GPS Battery life: No way 13 hours!

VA3 owners manual, page 18 under specifications. Battery Life. Up to 7 days in smartwatch mode (with heart rate). Up to 13 hr. in GPS mode. That is verbatim, even with Garmin incorrectly printing 13hr. and not 13hrs. There should no longer be any debate on what is "typical" or "normal" use of the VA3. Two things to point out. No where does it say GPSin addition to any other function. Notice how Garmin noted the HR feature under smartwatch mode and not GPS mode. Secondly, both say "Up to". It's not a definitive 7 days or 13 hrs. It can be up to those times in the right conditions. Things such as temperature can and will affect battery life. So, "typical use" of smartwatch mode can get you up to 7 days and "typical use" of GPS mode can get you up to 13 hrs. It's in black and white for anyone to read, yet I'm sure there will be some who will try and "interpret" it their way just for sake of argument.

Couple of things wrong with the thinking above.

• "Up to" should not equate to unobtainable
  
• The box does not say "up to"
  
• Owners manuals, if read, are post-sale, especially page 18
  
• It is a false assumption to infer 13 Hours GPS modes means everything must be turned off
  
• Every possible feature off is not typical use
  

Now let's focus on what a consumer is provided at the time of sale:

The external box very clearly states "13 Hours GPS Mode", no "up to". There is a small #2 next to Battery Life and that disclaimer can be found on the bottom of the box. It clearly states "Under Typical use". I don't think typical use implies everything off and then maybe you will get within a couple of hours of the stated 13Hr. Further they claim "Battery life will vary depending on usage and performance mode". Where is the performance mode that I can select to achieve 13 Hours???

It's deceptive marketing on Garmin's part - they know it and we have proof of it!!!ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1288856.jpg

CliftonMiller I think it's absolutely clear that the watch will not get 13 hrs of gps use, no matter what activity or settings. do not waste time debating this tmk17, he's just trying to argue for sake of arguing without any real basis or interest in getting to the true capability of the watch.

I kept a log like yours and contacted Garmin. They want to do a swap with the watch. I haven't decided if it's worth sending in or not -- maybe I will get one with a same/better/worse battery??

All that said and despite a couple other "issues" (e.g., I found some pool swim function failures), I'm still overall happy with the VA3.
For me, even if I only get 8 hrs. of gps (with HR), that is fine for my needs. If was a crazy ultra runner and needed more hours, that would be a different story.

Couple of things wrong with the thinking above.

• "Up to" should not equate to unobtainable
  
• The box does not say "up to"
  
• Owners manuals, if read, are post-sale, especially page 18
  
• It is a false assumption to infer 13 Hours GPS modes means everything must be turned off
  
• Every possible feature off is not typical use
  

Now let's focus on what a consumer is provided at the time of sale:

The external box very clearly states "13 Hours GPS Mode", no "up to". There is a small #2 next to Battery Life and that disclaimer can be found on the bottom of the box. It clearly states "Under Typical use". I don't think typical use implies everything off and then maybe you will get within a couple of hours of the stated 13Hr. Further they claim "Battery life will vary depending on usage and performance mode". Where is the performance mode that I can select to achieve 13 Hours???

It's deceptive marketing on Garmin's part - they know it and we have proof of it!!!

I will tell you that I don't work for Garmin, nor hold any of their stock. My reply to post are not designed to be right or prove someone wrong. godolphins may state that my post are for the sake of arguing and that I have no real basis or interest of the VA3's capabilities and that's fine. He/she doesn't know me from Adam. If godolphins gets upset because someone disagrees with him/her or ask him/her a question, well that's a problem with godolphins and not me. Anyway, I'd like to address your comments you made about my post.

1. Of course "up to" doesn't equate to unobtainable. I'm quoting Garmin's manual and not using my words. When you say unobtainable, to you mean your VA3 and the way you use it, or is it your belief no VA3 can obtain 13hrs in GPS mode?

2. I don't know why the manual says "up to" and the box doesn't. This is something to ask Garmin. There's definitely different meaning to each and something Garmin should address.

3. I'm not sure why you say the manual is post sale. I was interested in buy the VA3 from all the write-ups prior to it's release date in the US. I downloaded the PDF manual a day or two prior to it's release date to familiarize myself with the watch.

4-5 I don't believe it's a false assumption that GPS mode means everything else off and I believe the term "typical" is very suggestive. To defend my comment; how you use your VA3 will most likely differ from me and hundreds of others on any given day. I can't say your usage is or isn't "typical" because it's different the mine. I'm not defining "typical usage", but Garmin has in their manual. They say there are two modes. Smart watch mode (with heart rate) and GPS mode. You and I probably both agree that using the heart rate feature is "typical". But by adding the note to the smart watch mode and omitting it from GPS mode, Garmin has provided us their definition of typical. Is anyone going to turn off everything on their watch and use GPS only? It's a safe bet no one will. Is it possible to get up to 13hrs of battery life in this mode? Possibly under the right conditions. I've never tried it, nor do I plan on doing so.

So, you may not agree or like what I've posted, but the comments I've made are all based on information provided from Garmin and not speculation on my part. I would agree with you that it does seem like Garmin is being deceptive with different wording on the box and manual. I'm interested in hearing what you think. That is unless you can see through my dastardly deeds and know what I'm really up to like someone else does. LOL

i went onto 2h4min stroll in London 11.44km the battery went from 69-28% duting that time. Side swap off,gesture off, brightness 30% but the watch was locked during the walk and GPS only. So i i would think 5-6h of gps is the absolute max you can get from this watch. Other than that 4 days with 3x1.5h visit at the gym for me so far.

I'll add some data.....
Charged to 100% on Tuesday afternoon - needed to recharge (from 6%) Thursday evening.
Usage - 339 minutes of walking and cycling activities - 5hr 40min
Maybe 80% of the activities had wrist HR turned off, and used an ANT HRM chest strap.
Stock digital Garmin watchface, no apps, no widgets, brightness 10%.

Has anyone been able to check battery life on GPS with the 2.80 version of the firmware? I've been under the weather and its too cold outside. Hoping for it to be better then the usual 20% battery drain per hour. I see the documented fix was GPS coming on when it shouldn't but maybe there is an easter-egg fix like with the sensors in 2.7.

I'll have a good test tomorrow morning when I run a 13miler ~2hrs of GPS time on v2.80.

So far in smartwatch mode, it's been "normal" to slightly better. It quickly dropped from 100% to 98% after taking it off charge, so I power cycled it several times just to be sure nothing was running behind the scenes. For the first few hours it still drained quickly, but seemed to slow down while I slept. From what I can tell, the battery does not seem to have a very linear discharge rate.

Below are my findings thus far.

12/28 Updated v2.80
12/28 @ 7:47pm 100%
12/28 @ 10:47pm 98%
12/29 @ 7:47am 95%
12/29 @ 12:47pm 93%
12/29 @ 7:47pm 90%

Real World Update:

12/30 - 13 mile run using GPS 1h43m/1h55m (moving/elapsed) - Start 85% Finish 64%

That's roughly 11% an hour which I think is fair for GPS & HR which equates to a theoretically ~9hrs. The wrinkle in that is last week I did a 23 miler with over 3h24/4h15m. That run consumed 55% of the battery down from ~99%. That brings the theoretical down to ~7-8hr range over a long run.

Next weekend will be another good data point with a 50K run.

For the first few hours it still drained quickly, but seemed to slow down while I slept. From what I can tell, the battery does not seem to have a very linear discharge rate.

I believe the Optical HRM sample frequency (and thus power consumption) is based on the accelerometer determination of activity. Thus when you're resting the HRM samples less frequently than when you're moving.

I've noticed some things that clearly affect battery life negativity. I use an external HRM strap and when I'm not in an activity the watch will still keep looking for the strap. Leaving bluetooth on when you don't take your phone with you causes battery drain. And I use watch face Line from the store which apparently also drains a lot. I managed to get 20% battery drain on a 30 minute run (after the external HRM was paired). I understand factors are not ideal but this is really pretty unusable for any longer extended activities. In addition the backlight sensitivity issues don't really help with battery life. (The watch backlight will go on under a long sleeve) while not even glancing at the watch.

Of course you can turn all these settings off for maximum battery life, but it's hardly practical and user friendly before starting an activity... :(