PoHq:

 

the 6X Sapphire.

 

May god have mercy on your wallet.

muppet:

 

Most complaints seem to be from people who seem to expect it's going to be 100% accurate in everything it does.  If you're the sort of person that's going to get annoyed because it doesn't record your naps (it doesn't) or it says you ran 48.74km when you know for a fact it was really 48.83km, then this watch isn't for you.   If you need it to record every single heartbeat with 100% accuracy, this watch isn't for you. I will find (as I found with my Fitbit before it) that if I suddenly go from sitting still to running up the hill outside work, the wrist heartrate won't pickup my HR going through the roof instantly (chest strap will though)

 

......

 

Great input.

On the quote above, I would argue this isn't limited to Garmin devices but all wearables. Seriously, the number of people who complain about poor GPS accuracy in heavily built up urban areas or heavily wooded forests is incredible. Its like they don't understand how GPS works!

muppet:

 

PoHq:

 

Superb info thank you very much. Aside from Garmin pay which will be very useful I'm happy at the lack of "smart" features. Just a bit less in your face than a constantly dinging with smartphone notifications true smart watch.

 

 

Yes, I like that it's very easy to either

 

a) Just turn off the BT between the watch and the phone (saves you battery life too) or

 

b) Turn on the DND function, which will stop you getting notifications from your phone and also (if you have it turned on) the reminders to get up and move etc.

 

Additionally to the above, you can also fully customise which apps pass their notifications through to the watch so you can limit the wrist vibration to only what you really want to know about.

It's not an all or nothing thing, though you can do that too.

My 645 m seems to get reasonably regular updates

davidcole:

 

 

 

Mine seems the other way, the 645 seems to be this weird forgotten child.  It looked like it had more features than the similarly priced 245 (barometric pressure) but I've had it a year now, and not sure it's actually fully had a firmware update yet.

 

 

 

PoHq:

 

Wow thanks guys awesome feedback. A few things from the combined posts so far

 

Yes they are insanely expensive but a completely different product to a fitbit or even an Apple Watch, to me it's a multi sport watch as oppose to a smart watch, the lack of touch screen is a plus for me not a negative

 

I had stumbled upon DCRainmaker and Desfit thanks for that

 

Happy to see the positive feedback......pretty sure I'll be getting one at some point, the Fenix 6x sapphire is my chosen model if I go ahead, I am more concerned about scratching it than solar

 

One of my main concerns which nobody has mentioned is Garmins support and their fix one thing break 2 others when releasing new firmware, happy to hear this hasn't been an issue for anybody here

 

Cheers

 

For a general "fitness" watch do take a look at the Huawei Watch GT. It's not a Garmin Fenix but fairly comparable with something like the Vivoactive. I went from a Vivoactive (the original) to a Huawei Watch GT and have been very happy.

If you are a more serious athlete it's not much chop but for a tracking walks/runs etc it works well.

stocksp:

My 645 m seems to get reasonably regular updates

 

davidcole:

 

Mine seems the other way, the 645 seems to be this weird forgotten child.  It looked like it had more features than the similarly priced 245 (barometric pressure) but I've had it a year now, and not sure it's actually fully had a firmware update yet.

 

The Fenix 5x sapphire is over on sportpursuit for GBP266 (so about NZD500). 

Sportpursuit are legit, occasionally a little slow to post (but they do give an estimated dispatch date, you just need to actually read it).

So far I haven't been caught for taxes on anything from SP. I do like to buy local but it's that old thing when if they are half the price I don't always resist...

b

The Fenix 5 is getting very long in the tooth now. Even the 5 Plus has been around for a long time so I wouldn't want to be buying anything older than the 6 which was released about a year ago.

alasta:

 

The Fenix 5 is getting very long in the tooth now. Even the 5 Plus has been around for a long time so I wouldn't want to be buying anything older than the 6 which was released about a year ago.

 

True, but it works fine and will do for a while yet. It depends on what you're after. I know a number of people still running FR920's and Fenix 3HR's.

SheriffNZ:

 

True, but it works fine and will do for a while yet. It depends on what you're after. I know a number of people still running FR920's and Fenix 3HR's.

 

True, but they most likely bought their FR920's and Fenix 3HR's years ago, and have enjoyed great use of them. In that time that has past since, better watches have been released. While those people may not want to upgrade, I wouldn't recommend that a new buyer into the segment invest in a watch that is soon to be 4 years old. 

PoHq: Update. Got a fenix 6X sapphire couple of days ago.

First time Garmin owner so bit of a learning curve but pretty impressed with it so far.

Had my Instinct for over a year and still learning new things about it.  :-)