Activities auto detect?

It will auto detect the most common activities as "move iq events". Say walking/running. You'll see 'em in the daily HR history chart. However, if you want "full" tracking, that is GPS and more stats such as pace, time, distance you'll have to select and start so and so activity from the comprehensive list of sports it offer. You will then get a configurable heads-up display with stats on what you are doing (speed and pace for instance).

Battery life is very good. My experience after 6 months: If you work out a few times/hours per week with activities that use GPS you'll probably get 6-10 days out of it. Nonstop continuous it'll do 11-12 hours of GPS tracking with 1 second polling. Almost twice that in "ultratac mode" where it polls GPS more rarely (at the cost of some accuracy/detail).

Excellent, thank you for the feedback. Guess the only question remaining now is whether to buy or wait until the next Fenix comes out...

Then you probably have to wait for about a year. Fenixes seem to be on a two year release cycle.

Seems the changes from Fenix 3 to 5 were not that drastic, so apart from design changes and minor improvements such as battery life the next Fenix iteration might not be that different from the 5X.

Was test-wearing a 5X today. Surprisingly comfortable for the size and weight!

PanMores
Changes are pretty gradual between generations. My guess is that the next version will have an SPO2 sensor for measuring blood oxygen levels, like the Fitbit Ionic have (but do not use yet) and a new generation of the Elevate optical HR sensor (maybe red LEDs which is supposedly better than green according to some) and support for NFC and contactless payments (Garmin Pay). Overall design and functionality will remain largely the same.

These watches are ridiculously large, but even with a steel band and that added weight, I find it very comfortable to wear. You very quickly get used to it. Size is in some cases an advantage too, easier to grab/find buttons...

In terms of battery, I'll get around 12 days in just 'watch' mode. This weekend I had it charged on Friday afternoon and put in around 6 hours on GPS. Today, Monday Morning, it sits at 47%. So would roughly get 12 hours of GPS and 6 days of watch mode if had kept going.

I find an average 7/8 percent watch mode only per day and 5-6 percent GPS mode per hour.

Personally i'd also look at the 935 watch. Same thing without the maps and the 'premium' case materials. If neither of those appeal can save some $$ there.

(The move IQ is pretty neat too - rode to a gas station between 'real' rides, and noticed it recorded a ride move event for it)

Just put in another hour on GPS and have 16 percent left. So just over 6 days of watch mode and 7 hours of GPS. Reckon it would last another two days without a charge. So 8 days of watch with 7 hours of GPS. If I didn't use GPS would have been 12 days of watch or another 12/13 hours of GPS. so 20 hours GPS total. Not bad really.

I actually disagree with some of the comments. I used to have Runkeeper on my phone....yes very basic but pretty good at one thing: autodetect was a real autodetect...if I forgot to press start, the motion was detected and a "pocket track" would save the activity. Then I could in the activity and select "run" or "walk". So for the sake of my summary, I never lost mileage because I did not press start. Shame on me that I forgot "start" at least 5 times (I actually thought I did press it) but I found very stupid that the activity is recorded as step and I have no way to rectify the type of activities. The watch studies training path or need for rest, etc for based on past activities and it is a very big limitation that the watch cannpt figure out that you are doing an activity. I do not understand the autodetect feature than. If I put the autodetect on or not, the watch still tracks step...so what is the value add of the feature?

2) the summary where better to. I personally do not like the 4 weeks over 4 weeks