My old Fenix 3 HR would stay connected to my phone via bluetooth at least twice as far as my new F5. Did Garmin decide to gimp the bluetooth transceiver on the F5? It literally buzzes all day long... sometimes when I'm walking only 15 feet away from it. Yes, I can turn off the notification but I really liked how my old Fenix 3 HR would buzz and warn me when I left my phone behind. Nice feature to have. Would hate to lose that feature because of a gimped BT transceiver. I'm hoping that my unit is just defective. Any others here that had a Fenix 3 HR and now have a F5 experiencing the same?
I don't live on my phone. When in the house it tends to sit on a table. Don't feel the erg to carry it around with me. Trips to the restroom, garage, garbage, fetching mail, etc. didn't need phone accompaniment...till I purchased the fenix 5.
Just turn off the connection alert then and you'll never know you're not connected. When you are in range then you'll get your notifications. Admittedly you'll be a couple of minutes behind on things, but that's not such a bad thing.
I must say, I've never turned on the connection alert, I don't see the point. I'd be interested in people's use case.
CW
Not everyone uses the watch in the same manner as you..
I do not wear mine at home and it sits on my coffee table so I couldn't care less if it's connected or not during that time. I am however on my bike for 3 to 4 hours a day and I'd like for the flippin thing to connect, stay connected and give me SMS alerts when I am out riding..
My phone goes in my saddle bag and I never hear the alert tone. If the watch is hardly ever connected then I don't get SMS or phone notifications on the fly which is and was part of my reason for buying the durn thing...
For me it's handy like Bakewell said to not be holding the phone all the time and still seeing texts and inbound phone calls which are about the only notifications I setup to get. The 235 being SO good maybe just spoiled me. Again the F5 seems reasonable as is and certainly not something I would complain about from my personal experience. No connection alert for me so no idea when it's in and out.
IMO...metal case = reduced GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth signal integrity/strength. Goodbye F5...hello 935!
Nah.. my fenix 3 and fenix 3HR were solid with BT and WiFi... I am sure Garmin will resolve the issue with a BT update but hopefully that comes soon...
I posted this under the 5x forum, but I'm sure Bluetooth is common to all the F5:
I have my F3 to compare with the new 5x. I can get a lot farther from my phone with the F3 than I can with the 5x. I can roam the whole house with the F3, but more than 1 room away the 5x loses connection.
Then sometimes it disconnects and reconnects when I'm wearing it on my wrist with my phone in my pocket.
Also, if I get near where my kids are playing the Nintendo Switch, with bluetooth controllers, the 5x loses connection repeatedly. The F3 has no problem.
Just turn off the connection alert then and you'll never know you're not connected. When you are in range then you'll get your notifications. Admittedly you'll be a couple of minutes behind on things, but that's not such a bad thing.
CW
How is this a solution? I always want to know if i'm connected or not because i don't want to loose my notifications.
Hopefully this can be resolved through a software update. Would be completely unacceptable for a 600-850$ watch to have such a hardware limitation.
