Battery LIfe

Steff

I did another hike today, 4h50min, best GPS, airplane mode on, no route loaded, I only checked the map 2 times(max 10sec in total) and it consumed 76% battery.

This means 15.72%/hour, even more than last time when I had a route loaded with lots of waypoints.

I don’t know what happen.
I also noticed that in the first 30 minutes, that watch had a hard time to lock on my HR. It fluctuated a lot between 100 and 160, even though I was a climbing so my HR should have been constantly above 140-150.

I’m a little disappointed about the battery life.

When I got the watch in January this year, I made several walking/running tests and I was getting 11-12%/hour with the above settings, which means 8-9 hours of battery.

90% of my hikes are under 8 hours so I though it will be enough.
Now I get 6 hours at best…

And no, good GPS it’s not always an option.
Most of the paths from my hikes are very twisty and sampling GPS every 10sec creates a total mess.

Brad_Olwin

@steff 6h is OK but 8 should be possible if fully charged and you do not go to Navigation very often.

Steff

I made another test today, a walk through the city, so possible worst GPS reception, same conditions as above (best GPS, airplane mode on, no route) and in 1h43min it used 20% battery.

This means 11.65%/hour so ~8.5 hours of battery.

I don’t understand from where is the difference.

I start to believe that is something relating with hiking profile.
I will try next using the hiking profile.

Brad_Olwin

@steff I will test hiking as well, I rarely use that.

isazi

Lots of talking about the S7 this week, so I got curious and decided to dedicate the week at testing the S7. Focus will be on battery and ascent/descent. In this thread I will report battery stats.

Monday, walking for 59m 39s. No much interaction with the watch, except looking at it once. Connected to my phone, receiving notifications. No map use, just one complete walk of all screens. Autolap notifications every 1k (no way to disable them). Best possible GPS settings, never used the other one.

Battery consumption: 10%. Estimated battery life: 09h 56m 13s .

Steff

@isazi I also just got home after testing if FusedTrack is different from one profile to another.

First I did 30 min, hiking profile, 4% battery.
Second I did 41min, running profile, 5% battery.

Both cases walking, with airplane mode, no route loaded, no interaction with the watch, 10sec GPS.

In total it means 7.6%/hour and 13.15 hours battery life.

I don’t know how you managed to get 9%/hour with 1 sec GPS and watch connected to phone.

Tomorrow I will try to make the exact test as youres.
What profile did you used?

Regarding FusedTrack, it seams there is no noticeable difference between hiking and running profiles.
In both cases I got good results, much better than what I got during the 6h hours hike.

isazi

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

What profile did you used?

Walking.

I will do a longer walk on Wednesday, as longer activities should give better (i.e. more realistic and precise) estimates.

Brad_Olwin

@isazi @Steff I have quite a few examples of S7 with and without FusedTrack. All of my runs/ski: S7 in Airplane mode, that is it, I do not use the maps much but will look at them occasionally. I have a few other apps installed but am using the watch normally. None of these is with a route loaded, that will cut down the FusedTrack time to ~10-13h and Best to ~4-5h. These are from QS estimates, and you cannot get good estimates without a decently long exercise so do not try to extrapolate from a short 2h exercise.

Last Saturday Best

Here is a bit older one from last summer on FusedTrack:

Steff

@brad_olwin how did you get the battery estimates in QS?

Brad_Olwin

@steff From json files.

Steff

@brad_olwin thank you, very nice, I didn’t know about this, I was wondering if there is a more precise way than remembering the percentages when starting and when stopping

Brad_Olwin

@steff if you have an Android phone you may be able to extract them but these estimates are fairly good. Again, attempting to estimate from short exercises will not provide accurate estimates.

Steff

@brad_olwin yes, I saw how.

@isazi Today I made almost exactly your test: 1h12min walking, best GPS, connected to phone, no route loaded, no interaction with the watch.
Additionally I put the watch in DND to not receive notifications and also autolaps notifications were without sound and vibrations.

These are the results

A big difference from your results.

isazi

@steff every test is different. I have a new test with elevation planned for tomorrow.

Brad_Olwin

@steff We do not know what 3rd party apps you have or what watch faces, these may have elements that cause the watch to search for data and reduce battery life. I had an altimeter app installed that seemed to dramatically reduce my overall battery life.

pilleus

@brad_olwin said in Battery LIfe:

cause the watch to search for data and reduce battery life

I do not install apps which need the permission for location service. As soon as the airplane mode is activated the app will use internal GPS to find the location. That is a real problem for battery life.

Steff

@brad_olwin I only have 4 apps(altimeter barometer, feal the wear(disconnect alerts), stand up alerts, Shazam) installed and several watchfaces, even though I use only the Suunto watchfaces.

I will uninstall them all and try again tomorrow.

pilleus

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

altimeter barometer

Via sideload? I think the app from xda is not the best solution for the battery.

I use a barometer based altimeter without location service and no additional battery usage.

Steff

@pilleus yes, the one from XDA, sideloaded.

Which baramoter app do you use?

pilleus

@steff

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/3722/suunto-7/1025?_=1623142824273