Fully charge VA3 via wall , not PC, charger and the drain is over 5% per hour, giving around 17 hours of usage. This persists for the next 4% when the drain starts to come down to 0.7% per hour.
Do the same but turn off the VA3 when fully charged and the initial drain is 0.3% per hour. Around 40 minutes later its 0.7% per hour.
The VA3 is on 3.4, but this happened on 3.3 and 2.9 - not unexpected as none of the change logs suggest improvements to battery life.
Perhaps the more worrying issue is the battery drain during an activity. On 2.9 it was around 10% per hour. On 3.3 more like 16% per hour. I could accept 10%per hour but 16% is a real problem. I need the walk activity to record a 7 or 8 hour hike. Just about possible at 10% per hour but impossible on 16% per hour. Yet the VA3 is capable of only using 10% battery per hour, so it seems to me that although the firmware change logs don't mention battery improvements, some changes are adversely affecting the battery life.
It's 6 months since the launch of the VA3 and poor battery life has been widely reported.
So Garmin when are you going to fix the poor & inconsistent battery drain?
