Everything working after V9 update

Well, such a "take it easy" attitude is a cool thing, I honestly like seeing things that way as well. But let's look  at it from the another direction: I'm fighting with WHR problems during hiking since I purchased the 5x plus. My wife is fighting with her vivoactive with climbed floors since the purchase (funny thing is, it was working with one firmware, then broke with the next update again), but I don't want to go into tech details here.

My point is, I purchase such a device to make my life easier and to enjoy my outdoor activities and I really do not want to worry about technical problems. If I have to fight with technical problems, I cannot enjoy my leisure sports activities anymore and that's where then my "take it easy" mood stops. 

Another point is, we all purchase devices, worth several hundred euros, so we should have the right to receive a device working as advertised and not beeing treated as beta tester. The fact, that other manufacturers are worse is actually not the point. I pay for some functionality and therefore I am allowed to expect that it is working as planned. I has become a common thing, that people simply wait a couple of months till they purchase an electronic device, because then the chance is higher, that all bugs have been sorted out. But honestly, why do we all accept this? Shouldn't a product work from the start? As a beta tester, I would be fine, if bugs are sorted out little by little, but as a standard customer I want to have a working device, but I know, this bug solving in the field has been widely accepted by the consumers within the last 10 years.

My simple verdict is, that I do not want to waste my precious leisure time with trying to solve technical issues and honestly, there was not even a single firmware version within the last two years, which did not have any major bug, at least from my side and if I read through all the posts in the forum. And I know the background of software development as I was working for international technical support over 18 years. I was recently reading into the series 6 forum as I was curious, if the problems with the HR sensor are gone, just to findout, it is popping there up as well and those models are brandnew. Garmin simple has the advantage, that there is no compareable watch on the market with topo maps etc., battery life and so on, that's why everybody buys them. If there would be a real competitor, the story might be different and quality would be a big part of the decision.

I went through support several times and I get my watch exchanged now, but I'm not confident that this will solve the problem, but let's see, I'll try to "take it easy" ;)

I hope, nobody feels offended by my post, it is just my personal view of things. I for myself went back to a normal wristwatch and use my Garmin watch only for certain sport activities, in combination with a chest strap for HR measurements, but still got some flaws sometimes with the software. Honestly, I'm just using it, because I bought it already, but I would not buy it again....definetely not for more than 800 euros.

yeah, I know and I also told the support guys....

I already tried to wear it several different ways (looser, tighter, etc. - and I know the natural limitations of measuring the HR optical on the hand and I'm ok with it beeing not so accurate). It even works sometimes for the first two hours of a hike or something like that, then the HR drops to the resting HR of around 60 and stays there. If I reboot the watch, it starts working again, sometimes for the rest of the hike, sometimes for another one or two hours till it drops again. So this has nothing todo with accuracy, this is a complete fail of measuring the HR.

Strange enough, it is working without any problem during 24/7 tracking, this is why I cannot believe it is a hardware fault of my device. I told all this to Garming support, but the only thing the offer me is to exchange the watch.....an I just send it back know, after discussing this with support the last half year.

If I would wear it the wrong way, why is it working for some time, before the fault comes up, sometimes even for a complete hike of 3 hours, sometimes not even for half hour? Why is it working during 24/7 tracking? I cannot really identify the problem...especially as it starts working again after rebooting the watch.

All, support told me in the past was, that such a problem is not know. If they tell me, ok is propably caused by myself, skin color, whatever, I would have to live with it anyway...

Well all I know is that I experience the same issue during runs at times. When it happens, I'll take the watch off, wipe the sweat off the sensor and wrist and then reseat it a little higher up and a bit more firmly. It seems to fix the issue most times.

Side note but I've also found that I've had to shave a small area on my arm which sits under the sensor for best accuracy. The arm hair moving under the watch (particularly when you get sweaty) seems to fool the HRM into thinking the arm movement is actually the heart rate. ie it drops to around 60-70 bpm if you're walking, or in my case, climbs to 180-190 bpm when running (I have a high cadence!).

Everything fine with 9! Sensors connected immediately, GPS-accuracy of a run in deep woods with wet leaves was great, no exceptional battery consumption, altimeter working well!

To those who complain about OHR: This measuring principle i inaccurate per se, for me it works only outside of activities. Use a heartrate strap!

I use Garmin watches for 10 years now and after every update there are complaints about everything. Sometimes this is reasonable but mostly not.

More than a year after release and still they are fixing bugs. Good that they fix them. Appalling that they are still there to be fixed. And before the 5 Plus series is bug free they release the 6 series and, guess what, bugs, and manufacturing variance in display and backlight quality. They are moving too quickly to bolster revenue and everything is rushed. Quality has gone out the window in the rush for cash.

p.s. Now 9.10 is released, with a claimed single bug fix and 9.71 beta is also out, with several more bug fixes announced, so this merry go round is far from over. Just look at the change history so far since release....

www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

Could not agree more. Well said. If people ask me which watch to buy, currently I say: definitely not a Garmin. Try Polar (I had one myself and was very happy at the time) or maybe Sunto.