It's two years since Garmin Forerunner 935 was released. I'm really considering buying a 935 and I'm wondering if it's a good buy even if it's two years old. Will be used for most sports. Previously I had Polar M400 but I think I want to go for Garmin this time. Fenix is a bit over my budget. Wait until a new 945 comes along, or is it a good idea to buy 935 now?
I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate with Will. When compared to other Garmin devices, I think the it's priced appropriately. But then again "expensive" is personal perspective. I find the size is perfect. Not as heavy as the Fenix series, but bigger than the 645 or VA3 which looks a little feminine to me on those with larger wrist or hands. Again, personal perspective. One of the biggest selling points with the 935 is battery life. Adding music will definitely take away from this, so I'm against it unless Garmin does a 945 or 945M choice. And to beat a dead horse; personal perspective. :) When the 935's successor is released is anyone's guess anyway.
The best time to buy a 935 will be when its successor is released, as Garmin will drop the price of the 935. It will also have stable firmware at this point, unlike the new device (if Garmin's track record is anything to go by).
But I guess that is not really what you are asking. You are afraid that if you buy a 935 now you might potentially lose out on getting the latest and greatest product in a few weeks/months time. This is a risk that will always exist and you cannot really make a buying decision based on a future release of an as yet unknown product. You have to ask yourself if the current product at the current price satisfies your current needs. If the answer is yes then I would say the 935 is the right product to buy regardless of what might be around the corner.
Personally I dislike the 735XT because of: - Lack of true 24/7 HR monitoring. Newer watches sample once per second, 735XT samples every minute (or something like that) to save battery, because the HR sensor is less advanced and uses more energy. I've seen people complain that the 24/7 HR feature is useless because of this - Slow processor (UI will be just as slow as 230/630 era). You won't care until you use an app like dwMap which works but is as slow as molasses. I guess 735 has navigation so you wouldn't need dwMap anyway. But the difference between the 935 and those watches is like night and day, just for things like switching pages and scrolling through menus. - Big HR sensor bump - No barometer (strange for a TRI watch) - Last time I checked (a couple of years ago), weird quirk/bug where you can't change activity settings (like auto-lap) unless you pause the activity. I have no idea if this has been fixed/changed.
If you are on a budget, I would just get the 235 or wait for a hypothetical 245 to come out.
Yes, if and when the 945 comes out, you can expect anywhere from 6-12 months of headaches as the initial bugs get worked out, unless you literally do nothing with it except: Select Run > Press START > Run for a while > Press START again > Save your activity.
I only joined the forums because I bought a 935.... The best part will be the vocal minority who insists "You're doing it wrong, my 945 is totally fine!!! It's your fault for installing apps/pressing the wrong button/using a feature nobody else uses/changing a setting nobody else changes!"
The best part will be the vocal minority who insists "You're doing it wrong, my 945 is totally fine!!! It's your fault for installing apps/pressing the wrong button/using a feature nobody else uses/changing a setting nobody else changes!"
Aquini what features do you actually want. In my opinion the 935 has all you really need. I have gone from 935 to fenix 5+ and see no advantage for my training just a shorter battery life and a heavier bulkier watch with less accurate GPS. If you don't want maps or music its a perfect buy.
I have been talking about this for a few weeks now since my now two years old 935 is starting to show it's age. Should I buy another 935 to replace my old one? Should I bite the bullet and move up to the Fenix + line, move down to the 645? Or wait for something new (see the link below). Right now, with those FCC filings still open, I'm going to wait and see if some of those end up new Tri-watches. Either they are code for the 945 or a re-imagining of Tri-watches in some fashion.
I'd say wait a month or so from this posting to see what Garmin puts out and potentially pick up the latest device with the most up-to-date support. If that doesn't matter to you and the 935 does everything you need it to do for your type of training, you'll be hard pressed to find a better watch for the price point the 935 is at (I've seen it sub $400 on Amazon from time to time).
It's two years since Garmin Forerunner 935 was released. I'm really considering buying a 935 and I'm wondering if it's a good buy even if it's two years old. Will be used for most sports. Previously I had Polar M400 but I think I want to go for Garmin this time. Fenix is a bit over my budget. Wait until a new 945 comes along, or is it a good idea to buy 935 now?
I would buy it! I bought mine (tri bundle edition) last July and today i would buy it again. It's is a Fénix 5 (Sapphire edition, with wifi) in a plastic "case". Great functionalities and battery like the Fénix 5. Maybe Fénix only wins in processing speed, but not that much. I'm considering buying a second watch, but when i think in another garmin "training" watch, i become to the conclusion that it is more of the same. And Fénix could only win with maps, but the X PLUS is much very expensive. Something diferent for me would be Vivomove HR or Instinct. Anything else is just like FR935 but not that good for training for more than a week with no concern about battery life.
Now is the best time to buy the 935! The firmware finally is mature and stable, all functions live up to their expectation and the watch truly delivers!! I am ABSOLUTELY glad it does not feature any of that music junk (which hopefully stays restricted to the vivoactive line) or NFC payment. All those functions only add up to complexity and potential for failures. I am perfectly happy to have a no-bullshit watch which focuses on the core disciplines of sports without any extra mumbo-jumbo. Especially, because the watch is lighter and slimmer than the Fenix5 counterpart, which is a no-go for me due to weight and metal case.
Consider that until now, every single new Garmin product needed about one year to achieve somewhat usable state with a stable firmware. The 935 successor will be no difference, if it will be released this year, expect it to be usable somewhen late next year. IF you want a watch now, do yourself a favour and get a perfectly suitable 935.
