Happy?

I came from a F5+ and am MUCH happier with the 945. The battery on the Fenix 5+ was terrible and it does not have any better anything. You are also paying almost double the price unless you get it on a massive sale. The only reason to go to a Fenix 5+ would be the asthetic, your GPS accuracy is going to be worse, battery life is about half and takes twice as long to charge, and you are going to have less functionality. 

For me so far I've been unimpressed with the 945 battery life.  With PulseOx off completely and using GPS for about 45 minutes a day, I'm losing about 15% a day, which is way more than my 935.  I think the F5+ is priced the same as the 945 pretty much everywhere right now.  

945 battery improved massively for me with 2.5 firmware and enabling backlight only after sunset.

Very happy! I've never put a screen protector on any of my previous Garmins right from the 305 through to the 935 and see no reason to do anything different now. And I've certainly never 'babied' any of them. The 935 before it, and the 945 now are rugged enough to survive falling of mountain bikes, and banging against walls and rocks without any loss of performance.

As for the buttons? That to me is a matter of perception and has nothing to do with functionality. Yes the build quality of the 935/945 is less than that of the Fenix but what do you expect? I expect a device that works but I also do not have expectations that are unrealistic. You pay a lot less for it. You're buying a Mini, not a Jaguar or Rolls Royce! I've had my 935 since very soon after it was released and it still works perfectly fine now. Sure the buttons on the 935/945 (the Mini) are not as crisp and precise as the Marq Athlete (the Role Royce), but they have always worked. It took a lot for me to move from the 920 as I still prefer the square form factor but I never regretted that move to the 935. Similarly, while there is no real imperative to move from the 935 to the 945, the addition of maps and music was plenty enough reason. And the buttons work as expected - I push them I get the expected function.

As an 'active' user of the watch, in other words I exercise up to 6 days a week for between 10 to 15 hours, battery life is never a problem. I regularly connect to Garmin Express to synch data. However, there has been plenty enough charge to go away for a long weekend (3 or 4 days) and record 12 hours of GPS activity and have plenty of battery left. I simply cannot get interested in worrying how many days of battery I'll get purely using the watch as a smart watch. If I wanted a smart watch I'd buy one. I bought a sports watch with smart functions.

Well, if buttons are clicky when you buy them it's not unrealistic to expect them to remain that way... Even though they keep working the feedback was just not as nice with my 935 after a while. In the end I was not bothered too much, but it's still not how it should be... Now with the 945 the buttons are clicky again, which is simply a nice and comfortable feeling.

And it might not be the absolute most expensive sports watch, it's still top-level so you may expect top level construction and functionality.

Anyway, I received my 945 a few days ago so a bit early to judge, coming from a 935... Not as ecstatic as I hoped but overall satisfied I guess. I also am with Garmin for a few years now, so know how it goes... And I also expect and believe things to only get better from now on.

But I do understand if ppl are not as happy as I might be.

My question is that did they ever even tested it before release. Launched such a buggy and low quality watch and asking 600$. 

Comparsion with Rolls and Mini is little bit weird. It's a still 600$ watch not 100-200$, why should I make any compromises with non-working/promised functionality or built quality?

The $600 is a lot of money for a watch.  It is the top of the line in their sports watches.  For that price there shouldn't be any question about the build quality.  I know for some people the 'mushy' buttons are fine, but I don't think they should be 'fine'.  There are times when I'm running and have to stop and I press the button that I have to look down and make sure that it actually pushed the button because there is no tactile response.  

I bought my first Garmin in early May 2019 from REI- Fenix 5X Plus. That watch was great, but a behemoth. I just exchanged it for the 945. I must say the OS experience is much better when it comes to calendar and other apps on the 945. Plus it's smaller and I have all of the same features the Fenix has at a lighter weight and footprint (Topo maps FTW!)

The only issue I see so far is the lack of Explore functionality missing in the 945. I am only saying these things because I am happier with the smaller form factor, updated UI and functionality and additional Firstbeat features on the 945 over the Fenix. If I had to guess we will get a Fenix (6)? by the end of the year. I have also learned that Garmin doesn't really update their OS beyond some bug fixes and maybe a new feature here or there. But for example, the Fenix won't get the 945 OS with the updated features (not including Firstbeat, but that calendar is sooo much better). 

If you get a Fenix you are already getting a watch that's a year old with less features. IMO, it makes more sense to use the 945. But I am a new guy to Garmin and I haven't really experienced all of the issues yet as seen in this forum. Maybe I am still in the honeymoon phase. 

Chad

I don't really mean to knock Garmin in general, I've used Garmin for 10+ years and in general I've been happy.  I'm just a little disappointed in the build quality of the 945 overall and wondering if the new software and features are good enough to justify keeping it over an F5+.