[onespeed]

After losing my 705 last month I have been considering getting the 810. In the meantime I have been using my phone to log my miles and routes. The price is just so far out of whack. I havent been able to sell myself on it and the wife certainly would not accept it.

Saturday I did a 55 mile ride while Strava was running. The ride was 3 hours 30 minutes - 1 flat along the way.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that total battery left after the ride was 80%.

I am considering not getting the 810 now. Looking at phone mounts for the phone and perhaps a bluetooth HRM.

 

[tlg]

What phone are you using?
Screen turned off right?

Bluetooth HRM? I'm sure that'll cut your battery life drastically.

 

[looigi]

What phone are you using?
Screen turned off right?

Bluetooth HRM? I'm sure that'll cut your battery life drastically.

Not the new Bluetooth LE

 

[onespeed]

Moto Razr Maxx

Screen was off except for a few times when I checked to see what how things were progressing. It was windy and cold and I was not feeling the ride.

I cant see the BT HRM affecting it that much.

Even if it did I would still have a good 10 hour window to get my ride in.

 

[tvJefe]

I have issues with my cell phone and Strava when biking the canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains. If cell reception is shoddy, it drains the battery so fast. Did a 7 hour ride a few weeks back and barely made it home to hit "end" before the phone died.

That being said, I plan on getting the CatEye Stealth 50 and pairing that with Strava for all the info I need.

 

[bmach]

My battery lasts along time also. I thought it worked off of gps sats not cell towers?

 

[nOOky]

I'm the cautious type. The cell phone stays in the back pocket in a Ziploc baggie with a credit card and a $20 bill. I'd rather pay for a Garmin and not run down my cell battery.
Disclaimer: I had a friend get knocked off the road into a ditch out of view of passing vehicles, and he was there for almost a day in and out of consciousness. He placed several incoherent calls, and was eventually found by tracing his call however they do it. This was several years ago, before the stellar life of current cell phones. I still wouldn't use Strava on my phone, I prefer the features of a Garmin anyway.
I say do whatever works for you.

 

[Dunbar]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and Strava uses roughly 10% of the battery per hour. Now, being an Android phone it does sometimes randomly and inexplicably lose a charge at a faster rate (not related to Strava.) So if I'm going out on a longish ride I always make sure to go out with a full charge.

BTW, GPS navigation on an Android phone is among the fastest ways to drain the battery so Strava must be doing something less battery intensive.

 

[Alfonsina]

Spare batteries are pretty inexpensive, I use a garmin anyway but I always carry a spare battery for my phone when I am riding or skiing.

 

[ph0enix]

I can get a little over 60 miles out of the iPhone 4S/Strava with nothing else running and the screen dimmed but I have some portable battery packs that I use to charge the phone on longer rides.

 

[MisterMike]

The RAZR Maxx has an outrageously good battery so I'm not surprised you see that life with GPS on and screen off for 3 hours. Everyone talks about how severe GPS is on batteries but I disagree. Display on is much more draining so I doubt you'd get near the same life with both GPS on and the screen on at a brightness you can see it in the daylight. My phone drains faster than a Maxx but but I don't ever worry at all about killing it on a 2-3 hour ride. Unlike the Maxx I can easily swap the battery, and have a spare, but never take it on a ride.

With the Max having GPS, Bluetooth and the screen on during a long ride you may start to run into trouble. And since there's no way to replace the batter you may need to carry a battery pack with a micro-usb cable. Make sure you are fully charges and try it and see. You can always turn off the screen after you hit a certain battery level. IMO having the screen on and/or mounting a phone to the bars is overkill but then again I'm not used to it as you were with your Garmin.

A purpose specific device will generally work out better. The Garmin will do preloaded courses, last longer, and IMO is a better form factor for mounting on the bars. It's got a lot going for it wrt to cycling. But when I compare it against what I need it to do and all the things my phone does the value for a Garmin just isn't' there for me.

 

[Keoki]

I carry the Galaxy Note 2 in my back pocket and use Mapmyride (Will try Stava this weekend). Mapmyride has this feature which tells your progress via computer voice very 5 minutes or so. After 2 hours and 30 minutes, I'm left with 65% of battery life remaining (I'm also running about 15 different widgets and a multi live wallpaper in the background). The battery size of this phone is 3,100mah.