connection, live event beacon, multiband but no wrist heart rate as I used a HR strap. Used 23% in 3:40h so not much impact from the navigation

0 Albertone over 2 years ago

HI, but actually, 100 miles is about 4 times a marathon... I often use navigation following preloaded routes and I must say that it consumes a lot of battery ... even 6% / hour with activated frequency, bluetooth, live track, screen scrolling, map zoom .

0 5994630 over 2 years ago in reply to Albertone

For ultramarathons, you'd probably be wanting to dial back some of the GPS accuracy unless it was absolutely essential.

Not having the map screen open all the time will help battery life a lot (fewer extensive screen updates). It will still buzz and pop up a notification for turns. Playback through Bluetooth headphones will dramatically affect battery life.

0 ocular20 over 2 years ago

I haven't noticed an increase in battery consumption when using navigation as compared to not using navigation. Then again, I never spent much time during my run looking at maps. My guess is that leaving maps open all the time will drain battery more since the watch is often updating many pixels on the screen at once. But with navigation you get turn-by-turn popup notifications as well as a red "heading" indicator on every screen that tells you if you're heading in the general right direction.

0 Heikoo over 2 years ago in reply to ocular20

There is now way to switch off the navigation buzz/pop up, right?

0 ocular20 over 2 years ago in reply to Heikoo

Not sure, I've never tried to turn off the popups.

0 Andrew over 2 years ago in reply to Heikoo

You have to go to the specific course through Garmin Connect and turn off Turn Notification