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Just my opinion:Coros is the best thing that happened to Garmin

3BEP6
over 3 years ago

Hey, guys, I’m on my 4-5th Garmin watch and absolutely love it. Features and materials are great. But, like a lot of other people, I do think there’s a lot to be desired with the Fenix series(7) and improvements on the 6 series. When Coros was introduced a couple years ago I didn’t pay much attention to it but as the time goes, I think it’s the best thing that could happen to Garmin as it pushes it forward. I’m excited for the 7 series(whenever it arrives) and Vertix 2 looks like what series 7 should be . Just my opinion, open to any of yours as well. Just a friendly discussion. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Any competitor in the market is good as long as they produce newer ideas and create a more competant environment.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    No ANT+ support = fail. IMHO. I use ANT+ for all my connections. Bluetooth is too restrictive.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I totally agree that Garmin badly needs competitors. I feel they have become too complacent.

    Suddenly, Coros is making watches with working touchscreens in addition to the buttons, and with battery lives far better than Garmin. Coros still has some strange oversights, like a non adjustable screen brightness (that perhaps has been fixed). But altogether, yes, it was high time for this.

    Irony mode on: Just like the iPhone was the best thing that could happen to good old Nokia. Irony mode off.

    Garmin has been making a lot of acquisitions in the surrounding ecosystem, like InReach or GEOS. But in the end, a watch is a watch is a watch.

    Remember that expensive Navteq acquisition by Nokia, back in the day, *cough* ?

    The Enduro, in my opinion, is not enough. Simply swapping in a new NXP ARM processor (Kinetis K28F -> i.MX RT500 ?) and a slightly bigger battery won't cut it. I do, however, think that Garmin's general hardware design is good.

    But exactly like with the old Nokia, there are far too many software bugs unfixed. Anything not considered a show stopper is put on the back bench. So many suggestions for improving apps and widgets are simply shrugged off.

    That's the reason Garmin have been bleeding to Wahoo with their bike computers.

    Next, it's going to happen to Coros watches with the runners and endurance athletes.

    Also, the blue vs black screen sourcing debacle on Garmin's top watches (Fenix and Marq) must surely have snubbed many users.

    (I don't know enough about aviation and marine tech, but Lowrance and Raymarine always looked pretty good to me.)

    What I can never really understand is this: In the open source community, programmers in their free time or full time write some incredible programs all on their own, promptly react to user input and try to incorporate this into one of the next versions. Considering that most Garmin apps and widgets are similar to the Monkey C programs that developers write in their free time for mostly no money at all, how can it be that widgets and apps the user paid for by buying the watch aren't fixed for months, or ever?

    And then, in comparison, just search for the word 'battery' in the forums, regular problems appearing after updates concerning all Garmin watches. Sure, *that* is often low level stuff incorporated into one of several different firmwares on the watches, but still...

    Just look how surfers have been complaining about the basically not working surf functionality on the dedicated Instinct Solar Surf. Or the fact that tides are only displayed with a connection to the phone.

    I guess part of the problem is that there are too few tech minded, insightful people higher up in the company, but rather the typical business and administration guys and gals you will find everywhere these days.

    Sorry for the rant. I thinks it's cool that Garmin lets us voice our opinions here.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to shogo9
    shogo9 said:
    It seems like all Coros watches have ANT+

    but NOT the Vertix 2 !

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Ok, i see that now, strange that they remove features from newer watch? Probably bad decision.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to shogo9

    Could it be licensing costs? Garmin owns ANT+.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4241327
    4241327 said:
    I totally agree that Garmin badly needs competitors.

    Hmm where does that put Polar, Suunto, Apple, Wahoo, Samsung etc all of which have been touted at some time or other as alternatives to Garmin. There is robust competition in the market now just like there has been in the past. The market does continuously evolve and Garmin has evolved and continues to evolve with it. Is Garmin the best in the market? That’s a different question entirely but I don’t think anyone can really say there’s no competition or that Garmin needs competition. 

    There are things Garmin could undoubtedly do better but that can equally be said about the other companies. At least Garmin has a public forum where people can discuss problems  However, it is unfortunate that such forums attract more negative posts than positive ones. And that can and does skew perception 

    Garmin is not perfect but the competition is already there. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

    I agree. I should probably add: competitors that don't use Google Wear OS or an Amoled screen.

    Suunto and Polar of course *are* competitors, you are totally right.

    I did mention Coros and Wahoo, and they are both eating into Garmin's bottom line.

    As far as I know, Polar went with Google, as did Samsung now, after Tizen, so they both have a battery life of only a few days. Apple do their own thing, it's a different clientele. And then there's Huawei and Honor, too.

    But, yes, they are all competitors. It just seems that most of them aren't really that serious when it comes to multi day sports watches.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    My view of Coros is "nearly, but not quite...."

    They need a web infrastructure for a start, as it seems to me that data stored locally is prone to loss. The maps on the Vertex 2are nearly, but not quite.

    As far as competition, I'd say Suunto with the Peak 9 is closer to competition in the Fenix area,