Whole week without bad reports. Can I assume Fenix 5 is working fine for the majority of people?
I'm still on Fenix 3, but I am thinking of going for a Fenix 5.
I've found GPS to be good. Both Riding and walking. Here's the last trip out with FW 4.1 (F5 Sapphire). Best using the map rather than the 45degree sat map.... seems to aways be misaligned.
Sensors, Chest Strap (garmin), Bike Speed and Cadence plus Tempe all connect well. Normally within seconds of the 1st wheel spin. Can't complain at all.
When I see some of the horror routes it makes me think there was a duff batch out there but, touch wood, mines worked well. BT, I can be up or down stairs and it connects to my phone. I have to be at the complete opposite side of the house and on a different floor before it drops. On the same floor it can be over 15 metres away and it still connected.
Buy one where you can return within 30 days. Update it to the latest FW and give it a try.
Whole week without bad reports. Can I assume Fenix 5 is working fine for the majority of people?
I'm still on Fenix 3, but I am thinking of going for a Fenix 5.
Like you, I was using a Fenix 3 (Sapphire, if that matters) and I recently upgraded to the Fenix 5.
I don't think I needed to upgrade at all, but I really wanted to.
Interested in seeing how the two watches stacked up to each other, I conducted a simple experiment to compare GPS performance between the two.
If you are interested, I posted it on the Garmin subreddit.
In conclusion, the GPS performance of the F5 isn't bad.
Definitely not perfect, but I don't expect a wrist-based GPS watch to be perfect, and it doesn't need to be. As long as it can keep track of my athletic performance, I'm happy.
So I bought a Fenix 5 after using V800 for a couple of years and between trying out a Suunto Spartan that was returned.
I love the F5 but I was very disappointed about the GPS Accuracy.
Wrong side of streets, delayed turns etc made it stand out with bad accuracy.
However after reading Fellrnr WIKI about GPS Accuracy I remembered that I had enabled GPS+Glonass when unboxing the F5.
So I returned to default settings for my runs, thats Normal GPS (GPS only) and it made my day! The difference was immediate and the accuracy is as good, in some cases better, then the other devices! ;)
Heres are a coupe of examples with the devices and also with GPS and GPS+Glonass:
Yep, GLONASS should improve the accuracy, but I took the advice and removed GLONASS and today's run, although not perfect in terms of GPS was *much better* than with GLONASS on.
Yes, it's weird. And to compare the Suunto Spartan that one utilizes GPS+Glonass and produces good results. So I'm suspecting that it's the SW-implementation of GPS+Glonass in the F5 that's messed up more than that it would be a HW issue...
My point: I'm happy with GPS accuracy for now, but would be delighted if Glonass enhanced accuracy even more.
I tried GLONASS off but not sure if it was much different. Had quite a big jump in track passing between two large buildings. With GLONASS didn't have that. Might have more to do with day to day differences though.
Also with my FR235 I used GLONASS as turning it off didn't seem to improve accuracy. I figured a few extra satellites never hurt and battery still seems to last well.
I tried GLONASS off but not sure if it was much different. Had quite a big jump in track passing between two large buildings. With GLONASS didn't have that. Might have more to do with day to day differences though.
Also with my FR235 I used GLONASS as turning it off didn't seem to improve accuracy. I figured a few extra satellites never hurt and battery still seems to last well.
Fellrnr made a great wiki about GPS accuracy and specially the part "12 GPS and GLONASS" is worth the reading..
This is one person's opinion but it's the results of my testing as well.
Also a post from his comments:
"Turn off GLONASS. It genrally degrades performance, and my (ongoing) testing of the Fenix 5X with GLONASS suggests it's worse than most, getting rather a long way off track."
