After a week of use of the FR245M I’m experiencing battery life way below the claimed 6/7 days in smartwatch mode. Currently a full charge with no recorded activities, no music playback and observing some of Garmin’s battery saving advice such as using a watch face with no moving seconds and turning off pulse Ox and notifications is getting me just under 48 hours before running down to 0%.
For years now I have used the Garmin 245, which falls in the middle of Garmin's Forerunner line and is aimed mainly at runners. With the release of the Forerunner 255, Garmin has retired the 245.
When garmin says "up to 16 hours", then you can be almost certain, that the watch won't last that long. And besides, there are people who do activities longer than 16 hours. And the FR745XT being just slightly smaller than the 945 (which goes for 36 hours), the 16 hour battery life is indeed surprising. Heck, the old 735XT was speced at 14 hours.
For most ultra-athletes, the battery life on this model should be sufficient. Garmin claims that smartwatch mode will last two weeks in best-case scenarios. Regular GPS (with smartwatch mode) is purported to last 36 hours without music and 10 hours with music. We measured charging time to be only 75 minutes.
tIE9FHa. how long does garmin forerunner battery last
