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Charge 5 vs charge 4

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‎01-26-2022 14:16

‎01-26-2022 14:16

I have a charge 4 and there are a few things that I dislike and was wondering if they have been improved in the charge 5.

1. The battery life with the GPS on. Fully charged, my charge 4 will go less than 3 hours with the GPS on. Long hikes, bike rides or marathons can't be fully tracked. I followed the comments on here about people with terrible battery problems with their charge 5 even without the GPS, but that seems to be due to bad units. What about a fully functional "good" charge 5? How does it perform?

2. The visibility in daylight is terrible. It sounds like this is fixed in the charge 5--however, frankly I am a bit resentful that it didn't work properly in the charge 4. Can charge 5 users confirm that you can actually see it during the day now? 

3. The GPS is not great. It often takes a long time to sync even on clear days and often drops in the middle of activities. My 10 year old phone has a much more reliable GPS and my friends with other devices have fewer problems. How is it for the charge 5?  

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‎01-27-2022 05:37

‎01-27-2022 05:37

I came from a Charge 4 to a Charge 5 so I think I might have some useful information for you.
1. I don't use the GPS on my Charge 5 continuously for that long so my experience might not be exactly what you need but I walk our dog twice a day for between 20 and 30 minutes each time and I have the GPS on for that.  After 2 days the battery will be around 40% so I don't think I could make it a 3rd day without it going dead.  But that seems to line up with what you're experiencing with your Charge 4.
2. The visibility is far better than the Charge 4.  The color display helps a lot but overall it looks brighter even with a black and white clock face.
3. The GPS isn't much better but I don't have any problems with it dropping once it's connected.  One thing I learned with my Charge 4 is that if I leave the Dynamic GPS setting on, when I start my walks it connects quickly.  I leave my phone in my house and when I get outside it generally stays connected for the duration of the walk using the built in GPS.  Occasionally it will drop when I first get outside but it will reconnect within a few seconds.

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‎01-31-2022 13:39

In response to JackKinFL

‎01-31-2022 13:39

Thanks for your message. Regarding point 3. Based on your suggestion, I tried your trick and it does connect quickly and it worked the first time I did it. Unfortunately, the second time I tried it, it dropped during my run. 

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‎01-31-2022 17:15

‎01-31-2022 17:15

only 3 weeks used charge 5 so there are not maybe 100% correct:

 

1- same, if you use GPS battery life is terrible, hovewer without gps  and3x/ weeks workout it last about 7-8 days.

2- this is biggest improvement. visiblity and color screen is very good but clock face are limited and not so good and font size a bit too small and i dont think you can chage it.

3- same to charge 4

 

 

 

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