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Disappointed with Garmin pro series

6423099
2 months ago

There have been a series of rants recently about having a paid version of Connect+, and sometimes, we hear the explanation: We are not taking any features from you. I thought: probably, that's fair. Let's use what we have. I never use music features, but maybe a nice tempo bit would give me a kick. So I started using Spotify on garmin...

Main actor: Fenix 7x pro, firmware 19.38

Recently, I was traveling to a different city and thought that I could run with 1) HRM pro, 2) Airpods pro v2, and 3) Navigation. That was a horrible experience. The audio was stuttering multiple times, and sometimes, one of the earpods was disabled randomly. Even HRM was disconnected on the run. On the 14 km distance, I had to either reconnect or stop and play music at least 15 times.

Ok, the Navi may be causing the issue, so next time, the same setup as above: 1) HRM pro and 2) Airpods pro v2. The same experience, after around 3km of running, the audio started to stutter; after the 10KM almost every minute, I had to press stop and play again multiple times (more than 15 times on 15km run)

I checked again on another pair of AirPods Pro2 —the same effect.

Garmin, please give me the features I paid for. I paid for the premium device.

  • +1 2 months ago

    Were you running in the suburbs or the middle of the CBD in that city? I run in one of the most densely populated CBDs in the world and music on the watch will often stutter due to the sheer number of other Bluetooth signals around me. Phones pump out a much stronger signal than the watch does, so you'll tend not to notice the issue when you're on your phone instead.

    Contact Garmin support and they can step you through the process of bumping up the transmit level. You might notice some slightly reduced battery life though.

    If it's stuttering out in the suburbs without thousands of other Bluetooth users then that might indicate some other issue.

    One experiment that you could try would be to do the same run with and without navigation. If Bluetooth stutters only on the run with navigation then it could be a mapping issue putting too much load on the watch. If not stutters on both around the same area, then it's a signal issue.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to 2529455

    I run in one of the most densely populated CBDs in the world and music on the watch will often stutter due to the sheer number of other Bluetooth signals around me.

    This could be a pointer, but I'm wondering why this is correlated with the length of the run. I'm also running in the same city, no signigicant changes on the run with density. The longer I'm running, the bigger the problem is. Maybe something is happening on the watch after some time. 

    "Contact Garmin support and they can step you through the process of bumping up the transmit level. You might notice some slightly reduced battery life though."

    Could you share on this group how to change transmit level? Big thanks

    "One experiment that you could try would be to do the same run with and without navigation"

    In my post, I described that experiment, there was no difference (look on my 4th paragraph)

  • 0 2 months ago

    I searched the forum and found that this issue is well-known for other Garmin watches. People are reporting stuttering and connection dropouts after some time. I've found a thread that is seven(!) months old, and so far, there has been no resolution. Very disappointing. 

  • 0 2 months ago

    I also have issues with my Airpods. What helps is to first connect the HR strap, and afterwards connect the Airpods. Then I have less stutter, hope this helps.