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Upgrade decisions from FR935 to ...

gtom
over 5 years ago

My couple weeks of testing multiple watches during upgrade decisions from FR935. Maybe it will help someone. :-) Posting it in 945 forum for a reason written at the end of this post.

Polar Vantage

Size and weight is similar to FR9xx maybe a touch heavier but I didn’t notice a difference wearing it on my wrist. The strap however which came with Vantage was an absolute joke. Sturdy, rough and very unpleasant to wear. Garmin’s stock strap in FR9xx series is miles ahead. Sure, one can replace it but top of the line watches should come with a solid strap.

oHR - resting, all-day readings were OK. oHR during a couple of steady runs on my smaller wrist was all over the place. Polar reading 30-40 bpm higher, constantly locking to cadence. I tried both wrists, wearing on the top and the bottom of my wrist to no avail. oHR on steady runs with FR935 were within couple of bpm to chest strap.

GPS track in the backcountry and in the city similar to 935. Some sections spot on, some sections way off. Nothing to write home about.

Software on the watches. Customization of sport profiles is almost as good as on Garmin’s. Yet it can only be done in Polar Flow which has its pros and cons. The buttons are of very poor build quality. There is almost no click feeling. Button’s height is quite low not much above the shell. That makes navigation during a run quite difficult. Workout pause screen is another roadblock. When you hit the pause, you can’t check your stats. All you can see is the pause screen. No audio feedback for laps only vibration. You almost can’t feel that vibration so if you want to check lap stats you will likely miss 9 out of 10.

All-day HR tracking shows just actual HR and min, max values for a day. Also all the widgets are preset and can’t be removed or reordered.

I had a quick look on Vantage V as suggested by 

  • Better buttons than Vantage M
  • I'm using Stryd and Polar don't use pace, distance from Stryd if GNSS is enabled. It seems like software limitation but currently there are no plans for a change.
  • Only Bluetooth, no ANT+
  • No Topo maps
  • No on-board music

Both Vantage V and 945 are at similar price here and both with 2 years warranty. For my usage Vantage V vs. FR945. I would get the same performance at the same price but without ANT+, Topo Maps, Music storage and Contactless Payments. None of these features is a dealbreaker for me expect Topo maps. Those are quite useful for trail race navigation on a course with poor course signs. Should the Vantage V be priced better in our market it would be a big contenter for FR945 in my decision process for sure. 


Suunto 9

When I put them on the first time I realized what’s the definition of big watches. These are really big and noticeably heavier. I see why Suunto is not much into all-day activity tracking or sleep tracking development. There is no chance I would put these on voluntarily for sleep tracking. :-)

Widgets are preset and can’t be removed or reordered. Customization here is very limited.

Customization of activity profile is also close to zero. Suunto has like 100 predefined profiles (16 for running) which can’t be modified. If you want specific information on the watches and your needs don’t fit into those predefined (very likely) you have to create your own profile. However custom profiles are limited to only 4 screens and that’s 3 custom screens + 1 occupied by navigation screen. Software is a huge limitation to this "top of the range" watches. Pause screen is better than on Polar, at least you can see some summary stats (time, distance, battery level, ...) yet you can’t look at your preconfigured custom screens.

Fenix 6x

Watches are of similar size of Suunto 9 but fits better on my wrist. 93g is noticeable jump from 50g of FR9xx. I could feel the difference in everyday use and during run workouts. Maybe it's just me not be accustomed to "bigger" watches. This unit had perfect buttons, clicky not sticky or mushy. Perfect. Larger screen is nice however you won’t get more map on the screen compared to FR945. That’s a bit disappointing. Map is probably the only screen where the larger display size matters for me. I don’t need 8 fields on single screen neither do I need larger font. The screen font on 945 is perfectly readable and actually a big improvement to 935. Data fields, font and screen ergonomics far ahead of Suunto and Polar.

Fenix 6 Pro

After I realize F6x is too big and gave Fenix series one more shot with F6 Pro. Whilst only 10g lighter the actual feel is closer to FR945 than F6x on my wrist. Also its less bulky. Screen size, font is bigger than on FR945 but not a selling point for me as data readability and visibility is the same on both for me. FR9xx fit was a bit better for my wrist and hold rock solid during my trail mountain running, flat run sessions. Fenix 6 had to be really tight or it would just wobble on my wrist too much. I could wear FR9xx strap looser without these problems.  If one cares, the Fenixes are prettier for casual wearing. I could wear Fenixes on a hike or mountain trip. If you don't care about the looks and your focus is on sports tracking, performance the 945 nails it.

I didn’t want to go for straight upgrade 935 to 945. Took my time and explored other options. However it seems that there was a good reason why I picked up 935 over 2 years ago and those reasons still stands. My training composition and gear requirement didn’t change that much. I’ll keep the FR945 as a daily driver for an upcoming seasons. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    You have compared the Vantage M, and not the Vantage V.

    The M is cheaper, and shouldn’t be compared to a 935/945.

    The V adresses all the issues that you are pointing out, plus it is good looking, has great GPS, has power and will soon have new features seen in the Ignite. The touchscreen is deactivated during activity and the control buttons are of a very good quality.

    I moved away from Garmin to Polar (Vantage V) and I am not regretting it a single second. Out of the box, my watch was working rock solid.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    How big is your budget?

    Which one best meets your needs now?

    They are the only questions I deem relevant. But then I don’t look at form over function either as long as it does what I want it to do.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to RemiM

    Yes, I had Vantage M as my understanding has been the GPS chipset and oHR sensor are the same on both models. I knew the V has barometer and audio feedback. Whether vibration feedback is better, stronger than on M...?

    Is the pause screen implemented differently on V? That was quite an issue, stopping to check the stats and seeing just a blank screen "Pause". :-) I could see they put better buttons on higher model, will try to find a test unit to give it a try and see if they are that much different.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to gtom

    The GPS is really good on my V. Literally really good. There was a chipset software update in March that improved things massively.

    Next month, another chipset update will be pushed, bringing Galileo + all the Ignite features.

    I use a OH1 as my daily running HR sensor. This is for me the best compromise in term of comfort and accuracy. I did however tried the 245 vs the V using the wrist sensor during the same runs: none of then are perfect, to be expected, but the Polar sensor got all my intervals including short ones. The 245 was always behind. Sorry to say this on a Garmin 945 forum, but I also tried a 945 on a hike, and my HR was stuck at 75-80bpm when my V was oscillating between 110-120bpm. I was clearly not idling at 75-80bpm.

    The pause screen is a pause screen. Not a summary screen. Personally, I have never paid attention to it. And I am not expecting the pause screen to show a summary. It comes to personal preference I guess.

    All that said, the Vantage series had a bad start with missing features and clumsy GPS. The mainstream medias, whether good or not, have been tough on Polar. I agree on that. But today the Vantage series is a complete different animal.

    The truth is that my Vantage V is a gorgeous watch, with an excellent build quality, reliable and always ready to go (long lasting battery).

    Also, it is worth mentioning that in Canada my Vantage V comes with a 2 years international warranty. Garmin only offers 1 year.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Did you look at the Apple Watch at all? I've been looking at similar watches myself, due to major issues with the 935 and now 945 (cracked HRM). 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to kitenski

    I went from a forerunner 630 to an apple watch series 3 with cellular. I liked the idea of being able to stream music. But after 2 years I’ve switched back to a forerunner 945. 

    In terms of GPS, OHR there isn’t much between the Apple Watch and the forerunner. But these things really started to bug me about the Apple Watch:

    • When starting a run it would always count down for 3 seconds. Really annoying when you just want to press go and it starts.
    • It also doesn’t tell you if GPS is ready. Often it took 10-15 seconds after the start of a run for the GPS to work. 
    • Intervals were really tricky. The default activity app was rubbish for them. You had to use another app which you had to pay for. To get the activity app to record an interval you need to double tap the screen. Really hard to do when you are running fast!
    • Battery life. If you went for a run every day you needed to charge the watch every day. The battery life is terrible.
    • apart from vo2 it didn’t give you any other running metrics. But you only got vo2 if you used the OHR which I never used as it’s not as accurate as a heart rate strap. 
    • apps. I didn’t really find many good apps for the watch. That might change now apple have allowed 3rd party providers to use cellular (rather than the phone) - that was restricted to apple only. 

    The Apple Watch was much better at:

    • music - really easy if you used apple music
    • screen quality was much better
    • I could make calls without my phone as well, but I hardly ever did that.
    • Apple Pay was handy too as hardly any UK banks support Garmin pay.

    Am I happier with the forerunner 945 - yes absolutely. As a runner it is a much better watch with all the info you get and the music works well on it too. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to jeomorris
    jeomorris said:
    • When starting a run it would always count down for 3 seconds. Really annoying when you just want to press go and it starts.
    • It also doesn’t tell you if GPS is ready. Often it took 10-15 seconds after the start of a run for the GPS to work. 
    • Intervals were really tricky. The default activity app was rubbish for them. You had to use another app which you had to pay for. To get the activity app to record an interval you need to double tap the screen. Really hard to do when you are running fast!
    • Battery life. If you went for a run every day you needed to charge the watch every day. The battery life is terrible.
    • apart from vo2 it didn’t give you any other running metrics. But you only got vo2 if you used the OHR which I never used as it’s not as accurate as a heart rate strap. 
    • apps. I didn’t really find many good apps for the watch. That might change now apple have allowed 3rd party providers to use cellular (rather than the phone) - that was restricted to apple only. 

    So I've made the jump, from what I've found, you can just tap the screen to cancel countdown anyhow

    I also found a WorkOutDoorsApp that shows GPS signal and also has really good mapping, used it for a trail run on new paths yesterday and it worked very well.


    Yeah battery life could be interesting, I'm wearing it overnight and charging in the morning at the moment.