Software Update 2.48.16 (2025 November Rain release)

2b2bff

Today I have to join the “my watch didn’t track my sleep” club. Interestingly it stopped recording HR and resources shortly after I set DND mode yesterday evening and resumed recording after I took it off for a shower in the morning. No sleep tracking, no resources, no heart rate. Very strange this.
About an hour ago I looked at the watch from the side and saw green and red light coming from the HR sensor. But it should only record ox during night?

gone troppo

My watch only has one sensor connected and has only ever had one sensor Connected which is polar h10. I don’t know what is causing the battery drain but it started a long while back. Interestingly when I do a soft reset and then select an activity my heart rate sensor is still there paired I never have to re pair it ? I thought this was a bit suspicious. I have had the vertical since it was released my settings are always the same since the beginning very conservative.

No notification
No pulse ox
24 hour heart rate tracking on
Sleep tracking on
Backlight to lowest setting
No raise to wake or anything like that
I try to keep all settings as conservative as possible.

When I bought the watch it would go almost 4 weeks from 80% to 20% with around 12 hours activity a week both indoor and outdoor.

Kraisun Tunta

As a concrete case, last night I charged the watch to “100%” at 21:00 and wore it during sleep as usual. By morning, the battery had dropped to 95%, representing a 5% overnight drain. Under identical conditions, the normal overnight consumption is typically around 1%.

This deviation strongly suggests that the battery was not truly at a full state of charge when the system reported 100%. A more realistic estimation is that the actual battery voltage was likely closer to 96%, while the software prematurely capped and displayed it as 100%.

This reinforces the hypothesis that the current SOC algorithm is overestimating charge level due to calibration thresholds or coulomb counter drift, resulting in a misleading full-charge indication and an abnormal discharge pattern immediately after.

In practical terms, the system is reporting “logical 100%”
but the battery is operating at “electrical 96%”.

This mismatch is not a matter of user perception, but a measurable inconsistency between displayed SOC and real battery behavior.

Pavlas

My last day with sleep tracking, notifications, and no activity—3% battery gone. I’m satisfied.

Horizontal_2

@Kraisun-Tunta I really would like to do some electronical engineering with this device.

So all the problems could be related to wrong measurements?

Would it be usefull to charge the watch for a few hours instead of take it off at 100%?

Kraisun Tunta

@Horizontal_2 Keeping a lithium-ion battery at 100% for extended periods increases float voltage stress and high SOC dwell time, which accelerates calendar aging and long-term capacity fade.

Potential benefit of short post-100% charging
Better voltage stabilisation
Improved SOC calibration
Reduced initial phantom drop

Downsides of prolonged charging
Increased electrochemical stress
Faster degradation over time
Reduced overall battery lifespan

Reality check:This is an engineering trade-off, not a defect.

And honestly? Don’t overthink the battery.
All AMOLED-based smartwatches across brands operate within very similar battery degradation envelopes. The differences are marginal, not life-changing.

Obsessing over 1–5% variance is chasing noise, not performance.

Use the watch. Train. Sleep. Enjoy.
Let physics do its job.

Horizontal_2

@Kraisun-Tunta Thanks! This is helpful!

I guess I’m a little bit obsessed with the battery right now. I still think the drain is too high at some points. First I thought it was a hardware defect. Now I think it’s a software defect. Maybe less running with HR-belt will help

Next cycle I’m going to throw the battery status off the watch. Do’nt wanna know till I’m at 20%

GuillaumeA

Since Tuesday, 18/11/2025, I have switched back to Race 2 with the latest software.

In terms of activities, I did: 5 hours of outdoor sports in performance mode (without AOD and with external HR) + 45 minutes indoors without GPS. Starting from a 100% charge.

I am currently at 75% battery (i.e. just under 8% battery/day consumed with these activities). This is better than the Vertical 1, without a doubt. I find the battery life on the Race 2 quite impressive. And for me, it is very close to the specs.

In terms of daily settings: no notifications, 24/7 HR, sleep tracking + VFC, low brightness, turn to wake up.

Fun fact: at night, the Race 2 consumes 1% of battery. The Vertical consumes 3/4%. While the settings are strictly the same, there is one slight difference: the AMOLED is always off when the MIP works once a minute to update the time.

sorinus

@GuillaumeA said in Software Update 2.48.16 (2025 November Rain release):

Fun fact: at night, the Race 2 consumes 1% of battery. The Vertical consumes 3/4%. While the settings are strictly the same, there is one slight difference: the AMOLED is always off when the MIP works once a minute to update the time.

if there is no movemement (at night), the MIP is going quickly in power save mode (black).

Kraisun Tunta

@Horizontal_2 I might say Suunto’s battery calculation and power management could use some… “character development” —
but I enjoy my current unblocked lifestyle

Let’s just put it this way:
If battery management were an Olympic sport, Suunto wouldn’t be last…
but it definitely wouldn’t be giving the gold medal speech either.

duffman19

@Kraisun-Tunta said in Software Update 2.48.16 (2025 November Rain release):

Obsessing over 1–5% variance is chasing noise, not performance.

Use the watch. Train. Sleep. Enjoy.

I appreciate the above discussion on battery tech and completely agree with @Kraisun-Tunta that obsessing over small fluctuations in percentages is meaningless. However, some of us are still experiencing significant battery draws that cannot be explaining by small variations in battery algorithms.

Last night, my 9PP went from 72% to 59% over the course of ~8 hours of sleep. Typically I’ll see a drain of 2-3% overnight. This was not the result of a “false 100%” reading after a charge, but more likely caused by unwarranted background activity.

If bad battery calculations were the cause, then wouldn’t we also see periods of surprising battery stability or non-draining events? I have yet to observe this.