Can Garmin improve Battery life in the Alpha 200i? As with anything it is possible to put a larger battery in the device. Just think about carrying around a truck battery with you in the woods, heck you might get your alpha to last a month or two with the right one.
One of the first questions asked in a room full of users, would you accept an internal battery in the new Alpha if it meant we could increase the battery life. The answer including from myself was unanimous, No we want a field changeable battery in the Alpha. There are simply too many situations that we can not be tethered to a cord to charge a dead Garmin Alpha 200i on a hunt. It was much easier and cheaper to take a spare battery for those situations that require hunts that outlasted the Alpha battery.
To add insult to injury, the complaints on mapping and screen brightness also diminish the life of the alpha. The Garmin Alpha 100 used a smaller touch screen type that was much more power friendly than the larger screen Alpha 200i.
What can you do to help with low Batteries? Double U Offers a Battery and spare battery charger. I use this to keep a fully charged battery with you to swap out when you need.
The other things to check and consider.
- Transmitting your location uses battery life, If you are not hunting or need to transmit you location you can easily turn this feature off by quickly pressing and releasing the power button.
- When you are pressing and sending Training Commands this transmits a signal and can decrease the battery life.
- There is a screen power saving feature in the Alpha 200i that you can enable which will turn off the screen after the backlight timer. Menu>Setup>Display "Battery Save"
- Cold batteries die faster, keep the device inside your jacket when not using it will also help your battery life. (This works for cell phones also!)
Until next time, it's not always what we want to hear, but it is what it is and there are sometimes technical decisions and sacrifices on new products. Battery life with the 200i is one of those.
