Is the FR955 really that bad?

it guess it all comes down to what specifically you are looking for in the running functionality. for me (a 54 year old rec runner who is trying to just stay healthy but not racing nor do i use Lactate Threshold measurements purposefully), it's been a great watch. i'm running the current 15.15beta and after 11 months, i think all of the big bugs that bothered me are now gone and i am pleased with my watch. i have had mild temptation to upgrade to a 965, but am pretty sure i won't since day-to-day, the MIPS display works well for me.

i'd ask you: what running features do you need?

ones i really have found especially good on the 955Solar (i previously owned a 945LTE, 935, 735XT, 210) are:

- multiband GPS is excellent and super accurate. i typically run All Satellites which burns about 3%/hour when using a chest HRM...using optical, its probably 3.5%/hour

- light and i don't notice it's there. it is fairly thick (one thing the 965 improves on) but i don't wear dress shirts often and gotten used to it.

- maps for fantastic for when i run in a new town (traveling) and also when i'm hiking and backpacking.

for Smart watch use: i use 20% brightness backlight that goes on after sunset, wifi off, pulse ox off, and depending on the watch face, it uses 5-7%/day. i know there are some people on this forum who have gotten it down to 3%/day if you go with a minimal face which doesn't update often with not many metrics. but i like having a lot of data in front of me, so i use something like Big Easy which burns 7+%/day if seconds are on always or 6-7% if i let it work just with gesture. a couple other favorite faces use a bit less.

i also use about 5 hrs of GPS a week. i could go for 10-12 days if i run it down to 0%, but i typically charge once a week when it falls into the 20-30% range in order to keep my battery in top top shape.

hope this helps.

Thanks for that detailed response Derek, your usage sounds very similar to mine and I also use a chest HRM on my runs. Auto select is also what I use for my GPS on my Enduro and find it very accurate! Battery usage of your FR955 seems more than adequate for my usage and good to know it’s a nice and light watch. Like you the FR965 does seem tempting but I’m so used to the MIP display and like my watch face to be always visible without the battery taking a hit from AOD with the amoled screen. 

be aware of battery life with the FR965. The different kind of display use more power as i have been told. To answer your question: I am having no issues with the FR955, am a very happy user with similar usage like your description and derek87. Usually I also play music during longer runs. With music playback, run activity on and GPS all systems/multiband on, it consumes about 12% an hour. Just as a smatwatch (no activities) it is about 6%/day

glad to share my experiences.

I haven't found Auto GPS that useful in my situation. it doesn't seem to use any less than All Satellites for my use case (running in and out of tree cover) so I just stick with All Satellites since it uses seemingly a little less power in the few tests I've run against Auto, and I'm satisfied with the accuracy (most notably, instantaneous pace) with All Satellites.

No it's not (anymore)...

It took a while for the watch to reach this status though, not meaning it was useless before but it did not live up to it's potential or the price tag. Depending on your usage it MIGHT have not been properly usable for some users at that time, but overall it's pretty well evolved by now (then again, it's been out of almost a year now so you'd hope so!)

Anyway, batterylife... I use none of the smartwatch options (notifications and such) but have wiif/bt on all the time, no pulsox, a custom but efficient watchface, low birghtness, etc. I have to charge every ~12 days to 2 weeks I'd say. This with an avg of 3-4 hrs of GPS (multiband+all) a week.

Since recently you can indeed tap icons on (stock) watchfaces to launch widgets. Custom watchfaces CAN support this too but is up to the developer te implement.

My main gripes were that navigation was messed up (one of my reasons for specifically choosing this watch so a major gripe for me) in the sense of not being able to navigate to saved locations or before that select a location on the map. For me an issue, for others no issue at all.

Lactate threoshold detection was/is iffy, for me an issue... not for others (though that might have been fixed by now as well, bit harder to validate and test though).

Others might have had other issues, causing it to be pretty bad for them specifically but no issue at all for me, etc.

But since the most recent releases, guess like a month ago when the navigation issue was fixed, the watch performs as I'd hope and expect (so yeah, it took almost a year but ok). Currently I don;t think I have any gripes with it anymore, it feels stable, most issues have been addressed, battery is fine, it's responsive, etc.

Would you have asked if I could recommend it half a year ago? Then I'd say no, but now I'd say yeah... Especially if you can get it for a good price (paid full price myself, which added insult to injury ;) )

Btw, I've owned many garmin watches and this was the first one giving such a bad taste...

great comprehensive and thoughtful summary FlipStone.

I also feel the watch finally, in this latest 15.15beta (which I assume will become public release soon) resembles the watch we paid for last June when it was released. 

I think that's the frustrating thing for many folks: many of the promised features were broken out of the gate and/or broken by firmware updates that were subsequently released in the interest of adding new features. IMHO, i am ok in general with not having a ton of new features added after purchase as long as the advertised feature set from the released product work and don't get broken by firmware updates. (I also acknowledge that many people by Garmin's with the expectation that new features may come in the 1-2 years after purchase/release)

in my experience, this has been probably the worst of Garmin's releases I've owned, although the 945LTE was similarly problematic for the year I owned it (I sold it to a friend when I bought the 955 solar, and only around that time was it stable and delivering on the advertised feature set and functionality). the 935 before that was better overall although if I recall, it has some zany bugs like the alarms not working. my 735XT and 210 before that were trouble free, but of course, had less bells and whistles to break.

on my 935, at one point, I "locked it" at a firmware when felt subsequent new features introduced weren't of too great an interest to me, and seeing reports of new bugs/decreased battery endurance. I may follow that path with the 955 at some point.

No, I like my FR 955. But that's my personal view - I use the watch mostly for hiking and navigation. GPS is excellent, and no crashes so far during an activity.

May I ask which watchface you're using?

Well, I would say that Flipstone is using his own watchface 

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/23d0c24a-4592-484b-8dfc-a84912032d45

I tend to have about 4-8 hours of GPS use per week. I have the GPS mode as multiband+all satellites enabled. WiFi is on. Bluetooth on. Notifications are on. Pulse ox during sleep only.

I don't use it for music, preferring to use my phone for that. Brightness is at 10%.

I charge it when I have a shower or bath. During the mid-range (between 25% and 90%) it charges at about 1% per minute.

I hardly ever let it charge it to 100%, and it's never gone below 25%. I might give it a boost charge (to 90%) before a long run or walk of 3 hours, just to be sure.

A Half Marathon solo run on Friday 28 April (plus a wait at the chip shop for my fish and chips order) drained the watch from 92% to 80% over 2h39m. Average solar intensity was 12% during that session. The run itself was a slower one, at 2h17m. That's about 4.5% battery drain per hour.