like many of you, i took the plunge last June, hoping that the 945LTE wouldn't be the forgotten step child of a watch, especially given the assurances from Garmin to DCRainmaker that this wouldn't be the case. i share in the frustration of many of you that while the watch has been great in many respects, there are a long list of small, and some significant bugs that continue to plague our watch 11 months later.
i really find myself a bit at a loss of what Garmin is doing behind the scenes with your beloved watch.. while the news through DC Rainmaker that Stamina and onboard Connect IQ settings changes (the latter being challenging according to what DC says) being added features to the 945LTE in 2022 are nice, i'd rather have Garmin focus on delivering a watch that does the things promised in the user manual and specifications when it was released in June 2021.
with the recent "leak" of the 955 out on Reddit, it makes me wonder what the 955 will bring and i ask if any of you folks would upgrade to it? this is what i gather from the leaks:
- solar option (although a non-solar version will be available)
- touch screen ? (no mention of it in any leaked docs or discussion)
- updated GPS with multi-band
- stamina
- onboard Connect IQ settings changes
- larger screen? (1.3" back onto a 47mm watch?)
- any LTE? no mention of it recently and surprising it wasn't included in any of the Fenix7/Epix2 models
what would lead you guys to eat the investment of the 945LTE and go with the 955? i'd be torn with any of the items i listed above. my LTE has for the most part done everything i needed it to do, and i don't even use the LTE feature. i think the only lure might be the newer GPS with dual band capability and if they went back to the 47mm with the 1.3" screen and a better battery life. (i'd be more than content with my 945LTE if it really lived up to specs. as i've noted many times before, this watch has significantly less battery life than my 935 even though it was spec'd to be similar)
as as a side note: one thing that i continue to be impressed with after seeing a Fenix 7 briefly the other day is the quality of the screen visibility on the 945LTE. without the touchscreen layer (presumably) and/or solar and sapphire, i find my 945LTE has great visibility from all angles and with backlight, significantly more pleasing visibility at night than my 935 ever had. i'll be curious what the 955 screen ends up looking like.
