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Forerunner 935 vs Vivoactive 3

kstate1980 over 7 years ago

I bought the Vivoactive 3 after my Vivoactive HR broke. I having few issues and considering and upgrade to the 935 and have a few questions.

It seems as the VA3 is constantly disconnecting from my Google Pixel which hardly ever happened with the VAHR.

Does the 935 have any Bluetooth connectivity issues?

My Garmin Cadence sensor does not connect when I start a bike activity and I have to connect it manually. Once connected it seems to be constantly dropping and reconnecting.

Does the 935 have any issues Ant+ connectivity?

When in an outdoor bike activity the batter drains approximately 50% in 2 hours. As an endurance gravel cyclist I need to get 10 hours plus runtime which was not an issue with the VAHR

What are the real world runtimes of 935 in an outdoor bike activity?

I was considering a Fenix 5 but, from what I understand there are some issues with Ant+ connectivity that might not be happening with the 935.

Any real world experience is most welcome.

0 Browner40 over 7 years ago

There are no bluetooth or ant+ connectivity issues that i know of. I ride with vector 2 pedals, speed sensor, and varia radar all the time. The 935 can potentially do any activity for up to 24 hours. I have personally used it on a HIM triathlon for 7 hours and still had over 60% battery life with no power saving settings selected. The 935 does everything a Fenix 5 can do but with a lighter weight and none of the antenna or connectivity issues that come with a metal bezel. The price is significantly higher but you definitely get what you pay for.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

My 935 never disconnects from my phone.

Battery life is way better than VA3. I get 7 days and 4 rounds of golf out of it.

I bought the VA3 for golf and none of the features worked. 935 seems much further along in maturity. I agree with Browner40. I hated having to spend the additional money, but it is a better watch.

0 iLuvGadgets over 7 years ago

I have connectivity issues with my Asus Zenfone 3. It disconnects during the night so in the morning I have to restart my phone. It disconnects sometimes during the day as well.
But I don't think it's a Garmin issue. I have also the epix and a 235. Both of them disconnected from time to time.
Now my wife is using the 235 with an iPhone 6 and it never disconnects.

So it leads me to think it's the Nougat with some sort of battery power management in my Zenfone 3.
I just stopped wasting time trying to search for a solution. I might get an iPhone in the future.

0 Sergey_Kessel over 7 years ago

1. Bluetooth connection is a phone issue, not Garmins. So it is possible you get it with 935.
2. No issues with ANT+ sensors in 935 (there are some in F5 which is the same hardware I think - possibly due to more metal in watch)
3. I do not think that 25% drain/ hour is normal for VA3. 13 hours stated - it shall last around 8-10hrs at least. Not 4. You might've light on (and on a high level), you might've some crappy ConnectIQ field.
VA shall last longer (although I wouldn't trust it for 10 hour events).

I had a battery issue with 935 - it drained maybe 12-15%/ hour running and almost 20% when pool swimming (!). Garmin issued a RMA for it.
It was just a faulty device.

Anyway, 935 has almost double battery compared to VA3 (24hrs vs 13 hrs). It will not be 24 hrs, I think (especially if you turn on glonass, backlight, livetrack and couple of datafields), and run during really cold conditions, but still sufficient for 10 hours (unless it is really cold outside).

I just got a replacemeent 2 weeks ago and charged it first on Day 9, having 1.5hours of pool and around 5-5.5 hours of runs outside (with backlight 5% always on for most of that time) and constant watch notifications.
And yes, initial "playing with watch" included in that 8 days
And, actually, I had to intentinally kill remaining 5% on the watch by turning GPS on (took around 1.5 hours of GPS search, I think - I was almost desperate waiting while it discharges).

Battery life will get worse over time (and pretty fast - a friend of mine had F5 which degraded from "7-9 days charges" to "5-7 days" in 3 months I think.

0 kstate1980 over 7 years ago

OK, the Forerunner 935 is on its way. There may be more features on the Forerunner than I need but, the basic functions for the Forerunner better meet my needs.