I LOVE my Fenix 6X

Hello !

I just want to send some good vibes with this post.

I had some health issues that kept me from working out for quite a while and very slowly I started to get back in shape.

At the moment I swim a lot, and I really LOVE my Fenix 6X because:

1. It has a bigger screen compared to my old Fenix 3 HR and the data fields are way more visible even if I have foggy goggles (they do get foggy a little no matter what I tried)

2. even if my watch light is set to be activated manually by default while you are in an activity it does turn on when you flick your wrist - REALLY NICE touch, I LOVE it, very useful

3. the fact that it does recognize the swimming styles perfectly (and the laps) is also a bonus. I never had issues with Fenix 3 HR also.

4. It reads my HR under water quite good... I am quite happy with the results and it's definitely usable. I need to mention that I don't need 100% precision at the moment since I am slowly getting back into shape... if I need accuracy I have my trusty HRM-Swim.

5. some might want to know what color is the backlight... well it's blueish and I have to say it does NOT bother me at all, the visibility is good. Maybe if you set the background black might be more visible and might bother some but I set backgrounds to white and I don't even notice it. Also, I know it will sound strange for some but I actually like the light shade of blue of the backlit. 

6. I like the new (for me)  Train Effect feature.

Have a great training day!

  • Can you say "Formswim".  Love these things  Slight smile

  • I'm with you guys - love my Fenix 6 Pro.  I've had 4 other Garmin watches in the past along with every series of Apple Watch and a few different Samsung - this one is the best, most capable of them all.  

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I love my 6X Sapphire too.

    Its good to see a nice thread without all the haters...Thumbsup

  • Same here - just flawless my F6 titanium. Really love it. 

    If I should point one tiny bit, it would be native run power support. But it's no way a problem for me.

    Love my F6

  • I upgraded to 6x (pro, non-Saphire) from 5x and I really think it's worth it.

    I use my 6x for running, strength and spinning training and also as a 'smart watch' with connection to my old Galaxy S7.

    My sensors are Polar HRM-H10, Tempe, Runscripe pods (need ble/ant v4.18 for the data field working) for running and Wahoo Cadence for spinning). Main sw v3.0

    It's working really well. When running I always also have a Polar V800 on the other wrist to compare (as with my 5x before that).

    When runnning I almost always follow a course and using maps. No music. Not so interested in all the firstbeat metrics.

    Best:
    - Bigger screen, more nice-looking, see a bigger part of the maps and more visible data fields.
    - Much lesser reflections and better contrast (against my 5x)
    - Much better elevation tracking. Now much better than V800. (I use auto dem)
    - GPS is a tad better than 5x, but V800 still wins most of the time, not always though.
    - Great with many more course points (200 now I think compared to 50 in 5x).
    - Nice with the overlayed data fields on map.
    - Great that 'custom maps' (scanned maps) still are working.
    - Rest HR has really tracked my resent fever cold.
    - Pacepro, there are some limitations, but for me, it's great that I get a calculated finish time based on the course track instead of my GPS track. Tested only once, though.

  • Sold my F3, Instinct, F5, and F5+. Got the F6 Titanium (on 4.2 damn Garmin Express) and F6X Sapphire (On 4.10 damn auto update).  No issues with anything on either device--except for GPS/phone time sync is 7-9 seconds behind atomic time.  Connection to Garmin Express yields exact time but will update firmware involuntarily.  My connections are Plantronics Backbeat Fit, Stryd footpod, Tempe, and Scosche Rhythm 24. Watch handles all them with solid connections during activities.  

    Enjoying Pulse Ox while sleeping to monitor sleep apnea and respirations. Using Data Lover watch face.  Paid for donation key to get 15 min weather updates, and it's the best watch face I've ever used on any device.  

    Have waited to update GCM to 4.24 based on reports here it screws up syncing and weather, and holding off on IOS 13.1.3 for same possible reasons.  Would like those worked out so I can update. 

  • If somebody checks my post he/she can realize that I am quite critical and if I find something strange I tend to call it a bug and dont behave in a forgiving way. And I dislike if there are some people who tend to say there is no problem at all, not all the units show this bug. On the other hand I publicly admit if I was the one who was either stupid or just simply “mis-set” some settings. So I am trying to do my best to be not biased.

    But when I summarize what I think about my Fenix 6X I can also say I love it. 

    People are different, consider different functions as of top priority, get annoyed by different malfunctions etc. My primary focuses regarding a gadget is real battery life vs the promised one, the battery life in absolute terms, the readibility of the display, the logical setup of the unit, the frequency of any freezes, the accuracy of absolute elevation, the accuracy of total ascent and distance covered, and still the lookout/beauty of the GPS tracks, but the latter with a decreasing importance as time goes by….

    Note: I use a Stryd for run and two Suunto mini footpods for walk and hike. All the three have been thoroughly calibrated. And I never run or cycle without a HR strap.  Walks, hikes and strength trainings are made generally without the strap.

    With this setup I am really pleased with Fenix 6X.

    1. Battery life (relative): my experience with 6X is that it can deliver what the official specs say, both for activities recorded and the usage it as a daily or smart watch.  I did not have this impression neither with Fenix 3HR, nor with Fenix 5 plus.  Or more precisely, sometimes F3HR delivered it, sometimes not, while Fenix 5 plus could do it only when it was put onto the shelf having disactivated everything on it and simply running it in a low power mode with the native watchface.

    2. Battery life (absolute): I need the feeling not to always check how much juice left in the watch. And I get it from 6X. And it gives me the chance to add CIQ datafields with much higher battery consumption as the native fields. My favourite ones are Datarun Ultimate and its clones, and Lap+ and its clones. The former shows 10+2 data on one screen and can calculate rolling averages of speed/pace/power even for 300 seconds, so its usage really requires a strong battery. But who cares if the battery consumption goes up for the normal level of 1.5-2% per hour to an hourly 3-3.5%? I mean my longest activity is less than 10 hours, so it is not a big issue for me.

    The same is true for winter weather. Cold means a higher battery consumption, I observed it for all my Fenixes, but F6X has such a big battery reserve that I dont bother about it any longer. With F5+ I always grabbed a mini powerbank called Pulsepak with me when walking/hiking in the winter. Because it happened that its consumption went up to 15%/h on really cold days. And sometimes I used Pulsepak in more or less the same way as it is shown here: https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Charge_On_The_Run

    3. Readibility is fine, the values of native data fields can be seen easily.

    The only problem is the very small fonts assigned to the names of data fields. I understand that the size of the data field names are shrinked in order to make it possible to increase the size of the values, but I do think that there is some room to increase the fonts of the names, too. Vertically always and almost always horizontally, too.

    4. I dont understand if somebody is complaining about the menu structure of Fenix 6 familiy. Any manufacturers have a tough job if its product has a lot to set. And Garmin did a relatively good job when it structured the menu of 6X.

    Sidenote: But as many  I also dont understand why Garmin tends to change some settings in those cases when there are no problems around (see the altitude calibration options coming after sw ver 19.20). 

    5. Re freeze: I faced no freezes,  even  if I stress tested my watch eg.  stopping or “recalculating” courses on the fly. This sort of operations sometimes resulted in either a freeze or a longer “not responding” state with my earlier Fenixes.

    6. I am an “altitude fan”, 14 years after buying my 60csx I still love to see what is  the current altitude. And Fenix 6 did not let me down. I mean running on 19.20. To be fair with my earlier Fenixes they were also quite good, even F3HR after two replacements :-)

    7. Total ascent: not perfect, but very close to the truth. I collected just few elevation tracks, but my post activity processes say that F6X slightly overestimates the total ascent. I am not speaking about the comparison of map data and total ascent calculated by F6X, but about the comparison of the elevation track of 6X post processed by me using a ‘Gaussian filtering and smoothing’ method and the total ascent coming from 6X. If there was overestimation, so far it never was above 10%. 

    8. Distance: i cant say anything about 6X as a watch without footpods/Stryd, but with them I am really pleased with it. It happened just once when the connection between a footpd of mine and 6X broke during a long rest in a restaurant and therefore 6X collected fake hundred meters.I forgot to mention above, but I have speed sensors on my all bicycles, so the same accuracy is achieved for cycling, too.

    Again, I love my 6X, it is really a good watch, and although I dont believe in the feasibility of very accurate performance-like metrics, I find their values quite consistent and much better than on earlier Fenixes. It is good to see even if I know what should I do, how should I run to cheat the algorithm for the short term. I mean it depends too much on how you start your run or cycle activity, and knowing it you can improve your VO2max by 1 or 2 units.

  • Same here. For me it's the perfect watch. I don't deny for others it won't be, but for me it's an amazing piece of kit, and 52 year old me would love to be able to show the 12 year old me what a watch could do. It would blow his mind. 

  • I am also a bit over 50. Anyway I would not love to contact the 12 year old me, but the 30-40 year old me to make a deal with him: I would borrow my 6X to him if he borrowed some of his physical abilities to me . :-)