So I have been thinking about getting the 5S. I've been comparing specs and I don't see any difference between the 2 watched other than size and battery life. Would u guys confirm? Which one would you all recommend? I'm coming from a vivoactive 3 non-music and have really small wrists lol
As you mention the only benefit of the 5+ over the 5S+ is the battery life. If you do ultras this could be an issue but otherwise battery life in the 5S is more than adequate and similar to the vivoactive 3 (I also had this one).
What really consumes battery in excess is streaming music from Spotify; doing an activity while listening to Spotify consumes between 20-25% battery; hence quite limited for running marathons or even a few runs per week if you do not want to charge your watch often.
I had the same doubt and eventually decided for the 5S+. Size is perfect for me (similar than vivo active); I prefer the 5S+ design over the 5+ as is not so rough/chunky so you can also ware it with suits. Bear in mind that both have the same screen size so I find the 5+ having too much bezel.
Since you're comparing to the VA3 I assume you mean pool swimming since open water isn't supported on that device.
Most of the complaints I saw with the VA3 and swimming had to do with the touchscreen and since the F5+ is buttons only it should be better in that regard.
However open water swimming GPS on the F5, F5+, and FR935 seemed to have been messed up with the GPS firmware version went to 2.20. I'm not an open water swimmer so you might have to search out that thread to see if it's been resolved yet.
And more to the point of the OP. I have both the regular F5+ and the F5S+ (I'm not independently wealthy, I just stumbled across 2 really good deals on eBay) and can confirm that case size and battery life are the only differences.
I have thin wrists at the end of my skinny monkey arms and the F3 I had for a while a couple of years ago was just too big for me. The distance between the strap pins was greater than the width of my wrist so I could never get it a good fit with it and it beat the daylights out of my wrist bone. I never had a problem with the weight of it though, and actually kind of missed that heft when I went to the FR735.
The regular F5+ is smaller than the F3 and I can wear it more comfortably but it's still not as good of a fit as the 735/645/VA3/F5S+.
If you care about sensor connections I'd recommend going with the F5+. I could make the F5S+ loose signal from Stryd when holding hand on the bezel for few seconds (similar to what my old F5 did), while on F5+ I can't make the connection drop even if I cover the watch for several minutes. HRM-Tri also had several second gaps with RD data even when there were no obstructions. The HRM-Tri actually worked better even with my old F5 than with the F5S+.
I admit the F5S+ is much better looking though as it comes with much less bezel, if you can first fit it on your wrist (the starp is much shorter and has only one retaining loop). Still I would've actually preferred the F5S+ otherwise, but end of the day I couldn't justify living yet again with a watch that drops connections so easily.
