I have owned a Garmin 935 from almost when they 1st came out. Before the 935 I have a Fenix 3 HR, before that a Garmin 920XT and others before.
I really want to like the the 935, I love the size and weight of it, the battery life, the fit, the operating system and I like the idea of what its meant to do - I say idea of what its meant to do because I find it horribly unreliable. I have a spoken to Garmin support many times and I have even been sent a replacement watch and I have always been on top of updates, but I have no resided the fact that the watch is not very good by design.
Like everyone else I have massive problems with the Altimeter, every activity I record that is on land I get inaccurate information about altitude. My Altitude may start out correctly (I will often re-calibrate before an activity as its reading wrong), but the activity will always end with -36 or something like that. Why or why Garmin can my watch only use the Altimeter for Altitude? Your cheaper watches use GPS and I have found this far more accurate (my GF's watches she has had).
9 out of 10 sea swims I will get poor GPS data from, its usually very erratic, it usually looks like its only recorded half the distance or just draws dead straight or erratic lines. I have tried all satellite combinations but no luck. Sea swimming is probably the biggest failure of the watch. My GF's cheaper 735XT usually has no problems with sea swims.
Any running or cycling activities that might be over 4 hours - there will be a high chance of GPS failures here. GPS may drop signal for 5 - 10 minutes for no reason, in broad day light with no hills or trees in sight. I have also seen my GPS say i'm riding 100kms per hour when i'm stood still. Once again I have not seen these issues on my GFs 735XT. I have tried many different settings and satellite combinations but no good.
I have a few friends that own this watch but they don't see any issues, but they use their 935's for running and usually nothing longer than a couple hours.
So why dont I switch to a 735 you ask? Well I need the long capacity of the battery as many of my activities are long distance.
What do other people use and do that may have the same issues as me? Do you recommend other watches and what watches? The Fenix 3HR I felt too big on my wrist and caused me a bit of pain on my skinny wrists. I have heard the Fenix 5 has problems too, I dont know anything about the Fenix 5 Plus except its very expensive.
