battery efficient fitness/tracking watches

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
I need a new watch, my Garmin just bit the dust.

Looking for recommendations for a watch that tracks bio stats & GPS, BUT has a decent battery life - at least a week, preferably longer. Don't necessarily need fancy communication w/ a phone etc.

In a few weeks I'm going to Northern Tier w/ Boy Scouts - will be 8 days of complete wilderness canoe & portaging trek. Weight is a serious issue (this is a very minimalist thing) and there's no cell service anyway, so I probably won't even carry a phone and don't want to carry a battery pack. I'd like to be able to record our trek and basic bio stats, but don't necessarily need to see it all on-line. So lasting 8+ days w/o charge is the goal.

My old Garmin would fit the bill perfectly except (well it just died) the battery only lasts ~3 days anyway, and running GPS just like 1 day.
This is a tech area that is rapidly evolving, so I'm wondering if anybody has real-world experience w/ something new that is reliable.

Oh, obviously waterproof and durability are critical, lol.
 
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From my previous research... you'll either forget the datalogging or tote a battery/solar charger, which should keep the ozs down and can be "rented" out to all those wanting to keep their "cameras" (cellies) juiced.
 
Valid point. My experience is that radios (Bluetooth, Wifi, etc) tend to be big power hogs on electronics, which won't be occurring here, but it is true that any high-precision DAC are pretty rough too.
After some research, I've learned most fancy watches use batteries in the 250-350mAh range on the high end. So even a really small 1000 mAh battery would recharge a couple times.

There is this cool thing, which I'm thinking could be worth its weight due to solving multiple problems:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779L4LY...&pd_rd_r=807f094e-9cea-11e9-a63e-3ffd9178b097
 
Which Garmin did you have? My Garmin Phenix 5 battery lasts at least 2-3 weeks while using GPS, etc.

I’d vote for another Garmin. I love mine.
 
rockcity said:
Which Garmin did you have? My Garmin Phenix 5 battery lasts at least 2-3 weeks while using GPS, etc.

I’d vote for another Garmin. I love mine.
Click to expand...
It was one of the early generation Vivoactive HR.
I've been seriously eyeing the new Fenix 5x+. Packed w/ features, and it seems if I don't have remote connection it should last several days.
Probably one of the coolest things is now you can download maps to it, and it will show your location like a traditional GPS receiver. Seems that could be quite useful in a wilderness trek like this. Wouldn't be able to use that too often but if we do our job as Scouts we shouldn't need to :D

The Suunto S9 apparently has by far the best battery life, it has this neat feature where you can dynamically throttle the sensor polling rats to dramatically increase lifespan. But it doesn't have the mapping feature and the app apparently is much more limited.
 
The 5+ shouldn’t have a problem lasting 8 days. The Garmin I have I can link to my Garmin gps/dog tracker and doing that for 12hrs a day I can get 2 weeks out of it


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RatLabGuy said:
It was one of the early generation Vivoactive HR.
I've been seriously eyeing the new Fenix 5x+. Packed w/ features, and it seems if I don't have remote connection it should last several days.
Probably one of the coolest things is now you can download maps to it, and it will show your location like a traditional GPS receiver. Seems that could be quite useful in a wilderness trek like this. Wouldn't be able to use that too often but if we do our job as Scouts we shouldn't need to :D

The Suunto S9 apparently has by far the best battery life, it has this neat feature where you can dynamically throttle the sensor polling rats to dramatically increase lifespan. But it doesn't have the mapping feature and the app apparently is much more limited.
Click to expand...

That’s right. When I go skiing, I have a map of the area and track location and waypoints, etc. not that I’m going to get lost, but it’s nice to have some sort of idea of location. And it’s nice sense of security knowing my location when the guide hands everyone in the group a radio and avalanche warning device. That way I know where to tell rescue personnel I’m located. Same way on the boat. I always know my location via GPS and as long as I have my radio, I’m potentially going to be easy to find.
 
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