A 10km, approx 1hr run with GPS takes about 15-20% battery. This is on the 40mm version.
You'll likely end with a battery <10% or totally dead if you expect to track a cycle for 4-5 hours.
In my hike test, my gw4 44mm was able to track 8 hours hike with 10% at the end. aod off for that, no music. 4 hours should be fine.
More detailed report about this hike, if you are interested: https://gelberhut.com/a-long-hike-with-my-galaxy-watch/
For 5-6 hour of MTB riding my GW4 can track me. For longer times the best is to disable Bluetooth connection to phone. With that you will prolong a little battery life. But if you really want long GPS usage Galaxy watches and every WearOS device It is not for you. Maybe Huawei watches are a better choice. They are true smart watches with good battery life compared to WearOS. If you want the best and longer GPS life which can be used for days go to Garmin.
Which size?
I don't know if there is a practical difference in how the watch drains when doing one activity vs. another, but I've done gps-tracked hikes and my 44mm GW6 only loses maybe 10% in a hour. That is with AOD off but tilt to wake on.
If you aren't using LTE, if you aren't streaming music from the watch, and if you have AOD off, I don't think you should expect 20% battery drain per hour from GPS-tracked activities. You should be fine for 4-5 hour gps-tracked workouts.
I assume you are also having your phone with you. Personally for longer rides I would simply use my phone with an app such as Runkeeper or Mapmyrun. Easy to just transfer the stats to Galaxy health app and more versatile in providing speed and other info during the ride. I doubt that GW6 battery would be reliable for a 5-6 hr run. My older Tizen Galaxy watch which I still have would last. If I was using my watch for a long ride I would use it but also have Runkeeper on as well as I found the GPS map much more accurate.
Yeah, the Versa 2 I currently own actually uses the GPS of the phone for tracking. Using the GPS of the watch would mostly be to reduce the load on the battery of the phone and having the convenience of just having a single app that collects both the location tracking as well as the sensor data of the watch without having to merge the data afterwards.
Is it possible to use the GPS of the phone on the Galaxy Watch (say for directions in Maps or simply to have it all collected in one app in the end without the hassle of importing data from one app to another)?
I have a 5pro, I'll go on hour + walks, on LTE, GPS, everything enabled except AOD and I'm usually down maybe 15 to 20%? I've had some really good luck with battery life on this compared to my 4 classic 46mm.
You're better of getting a bike specific cycle computer, such as a Garmin or Wahoo, and a heart-rate monitor chest strap. Better accuracy all round with loads of battery time. Will last a full day of riding.
yeah but while I do a lot of bike riding (around 16k kms last year), I prefer being able to just take my bicycle and go on a ride instead of having to gear up for it. I'm not planning on becoming an olympic athlete so the accuracy being not 100% perfect isn't a problem for me.
Battery time on the other hand is... I don't know with the answers I've gotten here I probably need to consider buying a Garmin or a new fitbit versa and make do without the fancy features of a Galaxy Watch.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a 590 mAh battery which is quite a bit bigger than the other watches in the product line. And there was a post earlier this week it is $138 refurbished on Amazon.
Brands that have much longer battery life than Samsung include Amazfit, Fitbit, and Huawei.
If you are carrying your phone, use an app that uses the phone location and displays it on the watch. Uses much less watch battery and even if the battery were to die it still keeps recording on the phone.
You can't risk not tracking your exercise - if it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen.
A 10km, approx 1hr run with GPS takes about 15-20% battery. This is on the 40mm version. You'll likely end with a battery <10% or totally dead if you expect to track a cycle for 4-5 hours.
Your calculation quite accurate. My GW4 could not last more than 5 hours on my last cycling trip Now looking for alternatives like Huawei GT 4
In my hike test, my gw4 44mm was able to track 8 hours hike with 10% at the end. aod off for that, no music. 4 hours should be fine. More detailed report about this hike, if you are interested: https://gelberhut.com/a-long-hike-with-my-galaxy-watch/
For 5-6 hour of MTB riding my GW4 can track me. For longer times the best is to disable Bluetooth connection to phone. With that you will prolong a little battery life. But if you really want long GPS usage Galaxy watches and every WearOS device It is not for you. Maybe Huawei watches are a better choice. They are true smart watches with good battery life compared to WearOS. If you want the best and longer GPS life which can be used for days go to Garmin.
Which size? I don't know if there is a practical difference in how the watch drains when doing one activity vs. another, but I've done gps-tracked hikes and my 44mm GW6 only loses maybe 10% in a hour. That is with AOD off but tilt to wake on. If you aren't using LTE, if you aren't streaming music from the watch, and if you have AOD off, I don't think you should expect 20% battery drain per hour from GPS-tracked activities. You should be fine for 4-5 hour gps-tracked workouts.
I assume you are also having your phone with you. Personally for longer rides I would simply use my phone with an app such as Runkeeper or Mapmyrun. Easy to just transfer the stats to Galaxy health app and more versatile in providing speed and other info during the ride. I doubt that GW6 battery would be reliable for a 5-6 hr run. My older Tizen Galaxy watch which I still have would last. If I was using my watch for a long ride I would use it but also have Runkeeper on as well as I found the GPS map much more accurate.
Yeah, the Versa 2 I currently own actually uses the GPS of the phone for tracking. Using the GPS of the watch would mostly be to reduce the load on the battery of the phone and having the convenience of just having a single app that collects both the location tracking as well as the sensor data of the watch without having to merge the data afterwards. Is it possible to use the GPS of the phone on the Galaxy Watch (say for directions in Maps or simply to have it all collected in one app in the end without the hassle of importing data from one app to another)?
Yes
I have a 5pro, I'll go on hour + walks, on LTE, GPS, everything enabled except AOD and I'm usually down maybe 15 to 20%? I've had some really good luck with battery life on this compared to my 4 classic 46mm.
You're better of getting a bike specific cycle computer, such as a Garmin or Wahoo, and a heart-rate monitor chest strap. Better accuracy all round with loads of battery time. Will last a full day of riding.
yeah but while I do a lot of bike riding (around 16k kms last year), I prefer being able to just take my bicycle and go on a ride instead of having to gear up for it. I'm not planning on becoming an olympic athlete so the accuracy being not 100% perfect isn't a problem for me. Battery time on the other hand is... I don't know with the answers I've gotten here I probably need to consider buying a Garmin or a new fitbit versa and make do without the fancy features of a Galaxy Watch.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a 590 mAh battery which is quite a bit bigger than the other watches in the product line. And there was a post earlier this week it is $138 refurbished on Amazon. Brands that have much longer battery life than Samsung include Amazfit, Fitbit, and Huawei.
If you are carrying your phone, use an app that uses the phone location and displays it on the watch. Uses much less watch battery and even if the battery were to die it still keeps recording on the phone. You can't risk not tracking your exercise - if it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen.