Fenix 6x Sapphire GPS 5.00?

I don’t find much difference. The posts I’ve made here recently are typical of what I see. And as for the discussion about instant pace? I was running this morning on the roads where I usually run paying particular attention to instant pace. Whenever I looked at my watch it seemed to be giving me a pace where I was expecting it to be albeit round up/down to 5s. I certainly would not expect the same when running on single track in the forest with roots, rocks and rollers constantly changing my pace.

In a way this forum is the wrong place to ask for recommendations as it is largely populated with people who have problems and hence biased against Garmin.

I’d go for the 945 if you want a lighter watch not that I found the F6 Sol Pro heavy.

felix said:

During a steady run in lower paces (like 5:00-6:00min/km)

For some of us this is the pace where we ‘live’. I was running this morning around our usual 5km loop. Whenever I looked at my watch the pace displayed was where I expected it to be - between 5:30 and 6:00/km except where I put some effort in and got closer to 5/km. 

But this was on a relatively open path and relatively flat - https://www.strava.com/activities/4625351876

Must have better satellites in New Zealand than Australia. Your track looks good

This is the variance that I normally see with the fenix 6x compared to something as basic as my Galaxy S9 running Strava. I really think a dedicated, flagship GPS sports watch from a global leader in GPS should do better tbh. I started the phone late and it was in my pocket the whole time so had no view of the clear blue sky but still performed noticeably better.

Fenix 6x Pro

Galaxy S9

Tim_B_ said:

This is the variance that I normally see with the fenix 6x compared to something as basic as my Galaxy S9

Your phone is far from being "something as basic".  It's no surprise your phone tracks better. It has a much larger antenna, it isn't moving that much (unless you're carrying it in your hand) and has the benefit of using cellular towers to triangulate your location along with GPS.  Compare that to the small antenna on a moving wrist and it's easy to see why there's a difference. 

And......?  This doesn't dismiss the antenna size and movement. 

Well...... you mentioned the ability to use cellular towers to triangulate movement, I was pointing out that there is no service in this area so it’s not a factor.

The use of cell towers is just one factor and is irrelevant in your case if you had a no cell service.  You failed to address the other factors.  The larger antenna in your cell phone and the fact you said your phone was in your pocket resulting in less movement and better reception still explains the difference in your results.

Everything’s better in New Zealand than in the West Island LOL! 

But I also have nearly 100 parkruns recorded from Kennington Reservoir parkrun (Bendigo, VIC) since 2015 with different Garmin watches that are all 5km in length and are all good tracks despite large sections of the track being under relatively dense tree cover.

Why do I appear to have fewer problems? No idea but one thing I have always done is select the activity and have it looking for satellites some minutes before actually setting off. This does not cause any delay as this happens while I am getting ready and can be anywhere between 1 minute and several minutes.