Do you feel the Garmin battery life should be better?

I think they could do a little better in the battery department, too-

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I actually don't think the battery of my unit is a real issue with me.

come on guys lets not compare apples and oranges

I get about 3 hours out of the battery on my 2595 and then it's about done. It lasts a little longer at night with the screen dimmed down. (Trivia: did you know you could dim it down to "0%"?) I stumbled across this using voice command to adjust the brightness and it must have mis-understood and set it to 0%. You can still see the screen fine, but it takes it down a little more which is perfect when you're out in the middle of nowhere on a rainy night.

Your cell phone is designed to be away from a power source and operates accordingly. I don't recall every using my Nuvi to navigate without it being plugged in. I imagine, however, that if you turned on your phone's back light, and left it on, you would find that the charge goes away pretty quickly.

I have used both and the cell will last a lot longer when navigating. The GPS is larger and heavier than the Cell. I use the GPS on the bike and there is no way to plug it in.

I just picked up a factory-refurbished 3590. Specs say the battery life is 4 hours. I am assuming this is with screen brightness turned down to 0%.

I am getting about 2 hours of battery life in normal use. Thinking the battery may be old even in a new unit - Lithium battery life is a function of age as much as usage - I picked up a replacement battery from a major reseller. It promises battery life more than factory.

The replacement battery was 1.24 MaH. It lasted 1.5 hours until the low battery warning first came on, and then died at 2:05.

I put the factory (1.25 MaH) battery back in, and it lasted 2 hours before the low battery warning first came on, and then died at 2:49.

Replacing the battery in the 3590 is much easier than some of the older units such as my 250W. It also charged no problem from one of those small portable USB external batteries.

What determines how long a battery will produce sufficient power is the mAh (milli ampere hours).
The higher the number the longer the battery will hold the charge. So whenever you replace any rechargeable battery, whether a GPS or any device that has a rechargeable battery, get the highest mAh that will fit the unit.

For example, my Nuvi 660 has a 1500 mAh battery, it is 7 years old and still holds its charge even after sitting in a drawer for a month. What's interesting is the majority of replacement batteries for the 660 are now 1150 mAh although I was able to find a few at the original 1500 mAh while Google searching. Surely this 1150 mAh battery will not last as long as the original.
Garmin states 660 battery life up to7 hours.
My 2460 with a 1250 battery begins losing it's charge within a few minutes of running on battery.
Garmin states battery life up to 3 hrs.
Both units are at 100% brightness,

All new units now have significantly less run time as opposed to older units such as the 3XX and 6XX series.

I'm not sure if the extra bells and whistles the 2460 has over the 660 shortens the battery life, however I'm certain if they made a 1500 mAh battery for the 2460 the charge will last much longer.
The 1250 mAh size maybe designed smaller to fit into the thinner units, but when I look at Nuvi replacement batteries they all look the same size to me. They don't list dimensions on batteries so its hard to tell.

One other difference is the 660 has a two prong plug receptacle that plugs into the main board, the newer units have a three prong plug.

My old StreetPilot c340 would give 5+ hours of battery life. My c580 was good for 3.5 hours.

My Nuvi 2360 is good for no more than 2 hours of battery life.

All values based on new batteries.

I expect these units to be good for use without connecting to power because that makes them more convenient to use. I'd have no problem if my 2360 was a little thicker with better battery life.

I'd be in favor of a battery saving screen mode - dim the screen if the next turn or waypoint is more than 2 miles away.

It would be nice if certain garmin units, primarily those dedicated to outdoor or pedestrian use had longer battery life. My old eTrex Vista would run for about 10 hours or so on batteries (2 x AA). Would be nice if it ran longer on one set.

But for automotive Nuvi's that don't have the pedestrian option I don't see the need for a larger battery that keeps the unit on battery power longer than two or three hours. The workaround is to buy a battery charger pack that are fairly cheap these days to recharge the battery in certain Nuvi's.

For those who want to extend the battery life disable Bluetooth if your GPS unit has it. Also set the screen time out to a shorter time so the screen turns off quicker when the unit is not in use.

Yes, back when.... I had one of the old monochrome StreetPilots that took 6 AA batteries. The maps were very basic and while I don't recall exactly, it ran for quite awhile if unplugged from the car. It did have a pedestrian mode, but the thing was nearly the size of a brick and didn't come with a handle!

My more recent 750 still had a pedestrian mode, was pocketable and with a good battery would go about 3-4 hours if I kept the brightness turned down or switched to night mode where the background was dark and only the streets were lit up.

My present 3597 has dispensed with the pedestrian mode and may go an hour or two solo. It retains the ability to locate my parked car in the stadium lot, but in reality, so will a smartphone and it's more likely to be in my pocket.

The design engineers have to find a way to bring a product to market that meets the expectations of the consumer in a competitive market and at the same time preform a specific function well. For an automotive GPS, the device will be primarily powered by the vehicle. The battery offers the user the ability to input or alter a route or settings with the ignition off or to carry it into the house to sit down with it to explore its features. For its intended purpose, I think it does what it was designed to do.

I have a older unit.....my battery life is fair.

A complication here is that quite a few batteries are sold with false ratings. Ebay is full of listings for AA NiMH and popular-sized Lithium rechargeable cells listing ratings higher than the best made. I've personally measured some which performed at less than a quarter of their claimed rating.

Another issue is that if you are interested in how long a unit will stay ready to use when disconnected, the self-discharge rate of the battery itself is a major consideration. Even a truthful high mAh rating can't overcome a severely bad self-discharge rate.

I get around 12 hours per charge with moderate, non GPS use on my iPhone 5. Using nav / GPS apps shortens that to around 3 hours, about as long as my Nuvi 3597 will last without external power. Any device that is GPS enabled is a power hog.

As many have noted already, most automotive GPSrs aren’t designed for portable use and don’t need long battery life. If you need to use an automotive GPSr for applications where no external power is available, look for one of the older Nuvi’s that has a replaceable battery feature like the good old 855. I used to bicycle with mine. I could do a 6 hour ride by carrying 2 spares.

If you can do without some of the Nuvi’s automotive features, another option would be to use a handheld in and powered by your vehicle like the Montana 600 or 650. The 4 inch screen is acceptable for automotive use and will give you 22 hours of portable use on 3 – AA batteries.

Longer battery life means bigger batteries. With thin units like the 3597 or similar, you can only have so much space for the batteries. A large percentage of (compartively thicker) smartphones dedicate their innards for the battery. Maybe take a look at external battery packs like Anker or RAV intstead?

-Yes I do think this is odd, too!

It seems to me that if the phones can do it, then the GPS models should sport this kind of longer battery-life as well, and to the credit of the phones, they are also doing as much broadcasting as receiving, more or less, which as far as I know the basic GPS does not do. I would think that broadcasting should be a bigger drain on the battery than receiving is.

Have you tried activating a navigation app on your smartphone and letting it run during a trip? This kind of usage produces a large drain on the battery (just like it does on a standalone GPS device).

I agree that Garmin Nuvi battery life could be vastly improved but with faster processors and larger screens, the drain on the battery is inevitable. I don't even worry about it and always use mine plugged in anyway. They come with a cigarette lighter charger, so why not just keep it in the car on hand and use it each time? Furthermore, on some models, the charging cable doubles as an FM traffic receiver, so to me it is far better to use plugged in at all times and never risk losing charge during use. I feel the same way about a smartphone. An in-car charger for your iPhone/Android etc. is a must have!

I always keep mine plugged in when I am driving. I don't use it for walking around town.

We should be required to only charge the GPS once and have it work off that initial charge forever

Matter-antimatter batteries? I would like to pre-order a few of them.

a couple dilithium crystals

I wish they lasted longer but understand all the reasons they don't!

Yes definitely. Mine doesn't even stay on for an hour.

So you're really asking if we want better battery life. Hard to imagine that there is much difference of opinion on that.

I would wish Garmin would make it simple like they use to when you wanted to remove the battery especially when the unit locked up, all you have to do is remove battery and reboot the mchine

When a phone is designed they are always looking for better batteries because your phone is not attached to a cord when you are using it. People compare phones based on battery life. If people started buying the GPS with the longest battery life they would start increasing it.

Personally, I think gps batteries should last at least 8 hours, much better then the older units that advertised 4 hours. Of course, that was under perfect conditions that no one ever gets.

When was the last time you operated your unit outside of the vehicle for any appreciable length of time? Mine is used on battery usually less than 15 minutes per time.

It is nice to have my GPS run in "standalone" mode every now and then, but I generally use it in a vehicle that provides power.

People not using their GPS much outside the car may well be due to people learning that their GPS has poor battery life and will not operate long, rather than show that there is no need for it. Recently on vacation I took a day long walk and I took a GPS with me (which was very handy). However, it was an Android device that held up for the whole day. I might have taken my Garmin, but I know that it doesn't have the battery life to make it useful.

I replaced the battery on the 1490 when it was only good for an hour, and now it will run about 8 hours until dead. A vast improvement even over the original battery when it was new (only got 4 hours at best)

I agree, I hardly ever had a device where the battery dies on me before the device, well except for garmin and a cheap in car dvd player.

I have 2 garmins, one for auto one for hiking. Because I only use the automobile garmin in my car battery life isn't very important because its always plugged in. I'd like to see easily replaceable rechargeable batteries in the automobile garmin.

But for the etrex I use for hiking, I must have good battery life, so much in fact that I bring an extra set of batteries with me.

An automotive device being used for a walking tour isn't a use the unit was designed for. That doesn't mean it doesn't work, it's just similar to using a machete to peel grapes. It can be done, but it isn't the best tool for the job.

...Another of those damn physics things...

I'm dealing with a marketing type who wants a gadget to run for days on a battery that's tiny, practically free, lasts forever, and can recharge in seconds.

Not gonna happen today... Tomorrow doesn't look too good, either.

Battery technology hasn't followed Moore's Law, improving at the same rate semiconductor processes have.

Capacity is a function of size (volume) and cost. Similarly, charge rate has significant cost, size, and thermal components -- the faster you want to charge a cell, particularly a Lithium cell, the cost, size, and thermal load of the charging circuitry increase -- cell size (volume) increases and cell life decreases (that's why battery folks call high-rate charging "charge or die").

Modern Lithium chemistries do an amazing job. The Zinc polymer stuff is improving, and has much more benign failure modes than Lithium (they don't burst into flame when abused).

Another way to get that higher life? Throw away some of the bells and whistles -- decrease update rates, throw away some of the (gratuitous) user interface animations, and spend a few cents designing for lower power operation. Oh, and give the power subsystem folks a little more room in the enclosure?

Grumble grumble grumble...

The ability to change the battery after it's useful life is over on all the nuvi's should be the standard. Of course, higher capacity batteries would be nice as well since the batteries run down rather quickly.

I must be missing something here. Why do you even need a battery in a Nuvi? They are designed for automotive use and come with a vehicle power cord. When doing updates or loading POIs, the unit is connected via a USB cable and powered by a computer. An AC adapter can also be used if necessary. To me, it’s like having a battery in the flat screen TV you use in your living room.

If you need a GPS for portable use, get a handheld. If you are concerned about the smaller screen size, hold it closer to your face.

Obviously, I’m kidding here and mean no offense to other posters. Actually, I can see some very minor reasons for Nuvi batteries like being able to play with the unit after turning off the ignition, swapping vehicles or doing a quick test after loading POI’s. It means very little to me whether the battery lasts 10 minutes or ten hours though.

Garmin could certainly redesign the Nuvi line and use better batteries but at what cost? I for one would not be willing to pay more for a Nuvi simply because it has longer battery life.

I have only used the GPS in my car so only plug it in. Occasionally I have used the unit without plugging it in but only for very short trips that I am not quite sure of the directions. I take the gps into the house after each use but always leave the plug in the glove compartment for easy access.

Mine has both Pedestrian and Bicycle modes of operation in addition to the vehicle setting, so it would seem rather disingenuous to say that the device is designed only for automobile use. Why put bicycle and pedestrian modes in if it needs to be tethered to a cigarette lighter? They clearly put in a battery for this purpose, they just cut corners on it. I see no claim by Garmin and no reason other than poor battery life to believe that the device is designed only for vehicle use.

P.S. Some models even have a feature that notes the position when the GPS receiver is removed from the cradle and is promoted as a way to help you find your way back to the car. This just seems to me as more useful after being away from the car for several hours rather than for use when parking outside the local stop-and-rob and going inside for an overpriced bottle of water.

there isnt much that has a long life..

plugged in in the car...I guess if I was a geocacher it would be more important but I don't need a GPS (yet) to remember where I parked or to get around a place I am visiting...just lucky I suppose.

I carry my 3790LMT in my carry-on luggage, intending to use it in rental cars on trips, and make a point of holding it up to the airplane window and getting a fresh satellite fix about every half hour.

This means that when I turn it on at the rental car lot, I get a fix and am ready to go quite quickly, a process which can take distressingly long on a 3790 which is "away from home" without knowing it, especially if one makes the job harder by setting off driving before turning it on (a friend with the same model was gravely dismayed when his failed to get a fix in 25 minutes of driving in such a situation).

A fringe benefit is that sometimes one or more of these inflight fixes gives me interesting information on what is out the window, or flight progress.

I recently ordered a replacement battery (with install CD and pry tool) for that Nuvi because such an inflight update sequence showed me I had less than 10 minutes battery life on my deteriorated original battery.

I also prefer to be able to be battery powered for some hotel room checking of neighboring POIs, and such. In summary, for me 30 minutes is about a minimum comfortable battery life.

Your mileage may vary.