very informative video. It is worth to notice that pretty much everything you say on the video, are applicable to Fenix6, Fenix7 devices as well. One extra thing though (at least on my Fenix 6). Set your backlight brightness to 20%. There is a scale from 10% up to 100% of brightness. But you don't need more than 20% to have a good bright screen. That in combination with 4secs of display timeout, saves A LOT of battery life.
For sure, during the intro I mention that most of these tips will work on most other devices but I was focusing on the Fenix 7 and Epix primarily. Backlight is a huge factor in battery life!
I agree. I've only had my Fenix 7 for around 3 weeks and adjusting the backlight timeout and % of brightness used gave me an extra 2 days without further fine tuning. Its a quick win fur sure!
you kinda take these settings for granted with a fenix 7 with good battery performance. in my case, i dialed up brightness on fenix 7 to compensate for lack of clarity indoors. I have poor eye focus. 61 yrs old. to compensate on fenix clarity, settings brightness and timeout on high lowered the battery life. in the end i traded my fenix 7 to epix and get just a slightly degraded battery mode. again, depends on your use case. with epix, i use aod off, brightness low and connectivity off. i get 12-15 days battery life
I wanted to comment this video exactly with the same suggestion! I discovered few days back that the real winner as battery killer is the backlight...if you set up to 100% and activate the gesture with a timeout of 30 seconds basically your battery life will be three times less...it means is the real reason of this issue. Playing a little with this setting checking the prediction of battery life restore faith about this device. Honestly not even Garmin customer service is aware of this...indeed they were not able to understand how the battery life was not more than 8 days...😅
Very useful video for someone who bought his very first connected sport watch ever. Really enjoy my epix pro gen 2 titanium. Thanks a lot for the video 🎉 It will definitely save some extra battery. Greetings from Belgium 🇧🇪
I sold epix gen 2 and bought fenix 7 x solar and the problem is solved🙏🥰. Epix literally kills the battery. I've forgotten what it's like to charge your watch
I've tested my Fenix 7X Solar. 33 days battery life from February to March with little sunlight averaging 20-30k lux per day and 3 weekly runs using GPS in Multiband. PulseOx always turned off with just 3 times Health Snapshot tested , back-light at 4 seconds, and no music . Everything else turned on, including many times of torch use. I'm quite impressed with it 💪💪💪
good idea with the resume later option i've just paused and hotkeyed the watchface but yeah you're right i think it has used more battery as opposed to just pressing resume later haha
I put the airplane mode on shortcuts menu. Sync with phone only 2-3 times per day (I only disable airplane mode when sync). Oh and I don't use wifi at all, so battery life is amazing (Fenix 7s).
@@oscargine9384 Today I found out something: weather forecast is not working in airplane mode, but if I turn it off and leave BT and WIFI off, it will work :)
@@SirRasor Good find. I've just tried it and it really works! Don't understand why this happens given there's no connection between the watch and the phone. Thanks a lot Sir Rasor.
@@SirRasor Makes sense, however this doesn't explain how can the watch get the weather forecast... unless it would have recorded it in its last connection to the phone and kept it visible through the widget. It should to be seen how long is the weather forecast available and updated if no more BT connections are established with the phone.
Many thanks again for the nice video and hints! I would like to ask how close to the specified battery life you guys are reaching in reality. I made a small excel-table to follow-up my new 7X solar. Each day I noted down the battery charge level as well as the duration of my sports activities with GPS on, and the result was so far slightly disappointing. On the 1st charge I got 14 days only, on the 2nd charge 18 days, on the 3rd and 4th charge 24 days. After this, there was no further improvement in battery life. In average I trained with GPS (all satellites) activated 0.6 h/day during this time. Funny enough, recently I had a 10 days break in training, but this did not extend the battery life of that charge at all. Also, as the summer is approaching, there have been plenty of sunny days recently, but I have not seen any consequential improvement on the battery life due to more solar charge. Anyway reaching the specified 28 days (not to mention the 37 days with solar) does not seem possible to me. I have optimized all setting to minimize the consumption, the backlight set to minimum, sleep mode active during the nights, touch screen always off etc. Happy to hear your experiences! :)
Battery life is a big variable depending on your settings and use case. For me, I if I'm conservative I can reach the claimed battery life but in "normal" use I typically boost up the backlight brightness and timeout which significantly hurts battery life.
Not against you per se, Weakness after weakness (limitations) from Epix - don’t do this, don’t do that, limit your battery consumption … SO glad I deliberately chose F7X SS over Epix ( side by side eval for a full eeek). F7 has true ALWAYS ON - not so Epix. Maybe next version. F7 display is **beautiful** indoors and especially in bright sun - crisp/clear. Let’s break off from stupid Apple 2X a day charging.
All subjective. I don’t think the Fenix screen is beautiful. I found the 6 dull and uninspiring. I will take the reduction in battery life over that dull screen any day of the week. Unless you do ultras or something similar the longer battery life just isn’t needed. I get 5 days with everything on it’s plenty. I usually just charge a top up whilst in the bath every now and then.
I wouldn't say it's a matter of "don't do this or that" it's more about making choices in your settings to get the features you desire along with the most battery life possible. These tips also apply to the Fenix because if you decide to jack your backlight on the F7 to 100% it will crush the battery in a hurry. But if you like it that way? Maybe it's worth it. At the end of the day these are all great watches (even the apple watch) it's about what you prefer and what tool is right for you.
I disagree all my sensors are on on my F7x and i dont need to worry about batt life. I could go with more batt life with enduro 2 but that's overkill having approx 30 days on every charge without sacrificing anything is the reason we bought this 1k watches. If we don't use those sensors why just but the lower versions of garmin. Maybe on the next version of epix but not the epic gen 2 yet.
My backlight was sent to 100% before cataract surgery to see the screen on my Fenix 6x only getting about 3 or 4 days. I changed the backlight to 20% after my cataract surgery and now getting close to 20 days.
One of the most useful data features on the epix and fenix line is the Calendar data on watchface. It'll let you know when your next appointment or whatever timing event you have on your phone calendar. Aftermarket watch faces aren't allowed to use your calendar data, so simply, you cannot use this calendar data feature on any other watchface than a stock watchface that comes on the watch or a Garmin watchface from connectiq. I can look at my watch , and see oh I have an appointment at 10am with Steve, once it's done oh I have another appointment at 1pm with Rebekah etc. Huge for people like me who can't remember what I had for breakfast let alone appointments I have on any given day.
I saw this video when it came out, but had to revisit it today, on the day that I finally got my own epix 2 :) an upgrade from 6x pro. Some really good tips here, so thank you for that :) The watch is fantastic, but a function I miss is the ability to set a shortcut to toggle always on display.. You can do shortcuts to a lot of things, but aparently you cannot toggle that feature with a shortcut. I hope that will be added in a later firmware update :)
Dave, great video and very informative as I just purchased my Epix Gen 2 last week. One question out of the box what is the satellites set to, e.g. "all systems", "auto select", "off"? For my first mountain bike ride I set it to multiband but don't recall what to set it back to for day in and out normal go to work, non real activity mode, i.e. the out of the box default satellite mode?
Yep! You can enable AOD and disable gesture. That would certainly maximize your battery life with AOD but it probably wouldn’t exceed a week in smartwatch mode if I had to guess. I’ll have to experiment with that.
Very helpful. I don't get near 11 days they claim on my 7S but I do listen to Spotify playlists or audio books on my watch when I run. I wonder if I would burn less if I just controlled the music on my phone using the music app and connected my headphones to my phone instead of to my watch. What do you think? I was running without my phone but started taking it along recently for the safety features.
Music is one of the main contributors to battery drain on these watches. It would certainly help to use your phone instead of the watch but it's also a nice luxury to have it on the watch instead of carrying your phone. Depends on what you're willing to sacrifice!
2 года назад
Great video. Actually you convice me to by F7x. I have Samsung wear4, whitch is great watch, but battery life is similira to apple. I realized that battery life is more important for me than AMOLED display... I want to have all sensors ON, because I bought them :), with EPIC that mean only couple of days of battery.
Thank you for in depth review!! Can you let us know how long it takes for Fenix 7 Solar Sapphire & Epix gen 2 to charge in full after it has been completely drained? Also can you use both devices while charging with portable battery? And finally if you can charge and use it at the same time, does either watches get hot while charging and using the gps? These questions will help me alot to either choose fenix 7x vs epix (gen 2)
It takes about 75 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. Yes, you can use the watch while it's charging but it's impossible to wear it while charging due to the charging cable design. I've run races in the past where I clipped the watch to my hydration vest while it charges with some success. Hope that's helpful!
FYI, the SpO2 sensor is called a pulse oximeter. Pulse ox is just the short hand for that, it’s not some proprietary thing. It’s also referred to as a sat probe
@@ChaseTheSummit No they didn't. The term pulse ox has been used for decades in the medical field. And as for "PulsOx", nowhere in any Garmin documentation is it called that. You seem to have just misspelled pulse ox.
I have most of what you mentioned disabled or lowered. The only thing is I don't disconnect my phone. Wich one hour of training each day I usually get 6 days of battery life on Epix 2 (AOD off, PulseOx off, Broadcast off, brightness medium, power mode extended on most activities)... With PulseOx on I'm usually charging every four days. Which is honestly pretty pathetic. To get 16 days Garmin says it should last I would have to turn absolutely everything off. If I turned everything on I would charge probably every three days, while I charged my Apple Watch with everything turned on every two days. The battery life on Garmin is just marketing, not real benefit.
You should be able to get 2 weeks of battery pretty easily with the Epix. The main battery draw is the Always On Display and PulseOX. With those off I suspect you'll reach 10+ days?
@@ChaseTheSummit I have both off and never get more than 7-8 days since the day I bought it. Typically with one hour of GPS a day I get 6 days. 10+ never happened to me unfortunately.
You can also go to sleep mode inside system and schedule the time when the battery saver mode. So for example in my case it activates from 11pm to 7am and disables Wi-Fi, phone connection and changes to a basic watchface only during that timeframe.
I have an epix 2 , i do not understand why when i tern on battery safe , the remain day on battery goes down , I mean if In my display the battery it is 8 days and if i tern on battery save it become 4 days ….strange
Fenix 7x don't have an option to turn off the backlight when using the touchscreen, which is sad, because I don't want the backlight to be on if there is enough light around me. HOWEVER you hace the option to turn off the backlight when using keys
There is a software bug on the Epix when using custom power modes. You have a global setting for AOD on/off but you can alter this in a custom power mode so you might want it AOD/on for running and AOD/off for cycling but right now the global setting is the master setting and it ignore any setting in your custom mode. This is still the case on 7.35.
I have had the Epix 2 for about one week now. It is a huge upgrade from my 920 XT. Question: will having music stored and syncd create extra battery drain when not listening to music or does extra battery drain only occur when actually listening to music that is stored on the Epix 2 example: Amazon music?
Battery drain occurs when listening to must but it will also drain the battery when you're storing/syncing music due to the increased WIFI connectivity. It's best to leave the watch plugged in while you're transferring music.
@@ChaseTheSummit ok, thanks. The battery of my watch is probably broken. It just jumped from 42% down to 38% in around 20 minutes in smartwatch mode...
Nice video. How much battery do you get on the Epix with standard GPS, screen on gesture, no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and wrist heart rate off (using an ANT strap instead)? This is how I (and probably many others) would run an ultra.
My enduro claims to get 46 days with Solar charge how come it doesn’t show it on my screen when fully charged and the Solar won’t charge if the battery is at 100 percent and at 100 percent it’s showing 35 days
@@ChaseTheSummit I did change some of those features… I assumed it got that right out of the box but I messed around with the screen time out and a couple other things but in Oder to get 46 days I had to shut my heart rate sensor off my pulse ox is shut off as well
Hello, and thank you for detailed video. I would like to ask two questions, maybe anyone has experience. I have purchased a Tactix 7 pro (sapp+sol) a week ago but did not find the "Always on display" feature, so I can use only the lowest brightness which is 5% (not able to select 0%). I actually would like to completely turn off display while I sleep, without shutting down the watch. Is there an option or is there an "Always on display" feature somewhere which I did not find on my watch? My second question is about battery lifetime. I have tested the battery saver mode for 3 days, and the battery went down 5%, so the 90 days in battery saver mode is not really accurate in this calculation. I didn't do anything with the watch during that time, and completely turn off wifi, notifications, etc. Is my watch battery defected or is it normal? Any experience? Thanks.
I've really enjoyed my Fenix 7 (just moved into the Fenix line from an Instinct 1), but let's be honest, if you're not in battery saver mode 24/7, than Garmin's battery life claims are largely fiction. I'm happy with the battery life, but with using the Weight Lifting, Walk, Hike and Running Activities quite a few times a week, I'm getting about seven to ten days of battery life, tops. This is with pulse ox disabled, the brightness lowered, etc. That's still great, but really not much better than my Instinct. Note: Using the Fenix 7 Solar Sapphire.
Same here. Fully charged two days ago, turned off pulseox, backlight 20%, gps only mode, 1h activity everyday and got 70% battery in two days with 60lux solar power.
I don't own the Fenix 7X. YET! I'm getting the Solar Sapphire in a couple of weeks. Is there a way to schedule the Wifi to only come on during the evenings?
I don't think there's a way to do this. But Wifi only turns on for certain things. It's not something that remains on so it has little impact on overall battery life.
When i first charged my watch it gave me 28days battery life now with a full charge it only gives me 19days. i must have accidently switched something on any clue as to what i switched because i cant get it back to 28 days. help
Worst case scenario you could factory reset the watch. You won't lose any data as long as you've sync'd with Connect. I would suspect you might have increased the backlight brightness or turned on the "All Day" PulsOx?
I think only Fenix with its MIP screen is able to refresh certain pixels. OLEDs don't work that way. Also, you didn't mention the fact, that if you use Fenix during activity with map displayed all the time, it drastically shortens battery life (because it refreshes the whole screen). Other than that great video :)
You’re correct. When I mentioned the screen refresh I was holding the Fenix 7x. I should have been more specific. I briefly covered the map energy consumption when going through the power manager but it certainly makes a big difference. Thanks for watching!
A small note though. Opposite that was said in the video, AMOLED do not have a backlight (but I understand the reference) - only LCDs have a backlight. Brighter the white, higher the backlight need to burn under full area of the LCD display. The MIP is working, as suggested with low refresh need per pixel if there is no update need - but so does the OLED in case the pixel is dark or black. Black means that the sub-pixels of the OLED need no or very low amount of power. So simply, more black content, better battery life in OLED. Constant, non-changing white is burning all RGB sub-pixels and opposite to black - simple.
Following a track doesn't necessarily take more battery. BUT, if you use the "map screen" a lot it can drain the battery more than usual because this screen refreshes the entire display and uses brighter colors.
I've had my Fenix 7 sapphire solar for about 2 weeks now. Really mixed usage, mainly city walks with multiband GPS as activities - so it explains things, but I still find the battery a little less than claimed. I have gestures off, pulseox off, factory watchface, notifications mainly on DND and I hardly had more than 5 days.... Even my 945 did more. Let's see how this will shine in the future.
@@ChaseTheSummit It's 70% off activity and around 40% during activity I guess, both 8 seconds. It should not make a huge difference I assume. I have been to forums and people get like 14 days with heavy use - hard to belive. (don't get me wrong, I am no battery fetishist, I just want to get close to the claimed time)
I don't understand why buying an epix 2 just to shut down some of the reasons why u bought it in the first place just to save battery. I was eyeing on this one too but now I'm more convinced that i got the 7x sapphire solar.
In the examples mentioned in this video I was outlining how to get the MAX battery from your watch. But you don't have to implement all of these changes if you're happy charging your watch every 6-7 days which is more than enough for most people. As with all things it's a trade off.
I've got a question. I've got a Fenix 6S Saphire and I'm planning a 24 hour run. When the watch is fully charged it says it will last for 25 hours using gps, so I am afraid it might not be able to last. My question is whether or not it is possible to charge the watch while the activity is still running on the watch (when I stop to get some food)? I've tried starting an activity and afterwards plugged it in and out again and nothing seems to happen, which is good. But I can't find whether this is the intended behavior of the watch, and I don't want to risk the activity suddenly stopping and to possibly be deleted. I know about the 'resume later' option, but since this is a 24 hour race I would like the timer to continue.
So, if I DONT use music when I run I would get 40+ hours of workout time but if I run WITH music I would be down to 10 hours on the epix 2?!? So does the forerunner 955 have the same battery life of 10 hours of running with music if the screen brightness isn’t as bright as it is on the epix 2?
GPS+Music on the 955 you'll get around 20 hours of use. The 955 uses a transflective display that's much more power efficient hence the longer battery life. Unfortunately the music feature takes a big hit on battery life.
Problem is when your 56 years old or older we need the bright light to be able to see the watch / time ECT. But for your young people 45 and under your eyes are still good so you can see the watch in very little light.
Hi. In the middle of your video just come some thoughs...I've got fenix 6 pro sapphire and just today though what could I do when after hopefuly many years battery will be drained? (died or so)? Do you think garmin will change battery?(iI undrestand not for free) and if- is it worth it? Or just buy new watch? What do you think? Btw after about 6 months used fenix 6, with my personal settings show me with 100% battery 13 days. But-quick dropped to 12 and down. What I'm trying to say I have some feeling battery life going quicker down. Generaly depends how often I'm training etc. generaly I don't like it when is going under 50% so always trying keep it high. Best regards from UK. Tom
From what I've heard Garmin tends to offer a discount on a new replacement device once a battery becomes degraded after years of use. In the past they would do battery replacements for a fee but it seems that's not economical for them anymore.
On the Fenix 7x I have disabled on almost all conditions the backlight to maximize battery life EXCEPT when the touchscreen is used. This is so WEIRD, since if I am outside on a sunny day and if I use the touchscreen, the watch turns on the backlight, wasting it. I haven't seen a way to change this behavior. In other words, if you want to turn off the backlight for ALL conditions, apparently is not possible. Have you seen a way to change this?
You can just disable the gesture based backlight no? The backlight will always come on if you press a button. To mitigate this you could just set the backlight brightness extremely low (~10%) and it will draw very little power.
Data field as well, l normally put time of the day for 1 data page only at my forerunner 55 for run/walk/other mode. As l realise that The more data l put On same data field, The more battery it drain Turn off all gps, alerts, laps, auto pause self evaluation Basically everything If l am not running As l focus mainly on Active & healthy lifestyle Target myself 2000 min of intensity minutes & above for per week intensity minutes aka heart rate training but only on moderate & vigorous. Not the 5 zones. As my job & lifestyle as delivery walker with brisk with their bulky Water resistant bag Is 12-15 hours for 3 days straight 2 days of complete rest To check my recovery hours Recommend base on my data Give to them for analysis To me not so much On gps/ pace / distance training That’s why l turn off Unless To update my vo2 max Weekly - between 57 to 58 age 27, superior Other 2 days Just change to Time of the day to timer Like 10 min per interval or 1 hour Of running Or combination of both Depend on my recovery hours & turn on gps + Galileo Other than that I just turn it all off Widgets as well Intensity minutes only
I normally charge weekly Than daily As all recharge battery Can charge from 0 to 100% for 500 times Around 2 years If 1 day is 0 to 100% Of complete charge After that The battery begins to Degrade
I normally rest before & after The day l work Like for example Monday to Wednesday work Sunday & Thursday l rest Friday & Saturday Update vo2 max All gps on & at least for 10 min Of run
I feel dumb...can someone please help. how do you activate one of the power modes under power manager settings. I know how to customize but how do you know which on the list is active?
I have an iPhone, so no need for this watch. I do wear wristwatch but only to see the clock. And I like mechanical watches like Rolex or Omega. They only show time, but they are classic watches so I stick with that
This watch is primarily designed for endurance sports / outdoor enthusiasts. If you don't fit that mold there are probably better options for the hefty price tag!
lol, the Vertix 2 is certainly a beast but they do play some tricks with the battery life. For example, out of the box the Vertix 2 only samples the optical HR sensor every 10 minutes, while garmin samples every 1 second. If you change that setting on the Vertix it takes a big hit but it's still super impressive!
I have to really wonder about how impartial you are. I purchased the Vertix 2 and I have been disappointed; which is contrary to your claims. Terrible or rather zero customer support. No phone number listed and everything is by email and takes forever.
I try to remain as unbiased as possible but I'm certainly not perfect. Doing my best! As far as COROS customer support I've always had a good experience with them (even before this youtube channel). They typically respond to emails fast and even interact with the community in the "COROS Facebook Group". Sorry to hear you're not getting the same kind of service. What issues were you having?
All this BS about battery life, and Garmin focussing on it. With as results the beep and vibrations are tooooooooooooooooo soft for training !!!!!!!!! Anoying
@@ChaseTheSummit I don't find display option In setting as epic has ... couldnt find turn on the display option either .... N the title says for epic n fenix but the whole concentration was on epic, fenix was just there as a showpiece ...
what alternatives do you do for use for music since music on the epix 2/fenix 7 and prob forerunner 955 kills the battery? Anybody ever try the Mighty Vibe Spotify seems like good alterative to get music on streaming but kinda expensive at $115?
First of all thanks for your videos! I’m having serious problems witch the hr measure, it works very bad in my Fenix 7SS, I changed it because of that and got the same problem in the new one y bought… it’s giving me around 30 hr less than wearing the hr chest sensor, fenix 6pro worked much better for me…
@@ChaseTheSummit yes I tried and that doesn’t solve the problem. Did hard reset and will try it tomorrow, I get the problem doing intervals, didn’t have that problem with the 6pro. Hope witch next firmware they solve it.
