I see forums full of issues people are having with Fënix 5. I am still in trial mode of my 5. How many people are happy with theirs and would buy it again?
Food for thought regarding message boards: Way more people will post when they have a complaint or problem than those who come on to post satisfaction with the device.
Altimeter issue is not something made up. That's my first post here after reading bunch of posts on it.
This watch is by far most expensive of all smartwatches (I paid over $800) and called "premium". I haven't paid that much for having to browse forum and find out if my watches erratic behavior is misconfiguration or software/hardware issue.
GPS quality is dreadful if you are a serious runner. I have to use foot pood to pace myself correctly. As pointed out there is a design issue in this watch Garmin doesn’t want to acknowledge or fix.
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.
I did not run with it yet as i have a little injury. Hopefully i will run next sunday.
I have been very happy with my Fenix 5 overall. The battery life is great, the watch itself looks good, the quick-fit bands are also a nice feature. I am not a serious runner, but for road and mountain biking the GPS has been very accurate for me. Obviously there are many other features, and everything has worked well for me since I got it last March when it was released. Knowing what I know now I would buy it again.
I love my Fenix 5 - the battery life is unreal (its on day 14 and still has 20% power). The GPS complaints are interesting...I haven't had any issues but I'll go for a run tomorrow and double check things. As for the cadence...please...everyone should know that if you're a runner - you need to use the foot pod to get an accurate reading. Why would you use a wrist based monitoring device for a your foot strike?
Overall - I like this watch...it hasn't come off my wrist since it came out.
I am overall very happy with my f5. Pluses: battery life, design, user interface/user friendliness, features, analytical capabilities via GC, bluetooth connecticity. I find the watch very versatile, and it does all I expect. Sensor connection (ANT+) - this is an issue for many - for me works fine (I only use one footpod though). The main issue I have encountered me has been and continues to be the GPS which is simply unreliable, sometimes OK, more often than not though, it does not provide the accuracy one would expect. The use of a footpod has helped tremendously with that because it has massively increased distance and pace tracking accuracy and consistency. The GPS tracks are, in my location, mostly useful only to give a rough indication of where I was, but not useable for any real world tracking. I yet have to use the F5 for a serious forest hike (coming up this summer) so will see how that goes, but in a city environment, the GPS is the definitely weakest link.
"serious" runner and very happy with my Fenix 5. GPS quality here in the Netherlands is good, and in combination with HRM-TRI (i bought the Performer bundle) i like it a lot. Sold my Edge 520 for cycling, because the Fenix 5 is more than sufficient for bike rides as well
Sat here with a F5 on my right wrist and FR935 on my left to test against as I'm deciding on which one to keep. Quick jog and GPS was practically the same. Pace was a little better on the 935 but not a huge difference (and footpod pace will fix that). Will take them on a longer run later and see how we go.
Ant+ with my stages PM (known to be a weak signal - will only work if my F5 is within a meter of the crank arm) and the 935 did perform better (further away) and also confirmed BT range is greater too. Stages via BT is solid with both watches.
They were my only real gripes with the F5.
Looks wise, I'm not convinced the 935 will be durable enough for me, but the difference in weight is quite noticeable and nice.
Only other thing that springs to mind is that scrolling through the 935 menu seems a little laggy compared to the F5.
