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Garmin, wake up: CORE features are in SHAMBLES

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

Happy New Year, everybody. This is not to stir the pot again, but my analysis of the situation with FR945. Former Member, thank you for working around the clock to deliver much-needed updates. This is just to start an important conversation.

945 is positioned as a "premium running/triathlon smartwatch with music" and is intended for "up-at-dawn runners and the conditioned-for-pain triathletes". However, the very CORE functions of the GPS watch seem to fail on and on with every software update. 

What's wrong?

- GPS accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. I'm quite sad that my 5 year old Polar M400 delivers better accuracy for 200 USD than a 2019 "premium smartwatch" for 600 USD. I have tried different GPS settings, I have prayed for clear skies, I have tested the watch in a city, in a field, in a forest and in different countries: GPS is always "meh". The saddest thing was when then watch has lost GPS during a swim and decided to simply stop tracking a triathlon I've been prepping all year for. 

- Multisport load tracking is broken for at least 3 versions of the firmware and makes not only triathlon load incorrect. It makes the whole "construct your own workout" concept obsolete. I made a gym workout from a Cardio + Strength + Cardio and my load doubled every time.

- Battery leaks are plentiful. I have not experienced this, but seen concerns around here for at least 2 previous firmware updates.

So why is this more important than your everyday customer complaints?

Wrong GPS readings paired with wrong load readings and meagre battery life make effective training impossible. I'm just a rookie, but I train 6-7 times a week with structured workouts across different disciplines, brick workouts and occasionally race. I need get the idea of a current pace that is not off by 1 minute. I have bought a 600 USD watch to help me train effectively in between work and other normal life commitments.

In short: CORE TRIATHLON FUNCTIONS DO NOT WORK RELIABLY.

Smaller things:

- Garmin Pay seems to be broken as of 3.70

- Android Notifications need to be re-enabled at least once a day from the phone

 

To sum-up

If we don't have reliable GPS readings, all the data becomes unreliable. One might say that "it can't be precise anyway", but then we don't beed Garmin to sell a 600 USD watch and claim it works, when in fact it does not deliver on the core promises. 

If you remove the GPS, the data, the Garmin Pay and the battery, what you get - is a glorified iPod Nano with a wrist-strap. 

Should you guys agree, I hope, this can start a conversation with Garmin re improving the above features with the help of the community.

Cheers!

 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    As far as I know the GPS issues are common for all devices (including Polar, Suunto, etc.) which feature the new Sony chipset. And that's why your older devices like the mentioned M400 or the Garmin F935 will usually outperform due to better hardware.

    But I don't know about the trade off, like hardware availability, size, power consumption etc. of the older Mediatek chipset, so it is hard to judge upon the decision to use the Sony. As all the other major manufactures also jumped on it (and still do), there might be a clear reason for that.

    Compared with the others, Garmin is not notably worse.

    Concerning the battery issue, this is under investigation by Garmin and I expect a firmware upgrade to fix it soon.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    Your "summary" is biased because it's an assumption that the 945 fails with these features for all. That is not the case. My GPS works quite well and I find it reliable, so my data is useful. I haven't had any battery issues (as you also stated) and my Android connection/notifications work flawlessly. I can't comment on Garmin Pay as I never bothered to set it up.  GPS is affected by weather, buildings, terrain, etc.  Excessive battery drain can be related to CIQ apps.  Android problems can be related to specific phones. These are all individually specific, so how would Garmin make changes to things out of their control?  To say it's a glorified iPod Nano with a wrist strap is ridiculous. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Made my vote. 

    But, I also don’t think this summery is correct, it’s more a sum up what could go / be wrong for some users. 

    For example, Garmin Pay works for me in Germany. Always. With latest release. Again always. No problem here.

    I agree on bad (lower) HR readings outside of activities. I see that this is frustrating because it messes up some other stats. But again this numbers are only estimations and I don’t care that much. On the sports side of things I always start an activity and also use a strap, because it’s sure that a strap will produce better numbers than an optical HR sensor. So, to sum up, this is one of the minor things I don’t care about. 

    Where I totally agree and I hope Garmin will do sth about it is the wrong Training load calculation on brick/multi sports workouts. That’s a shame.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    In my experience is not as bad as Oleg says but I have to admit I am a bit dissapointed with the device, expecially when compared with my previous FR935. I found GPS performing similar to FR935 but battery life is way worse. The FR945 is packed with a lot of fancy useless features (I like them, though) but I expected something better when I bought the watch regarding the main features.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I’ve only had the watch since late November, and granted I’ve never swam in mine (wife has though and has had no issues, albeit indoors..  little cold in Michigan to test the GPS!), but really haven’t had any issues with this watch.  Garmin Pay has never failed, I’m happy with the GPS on runs(ours are consisted with our friends who all have older Garmins), and neither of us have seen a battery that is any different than her old 935.   

    I do wonder if Garmin made some under the cover hardware updates to this watch; ours were so newly made when we got them the last week of November, they had the firmware on them that came before 3.9 (I think 3.3?).  

    Sorry to those having issues with this watch; hope Garmin sorts things out for you!  I can empathize; I’ve bought Garmins way too close to launch and been burned every time, so now I wait six months (at least) before pulling the trigger.  For as great as their watches are, their QA does their Forerunner line no favors in early versions of their watches.  

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Looks like there's no need to start a conversation with Garmin as the majority of those who've voted either disagree or see the issues as minor. 

    As a number of us constantly say, it's easy to lose perspective in these forums.  Most of the so called 'bugs' that get called out in post titles are far from that with many of them down to user problems. There are a few genuine issues that people experience, most of which get attended to pretty quickly. But still, it's hard to get past the hysterical outpourings of posturing grief and cries of faux disaster from some, to see what is a genuine issue and what is simply someone complaining because they can.

    And as for the older GPS chipsets out performing the newer Sony chipset? Well I can disagree and have recently demonstrated just that. I was looking back over a run that I did on Friday for the first time since 2015, and also picked up the same run recorded in 2012. Three different devices all recorded the distance of just over 10km to withing 50m of each other. I'm guessing the watch in 21012 would likely be the 310XT an the 2015 the 910 or possibly the 920. But the run on Friday was recorded with a F5+ and an F6 and were within 50m of each other. 

    HUMODDA said:
    Compared with the others, Garmin is not notably worse.

    The GPS is at least as good as the earlier devices, which I believe it is, and it's certainly no worse. The battery consumption realised by the new chipset is worth it. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I totally Agrre. I'm full satisfay of my 945. I use this very hardly from 8 mounth whithout any issue and a good precision of tracks (I went fron an Epix that is not so good), I use music very well, and track all my activity. No problems with battery. Ihad only the altidute freeze bug that now is fixet.  (I'm an amateur runner with 2h.17' in Marathon and 1h.03'31" at Half, and I am very exigeant in my devices).

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    It is not the core features that are in shambles but the Garmin ecosystem is very unstable. Most of the time, at least one of the components (watch, Garmin Connect mobile, Garmin Connect) is faulty or unreliable.