Happy with 5?

I just recently got my Fenix 5 (non Safire) and am very happy with it overall. I did have a barometer/altimeter glitch issue but have discovered that in my case it seems related to connectIQ watch faces somehow. I originally had a Fenix 3 that I purchased when they first came out. I had it replaced 2 times (first was from static electricity killing the GPS according to Garmin) and the second was defective Bluetooth. The 3rd one worked great (original was bought in March 2015, second was sent in May 2015 and the 3rd one was sent in October 2015). I loved the Fenix 3 but since it had WiFi I could not wear it at work. I recently decided to sell the Fenix 3 and get a non-WiFi Fenix 5. The one I received from Road Runner Sports was one that must have been sitting on the shelf because it was manufactured in April of 2017. It works fine though.

Love the screen on it (more colors and much clearer to me). Battery life is amazing even compared to the Fenix 3 (used about 6-8% a day). This watch uses maybe 5% a day max. For running the GPS tracks as well as the Fenix 3 (not saying much given the areas I run have no tall buildings or many trees). I have also been using it for indoor bike workouts and treadmill workouts. The optical heart rate works well for me and is convenient. I have a HRM-Run strap as well that I sometimes use with my Fenix 5. I can also broadcast heart rate from the Fenix 5 to a CABLE device that will feed it to my iPhone for ZWIFT workouts (bike or run).

I am enjoying the variety of bands from China that are available for this watch at a very low cost. They are of decent quality and I have been able to collect virtually every color available (cost is about $5 to $7 a band for the quick-release ones that fit my watch). I also have a couple of the rubber covers that protect the bezel. They make the watch look like a Garmin 935 and also cover the buttons. I have a glass screen protector as well.

I am running the 7.56 beta firmware with no real issues. I believe Garmin will eventually get the altimeter issue sorted out (I truly think there is a software problem lurking - maybe the hardware glitches sometimes causing the software to loose track - they should be able to catch that and correct it in their code.

What are you seeing in your 'trial' that would make you think otherwise?

I did purchase a Vivoactive 3 that I only kept a week (it was very bad with detecting ANT+ devices and had Bluetooth dropouts). The Fenix 5 I have has very good ANT+ connections and never has Bluetooth dropouts with the phone (it connect quickly and stays connected as long as the phone is within a reasonable distance). The Vivoactive 3 would need to be rebooted as well as the phone to get them to reconnect.

I believe the Garmin 935 and the Fenix 5 series will continue to get great support from Garmin (just like the Fenix 3 did) and ultimately end up being very reliable workhorses.

Overall I am satisfied with my Fenix 5, though I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone else anymore.

GPS tracks about as well as can be expected, and the people who are complaining are often expecting more than a watch sized device can deliver. Having said that, it's not best in class, and I can understand why people would expect it to be when you factor in the considerable price tag of the F5.
Bluetooth range is okay. Not great, but not terrible either (at least in my experience).
Optical HR works about as well as can be expected - it's terrible in the normal cases where tracking via wrist OHR is bad (anything that flexes your wrist a lot like weight lifting, anything involving rapid HR changes like interval training etc) as is okay for running and all-day heart rate. Again some of this comes down to expectations but also once again it isn't "best in class" and most people would expect it to be top given the price.
I use a chest strap for most activities and that works well 95% of the time. The other 5% I'll cover off below.

The one area where the F5 has been a massive letdown is in connectivity to other devices - specifically Ant devices but it does also affect bluetooth connections. The hardware design is flawed and it's not something they'll ever be able to fix via software. I regularly lose the connection to my Garmin HRM strap when doing any exercise that sees my hand fully extended away from my body (e.g. Boxing, or most Crossfit style workouts). I also own Runscribe Plus footpods, and before the creator came up with an ingenious solution none of us F5 owners were able to keep stable connections to the pods. Nobody else had issues - Forerunner 935 owners and Fenix 5X owners had no issues, but every single F5 and F5S owner had problems staying connected.

If I had my chance to do my purchase again I would probably have bought the 5X instead, and dealt with the extra size (it's the same size as my old F3 in any case), but overall I'm happy enough. But if people ask me I would tell them not to buy it if they were planning to connect external devices, especially non Garmin ones.

In terms of checking out the forums and seeing a sea of complaints - pretty much every manufacturer that has community forums will look the same. I remember both the Fitbit Surge and Tomtom Spark forums were just as full of complaints, so you always need to take that with a grain of salt.

See this thread for happiness with f5 https://forums.garmin.com/forum/on-t...free-f5-owners

Thanks for the link.

The one area where the F5 has been a massive letdown is in connectivity to other devices - specifically Ant devices but it does also affect bluetooth connections. The hardware design is flawed and it's not something they'll ever be able to fix via software. I regularly lose the connection to my Garmin HRM strap when doing any exercise that sees my hand fully extended away from my body (e.g. Boxing, or most Crossfit style workouts). I also own Runscribe Plus footpods, and before the creator came up with an ingenious solution none of us F5 owners were able to keep stable connections to the pods. Nobody else had issues - Forerunner 935 owners and Fenix 5X owners had no issues, but every single F5 and F5S owner had problems staying connected.

I have the 5S and absolutely NO problems with connections with any of my ANT+ devices. I have an old HRM, a HRM-Swim, HRM-Tri, and a Viii which connect perfectly every time. I have 2 Vector power meters that connect every time. I have 2 hub speed sensors that connect every time. I connect to my Kickr trainer with no problems.

People want to complain when they're angry. But they don't need to come here and write how they like their unit and how it works good, because that's how it should work normally.

I’m not happy with Fenix line, had them from the f3 and it was disappointing in some ways, altimeter/barometer bug never has been fixed, GPS is awful as I have Suunto Ambit3 and can compare, so Suunto way ahead of Fenix, tested 935 and it performed in gps way better than Fenix, mainly I think Fenix design is main flaw in GPS as that bezel somehow interferes with gps signal. So I went to Suunto again and have way better accuracy data, less features, less battery life, but I don’t mind until I get valid data, velancel hrm works incredibly good compared to Garmin’s elevation. altimeter/barometer on Suunto is spot on even in frequently changing weather conditions so I really like how it is performing in mounteneering environment. This is my 2cents ;)

Very happy with my f5. Classy enough to wear for work in the business world on a daily basis and does everything I need fitness wise (run, trail run, swim, strength, stairstepper, rowb machine and elliptical. I haven't had issues with my hrm for connectivity during workouts and they have done a good job of pumping out software to add features and do some fixes. It's not for everyone and is expensive but it's exactly what I was looking for and do not regret the purchase at all. (Had it since April of 2017).

I returned it this week.
I like the looks and what is provided but i really did not like the ant+ dropouts i had and ofcourse the stupid altiimeter issues.
I now have a Forerunner 935 which has it on a different place (bottom and not the side)
For now i have a rock solid altimeter (this is the second day so nothing is sure)
The biggest problem for me where the ant+ dropouts.

It is a great watch and i would have kept is it if i had no dropouts.
If you do not use external sensors then this will not be an issue at all.

Are you seeing any external sensor issues with the 935? And how does it compare in GPS both pace and overall distance recorded?
Keen to know as I am on the verge of moving over to it from my F5.

BTW I have had my F5 for going on 6 months and I must admit it's only been the pace/GPS that's annoyed me (thought I had sorted this with 1 sec recording, but no. However, recently, the altimeter has been pretty shabby and I've also just bought a stages PM - which I lose connection via ant+ all the time. That said, my ant+ dongle also loses ant+ with stages only so it could be a weak stages signal. Bluetooth has been fine with both watch and laptop though.

I've had no other issues with external sensors (own HRM, HRM-Tri, Spd/Cad, footpod and Tacx trainer.

Only thing making me think twice about changing to the 935 is the looks, durability and lack of sapphire screen.