Garmin Descent x50i experience?

[Flamebut57]

My next dive is not until February 1st. I’ll report back then with percentage before and after all my dives. I’ll check the percentage in and out of the water.

The online specs say:
13 hours bright backlight
16 hours default backlight (medium).
20 hours for the night dive backlight.

The manual also says to make sure you dry it off or else it may detect water and drain the battery. I don’t know about whether or not this came into play but I definitely gave them a good soak in some fresh water when I got home. This explains the battery difference between 60 and 75-80% to me.

As far as needing to be able to go for a week without recharging you could always use a power bank to charge it (maybe even a solar one). The charger is a custom clip that has a USB C type connector.

I cannot find any information online or in the manual about the actual battery capacity. It may be worth reaching out to Garmin.

 

[Flamebut57]

FWIW I contacted Garmin’s support and was told the battery capacity was ~1700mAh. So a larger power bank should be able to charge that plenty of times.

I’m actually headed to Belize soon and while I think I’ll have power to recharge I’ll probably get a power bank anyways to have a backup. I’ll follow up again here afterwards just to let you all know how that goes.

 

[JrobC]

My dive buddy may be able to test one on our next dive. I am going to take notes and report back if we get a tester. Thank you everyone

 

[JrobC]

FWIW I contacted Garmin’s support and was told the battery capacity was ~1700mAh. So a larger power bank should be able to charge that plenty of times.

I’m actually headed to Belize soon and while I think I’ll have power to recharge I’ll probably get a power bank anyways to have a backup. I’ll follow up again here afterwards just to let you all know how that goes.

Note to side track my own post but are you doing a live aboard or shore diving daily excursions? I’m currently trying to plan for Belize 2026

 

[JrobC]

My buddy and I got to borrow an x50i last night and used it in two dives.
It is as advertised. Battery started at 93% and after a 57 minute dive and a 30 min surface interval and and a 35 minute second dive, we had only used 11% of the battery.

First dive started presume and went into dusk. The screen was always visible. I could even clearly read it when it was on my buddy’s wrist. At night in the pitch black the screen was crisp and clear, never had a hard time reading it.

While diving I toggled through the preset screens and it worked well.

It does feel heavy out of the water but in the water I didn’t notice it anymore than my old Garmin descent 1 which I had on my other wrist.

The only con I saw is the the glass portion of the screen is larger than the actual usable part. Meaning around the edge of the screen there is black unused space. So the module is larger that the screen, if that makes sense. Wish the screen took up the whole glass portion but it didn’t effect the functionality.

I didn’t mess around with any of the settings since we were borrowing it from a pal. But navigating the device was very easy.

Overall I really liked using it and plan to upgrade once I save my Pennies.

 

[Ty Hamby]

My buddy and I got to borrow an x50i last night and used it in two dives.
It is as advertised. Battery started at 93% and after a 57 minute dive and a 30 min surface interval and and a 35 minute second dive, we had only used 11% of the battery.

First dive started presume and went into dusk. The screen was always visible. I could even clearly read it when it was on my buddy’s wrist. At night in the pitch black the screen was crisp and clear, never had a hard time reading it.

While diving I toggled through the preset screens and it worked well.

It does feel heavy out of the water but in the water I didn’t notice it anymore than my old Garmin descent 1 which I had on my other wrist.

The only con I saw is the the glass portion of the screen is larger than the actual usable part. Meaning around the edge of the screen there is black unused space. So the module is larger that the screen, if that makes sense. Wish the screen took up the whole glass portion but it didn’t effect the functionality.

I didn’t mess around with any of the settings since we were borrowing it from a pal. But navigating the device was very easy.

Overall I really liked using it and plan to upgrade once I save my Pennies.

Great review. Thank you. I hope a firmware fix will provide more longevity on the battery. Excited to see more in the wild.

 

[JrobC]

Great review. Thank you. I hope a firmware fix will provide more longevity on the battery. Excited to see more in the wild.

Yeah 20 hours max isn’t awesome but the computer is exquisite. I was going to get the shearwater peregrine tx when this came out. That advertises 30 hours max. Also a great computer.

I’m hoping to get the Garmin in the next few weeks, I will play with settings and what not and report back. Particularly the screen brightness and how that affects visibility and battery life.

 

[Flamebut57]

I dove them again over the weekend (4 dives).
There was a recent update and I updated one of the two computers. There was no change to the battery life as both computers had roughly the same percentage after the dives, however, I did notice that there was a nice addition to lockout the touch screen at the surface. Beforehand sometimes the water would just start clicking around into different menus. I’ve also had the torch switch on at the surface (see more below).

I was doing training and only paid close attention on my first dive. Going into the water I had 92% and coming out I had 82%. It was an hour dive, and I also did not un-sync the inReach. Unbeknownst to me the built in torch was on for half the dive which I’m sure was very annoying to others.

After this first dive I updated my computer. On the subsequent dives I did not pay close attention but do remember comparing the two computers against each other and they were within a few percent of each other. I did three dives the second day and was not worried about the computer dying.

One comment I will make is that every time I have used the computers after putting them into their case (post dive) I have experienced significant battery drain afterwards. I haven’t dug into the settings to see if I can disable the wake on water detection setting. So far that is the biggest thing that I dislike about the computer.

If you do not have access to power to charge the computer overnight I would definitely get a power bank.

 

[bartucxp]

I have purchased that computer recently and I did 7 dives with it over 4 days period.

The computer works great. Very easy to use and navigate around menus. I keep touchscreen closed most of the time, because water drops interacts with screen. But even without touchscreen, it is really easy to use. It feels like a quality product in hand. I'm happy with it in general.

I also use AI with 2 transmitters(sidemount) and everything works great. But I couldn't try messaging since no one alse had garmin in the group.

I also didn't like the battery. I have charged it to 100%, after 3 days, picked it up and went diving. After 4 1-hour long dives, it was around 40%. Recharged it, gone ahead and did 3 more dives, it was around 50%(maybe 55 or something). I powered it off, travelled back after 2 days, put it in fresh water for 12 hours, took it out and got it dry(I didn't even try to power it on after dives), its been 5 days since my last dive and today it didn't power on, battery was dead.

It seems the computer spends battery while turned off. Which is bad and unusual because that means even if it had more battery for more dives, I have to charge it before every dive trip. I mostly dive weekly on summers, this means I have to recharge it every week. I didn't see something like that before on any dive computer. I mean if it is powered off, it must be powered off.

I believe this is a deal breaker for many people and I think they'll fix that with a software update or something, at least that is what I hope.

Except for that problem, I totally recommend it.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Two questions out of curiosity:

1. Does anyone have a side-by-side photo next to a Shearwater Peregrine? I'm curious about the relative size comparison between the two. Asking because I've not yet seen an x50i in person and am curious how its size compares to a Peregrine.
2. Can the x50i be fitted with bungee straps or some sort of elastic strap, or is it just the typical Garmin watch style strap?

Is anyone able to answer either of the above two questions?