With the new firmware can anyone recommend the 955 over F7?

Noooo big NO! 

I had a Fenix 7 standard. I was happy with it! It was heavy but replacing the original strap for a nylon onne made it much lighter. I'm so sad it was stolen. So I bought a 955 standard believing it would be the same but lighter, cheaper and with the benefit of multi band. 

It has less touch functionality and I miss the Fenix watch face with lots of data where you can touch data to go to widget / glance. Btw 955 still didn't even get the glance folders. 

Fenix 7 has many more sport modes that Garmin excluded from the 955. 

955 has crap flimsy buttons with false clicking unless you press hard. F7 had good buttons.

Finally, my F7 GNSS accuracy was great with all satellites. With the 955 I'm having issues with sports other than running, even with all + multi band. 

The solar glass/screen has worse visibility, that's why I chose standard ones. But you can change yours for an standard F7 or an Epix.

Gr4z said:

Can anyone now say with the latest firmware (as of October 2022) that the 955 is a good buy over the F7?

and here I am looking to replace my 955 with an F7X or Enduro2. For the last 5 months I've had the distinct feeling that the FR955 is the unloved stepson at Garmin. It's taken that long for the firmware to get to the point it should have been at release. And there are still numerous bugs. Experience wise it is certainly not just a smaller plastic version of the F7.

The reason I haven't upgraded yet is the still(!) lacking TrueUp support for things like HRV. They overlap their products to encourage you to buy multiple devices and at the same time don't properly implement a way to seamlessly synchronize data across them 

It's closer with the latest beta firmware but no, certainly not on par with the F7 or epix2 line yet at all SW wise imo...

For me the weight/size etc (and price kinda) outweighed the SW disadvantages and even though it still feels as the underdeveloped child of the F7/E2 it's now at least a mature enough watch.

I don't face that many issues anymore (except for LTHR not updating, but that seems a more common thing across watches) but where the touch functionlaity and sw on the F7/E2 is way more streamlined and finetuned it's still quite rudementary on the 955.

I do like the watch now overall, but have been tempted to get a F7 quite a few times...

Thank you all - this has perfectly answered my question. It's a 'NO'!

I do hope the Fenix 8 comes with an option to have Sapphire without the gimmck that is Solar. Living in the UK its practically useless, darkens the screen and the solar ring is plain ugly.

totally associate with this perspective. when the fenix7/epix2, i had watch lust and was contemplating one of them, but i was glad i waited for the 955. while it's not fully up to SW of the fenix7, i appreciate it's weight, and at the price point, it's a bargain for its functionality.

i have never had a problem with the durability of the FR series and i have used a tempered glass protector on the 955 and all my prior ones. the buttons have always been hit or miss on the FR series (although i know my friend with his Fenix 6 went through several exchanges and was never satisfied either which was strange to me-- i never felt them firsthand). the buttons on my 955 are serviceable and i trust that they will last just like they did on my 935 without fail and if they do, Garmin will make good on things.

my only real hope is for them to improve the touch screen implementation and the solar widget. if they do those, i will probably "lock that firmware" and happily live with this watch for four years.

Yes solar is gimmick and so is sapphire when it decreases MIP screen visibility. 

Garmin messed Fenix7 and Epix2 line when they made multi band and 32gb only in the sapphire versions. 

FR955 is great in hardware but they messed it in software.

Is the sapphire screen really that bad? I noticed that none of the big reviewers mention it at all. Most of the small time reviewers who buy the watch themselves do comment on it. So now I'm even more undecided as I haven't seen them in the hand. Can't you just turn up the backlight a bit higher?

I agree! every new software release spoils something. Now heart rate paired with heart strap not working.

Are you talking about FR 955 and with the current firmware 12.27?? Because my HRM works very fine.