Garmin Fênix 5x sapphire. A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

If you spend a bunch of time flexing your wrist, the optical hrm on your wrist is going to be pretty useless. I rock climb. The HRM on the Fenix 5x will not measure my HR during a hang board workout with any accuracy. That's not a statement that the watch sucks, it is a statement that optical HR detection has limits and the constant moving and flexing of my wrist makes it hard to use for that activity.

The watch is much, much more than a heart rate monitor.

Tell me why a simple polar of a third of the price does the job? The watch sucks

Then it sucks, enjoy your polar and return your Fenix. It seems like you haven't had it long enough to be past the return period. Save yourself the money and do something better with it.

It's hardly a secret that Optical HR is often not good for strenous exercise, and in particular not for any kind of exercise that involves flexing the wrist. I'm surprised and dissapointed that the indepth reviews you have read before parting with that much money didn't highlight this (they suck).

I read this in-depth review. No issues discovered:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/03/garmin-fenix5-5s-5x-review.html/amp

again disappointing buy!

You're right. Ray doesn't really point out the issues in that post. It's a shame you didn't browse through the version of the review that included comments from users: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/03/garmin-fenix5-5s-5x-review.html

Here are some of the comments


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By the way, today i was gardening, i think the OHR isn’t precise, i felt my HR was sky high when did some heavy works…the OHR diplayed only 94 hr…this wasn’t right.

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I think for sports you wil always need to wear a cheststrap..


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Finally, as for wrist OHR, in general it doesn’t work as reliably (across most devices), when you have tools/objects in your hand with a tight grip. Sorta of a reality there unfortunately with much of the sensor tech today (wrist-based).

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I’d be surprised if the OHR could keep a reliable measurement though tennis motions.

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I’ve been using the Fenix 5 for a couple of days now. Unfortunately, I cannot make the OHR sensor providing me with useful information. The HR reading is completly off the chart. I tried everything – I even shaved off the hair under the watch. It didn’t help.

Check out the picture attached. I did 10min uphill intervalls and the HR does not correlate with the effort at all.

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I’m having some difficulties with the ORH. In addition to some of the expected issue flagged in Ray’s various reviews of Garmin OHR watches, such as difficulties tracking sharp intervals and some issues with road cycling, I’m finding random spikiness and unreasonably high readings in what should be less challenging situations. This morning I recorded my normal morning walk to work as an activity and uploaded to Strava. This was a downhill walk at a pretty constant pace. I have a pretty low RHR, and I believe that my HR during this walk is typically in the 70-90 range. The HR graph shows several sharp spikes, into the 120’s with gradual declines. There is no way my HR ever got that high and the shape of the graph is entirely implausible.

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I do have to say that oHR just doesn’t work for me (haven’t had a single run without issues), while for many other people apparently it’s great.

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I won’t be using wrist-based OHR because it is too unreliable for me,

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I also had my first workout with the new device today, a 4×4 interval session on a treadmill. The heart rate was way off in the intervals. During the first two intervals it was off by 20-25 beats, and in the last two it was off with 10-15 beats. I tried to change the position of the watch during the workout, but the result was just as bad. During the resting periods it took the watch about 20-30 seconds before syncing with my HR again. I know intervals are tricky for OHR, but at some point during 4 minutes of hard intensity, it should be able to get it right!

I like to keep an eye on my hr without wearing the nasty strap around my chest. Hence the Garmin seems a good choice.

For strength training I use the Scosche Rhythm+ HR monitor, I wear it around my upper arm. I've used it for a few years and it works well.

http://www.scosche.com/rhythm-plus-heart-rate-monitor-armband

Same but I use the new Polar OH1.

This thread amuses me because it has been created on a site were all the readers would already have a 5x and if the OP had researched the watch or indeed wrist based HRM he or she would already know it's failings.

As other have said, return it and go back to your polar and be happy.

It’s a shame I missed all the comments and remarks about the OHR. I expected a watch at that price made by Garmin should be better. It remains that I am not the only one having issues with one of the most relevant features of the watch

OHR measurments could be better for sure, but I still think that they are pretty good most of the time.
For 24h measurements the OHR sensor is sufficient.
If I want more accurate results I use the chest strap or my Scosche Rhythm+.
Normally I prefere to use my chest strap anyway to collect some running dynamics data. (Yes a like collecting data...)

The wast feature set and the Connect IQ SDK provided by Garmin are for my part far more important than the OHR on the watch.

And do I get this one right. You want to switch to a A360 that does not even have GPS?
OK. I think you definitely chose the wrong watch in the first place. Paying a lot for GPS and maps that you don't care about????