How Long Does a Garmin Watch Battery Really Last? Every Model Compared (2025)
Answer: Many days – much longer than Apple Watch. Let’s dive in
97% of Apple Watch owners are happy with their watches. That means they’re happy with charging their watch every one or two days. You’re not one of those people! You want Uber multi-day battery life, and Garmin gives you that, but the situation varies significantly between its watch models.
This article tells you how long the battery will last for every Garmin smartwatch when used as a basic watch. Recording sports uses considerably more battery, so I’ll include more information to indicate how long a recording time you get for sports. Even Apple’s $800 Watch Ultra 3 only gives you 14 hours of proper accuracy GPS recording. Hardly “Ultra”. Most Garmins are two, three or four times better than those for sports.
Battery Longevity
The more often you charge a battery, the sooner it will eventually wear out and need replacing. For Apple, that’s typically 2-3 years. With Garmin, it’s longer, usually 5 years or so. It depends.
Solar Charging
Garmin also offers a limited number of model options with solar charging. Its Instinct model effectively gets ‘forever’ battery life because of solar.
| Garmin Watch | Battery Life in Smartwatch Mode | GPS Recording Time Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Approach S44 and S50 | Up to 10 days | Up to 15 hours GPS only |
| Approach S70 | Up to 16 days | Up to 20 hours GPS only |
| Descent G2 | Up to 10 days | Up to 27 hours GPS only |
| Descent Mk3i 51 mm | Up to 25 days | Up to 60 hours Multi-band + SatIQ |
| Enduro 3 | Up to 36 days, 90 days with solar | Up to 120 hours GPS only, 320 hours solar |
| fenix 8 Pro 51 mm MicroLED | Up to 10 days | Up to 44 hours GPS only |
| fenix 8 Pro 51 mm AMOLED | Up to 27 days | Up to 53 hours GPS only |
| fenix 8 51 mm AMOLED | Up to 29 days | Up to 84 hours GPS only |
| fenix 8 51 mm Solar | Up to 30 days, 48 days with solar | Up to 149 hours GPS only, 332 hours solar |
| Forerunner 165 Series | Up to 11 days | Up to 19 hours GPS only |
| Forerunner 55 | Up to 2 weeks | Up to 20 hours GPS only |
| Forerunner 570 47mm | Up to 11 days | Up to 18 hours GPS only |
| Forerunner 970 | Up to 15 days | Up to 31 hours GPS only |
| Instinct E 45 mm | Up to 16 days | Up to 28 hours GPS only |
| Instinct 3 50 mm AMOLED | Up to 24 days | Up to 28 hours GPS only |
| Instinct 3 50 mm Solar | Up to 40 days unlimited with solar | Unlimited GPS only solar |
| Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic | Up to 5 days | Connected GPS only |
| Lily 2 Active | Up to 9 days | Up to 9 hours GPS only |
| MARQ Gen 2 Collection | Up to 16 days | Up to 42 hours GPS only |
| quatix 8 47 mm AMOLED | Up to 16 days | Up to 42 hours GPS only |
| quatix 8 51 mm AMOLED | Up to 29 days | Up to 84 hours GPS only |
| tactix 8 51 mm AMOLED | Up to 29 days | Up to 84 hours GPS only |
| tactix 8 Solar and Solar Elite | Up to 30 days, 48 days with solar | Up to 149 hours GPS only, 332 hours solar |
| Venu 4 45 mm | Up to 12 days | Up to 22 hours GPS only |
| vivoactive 6 | Up to 11 days | Up to 21 hours GPS only |
| vivofit 4 | 1+ year, depending on usage | No built-in GPS |
| vivofit jr 3 | Up to 1 year | No built-in GPS |
| vivomove Series | Up to 5 days | Connected GPS only |
| vivosmart 5 | Up to 7 days | Connected GPS only |
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Why are you providing battery life with screen off? Is this year 2017 or what?
on or off, apple Watch owners perhaps don’t all appreciate the magnitude of diffrence to what they experience.
Haha fenix 8 pro 51mm, 27 days ! Mine won’t get past 2 weeks in smartwatch mode !
The asterisk on the official specs will have a crack at explaining the difference. Perhaps you’re not meant to move to get the 27 days?