I love the linking of phones to Garmin GPSs so you can see texts without stopping (I don’t get a lot of texts so they are often stuff I need to deal with). However with my Windows phone having them linked by Bluetooth killed the phone battery in no time.

So, how are folks finding battery life on Android phones if they have them linked to their GPS or watches? Does it kill it so much you turn it off when not in use or is it something you feel you can just leave on without being concerned about. Thinking about moving to Android at some point so want to know if I need a phone with a huge battery or not

To not drain the battery heavily you need Bluetooth Smart / LE (Bluetooth 4) support in both the Garmin device and the phone.

Windows phone is fine so long as it has Win 10 and the phone itself supports Bluetooth 4.

Same goes with Android (4.3 and above and BT4)

And iPhone just needs to be the latest OS.

http://www.garmin.com/en-GB/ble

As for moving to Android, my experience has been poor efficiency with the battery, though latest versions may be improving. It’s hard to judge as many Android devices just solve the problem with a massive battery making the phone huge. Win Phone and especially on Lumia devices I’ve found has been far better. Though I’m reluctantly probably forced back to Android for next phone given the poor state of Win Phone now. Got my eye on a Nokia 6. Sure it’s not the old Nokia and parts are made in far east, but the company is made up of ex Nokia staff. The hope is build quality and battery life will be true to Nokia standards of old.

p.s. I’ve also found my Garmin 510 to be a nightmare to pair with phones. Both Android and Win Phone.

@deadkenny – that’s very helpful, thanks. I’m sad that MS gave up on the project Astoria to port Android apps as it has pretty much done for windows phones. Funnily enough Garmin are one of the few to persevere with it though.

I’ve got an old Moto G (2nd Gen) that’s connected via bluetooth to my fenix all the time, I charge the phone every night but it’s very rare that the low battery warning appears.

Got a Moto g 3rd Gen connected to a vivoactive all the time.
Didn’t notice any real difference in the phones battery life when I got the watch about a year ago.
Gets randomly charged when I’m at my desk at work or in the car or on a night at home so never runs out.

That’s helpful as well, tx. Moto G looks a sensible price