While I am neither fan of AMOLED nor of touch-controlled watches, I have to admit Venu is awesome and partially addresses my complaints in both areas. I have start thinking about combination with solar power, like Fenix 6X has. I have decided to make some comparison of effect of solar power. They are just my estimates, but I might be wrong.
What I consider: Effect on normal usage with normal smart features turned on, while GPS and always-on are turned off. Battery-saving modes are out of scope, as they reduce the watch to dumbwatch, so they are likely not used often. Battery-hungry modes (e.g., GPS) are also out of scope, as solar power cannot help much there.
Effect on battery size: I expect the same as on Garmin 6X, that is no effect. It seems that the charging layer is really thin.
Solar panel efficiency factor: AMOLED wins there. As far as I remember, Fenix 6X Solar passes just about 10 % of the light to the solar panel. However, AMOLED is transparent, so a solar panel under AMOLED could bring up to ten times more energy. Maybe I am overoptimistic, but I don't have a better number.
Solar panel size: The Fenix 6X has 1.4" screen, while Venu has just 1.2" screen. Thet is, Venu has screen of size of (1.2/1.4)^22 ≈ 73.47 % of Fenix 6X' screen. I don't count with the small solar line around the 6X, as I don't know its dimensions.
Difference in power consumption: I expect Venu to consume about twice as much power as Fenix 6X. First, I compare then with Vivoactive 4/4S, where I expect the same factor. Those numbers are based on expected battery life. While Venu has a more than half battery life of either Vivoactive 4 or Vivoactive 4S, it seems to have a slightly larger battery (due to screen size) than Vivoactive 4, as it has better battery life with GPS. Furthermore, I expect Fenix 6X and Vivoactive 4 to have similar power requirements, despite a different screen size, since the transflective LCD does not take much power unless backlight is on. However, backlight is on for a short time.
Solar effect on Fenix 6X Solar: Since it extends* 21-day battery life to 24 days, it collects energy for 3 days during 24 days. That is, it collects 3/24 = 1/8 of its power consumption.
Solar effect on Venu (estimated) = solar effect on fenix 6S * efficiency factor * size factor / consumption factor = (1/8)*10*(1.2/1.4)^2/2 ≈ 45.92 %. In other words, it could earn about a half of the energy outcome, which would double the battery life. Well, since it assumes usage in sunny days that require higher brightness, resulting in higher power demand, the result would be likely less impressive, but it can be still more significant than on Fenix 6X solar…
Cirrections to my estimates are welcome.
*) Under some conditions like enough sunlight during the days. AFAIR, Garmin assumes 3h of sunlight per day.
