Fēnix 5X – 3.41 Beta Release

I got one for the first time yesterday.
It was raining, so hopefully it went off because of that.

Improvement, not a bug, Please Garmin consider....

From
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?376498-Performance-metrics-with-Stryd-footpod-bugs
and already many other thread related to FP and Garmin metrics

Anyone else noticed tha
Anyone else noticed that vo2max calculation on fenix 5x is handled differently / or buggy when using stryd as source for distance and pace?
Anyone else noticed something similar?

My setup:
F5x @ 3.30 production software
1sec recording, GLONASS OFF,
BT connectivity OFF (can't pair with my android device since day 1)

Stryd2.0 with datafield
FP autocalibration OFF
Distance: ALWAYS; Pace: ALWAYS (fp as source for both)

Yes, same here...
That was the case too with F3HR and Garmin FP (in my experience) and of course the same with Stryd (why should it be different with other FP?) when using Distance: ALWAYS; Pace: ALWAYS.
As most people will find out there Vo2Max will lower down when using these settings, for me 2 to 3 points from 42 to 39.
It very clear and recent to me because 2 days ago I had a glitch with Stryd this time, not a Garmin one:) and did not use Strd for a day, at the first activity it went from 39 to 42!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9pXdh1Us0yoX1d6SjlSUWpyME0
Also, notice current vo2Max widget does not get updated from me since 4/27 (another thread).

Really like to know more about the way the Fenix actually works with these metrics and foot pod in general:
At the end, some people will say vo2Max is a gimmick some other not, me I don't know and to tell you the true I don't really care.
What I care about is consistency and things that make logical sense and in this matter the ways Fenix works with these metrics clearly don't IMO, does it ? if so please explain me.

Furthermore I like to understand why if I do an activity without GPS I do not have any performance condition returned neither vo2max ...yes I know the core of the Fenix is GPS so why bother looking at other sources of data especially when Fenix allows FP distance and speed allways ON as well as disable GPS for and activity and this when Stryd for many starts now to gain the reputation to be more accurate than GPS ?

Here is another example I do twice a day 8KM power walks this is my only activity and sometimes quite often I do a route that goes in the forest. Before using FP with F3/F3HR I notice that when I walk all along consitently at an *average* pace of 7.3KMPH as soon as enter the forestthe pace drops from 7.3 to 7.0 yet I *believe* my pace did not change drastically.... Of course as most got to understant GPS after all is not that precise in challenging conditions.... I can accept that and I take that...
But now as we move on we have better and better gears, Stryd IMO is perfect example. So now when use F5x with stryd distance and speed always on and on the watch I display 2 fields HR and performance condition I can see few minutes after entering the forest performace condition quickly decreasing while my HR does not change much or is roughly the same ( I'm in holland it is flat here) and looking at stryd my current speed is the same.
Why is these metrics using GPS wich is troublesome in challenging conditions when there is a better device enabled on the watch, FP especially Stryd?

Comming from F3, F3HR and now F5X you can see I love Garmin... I ditched sunnto not because I was not happy about the Ambit 3 watch but I was unhappy about them not providing a Android APP promising it soon when the watch went out but not delivering at all and after a year something really bad was produced this is when I joigned Garmin. There are great, great things from Garmin ... the Ski APP is amazing and accurate comparing with Ski data om some resorts...and many more...

Please Garmin consider to improve these area, consider as we move on there can be devices more accurate GPS for speed and distance, since you allows us to use them, make sure your soft use it properly too so that all metrics does make some kind of sense...else you will get comments that these metrics are gimicks...

Here some example to support I believe my say. You must use mobile app to see performance condition graph
Runing activity ( power walk ) Without GPS => no performance conditon. IF using for weeks no vo2Max
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1739048423

Same Runing activity ( power walk ) WITH GPS => gives performance condition
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1738192671

Same Runing activity ( power walk ) part route in forest see @ 39Min perfomance sharply decrease
Notice exceptional distance consistancy ( Stryd )
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1712612038
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1711762840

Thanks to consider

Just want to report that backlight option "no timeout" doesn't work, backlight turn off after a while...

From
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?376498-Performance-metrics-with-Stryd-footpod-bugs
and already many other thread related to FP and Garmin metrics


Yes, same here...
That was the case too with F3HR and Garmin FP (in my experience) and of course the same with Stryd (why should it be different with other FP?) when using Distance: ALWAYS; Pace: ALWAYS.
As most people will find out there Vo2Max will lower down when using these settings, for me 2 to 3 points from 42 to 39.
It very clear and recent to me because 2 days ago I had a glitch with Stryd this time, not a Garmin one:) and did not use Strd for a day, at the first activity it went from 39 to 42!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9pXdh1Us0yoX1d6SjlSUWpyME0
Also, notice current vo2Max widget does not get updated from me since 4/27 (another thread).

Really like to know more about the way the Fenix actually works with these metrics and foot pod in general:
At the end, some people will say vo2Max is a gimmick some other not, me I don't know and to tell you the true I don't really care.
What I care about is consistency and things that make logical sense and in this matter the ways Fenix works with these metrics clearly don't IMO, does it ? if so please explain me.

Furthermore I like to understand why if I do an activity without GPS I do not have any performance condition returned neither vo2max ...yes I know the core of the Fenix is GPS so why bother looking at other sources of data especially when Fenix allows FP distance and speed allways ON as well as disable GPS for and activity and this when Stryd for many starts now to gain the reputation to be more accurate than GPS ?

Here is another example I do twice a day 8KM power walks this is my only activity and sometimes quite often I do a route that goes in the forest. Before using FP with F3/F3HR I notice that when I walk all along consitently at an *average* pace of 7.3KMPH as soon as enter the forestthe pace drops from 7.3 to 7.0 yet I *believe* my pace did not change drastically.... Of course as most got to understant GPS after all is not that precise in challenging conditions.... I can accept that and I take that...
But now as we move on we have better and better gears, Stryd IMO is perfect example. So now when use F5x with stryd distance and speed always on and on the watch I display 2 fields HR and performance condition I can see few minutes after entering the forest performace condition quickly decreasing while my HR does not change much or is roughly the same ( I'm in holland it is flat here) and looking at stryd my current speed is the same.
Why is these metrics using GPS wich is troublesome in challenging conditions when there is a better device enabled on the watch, FP especially Stryd?

Comming from F3, F3HR and now F5X you can see I love Garmin... I ditched sunnto not because I was not happy about the Ambit 3 watch but I was unhappy about them not providing a Android APP promising it soon when the watch went out but not delivering at all and after a year something really bad was produced this is when I joigned Garmin. There are great, great things from Garmin ... the Ski APP is amazing and accurate comparing with Ski data om some resorts...and many more...

Please Garmin consider to improve these area, consider as we move on there can be devices more accurate GPS for speed and distance, since you allows us to use them, make sure your soft use it properly too so that all metrics does make some kind of sense...else you will get comments that these metrics are gimicks...

Here some example to support I believe my say. You must use mobile app to see performance condition graph
Runing activity ( power walk ) Without GPS => no performance conditon. IF using for weeks no vo2Max
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1739048423

Same Runing activity ( power walk ) WITH GPS => gives performance condition
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1738192671

Same Runing activity ( power walk ) part route in forest see @ 39Min perfomance sharply decrease
Notice exceptional distance consistancy ( Stryd )
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1712612038
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1711762840

Thanks to consider

Good suggestions. Send them an email though- I would not expect the beta team to go through the forums on a daily basis.
They would have done something about the less than stellar GPS accuracy already (if that's possible, that is);

Ram

Thanks for this new beta. What about experimenting a little, the 5X does have more processing power to play with after all!!
What about optimising the navigation experience so that the maps redraw quicker? What about panning and zooming working more smoothly?

Are you planning on fixing the GPS that many are finding not satisfactory? My own experience shows that the FR935 is above and beyond what F5/5X can produce GPS-wise.
How about entering an address and navigating to it? How about upgrading the garmin route planner and making a mobile version of it?

Are you looking into ways to improve HR accuracy?
I bought this watch hoping that at least some of the future software development will focus on further developing its unique selling points.

Thanks in advance,
Nick

the 5X does have more processing power to play with after all!!

Haha, with 32MB of RAM in 2017 there is no processing power in this shiny shell.

Bugs still not fixed

Bug #1
As mentioned above and in a separate thread all performance metrics are getting calculated in a different way (according to what some of us saw: they are lower / showing worst performance) when footpod (stryd in my case) is used as source for both speed and distance (with GPS ON of course).

Bug #2
Map freeze reported by multiple users on earlier software builds is still present. In my case, map freezes at around 3-5minutes into activity, stays freezes (blank screen without any signs of track recording) for about 10minutes and refreshes itself afterwards.

Bug #3
Vertical distance to next waypoint (something beta team confirmed should work) is still broken -> original thread

Things that I consider missing and take every occasion to mention that once again:

MISSING FEATURE: Working coursepoints - there is no (easy) way to add working coursepoints / waypoints for a route (prepared in basecamp), so that the watch can show distance to next waypoint while navigating (beta teams claims, that there are shaping points in basecamp that should work with courses but I never managed to prove that)

MISSING FEATURE: auto valleys / summits when navigating: my 10 year old gpsmap62s has this and it's the only reason I still keep the device. When uploading a GPX with route it automatically calculates summits and valleys out of gpv elevation and shows distance / evelation to next.

MISSING FEAUTRE: zoomable elevation plot while navigating a route. While on a 100k (or even 50k) ultra run, elevation plot is not readeable. Please add an option to zoom in / zoom out for a user defined scale (say 5k, 10k, 20k...) (beta team wrote, that thats something on their list)

Just want to report that backlight option "no timeout" doesn't work, backlight turn off after a while...

I contacted the beta dev team because of the described backlight issue and this is what they replied to me:

Hello,
This is working as expected.
The watch face screen goes into low power mode to save battery life after about 5 seconds when “No Timeout” selected. This is by design.

The Fenix 5 team

I contacted the beta dev team because of the described backlight issue and this is what they replied to me:

Hello,
This is working as expected.
The watch face screen goes into low power mode to save battery life after about 5 seconds when “No Timeout” selected. This is by design.

The Fenix 5 team

Lol! No comments!

I contacted the beta dev team because of the described backlight issue and this is what they replied to me:

Hello,
This is working as expected.
The watch face screen goes into low power mode to save battery life after about 5 seconds when “No Timeout” selected. This is by design.

The Fenix 5 team

Correct me if I'm wrong but seems to me like the entire point of "no timeout" is because you care about the backlight being on MORE than saving battery. That would be like setting the GPS to 1 second recording then it automatically going into ultra trac mode to save battery