Battery capacity S9 vs Fenix 6: wrist HR
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Had a conversation with a buddy that owns the newest Garmin fenix model. We discussed battery capacity when using the wrist HR. As far as I know both youth the same wrist HR technology.
He uses the wrist HR 24/7 and under training sessions. So he doesn’t use hr belt. He claims that it takes several weeks before he has to charge the watch.
I just use the daily hr when sleeping, about 7 hours per day, and the rest of the day it’s on don’t disturb and I’m not using the wrist hr. Training about 7 hours a week with hr belt.
I’m wondering why the Garmin has so much more battery capacity when using the same wrist hr sensor
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Is it a Solar ?
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@Stefan-Kersting Several weeks? Does he use GPS for his trainings? Or does he do sports like indoor biking, strength training, etc?
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Yes it’s the solar but he claims the solar charging is not so much. He uses gps when training hiking etc but does not train indoors at all
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@Stefan-Kersting
asking my question coming from another direction: is the battery life of S9B not enough for you? -
@Stefan-Kersting It’s all about battery capacity equipping the watches…
The Fenix 6X specifications report 60hrs of gps at full capacity and 21 days of smartwatch mode… S9B is at 25hrs of gps and 7 days of smartwatch mode.
There might be differences in technologies between the hardware of gps and FC sensors, but Fenix lasting 2/3 times more means have a battery with more than double capacity. And maybe Fenix 6X advantages that’s newer, and technology in batteries is ramping up years after years. -
@pacos
S9B has around 320mAh and 6X 420mAh… hence it’s not about the battery itself. The solar charging is hard to include as it is totally individual how much light/sun it’s catching.
I think it is solely software related.
My 2 pennies: my S9B lasts much longer than I do, even on an extended skitouring weekend. -
@Stefan-Kersting, @TELE-HO
Yes it’s the solar but he claims the solar charging is not so much.
The solar charging is hard to include as it is totally individual how much light/sun it’s catching.
Sure, but consider it as a quick charge you do from time to time …
That said, I do agree on battery capacity, and the real need of it.
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@Stefan-Kersting said in Battery capacity S9 vs Fenix 6: wrist HR:
He claims that it takes several weeks before he has to charge the watch.
maybe the whole hypothesis should be verified
When it is too good to be true, maybe it is not true or biaised somewhere. -
@Mff73 I owned a Fenix 6X until a couple of weeks ago which I got rid of due to firmware instability and unreliability of ascent measures (totally wrong, see my other posts). But I have to say that in terms of battery it’s outstanding and you forget it, I probably recharged it every 12-15 days or so… Using 24h Wrist FC, night only pulse OX measure, and 6-8 hours a week of running.
On other hand specs report 21days smartwatch mode and up to 60 hrs of best gps mode. As in previous posts it has a bigger battery than S9B, although not as bigger as I thought really, thus they may an optimized HW and SW with less battery drain, especially in “smartwatch” mode. -
The technology is note the same… the sensor of the Garmin is elevate an own of Garmin, the Suunto’s is a Valencell and the screen has different pixels 280x280 vs 320x320 if I recall well.
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@pacos said in Battery capacity S9 vs Fenix 6: wrist HR:
I owned a Fenix 6X until a couple of weeks ago which I got rid of due to firmware instability and unreliability of ascent measures (totally wrong, see my other posts).
Interesting… I find Fenix 6X to be more accurate in terms of measuring ascent than Suunto 9. It has some other issues that bother me, but measuring ascent is definitely something that I am quite happy with.
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@Stefan-Kersting said in Battery capacity S9 vs Fenix 6: wrist HR:
He claims that it takes several weeks before he has to charge the watch.
Several weeks is definitely an overstatement, but 2 weeks while having optical HR 24/7 and running 6-8 hours per week with GPS+Glonass is typical. Without GPS activities but with 24/7 HR F6X is supposed to last 3 weeks, although I’ve never had a chance to verify that.
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@sky-runner all my elevation profiles were like this… I had hundreds of quote ascent in flat run.
They replaced twice my Fenix but no way, always the same issue. Probably when I started sweating, but never had a feedback from them, just replaced and for 3 times the same.
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@sky-runner I agree, 2 weeks with all active 24h and some run also
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@pacos I’ve never had an issue like that. Do you wear your watch on the right hand? Perhaps sweat goes into the Baro sensor hole.
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@sky-runner
fenix has a great design to avoid sealed baro holes, other than S9B to be honest… but overall I am much more convinced of Suunto than Garmin. -
@sky-runner, yes I think this was the problem. I wear on the left hand with baro holes in the direction of the run, thus with sweat force and push to enter… if I wear on the right I didn’t have the problem. But I couldn’t accept to use an 800 euro swatch on right which I am not used to. I call for a design flaw but again they never replied and just replaced at every claim… it’s also not affecting everyone for any reason, as it happens for most of their bugs, random on a random group of people. I gave it up.
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@pacos
that’s garmin… no customer care whatsoever… sorry to say that. My experience with Suunto is soooo much better in many ways…
that’s why I can easily live with the lower battery life of 31hrs with chest belt in best GPS mode
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@TELE-HO
