Advice needed for non athlete

Former Member over 5 years ago

Hi,

I am looking to buy a decent watch to count steps, monitor heart rate and track sleep, I'm not an athlete, just a 49 year old trying to look after my health. I know that the Fenix series is overkill for what I need, but I really like the styling and I have a few questions that I hope you experts can help me with!

I was looking at the Fenix 6 pro, here in the UK this is about £599 (roughly 1:1 with USD when tax is included etc). But then I saw a Fenix 5 Plus with titanium bezel, Sapphire glass and orange strap for around the same price. Then, just to confuse things further, I found the Fenix Chronos in stainless with leather strap at around the same price, which looks like my perfect watch as far as looks go, but it seems to be at least 2 generations old as far as tech goes, so I was wondering if anyone can help me whittle it down to one.

All are roughly the same price, I like the look of the chronos best, but do Garmin stop sending updates on older models? how long is that usually? Any reasons not to go for the chronos?

I can see that there is a small increase in screen size on the Fenix 6 pro vs Fenix 5 plus. Are there any other differences as far as step counting, heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking go?

Thanks :)

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

The Chronos is essentially a Fenix 3HR in a nicer case. It will likely not be receiving any new updates as far as features go, though there could be an occasional update for bug fixes. There have definitely been advances in Garmin's wearables since the Chronos but given the uses you described it still should meet your needs.

As for the 5 plus vs the 6 pro if you are not using the athletic features the differences won't matter as much. The 6 pro does have body battery which the 5 plus does not, but you have to decide if that's something you care about. The 6 also has a higher battery life but for your use case that is probably not as important since in activity tracker mode with no GPS activities the battery will last quite a while on any of the units you posted.

Between the 5 plus/6 pro and the Chronos and features you might use, the newer watches have music and Garmin Pay but most of the rest of the new features are geared towards athletes or hikers.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I picked up a Fenix 5 for £299. That's a decent watch for the money. Download an app called PriceSpy and it will alert you when the price drops online. Also, the Garmin sleep tracking is not good, so if you're after something with accurate sleep tracking, there's better sleep trackers available than Garmin. That's based on my use with an F5, so a Garmin that's a couple generations, it may be even worse.

0 jim_m_58 over 5 years ago

Not sure if it's important to you, but for things like on-watch music and Garmin Pay, the Chronos has neither. It's "kind of" like a Fenix 5s, but doesn't have the same OHR (it's an older one) and there are a few other things.

(Fenix 5s, so not even the Fenix 5s plus)

One thing I suggest, is to see if you can find a local retailer with the watch you're thinking about, just to see it first hand, see how it feels on your wrist, etc

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Thanks for the replies, very helpful, cheers!

0 Michalis over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

You dont need this watch if you are not an athlete. Even for me that I run marathons is an overkill. Get something cheaper.

0 ikim1967 over 5 years ago

I'm not an 'athlete' per se - i just ride mountain bikes. The 5x appealed to me because of the long battery life. Had 'cheaper' watches that limited my rides to a few hours or would need charging between rides. The 5 can last longer than I could ride in a single session or cover several rides without a charge. That's perfect for me.

It has a lot of feature - around running that are wasted on me. Even though I often threaten to start running. Though if you walk, hike, paddle board, or do a dozen other activities, it'll cover those too.

It does have things like steps, sleep tracking, stress levels, which are all very cool general health features. Not as pretty graphically as the Apple watch and lacks some of the smart features - like music, etc. Its a very good looking watch though.

Lots of people selling to jump on the 6x bandwagon so there are a lot of deals to be had. If you can get a great deal on a 5x or 5x+ (if things like music, garmin pay are of interest) then its worth it - see quite a few of those for sale too, since the 6 launch.

Mick