U have used my Vivio Active watch to help navigate on trails for the last year or so and it has been great. It shows a little approximation of a map with an arrow head so it is fairly easy to spot if you are off route within 100m. I particularly like that once you have the route loaded it just gives a small vibrate if there is a turn coming up. Most the time I forget I am wearing it and happily ride and just get the prompts to remind me to turn. A glance at the display says left or right or just look at the map. Works well on road and off road.
So it is an amazing bit of kit but what is the issue?
I discovered today that leaving home with 92% battery gives about 3 hours 50 minutes of display before switching off. This was on a 4 hour ride but I knew the last ten minutes so it wasn't really a problem. At some point earlier it had buzzed to tell me the battery was low and it was turning something off but I didn't notice what as it made no difference to me.
The website says 6 hours battery with GPS on.
What do I turn off, and how, to achieve this?
Failing that, watch for sale and which Garmin device to buy 🙂
Turn brightness down, turn off any shake awake features (so watch won't show anything if you turn your wrist), if it has WiFi, switch it off.
Basically turn off any features you don't use each time you look at the watch.
PulseOX recording was the only optional thing I had switched on, unknowingly, so I have turned that off. I suspect that is the one it turned off during the ride.
All this playing around with the settings - you have to make the changes on your phone and then sync up - has revealed it actually stopped recording after 2 hours 38 minutes and 30 miles but I knew that last 15 miles route so didn't look at it again until nearly home.
Time to google other Garmin devices with better battery lives. I feel a 'What route precord' thread coming on.
I turned off PulseOX on mine as it was quickly draining the battery. I'm getting a lot longer out of it since.
TRACEY - Top Tip on Pulse ox. Switched it off as it is crap anyway and just did 2 hours 55 and still have 58% battery life. Might not need a new toy after all
Hmm is this the Vivoactive 4 you’re referring to?
Have to admit what you said, I’ve never used mine to navigate and didn’t think it’d be that good…. So you just upload a course to the Watch and then follow that route??
As above. Didn’t know you could use it to navigate.
How old is it?
I have a 23 month old vivoactive 3 and recently that battery life has started to reduce dramatically. Used to get a week of wearing including a 2-3 hour ride using it to track but now it needs charging every couple or three days. Does charge quickly though.
MrsP's had a spate of high battery consumption, so being an IT nerd I tried turning it off and turning it on again which has apparently taken it back to approx weekly charging rather than every 2-3 days.
How old is it?
I have a 23 month old vivoactive 3 and recently that battery life has started to reduce dramatically. Used to get a week of wearing including a 2-3 hour ride using it to track but now it needs charging every couple or three days. Does charge quickly though.
I had similar along with dodgy climbing altitude measurements on my last V3. Contacted Garmin who offered a replacement for very little money despite being well outside of warranty.
OP - screen brightness, watch face in use and gps tracking method are the ones that have the biggest effect on battery for me 👍🏼
Pulse Ox eats the battery, I've always had mine switched off. I've never actually used it to navigate as I use my old 810 with open Street maps loaded.
I may look into it as a back up though 👍🏻