Garmin Fenix 5/s/x

feldman wrote:

I haven't done a full dive into the pros and cons, but I'd have to think that now that the 3rd Apple watch is out with LTE it's going to be a serious contender to Garmin.

The Apple Watch is not remotely a competitor to Garmin for even moderately serious runners. It doesn't even have a lap button. Let that sink in. The defining characteristic of a sports watch since the Timex Ironman has been the ability to take lap splits. The Apple Watch does not have that functionality. It is at best a decent activity tracker.

Other issues are that the screen is not always on, the battery life is very limited if you train 1-2x/day, and the GPS accuracy is poor.

I went with the 935. Happy so far, but still think I might get the footpod for my indoor nonsense.

Save a lot of money and get a Milestone Pod. It's only $25, it's a bluetooth footpad sensor and also works without a watch if you forget to pair it. it also has a bunch of other metrics.

800 dude wrote:

The 935 is unquestionably a better watch than the Fenix:

- It has more accurate heart rate readings because it is lighter and doesn't bounce on your wrist as much.

- It has far superior GPS accuracy.

- It has wifi standard. (With Fenix, wifi is only available on the sapphire models.)

- And it actually connects to sensors. The Fenix 5/5s is, no exaggeration, a defective product that does not maintain a stable connection to external sensors, even Garmin branded ones. If you are 100% confident you will never want to use an external heart rate monitor or footpod, then it may not matter to you, but it's shocking that Garmin produced a $600+ product without even testing such basic functionality (which is a non-negotiable requirement for triathletes, their main target demographic).

I may get rid of my 5S. I got it for $150 from a Fleet Feet friend in the running club. She's loaded and wanted a new watch and offered to sell it to me cheap.

It works fine but recently it's been randomly stopping during my runs, throwing my stats off (the diagonal line from when I stopped to when I started it on Strava).

I wonder if the sensor issue is why it will stop. I know I pressed the button. I ran 16.5 miles last Saturday even though I was supposed to only do 15 due to the watch issue.

Also, the pacing on it can't hold steady even if I know my effort is the same and turnover is the same. Like one minute it'll be 8:10 and then 7:30 and swing back to 7:45...it's all over the place. Even if I work on breathing, consistent cadence and effort.

Hell, even the EZ pace doesn't stay that consistent (If I want to keep it at 9:00 EZ it will go up to 8:45 and I'll slow down and then drop all the way down to 9:45 and only slowly go 9:35, 9:30, 9:25, etc.).

I have a Fenix 5S and my heart rate and paces jump around (I know cadence lock is a thing). I got a good deal on it ($150) from a friend, vs. buying it outright. Glad to know I need to get a 935 used online next time!

The other Garmin I have is a FR35, is that one more accurate than the Fenix series?

That watch is now 2 generations old. I would go with a current Forerunner or Fenix 7 if I were buying now. I was planning an F7 until the Epix 2 came out and went with that. The different in the screen is worth it for me and I want the all day analytics and sleep data.

If you don't want that go with the FR that has what you want and is the current generation.