Fitness Watches?

[MillCreek]

https://www.rei.com/blog/news/new-garmin-fenix-5-plus-introduces-music-topo-maps-and-contactless-payments?cm_mmc=sm_fb-_-news_journal-_-fenix5_plus-_-blog

An interesting article about the Fenix 5 plus series.

[Ben]

https://www.rei.com/blog/news/new-garmin-fenix-5-plus-introduces-music-topo-maps-and-contactless-payments?cm_mmc=sm_fb-_-news_journal-_-fenix5_plus-_-blog

An interesting article about the Fenix 5 plus series.

As I'd been reading more reviews I came to the conclusion that I could do without the Fenix 5X plus and could look for the regular Fenix 5X at a discounted price. If I really cared about the O2 monitoring, I could just carry my little fingertip sensor with me in my ruck, as I'd mostly just use it for high altitude hikes anyway.

Except that... NO FREAKIN' MUSIC! I can't believe Garmin has gone this long not having music capability on their flagship line. I think even a lot of the el cheapos have some music capability. Were it not for the lack of music, the older 5X would likely be a good deal pretty soon (it appears they are releasing a Fenix 6 in early 2019).

[Jamisjockey]

As I'd been reading more reviews I came to the conclusion that I could do without the Fenix 5X plus and could look for the regular Fenix 5X at a discounted price. If I really cared about the O2 monitoring, I could just carry my little fingertip sensor with me in my ruck, as I'd mostly just use it for high altitude hikes anyway.

Except that... NO FREAKIN' MUSIC! I can't believe Garmin has gone this long not having music capability on their flagship line. I think even a lot of the el cheapos have some music capability. Were it not for the lack of music, the older 5X would likely be a good deal pretty soon (it appears they are releasing a Fenix 6 in early 2019).

Yup mine has controls for music so my phone doesn't have to be out if I want to pause/forward songs but no storage.

[Ben]

Well, I decided to do something stupid. 

I still had Amex points leftover after getting the new phone, and they were still doing 25% off points, so I used my last remaining points plus $300 and got the Fenix 5X Plus.

I've had it for a little over a week, and I gotta say, this thing is awesome. I've been wearing it pretty much 24/7 with all the sensors active, and the physiological data is off the hook.

I think I might still be using only 25% of the features as I keep digging in and finding more stuff. 

I'm doing my annual tactical trout assault in the Eastern Sierra next week, which always includes one of those gnarly day hikes I post here, so I'll be able to checkout the pulse Ox sensor as I should be doing a good bit of >12K' hiking.

Otherwise the battery life is awesome. I've only charged it once so far, and that's after constantly playing with the features plus running with GPS active. Also  I was at first afraid that it would be some ginormous stupid looking thing on my wrist based on the pictures I've seen on reviewers' wrists, but they must all be noodle armed NYC boys or something. I only have average sized wrists and it looks no different than my dive watch on my wrist. Doesn't stand out at all.

Also the generic smart watch features are neat - getting texts and other notifications on the watch.  I find them quite legible, even for my aging eyes. About the only negative so far is that the display is a little dark when indoors. I can read the time and other larger text fine, but if I want to see some of the smaller text on the watch face I chose (which to be fair, is kinda on data overload), I need to do the backlight. Surprisingly, in direct sunlight the watchface is incredibly bright and easy to read - no washing out from the bright sun or anything.

I've been tending to be anti-tech Luddite since I retired, not really following new tech trends, but this watch definitely has me back into full nerd mode. 

[MillCreek]

I have a Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire arriving tomorrow.  Amazon ordinarily has it for $600, now a limited deal at $ 450, and I cashed in my Amazon points bringing it down to $ 350.  The things that sealed the deal for me are the onboard topo maps and the cycling functionality. 

[Ben]

I have a Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire arriving tomorrow.  Amazon ordinarily has it for $600, now a limited deal at $ 450, and I cashed in my Amazon points bringing it down to $ 350.  The things that sealed the deal for me are the onboard topo maps and the cycling functionality. 

I'm still loving my 5X Plus. Though I guess gadgets shouldn't, it really upped my game on workouts after I got it, and I wear it pretty much 24/7 to monitor my pulse, sleep, and O2. It really pushed me to change up my running to increase my VO2 Max.

Although with my recent move and all the crap that went with it, I'm for the first time since I got the watch, in its "detraining" mode for lack of running. I'm hoping to be able to start back up in the next couple of weeks once I get my "workout area" set up in my shop.

Be sure to check out the apps and widgets on Garmin Connect. I have several that I find very useful for my stuff. Also the watchfaces. There are a bunch that are MUCH more useful (tough a bit hard to read for us old guys) than the watchfaces that come with the watch.

For running and cycling, to get the best data from the watch, I (and I guess Garmin and everybody) highly recommend you get an HRM chest strap. It is much more accurate for recording the kind of data you want from running and cycling than the wrist monitor. I have this one and it works great:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012H8IPQS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[MillCreek]

I found the solution to a problem I was having with the Fenix 5X.  It seems to be the size of a pie plate on my wrist, such that my dress shirt cuffs would not button freely over the watch.  The watch gets hung up on the tight shirt cuff and I have to physically pull back the cuff in order to see the watch.  I found 'dress shirt button extenders' on Amazon, and they have solved the problem. It is a button with an elastic loop that fits over an existing button, and gives you about 0.5 inches of stretch.  Although they seem intended to use on shirt collars, they work just fine on the shirt cuff.  The watch no longer hangs up on the tight cuff.  

Although this strikes me as one of those First World problems, it was nonetheless an annoyance for me wearing long-sleeve dress shirts five days a week.

PS: I have also settled on the 'Hands Five' as my favorite analog watch face.  It shows altitude, steps, distance, calories, battery, day and date, heart rate and time on a single dial.  I looked long and hard for this, since this was exactly the information I wanted to have.  I found this on some digital watch faces, but my aging eyes prefer analog these days.

[Ben]

What's a dress shirt? 

Though I am wearing long sleeve fishing shirts when working outside now that the weather is heating up, so do run into the same problem on some. Although most of them seem to have "oversize" cuffs (at least using the further of the two cuff buttons) compared to regular long sleeve shirts.

I also have the eye problem for seeing everything. I'll have to check out your watch face. I haven't looked for a while, but last time I did I couldn't find any analog faces that had all the info I wanted, so settled on GearMin, a digital face. It actually works pretty good for me. I can see most all the information when outside in the sun with no readers necessary. I do have problems with about half the info if I go inside though.