fenix 5

Interested to see it IRL. I've been thinking that my ideal watch would be a 735 that has the ABC sensor package and looks less like a fitness device. Although a bit bigger, thicker, and heavier than the 735 this might fill the bill nicely.

I am not sure what other than a few subtle changes (flatter sensor, slightly better battery life and slightly revised styling) that the 5 offers over the 3hr?

I can see that the 5x offers great nav but for that i would use an 810 on my bike - plus its much heavier than the already heavy 3hr. The 5 is slightly smaller but not much lighter and apart from more colours on the screen and slightly improved resolution I don't know how much of an "upgrade" it would be over the 3hr.

Plus - are they going to release a "titanium" version of either, like they did with the 3hr? I would hate to upgrade and then find out months later that they release the titanium. I would prefer a watch that looks like the Chronos!

I am really keen to see these in a V's test against the 3hr before i hit the upgrade switch!

Not every update of a piece of equipment like this needs to be a huge jump just to keep current users upgrading.

For someone who bought an F3HR in the last year there probably isn't enough of difference to really warrant buying this watch, but current F3HR owners aren't the only market.

There're plenty of current non-Fenix Garmin users who would like to move up to the Fenix line but felt they were too big and bringing the on wrist footprint down will move some units.

Then there always be people new to the Garmin platform, either as completely new to fitness devices or moving from Suunto, Fitbit, etc., who will go straight to this level.

And then there's those with the interest and disposable income who always buy the latest and greatest gadget no matter how little it improves on what they have.

As a tall guy with small wrists I really like my F3 but sometimes it does beat the dickens out of my wrist bone because the distance from strap pin to strap pin is the same as the width of my wrist so the fit is never quite right. I'm not going to order one of these anytime soon, but I am starting my slush fund for one now.

Not every update of a piece of equipment like this needs to be a huge jump just to keep current users upgrading.

This is less of a reason for them to do an incremental update and more strategic one. And this isn't limited to Garmin as a company.

• If they put out a watch that is head and shoulders better than the prior, it can paint the prior in a bad light, making owners of said watch feel dumb for owning such a flawed watch. This also puts mistrust in the company. Why were there SO many new things this year? Didn't they figure out at SOME of these things before putting out the prior? It could paint the company as purposefully misleading consumers that early adopt their products as untrustworthy.
  
• If they put out watch that has far too little in terms of upgrades or updates, what if any owner of the current watch model will buy the new one? The user base is underwhelmed, sticking to the basically same watch as the new one. This happened with Fitbit and the Blaze a year ago, which left people scratching their heads at the decision (and Fitbit hasn't really recovered from it). The same thing can be said about Apple products from year to year. For new customers, well sure they may find or need all the new features....or they could buy the now steeply discounted prior model. If they do their research, they may come across people that own the prior model and exclaim how little has changed in the current new one.
  

The Fenix 5 line, as it stands right now (just on paper) for me, teaters on a very fine line. I am just going to wait till there are plenty of reviews, reports, discussions about every little thing about each model before I go out and spend $700 dollars on this years line. Don't forget there are plenty of other companies working on their own watches that might be a competitor to the Fenix line, or they may be duds. For now, it's fun to talk about things, but try to keep at that phase and not in the "just shut-up and take my money!" phase.

Not every update of a piece of equipment like this needs to be a huge jump just to keep current users upgrading.

For someone who bought an F3HR in the last year there probably isn't enough of difference to really warrant buying this watch, but current F3HR owners aren't the only market.

There're plenty of current non-Fenix Garmin users who would like to move up to the Fenix line but felt they were too big and bringing the on wrist footprint down will move some units.

Then there always be people new to the Garmin platform, either as completely new to fitness devices or moving from Suunto, Fitbit, etc., who will go straight to this level.

And then there's those with the interest and disposable income who always buy the latest and greatest gadget no matter how little it improves on what they have.

As a tall guy with small wrists I really like my F3 but sometimes it does beat the dickens out of my wrist bone because the distance from strap pin to strap pin is the same as the width of my wrist so the fit is never quite right. I'm not going to order one of these anytime soon, but I am starting my slush fund for one now.

Exactly. With a product line updating every year to keep pace with technological advances, you can't expect the entire customer base from the previous year to upgrade. Sure there will be some but the majority need to come from older devices or non-Garmin users. This is exactly what Apple sees with iphone sales--people skipping one generation before upgrading or new adopters vs those who bought the previous model. F3 --> F6...F5 --> F7, etc. So it's not really so relevant for F3HR folks to keep pointing out it isn't a worthwhile upgrade for them as they aren't necessarily the main target for the F5.

I doubt Garmin is holding back on tech just to see it play out this way. I think they are pushing the limits of what they can effectively deliver to squeeze so much into such a small device while providing this long battery life (and are surely they are concerned the Apple Watch could overtake them in functionality in another year or two if they don't keep the pace up...)

I agree with all of that. Would like to add that there are a lot of folks that buy their phones on a 2-year contract, which would account for some of the iPhone version skipping.

In my case, I just received a F3 for Christmas and can send it back for a while. I have the non-HR version, which I like because I don't care for the bump. The 5 seems to fix that, and is just a tings smaller than the 3. I am considering sending the 3 back and waiting for the 5 to come out. The 5 has a better display, which is nice, but it also has more memory, capability for pair with BLE sensors and the gyroscope. It seems more "future proof." So I have to decide if its worth the extra $150.00... Tough choice.

No basic Fenix 5 with maps withut oHRM and shapphire glass? pffff no-go.

With the fenix 3 being such a huge success it would have been very risky for Garmin to deviate too far from it. IMO what they have done is actually very clever. They have kept the core ethos of the fenix 3 and simply widened its appeal. I don't know of any woman that would be happy to wear a fenix 3 (apologies in advance to any owners I've just offended!) but the 5S, sure why not? So that is a huge market already. Then they have generally spruced up the UI which, lets face it, is functional on the 3 but a bit old fashioned. Again another plus. Finally what about the tech people desperate to throw their money at the latest thing who need an upgrade path from the 3? They have that covered with the 5X, on watch maps being a huge plus point... but at a cost.