Opportunity to move to 5x, advice please

Former Member over 6 years ago

After a long, and frankly nuts path through a few different Garmin wearables, I have the Fenix 5 base model right now, and really like it apart from this particular device has a very old serial number I think is related to the GPS accuracy being half as good as my old Vivo Active 3. Otherwise battery life and everything else is great. Elevation works well on the beta software, which didn't get have a fix on the VA3 which drove me nuts.

So because I am a horrible customer, I went to the store to see what my options were to replace my ancient shelf model with a recent production model, and found out they had one remaining Fenix 5X for less than I paid for the plain 5. I am in a quandry, so here are some questions:

Is elevation working now in the beta?
Can Wi-Fi be turned off and leave BT on? (Battery life, security)
Is the larger size and weight wearable 24/7? Is it really noticeable ver the 5? I'm worried about sleep comfort and wrist comfort while mountain biking.
Battery life reduction, what are you realistically getting? I am on day 10 with the F5 with a few days to go. 4-5% per day on average.

While the maps are really cool, the big motivation is the sapphire. I am hard on my toys and this is attractive. I just don't want to pay the penalties of battery life and size. I do have big wrists, so maybe not a problem.

???

0 jaredbarez over 6 years ago

Why relying on firmware (beta/stable whatever) for purchase decision ? Current firmware can be the best to date only to upgrade tomorrow and get a more unstable/buggier one. So please, don't take that into making a decision.

From my experience (essentially I had 5X from "the beginning"):

1. I wear it 24/7 for over a year now and have no problems sleeping with it on, but YMMV.
2. I charge it 2-3 times monthly due to my usage habit.
3. my primary driver for purchase was topomapping (for routable hiking) and structured workouts.
4. I don't use wifi at all. I just don't want to expose my cleartext wifi password to anyone. Considering features of CIQ 3.x it is not unrealistic that we soon see some malware on the watch itself which would use my wifi in order to communicate with its C2 infrastructure.
5. it is large in size (I bought it over a "5" model just for the sake of topomapping). No matter how strong you tie it to your wrist (e.g. before running) it will always bounce due to its size/weight. But, as I wrote: my driver was topomaps and hiking. But, if you look at the size of CASIO Protrek WSD-F20 then you know there is always someone "worse than you" :-)

If I would have to decide what to do I would sell it for a fair price and buy 5+ (5 plus) which is essentially model 5 but "on steroids" (i.e. you get topomapping, offline music, Garmin Pay, Gallileo, etc.). Of course firmware bugs will almost certainly hit you at some point but you get state-of-the-art sportwatch with "all the goodies" you can imagine.

Just my 2C.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Thanks Jared,

You didn't mention if you can actually turn off Wi-Fi or you just don't use it? I also don't like my passwords being broadcast "in the clear", but I also visit customer sites that are a bit restrictive about data, so being able to turn it off helps ease concerns. I have until around lunch today to make up my mind... they will only hold it for so long for me. Been reading a lot of reviews on the subject!

Of course I just bought a nice leather band for the F5, but it wasn't expensive.

I also primarily do hiking, and normally "wing it" in the off-trail back woods as I have developed a pretty good sense of direction and paying attention to landmarks (survival instinct?) over the years. Bush whacking in the ADK (Adirondacks) is something I have not found the time to do in several years though (kids!), and would love to get back into it. A phone isn't up to snuff with that sort of thing due to poor battery life, even with off-line maps. The ADK is not known for solar energy to keep a phone topped off. So in the off chance I get to do that again, perhaps that is a good motivation to get a mapping device.

Speaking of which, is there an "airplane" mode on the Garmin watches? Just curious as BT and Wi-Fi are broadcasting radios and that is frowned on in planes, though I think they have given up on the 2.4G band devices at this point.

0 jaredbarez over 6 years ago

Settings --> Wi-Fi --> Add Network (here you add nothing: it essentially prohibits connecting to Wi-Fi if you don't enter Wi-Fi credentials). Also Settings --> Wi-Fi --> Auto_Upload (set to switch off).

There is no explicit "airplane mode" but "Do Not Disturb" mode lowers any radio usage to minimum. You can have "Do Not Disturb" mode activated automatically on time range you provide or you can activate it manually whenever you want. Also, "Do Not Disturb" can be selected on HotKey (please do read docs, there is Search option there). There is no explicit BT off or WiFi off but abovementioned actions/options provide that effectively.

0 sis651 over 6 years ago

WiFi in these watches doesn't work unless you keep Auto Upload ON or manually sync via WiFi. WiFi is only used for synchronisation. WiFi is a big battery drainer, so it's always OFF. You should disable Auto Upload and then it won't work itself, you can just use manual WiFi sync when you're at home to sync the data faster. After the synchronisation it's OFF again.

0 Jbtamug99 over 6 years ago

Or the 5x you get might be like mine and have issues with WIFI even working on yours. :/

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Well, I sucked it up, and got $47 back. Incredible price for The 5X! less than $400 display model behind a glass case.

So I am VERY happy to report that the GPS is FAR AND AWAY better than the plain Fenix 5 was. This thing is ridiculous for a wearable. It accurately recorded the side of the road we walked down, and even a little detour into the bushes. If not dead-on the side of the road, there is a clear difference and the paths do not cross. For this it was worth it without even talking the price savings, as this is a good indicator it will work well in the deep woods.

I am running the beta 10.53 (I have no fear) and it seems to be recording elevation correctly, but an evening walk with the wife is hardly a stress test. Perhaps tomorrow I will get a solid 3mile/50min/600ft hike in for a good test. The VA3 fails on that particular hike for elevation, and the pre-beta Fenix 5 software also failed.

What is cool is we have some very changeable weather going on, and my storm alert went off. First time for that!

Other first thoughts:
1. It is heavy and uncomfortable. Unless I find a more comfortable band, sleeping with it isn't going to happen.
2. Battery life isn't near as good as the F5, charged at 100% at 3PM, down 9% already at 9PM. I am going to chalk that up to beta software for now and an untrained battery charge monitor. I hope this isn't always this poor. For reference the F5 was 5% per day with a 1 hour workout + GPS.
3. It has the more up to date OHR sensor for live HR, I didn't realize!
4. Maps are more detailed than expected. Even showed my driveway and house. Does having this data page on eat battery?
5. Wi-Fi, I haven't tested. Up to now the Blue Tooth has worked just fine, and I really have no need. I can plug in a USB cable easily enough. I turned it off.

Apart from battery life and comfort, I am pleased.

0 mdzink over 6 years ago

Glad you like the 5X. I also find the watch uncomfortable for sleeping and I don't really use that data anyway so I just skip it. Turning it off completely at night also gives me much longer between charges. I can also say that I am EXTREMELY happy with the sapphire face. I am also hard on devices and scratch up my watches pretty bad. I bought the 5X when it came out and the face is pristine. There are a couple small scratches on the bezel but nothing serious.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Glad you like the 5X. I also find the watch uncomfortable for sleeping and I don't really use that data anyway so I just skip it. Turning it off completely at night also gives me much longer between charges. I can also say that I am EXTREMELY happy with the sapphire face. I am also hard on devices and scratch up my watches pretty bad. I bought the 5X when it came out and the face is pristine. There are a couple small scratches on the bezel but nothing serious.

I do like it for many reasons but I also have some critical problems:
* My battery life is quite poor. 70% after 40 hours and off at night, so actually this loss in about 30 hours. (3x 1 hour GPS activities). I was thinking of downgrading to the magical 8.x I hear mentioned, but the next two points are stopping me.
* It *hurts* my wrist when I am riding with it on my mountain bike. Jostling around on a bumpy trail really hammers it on my wrist to the point I had to take it off. My hand would turn purple to tighten the strap enough to stop this from happening.
* I have to tighten the strap to uncomfortable levels in daily wearing to keep it from spinning around my wrist due to weight of the thing. Apparently I don't have the optimal sized wrists for the 5x :-(. Fine when I am just sitting here "working", but when walking around the office... not so good.

Oh, and the GPS is just as good/bad as the regular F5 in the woods, which is really disappointing. Out in the open it is better than the F5 was, but in the woods, lots of error. Without moving to a running watch with a better GPS and even worse battery life, the plain old F5 was really the perfect fit, The only complaint was the poor GPS performance which appears to be typical on the Fenix 5 line. Online reading seems to confirm this, as the trend isn't to improve performance, but to add features to keep up with competitors like Apple and Samsung.

I am really upset at myself for being a nimrod with this whole fitness watch wearable thing, and looking for the "perfect" device. The poor folks at the store I purchased it from! They have been really helpful and friendly, but they probably see me coming and find something else productive to do. Forever an L.L. Bean customer though, they are absolutely great. I may be getting my old F5 back today, and hanging my head in shame. Not just coughing up extra money for a lesser watch without sapphire, it needs to fit my wrist well first and foremost.

As a side-note, I have been tracking my heart rate at night due to the occasional night sweats and seemingly panic attacks in my sleep. I am trying to correlate this with the probability of allergies. Since I have been wearing a fitness watch to bed to figure out what is going on, I have not had a problem. Murphy's law. I can't wear this F5x to bed, so it is another negative mark.

I apologize for any typos, I only had 3hrs of sleep thanks to my kid tromping around the house at 3am that I thought was an intruder.

0 Doktorko over 6 years ago

I think for you fenix 5 plus would be a perfect device then. It has also mapping features and size could fit you.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I think for you fenix 5 plus would be a perfect device then. It has also mapping features and size could fit you.

Perfect except too expensive, my budget was closer to $300, but spent far more already. I have a family to answer to when I tap into fun money.