Fenix 5 Conversion Club

F5 Sapphire (regular) felt on my small wrist significantly heavy. I needed a lot of getting used to wear it 24/7. On the other hand, FR 935 felt very comfortable from the get go, not only because of lower weight, but also the profile is noticeably lower, which helps watch not to move on the wrist.

Yeah, that was half of the issue - it kind of stands far off the wrist, and moves about when I move my arm.

- Tim

I guess the move from the 5x to the 935 would be pretty substantial. I changed from the Fenix5 to the 935 but liked the F5 more as a watch... The 935 functions better though which is why I moved to that one.

The first day or 2 I had to get used to the F5 a bit, weight and size wise (came from the 735xt) but after that it felt just fine and quite nice (also wearing it during sleep). The 935, I hardly notice at all. And it would fit much better under sleeves and all... It just feels cheaper then the F5 though.

Convinced that the 935 is a better sport watch I sent back my F5.

In the past I did many comparision runs and even the OHR was superior to the F5. Maybe because of its lightweight. The watch doesn't move so much on your wrist compared to the F5.

Now I did a 10k last sunday and was badly disapointed. The OHR recording was a total mess and even the additional recording of my chest strap via AuxiliaryHeartRate datafield didn't work. I lost the ANT-connection and only recorded about 2min somewhere in the middle of the race.
That never happened before.

Now I can conclude that the 935 OHR is also far from perfect and the GPS accurace concerning the tracks is most of the times better than the F5 but total distance and lap pace isn't better.

So, what to do!?! For me, I sent back the 935 also and do not have any of them now.... I'm running with my old 910xt now and am feeling free as a bird... ;)

I'm looking for a special deal for a F5 now and get one again, I assume.... *crazy* After this I intend not to think of any comparision again and never visit this forum again and only be satisfied with the watch and run and run and run.... Simply start using this damn thing and stop thinking.... :cool:

Maybe I will smack the watch directly against a wall after unboxing to get a nice and decent mark on the bezel to make it impossible to return. ;););

Haha, well... to be honest. A single occurrence isn't saying too much of course...

I have had that with all my watches (TomTom Cardio, Forerunner 235 and Forerunner 735xt) , 9 out of 10 times OHR is doing fine (unless interval, then the odds go down bigtime ;) ) but there's this one run every now and then which acts screwed. Overall I trust it too work though, and I'd rather have OHR not working properly all the time then gps for example.

And indeed, I'm still attracted by the Fenix5 as well... But I DO train and run with certain paces, and the F5 really just couldn't deliver performance I could count on in that area. Overall pace and distance was ok, but actual tracking was mediocre.

Perhaps if I don't really want to train as strict or don't value that accuracy as much anymore I would be extremely happy with the F5, but at the moment not. But yeah, ignorance truely can be a bliss.

That's quite the saga ;-)

After giving the F5 a try I was going to go for the FR935 for all the reasons mentioned in this thread but I decided to be "reasonable" after finding that my FR235 did all I needed honestly. I don't think I'd go back to the FR610 as I like having a quick VO2Max estimate (for trending although you get an instant one in Runalyze) but mostly CIQ, with AHR and "Peter's Race Pacer" being must have's for me now.

"Peter's Race Pacer"

WEBVAN, thanks for the hint to peter's race pacer. Seems to be a nice datafield! I like the idea of corrected averages after pressing the lap button and also the possibility of missing out mile markers (as I usually do 2-3 times a race... :rolleyes::o )

hmmm... because this is not possible with my 910 I also have to switch to a CIQ-device again... :cool:

Hehe, best value for money would probably be an FR230 ? But I would miss the oHR. Anyway, terrific field indeed, I wouldn't start a race without it now and it's also useful for long tempo runs.

As I decided to return my F5 I did two last comparision runs. I included the actual pace datafield to my common display setup. I was astounded how well both paces of the 935 and F5 matches. To be honest, I run in open field environment. No heavy woods, no skyscrapers.

The gps accuracy of the F5 to track my records is good enough. Both during the run and afterwards in my sporttracks logfile. It is better than my old F3HR which I loved and used with fun for over 2000km. So personally I can live with this.

The ohr accuracy is good for slow recovery runs also for most of the runs. But to keep an accurate vo2max estimation I would still use always my scosche or garmin strap. In the future (if I get a garmin again!?) I will use two applications. The run application with additional strap on flat courses only and the trail application where the vo2max is not calculated. There I can use the OHR and maybe the AuxiliaryHeartrate-datafield for comparision.

By doint this I make sure to get a most accurate vo2max-estimation. Nice toy....

For races or speedworks I can revive my old garmin footpod also...

But as described earlier at the moment I don't have any of these overpriced nice-to-have watches and rely only on my 910xt... :cool:

Ah, that was not my experience but perhaps I had a bad unit or they fixed part of it in firmware updates. Meh, might give it another try in the future sometime, but for now I'll just stick with the 935...

I still have my F5 but it hasn't been turned on since I started wearing the 935. The 935 is so light, I don't even notice it's on my wrist. GPS tracks on both watches are good, but the 935's are outstanding. Average pacing on the 935 is very accurate with less variations then the F5. It makes me wonder if the Fenix and Forerunner groups use different algorithms to produce average pace.

I loved my F3, but my choices were the 920xt and later the 735x which were not remotely as nice looking as the F3. Between the 935 and F5, the better looking watch is not so clear IMO. I prefer the looks of 935. It's form matches it's function. There are no superfluous additions to the watch, though I do wish the grey hatch marks were more prominent like on the F5. When I look at the F5 I wonder, why the added bulk? Why the unnecessary screws? Why the metal bezel?

Another plus for the 935 is its chipset. Not only does it come standard with WiFi, but I find the bluetooth uploads to be significantly faster then the F3 and F5. I also have less sensor drop outs then the F5.

I have a year to return the F5 and the only reason I still have it is the fear that some new wiz bang device/feature will emerge that will be supported by th F5 and not the 935.