Fenix 5X - 11.00 Beta Release

Changelog is identical to 10.58?

The only file in the update is the GUPDATE.GCD file? Nothing else is present -- is this correct?

Yes, you'll see that at times.

The other things can be things like a roll-back file and other bits (like GPS, Sensor, etc), but it seems there none for this.

Just copy gupdate.gcm to \garmin on your watch and you're good to go. Since it says it's a release candidate and ends in zero (11.x0) it will probably be sent out OTA/GE soon if you'd rather wait.

Can anyone confirm the validity of this changelog? Is anyone finding any issues with this beta release? I haven't been able to test much, but I'm fairly certain I'm still getting HRM drops during activity.

Anyone test the battery life? GPS lock accuracy? Elevation? OWS?

i highly doubt that something was fixed or will be fixed regarding the highly inaccurate elevation. the uninformative changelog does not mention the elevation and the beta team does not react to multiple emails about this problem. i know, hikers seem to be happy with the elevation. but me as a mountainbiker, i think that the elevation measurement of the fenix 5 comes close of beeing useless. when mountainbiking the elevation differs about 30% to 50% from the gps elevation. also on the same routes the barometric elevation of the fenix 5 differs quite a lot. so what do i need the measurement of elevation for, if it shows me 300 meters, 380 meters or 500 meters for the same route on different days and/or barometric vs. gps? the elevation of the fenix is simply a "guess-o-meter" and good for nothing.

the same goes to "total distance of a day". on the fenix 5 bike distance is ignored - only "foot based" distance counts. on the other hand the full distance incl. bike distance is shown in garmin connect online and is also reported to apple health. they do not even show the same metrics on different platforms... unbelievable!

and i would not be surprised, if this will be the final firmware for the fenix 5 NONE PLUS version. it seems as if garmin concentrates more and more on music features of the plus version.

I'm on 10.51 but I know 10.52 is also good on elevation, battery and no HR drops...

I'm on 10.51 but I know 10.52 is also good on elevation, battery and no HR drops...

for what kind of activity do you use the fenix with good elevation results? is mountainbiking (fast moving up and down) one of the activities? did you ever compare the elevation of the fenix with gps and/or reality? if yes, how big was the difference?

Hi,

Yes mountain biking, since 2003, every Saturday for sure and sometimes more :-) https://www.facebook.com/tdpturmadopedal/
I use gps since the Pilot model, but with barometers, the ones that really matters (because elevation based on GPS position is the worst possible), only Map 76 , 64s, Montana, Fenix 1 and now Fenix 5x.
What do you call reality? In a practical way there is not a such thing. you can only have an average. Even the confirmed altitude for peaks are rarely true (not estimated).
So, some things that I've learned (in general) :
1) you can go in a ride with 10 friends wearing 10 Fenix 5x (same firmware/gps) and you are not gonna have two showing the same accumulated climb... imagine having different models/brand...
2) forget about elevations coming from apps, all of them! Strava, Garmin Connect elevation correction, etc, etc, because each one of them use his own maps and algorithms therefore giving you different numbers for the same ride. Not to mention these numbers depend totally on the recorded track quality. (sampling, day and time of the year, etc, etc) . you can have a intrinsically error on the satellite position on time and other 10min later at the same spot...
3) Last but not least, this is gonna hurt: EVERY SINGLE MEASURE has a tolerance. Being it a police or photographed speed radar (+-10%!) or a calibrated micrometer.

So after given up the suffering I've learned to live with a tolerance of 10% within my rides. When I have a new planned route never ridden before my best bet for planning is to consider -10% of the accumulated ascent from Google Earth elevation profile option. and if an older ride gives more than 10/20% off I know something got messed (such as a cold front or firmware/hardware problem). Always work.

In the case of Fenix 5x, the elevation was ok in early versions than got screwed than got back good on 10.51/10.52 and now people are says it is bad again...
I don't know because I'm still on 10.51 for safety reasons.

My best regards,


PS: you can learn more in the article : [h=1]GPS VERSUS BAROMETRIC ALTITUDE: THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER[/h] http://xcmag.com/news/gps-versus-barometric-altitude-the-definitive-answer/

Anybody else getting the GPS version mismatch "!" on the about screen? I'm assuming this will be corrected in the release? Hopefully?

I can confirm what marcossaad_ mentioned, that in 10.52 the elevation was fixed and ok and battery life also. 10.55/58 not anymore, elevation was ok for hiking and running (dlow activities) and for biking was wrong again ( -30%), also battery life was poor. Now I installed 11.00, I can see battery life much better like 0,3% per hour, which is much better than 0,6 in 10.58. I cannot check biking, so please anyone who can please tedt it and let people here know.
For GPS I see 2.30, what mismatch do you mean?

marcossaad_, thank you for taking your time to explain everything so detailed. at least you seem to know what you are talking about :-D

but if the gps elevation is useless nonsense, how could anybody tell, that elevation of the fenix is good, ok, totally off or better with one firmware than with the other firmware? there must be some value, which is more or less correct, right?

ok, 10.52 seems to be better than 10.55 in regards of elevation. with 10.52 i got 20% - 25% less than with the garmin corrected elevation (and even way more less than with runtasic). with 10.55 and before 10.52 i get easily 30% and more less when compared to garmin corrected and others. this simply does not sound right.
i could live with about 10% or little more - no problem. but a difference of 30% and more seems to be wrong in my eyes. on the other hand: perhaps -30% is more correct than -10%!?

perhaps i should change view on things!? perhaps i should stop caring about, if my current speed is 18 km/h or 26 km/h or if i rode 24 km or 32 km!? at the end i must honestly say, that it doesn't matter for me really. i do mountain biking for having fun and to stay fit. on the other hand i could/should sell my fenix, never buy a garmin watch again and simply enjoy my acitivies. if all the measurements are more or less random and device dependent, what would be such a device good for?

one could also argue, that every company has its own way to calculate metrics. that might be valid way to see the things. one could simply stick to one brand and/or device for months or years and compare the results on this single device. the problem is, that the results from garmin differ from device to device and firmware to firmware. so the only chance would be to stick with a garmin fenix 5 with the firmware XX.XX and use this configuration for many years. to be honest: this is not appealing to me.