Go for 965 or for 955 solar

Thanks for that link. I definitely agree that the AOD outside is too dim for my liking. It’s fine for me indoors. I’m totally satisfied with it as a day-to-day watch.

I have another speed workout today so that should give me a better idea if gesturing works good enough for me to hit my paces. 

Sounds good .

I've noticed this too, it appears it does. I was trying to catch it out the other day but I couldn't! Even in bright sunlight, once the gesture kicked in, it was always readable. And as you mentioned, it would adjust the light depending on the conditions. I wanted to catch it out, but pleased I never managed to! 

What I would really like to know is whether the 965 and the 955 solar really have such different battery runtimes.

The 965 is better in pure smartwatch mode (without AOD) but the more activities you do, the more the 965 and 955 solar resemble each other.

Only in Gps only mode without music is the 955 solar superior to the 965.

Also, when I read the detail spreadsheets of Garmin's battery specs, the 965 has been more stressed (more gestures and interactions) than the 955 solar to indicate battery life times.

That means for me in reverse that the 965 is inferior to the 955 solar, if at all, only in summer and in winter, at least equal.

Or how do you see that?

I also note that the 965 works well in the sun, but only with gestures? So AOD is useless in the sun? Right?

(P.s. I come from one of the rainiest areas of Germany )

Greeting

I would really doubt that the 965 can last as long as the 955. I have the 965 with AOD on and with an hour of activities on full GPS I am already 16% down after 19 hours , of which a lot was during sleep. When I was keeping a battery log on my 955, I would guess around 12% over 19 hours with a similar amount of GPS time. I notice the battery drop more on the 965 and am more aware of it. I suppose it depends on the amount one uses the gesture and amoled vs the MIP. I am not a heavy smartwatch interacter.

Regarding the screen , honestly the AOD needs gesture in the bright sun.  You can see from some pictures I have posted.  I have also made the comments that if (for instance) one is doing a workout with rest periods , with MIP you can easily glance at those , not so much with Amoled, as the display (even on extended time out) will go to AOD base (which is not adjustable as far as I can establish) and then you have to gesture or touch to see the remaining rest period etc if it is bright outside.

Looking at Flipstone battery field on some activities,  went from 95 - 87% on the 965 on a 80 min full GPS , on the 955 from 100 - 91% , so quite similar given the estimations these involve (and battery size dependant)

Obviously these are just my observations , others may have a different use case or experience. 

I found the post by pxl , that I included above in a link, quite interesting as that gave a completely other type of situation where the AOD "dimness" was an issue.

Ran 400m intervals this morning (in full sun) and definitely had to rely on gestures to get pace/time feedback while running. AOD was unreadable. 

That being said, gestures worked 100% and lit up the screen plenty. I had a custom screen set with three fields and the data was large and easy to read. 

I would probably use it without AOD but with full brightness for gestures for activities.

And if possible, disable gestures for bedtime.

That would increase the runtime compared to your usage type, right?

I assume so. I haven’t been paying attention to battery life at all TBH. I just top off the battery when I shower and so far that’s been working for me. 

My longest races are 50Ks so it doesn’t matter to me if I get five days or two weeks of battery life, as long as it gets me through a race and I can top it off easily. 

Sorry Patrick, I overlooked your answer.
That was supposed to go to S.M.R.
But thanks for your reply too!!!

Greeting Pascal

this is interesting info. so it seems that for Multiband GPS, the 965 and 955 are comparable and consumption. it seems roughly in line with Garmin's specs. they must have tuned somethings for this to happen because the only GPS specs are quite different for the two watches (42 vs 30 hrs). i use All Satellites on my 955 and the 91 hour specs seems close to spot on.

i must be still tempted because i continue to monitor the 965 forums... but trying to convince myself to sit tight with my 955 for now.