Battery life

[SashaSolitaire]

How long does your MS Band 2 last on a full charge? This is my issue. After fully charging mine, I get about 2.5 hours with GPS (with the save mode on for GPS) and about 1 day without the GPS. Is this typical? Should I go for a replacement or are there some tips/tricks to make it last longer? Pretty bummed since I lost battery half way through the Five Boro bike race

 

[realwarder]

That sounds too short to me. I can only talk from a Band 1 perspective, but I get 2 days + of idle and 5 hours on GPS (with no save mode..)

I thought I read the Band 2 was similar so I'd expect similar or more with GPS save mode.

Am interested to hear what other Band 2 owners are getting though as I'm going to upgrade at some point.

 

[toddsay]

I have the same issue, and I've been told it is not normal. I can't go a full 24 hours without GPS, and using my GPS for a run seems to consume the battery at about 40% per hour. I've taken to charging it twice a day, and/or after each run. We probably both need replacement bands, but so far it hasn't been bad enough to seem necessary for me.

 

[SashaSolitaire]

Thanks for the confirmation, guys. Looks like a trip to the MS store is on the cards....

 

[mdram]

I'm having issues to but this is on my replacement Band 2. The first one had great battery life (24 hours). I had to exchange it due to the strap tearing but this new one gets about 10-12 hours before it dies. Nothing has changed except for the software updates. All the tiles and notifications are the same.

 

[poit57]

I probably get about 30 hours of normal use without GPS, including sleep tracking every night. I usually recharge for 15-20 minutes while I get ready in the mornings, but have to find an additional time to do a full charge about once or twice per week.

I just ran a marathon and tried tracking my run with GPS without using the battery saver mode. I did a full charge the night before and waited until 5 minutes before the race to turn the Band on. It died at 3 hours 45 minutes.

 

[SashaSolitaire]

That's concerning, @poit57. It defeats the purpose of the fitness monitoring if we cannot use GPS (especially in my case where I primarily use a road bike). Ideally, I would prefer not to use any apps on my phone when exercising (which it looks like I might have to due to the poor battery of the MB2 when GPS is enabled), since I love the centralized MS Health app which captures everything in one place.

 

[rangerdogy]

I've also tried mine for marathons. I get a little over 3 hours with the GPS turned on. I tried it once with GPS Saver turned on and it recorded 24.2 miles and, as a consequence, did not provide good mile split times. All of those were with airplane mode on, screen off, and brightness to lowest.

For my most recent marathon, I dusted off my old Band 1. It always had plenty of battery to last through a marathon and did again this time.

 

[gv73]

Marathon - band died at 22mi / 3.5h

Agreed. This sucks. Used to work fine with the Band1. On sunday at the NJ shore race I had a full charge, screen off, no gps save mode, no airplane mode, no phone on me... And got 3.5h or 22mi out of it. Love my band2 - but not being able to track a marathon is super frustrating! These are milestones you do only a few times per year, or per life...

 

[poit57]

Re: Marathon - band died at 22mi / 3.5h

but not being able to track a marathon is super frustrating! These are milestones you do only a few times per year, or per life...

That's really the only part that bothered me. I don't think I'll be doing another full marathon, but I might try more half marathons like I started out with last year. The max battery life I got with GPS was plenty for any other type of run that I see myself doing in the future.

 

[SashaSolitaire]

Only wish that MS does something software wise to alleviate this. Even if I get 6 hours with GPS, I will be a happy camper. The last thing I need is for me to realize half-way through a race/excercise ride that my MB2 has died, and switch on the alternate (app on the phone). I am planning to use the Feedback option for this, and hopefully, MS will be listening (they seem to be more customer-focused since Nadella took over)

 

[DeNachtwacht]

I have sent one MS Band back that had too short battery life.. 24-26 hours. It's being advertized as having 2 days (48 hours) so if you don't get that with minimal usage (vibrate, screen etc. on minimum settings and most important: not too much vibrating messages throughout the day) you really should just send your band back. MS has replaced mine...

I'm getting about 36 hours with about 10 to 20 incoming vibration messages (whatsapp and email mainly), and I guess this should be normal. Satisfied with it anyway...

 

[SashaSolitaire]

Worked with a Tech Support rep yesterday to try resolving this. Was recommended to do a soft reset and watch and wait. Fingers crossed that this will hopefully help.

 

[Brian Gobrecht]

im getting about 3 1/2 days without gps or watch mode