A case for or Maps.... the 5x

So unless the maps on the F5x can route a trail course in a forest preserve, or I suppose biking (but wouldnt the audio on a phone being carried still work for that also?)

Yes, the included Garmin topo maps, others that you can buy, and free OSM (OpenStreetMap) worldwide maps include dirt hiking and biking trails through woods that are routable, in the sense that the 5X can create routes from A to B that "snap" along those lines.

But I'm curious about the Maps. Can someone share when, where, and maybe how they would plan to use the maps?
DCray showed how you might navigate to a POI in an urban area. Well frankly a phone will do that better right...
what is the use case for the maps on the F5x. I'm talking end-user practical use case. Since often people will have a phone and they will route/map better.

Yes, I believe there are smartphone apps (Gaia GPS?) and standalone handheld GPS units that will also do offline, off-road trail routing. And I have to agree with you about the reviews so far: stop showing us the 5X mapping running/biking routes ALONG STREETS AND ROADS like Google Maps but tiny! This isn't anywhere close to my intended use case.

For me:
1. Multi-day alpine trekking: heavy pack, camera, and trekking poles = my hands are usually full, and checking my phone means stopping on the trail and fumbling with stuff. Sunshine + rain + sweat = my phone's touchscreen is difficult to see and operate. Smartphone = not enough battery to leave GPS tracking on fulltime while hiking = I gotta "wake up" the phone and wait for a new location fix each time I want to check my position on the map. Would be nice to glance at the map on my wrist without really slowing down my pace very much.
2. Paddling (kayak, canoe, SUP): see above RE: sunshine + splash making it difficult to see and operate a phone, and also dangerous (is it going to slip out of my hands and into the water? what if the kayak flips on the next wave?), and also there's a paddle in my hands. Sometimes I just want to see I'm steering in the right direction.
3. Urban cycling: I'm not one of these spandex/velo guys, but I do commute to work on my bike and also occasionally to new destinations. I'd rather see turn-by-turn on my wrist than mount the phone to my handlebars.

Before I heard about the F5X, I strongly considered the F3HR, both of Casio's Android Wear offerings (the W10 and the upcoming W20), and the Epix. Like you say, the F5X is already a deal at the same price as the F5 Sapphire, with the mapping/navigation coming only at the cost of a few extra millimetres and grams of size. I'm also quite heartened by the number of threads in the Garmin Epix forum about people disabling their touchscreens.

You can navigate to a Poi, to a saved location, a saved or on the device created course, do a round trip routing in some apps, a saved activity, to coordinates or use the map to enter a destination.

That is a lot of stuff....

If you will use a routable map, the navigation is created on the streets, paths etc. of the map. Depends on your settings (of course you can also do a straight line routing). You can even set avoidances (depends on the chosen app) or different calculation methods (minimize time, minimize distance, minimize ascent).

And yes, I have tried to navigate to coordinates- works fine.

how many active maps

If i look at the settings->Configure Maps for the maps on the F5x

I see that you can appear to have more than one map "green" or on.


If i went tot he opensource site, and downloaded some maps for say Yellowstone. and figure out how to install them.
if I was in that region, how does the F5x operate? I'm guessing the preinstalled maps (i'm in the US) already have the a routable maps for the whole US. would it use the perhaps more details opensource? or do they overlay on each other?

how does that work

If you have enabled two (or more) routeable maps for the same area, you might get trouble, if you calculate a course to a destination. In those cases it useful to have enabled only one routeable map.