Worthwhile joining the beta?

I use 6X and am part of beta. I get benefit.

There’s often big and small fixes (eg training load calc, issues with music and various other things) as well as new features. 

Try it. It’s easy to leave but if you’ve installed beta it’s better to wait until next full release otherwise you need to revert (reset)

Don't bother. It's definitely not worth the effort.

I joined the beta program, filed some bug reports, Garmin even requested data from me, that I provided, Garmin opened some tickets, but since then, nothing happened. That has been going on for over two years now. This has been especially frustrating because all but one of the errors were introduced by Garmin with software updates, which basically rendered my watch unusable for the purposes I originally bought it (biking, running, hiking and swimming). The errors are:

• GPS is crap, sometimes more, sometimes less, but as this is caused by the low-grade GPS chipset that Garmin built into the watch, this will most probably never be fixed. This was/is the error that has always been present in my watch.
• Altimeter and measurements of height gained during activities were broken by Garmin more than two years ago with a software update, but never got fixed, although many users reported problems with that.
• RD Pod data and metrics based on that data were broken by Garmin with a software update more than two years ago. Many user reports here too, but Garmin never bothered or is unable to provide a fix.
• Same goes for swim style recognition and pool lane count in swimming activities.
• A hefty UI lag was introduced when using watch faces installed from the CIQ store. Also introduced by a software update long ago, was reported many times, but Garmin also never bothered or is unable to provide a fix.

Furthermore, Garmin bricked my (and many other) watches by a beta software update that introduced an error where the watches were stuck on loading maps and had to be completely reset to factory values, deleting all data and configurations on the watch. Thanks Garmin!

53bc6a5b980c4f559a60f7e77fff204c said:

Furthermore, Garmin bricked my (and many other) watches by a beta software update that introduced an error where the watches were stuck on loading maps and had to be completely reset to factory values, deleting all data and configurations on the watch. Thanks Garmin!

While I sympathize with you over the experiences with the first list of errors, what you experienced in the paragraph I quoted is the risk you take when participating in a beta program, whether by Garmin or any other company. That's why they have beta tests (to uncover issues like that) and why it's a voluntary program that you have to opt-in to participate.

You're correct, errors with Beta SW might happen, that's why it's called Beta. But the issue with the watches which were stuck on loading maps was so widespread that I would assume that Garmin should have noticed that during quality control and testing. That they obviously missed this does not shed a favorable light on their QC.

I tried betas on my Fenix 6 Pro and Edge 1040:
Nice to have new feature, but sometimes, there are so many bugs that it will completely affect your daily usage/ride/run.
I felt that their beta were often pre-alpha release version.

And, most of all, even after raising issues in the beta forum, many of those stayed and got released, so I just quitted as I don't see much benefit.

In general I would say it's only worth if you are waiting eagerly for some feature and you see it in the change log. A good example was when they added System 6.

Also maybe if you experience a certain bug that the change log claims to solve.

For any other case I wouldn't waste my time, especially not with an old device like f6 of any kind, where there doesn't seem to be a big effort on Garmin's side to fix bugs, especially not bugs introduced during beta.

In fact I would wait and carefully read the bug reports posted by other beta users to see if there is some new bug that I wouldn't risk having. The actual biggest risk is that this would be the last FW update for these watches, so it might be better to stick with an older FW for good.

For newer watches that have some more effort put in by Garmin I would consider enrolling in beta and reporting as much as I can to help both Garmin and the community because there's a greater chance that any new bug will eventually be fixed.

flocsy🤠 said:

In general I would say it's only worth if you are waiting eagerly for some feature and you see it in the change log. A good example was when they added System 6.

Also maybe if you experience a certain bug that the change log claims to solve.

Exactly. Beta programs aren't intended to give the general user population an early peek at what's coming down the pipeline. 

Unless a general user has an urgent need for a fix to an issue they're experiencing it's safer to wait for general release. Better still, wait a couple of weeks to see how that fares.

Otherwise you have to be prepared for bugs and have the technical ability to deal with them.

Sure, it helps you to become disappointed earlier than compared to the default mode, I mean  staying out of these circles.