This product has been discontinued by the manufacturer. It's been replaced by the Garmin Forerunner 945, you may want to check out that review instead.
The Garmin Forerunner 910XT represents the next generation triathlon/multisport watch from Garmin. The watch builds on many areas that the FR305 and then FR310XT had – including a slimmer profile then either of those watches, and a new pool swimming mode to track your distance while swimming laps. But are these changes and others enough to get you running to pickup the latest model? Well, stick around and I’ll explain.
Like all my reviews, they tend to be pretty in depth (perhaps overly so) – but that’s just my trademark DC Rainmaker way of doing things. Think of them more like reference guides than quick and easy summaries. I try and cover every conceivable thing you might do with the device and then poke at it a bit more. My goal is to leave no stone unturned – both the good and the bad.
Because I want to be transparent about my reviews – Garmin sent me a development unit to try out. It’s almost identical to that of the final production unit that’ll be on store shelves in a bit (may have slight color differences). Once units are available in retail shops I’ll send this back to Garmin and then go out and buy my own (to be able to support y’all in the comments section down the road). Simple as that. Sorta like hiking in wilderness trails – leave only footprints. If you find my review useful, you can use any of the Amazon links from this page to help support future reviews.
Lastly, at the end of the day keep in mind I’m just like any other regular athlete out there. I write these reviews because I’m inherently a curious person with a technology background, and thus I try and be as complete as I can. But, if I’ve missed something or if you spot something that doesn’t quite jive – just let me know and I’ll be happy to get it all sorted out. Also, because the technology world constantly changes, I try and go back and update these reviews as new features and functionality are added – or if bugs are fixed.
So – with that intro, let’s get into things.
Unboxing and Size Comparisons:
First, let’s start with some unboxing. When you first (finally) get your FR910XT, it’ll look pretty much like this:
A few short seconds later you’ll likely be tearing through the box, in which case, it’ll probably look something like the below (though, admittedly, a lot less pretty). This is where you’ll find more plastic baggies than a Costco bulk container of them would contain.
Once you remove all that plastic, you’ll have the below setup. On the left side is all your power goodness (which I’ll detail in a second). In the middle you’ve got the watch and manual. And on the right side from top to bottom, you’ve got your USB charging clip, USB ANT+ stick, and heart rate strap (in two parts). The little white piece of paper was bonus from having an early beta kit, as I had to add my own sticker – officially FR910XT #17!
Here’s the power plugs. The unit comes with three different types: US, Euro, and UK. Of course, some of those adapters are used in a slew of other countries.
Then we’ve got the heart rate strap. This will include the strap and the transmitter pod. Note that this is a different strap design than the previous premium strap. Check out the heart rate accessory section later for the exact details of what’s changed (and it’s good news there!).
Next we’ve got the ever exciting manual. You can also download it from Garmin’s site. Just wander over here. Though, there’s pretty much nothing in the manual that I haven’t detailed beyond normalcy here.
Then we’ve got the USB charging clip. This plugs into either your computer, or the provided AC power block. It does NOT transfer data.
The below USB stick is what does the data transfer. It does this via ANT+, which is a low-energy transmission method used to communicate with Garmin devices wirelessly. More on this later.
And finally…the watch itself! Here’s a few quick shots before I powered it on. Of course, by the end of this post, you’ll likely be tired of seeing FR910XT shots.
And once we’ve got it all turned on, here’s the unit in shining glory!
For those familiar with the FR310XT/FR405/FR410 charging clips, the FR910XT uses the same two pronged system.
For comparisons sake – I went ahead and pulled out the trusty kitchen rolling pin and compared it to a number of other common triathlon focused watches. Starting first, I went with just the Garmin lineup (left is FR305, middle FR310XT, right FR910XT):
When upside-down you can really see more clearly the thinner profile of the FR910XT compared to the FR310XT – given there’s a slight air-gap below it.
As you can see, the FR910XT is the smallest multisport watch that Garmin has made to date, being both slimmer than the FR310XT and FR305. Though while it’s still bigger than the Polar RCX5, keep in mind the RCX5 does not have GPS integrated into it, and instead requires a separate pod.
I figured I’d compare it to my other two favorite Garmin running watches – the FR210 (left) and the FR610 (center).
And finally, two more comparing the size of the watch on a human wrist (mine), with the FR310XT.
With the comparisons all set – let’s dig into the details!
Running:
I’ve changed up the review format a bit this time, to give a brief overview in running and cycling separately and then dive deep into the features that are available across both sports. So after the Running/Cycling/Swimming overview, head down into the detailed feature by feature sections.
The FR910XT is like most other GPS watches in that it’ll record the details of where you went, how fast you were going, and how long it took to get there. Once it’s done, it’ll save this information and then upload it to Garmin Connect, allowing you to slice and dice the data till your heart’s content. I talk about much of this slicing and dicing later on in the Garmin Connect software section.
Of course, first we’ll want to start with what you see while you’re running. This is completely customizable, but to give you a feel for things, here’s a sample data page that I often use when running:
In this instance, I can see my lap pace, my lap distance, my heart rate – and my footpod cadence. But you can customize this any number of different ways however you see fit. Later on I’ll talk about the data fields and customization.
One of the other features I dive into later on is the ability to create a Virtual Partner, which allows you to pace against a little computerized person for a set pace.
Of course, these are just two of many different running features that are shared across both run and bike.
Run/Walk Function (new):
A new feature specific to the FR910XT and running is the watches Run/Walk functionality. This has become popular in recent years as a way to try and keep a consistent overall pace in an endurance event, such as a marathon or longer. Essentially the idea being that if you manage the walking aspect of it, it’ll keep it from snowballing into just non-stop walking.
Typically this is setup based on a specific time, such as 10 minutes of running and then 1-2 minutes of walking. The FR910XT now supports the ability to create these alerts, along with all the normal alerts you can still setup (time/distance/calorie).
I’ve actually found a more interesting use for the Run/Walk alert though – which I’ve mentally relabeled ‘Nutrition alert’. See, a typical time based repeating alert (say every 10 minutes) is normally a good way to remind you to take in nutrition during training or a race. But I’ve often found that I sometimes mentally find an excuse where I say “Oh, let me just get over this hill and then I’ll take some gel”, only to realize 10 or 20 minutes later I haven’t taken anything.
With setting up a 10 minute and 2 minute alert combo – I’m basically giving myself a 2 minute window to take in my nutrition, at the end of which it reminds me again. It’s been working pretty well for me this season – and I’ve really reduced the amount of missed nutrition opportunities. You can of course customize the run and walk alert portions for as short or long as you wish.
Cycling:
The FR910XT has made a number of small updates from the FR310XT that will definitely appeal to cyclists. Starting off is the ability to now customize up to five different bikes. Each bike can then store a slew of different saved parameters, such as ANT+ sensor details (power/speed/cadence) and wheel size/bike weight.
Speaking of which, the FR910XT supports the major cycling ANT+ sensor types including Power Meters, Speed-Only sensors, Cadence-Only sensors and combination Speed/Cadence sensors. It also supports ANT+ heart rate monitors as well. And in the event of a power meter that sends cadence information (pretty much all of them), it’ll happily pick that up too.
The FR910XT is designed to be worn either on your wrist, or on the bike mount quick-release system. Which is just like the cycling focused Edge 500/800 from a quarter turn mount standpoint.
Unfortunately, with my development unit I didn’t have a quick release kit available yet – so I instead used the old school rubber Garmin bike mount.
Not exactly aerodynamic – but for the purposes of this week’s posting, it’ll do. On the bright side, it’s easily out of the way and also a bit easier to take photos of. Once my quick release kit arrives I’ll update this section with new goodness.
While cycling the FR910XT can do essentially everything your normal bike computer can do – except now it’s powered with GPS and ANT+ sensor data. If you’re familiar with the cycling only Edge 500, it does everything that unit does. The only difference is the FR910XT displays 4 data fields at a time versus the Edge 500’s 8 data fields. Obviously the FR910XT does tons more in other areas though (swim and run namely).
As noted previously the FR910XT shares almost all of the features between the run and cycle portions, which means that I’ve consolidated them down below for easier reference.
The only areas that are a bit unique to the bike are the data fields. For example, 3s power (and all power meter metrics) are displayed while cycling, but not running. I’ve made it easy for you though and consolidated all the data fields the watch contains within the Data Field section below.
So let’s talk about a few new and unique things that will appeal to cyclists.
Barometric Altimeter (new!):
For years cyclists have managed to get barometric altimeters within their bike computers, while runners have had to put up with GPS based altimeters. Now in general, GPS based altimeters work just fine – but they aren’t as accurate for more complex elevation situations (mountains), or for determining things like grade – which requires a better understanding of the elevation changes.
That’s why I was excited to see that they’ve integrated a barometric altimeter into the FR910XT, over the GPS altimeter that was previously used with the FR310XT and FR305.
This means that when you look at altimeter data, it should map to reality better than GPS data. But remember, even if it doesn’t, you can always use altitude data correction on Garmin Connect to turn on/off elevation correction. This correction uses NASA imagery that’s accurate to about a meter, and can overwrite your existing elevation data. Simply turn it on/off on the left hand side of each activity:
Note that because the FR910XT uses a barometric altimeter, by default this will be off. And in general, I find that the altimeter data produced by the FR910XT is pretty accurate (like that of the Edge series devices for cycling). Much smoother and cleaner than GPS based elevation data.
Also note that the barometric altimeter is of course accessible while running too – so it’s not just a cyclist feature. I know this is of special interest to ultra marathoners.
Power Meter Support (major changes):
As previously announced at Interbike, the Edge 500/800, FR310XT and now the FR910XT will all get the TrainingPeaks metrics of TSS (Training Stress Score), IF (Intensity Factor), and NP (Normalized Power). [Update note, it has since been announced that the FR310XT will NOT get the power update]
The FR910XT will also be getting Left/Right power to be able to support not only the Garmin Vector pedal based power meter, but also other pedal/cleat based power meters such as the Brim Brothers Zone and O-Sycne’s power meter.
These metrics will also start appearing shortly on Garmin Connect as they rollout new feature updates. As of this initial post, the FR910XT I have doesn’t have the updated metrics in this beta firmware version, but I’m told it should very shortly. One of the key partnerships with TrainingPeaks was to ensure that the metric seen on TrainingPeaks is the exact same metric displayed on the Edge/Forerunner units, which is also the exact same metric shown on Garmin Connect.
Back at Interbike it was noted that Garmin as a company recognizes that Garmin Connect isn’t for everyone and that the more advanced/elite athletes will naturally gravitate to TrainingPeaks as a platform and that they want to ensure there aren’t discrepancies across the two from a data standpoint.
Swimming:
The biggest change in the FR910XT is the ability to support lap-swimming and record distance, speed, strokes and more. For years no Garmin product has supported the ability to gather lap data while inside a pool. But now the FR910XT does exactly that. Additionally, it also supports the same data while openwater swimming. But first, let’s start with the pool, then move to openwater.
Lap Swimming:
As noted above, the biggest benefit of the FR910XT over the FR310XT is likely the ability to record pool distance and lap information. The unit does this using an internal accelerometer, which measures change in direction and acceleration to determine what you’re doing. This is important because when you’re doing your workout in the pool, you need to be cognizant of this with respect to extra movements. But I’ll talk more about this in a minute.
To use it in the pool, you’ll switch into Swimming Mode, and then from there into pool mode.
After you’ve changed modes and selected Swimming > Lap Swimming, you’ll then be confronted with this option on pool length:
As you can see, you can select the common 25M, 50M, and 25Y lengths, or simply customize your own…perfect for all those whacky hotel pool lengths. Except, as of present, the only pools supported are those between 22m/y and 100y/m. This is somewhat problematic for those that swim in shorter pools. I’ve talked with Garmin about this (as recently as February 2012), and am hoping to see a change to allow shorter pool lengths.
With that set, it’s time to hop in the pool and get swimming. Using it in the pool is much the same as you would use while running or biking. The start/stop buttons control whether or not the timer is recording, and the lap button records laps (or sets/intervals).
While you’re swimming you’ve got realtime access to four data pages, each with up to four pieces of information on them. For me, I’ve found that I’m really looking for three key metrics during a set: Time, Distance, and Pace.
I’ve then setup two data pages that I use frequently – one showing me that information for the current lap (i.e. Lap Distance, Lap Time, Lap Avg Pace, Lap Stroke Rate), and then the whole set again for ‘Last lap’. This is useful in that when I finish a set and press lap, I can easily see what the last set was.
Today the watch does NOT support the ability to pre-create workouts on it for swimming mode, like you can for running or cycling. I asked Garmin about this, and it’s on their radar, but no time commitment yet. What you can do however is setup both time and distance alerts. These alerts can be configured for preset times, such as every 500y. Once it hits the alert, it’ll beep, buzz and display a warning. You may not hear the beep, but you’ll feel the vibration, so it actually works pretty well.
Once you’re done, you can see the total information for each and every set via the history menu. This shows total (workout), sets/laps/intervals, as well as even lengths.
In fact, that’s an important distinction between the FR910XT and something like the Pool-Mate Pro, which doesn’t show per-length data afterwards, just per-set data. The Swimsense does however show per length data.
After our swim is complete, we’ll want to upload it all to Garmin Connect to check out the data. While I talk about Garmin Connect a fair bit later, I’m going to tackle the swim portion of GC now.
Once you get the workout uploaded using the ANT Agent, it’ll be visible on Garmin Connect (speaking of which, if you already have a Garmin device, be sure that you do indeed update the ANT Agent to at least the Nov 28th, 2011 build – the reason is builds prior to that don’t know how to deal with the swim files, and will fail). This is how a workout looks in the overview page. We’ll walk through the key segments in a second.
First up is the Summary and Swim Graph, towards the top. The Summary is simply your total distance, pool length setting used for that session, total time (including stoppage), and average pace for the workout (not inclusive of stoppage):
Meanwhile, the Swim Graph is an interactive guide that shows you each length as part of a set (interval), which is in turn part of the overall workout. You can slide left/right to see other sets and the distances/times.
Above you can see the total Interval time, and the individual lengths, along with the total distance.
The next section includes a listing of all your intervals along the left side. Also, you’ve got more timing information including Avg and Best paces per 100y. On the right side you’ll see segments for timing (basically, pace), then strokes (per length per arm).
Finally, continuing down further, you’ll see the remainder of your intervals, and then on the right side you’ll see your SWOLF and efficiency scores. These are essentially metrics that look at stroke length by taking stroke rate and the length of the pool. It’s like a golf score.
In addition to the overview page, you can also crack open a separate detailed page to check out all of the above information on a per-interval basis…without the fancy graphs. At the end of which, you can export to CSV.
The swimming mode supports a number of different metrics, starting with the following stroke types being recognized, along with the terms the watch uses to identify/display those swim strokes:
– Freestyle (FREE)
– Back Stroke (BACK)
– Breast Stroke (BREAST)
– Butterfly (FLY)
– Combination of strokes (MIXED)
– Unidentified Stoke (RAY mode…oh, wait…UNKNOWN)
Here you can see some of the stroke information being displayed:
Since I predominantly just swim freestyle, my experience is focused on that. Even if I did swim backstroke, it’d likely be so horrendous that it would probably just simply display “FAIL, TRY AGAIN”. So, I don’t try.
In addition, the watch also displays the SWOLF score, which is your efficiency score. Lower is better. All of these metrics can be displayed as data fields. I talk about the swimming data fields later in that data field section – but here’s what’s available to choose from for swimming:
Note that the FR910XT is like the FR310XT and is waterproofed to 50 meters deep. This is different from a watch like the FR305, which is only waterproofed to 1 meter deep at 30 minutes. Also note however that no Garmin watches will record HR data while underwater, due to the ANT+ protocol being unable to transmit through water (has a transmission distance of about 1-2” underwater). However, the HR strap is waterproof and most folks just leave it on under their triathlon suit/top. Once you depart the water the FR910XT will automatically pick it up in a few seconds and start recording data.
I wanted to briefly talk to this, since I’ve seen a number of folks ask about accuracy in the pool. Some have had the distance issues where the unit reports longer than normal. And a few people have issues where it reports shorter. With that, I wanted to provide some tips based on my using it for the past 5+ months. During which time, I’ve had it measure distance in a pool wrong only once – due to having to stop mid-way down the lane and converse with my lovely wife. Yup, just once. So I figured I’d share my tricks to accuracy.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the unit measures distance purely on accelerometer data. That means that it’s measuring what your wrist is doing, and in particular, changes to direction and acceleration. Thus, you have to keep in mind that any movement you make while the timer is running is being analyzed. The watch is constantly thinking “Is this a stroke?”, “Was that just a new lap?”. Keeping that in mind is critical to accurate data.
1) When you’re not actively swimming back and forth, pause the timer. I know that there’s some guidance that says you can just keep it going, but honestly, that’s wrong. If you’re standing at the wall waiting for your next set – just pause the timer. That tells the watch to stop looking at whether or not you should be swimming. And thus, it won’t increment the distance until you press start.
2) Separate out your laps/sets using the lap button. If my workout calls for 1000y warm-up, then a 500y build, then a slew of 100’s, I’m going to press lap between each section. Thus, at the 1000y marker I press lap to create that set. At the 500y marker, I press lap. And then after each 100y I press lap. In the case of the 100’s, I’ve got a short rest at the wall, so I FIRST press stop, then I press lap. If I pressed lap then stop, it would incorrectly start a new lap that I haven’t started swimming yet.
3) Be strong on your wall push-offs. Because the 910XT is looking for changes in acceleration, you want to ensure that you push off the wall strongly. Fast being the key. It doesn’t matter if you do a flip turn or an open turn (I vary sometimes for fun), it just matters that you do it with conviction. If you ever-so-slowly do a turn at the wall and make it more graceful than Ms. Daisy, the unit might never actually detect an acceleration change, and thus, no new lap.
4) Be aware that passing someone mid-line is an acceleration change: Folks have reported issues with sudden surges to pass another swimmer mid-way down a lane being counted as a new lap. This is an area where Garmin could improve the logic a bit, but my advice here is to try and ‘soften’ the acceleration/deceleration just a touch to not trigger it. I realize of course that when it comes time to pass someone mid-lane, the most important thing is doing it quickly – but just offering some options. Or, do it at the end of the lane (again, not always possible).
5) Pause when in drills: Because the unit is looking for one of the recognized stroke types, it will only be accurate when you’re doing one of those stroke types. So if you’re doing a bunch of drills with three pieces of swim equipment and look like a fish out of water, it’s best to pause the timer.
6) It won’t work if your arms aren’t moving: This goes hand in hand with the above, but if you’re doing kick-only drills, the unit simply won’t measure that distance. For these, I just pause the unit. The time is counted in total activity time, but it doesn’t try and incorrectly record laps (which it will, trust me).
7) Don’t leave the unit running when you go to the bathroom: I only mention this, because I got an upset e-mail from someone that indicated that the unit incorrectly added a lap when they went to the bathroom while leaving the timer running. I really wanted to note that technically they probably did go 50y round-trip, but decided against it. Again, remember, as your arm swings, it thinks your swimming. So as you get out of the pool, walk to the bathroom door, open the door, go to the bathroom, and do it all again in reverse, it’s prime time for the unit to think you’re swimming. Just pause, you’ll be happier later. 🙂
So, you did all that and you still got a bad nugget in there? Well, unfortunately on Garmin Connect there isn’t a way to adjust lap/length distance (someday I hope). But, there is one application that can: SportTracks. If you use SportTracks and download the Swimming Plug-in, then you’re able to edit swims. Note that SportTracks doesn’t cost money if you use less than two plug-ins, though the Swimming Plug-in costs $10.
Here’s what the main overview looks like (of the plug-in for a given swim session). Essentially, you can see the sets are expandable, along with each length within it. Along the top you have all your sets and lengths as well.
But let’s dive into the primary item of interest: Changing incorrect swim items.
First, is the ability to change the stroke type. You simply click on either a length or set, and then choose the correct stroke:
Next, we have the ability to ‘split’ or ‘join’ lengths that are incorrect. This is useful if the unit didn’t catch a turn at the wall and you need to make it show that you did 100y instead of 50y.
You can adjust the time for each length as well during this. And finally, you can adjust the number of strokes for a given length, as well as just straight up delete the length.
Make sense? Cool stuff. Also of note is that if you happen to have a Swimsense watch, this plug-in works with that as well.
Now, there’s no doubt that all of us wish this were simply in Garmin Connect, but since it’s not, there’s at least an alternative.
Openwater Swimming:
In addition to lap swimming, the FR910 has an improved openwater swim mode that was introduced on the FR310XT a year after its release. You may have seen my previous in depth openwater swim mode post with the Garmin product team on that and how it works. In many ways, the FR910XT follows much the same trend. The key difference though is that with the FR910XT you also now get stroke metrics. Further, the accuracy is a bit improved – now pretty repeatedly within about 10-15% of actual distance.
For those not familiar, the goal of openwater swimming mode is to allow you to wear the watch on your wrist and get a rough distance measurement. I say ‘rough’ because it’s not quite perfect. See, the way GPS works every time your arm drops below the surface of the water GPS signal is lost. That’s to a large degree just the nature of GPS signal strength. So each time during your stroke recovery (the part above the water) it has to reacquire GPS signal and then plot a data point. The challenge is that sometimes it doesn’t quite get an accurate GPS point during that split second recovery. That’s where the ‘openwater swimming mode’ comes in. It uses an algorithm to make a guess at where you actually swam, and determines a distance.
Looking at the FR910XT, you’ll see two improvements over the FR310XT in openwater swimming. The first is a cleaner GPS map track. In the past, the track would be all over creation – quite literally. Now, smoothing has been introduced to make the map look a bit more accurate. Take for example a swim I did on a recent vacation with the FR910XT. You can see my swim around the island pretty clearly – no immediate or obvious problems with the route (this was on my wrist):
Of note is the very slight differences with the FR310XT (older) where you can see a bit more detail in the route, as it’s not smoothed as much:
Oh, and here’s my swimming with the unit on my wrist (going through the channel above):
For those that are curious, here’s the two distances as reported by the units:
Now, it wasn’t quite perfect on other days either, especially in shorter loops. For example, I would daily do this about 400m loop around the resort. In doing it daily for a week, it was interesting to see the slight variations each day, especially compared to where I actually swam. Now, what may have impacted things slightly is that it was dumping out most of the days I did these short swims (something about swimming in openwater that has low visibility isn’t really my cup of tea). It’s possible the rain storms were impacting satellite reception.
What I found was that one of the most important items was getting a good initial fix above-water before you started swimming. Meaning, instead of pressing ‘start’ when you initiate your first stroke, just give it about 5-7 seconds to get one good satellite point dropped before you start. That made all the difference between a good clean line and one missing chunks/distance. For example, see below when I didn’t get the fix initially (I started/stopped in the same place):
So what about distance measurement? Well, most days I swam with three GPS units. A FR910XT on one wrist, a FR310XT in my swim cap, and the new FINIS Hydrotracker on my swim goggles. And almost every day, they were within 10%-15% of each other. It’s hard in these situations to say exactly which one is correct, since I didn’t have a specific measured course to work from. But I think that the stroke information benefits of the FR910XT on your wrist outweigh the distance accuracy benefits of putting it under your swim cap.
I have found that historically the most accurate method for capturing distance is to place it on my head under my swim cap. I talk about that in more depth here. This way I still get an incredibly accurate GPS track – as well as a pretty picture. The challenge with that method is it completely negates the benefits of the FR910XT when it comes to capturing stroke information. Which, we’ll talk about now.
With the FR910XT you get stroke information due to the internal accelerometer. This requires you to have the unit on your wrist (indoor and outdoor). But assuming it’s there, you’ll get this information during the full duration of the swim. As you can see below mid-way through my openwater swim, I’m getting this information (along with distance) in real-time:
And below you can see the total time (upper), total distance (lower right) and then 100/yd pace (lower left). The pace fields are new to the FR910XT.
Once home and with the data uploaded to Garmin Connect you’ll get slightly different data than indoors. Primarily, aside from distance, map and pace data, you’ll only be getting basic stroke data.
So while you don’t get some of the additional efficiency information like you do in a pool, you do gain the ‘Player’, which allows you to replay the whole swim – pace information and all. Stroke is converted to ‘cadence’ here, which essentially means they saved development time by re-using the bike/run metrics.
Finally – there’s been some questions on wetsuit removal with the FR910XT on your wrist, primarily because trying to remove a wetsuit with the FR310XT on your wrist was a bit of a pain. Well, the FR910XT was specifically designed to enable quick wetsuit removal. And I thought there’d be no better way to do that than demonstrate exactly how quickly you can remove a wetsuit with the FR910XT on your wrist…thus, time to turn to the video:
As you can see, it pretty much slips right off!
And finally, again note that I have a fair bit more on swimming with the FR910XT in my detailed FR910XT vs Swimsense post.
Calorie Calculation and Heart Rate Display/Recording:
Like most fitness devices, the FR910XT does calorie estimation based on your activities. The FR910XT does this in a few different ways, depending on exactly how much information you give it. This section will be pretty high level, but if you’re looking for more detail on all the different calorie methods, check out my Garmin Calorie Measurement In Depth post I put together last year with the help of the Garmin engineers.
Option #1 – New Leaf Profile (most accurate): The FR910XT supports the ability to have a VO2MAX taken at a New Leaf testing facility, and then have that data used to generate calorie burn metrics across your heart rate ranges. This is the most accurate consumer-grade method available today for calorie calculations. The test takes about 10-15 minutes…and is rather painful since you’re pushed to your absolute max. But once complete the computer will generate a small file that you can import via Garmin Training Center to your FR910XT which will then subsequently updated on any and all Garmin devices you own. For a detailed look at how this all works, check out this post here on my experience getting New Leaf Testing.
After the Garmin ANT Agent has transferred the profile to the watch, you’ll see the below message:
Option #2: FirstBeat Algorithm (2nd generation): The Firstbeat algorithm is the most accurate Garmin device calorie measurement that can be done without external testing. But it’s actually not developed natively by Garmin. It’s developed by a Finnish company (Firstbeat Technologies) that has its roots in calculations around Olympic athletes, specifically Nordic skiing. Their calculation uses user inputted variables including gender, height, weight and fitness class. It then combines this data with heart rate information from the ANT+ heart rate strap. Specifically, it evaluates the time between heart beats (beat to beat) to determine estimated MET (Metabolic Equivalent), which in turn is used determine actual work expenditure. This makes the system one of the more accurate non-invasive options (read: doesn’t require a laboratory), within about 10% accuracy. Firstbeat has published a fascinating white paper detailing the technology and accuracy rates. And just to be clear here – you have to wear the HR strap for this to work.
Option #3: Speed/Distance/Weight Calculation (least accurate): This is the least accurate and most basic method of determining calories, as it is only used when a heart rate strap is not enabled/used (default). Given the lack of heart rate data, the unit will simply use speed/distance, as well as the weight you entered in the device setup. The reason this is less accurate (65-80% accurate) is that it can’t differentiate how much effort you’re expending to travel a given distance – which while less important for running, is quite important for cycling. For example, if you’re coasting down a 7 mile descent, you’ll burn virtually no calories compared to ascending the same mountain. This speed/distance algorithm does not consider or evaluate the impact of elevation change.
Outside of calorie calculations, it should be noted that the FR910XT can easily record heart rate (HR) data in either a given sport, as well as just sitting around. For example, I often use my Garmin watch to record my resting HR by simply putting on the strap and then starting the unit (you don’t even have to record to display HR).
Within a gym environment, if using a heart rate strap you’ll get calorie burn metrics appropriate to your heart rate. That may not be fully representative though of your actual calorie burn since most of the HR burn metrics used are primarily aimed at aerobic activities such as running and cycling.
Sport Features (across multiple sports):
In the past, I’ve placed all of the below features into either the bike or run sections to demonstrate them. But since they are common to both sports (and in some cases, to swimming as well), I’ve decided this time to mix it up and make a ‘Sport Features’ section that shows off these major areas across all sport types, to help reduce confusion.
Auto Lap:
Out of all of the Forerunner features, Auto Lap is probably the most commonly used. Auto Lap enables you to automatically create splits/laps based on predetermined distance intervals of your choosing. For example, you can specify to automatically create a lap every 1 mile (default), or every 1 kilometer. You can also configure Auto Lap for as little as every .01 miles/kilometers, a nice change from the past.
Many runners will use Auto Lap on longer runs so that later on they can easily see the mile by mile splits in applications like Garmin Connect. For example, if you look at the below data from a long run I did Sunday, you can quickly and easily look at the mile by mile splits without having to splice the data manually:
On the bike, Auto Lap works exactly the same way. However, because of the speeds being discussed in bike versus run, most folks tend to change Auto Lap here to a higher value – like 5 miles.
Auto Pause:
While Auto Lap (previous section) is heavily favored by runners, Auto Pause is heavily favored by cyclists. See, Auto Pause enables the watch to automatically pause recording when you reach a certain speed threshold – which is configurable. Take for example the scenario of a cross-town jaunt on a bike where may hit numerous stop signs or stoplights. With Auto Pause you can remain hands free and the watch will automatically pause recording at each red light you hit. And then resume it when the light hits green.
You can either use the default speed settings (configurable for both bike and run differently), or customize them yourself.
For me, I only use Auto Pause when I’m in a city environment, as I prefer to manually control it otherwise. And in running, I tend to also just manually press pause/resume myself. But I also completely understand those that use it.
Also note that for cycling with a power meter, it’s generally recommended not to use Auto Pause, as it’ll skew your Normalized Power metrics afterwards since it’ll make it appear as though you’ve had no rests (depending on the software used).
Alerts (Vibration/Audio):
The FR910XT contains a few different alerting mechanisms, but my favorite by far is the vibrating alerts. These are most useful because if you’re running along in a loud environment (or just with a big fluffy winter hat), it can be hard to hear. Or, if your gasping for breath on the track…the same thing.
You can enable either beeping alerts, vibrating alerts, or both within the settings page. I prefer just to leave it on the default of both.
You’ll configure the alerts separately for each sport (Swim/Bike/Run/Other), with the run page offering the most alerting options (since it includes the Run/Walk alert section I talked about earlier).
Within a given alert type, you can then set more detailed configuration options – generally based on either a trigger (distance) a high/low watermark setup (HR/Power/Cadence).
The nice part is that unlike previous watches, this allows you to customize as high or low as you’d like. No worries about having too small or two large of a number.
Note that you can’t configure whether or not it vibrates or beeps on a per alert basis – that’s a setting across all alerts (vibrating, beeping, or both).
Virtual Partner:
Virtual Partner allows you to pace against a set speed or pace. This is useful if you want to run a 5K at or better than a certain pace, such as 8:00/mile. Or any other distance/pace. I’ve used this in the past when trying to pace longer distance races – such as a marathon in an Ironman, and wanted to be able to keep just slightly ahead of my goal pace.
It also allowed me to instantly see the impact of slowing down (or walking), as the ‘little man’ then gains on you. The inverse is true if you speed up though.
As is always the case though with any GPS based pacing in a race – be aware that more than likely you’ll be running longer than the actual race distance due to corners and crowds. Thus, you’ll want to take that into account during your pacing strategy (read: set the pace slightly faster). For more on that, check out this in depth post on how to pace with a GPS watch.
Virtual Racer:
Virtual Racers is new to the FR910XT, and allows you to race against existing courses and workouts. Because it measures your race progress based on a given point in the course, this enables you to pace more appropriately to a course that may have difficult terrain (such as a large hill). This is different than a Virtual Partner because in the VP scenario the little pacer would keep a constant speed over the hill, whereas in the Virtual Racer scenario it would adjust to a much slower speed for the hill.
What’s cool here is that you can go onto Garmin Connect and download any workout you can find (yours or someone else’s). For example, you can find a workout for the Boston Marathon at a given pace, and then race against it. Or for cycling, you could go grab one of those Team Garmin-Cervelo files from the Tour de France and attempt to hold on. Or not.
Simply select to download the course from Garmin Connect, and it’ll end up on your Garmin FR910XT.
Intervals:
Interval mode enables you to setup a simple interval workout and then have the watch guide you (thus in effect yell at you) through the workout. When you setup intervals you’ll be specifying how long the warm-up is, the number and distance/time of work intervals, the rest interval, and then the cool down. Once you’ve got all that specified, you click start and hold on for dear life.
This mode is great if you’re new to intervals and don’t have a lot of complex pre or post-main set work and just want to focus on reaping the rewards of speed work. The warm-up and cool down portions can also be specified using either time or distance. And of course for either running or cycling (not swimming).
If however, you have a more complex workout regime, you’ll want to use Workout mode (below) instead of Interval mode.
Workout Mode:
Workouts differ from intervals in that they are infinitely customizable – for any sport. In the past I’ve used workouts for actually creating a race plan to then execute on either during the bike or the run. You can do an endless array of ‘if/then’ type statements, allowing you to dial-in your exact workout or race plan and then let the watch own you for that session.
You can configure these on either Garmin Training Center, or Garmin Connect (new). Since the feature was just added to Garmin Connect, I’ll create an example there – using a workout from a few weeks ago. This is a running workout, but I’ll also create a quick cycling one:
In my cycling example, you can see how I’ve gotten more complex with it, enabling me to specify any number of parameters for either training or racing.
To get it to your watch, you’ll simply click “Send to watch”, which brings up this screen:
Once on the watch, you’ll go into the menu system and select workouts:
From there, you’ll see the available workouts that you’ve synchronized to the watch. To start a workout, merely select it…and then prepare to follow the directions, one step at a time during the workout:
Note that you can actually create workouts manually on the watch itself (in a pinch). But I find this to be fairly slow going, sorta like painting a room with a toothbrush.
Workouts can be configured for cycling or running. I suspect we’ll eventually see a ‘Swim workout’ option arrive though.
Courses:
Courses allow you to specify a route online, and then get a breadcrumb trail of the route while on the watch. This is somewhat different than what you might be familiar with on a car GPS where you see road names (as well as on the Edge 800 cycling GPS). In the case of the FR910XT (and all other Forerunners), you get a bit of a breadcrumb trail to follow.
First though, we’ll go onto Garmin Connect to create the route. Note that you can also use MapMyRide/MapMyRun to create and download courses too. And in general, those programs give you more options (and information). The online course creator was actually just added to Garmin Connect back in mid-September, so I’m optimistic we’ll see more features over time (such as elevation graphs, ability to add water stops, etc…). In the meantime, it works as a good basic option.
Below I roughly sketched out my Sunday long run. Because the map doesn’t quite have all the trails I use, it’s not a perfect representation of the route. You’ll note I can change the speed/pace in the lower box and it’ll give me an estimated time of arrival (AKA: When I find my couch and TV).
Once you’ve created the course, you’ll go ahead and select to send it to your device:
After that’s done, it’ll be queued up for the next time you plug the USB stick in and synchronize. Now we’ll go to the watch.
On the watch, you’ll go into the courses menu and find the course we want. Once you select it you’ll see a breadcrumb trail of the whole route. This is just an overview of sorts.
After you press start, you’ll see it’ll start giving distance information until the next point, as well as all your regular data fields. I find that despite not having the actual road names on them, they are still pretty valuable if you’re out for a long ride/run and need a rough map. In this age of cell phone mapping though, I suspect most of us would just grab the phone in our back jersey pocket (if riding) if we needed more detailed information.
Data Fields:
Like it’s predecessors the Forerunner 910XT offers the ability for you to customize your data fields. In fact, when you look at the major differences between Garmin’s lower end watches (FR110) and their higher end watches (like the FR910XT), the biggest differentiator is data field customization. So I went ahead and created the following chart of all of the data fields currently offered on the FR910XT. Note that like almost.every.single.other.Garmin.device in history, this tends to change over time – with new data fields usually added in firmware updates. I’ll update this list from time to time as new fields are added. Here’s the fields sorted by sport as of October 4th, 2011:
Swimming – Lap Swimming:
Swimming – Openwater Swimming:
Cycling:
Running:
You can configure up to four data fields per data page, and you have up to four data pages to use per sport (Swim/Bike/Run/Other). In other words, you have lots of customization options.
Here’s a three view with four data fields, three data fields and one data field. You can also do two data fields, which simply splits it upper half/lower half:
Note that you can select to either manually iterate through the data pages, or you can choose to automatically have it scroll through the data pages – at a setting of slow/medium/fast:
Note if you want to see data fields offered on other watches, as well as how I configure my data pages, check out this post here.
Finally, also of note is that the FR910XT supports both smart recording and 1-second recording rates. Smart recording means it records data points based on changes to data, while 1-second recording just records at a simple 1-second interval.
In general, I always recommend 1-second recording – especially for cyclists with power meters, or those users using the device without any ANT+ accessories.
Multisport Mode (Triathlon Mode):
Multisport mode within the Garmin family is unique to the three multisport mode watches: the FR305, the FR310XT and now the FR910XT.
Multisport mode enables you to setup a recording session that’ll take you from the start of the swim, to the end of the run – all while recording swim/bike/run and the transitions separately. More importantly, it’ll automatically change the settings and data pages/configurations you’ve set for each sport, as you transition between them.
To setup multi-sport mode head into the Settings page and select Auto Multisport. From there, you’ll be presented with this menu screen to select which sports you want to add.
Once in that you’ll see you can add or enable the different legs that you plan to participate in. You can include transitions if you want. This is where if you’re doing a duathlon you can set that up as well. Or, you can just add as many sports as you like. You can’t edit the names however – it’s either Swim/Bike/Run/Other. Adding a ‘Beer Garden’ step doesn’t appear to be an option.
During the event you’ll advance to the next sport by pressing the lap button, which will automatically transition you from sport to sport. As you’re doing this, the FR910XT will let you know which sport you’re in (serving mostly as a reminder to get rid of the wetsuit prior to the bike):
Once you’re done with the event (training brick or race), you’ll have a small pile of files – one for each leg. This is actually more useful than a single giant file because this way you can analyze the legs independently as you would expect: Swim, Bike, Run (and transitions). Note that the watch will also record everything with one big time as well, so you can track total time and see that too.
Indoor Use:
I just wanted to briefly touch on this, simply as a means to answer any questions. Since most of this section is alluded to in other sections, I’ll keep this short.
Treadmill Running:
When running inside with the FR910XT, your best bet is to pickup an ANT+ footpod. Garmin makes one for less than $50, as does a number of other ANT+ companies. The footpod attaches to your shoe and the wirelessly sends both speed as well as cadence to the FR910XT. Here’s what one of the units looks like on a running shoe:
When indoors, it’ll send both speed and distance, as well as cadence. And when outdoors it’ll send cadence (turnover), to match up with the GPS signal. Additionally, if you end up in an area with bad GPS signal (GPS speed = zero), the unit will switch to the footpod for speed/distance. You can also set the watch to switch over to using footpod for speed, to help even out some of the speed jumpiness sometimes associated with GPS speed. This is called changing the speed source:
While indoors on a trainer you can use the Garmin GSC-10 ANT+ speed/cadence sensor (or any other ANT+ speed or speed/cadence combo sensor), to record distance and speed. Of course, keep in mind that speeds and distance indoors on a trainer are fairly meaningless because they can be easily changed by adjusting gearing and resistance without changing effort. Meaning that I can change my indoor speed from 15MPH to 30MPH with no additional effort, merely by modifying gearing and resistance.
That said, there is some value in this data depending on the type of trainer (as well as just our human nature curiosity, enabling us to record it in our training logs). So, if you pickup the $30 sensor (see accessories section), you’ll be able to do just that!
Of course, the sensor works indoors just as well as outdoors, so it’s always useful in the event you go through a long tunnel as well. The sensor will automatically be used in any scenario where the GPS speed drops to zero MPH, but the sensor speed is providing more accurate data (i.e. 20MPH).
While I’m reasonably certain the folks in Olathe, KS had no intention that the FR910XT would be used on a swim trainer bench – it actually works just fine. I got on the VASA Swim Trainer and got to work. Well, actually, both The Girl and I used the trainer.
The only obvious caveat being that since you don’t do flip/open turns on the bench (well, unless you fail in a big way), it won’t know when the end of the lap is. I resolve this by simply knowing that roughly every 18-19 strokes I’m going to be at 25y, and thus I can simply pause for about 1 second, flick my wrist, and then it’ll record it as a flip turn. Just like magic. The LCD screen on the Vasa Swim trainer also tells me distance – so I can monitor that for when to ‘pretend flip’ as well.
See…it’s all about thinking outside the box…
Skiing:
In addition to being an avid triathlete, I’m also a longtime skier. In fact, far before I ever did my first triathlon, I ski raced while growing up as a kid. So any chance I get at skiing (a bit harder now in DC compared to Seattle where I grew up), I take out a Garmin and see just how much I’ve skied.
So on a recent trip to Seattle I grabbed the FR910XT and took it out for the day. Because the unit has a barometric altimeter, it’s a bit better suited for the constant up and downs of skiing, over that of a GPS based altimeter. Though, that does assume/require that it gets its initial GPS-assisted altimeter fix correct.
Once that’s complete, it’ll easily track your total distance, elevation gain, and descent information. For skiers, it’s all about total vertical skied.
When using the unit skiing you’ve got two options for attachment. The first is just using the normal strap, likely in between your coat and your gloves. The normal strap isn’t quite large enough to go over your ski jacket.
The second option is to pickup the extender strap – which I talk about later in the accessories section. This solves the problem by significantly increasing the length of the strap to be able to get over/around winter jackets.
When you’re skiing with the FR910XT (usually in the ‘Other’ mode), you can setup any data fields you’d like. For me, that’s primarily just distance, max speed, and total descent. But, you’ve got all the normal pages and data fields accessible to you. Here for example, is my max speed that day:
Afterwards, you’ll be able to pull up the full GPS track and total elevation ascent/descent from Garmin Connect – or any other site you upload the file to.
I’ve skied with Garmin units for years, and never had any issues. Though, a couple things to keep in mind. While I definitely trust the FR910XT’s new strap system (far more secure than the FR310XT or FR305), keep in mind that I’d still generally recommend you start the unit and leave it inside a secured pocket or backpack. The reality is that if you’re flying down a run and crash, you could easily manage to have the unit go flying…and depending on conditions, you may never find it. Just food for thought…
Paddleboarding:
Many have asked as to whether or not the FR910XT is capable of recording stroke data while paddleboarding. So on a recent vacation I gave it a shot. Well, actually, The Girl and I both gave it a shot. And since she looks better than I, we’ll go with the photo of her:
What we found was that while the unit easily recorded speed, distance and time – it did not accurately record stroke information.
As you can see above, it believed I was only stroking at 7 strokes per minute. In my case, that was significantly under, as that would have been only one stroke per 9 seconds – a pretty slow stroke rate.
I suspect the issue comes from the fact that the FR910XT simply isn’t designed at this point from a software standpoint to understand the paddleboarder stroke. Now, given that Garmin has added a professional paddleboarder to their sponsored athletes lineup for 2012, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see them add this sport profile in the future. Since the accelerometer that’s in the FR910XT is 3D, it could recognize this stroke – it just comes down to the unit’s firmware being updated to do so.
Ultra-Long Use (56hrs+ on single charge):
Upon your request, I decided to find out exactly how long the battery would last if you turned OFF the GPS, and just let it use ANT+ for speed/distance (via footpod or bike sensors). I ended up writing a pretty detailed post on how I did the test, and the full set of results.
In short though, the answer is on a single charge the device will last approximately 55 hours with multiple ANT+ streams (heart rate, power, speed/cadence) feeding data to it. Data storage/retention was never an issue.
To see the full story behind the tests, and some of the other offerings that can go even longer, check out my post on it.
Backlight/Light:
The FR910XT offers a backlight that clearly illuminates the entire screen. By default, the backlight will stay turned on for 15 seconds before turning off. But I prefer mine to stay on permanently – that way when I’m doing night runs or rides I don’t have to keep pressing the light button. To change this, within the backlight settings, simply adjust the length of time to remain on:
Once in a dark place, you can very easily see the display. You can also adjust contrast as you see fit as well in the same menu as above.
Note that obviously, backlight length will affect battery. The brighter and longer, the less battery.
Band and Screen Improvements
One of the biggest concerns in the past with the FR310XT has been the band not being strong enough to withstand the usually rough conditions of an openwater swim start – with people whacking away at your wrists. Many a Forerunners have been lost to ocean and lake due to this and the quick release kit.
However, it’s clear some thought went into the FR910XT’s band design, because it appears as though this thing is built like a tank. When I pull on it, the band doesn’t budge or bend. You’ll notice the band is now more streamlined to the watch – which should reduce the number of places it can have forces pull on it:
In addition to the default band that comes on the watch, they are also offering three additional replacement bands: A quick release kit, an extender band (useful for big winter parkas), and a soft fabric strap (more comfortable).
I’ve detailed these more later on in the accessories section down below, but here’s a quick peek:
The most significant thing you’ll note though with the band improvements is the use of a pretty substantial pin system – a monster of a pin really, which should reduce/eliminate some of the band breakage/loss issues that the FR310XT had.
Also of note is that the display on the FR910XT is slightly set into the watch – as opposed to being a single sheet of glass on top like the FR310XT. This should hopefully reduce breakage issues. Of course, if you run over the watch with your car, or smash a rock against it…it’s probably going to act like most electronic devices and break.
Software:
The FR910XT uses the Garmin ANT Agent software to download workouts from the watch to the desktop client. It does this across the ANT+ protocol, which is a wireless protocol similar to Bluetooth…except low energy like Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE). With your computer, you’ll plug-in the ANT+ USB stick, which allows your computer to connect wirelessly to the watch. The wireless distance it can cover can be pretty impressive – such as across a few rooms in a house.
But you don’t have to worry about cross-talk with ANT+, each device is uniquely paired. In fact, that’s one of the first things you’ll do with the ANT+ Agent:
Once you’ve paired the watch to the computer (and you can pair it to multiple computers should you wish to do so), it’ll automatically download the workouts and place them locally on your computer (Mac or PC). From there, it can also automatically upload them to Garmin Connect. I always check the box to upload to Garmin Connect, even if I don’t use Garmin Connect for day to day workouts – because it ensures I have a backup copy of my workouts no matter what happens to my PC.
Once you’ve uploaded your workouts, they’ll show up online in Garmin Connect, which I’ll talk about below.
If you’re using a 3rd party application, then the files are available to those applications on your local computer. You can actually browse to them yourself, should you want to. The locations vary depending on your operating system version and platform (details on all OS’s here). But on a Windows 7 PC, they’ll be at the below location:
Now that you’ve got the files uploaded or entered into an application, let’s go through some of the more common ones.
Garmin Connect (included, free):
Garmin Connect is Garmin’s online fitness site that allows you to store, manage, and analyze your workouts. Think of it as a giant training log, but one that allows you to also share your files with others. In September Garmin Connect got a pretty significant number of new features added to it, and this seems like a great time to talk about those features as well as some of the more common ones.
When you upload workouts, you’ll be able to see them in either calendar view or activity list view, such as the below:
Once you’ve selected a given workout, you can go ahead and dive into more detail on that specific workout, like the below map. You’ll see everything from workout totals, to small charts depicting the different recorded ANT+ metrics (i.e. heart rate, speed, cadence, power, etc…).
In addition, you can select to replay activities matched to charts and maps. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it can be fun to replay longer runs/rides/events and watch the numbers change as the map and/or terrain shifts.
Some of the newer features are the most interesting. For example, probably the feature that excites me the most is the workout creator. In the past, you had to use the downloadable Garmin Training Center application (which btw, works just fine with the FR910XT) to create workouts. While this software was functional, it is/was also lookin’ pretty old. So the online version is much appreciated.
It’s online here that you can create complex workouts like the below. This is my mile-repeat workout I have later this week, but by creating it here I can also add the slightly more complex warm-up & cool-down pieces I have – whereas the standard interval function couldn’t quite do these:
Outside of creating workouts, you can also do searches across Garmin Connect for a given location and find workouts to download. This is sorta like MapMyRun/MapMyRide – and is great for finding valid courses/routes. This is one area where Garmin Connect has a slight advantage over those other services in that it’s automatically placing all run/ride/activity data up on Garmin Connect, so if someone’s done something somewhere – you’ll likely see it. I used this during a trip to Jordan (country) to try and find a route in the middle of nowhere…and it assisted perfectly in my initial route planning.
In addition to route finding, you can also keep some basic health information up there as well. For example, if you have a weight scale such as one of the wireless ANT+ scales, you can keep track of weight-related metrics. I cover that down below in the Weight Scales section. And finally, you can do quite a bit of reporting on the site as well, such as total activities and analysis by type and goal setting too.
Let’s move onto a few other non-Garmin options.
TrainingPeaks (3rd party):
TrainingPeaks is one of the largest 3rd party software options. They have two versions, one is free and one is subscription based. Regardless of whether you pay, the entirety of TrainingPeaks is a website (except the device agent software you can install to upload files). I use TrainingPeaks as my primary method of tracking my training efforts. The major reason for TP over Garmin Connect is the advanced analytics. Additionally, it provides a completely seamless conduit between myself and my coach – something that my other software favorite (SportTracks) can’t do.
While at the time of this writing TrainingPeaks doesn’t officially support the FR910XT yet, it still works just fine. I was able to simply select the watch from the right-side dropdown and it automatically grabbed the .TCX file to upload to Training Peaks (the Garmin ANT Agent software creates both a .TCX and .FIT files from the FR910XT, for backwards compatibility with older applications).
From there I was able to log-in and see my run without any issues at all. If you’re looking for very advanced analytics in a web based form, there’s really no other option out there today that has as many features as TP and is completely web based.
SportTracks (3rd Party):
Another non-Garmin option is SportTracks. SportTracks is a Windows only client application that allows you incredibly in depth analysis of your workouts. Perhaps one of the biggest strengths though of SportTracks is the ability to allow community developers to extend the application with plug-ins. As a result, there’s a ton of totally cool functionality that’s been added over the years (some for a fee). SportTracks as an application has a free-mode with some limitations, and a paid mode for $35.
Because the ANT Agent software exports out both .TCX and .FIT files (the Garmin FR910XT initially records it in .FIT file, and then the ANT Agent makes another copy of the file in .TCX), SportTracks has no problem consuming these files today:
Once imported, the files act just like any other activity within SportTracks – allowing you to slice and dice the data as you see fit.
If you’ve got a Windows based PC, I definitely encourage you to check it out (free or otherwise).
Accessories:
The FR910XT has a number of accessories that are compatible with it. The vast majority of these are built on ANT+, which means that if you have an existing ANT+ accessory from an older device (or a different companies device), it’ll work just fine. For example, if you have a Heart Rate (HR) strap from a FR305, that’ll happily work with the FR910XT. Note however that no Polar straps or equipment is compatible with the Garmin units.
Heart Rate Strap(s):
Depending on which version you pickup, the unit will either come with the Premium ANT+ Heart Rate Soft Strap, or it’ll require you to pick one up. You can utilize any existing ANT+ strap (such as one from an older Garmin unit), but it does have to be ANT+. Meaning, a strap from a Polar or similar unit won’t work.
Garmin today itself offers two straps – one is the classic strap, and the other is the newer ‘Premium Soft Strap’. However, an even newer premium strap was tossed into the mix last summer. This new one solves almost all the issues of drops/spikes of previous soft and classic straps.
Note that the FR910XT bundle includes the newer premium soft strap HR monitor, which is different than the older soft strap one. This new strap resolves virtually all of the issues of the existing soft strap, based on my day to day use of it over the past year. Of course, if you’ve got an older strap and have some HR related issues, start here.
Speed/Cadence Sensors:
This sensor allows you to use the FR910XT indoors on a trainer, as well as record cadence information outdoors. Additionally, you can sometimes increase your speed accuracy a hair if you use the speed sensor outdoors (automatically occurs actually).
Power Meters:
The FR910XT supports ANT+ enabled power meters, such as those made by CycleOps (the PowerTap), SRAM/Quarq (the Cinqo), SRM, Power2Max and more. I own a Quarq Cinqo and the unit is easily paired to the power meter by going into the bike profile page and pairing the power meter.
As noted earlier, there have been significant changes in power meter data files – most notably the addition of the TrainingPeaks metrics of TSS (Training Stress Score), NP (Normalized Power), and IF (Intensity Factor). Also, the FR910XT supports Left/Right power for the upcoming Garmin Vector pedal based power meter, and the Brim Brothers Zone cleat based power meter (as well as the O-Sycne pedal power meter down the road).
It should be noted that the FR910XT is NOT compatible with any of the Polar power meters, including the new Look/Keo Power System pedal based power meter. This is because that system is reliant on Polar’s W.I.N.D. protocol, and not ANT+.
ANT+ capable power meters start at $700 from CycleOps (PowerTap), go through $1,500 (Quarq Cinqo and Garmin Vector) and top out at over $2,000 (SRM).
Running Footpod
The footpod allows you to gather pace, distance and cadence data while both indoors or outdoors. For example, if you’re running on a treadmill this would be required as GPS won’t show you moving. Outdoors it’s useful if your route takes you through a tunnel where you’d lose GPS reception.
The foot pod easily snaps right onto your shoelaces in a matter of a few seconds. After which you’ll want to calibrate it on a track to ensure the highest level of accuracy. I’ve found that after correctly calibrating the footpod, I can actually get both GPS and footpod data to align exactly. Pretty impressive.
There is a new quick release kit available for the FR910XT. The new kit aims to reduce some of the issues that the previous FR310XT quick release kit had around pins breaking – usually during a rough swim start – and causing the watch to be lost to the fish. Overall however, the goal of the quick release kit is to allow you to quickly remove the watch when you exit the swim and then lock it onto your bike, then remove it again for the run. Thus it comes with both a wrist strap, and a pile of bike mounts.
The FR910XT quick release kit uses a two-piece screw design that pulls the two screws tight into each other.
This requires you to actually use two screwdrivers at once – which can be a bit of a challenge. But you only have to install it once.
Once installed, the back of the unit is more flush than previous versions – again aiming to reduce the ability for the unit to catch its edge on something.
When you look at the bike portion, it uses the industrial strength rubber bands to allow you to quickly move it wherever you’d like (the mounts). And since an extra box of a few mounts only costs about $9, it’s easy to get more mounts for more bikes in the future.
Here’s a quick video showing me clipping in the watch into the quick release strap – just to give you an idea of how the quarter turn mount system works:
The kit includes the usual wrist strap, two bike mounts, a slew of rubber bands and two screwdrivers. And it costs $22.
Fabric Strap:
The fabric strap is a nice throwback to the Garmin FR305 quick release days when there used to be a fabric strap instead of the rubber one. I always preferred this and found it more comfortable. This time though it isn’t a quick release strap – but is nice and comfortable.
Like the quick release strap, there’s some dualing screwdrivers required because the pin system is still just as strong. But once you get past that, you’ll be good to go:
Note that the strap offers a bit less ‘extension’ than the regular strap – so be mindful that if your wrists are a bit larger, or if you’re trying to put it around a heavier coat – it may not reach.
This is a new entrant to the Garmin fitness accessory lineup – but is much welcomed. This allows you to finally use your Garmin Forerunner on a big winter parka – perfect for skiing!
Unlike the previous two straps – this one requires no tools, and only takes a split second to install. You just simply attach it in the same manner you would normally secure your strap band.
Once it’s done, you’ll have significantly increased the band length. Here’s a before and after:
The FR910XT is wirelessly compatible with any of the ANT+ enabled scales on the market. As of today, that’s essentially just three scales, though Tanita is aiming to bring ANT+ to nearly a dozen more scales here shortly.
ANT+ scales work by sending your weight data (and in the case of the Tanita BC-1000 also your body fat and hydration data) to the watch wirelessly. This is then uploaded to Garmin Connect via your watch. Thus every time you synchronize your watch (such as when you upload your workouts), it’ll also upload any weight scale data points as well.
In the case of the FR910XT, the scale is typically triggered by the watch (only the Lifesource scale is the other way around). You press the light button on the FR910XT, which triggers the ANT+ Weight Scale search protocol. Once that’s done, your scale will start blinking and beeping. This is your queue to step on the scale (unless you think the scale is a ticking bomb, in which case it’s your cue to run like heck).
After the scale has completed it’s weigh-in, the number will display on the FR910XT:
Which is then automagically transmitted to Garmin Connect and visible there:
As of today, there are three scales that offer ANT+ compatibility. They are as follows:
To make this slightly easier to understand, here’s a picture of them all with the key things you need to know:
Good? Good. Onwards!
Battery and battery extension options:
The FR910XT is designed to last about 20 hours – or essentially enough for a 17hr Ironman finisher (the time limit for the Ironman event).
However, it’s quite understandable that you may want to go for an activity longer than that. In fact, two years ago I did just that with a FR310XT, where I had it recording for over a day, during a long journey on a boat to a remote island where Great White Sharks were (trip report here). At the time, I used a simple AC adapter with the FR310XT, which worked well. As long as you started the activity, it would keep it recording in the background.
Well, the same is true of the FR910XT. Except now I’ve anteed up the stakes and used Garmin’s solar power charger and extra battery (single bundle). Technically, Garmin actually uses a system from PowerMonkey, and rebrands it. Either way, it works well. Now, in order for it to work with the FR910XT (or FR310XT), you need one minor sub-$5 item – a USB mini to regular adapter. This is the one you want.
Once you’ve got that and the external battery/solar power system, here’s what you’ll have:
(Above: FR910XT, Solar Panel, Battery Pack, FR910XT Charger, USB adapter)
Now that you have it all out, you’ll connect the pieces. They really only fit one way, so it’s pretty self-explanatory:
Note that the solar panel charges the external battery pack. The external battery pack in turn provides power to the FR910XT. You can either charge the battery pack, or charge something from it. You can’t do two at the same time. Though, since the FR910XT’s battery lasts 20 hours, that’s plenty of time to refill your solar charger.
With that, you’ll be set to go for just about…forever. Once you clip the charging clip on the unit will show the normal charging screen. But if you simply press the mode button you’ll be back to the regular display fields. It’s not super easy to manipulate the unit since the buttons are covered, but you can attach/detach the charger as often as need be.
Also note that again, you don’t need the solar piece there. That’s like the cherry on top. You can simply have the battery pack hanging out in your bag (or elsewhere), charging the FR910XT. I don’t see this as particularly useful for runners, but I’ve long since learned that people use the Forerunner devices for numerous other activities – hence why this will definitely appeal to someone.
Downloading FR910XT to iPhone/iPod/iPad without computer:
Finally, last but not least I’ll show off how to use the Wahoo Fitness iPhone dongle to download your FR910XT workouts directly from your watch to any number of online services (or just e-mail the results to yourself).
First you’ll need the Wahoo Fitness dongle, which works with just about all the iDevices. That’s the little white thing hanging off the bottom of my phone. It simply plugs into the dock connector like a power cord.
Then you’ll go into the pairing menu (seen above) to get the watch paired. This only takes a second and doesn’t affect your computer’s pre-established paired relationship with your FR910XT.
Once that’s done, it’ll list out the available workouts for you to download from the watch. You need only tap to select which workout(s) you want and then click download.
It’ll download the workout to the phone, by grabbing the .FIT files. Once it’s done that, it’ll allow you to upload to pretty much all of the major services from Garmin Connect to Training Peaks to Nike+ to MapMyFitness and more.
Or you can just e-mail the files to yourself (including CSV versions). Pretty cool.
Today you can do this on a handful of Garmin watches, including the FR60, FR310XT and FR610. You can read more about this in my past post on it here.
Summary & Overview:
The FR910XT represents an update to the previous generation triathlon focused FR305 and FR310XT. The goal of all of the multisport watches that Garmin makes has been to offer a watch that ‘does it all’ – and in the case of the FR910XT – it really does seem to deliver here, covering the major asks/gaps of past watches.
Without question, the biggest changes in the FR910XT boil down to the addition of an indoor swim mode – effectively making the watch a complete swim/bike/run watch as opposed to just a bike/run watch. For the cyclists and ultra runners, they’ve added in a barometric altimeter. And for the runners, they’ve added in walk/run mode – becoming more and more common for longer distance endurance pacing.
Of course, the FR910XT isn’t necessarily for everyone, as I believe it’s important to identify your rough category of watch needs and find a product that fits. So looking at watch recommendations, you’ve got a few different basic categories:
1) The Triathlete: No question, if you’re a triathlete – this is the watch if you want a single device that does it all. There’s simply no other product on the market today that can do recording in all three sports with respect to distance and recorded data, especially in the pool. The only advantage the Polar RCX5 has is that it can record heart rate in the pool (the FR910XT can’t). But the RCX5 can’t do distance in the pool, nor does it have an integrated GPS, ANT+, or power meter support.
2) The Casual Runner: The casual runner should probably look at the cheaper FR210. In general the FR210 is probably a better entry level watch in that it’s simplified enough where you can just go out and run. By the same token, I still believe that for 95% of runners, the FR210 is a perfect fit. As for the FR910XT and casual runners, bringing the FR910XT to the table for a casual runner is like bringing a gun to a knife fight.
3) The Advanced Runner: The FR610 is really aimed at this market. But if you want the additional barometric altimeter (such as an ultra running in the mountains) – then clearly the FR910XT is your best (and only) bet.
4) The Pure Cyclist: You probably want the Edge series of devices, so check out the Edge 500 – it’s the best bet here. If you need mapping, then check out the Edge 800. Of course, if you dabble between running and cycling, then that’s where the FR910XT really shines. The only thing you really lose coming from the Edge 500 to the FR910XT is 8 concurrent data fields down to 4 concurrent fields.
The FR910XT will be available later this year for $399US without a heart rate strap, and $449US with a heart rate strap.
Comparison Chart:
Over time this comparison chart has slowly grown. You’re best to simply click it and view it in all its full screen glory. The goal here being to compare the most popular GPS based multisport watches that I’ve reviewed thus far. You can click on it to expand it and make it readable.
Finally, no review would be complete without the infamous pro’s and con’s section. The reality here is that the previous generation FR310XT was and is fairly well liked, and the FR910XT simply built on that and tried to rectify the most common requests. Thus, there are very few big ticket ‘Cons’ left for the FR910XT without getting to personal preference items:
Pro’s:
– Added indoor lap swimming mode, recording distance/speed/strokes
– Added barometric altimeter
– Added Run/Walk reminder feature (which can be used for all sorts of other things, like nutrition)
– Added Virtual Racer feature, ability to race past performances/others
– Now supports TrainingPeaks Metrics (TSS/IF/NP), also pedal based power meters
– Accurately tracks distance, heart rate, pace and a ton of other metrics
– Connects to ANT+ foot pods, power meters, speed/cadence sensors
– Connects to ANT+ weight scales and gym equipment
– Wirelessly downloads workouts via ANT+ to computer
Con’s:
– Doesn’t record/display heart rate while underwater
– Doesn’t really work as a normal day to day non-sports watch (battery only 20hrs)
– Openwater mode is good, but still not fully solving openwater distance to high degree of accuracy
– Only supports one person at a time on watch, can’t split between husband/wife
– [Update]: Current bug in firmware version 2.70 makes multisport mode less useful – recommend staying off that firmware version
As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate it. If you have any questions – feel free to post them below, I try to answer as often as possible. Thanks!
Found this review useful? Or just want a sweet deal?
Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
I’ve partnered with Clever Training to offer all DC Rainmaker readers exclusive benefits on all products purchased. You can read more about the benefits of this partnership here. You can pickup the FR910XT through Clever Training using the link below. By doing so, you not only support the site (and all the work I do here) – but you also get to enjoy the significant partnership benefits that are just for DC Rainmaker readers. And, since this item is more than $75, you get free US shipping as well.
Additionally, you can also use Amazon to purchase the unit or accessories (though, no discount). Or, anything else you pickup on Amazon helps support the site as well (socks, laundry detergent, cowbells). If you’re outside the US, I’ve got links to all of the major individual country Amazon stores on the sidebar towards the top.
As you’ve seen throughout the review there are numerous compatible accessories for the unit. I’ve consolidated them all into the below chart, with additional information (full posts) available on some of the accessories to the far right. Also, everything here is verified by me – so if it’s on the list, you’ll know it’ll work. And as you can see, I mix and match accessories based on compatibility – so if a compatible accessory is available at a lower price below, you can grab that instead.
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. Further, you can always e-mail me at the address on the sidebar. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Finally, I’ve written up a ton of helpful guides around using most of the major fitness devices, which you may find useful. These guides are all listed on this page here.
I’m a Triathlete and the 910xt is my single most important piece of training technology, period.
Garmin product team sent a survey to customers about usability and features. Here were my top four feature requests and comments:
1) Smaller USB charging adapter. Current alligator clip style is large to travel with. I do realize that electrical patches are necessary on the wrist unit for waterproofing, so this makes the charger design challenging.
2) Quick release that doesn’t fail while swimming
3) BTLE (for both head connection and data transfer to non PC devices like iPad) – On head connection, 910XT really isn’t a great head unit for cycling. I’ll plan on using a Wahoo RFLCT based on Ray’s first look. For data transfer, the time has come for Garmin to integrate with i-devices. While Garmin Connect was massively innovate with ANT+ transfer, and it just plain works great today…I don’t like having to plug in my Wahoo ANT+ key while traveling with just an iPhone/iPad.
4) Low-power watch mode. I would like to be able to wear my 910xt ALL THE TIME, but I need it to tell time. Please! Couldn’t you run a watch in standby or main power off mode? Seems technically possible.
awesome… I’m about to buy my first GPS watch and I was leaning towards the 310xt. With this I now have to decide if I want the 910xt or a 310xt (hopefully a much lower priced version).
Great review as always…the Garmin website says Q4 but did they give you anymore details.
One request is based on the tech specs it shows the height of the 910 being bigger than the 310 but your rolling pin test doesn’t really show that. Would you mind posting it by a tape measure for height so we can see how much of the band is involved in the “height”?
Thx 4 the review! Great work! One thing: What you call “new premium HR-Strap” is already shipped since last Nov/Dec with the Edge 800, but not working very well. Have to clip the Garmin sender to my Polar strap to get dscent results. Looking forward so see how the
one more question. Do you think Garmin will continue supporting the 310xt’s firmware? I would hate to end up buying the 310xt and find out after the fact the Garmin will no longer update the f/w for the unit. I know they have been keeping up with the 305, but it’s kind of a bread-and-butter device, I don’t know if Garmin feels the same way about the 310xt.
Is there a possibility to split the “breadcrumb navigation” to see one or two additional datafield at the same screen, so that you can follow a breadcrumb, but still see Speed/heartrate or something else without switching back and forth ?
Since they have increased the number of bike, what about running? I’d really like to have two running profiles: one for training and one for racing. All the data fields are different and most of the auto settings too. One time I forgot to disable autopause, that makes it very difficult to pace correctly :-O
It’s a bit off-topic now, but I couldn’t find a way to contact you directly: Can you provide Amazon Affiliate links zu Amazon.de as well? I can see that you provide them for US, CA and UK – but not for other countries.
If it’s not a big deal for you please let me know. I’d be happy to buy all my stuff through your links.
If you don’t want to mess up your layout with various countries you can also send the link to my email on “manu.us at eml dot cc”.
Bye Bye Iphone 5 upgrade! This looks amazing. Was just about to pull the trigger on a FR610 as i was fed up of waiting – now this comes along. Can’t wait to hear when they are available and will hold my breath for the price.
Any comment if it includes a temp sensor like the edge series? It can be fun to have recorded and plotted for long activities…
I agree with many, I was hoping for a good reason to upgrade from the 310xt — perhaps a nice everyday watch option and form factor. This is on the edge for me.
I like swim distance tracking quite a bit, but have adapted to using a smaller and cheaper FR60 for indoor swimming.
Nice to see swim mode in multisport watch. I use my Swimovate Pool-Mate and it’s has one disadvantage. It doesn’t record time for each lap. How it is done in Garmin? Is it possible to get time for each lap and analyze each of them in garmin sofware?
Arrgg! I got a swimsense in July to track swim training as the 310XT didn’t capture it, now the 910XT will. So now one watch can cover it all (except swimming HR data). Guess I better be really good between now and Christmas.
Great review. A couple of question, for the workouts, do they support auto lap? They didn’t previously. Second, is there a way to set up proper pace alerts without creating a workout?
Awesome work! Now with all this ANT+ why don’t computers just come built with ANT+ recognition built into them? Then you don’t have to carry around or worry of losing the USB plug-in…
Another question — you note “Great” for satellite acquisition on the 310xt and 610.
I’ve seen the 610 and Edge 800 consistently acquire faster than my 310xt. I assume they are using a newer SIRF chipset than the 310xt and also assume the 910 would be more on their level than the 310. Is this the case? All four 310xt’s I have used have been only a little better than my 305’s are.
Great review! I’m interested to know if the custom pool size will take a 60m pool? My current Swimsense won’t and I’m looking for something to replace it with.
You mentioned that the Virtual Racer feature was new to the FR910XT, yet the FR610 has a Virtual Racer feature too – are there some differences that caused you to write that?
Also a question to anyone with any Garmin ANT+ watches. Is your syn always reliable? I often hear/read folks saying the distance it works at is incredible etc…yet I have only have good results when the watch is close to my PC.
What I’ve observed is:
– Better results with dongle plugged into front of PC – The sync generally seems a little flaky (eg had to send a workout around 15 times and despite the agent and the watch reporting transfer success, it still didnt show up on the watch, so ended up just doing a normal session. Then post workout I tried the transfer again and it worked first time – Sometimes the agent will see the watch with new workouts in a few seconds, other times in minutes, and on a few occasions its taken hours of the watch sitting there before a transfer is initiated.
Does anyone have any tips on more reliable sync with the ANT+ agent?
I’m wondering if factors like wireless interference might be at play (my PC is very close to wireless router)?
How about battery life in 140.6? Are fast enough or do you carry some additional battery with you (like rainmaker when he is flying around half of earth)?
OK- looks like Garmin threw everything we asked for and more into this one. What do we have to complain about now? for now, I’ll still use my Swimovate Poolmate for swimming, my Edge 500 for cycling and my 405 for running. But nice to know that one product can now do it all.
Thanks for the great post! I’m curious whether it picks up run cadence without a foot pod. It seems it could use the swim stroke counter to easily detect arm swings.
Great review Ray. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my 305 to 310xt but now I’m excited about the 910xt. I’m looking forward to you revisiting the swimming portion of the review in a few weeks. Again, thanks for all your hard work it makes my life a little easier and I appreciate it. Ricky
Thanks Ray! Now just to stash away some cash for when my 310 kicks the bucket! I like the metal back. This units looks to be even a little more durable than the 310, which is great.
Thanks for the in-depth review. Part of me says “me wants”, the other part says there’s too little difference with the 310xt to justify the investment 😛
Thanks as always for the amazingly thorough review! I have a Garmin 310XT now and love it. Add TSS, VI, and IF to it and I’m gonna be a happy camper, but the new 910 lap function would truely give me just one tool for everything- the holy grail!
Two quick questions for you that perhaps you can expand on in future posts when you get all the accessories. 1- I’ve never been able to figure out how people are loosing the Garmin 310XT in the open water swims. Is the strap itself coming undone, or is the quick release popping off? You seem to think the new 910 band has resolved the problem, but since I can’t figure out how it’s happening in the first place I’m not sure I understand this point.
2- I have freakishly small wrists. Almost every running watch I ever bought had to have the band replaced so it would fit. I was pleasently surprised however to find the Garmin 310XT fit without any adjustments. Would you mind testing out the fit of the 910 with the new band on someone with tiny wrists?
Great review! Glad to hear they’ve added the run/walk option for those of us who use that. Do you know if the 910xt can be set up to do run/walk intervals during multisport? With my 310xt I can only do multisport OR intervals, and it would be really nice to be able to do intervals within multisport. Thanks!
Ahh just 4 days late bought the RCX5 last weekend. Looking also forward to see the review on the garmin power meter. And if you allow me one special “request” as you are the ANT+ Pro, if you test the garmin power meter could also look in the fact how it will work together with the Joule 2.0 because I think from a power meter head unit it is the best device.
Hi Ray. One of the cons you mention is that the 910XT doesn’t really work as a normal day to day non-sports watch due to the 20hr battery life. Most GPS watches enable you to switch off the GPS in order to not drain the battery so quickly – are you saying that this is not able to be done with the 910XT? Thanks!
Thanks for the review. I own a 305 and was interested in buying the garmin soft HR strap. How can I tell which is the current ANT+ soft strap and which is the newer soft strap which seems to solve the issues with the ‘current’ one. Is it being sold as an accessory already? Could you please provide the amazon links? Thanks.
Thanks for all the comments and questions. I’ve updated the review with a number of new sections, including:
– Alerts – Calorie Burn information – Solar Charging and Battery Pack – Clearer information on HR straps – Downloading FR910XT workouts using iPhone – Added more comparison shots to begining – Added Openwater Swim Data Field Charts – Other tiny clarifications
With that, I’m going to go through and answer any unresolved questions and bunch them together – since some are similiar. Thanks again!
————————- Price/Availability:
The unit is $399 w/o a HR strap, and $449 with a strap. You can pre-order one via the link above (via Garmin’s site).
Rumor is that Nov 16th is the date being given to distributors.
For those asking on Amazon, typically it takes a few days to show up in the system. For the individual asking for Amazon.de, I’ll get a link tonight and add it to the sidebar. I really appreciate you supporting the site!
————————- Swimming Mode:
1) The unit uses an accellerometer to determine strokes, etc…
2) Displaying of swim data in Garmin Connect. Since I’m on the production GC instance, I can’t see the dev work there quite yet. I’m told shortly.
3) Pool Size: The max I can specify is 50m. That does seem like a valid request though.
————————- Bike Related:
1) Garmin Vector compatiability with Joule 2.0 – Albeit unrelated to the FR910XT, it will be compatible with any ANT+ power meter, including the Joule. It transmits both a regular ANT+ Power Meter Device profile data stream, as well as Left/Right power information (technically it just transmits right power information in percentage format and then the head unit does the math).
————————- Run Related:
1) No, there is not an option to have multiple running profiles, just one.
2) No current way to setup a pace alert without creating workout.
3) Virtual Racer: It was introducd with FR610, I was implying it was new to the triathlon watch series (over FR310XT with didn’t have it)
4) Using swim accellerometer to record run distance/arm swings: It doesn’t today, it requires either GPS or the seperate footpod. There are other companies that do use that technology in that way though.
2) It is the same as the Edge quarter turn mounts though
3) The major difference between FR310XT strap and FR910XT strap is the use of actual screws to lock in strap, versus little ‘pins’ in the past. You have to unscrew both sides. Maybe a video is in order…
4) For those asking why it was previously a problem, it was primarily on the wrist and then pins were popped when another competitor whacked the FR310XT hard, causing the unit to fall to the ocean/lake floor.
5) Wrist pictures. My wife is small, I’ve got a few I’ll upload with it on her wrist.
6) Run/Walk Intervals within multisport: I’ll double-check on this and try it and let ya know.
————————- Navigation Related:
1) Whether or not breadcrumb page could be split – it cannot, all or nothing
————————- Training Related:
1) Repeat until function: Yes, it supports this. Just tried it out via GTC
————————- Heart Rate Related:
1) I added some better and more clear pictures so you can identify which strap you have. All Garmin units sold since last December with a “premium strap” use the newest version. All individual straps sold on Garmin.com are also the new version. 95% of new straps sold on Amazon are the new version.
2) Training Effect: I’ll look to add that section later this week. It does not record R-R intervals (no Garmin units do)
————————- Stuff that doesn’t fit elsehwere
1) Whether or not Garmin plans to continue supporting FR310XT firmware. Yes, I suspect so – that’s been the case based on discussions I’ve had with them. Just like past devices, they tend to still release new firmware for years afterwards.
2) Battery life feels roughly the same. I’ve kept it on literally from morning till late at night, and it keeps on ticking. Rated 20 hrs.
3) Temp sensor: It does not include one. Would have been nice though!
4) Calorie Burn type: 2nd Generation FirstBeat (added new section).
5) Satellite: This uses the IV with SiRFInstantFixII.
6) 20hr Battery: You cannot turn off just the GPS functions like other GPS watches (well, you can, but it doesn’t save much battery). It’s all or nothing from a display standpoint.
I really wish Garmin would add the run/walk mode to the firmware for the FR305. I know it’s an old device but it still gives the best bang for the buck for someone new to running, perhaps using Galloway or C25K to get started, and not ready to drop 300-400 dollars on a device. This 910XT looks pretty awesome but clearly for the more advanced/serious athlete!
Minor question. Will the watch band extender work with other garmin models (fr210 specifically)? It is not listed with other models on the garmin website, but I would love to use it with my current watch.
Congrats on another stellar review. I can’t believe that they didn’t include temperature data. It’s almost like Garmin always splits the feature list between certain devices so you “want / have” them all?! (e.g. like the Edge 500 not being footpod capable)
Took a while to read, but I loved reading it! Is HR big for triathletes under water?
Ray, What Sirf Chip is this using for GPS and how does it compare to the Sirf III that I believe was in the Garmin 310XT. In particular I would be interested in satellite acquisitions times while stopped and moving.
Ray, Thanks for the review. I would like to see Garmin support “calculated power” when riding on an indoor trainer and using the speed/cadence add-on. Several popular indoor bike trainers have a standard power curve available to allow a simple speed-to-power calculation. Could you add this to your list of suggestions for Garmin’s Engineering Team? I need every angle possible to stay motivated on the indoor trainer.
Hi Ray,was over at another site called surfski.info and they have been discussing a gps out of south africa called mobii,apparently its fully waterproof,unlike my 2x 305’s that garmin said they would replace with a second hand unit if i slipped them $100!As i have been burnt by garmin before can you contact them for a review…Your the best Ray!
Thank you for this great in-depth review. I have a question regarding the barometer, cumulated elevation and calibration. I am an ultratrailer using a foretrex 401 (after a fr 305). I bought it because of the barometer (and the battery) but in the end it totally sucks. The autocalibration sucks and cumulated elevation sucks really (a shame !), at least in mountains. Have you an idea how well the barometer in the 910xt is of any interest? Thank you for your answer !
Looking for the best Garmin day to day (swim capable) GPS watch. Doesn’t sound like this one is the best day to dayer. Does Garmin have a suitable watch for day to day wear but may also be worn to the beach for ocean swims, etc….? Thanks! FR
Fantastic review as usual, and it GREW overnight. Seriously, your reviews set the standard. Thank you very much. And thank you Garmin for delivering. Now it just needs to work!!!
I’m so excited for this watch. Now I just have to find the cash for it or hope that Santa is good to me.
One question I have though is if Garmin has ever considered a ANT+ display for the bike similar to the edge 500 instead of having to deal with the quick release during transition. My thoughts are that the watch would still record all of the data but on the bike the information would be displayed both on the watch and on the display unit mounted in a more convenient location than your wrist. The display may have configurable data screens similar to the edge 500 but other than that all the information would be received from the watch. I don’t necessarily understand how ANT+ works so I don’t know if this is possible but think it would be pretty cool and efficient.
Marcus – asuming you have a GSC-10 on your bike you can do something like that with a simple ANT+ head unit like the Bontrager Node 1 (you can use an Edge 500 and FR910xt in tandem as well, it’s just a good deal more expensive). ANT+ sensors can be paired to multiple computers, so your HR, cadence, and power sensors will work with as many head units as you’d like.
With that said, the one caveat is that the timers wouldn’t be synchronized (ie the bike computer would have to be manually started and it’s elapsed time would begin when you did that). It would be awesome to see Garmin offer some functionality that explicitly allows devices to work in sync (ie when in range, synchronize the clocks and mirror any commands like pressing the lap button). It’d take some work, but if it could convince people to buy two devices rather than one it’d likely pay for itself pretty quickly 😉
Naturally, even better would be a dumb head unit for the bike (ie no data recording, have the wrist unit relay GPS data via ANT+ and skip the on-board module, etc.). That’d make it pretty inexpensive and should allow for significantly longer battery life.
I’m curious about the comparison of the 910XT swimming functions in a pool vs. the Finish watches? I use the Garmin 305 for running and was considering getting the Finis swim watch for pool laps. If this works as well as the Finis it would make sense to just dump my 305 and get an all in one. DC Rainmaker- can you provide a comparison?
A dumb head unit is exactly what I’m trying to refer to. My thoughts were, as you mentioned, for it to simply be a mirror of the data on the wrist unit and possible have a couple of buttons that would allow you to scroll through the preformatted data screens, start & stop, and lap. I think the size and case design of the Edge 500 would be perfect, but as far as electronics it wouldn’t need much more than an ANT+ chip, a battery (rechargable or not), and a display screen. Maybe it could be called the Edge 510D, for display.
Anyway just thought it might be a cool idea and one that I think triathletes would be more willing to purchase than having to deal with the hassle and bulkiness of the quick mount system, especially given the horror stories I’ve heard about lossing units in open water.
Great Review! What is run pace smoothing? It seems thats the only thing the 610 has over the 910XT in your spreadsheet. Just wondering as an avid runner how to choose between the 610 and 910XT. Is there something else compelling about the 610 over the 910XT for this type of user? Thanks!
Thanks for yet another outstanding review Ray! I’ve really enjoyed my FR305, but I’ve had my eye on the 310XT for the extended battery life that I will need for a 50 mile trail run in February. I’m glad I can update my Christmas wish list to a 910XT! It looks great. I look forward to when Garmin can make the entire thing touch screen though!
Ray, thanks for this very in-depth review. We really appreciate your work.
About the watch. Wow Garmin, you made it! This is what I always dreamed of. I’m so glad that I can abandon the idea of buying the Finis Swimsense. Now, it’d be great if we could have a comparison between the two in the pool (hint hint!).
Hi Ray.Thank you so much for posting such a great review.I knew you’d have the best information when Garmin came out with their next 305/310 upgrade. Do you think the 910xt has what it takes to get prime position in your sport tech arsenal?
Ray – Amazing review – this is the watch I’ve been waiting for! Is it possible to use the Virtual Racer functionality in conjunction with multi-sport mode? For example, could you download someone’s ride of the IM Canada bike course, then “race” against that person after you come out of the water (same question applies for the run)?
Also, I’m assuming that if you use the “Garmin in swim cap” method for better open-water GPS tracking, the stroke count info will be sort of nonsensical. However, I’d be interested to see if the accelerometer will track your head turns for breathing as “strokes”, thus allowing you to track approximate swim cadence if you breath regularly (i.e., every other stroke or every third stroke).
Again, great review. If only they could figure out the underwater HR signal. Can someone PLEASE make an accessory that attaches to ANT+ HR straps and watches and converts the signal to something appropriate for underwater transmission already?
Superb review. And BIG THANKS for giving me the heads up that this was coming as I almost got impatient and bought both the Edge and Forerunner 610. Finally the all in one device I have been searching for is here!
Outstanding review! I was about to get another 310XT, mine 2 year old 310XT has been behaving strangely. Thank you so much for helping me to save money on a older model! Can’t wait for it to be launched.
Thanks for the comments to date. Here’s the roundup of new Q&A’s:
—————– Run:
1) Run Smoothing: I need to double-check that again, it was cleaner tonight on my run. Last time I talked, they did some work in the FR610 around cleaning up GPS data to make it appear smoother, I’ve gotta see if that made it over to the FR910XT code base.
—————– Bike
1) Calculated power: Interesting idea, agree that it’s becoming more common. Will definitely mention it. I think also something like what CycleOps is doing would be cool too – with their HR strap power (fairly accurate in my testing)
—————– Swim
1) Is HR big for triathlets? It depends. HR underwater is hard to get on a number of levels. Polar has it, but the strap can be very difficult to get to stay put in a lap pool due to flip turns (especially on guys, girls it’s easier). Openwater under a wetsuit it’s easy. The real question is the usefulness of it. I’ve been using the AquaPulse underwater for HR, it’s fascinating from a ‘how hard can I push standpoint’ though.
2) FR910XT vs Swimsense: Fear not, that’s the first thing you’ll be getting as a ‘Showcase Showdown’ of sorts – hopefully in the next few weeks. I’m super familiar with the Swimsense (use it every swim), so am more than able to do a comparison once Garmin has the final swim stroke software (it’s constantly changing) and online software ready.
3) Underwater strap that can rebroadcast ANT+: There’s a few folks working around this idea, but nothing that we’ll see in the immediate future. I’ve been trying to convince Suunto to go back and re-release their Duostrap as Polar/ANT+ instead of Polar/closed-ANT
—————– Triathlon:
1) Will I use it day to day? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m lucky in that I have everything at my disposal. So in my case, I really do like the FR610 since it’s small and a great runners watch. On my bike I like the extra data fields the Edge 500/800 has. The swim is still up in the air (today I use swimsense). That said, if I wasn’t so lucky to have so many devices, there’s no question I’d just buy this one to cover them all.
2) Race against a competitor with multisport mode: I don’t believe so at this time, since you have to load up each sport individually. Let me check with the Garmin guys on that and see what’s possible there.
—————– Band/Size/Specs
1) Extender on other watches: Unclear at the moment, should have some detail in a few days on that. Curious myself actually. The band is slightly different than past bands, so it might work – but might not be a perfect fit.
2) Temperature: Depending on where the sensor is, it would either be affected by body heat, or not as much. Below the band, certainly. But on surface of watch probably far enough away to get a ‘rough idea’.
3) GPS Chip: The FCC filing hasn’t been made public quite yet (probably a few more days), which details that.
4) Glass Breakage: Much less prone thatn FR310XT. The FR310XT had the entire top being glass, without a lip. The FR910XT has a very slight lip and more protection. If it lands on a stray rock, you’re probably still toast, but flat pavement you should be good.
5) Barometer: For me it’s been fairly accurate here in the DC area. Headed up to Canada tomorrow, will definitely be curious to see how it handles on the hillier terrain.
—————– Random:
1) Bike Paths: Yup, tons of them – live in the DC area.
2) Best day to day watch with swim: Unfortunately, Garmin has none except for the FR60 – which isn’t GPS enabled. Really wish there were more options in this area. Really wish they’d just properly waterproof the FR210.
Pizdetz, I’ve just changed my 305 to 310 XT (though it’s nice but 910XT is better). Great design, features, etc… Have to change in the future I noticed that they changed the font on the screen. It is more readable now. Cool! And now the greatest problem for Garmin to find the way to read HR in water. Then it’ll be perfect.
Excellent review! I’m very interested but if I purchase the 910xt and already have a Garmin connect account, will I have to open a new account to upload activity data? Or can two devices use the same account allowing me to alternate between devices so I can use both new and historic data.
In several sports it would be interesting to log accelerometer data along with the GPS-data in order to improve technique training. One case is orienteering (map reading frequency and characteristics), but there are also several other sports where this would be very interesting (skiing, skating etc.) – especially now with the barometer also included. It looks like Garmin now has all the hardware required (if the accelerometer for swim-stroke can handle 10 Hz frequency). Do you think they will be interested in putting something like this in firmware in the future? Would be very interesting…
Ray, only five bikes? What an annoyingly low number. The 800 only supports three, so it’s actually an improvement there, but PLEASE yell at Garmin to let us have more bikes. I think ten is a more reasonable number, but then again, I have a small bike problem. But I am not alone!
I see from the website that Garmin is offering a fabric strap. But the quick change kit includes a plastic strap. I was wondering if you knew if there was a fabric/velcro quick change kit in the works? I really abhor the plastic straps because I can never get them adjusted “just right”.
Matt, I have a strong suspicion that the swim lap features on the 910XT are because it has built in magnetometers in order to be able to detect the subtle shifts in arm movement and identify strokes. I doubt that hardware exists in the 310xt.
Looks like an amazing GPS/HR watch, and will most definitely go on the wishlist. The only thing I’m bummed about is that it can be split between two people – I thought that was a clever “con.” As always, thanks for the uber thorough review of Garmin’s new watch!
How do you think the swim will affect later barometric altitude readings? I would assume there’s an exposed pressure port somewhere. A) will water get in it, and B) how fast will it clear?
Being interested in triathlons and mountaineering, the barometric altimeter makes this a potentially useful watch on short mountain climbs. I have a few questions related to that:
(a) How good is the battery life in cold weather (think well below freezing, -10 or worse)? Can you do a test where you turn it on and leave it in the freezer or put iceblocks around it and see how quickly it dies? Or perhaps garmin has some research on this already?
(b) can you turn GPS off and still use the barometric altimeter, and hence extend battery life?
Thanks for the review. Why buy a 610 if you can get the 910xt? I was just going to jump from a Polar RS300 watch to the 610 for running and get a Edge 800 for biking, but it looks like going with the 910xt is superior — even if I also end up getting an Edge 800 (or similar) later for the additional data fields and mapping features.
So why get a 610 at all? Is the size difference seems minor.
You stated specifically that no Garmins record R-R data but I am confused as the folks at Firstbeat have told me otherwise. The 610 and it appears the 910XT provide Training Effect numbers, which require R-R data. Firstbeat are developing an update that will include compatibility with the 610 (link to firstbeat.fi) and I assume the 910XT is similar since it records training effect as well. I have an email stating that Firstbeat software will be compatible from Firstbeat. Their software only interprets R-R data. Can you clarify this?
Just wondering … If the 910XT really have accelerometers built-in for the swimming activity, it could also be used as a podometer and replace the foot pod ? I mean technicaly at least … I know Garmin is so bad at software developing but why not hope ?!
Question regarding TSS/IF/NP parameters. Those didn’t appear in the chart for cycling parameters available for display on the device. Does this mean that those metrics are not available “real time” but only after finishing the workout and downloading the file?
I posted earlier regarding R-R data recording. Below is the question and responseni obtained from Firstbeat the the reason for my confusion and asking for clarification.
—–Original Message—– From: Brad Sent: 16. kesäkuuta 2011 23:40 To: support Subject: Garmin 610 Compatibility
I saw recently in a forum post at Garmin that Firstbeat Althete would be compatible with the Garmin 610 sometime this summer. Is this true? It was my understanding that Garmin devices did not record R-R data. I currently use a Suunto T6c and FBA (I am a registered user). I would like to have route information and am very interested in the Garmin 610. Can you please tell me if there is a planned update to FBA for Garmin 610 compatibility?
Yes, support for Garmin Forerunner 610 will be added to the next Athlete update, released this summer.
Forerunner 610 is a first Garmin heart rate device capable of recording the R-R interval data.
Ray, thanks for these awesome reviews! You say the release date will probably be on Nov 16th; if I pre-order it form amazon (once they have it on the system) do you think I’ll have enough time to get comfortable using it by Dec 4th for my first marathon?
Thanks for the great review. Very nice piece of equipment.
I am in doubt which watch would suit me best the 910xt or 210.
I do rpm once or twice a week indoors, once a week running outside. And irregularly windsurfing at sea (around 5-10 times a year), one week skiing, two or three weekends of mountain biking and one week of hiking in the mountains (all per year).
The main reason for buying a gps watch is to keep track of my training progress (specifically in running en rpm) and to record speed and tracks (skiing, mountain biking and hiking).
The functionalities of the 210 suit me in most situations, but I don’t like the fact you can’t swim with it (so no windsurfing too I guess?), it lacks the bread crumb track wich might come handy (in misty conditions) in the mountains, and it doesn’t have real cycling or triatlon potential (if I want to do that in the future).
Do the extra functionalities of the 910 in my case warrant the extra money?
The bigger size of the 910 is no problem for me (I’m 6 foot 6 and 90 kg). Niether will I use the watch as a normal daily watch.
Maybe you can help me with some advise on which watch to buy?
Just a quick question about software compatible with the new swim features. Is Garmin connect able to display your swm metrics such as laps, stroke count, SWOLF score etc?
It would be silly to upgrade from my 305 and then find I can’t keep a record of these things.
Hi Anon- RE: Creating new account if already have Garmin Connect
No, I use all my devices under a single account, no issues there.
Hi Anon- RE: RCX5 Recording rate
Good catch, I’ll correct that.
Hi Jan- RE: Accellerometer
I suspect that Garmin will look at ways to creatively use the accellerometer in the future, but I don’t think we’ll see anything in the short term.
Hi Anon- RE: Diff between 610 and 910XT for advanced runner
Essentially nothing. From a running standpoint, the FR910 and 610 share everything. The only diff is the barometric altimeter and the longer battery of the 910XT. Additionally, if while running you follow courses, the 910XT has that whereas the 610 doesn’t.
Hi Donnie RE: Five bikes and want ten
I do indeed suspect the problem there may be closer to home. 😉 I’ll mention it though next time I chat.
Hi Bryan RE: Fabric instead of plastic quick release
I’ll ask, but I suspect it’ll be fabric regular strap, or plastic as the final decisions. I did indeed love the old FR305 fabric quick release strap though…very nice.
Hi Matt- RE: Swim features to 310XT
No, since it’s based on new hardware inside the watch and is not just software (firmware).
Hi Jay- RE: Water affecting barometric altimeter
From my experiance with the Edge series devices, it’s bad. The water will shake out almost immediately. The hole is located on the side near the lower left edge of the watch – should easily shake out in a couple minutes at worst.
Hi Bilal- RE: Battery life in cold weather
Sure, I’ll add it to my list. I did this with the Edge series.
RE: Turn off GPS and use altimeter
You could turn off GPS and juse use altimeter, but I don’t suspect you’ll see it extend battery life much. My suggestion if if going more than 20 hours, consider the batter extender as a way to give it an extra day (or forever with solar).
Hi Stefan- RE: Why 610 over 910XT
Essentially if you’re a running, or if you already have an Edge unit, then the 910XT is somewhat duplicate. Further, if you’re just running than the FR610 does basically everything you’d want in smaller form factor. As odd is it may sound, I’ll likely still use my FR610 more than the 910XT simply because I prefer running with the smaller FR610. Though, the barometric altimeter on recent runs has been winning me over… Also, the FR610 is wearable as a day to day watch for weeks at a time, the 910XT not at all.
Hi Anon- RE: Swim, flip or open
It’ll detect both.
Hi Brad- RE: R-R data
The data is recorded for firstbeat, but isn’t consumable by you as a consumer. As you noted below, today, that’s not possible for any units. Perhaps in the future they’ll also update the .FIT files to make that consumable.
Hi Anto- RE: iPhone app
You just need the default Wahoo Fitness app with the Wahoo Fitness dongle.
Hi Baz- RE: Accell to replace footpod
It’s certainly a consideration, some are doing it today. Though the accuracy isn’t anywhere near footpod for most users (I’ve tried a few of them).
Hi Tony- RE: TSS/IF/NP
They’ll be available in realtime. As noted, they just aren’t yet in this firmware version, I suspect I’ll see it in my next beta firmware next week.
Thanks all for the comments – hope everyone’s had a great weekend!
Yes, the FR910XT is the watch you want. In fact, during many of my discussions with Garmin I actually use Windsurfing as an example of why they should have waterproofed the FR210. I also used Windsurfing as a great example of why 1s recording was important (as without other ANT+ sensors, in the past you got lower update intervals, making it tough for Windsurfers). I think on the FR210 you’ll unfortunately kill it pretty quickly. The FR910XT is definitely the watch you want.
Hi Justal- RE: Garmin Connect swim metrics
It will, it just doesn’t as of this second (10/9/2011). It’s going to be released shortly, and I’ll be updating the swim section once it does.
Hi Andrej- RE: Comparing Swimsense to FR910XT
I plan to do a full shootout between the two – as soon as the aforementioned Connect details are there. I’ve got an updated watch coming this week to do swim testing with – so I shoudl be able to start collecting data. However, the site still needs to be updated.
I suspect what you’ll see however (based on what I know thus far), is that the Swimsense is indeed purpose built for swimming, and thus handles the data better than the FR910XT. But the FR910XT is the ‘do it all handyman’, so it depends a bit on what you want. For example, Swimsense has spent a lot of time in the data area, and the ability to both record and analyze your data exactly how you’d expect it to be (i.e., showing breaks, splits, etc…) – whereas I see at the moment the FR910XT focusing on getting you the laps/splits/strokes, but probably not quite to the level of detail as Swimsense.
Again, once I can start seeing the data on Garmin Connect, I’ll be able to make a better determination.
DC Rainmaker your are amazing. Thank you. I have thr 310XT, but I am not crazy about it, and it is brand new. So if any of you want to buy it. I will sell it for $300.00 box, charger, heart rate strap and of course the watch. Please feel free to email me: kellitrudel@hotmail.com. I am going to get the new one!!
I am in doubt which watch would suit me best the 910xt or 610. I do mountain biking twice a week and running once a week. I’m looking for a heart rate-gps watch to analyze my training days and to record my tracks and see then in my computer. I am not a professional and I have a Dakota 20 unit but I want to use only a gps watch for everything.
thanks for the review. I have been waiting for this one to come out since the new polar was released and was disappointed it did not have integrated GPS.
in your talk you mentioned there are a lot of good watches out there that just need better (target level) 50-100 meter water proofing. I really like the 610 but it’s lack of water proofing that I would not have to worry about the occasional jump in the pool or lake has made me to continue to wait. I currently have the RS800CX and have been happy with it but looking for more advanced features and online data sharing (have not made the leap to training peaks yet)
If you’re cycling, I recommend the 910XT over the 610XT for a cyclist because the numbers are easier to view and the display is better suited to control from a cycling standpoint over the much smaller touch screen.
Hi Texas- RE: Waterproofing
Agree completely. The FR610 especially, but also the FR210 and FR110 – as well as the older FR405 and the newish FR410.
Hi Zeephyyr- RE: Hours of data nonstop
Many. Let me see if I can find out the exact number from someone.
These will all take you to general Amazon pages where you can then search for whichever item you’re looking for. As of this exact moment, the FR910XT isn’t quite there yet for most stores – but should be shortly. Also, I’ve placed these in the upper right hand corner of the site if you want to use them anytime you buy on Amazon. Simply click the link and then search/shop like normal.
One thing I like about the FR610 is that you can have 4 fields on the screen AND see HH:MM:SS on the time display. On the FR310XT if I need to know seconds (Say if going for a PR in a Half Marathon or Marathon) I have to only display 3 fields so there is more room for the clock. Is this also the case with the FR910XT?
Hi Great review as usual. A question about Virtual Racer. Is it any different than running against Virtual Partner using a course with FR305? (Don’t know if it is possible on 310XT). Thanks
hi there, if you could , even if in a post, can you send more pictures of the 910 with the 610 my watch is slowly dieing (suunto x3hr) and im looking into my options and size is a big factor for me i want something, not huge (for example the suunto x9 is huge)
Great review as usual. Is the metal back on the 910 similar to the 610, in terms of a plated cast metal part?
I experienced corrosion with the 610’s metal back due to poor quality plating that left the base metal exposed to corrosive elements (ie: sweat). Seems this is not isolated given related 610 posts on the Garmin forums.
If the 910 uses a similar back to the 610, it’s a deal breaker. Hoping you can provide some insight.
I was wondering, when you get your updated model can you advise how the firmware is acting? I know when the 610 came out initially there were some f/w issue that made logging runs difficult and some satellite issues. Now, once the latest f/w was released it appears that all of those issues were corrected, but I was wanting to know if you experienced any of these “type” of issues with the new 910xt. “If” I pony up the cash for a 910xt when it comes out I was hoping I wouldn’t have to wait a month or two for a new f/w to be released to actually use it.
Thanks Ray! I am looking forward to seeing how the 910XT does in the water compared to the Finis Swimsense. I realize the Finis provides more swim-specific data, but if the 910xt is as accurate at counting strokes & pool laps then I may just forego the purchase of the SwimSense and save a little more for the 910xt!
No. In a four-field config once you hit 59:59, it’ll go to HH:MM. However, in a three-field config it’ll stay in full HH:MM:SS (and actually show splits down to the 1/100ths of a second).
Hi Vlado- RE: Virtual Racer vs Virtual Partner
Yes, Virtual Partner simply does a total time divided by distance calculation (including on the FR305) – which means that it doesn’t take into account hills or other faster/slower sections. This is what Virtual Racer does.
Hi Kareem- RE: FR610 pics
Sure, I’ll add a few more tomorrow.
Hi Anon- RE: Back of watch
Actually, despite how it looks, the back of the FR910XT is plastic and not metallic like the FR610.
Hi JoeyI- RE: Firmware stability
The firmware itself is very stable. Since it’s in beta stil for another month, there are bugs of course – but from a stablity standpoint it’s quite good (and satellite pickup is crazy fast). The bugs today that I run into are primarily around data fields not fully implemented or completed – all mostly known items that are being knocked out by the development team.
Hi Barry- RE: Swimsense Comparison
Thanks – as soon as I have the full swim suite from the Garmin side, I’ll be able to do the comparison. Starting tomorrow (Thurs) I’ll be able to start swimming with the unit and collecting data. Just can’t display it yet (meaning, the Garmin Connect I have access to doesn’t support swim data quite yet…almost!).
wow, is there a better watch? I like the pretty polar RCX5 but this 910XT has everything I wish the polar had: Built in GPS, Heart rate accross the whole activity and not just the zones, lap swimming. However I just got my Polar RS300x, and budget does not included a watch upgrade, so I can only think about this watch in a years time. Perhaps Garmin will have another great option (maybe less bulky)
Best review I’ve ever read in my life! That’s definitely a goodbye to RCX5 and even the RS800CX from Polar. Going to get myself 910xt 🙂 PS. I’m into triathlon.
Great review, sounds like a really cool watch. From what I read I guess the next thing for Garmin to work on would be the implementation of some sort of ECO-Mode, that basically turns off anything except for everyday-watch features and gives you an everyday-watch kind of battery life.
Re: Virtual Partner I konw this is 910xt review… but I’m pretty sure that on a 305 you can use Virtual partner as what is now called Virtual Racer. I’ve used it in the past, and re-checked it today in case they did change it with the new firmware.
If you want to race against your previous run, select training-courses, create a course from a previous run, and select “do the course” (it can be done in the watch]. VP then runs exactly as you did last time. You can easily verify – on a track, run 300m fast, walk for 100m – so you cover the 400m in say 100s. Then reset the watch, create new course and run the lap at an even pace in 100s. The little man will be gaining for the first 300m, than you’ll catch him at the end.
Anyway, thanks for the review, hope you’ll be able to uodate the swim section soon.
First off, GREAT REVIEW! I know what I’m buying now haha
But I do have a question for you, would you recommend pre-ordering it, or waiting and buying it like the day it comes out instead? I’m at a standstill on what I should do..
I have asked Garmin this question and they wouldnt give me an answer. They told me to try at my own risk but it would void the warrenty. My question is about the charging apparatus for the Garmin Watches has USB port. Can I plug the male USB dong into an iPhone Car Charger to charge my watch from the Car without damaging the 910xt or any Garmin as a matter of fact? Cars use DC power and Houses use AC Power so im curious. I would hate to try this on my own 910xt watch once I get it. And since you have a loaner =)
The 310xt has become quite popular with kayak and ski paddlers. With the accellerometer the 910xt has potential for paddlers. What are the data fields available for “other” sports? Does the “other” sport mode allow display of speed and stroke rate? Is the accellerometer sensitive enough to detect the stroke rate when attached to the kayak or would it need to be on the wrist.
Great detailed review. First time I’ve ever read any of your reviews; was actually referenced to you by the Garmin Store in Chicago about reviews on the 910XT as there are a lack of them b/c the unit is not available yet. I might have missed it in your responses to other comments/questions, so I apologize for the duplicate question if it has been raised.
I have a Garmin 405CX for running and biking, but the battery life really sucks for long brick w/o’s. How do you like the battery life on the 910XT? Would it be useful for long distance triathlons i.e. ironman’s? Has it lasted the entire day/the true 20hrs?
Greatly appreciate you taking the time to do the reviews and answer all our questions. As your review has been extremely beneficial and would definitely be back to read others to help out with future purchases.
Is it possible to get Metabolic Test data that was done in some other facility (not New Leaf) into the Garmin to be used for accurate calorie calculations? Or, is getting a New Leaf version of a metabolic test the only way? I have done these tests and dont really want to have to dop them again but would like to get my test info in there to be used in the calculations.
I’m spanish rower. 910xt could: In order for the internal tilt-switch to register a stroke, the watch must rotate 90°, like Cadence T1 of Nielsen-Kellerman
You’ll probably answer this in the swimming write up but ….. given the choice, would you now wear the 910XT in the cap or on your arm. Obviously to get stroke data you’ll need to wear it on the arm but will this compromise distance or the plot? Currently I use the 310XT in my cap and it works flawlessly. If the answer is 910XT on the arm, I wonder how sturdy the quick release for the 910XT is? If my arm is mixing it up with other swimmers and I have a quick release on, not sure I’m going to want to “test” that. What do ya think?
But on the other hand, looking to data while swimming ist interesting. So how precise ist the distance measurement during the workout? So without the postprocessing of the 310xt swimalgorithm?
Dear Ray, I can only repeat what everyone has been writting great review. Question on the open-water swim: is it possible to combine stroke count and open water swim? As we swim the same route 3 times per week in the summer, it would be nice to variate the intensity and stroke rate. On the bike: Has garmin resolved the bug with “loosing ascent or descent information (only on the display) when loosing the signal for a short period (like when driving through a tunnel. In June when crossing the alps I was quite annoyed to loose that information.
Great review. I just wonder if the 910XT could also be used for indoor cycling on a spinning bike with the running foot pod sensor to calculate cadence.
Thanks for the great review. I have one question its a huge pet peave of mine on the 310XT that I never had on the earlier models. When I use auto lap I would like to see my current lap as well as elapsed time when reviewing the workout later. With the 310xt it will show for example… Mile 10 total time 8:35.22 and average pace 8:35.22 verses I would like time elapsed to that point as well for example… Lap time 8:35.22 total time 1:28.22. I called Garmin and asked about this they said they would tell software to put that on in a future update. Sure sucks I would like to know if I have a negative split or not with trying to add each individual laps.
Don’t work for them, just did a search and it came up (as it can be hard to get some stuff from Amazon to Australia). And this is where I am getting mine from. Can’t wait.
DC, superb as always. I noted that the Training Effect was mentioned in some detail. Polar has used the beat to beat HR in their 800 series watches for a long time and in fact, downloads the R-R or beat to beat HR curve simultaneously when that option is selected. What about the Garmin? In any case, I don’t know that Training Peaks and certainly not Garmin Connect have any functionality for using this data or displaying it. What about WKO+?
#One question: I have had my VO2MAX tested at a testing lab… Is it possible to use that test and manually type it into my profile in the device, or can I only get the calorie calculation right by using the new leaf thing?
Great review as always! Can you tell me if the 910xt has an option to automatically start the timer? eg.leave it on your bike in transition and get it to start timing when your in the water?
Hi Ray, great review, thanks a lot for your time! Won’t salty water damage the watch if used while kitesurfing? Does it download on the iPad as on a regular computer to check Garmin Connect? Regards, Pierre
Awesome review as always, Ray. Yours is the best site BY FAR for GPS watch and related athletic technology reviews.
Any chance of convincing Garmin to add a simple “regular watch mode” like on the 610?
The 910XT finally has me itching to replace my 305 if it weren’t for this one omission.
I mean, honestly, how hard is it to get this $449 technological marvel to replicate the basic features of a $10 generic timepiece from Walmart? It’s ridiculous to have to take this thing off to put on my cheap Casio to look at the time without charging it nightly.
Any chance of getting Garmin to include this basic feature, if not at launch then maybe in a firmware update? I’m not going to buy the 610 just for this. What’s wrong with producing a perfect GPS watch that has everything?
Hi Ray, thanks for another great review. Very timely as I’ve just lost my FR305. How easy to read is the screen on the 910xt, especially when cycling? I also have an Edge 500 and find that screen pretty hard to read with sun glasses on, in fact with 8 data fields and a bumpy road it is almost impossible to read and I have good eyesight. The FR305 had a clearer screen.
Ray – thanks for the great review – do you foresee an issue with getting a wetsuit off while wearing the watch? One could always take off the watch and put it on the bike prior to taking off the wetsuit, but it seems like it would make a faster transition if you could get out of the sleeves on the run to the bike.
Here’s another group of questions answered for ya:
RE: Pre-ordering & Order dates In general, the dates for the initial pre-orders from Garmin.com stand at roughly the end of November, whereas new orders are well into December. Orders from 3rd party companies at this point would have been after the initial announcement date, and thus further down the list based on order date – from Garmin.com orders.
RE: Barometric altimeter You can see some shifts in barometric altimeter data based on weather, I saw that a bit a week or so ago with a run as a storm came in. Though, you can also re-baseline your data afterwards in Garmin Connect super easily (one checkbox).
RE: TSS/IF/NP As noted, that’s still coming. It’s not quite in the watch in the most current firmware I have, but will absolutely be there by time the watch ends up in your hands later this month.
RE: Charging from different charger Anything that has a USB port will – I’ve charged this and every other Garmin watch I own with non-branded Garmin items. Pretty much if it fits, I plug it into it.
RE: Kayak Stroke Rate using accellerometer In short, it doesn’t work. However, see this post for more details:
RE: Battery life The FR910XT has a 20 hour battery life.
RE: Metabolic testing at other facilities Unfortunately, it requires the facility generate a file in a specific format that today only Newleaf can do. Though, since it’s actually a simple text file – there would be nothing stopping an innovate individual from parsing other data into it.
RE: Openwater Stroke Data When in openwater with it on your wrist, you’ll get stroke data. When in cap – no stroke data. But, with cap you get more accurate distance data in openwater. In a pool, the distance data has been spot on for me, with good stroke data too.
RE: Quick release kit Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a quick release kit yet.
RE: Indoor use on spinning bike In my experiance (with a running footpod on a standard Spin bike), it only captures about half of the cadence data.
RE: Vibration Alerts in Openwater No problems, it calculates distance in realtime. Alerts while swimming can be time or distance based.
RE: Virtual Partner Deadline time (i.e. set by midnight) Unfortunately not.
RE: Training Effect It’ll work with all ANT+ straps
RE: RR Data To my knowledge, none of them have the capability to display that data today.
RE: Auto start time when not around No.
RE: Kitesurfing Yes, this is the best Gamrin to use (aside from the FR310XT as well) – since salt water is no problem here.
RE: Downloading to iPad You can use the Wahoo Fitness iPod/iPad/iPhone dongle to download from the FR910XT, per the above section. It works the same with the iPad.
RE: Regular watch mode I don’t think we’ll see it since powering the display is much more draining on the FR910XT than on the FR610. Sure you can make it a watch for about 20 hours, but after that it’ll need recharging.
RE: Reading FR910XT Screen – easy? Yes, no problems at all for me. The screen is absolutely the clearest one I’ve seen yet – much better than Edge 500.
RE: Wetsuit removal I’ve updated the review to include a video I took of wetsuit removal with the FR910XT on. 🙂
I have used a FR305 for the last several years. Time for a change!!
I was considering the 610 for running and the 500 for cycling and Swimsense for the swim. Here is my dilemma: My eyes are losing their fire power (i.e. OLD), how do the relative size of the data fields and the clarity of display compare on the E500 vs 910?
Also, can you import the data from swimsense to GC? I like the idea of ALL data in one spot!!!
If the display is comparable… Santa just made a pit stop at Amazon!!!
THanks for your reviews! im looking for a xmas present for my husband and i’m looking into the timex run trainer vs the garmin 910xt. he’s a hard core runner (ie lots of 100 miles), so i was wondering which watch you would recommend. both seem to have pretty good battery life, fairly customizable, big difference in price…. what do you think? thanks!
I have a 405CX and to be quite frank, I was so unhappy with the touch bezel that I never wanted to think about owning a Garmin again. I also am not impressed with the readability of the 405CX when using 3 fields. However, a couple of years later, I am now looking for a replacement because the battery capacity is only good for about 4 hours of data collection. Also, it only lasts a couple of days in battery saver mode.
My questions is which would be a better buy, the 610 or the 910. My primary use is running. I do not wear a watch when not exercising. Battery life is very important to me. I do not want to have to recharge every day. I do not mind turning the watch off if it has the capability (does the 910 have this capability)?
What would you recommend?
BTW, I may want to use the watch for route navigation while running, but I am not sure about the mapping capability for either watch.
Were you able to find out if the run/walk mode can be used during the multisport mode? A previous poster asked this and I’m wondering the same thing. Thanks!
I understand how the Training Effect works, but how does Energy Expenditure work? I assume it gives you feed back during your actual training, as opposed to after you are done. In general, I would like to hear how the FirstBeat works with the 910XT and Garmin Connect. Thanks.
Ray, thanks very much for the great review. I’m new into triathlons (ran my first marathon last year and first Sprint tri two months ago), and have been looking for a HRM to help take the training more seriously. I found your website a little while back and it has been a ideal source of info – but I couldn’t quite chose which watch to go for (functionality including swim plus a decent look). And then comes the 910XT. Bang – I want it!!!
Your site has been great and I’m more than happy to purchase through you. But you’re US focus (and it seems Garmin will release out there first).
If you can give weblinks, release date and price for UK and Spain I will be happy to click through. Cant wait to have this watch on my wrist.
Thanks for the review Ray. I saw the watch at the Garmin booth at the NYC marathon expo yesterday. I do plan on getting it. I have 2 questions.
1. What’s new on the scale front for the holidays? The BC-1000 seems like its due for an upgrade.
2. Have you ever tried out Raceday Apollo for tracking your workouts? Like TP it is sharable with coaches. I know you are really tied in with TP, but Raceday does swimming.
Great info on this watch and other, In addition to Triathlons, I’m hoping to use this watch for Sailboat Racing. I’m looking to see if any of these watches have “Coarse Over Ground”, “Velocity Made Good” VMG or “Barring” to a waypoint. “Coarse Over Ground” is the one I’m most interested in.
Great review, thank you so much for all of the information!
I had 2 random questions:
Any idea when Garmin will upload swim workouts? I feel like that’s way more useful than bike/run- I have a much harder time remembering my entire swim set then say, 6x800s at the track.
Also, do you know if it would ever be possible to get your Trainingpeaks account to sync back TO your Garmin, so that you could upload a weeks worth of planned workouts onto the device? It might be a little too complex, but I thought it would be really neat to just turn on your Garmin and know what workout you are supposed to do that day, and have it automatically ready to go!
Looks pretty incredible and yet when looking at the Moto-actv, I’m drawn to it like a mouth to the flame. Here’s to hoping you do some direct comparisons in your review of the moto-actv.
Thank you for your great review. Are you already allowed to reveal the new data format for the new pool swimming activities? The schema of the new data is essential for developers of 3rd party software like SportTracks. You might have a look at link to zonefivesoftware.com.
Hi Ray. Thanks so much for your thorough work reviewing all of this good gear. I do some rope jumping in my training and I wonder if the Garmin 910xt with foot pod will count and time my jumps ? BTW were you the pilot on the review where you clocked 534 mph on a flight ? What type was that ??
Hi Ray. Thank you for all your thorough work reviewing all this good gear. Will the 910xt with foot pod count and time my jumps while rope jumping. BTW what aircraft type was that where you clocked 534mph on a flight ? Were you the pilot ?
Is there a normal alarm clock functionality? Can the alarm clock be set to vibrating alert, too? Like I want a 15 min alert with vibration during a presentation.
While at the pool this morning, I started to think about the 910xt review. You mentioned that in the indoor swim mode the watch detects your turn and counts the lap. I am one who doesn’t flip turn, but rather touches and spins around. Is this going to affect the function of the lap counter?
Hello, Great review. My question is on the wrist band. I have large wrist. My FR305 I used the larger wrist strap that came with the FR305, and I have 5 openings left towards the end. I bought the FR310XT, but the straps was too small I was on the last knotch. How larger is wrist strap on the FR910XT and the optional velcro strap and quick release? Thank you.
For swimming an HRM with memory, similar to the Suunto memory strap, one that you can sync up when a signal is available would be a real godsend. They seem to have gone half way to solving swimmers problems. What would be the best way of putting this idea to Garmin?
Great review. But i want to ask you how can I upload the swimming pool workouts to the garmin connect, because when i do that, only those are not uploading. Thank and congrats for you spectacular website
great review. Question: any chance you could put iphone on the comparison chart? clearly iphone can’t handle the swimming (without a waterproof baggie), but i wonder how the iphone apps stack up against the garmin 910XT. If i already have an iphone, can i get most of the functionality of the 910XT from inexpensive iphone apps?
Just received the following from an online store where I pre-ordered 910XT: Due to production issues, the arrival date for the Garmin Forerunner 910XT is now uncertain. According to the most recent information from Garmin, it is unlikely the 910XT will arrive to our warehouse before the end of the year. We now expect the 910XT to arrive some time January 2012. We apologize for the inconvenience and will email you again once Garmin provides us an updated arrival date.
Did Garmin made the swim algorithm on their own or did they buy Swimsense technology? I would appreciate if they took the Swimsense technology because it works fine.
I picked up the Timex Global Trainer a few weeks ago because I lost my 310XT and figured it was time to try something new. Haven’t been happy with the Timex watch and then heard about the 910XT being released. I finally found time to read your review and am glad I did. Already went to your Amazon link and pre-ordered the unit. The Timex will be a good backup but I really look forward to the using a Garmin product again even with their buggy software at times. 😛
Hi – great review. Can you give a heads-up regarding: 1. Signal acquisition 2. Transfer to computer (speeds, liability)
Ad.1. I have en Forerunner 305 and think that it have a slow signal acquisition time (as you also note in your comparison chart by giving it an OK instead of Great). How will you evaluate the 910? Ad.2. I’m having problems with the connectivity on the 305 dock, where the pins of the dock gets pressured and eventually only charge the unit and too unstable to load data …
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Great review as usual Ray. couple of important points (that I might have missed as the review was lengthy): availability and price?
I’m a Triathlete and the 910xt is my single most important piece of training technology, period.
Garmin product team sent a survey to customers about usability and features. Here were my top four feature requests and comments:
1) Smaller USB charging adapter. Current alligator clip style is large to travel with. I do realize that electrical patches are necessary on the wrist unit for waterproofing, so this makes the charger design challenging.
2) Quick release that doesn’t fail while swimming
3) BTLE (for both head connection and data transfer to non PC devices like iPad) – On head connection, 910XT really isn’t a great head unit for cycling. I’ll plan on using a Wahoo RFLCT based on Ray’s first look. For data transfer, the time has come for Garmin to integrate with i-devices. While Garmin Connect was massively innovate with ANT+ transfer, and it just plain works great today…I don’t like having to plug in my Wahoo ANT+ key while traveling with just an iPhone/iPad.
4) Low-power watch mode. I would like to be able to wear my 910xt ALL THE TIME, but I need it to tell time. Please! Couldn’t you run a watch in standby or main power off mode? Seems technically possible.
Oh, I know what I want for Christmas!
Great review as always Ray. The watch looks awesome. I’ll add it to my wish list! Any ideas on the pricing?
Superb review, thank you!
How does the indoor swimmode work and the detection of stroketype work? Is there something like a Wiimote inside the device? 😉
awesome… I’m about to buy my first GPS watch and I was leaning towards the 310xt. With this I now have to decide if I want the 910xt or a 310xt (hopefully a much lower priced version).
Thanks.
Interesting review. Thanks Ray!
Great review as always…the Garmin website says Q4 but did they give you anymore details.
One request is based on the tech specs it shows the height of the 910 being bigger than the 310 but your rolling pin test doesn’t really show that. Would you mind posting it by a tape measure for height so we can see how much of the band is involved in the “height”?
Thx.
Thx 4 the review! Great work!
One thing: What you call “new premium HR-Strap” is already shipped since last Nov/Dec with the Edge 800, but not working very well. Have to clip the Garmin sender to my Polar strap to get dscent results. Looking forward so see how the
The 910xt allows up to 5 bike settings, but is the swim and run one setting each or are they also multiple settings and if so how many?
one more question. Do you think Garmin will continue supporting the 310xt’s firmware? I would hate to end up buying the 310xt and find out after the fact the Garmin will no longer update the f/w for the unit. I know they have been keeping up with the 305, but it’s kind of a bread-and-butter device, I don’t know if Garmin feels the same way about the 310xt.
Thanks again.
Garmin site shows a price of $399/$449 w/ HR Strap.
I have a 310xt, not sure if the new features warrant an upgrade. But it is a new…shiny….toy…!
Great review Ray!
Is there a possibility to split the “breadcrumb navigation” to see one or two additional datafield at the same screen, so that you can follow a breadcrumb, but still see Speed/heartrate or something else without switching back and forth ?
Since they have increased the number of bike, what about running? I’d really like to have two running profiles: one for training and one for racing. All the data fields are different and most of the auto settings too. One time I forgot to disable autopause, that makes it very difficult to pace correctly :-O
Hi Ray,
thanks for the great review.
It’s a bit off-topic now, but I couldn’t find a way to contact you directly: Can you provide Amazon Affiliate links zu Amazon.de as well? I can see that you provide them for US, CA and UK – but not for other countries.
If it’s not a big deal for you please let me know. I’d be happy to buy all my stuff through your links.
If you don’t want to mess up your layout with various countries you can also send the link to my email on “manu.us at eml dot cc”.
Cheers!
Bye Bye Iphone 5 upgrade!
This looks amazing. Was just about to pull the trigger on a FR610 as i was fed up of waiting – now this comes along. Can’t wait to hear when they are available and will hold my breath for the price.
Thanks again Ray!
Did you notice any improvement in battery life over ther 310XT? Thanks for the review.
Any comment if it includes a temp sensor like the edge series? It can be fun to have recorded and plotted for long activities…
I agree with many, I was hoping for a good reason to upgrade from the 310xt — perhaps a nice everyday watch option and form factor. This is on the edge for me.
I like swim distance tracking quite a bit, but have adapted to using a smaller and cheaper FR60 for indoor swimming.
How does it compute calories burned? Do they have a new algorithm or are they sticking with the 2nd Gen Firstbeat?
Ray,
thanks for the review.
Nice to see swim mode in multisport watch. I use my Swimovate Pool-Mate and it’s has one disadvantage. It doesn’t record time for each lap.
How it is done in Garmin? Is it possible to get time for each lap and analyze each of them in garmin sofware?
Great review as always Ray.
Thank you so much! Any idea when is going to hit stores?
Arrgg! I got a swimsense in July to track swim training as the 310XT didn’t capture it, now the 910XT will. So now one watch can cover it all (except swimming HR data). Guess I better be really good between now and Christmas.
Great review. I have had the 305 for 4 years now and have loved it.
I primarily do 70.3 / 140.6 races strictly using the 305. Is the 910XT worth the money to switch from my 305?
Great review. A couple of question, for the workouts, do they support auto lap? They didn’t previously. Second, is there a way to set up proper pace alerts without creating a workout?
Awesome work! Now with all this ANT+ why don’t computers just come built with ANT+ recognition built into them? Then you don’t have to carry around or worry of losing the USB plug-in…
Awesome, thank you!
I’am gonna pick this one up as soon as It is available.
Another question — you note “Great” for satellite acquisition on the 310xt and 610.
I’ve seen the 610 and Edge 800 consistently acquire faster than my 310xt. I assume they are using a newer SIRF chipset than the 310xt and also assume the 910 would be more on their level than the 310. Is this the case? All four 310xt’s I have used have been only a little better than my 305’s are.
I was looking at the 310xt, but I think my Christmas wish list has just been updated!!
so-how long until this is available on Amazon?
Great review! I’m interested to know if the custom pool size will take a 60m pool? My current Swimsense won’t and I’m looking for something to replace it with.
Hi Ray
Thanks for another excellent review.
You mentioned that the Virtual Racer feature was new to the FR910XT, yet the FR610 has a Virtual Racer feature too – are there some differences that caused you to write that?
Also a question to anyone with any Garmin ANT+ watches. Is your syn always reliable? I often hear/read folks saying the distance it works at is incredible etc…yet I have only have good results when the watch is close to my PC.
What I’ve observed is:
– Better results with dongle plugged into front of PC
– The sync generally seems a little flaky (eg had to send a workout around 15 times and despite the agent and the watch reporting transfer success, it still didnt show up on the watch, so ended up just doing a normal session. Then post workout I tried the transfer again and it worked first time
– Sometimes the agent will see the watch with new workouts in a few seconds, other times in minutes, and on a few occasions its taken hours of the watch sitting there before a transfer is initiated.
Does anyone have any tips on more reliable sync with the ANT+ agent?
I’m wondering if factors like wireless interference might be at play (my PC is very close to wireless router)?
Any help/thoughts greatly appreciated
great review ray! you have made a dedicated polar fan consider garmin for christmas present!!!!
@ Nelson398
How about battery life in 140.6? Are fast enough or do you carry some additional battery with you (like rainmaker when he is flying around half of earth)?
OK- looks like Garmin threw everything we asked for and more into this one. What do we have to complain about now? for now, I’ll still use my Swimovate Poolmate for swimming, my Edge 500 for cycling and my 405 for running. But nice to know that one product can now do it all.
Any info on the training effect, does it record r-r intervals?
Thanks for the great post! I’m curious whether it picks up run cadence without a foot pod. It seems it could use the swim stroke counter to easily detect arm swings.
that’s a solid long run you had bro!
Is the 310XT QUICK RELEASE Kit for the bike THE SAME for 910xt?
IS the band the same? Do I have to get all NEW STUFF….essentially?
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hi Ray,
Great review!
Does the 910XT allow for the “repeat until” functionality from GTC? e.g. repeat until 500 calories burned, or 5 miles covered etc?
If not, why is this?
Thanks
Dave
Thanks for this in-depth review. I’ve been thinking about putting a Garmin on my Christmas wish list. This will probably be on it!
Great review Ray. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my 305 to 310xt but now I’m excited about the 910xt. I’m looking forward to you revisiting the swimming portion of the review in a few weeks. Again, thanks for all your hard work it makes my life a little easier and I appreciate it.
Ricky
Thanks Ray! Now just to stash away some cash for when my 310 kicks the bucket!
I like the metal back. This units looks to be even a little more durable than the 310, which is great.
Thanks for the in-depth review. Part of me says “me wants”, the other part says there’s too little difference with the 310xt to justify the investment 😛
Thanks as always for the amazingly thorough review! I have a Garmin 310XT now and love it. Add TSS, VI, and IF to it and I’m gonna be a happy camper, but the new 910 lap function would truely give me just one tool for everything- the holy grail!
Two quick questions for you that perhaps you can expand on in future posts when you get all the accessories.
1- I’ve never been able to figure out how people are loosing the Garmin 310XT in the open water swims. Is the strap itself coming undone, or is the quick release popping off? You seem to think the new 910 band has resolved the problem, but since I can’t figure out how it’s happening in the first place I’m not sure I understand this point.
2- I have freakishly small wrists. Almost every running watch I ever bought had to have the band replaced so it would fit. I was pleasently surprised however to find the Garmin 310XT fit without any adjustments. Would you mind testing out the fit of the 910 with the new band on someone with tiny wrists?
Thanks as alwasy!
How much?
@ Anonymous
$400 w/o HRM, $450 w/ HRM
link to buy.garmin.com
Great review! Glad to hear they’ve added the run/walk option for those of us who use that. Do you know if the 910xt can be set up to do run/walk intervals during multisport? With my 310xt I can only do multisport OR intervals, and it would be really nice to be able to do intervals within multisport. Thanks!
Wow! Great review. Thanks a lot for that. Do you know how much the 910RX will cost?
Ahh just 4 days late bought the RCX5 last weekend.
Looking also forward to see the review on the garmin power meter. And if you allow me one special “request” as you are the ANT+ Pro,
if you test the garmin power meter could also look in the fact how it will work together with the Joule 2.0 because I think from a power meter head unit it is the best device.
Thanks a lot
Greetings from Germany
Alex
Wow! Thanks for the review, always counting on you dude!
Hi Ray. One of the cons you mention is that the 910XT doesn’t really work as a normal day to day non-sports watch due to the 20hr battery life. Most GPS watches enable you to switch off the GPS in order to not drain the battery so quickly – are you saying that this is not able to be done with the 910XT? Thanks!
Thanks for the review. I own a 305 and was interested in buying the garmin soft HR strap. How can I tell which is the current ANT+ soft strap and which is the newer soft strap which seems to solve the issues with the ‘current’ one. Is it being sold as an accessory already? Could you please provide the amazon links? Thanks.
399$ / 499$ W HRM?
399$ / 449$ with HRM?
Hi All!
Thanks for all the comments and questions. I’ve updated the review with a number of new sections, including:
– Alerts
– Calorie Burn information
– Solar Charging and Battery Pack
– Clearer information on HR straps
– Downloading FR910XT workouts using iPhone
– Added more comparison shots to begining
– Added Openwater Swim Data Field Charts
– Other tiny clarifications
With that, I’m going to go through and answer any unresolved questions and bunch them together – since some are similiar. Thanks again!
————————-
Price/Availability:
The unit is $399 w/o a HR strap, and $449 with a strap. You can pre-order one via the link above (via Garmin’s site).
Rumor is that Nov 16th is the date being given to distributors.
For those asking on Amazon, typically it takes a few days to show up in the system. For the individual asking for Amazon.de, I’ll get a link tonight and add it to the sidebar. I really appreciate you supporting the site!
————————-
Swimming Mode:
1) The unit uses an accellerometer to determine strokes, etc…
2) Displaying of swim data in Garmin Connect. Since I’m on the production GC instance, I can’t see the dev work there quite yet. I’m told shortly.
3) Pool Size: The max I can specify is 50m. That does seem like a valid request though.
————————-
Bike Related:
1) Garmin Vector compatiability with Joule 2.0 – Albeit unrelated to the FR910XT, it will be compatible with any ANT+ power meter, including the Joule. It transmits both a regular ANT+ Power Meter Device profile data stream, as well as Left/Right power information (technically it just transmits right power information in percentage format and then the head unit does the math).
————————-
Run Related:
1) No, there is not an option to have multiple running profiles, just one.
2) No current way to setup a pace alert without creating workout.
3) Virtual Racer: It was introducd with FR610, I was implying it was new to the triathlon watch series (over FR310XT with didn’t have it)
4) Using swim accellerometer to record run distance/arm swings: It doesn’t today, it requires either GPS or the seperate footpod. There are other companies that do use that technology in that way though.
(Part 1 End)
(Part II Start)
————————
Triathlon/Band Specific
1) The quick release kit is different
2) It is the same as the Edge quarter turn mounts though
3) The major difference between FR310XT strap and FR910XT strap is the use of actual screws to lock in strap, versus little ‘pins’ in the past. You have to unscrew both sides. Maybe a video is in order…
4) For those asking why it was previously a problem, it was primarily on the wrist and then pins were popped when another competitor whacked the FR310XT hard, causing the unit to fall to the ocean/lake floor.
5) Wrist pictures. My wife is small, I’ve got a few I’ll upload with it on her wrist.
6) Run/Walk Intervals within multisport: I’ll double-check on this and try it and let ya know.
————————-
Navigation Related:
1) Whether or not breadcrumb page could be split – it cannot, all or nothing
————————-
Training Related:
1) Repeat until function: Yes, it supports this. Just tried it out via GTC
————————-
Heart Rate Related:
1) I added some better and more clear pictures so you can identify which strap you have. All Garmin units sold since last December with a “premium strap” use the newest version. All individual straps sold on Garmin.com are also the new version. 95% of new straps sold on Amazon are the new version.
2) Training Effect: I’ll look to add that section later this week. It does not record R-R intervals (no Garmin units do)
————————-
Stuff that doesn’t fit elsehwere
1) Whether or not Garmin plans to continue supporting FR310XT firmware. Yes, I suspect so – that’s been the case based on discussions I’ve had with them. Just like past devices, they tend to still release new firmware for years afterwards.
2) Battery life feels roughly the same. I’ve kept it on literally from morning till late at night, and it keeps on ticking. Rated 20 hrs.
3) Temp sensor: It does not include one. Would have been nice though!
4) Calorie Burn type: 2nd Generation FirstBeat (added new section).
5) Satellite: This uses the IV with SiRFInstantFixII.
6) 20hr Battery: You cannot turn off just the GPS functions like other GPS watches (well, you can, but it doesn’t save much battery). It’s all or nothing from a display standpoint.
Thanks everyone!
I really wish Garmin would add the run/walk mode to the firmware for the FR305. I know it’s an old device but it still gives the best bang for the buck for someone new to running, perhaps using Galloway or C25K to get started, and not ready to drop 300-400 dollars on a device. This 910XT looks pretty awesome but clearly for the more advanced/serious athlete!
hello, ray
i love the bike path. do you many were you live? i live in south florida and id love to se that type of path. btw what state is it in?
Minor question. Will the watch band extender work with other garmin models (fr210 specifically)? It is not listed with other models on the garmin website, but I would love to use it with my current watch.
Congrats on another stellar review. I can’t believe that they didn’t include temperature data. It’s almost like Garmin always splits the feature list between certain devices so you “want / have” them all?! (e.g. like the Edge 500 not being footpod capable)
Took a while to read, but I loved reading it! Is HR big for triathletes under water?
Temperature data on a watch would essentially measure skin temperature.
Ray, What Sirf Chip is this using for GPS and how does it compare to the Sirf III that I believe was in the Garmin 310XT. In particular I would be interested in satellite acquisitions times while stopped and moving.
Ray, fantastic review! I love your site, great work.
Great review,thank you!
I like to ask your opinion about the glass,we must afraid of breaking the glass like with 310?
thank you
Ray,
Thanks for the review. I would like to see Garmin support “calculated power” when riding on an indoor trainer and using the speed/cadence add-on. Several popular indoor bike trainers have a standard power curve available to allow a simple speed-to-power calculation. Could you add this to your list of suggestions for Garmin’s Engineering Team? I need every angle possible to stay motivated on the indoor trainer.
Thanks for the answer. great job!
Alex
Hi Ray,was over at another site called surfski.info and they have been discussing a gps out of south africa called mobii,apparently its fully waterproof,unlike my 2x 305’s that garmin said they would replace with a second hand unit if i slipped them $100!As i have been burnt by garmin before can you contact them for a review…Your the best Ray!
Thank you for this great in-depth review. I have a question regarding the barometer, cumulated elevation and calibration. I am an ultratrailer using a foretrex 401 (after a fr 305). I bought it because of the barometer (and the battery) but in the end it totally sucks. The autocalibration sucks and cumulated elevation sucks really (a shame !), at least in mountains. Have you an idea how well the barometer in the 910xt is of any interest? Thank you for your answer !
Another beautiful job, Ray! Takes pride of place in the new FB group.
Great job as always. I wonder if I get one for my wife for xMas, I can alternate with my 405CX.
Excelente trabajo muchas gracias !
Awesome work thk you very much for your help.
Looking for the best Garmin day to day (swim capable) GPS watch. Doesn’t sound like this one is the best day to dayer. Does Garmin have a suitable watch for day to day wear but may also be worn to the beach for ocean swims, etc….?
Thanks!
FR
Fantastic review as usual, and it GREW overnight. Seriously, your reviews set the standard. Thank you very much. And thank you Garmin for delivering. Now it just needs to work!!!
I’m so excited for this watch. Now I just have to find the cash for it or hope that Santa is good to me.
One question I have though is if Garmin has ever considered a ANT+ display for the bike similar to the edge 500 instead of having to deal with the quick release during transition. My thoughts are that the watch would still record all of the data but on the bike the information would be displayed both on the watch and on the display unit mounted in a more convenient location than your wrist. The display may have configurable data screens similar to the edge 500 but other than that all the information would be received from the watch. I don’t necessarily understand how ANT+ works so I don’t know if this is possible but think it would be pretty cool and efficient.
Marcus – asuming you have a GSC-10 on your bike you can do something like that with a simple ANT+ head unit like the Bontrager Node 1 (you can use an Edge 500 and FR910xt in tandem as well, it’s just a good deal more expensive). ANT+ sensors can be paired to multiple computers, so your HR, cadence, and power sensors will work with as many head units as you’d like.
With that said, the one caveat is that the timers wouldn’t be synchronized (ie the bike computer would have to be manually started and it’s elapsed time would begin when you did that). It would be awesome to see Garmin offer some functionality that explicitly allows devices to work in sync (ie when in range, synchronize the clocks and mirror any commands like pressing the lap button). It’d take some work, but if it could convince people to buy two devices rather than one it’d likely pay for itself pretty quickly 😉
Naturally, even better would be a dumb head unit for the bike (ie no data recording, have the wrist unit relay GPS data via ANT+ and skip the on-board module, etc.). That’d make it pretty inexpensive and should allow for significantly longer battery life.
I’m curious about the comparison of the 910XT swimming functions in a pool vs. the Finish watches? I use the Garmin 305 for running and was considering getting the Finis swim watch for pool laps. If this works as well as the Finis it would make sense to just dump my 305 and get an all in one. DC Rainmaker- can you provide a comparison?
@ Marcus and tms:
good idea! I hope rainmaker talks to the garmin people about this topic.
I would like to have a Xperia active, Edge 500 and 910xt in one device, but the display is the problem… And you have the solution!
Great review!
@tms:
A dumb head unit is exactly what I’m trying to refer to. My thoughts were, as you mentioned, for it to simply be a mirror of the data on the wrist unit and possible have a couple of buttons that would allow you to scroll through the preformatted data screens, start & stop, and lap. I think the size and case design of the Edge 500 would be perfect, but as far as electronics it wouldn’t need much more than an ANT+ chip, a battery (rechargable or not), and a display screen. Maybe it could be called the Edge 510D, for display.
Anyway just thought it might be a cool idea and one that I think triathletes would be more willing to purchase than having to deal with the hassle and bulkiness of the quick mount system, especially given the horror stories I’ve heard about lossing units in open water.
Great Review! What is run pace smoothing? It seems thats the only thing the 610 has over the 910XT in your spreadsheet. Just wondering as an avid runner how to choose between the 610 and 910XT. Is there something else compelling about the 610 over the 910XT for this type of user? Thanks!
Thanks for yet another outstanding review Ray! I’ve really enjoyed my FR305, but I’ve had my eye on the 310XT for the extended battery life that I will need for a 50 mile trail run in February. I’m glad I can update my Christmas wish list to a 910XT! It looks great. I look forward to when Garmin can make the entire thing touch screen though!
Ray, thanks for this very in-depth review. We really appreciate your work.
About the watch. Wow Garmin, you made it! This is what I always dreamed of. I’m so glad that I can abandon the idea of buying the Finis Swimsense. Now, it’d be great if we could have a comparison between the two in the pool (hint hint!).
Cheers
Grandissimo Ray,
Thank you again for the fantastic review.
Greatings from Italy
Ciao
Hi Ray.Thank you so much for posting such a great review.I knew you’d have the best information when Garmin came out with their next 305/310 upgrade.
Do you think the 910xt has what it takes to get prime position in your sport tech arsenal?
Cheers,
Jason
Ray – Amazing review – this is the watch I’ve been waiting for! Is it possible to use the Virtual Racer functionality in conjunction with multi-sport mode? For example, could you download someone’s ride of the IM Canada bike course, then “race” against that person after you come out of the water (same question applies for the run)?
Also, I’m assuming that if you use the “Garmin in swim cap” method for better open-water GPS tracking, the stroke count info will be sort of nonsensical. However, I’d be interested to see if the accelerometer will track your head turns for breathing as “strokes”, thus allowing you to track approximate swim cadence if you breath regularly (i.e., every other stroke or every third stroke).
Again, great review. If only they could figure out the underwater HR signal. Can someone PLEASE make an accessory that attaches to ANT+ HR straps and watches and converts the signal to something appropriate for underwater transmission already?
Superb review. And BIG THANKS for giving me the heads up that this was coming as I almost got impatient and bought both the Edge and Forerunner 610. Finally the all in one device I have been searching for is here!
Outstanding review! I was about to get another 310XT, mine 2 year old 310XT has been behaving strangely. Thank you so much for helping me to save money on a older model! Can’t wait for it to be launched.
Jit
Singapore
Hi All-
Thanks for the comments to date. Here’s the roundup of new Q&A’s:
—————–
Run:
1) Run Smoothing: I need to double-check that again, it was cleaner tonight on my run. Last time I talked, they did some work in the FR610 around cleaning up GPS data to make it appear smoother, I’ve gotta see if that made it over to the FR910XT code base.
—————–
Bike
1) Calculated power: Interesting idea, agree that it’s becoming more common. Will definitely mention it. I think also something like what CycleOps is doing would be cool too – with their HR strap power (fairly accurate in my testing)
—————–
Swim
1) Is HR big for triathlets? It depends. HR underwater is hard to get on a number of levels. Polar has it, but the strap can be very difficult to get to stay put in a lap pool due to flip turns (especially on guys, girls it’s easier). Openwater under a wetsuit it’s easy. The real question is the usefulness of it. I’ve been using the AquaPulse underwater for HR, it’s fascinating from a ‘how hard can I push standpoint’ though.
2) FR910XT vs Swimsense: Fear not, that’s the first thing you’ll be getting as a ‘Showcase Showdown’ of sorts – hopefully in the next few weeks. I’m super familiar with the Swimsense (use it every swim), so am more than able to do a comparison once Garmin has the final swim stroke software (it’s constantly changing) and online software ready.
3) Underwater strap that can rebroadcast ANT+: There’s a few folks working around this idea, but nothing that we’ll see in the immediate future. I’ve been trying to convince Suunto to go back and re-release their Duostrap as Polar/ANT+ instead of Polar/closed-ANT
—————–
Triathlon:
1) Will I use it day to day? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m lucky in that I have everything at my disposal. So in my case, I really do like the FR610 since it’s small and a great runners watch. On my bike I like the extra data fields the Edge 500/800 has. The swim is still up in the air (today I use swimsense). That said, if I wasn’t so lucky to have so many devices, there’s no question I’d just buy this one to cover them all.
2) Race against a competitor with multisport mode: I don’t believe so at this time, since you have to load up each sport individually. Let me check with the Garmin guys on that and see what’s possible there.
—————–
Band/Size/Specs
1) Extender on other watches: Unclear at the moment, should have some detail in a few days on that. Curious myself actually. The band is slightly different than past bands, so it might work – but might not be a perfect fit.
2) Temperature: Depending on where the sensor is, it would either be affected by body heat, or not as much. Below the band, certainly. But on surface of watch probably far enough away to get a ‘rough idea’.
3) GPS Chip: The FCC filing hasn’t been made public quite yet (probably a few more days), which details that.
4) Glass Breakage: Much less prone thatn FR310XT. The FR310XT had the entire top being glass, without a lip. The FR910XT has a very slight lip and more protection. If it lands on a stray rock, you’re probably still toast, but flat pavement you should be good.
5) Barometer: For me it’s been fairly accurate here in the DC area. Headed up to Canada tomorrow, will definitely be curious to see how it handles on the hillier terrain.
—————–
Random:
1) Bike Paths: Yup, tons of them – live in the DC area.
2) Best day to day watch with swim: Unfortunately, Garmin has none except for the FR60 – which isn’t GPS enabled. Really wish there were more options in this area. Really wish they’d just properly waterproof the FR210.
Thanks all – appreciate it!
Thank you very much for an excellent, very in-depth review! I think Santa knows what a lot of us wants for Christmas!
– Dennis
Thanks a lot for this in-depth review! As usual this is of great help!
Pizdetz, I’ve just changed my 305 to 310 XT (though it’s nice but 910XT is better). Great design, features, etc… Have to change in the future
I noticed that they changed the font on the screen. It is more readable now. Cool!
And now the greatest problem for Garmin to find the way to read HR in water. Then it’ll be perfect.
Excellent review! I’m very interested but if I purchase the 910xt and already have a Garmin connect account, will I have to open a new account to upload activity data? Or can two devices use the same account allowing me to alternate between devices so I can use both new and historic data.
Thanks a lot!!
Just a small thing in the comparision – Polar RCX5 can change recording rate – 1, 2, 5, 15 or 60 seconds.
In several sports it would be interesting to log accelerometer data along with the GPS-data in order to improve technique training. One case is orienteering (map reading frequency and characteristics), but there are also several other sports where this would be very interesting (skiing, skating etc.) – especially now with the barometer also included. It looks like Garmin now has all the hardware required (if the accelerometer for swim-stroke can handle 10 Hz frequency). Do you think they will be interested in putting something like this in firmware in the future? Would be very interesting…
What are the crucial differencies between 610 and 910 for an advanced runner?
Ray, only five bikes? What an annoyingly low number. The 800 only supports three, so it’s actually an improvement there, but PLEASE yell at Garmin to let us have more bikes. I think ten is a more reasonable number, but then again, I have a small bike problem. But I am not alone!
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I see from the website that Garmin is offering a fabric strap. But the quick change kit includes a plastic strap. I was wondering if you knew if there was a fabric/velcro quick change kit in the works? I really abhor the plastic straps because I can never get them adjusted “just right”.
I’m sure the answer is no, but is there any chance Garmin brings the lap swim features of the 910 to the 310xt?
Matt, I have a strong suspicion that the swim lap features on the 910XT are because it has built in magnetometers in order to be able to detect the subtle shifts in arm movement and identify strokes. I doubt that hardware exists in the 310xt.
Looks like an amazing GPS/HR watch, and will most definitely go on the wishlist. The only thing I’m bummed about is that it can be split between two people – I thought that was a clever “con.” As always, thanks for the uber thorough review of Garmin’s new watch!
Great Review!
How do you think the swim will affect later barometric altitude readings? I would assume there’s an exposed pressure port somewhere. A) will water get in it, and B) how fast will it clear?
Being interested in triathlons and mountaineering, the barometric altimeter makes this a potentially useful watch on short mountain climbs. I have a few questions related to that:
(a) How good is the battery life in cold weather (think well below freezing, -10 or worse)? Can you do a test where you turn it on and leave it in the freezer or put iceblocks around it and see how quickly it dies? Or perhaps garmin has some research on this already?
(b) can you turn GPS off and still use the barometric altimeter, and hence extend battery life?
thanks!
Thanks for the review. Why buy a 610 if you can get the 910xt? I was just going to jump from a Polar RS300 watch to the 610 for running and get a Edge 800 for biking, but it looks like going with the 910xt is superior — even if I also end up getting an Edge 800 (or similar) later for the additional data fields and mapping features.
So why get a 610 at all? Is the size difference seems minor.
Will the pool sensor sense non flip turns?
You stated specifically that no Garmins record R-R data but I am confused as the folks at Firstbeat have told me otherwise. The 610 and it appears the 910XT provide Training Effect numbers, which require R-R data. Firstbeat are developing an update that will include compatibility with the 610 (link to firstbeat.fi) and I assume the 910XT is similar since it records training effect as well. I have an email stating that Firstbeat software will be compatible from Firstbeat. Their software only interprets R-R data. Can you clarify this?
Which iPhone App needs to download via ANT+ the activities on the phone?
Just wondering … If the 910XT really have accelerometers built-in for the swimming activity, it could also be used as a podometer and replace the foot pod ? I mean technicaly at least … I know Garmin is so bad at software developing but why not hope ?!
Question regarding TSS/IF/NP parameters. Those didn’t appear in the chart for cycling parameters available for display on the device. Does this mean that those metrics are not available “real time” but only after finishing the workout and downloading the file?
Ditto to all the praises on your great reviews. I almost went out and got the 310XT, and I’m a bit happy that I was a bit slow.
I’ve been using my Timex Ironman with 2 interval timers as my main watch, and paired with my bike comp (Bontranger Node 2) has been very useful.
Now with the 910XT I think I’ll be happy that there’s something to track my swimming as well. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.
I like that Garmin watches use GPS because I’d like to pace myself and measure exactly how far I’m running on an open road or trail.
Ray, this is incredible. You do a fantastic job at reviewing this stuff. Garmin should offer you a job.
I posted earlier regarding R-R data recording. Below is the question and responseni obtained from Firstbeat the the reason for my confusion and asking for clarification.
—–Original Message—–
From: Brad
Sent: 16. kesäkuuta 2011 23:40
To: support
Subject: Garmin 610 Compatibility
I saw recently in a forum post at Garmin that Firstbeat Althete would be compatible with the Garmin 610 sometime this summer. Is this true? It was my understanding that Garmin devices did not record R-R data. I currently use a Suunto T6c and FBA (I am a registered user). I would like to have route information and am very interested in the Garmin 610. Can you please tell me if there is a planned update to FBA for Garmin 610 compatibility?
Yes, support for Garmin Forerunner 610 will be added to the next Athlete update, released this summer.
Forerunner 610 is a first Garmin heart rate device capable of recording the R-R interval data.
Regards,
Tuomas Romppainen
Support
Firstbeat Technologies Ltd.
Thanks Ray for clarifying this.
Ray, thanks for these awesome reviews!
You say the release date will probably be on Nov 16th; if I pre-order it form amazon (once they have it on the system) do you think I’ll have enough time to get comfortable using it by Dec 4th for my first marathon?
Thanks! This is the better review I´ve ever seen about Garmin!!
Dear Ray,
Thanks for the great review. Very nice piece of equipment.
I am in doubt which watch would suit me best the 910xt or 210.
I do rpm once or twice a week indoors, once a week running outside. And irregularly windsurfing at sea (around 5-10 times a year), one week skiing, two or three weekends of mountain biking and one week of hiking in the mountains (all per year).
The main reason for buying a gps watch is to keep track of my training progress (specifically in running en rpm) and to record speed and tracks (skiing, mountain biking and hiking).
The functionalities of the 210 suit me in most situations, but I don’t like the fact you can’t swim with it (so no windsurfing too I guess?), it lacks the bread crumb track wich might come handy (in misty conditions) in the mountains, and it doesn’t have real cycling or triatlon potential (if I want to do that in the future).
Do the extra functionalities of the 910 in my case warrant the extra money?
The bigger size of the 910 is no problem for me (I’m 6 foot 6 and 90 kg). Niether will I use the watch as a normal daily watch.
Maybe you can help me with some advise on which watch to buy?
Best regards,
Prinser
Great review…. I want one.
Just a quick question about software compatible with the new swim features. Is Garmin connect able to display your swm metrics such as laps, stroke count, SWOLF score etc?
It would be silly to upgrade from my 305 and then find I can’t keep a record of these things.
Cheers,
A.
Hi,
could you compare 910XT indoor swimming mode to finis swimsense? is 910XT full replacement?
Hi All-
Thanks for the comments, appreciate it!
Hi Anon-
RE: Creating new account if already have Garmin Connect
No, I use all my devices under a single account, no issues there.
Hi Anon-
RE: RCX5 Recording rate
Good catch, I’ll correct that.
Hi Jan-
RE: Accellerometer
I suspect that Garmin will look at ways to creatively use the accellerometer in the future, but I don’t think we’ll see anything in the short term.
Hi Anon-
RE: Diff between 610 and 910XT for advanced runner
Essentially nothing. From a running standpoint, the FR910 and 610 share everything. The only diff is the barometric altimeter and the longer battery of the 910XT. Additionally, if while running you follow courses, the 910XT has that whereas the 610 doesn’t.
Hi Donnie
RE: Five bikes and want ten
I do indeed suspect the problem there may be closer to home. 😉 I’ll mention it though next time I chat.
Hi Bryan
RE: Fabric instead of plastic quick release
I’ll ask, but I suspect it’ll be fabric regular strap, or plastic as the final decisions. I did indeed love the old FR305 fabric quick release strap though…very nice.
Hi Matt-
RE: Swim features to 310XT
No, since it’s based on new hardware inside the watch and is not just software (firmware).
Hi Jay-
RE: Water affecting barometric altimeter
From my experiance with the Edge series devices, it’s bad. The water will shake out almost immediately. The hole is located on the side near the lower left edge of the watch – should easily shake out in a couple minutes at worst.
Hi Bilal-
RE: Battery life in cold weather
Sure, I’ll add it to my list. I did this with the Edge series.
RE: Turn off GPS and use altimeter
You could turn off GPS and juse use altimeter, but I don’t suspect you’ll see it extend battery life much. My suggestion if if going more than 20 hours, consider the batter extender as a way to give it an extra day (or forever with solar).
Hi Stefan-
RE: Why 610 over 910XT
Essentially if you’re a running, or if you already have an Edge unit, then the 910XT is somewhat duplicate. Further, if you’re just running than the FR610 does basically everything you’d want in smaller form factor. As odd is it may sound, I’ll likely still use my FR610 more than the 910XT simply because I prefer running with the smaller FR610. Though, the barometric altimeter on recent runs has been winning me over… Also, the FR610 is wearable as a day to day watch for weeks at a time, the 910XT not at all.
Hi Anon-
RE: Swim, flip or open
It’ll detect both.
Hi Brad-
RE: R-R data
The data is recorded for firstbeat, but isn’t consumable by you as a consumer. As you noted below, today, that’s not possible for any units. Perhaps in the future they’ll also update the .FIT files to make that consumable.
Hi Anto-
RE: iPhone app
You just need the default Wahoo Fitness app with the Wahoo Fitness dongle.
Hi Baz-
RE: Accell to replace footpod
It’s certainly a consideration, some are doing it today. Though the accuracy isn’t anywhere near footpod for most users (I’ve tried a few of them).
Hi Tony-
RE: TSS/IF/NP
They’ll be available in realtime. As noted, they just aren’t yet in this firmware version, I suspect I’ll see it in my next beta firmware next week.
Thanks all for the comments – hope everyone’s had a great weekend!
Sorry, missed three last comments:
Hi Prinser-
RE: Windsurfing
Yes, the FR910XT is the watch you want. In fact, during many of my discussions with Garmin I actually use Windsurfing as an example of why they should have waterproofed the FR210. I also used Windsurfing as a great example of why 1s recording was important (as without other ANT+ sensors, in the past you got lower update intervals, making it tough for Windsurfers). I think on the FR210 you’ll unfortunately kill it pretty quickly. The FR910XT is definitely the watch you want.
Hi Justal-
RE: Garmin Connect swim metrics
It will, it just doesn’t as of this second (10/9/2011). It’s going to be released shortly, and I’ll be updating the swim section once it does.
Hi Andrej-
RE: Comparing Swimsense to FR910XT
I plan to do a full shootout between the two – as soon as the aforementioned Connect details are there. I’ve got an updated watch coming this week to do swim testing with – so I shoudl be able to start collecting data. However, the site still needs to be updated.
I suspect what you’ll see however (based on what I know thus far), is that the Swimsense is indeed purpose built for swimming, and thus handles the data better than the FR910XT. But the FR910XT is the ‘do it all handyman’, so it depends a bit on what you want. For example, Swimsense has spent a lot of time in the data area, and the ability to both record and analyze your data exactly how you’d expect it to be (i.e., showing breaks, splits, etc…) – whereas I see at the moment the FR910XT focusing on getting you the laps/splits/strokes, but probably not quite to the level of detail as Swimsense.
Again, once I can start seeing the data on Garmin Connect, I’ll be able to make a better determination.
Thanks again!
DC Rainmaker your are amazing. Thank you. I have thr 310XT, but I am not crazy about it, and it is brand new. So if any of you want to buy it. I will sell it for $300.00 box, charger, heart rate strap and of course the watch. Please feel free to email me: kellitrudel@hotmail.com. I am going to get the new one!!
Hi Ray.
First of all thanks for the review.
I am in doubt which watch would suit me best the 910xt or 610. I do mountain biking twice a week and running once a week. I’m looking for a heart rate-gps watch to analyze my training days and to record my tracks and see then in my computer. I am not a professional and I have a Dakota 20 unit but I want to use only a gps watch for everything.
Thank you very much.
thanks for the review. I have been waiting for this one to come out since the new polar was released and was disappointed it did not have integrated GPS.
in your talk you mentioned there are a lot of good watches out there that just need better (target level) 50-100 meter water proofing. I really like the 610 but it’s lack of water proofing that I would not have to worry about the occasional jump in the pool or lake has made me to continue to wait. I currently have the RS800CX and have been happy with it but looking for more advanced features and online data sharing (have not made the leap to training peaks yet)
Chris
How many hours of data can keep in 1-second recording mode in a single activity? Thanks.
Could you also add a link to Amazon.co.uk and/or Amazon.fr? They’re usually cheaper than Amazon.de. Thanks
Same to http://www.amazon.es please. Thanks Ray.
Hi Roy-
RE: Mountain Biking, FR610 or 910XT
If you’re cycling, I recommend the 910XT over the 610XT for a cyclist because the numbers are easier to view and the display is better suited to control from a cycling standpoint over the much smaller touch screen.
Hi Texas-
RE: Waterproofing
Agree completely. The FR610 especially, but also the FR210 and FR110 – as well as the older FR405 and the newish FR410.
Hi Zeephyyr-
RE: Hours of data nonstop
Many. Let me see if I can find out the exact number from someone.
Hi All-
RE: Links to other sites:
Sure, here’s the list of ones for outside the US:
UK: link to amazon.co.uk
FR: link to amazon.fr
DE: link to amazon.de
ES: link to amazon.es
CA: link to amazon.ca
These will all take you to general Amazon pages where you can then search for whichever item you’re looking for. As of this exact moment, the FR910XT isn’t quite there yet for most stores – but should be shortly. Also, I’ve placed these in the upper right hand corner of the site if you want to use them anytime you buy on Amazon. Simply click the link and then search/shop like normal.
Enjoy and thanks for supporting the site!
Hi Rey,
One thing I like about the FR610 is that you can have 4 fields on the screen AND see HH:MM:SS on the time display. On the FR310XT if I need to know seconds (Say if going for a PR in a Half Marathon or Marathon) I have to only display 3 fields so there is more room for the clock. Is this also the case with the FR910XT?
Thanks,
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Hi
Great review as usual. A question about Virtual Racer. Is it any different than running against Virtual Partner using a course with FR305? (Don’t know if it is possible on 310XT). Thanks
hi there, if you could , even if in a post, can you send more pictures of the 910 with the 610
my watch is slowly dieing (suunto x3hr) and im looking into my options
and size is a big factor for me i want something, not huge (for example the suunto x9 is huge)
Great review as usual. Is the metal back on the 910 similar to the 610, in terms of a plated cast metal part?
I experienced corrosion with the 610’s metal back due to poor quality plating that left the base metal exposed to corrosive elements (ie: sweat). Seems this is not isolated given related 610 posts on the Garmin forums.
If the 910 uses a similar back to the 610, it’s a deal breaker. Hoping you can provide some insight.
Ray,
I was wondering, when you get your updated model can you advise how the firmware is acting? I know when the 610 came out initially there were some f/w issue that made logging runs difficult and some satellite issues. Now, once the latest f/w was released it appears that all of those issues were corrected, but I was wanting to know if you experienced any of these “type” of issues with the new 910xt. “If” I pony up the cash for a 910xt when it comes out I was hoping I wouldn’t have to wait a month or two for a new f/w to be released to actually use it.
Thanks
Anonymous,
The corrosion you have experienced on your unit is a defect and you should contact Garmin Product Support about it.
Great review like usal.
Thank you for all.
Pierre
Thanks Ray! I am looking forward to seeing how the 910XT does in the water compared to the Finis Swimsense. I realize the Finis provides more swim-specific data, but if the 910xt is as accurate at counting strokes & pool laps then I may just forego the purchase of the SwimSense and save a little more for the 910xt!
Thanks for your excellent reviews!
-barry
Hi Ben-
RE: HH:MM:SS
No. In a four-field config once you hit 59:59, it’ll go to HH:MM. However, in a three-field config it’ll stay in full HH:MM:SS (and actually show splits down to the 1/100ths of a second).
Hi Vlado-
RE: Virtual Racer vs Virtual Partner
Yes, Virtual Partner simply does a total time divided by distance calculation (including on the FR305) – which means that it doesn’t take into account hills or other faster/slower sections. This is what Virtual Racer does.
Hi Kareem-
RE: FR610 pics
Sure, I’ll add a few more tomorrow.
Hi Anon-
RE: Back of watch
Actually, despite how it looks, the back of the FR910XT is plastic and not metallic like the FR610.
Hi JoeyI-
RE: Firmware stability
The firmware itself is very stable. Since it’s in beta stil for another month, there are bugs of course – but from a stablity standpoint it’s quite good (and satellite pickup is crazy fast). The bugs today that I run into are primarily around data fields not fully implemented or completed – all mostly known items that are being knocked out by the development team.
Hi Barry-
RE: Swimsense Comparison
Thanks – as soon as I have the full swim suite from the Garmin side, I’ll be able to do the comparison. Starting tomorrow (Thurs) I’ll be able to start swimming with the unit and collecting data. Just can’t display it yet (meaning, the Garmin Connect I have access to doesn’t support swim data quite yet…almost!).
Thanks all!
wow, is there a better watch? I like the pretty polar RCX5 but this 910XT has everything I wish the polar had: Built in GPS, Heart rate accross the whole activity and not just the zones, lap swimming.
However I just got my Polar RS300x, and budget does not included a watch upgrade, so I can only think about this watch in a years time. Perhaps Garmin will have another great option (maybe less bulky)
Best review I’ve ever read in my life! That’s definitely a goodbye to RCX5 and even the RS800CX from Polar.
Going to get myself 910xt 🙂
PS. I’m into triathlon.
Great review, sounds like a really cool watch.
From what I read I guess the next thing for Garmin to work on would be the implementation of some sort of ECO-Mode, that basically turns off anything except for everyday-watch features and gives you an everyday-watch kind of battery life.
Re: Virtual Partner
I konw this is 910xt review… but I’m pretty sure that on a 305 you can use Virtual partner as what is now called Virtual Racer. I’ve used it in the past, and re-checked it today in case they did change it with the new firmware.
If you want to race against your previous run, select training-courses, create a course from a previous run, and select “do the course” (it can be done in the watch]. VP then runs exactly as you did last time.
You can easily verify – on a track, run 300m fast, walk for 100m – so you cover the 400m in say 100s. Then reset the watch, create new course and run the lap at an even pace in 100s. The little man will be gaining for the first 300m, than you’ll catch him at the end.
Anyway, thanks for the review, hope you’ll be able to uodate the swim section soon.
Hey Ray,
First off, GREAT REVIEW! I know what I’m buying now haha
But I do have a question for you, would you recommend pre-ordering it, or waiting and buying it like the day it comes out instead? I’m at a standstill on what I should do..
Thanks!
Hey,
Great blog you’ve got here, discovered it just a few weeks ago.
I was just wondering about the barometric altimeter, to what extent would it be affected by weather change?
Tom F.
No fields for TSS , IF, or Normalized Power? I thought those were now supported.
I have asked Garmin this question and they wouldnt give me an answer. They told me to try at my own risk but it would void the warrenty. My question is about the charging apparatus for the Garmin Watches has USB port. Can I plug the male USB dong into an iPhone Car Charger to charge my watch from the Car without damaging the 910xt or any Garmin as a matter of fact? Cars use DC power and Houses use AC Power so im curious. I would hate to try this on my own 910xt watch once I get it. And since you have a loaner =)
The 310xt has become quite popular with kayak and ski paddlers. With the accellerometer the 910xt has potential for paddlers. What are the data fields available for “other” sports? Does the “other” sport mode allow display of speed and stroke rate? Is the accellerometer sensitive enough to detect the stroke rate when attached to the kayak or would it need to be on the wrist.
Great detailed review. First time I’ve ever read any of your reviews; was actually referenced to you by the Garmin Store in Chicago about reviews on the 910XT as there are a lack of them b/c the unit is not available yet. I might have missed it in your responses to other comments/questions, so I apologize for the duplicate question if it has been raised.
I have a Garmin 405CX for running and biking, but the battery life really sucks for long brick w/o’s. How do you like the battery life on the 910XT? Would it be useful for long distance triathlons i.e. ironman’s? Has it lasted the entire day/the true 20hrs?
Greatly appreciate you taking the time to do the reviews and answer all our questions. As your review has been extremely beneficial and would definitely be back to read others to help out with future purchases.
Dave
Is it possible to get Metabolic Test data that was done in some other facility (not New Leaf) into the Garmin to be used for accurate calorie calculations? Or, is getting a New Leaf version of a metabolic test the only way? I have done these tests and dont really want to have to dop them again but would like to get my test info in there to be used in the calculations.
I’m spanish rower.
910xt could:
In order for the internal tilt-switch to register a stroke, the watch must rotate 90°, like Cadence T1 of Nielsen-Kellerman
You’ll probably answer this in the swimming write up but ….. given the choice, would you now wear the 910XT in the cap or on your arm. Obviously to get stroke data you’ll need to wear it on the arm but will this compromise distance or the plot? Currently I use the 310XT in my cap and it works flawlessly. If the answer is 910XT on the arm, I wonder how sturdy the quick release for the 910XT is? If my arm is mixing it up with other swimmers and I have a quick release on, not sure I’m going to want to “test” that. What do ya think?
Nice – but still the oldschool-map.
…would really be cool to simply upload an OSM-file as on the 705 :-/
Maybe someone should tell that girl about the swim cap method: link to garmin.blogs.com
But on the other hand, looking to data while swimming ist interesting. So how precise ist the distance measurement during the workout? So without the postprocessing of the 310xt swimalgorithm?
Dear Ray,
I can only repeat what everyone has been writting great review.
Question on the open-water swim:
is it possible to combine stroke count and open water swim? As we swim the same route 3 times per week in the summer, it would be nice to variate the intensity and stroke rate.
On the bike:
Has garmin resolved the bug with “loosing ascent or descent information (only on the display) when loosing the signal for a short period (like when driving through a tunnel. In June when crossing the alps I was quite annoyed to loose that information.
Great review. I just wonder if the 910XT could also be used for indoor cycling on a spinning bike with the running foot pod sensor to calculate cadence.
just letting you know: it’s already on pre-order in amazon
Thanks for the great review. I have one question its a huge pet peave of mine on the 310XT that I never had on the earlier models. When I use auto lap I would like to see my current lap as well as elapsed time when reviewing the workout later. With the 310xt it will show for example… Mile 10 total time 8:35.22 and average pace 8:35.22 verses I would like time elapsed to that point as well for example… Lap time 8:35.22 total time 1:28.22. I called Garmin and asked about this they said they would tell software to put that on in a future update. Sure sucks I would like to know if I have a negative split or not with trying to add each individual laps.
Aussie’s can pre-order from link to highlytunedathletes.com.au
Don’t work for them, just did a search and it came up (as it can be hard to get some stuff from Amazon to Australia). And this is where I am getting mine from. Can’t wait.
QUESTION # 1: Does this combo work: Vibration alert for distance during open water swim?
Application example: feedback every half kilometer during open water swim race.
QUESTION # 2: Can the virtual partner be set for a time deadline and known distance?
Application example: you set it for midnight and 26.2 miles, hitting start out of T2 at an Ironman race. This then tells you your cushion to cutoff.
Thanks!
Can the
I have a question regarding the TE measurement (training effect), will this work with the old soft strap or just the new one?
DC, superb as always. I noted that the Training Effect was mentioned in some detail. Polar has used the beat to beat HR in their 800 series watches for a long time and in fact, downloads the R-R or beat to beat HR curve simultaneously when that option is selected. What about the Garmin? In any case, I don’t know that Training Peaks and certainly not Garmin Connect have any functionality for using this data or displaying it. What about WKO+?
Thanks for a superb review – as usual!
#One question:
I have had my VO2MAX tested at a testing lab… Is it possible to use that test and manually type it into my profile in the device, or can I only get the calorie calculation right by using the new leaf thing?
Thanks again for your outstanding reviews…
Great review as always! Can you tell me if the 910xt has an option to automatically start the timer? eg.leave it on your bike in transition and get it to start timing when your in the water?
Fantastic review! Thanks very much!!!!
Hi Ray, great review, thanks a lot for your time!
Won’t salty water damage the watch if used while kitesurfing?
Does it download on the iPad as on a regular computer to check Garmin Connect?
Regards,
Pierre
Awesome review as always, Ray. Yours is the best site BY FAR for GPS watch and related athletic technology reviews.
Any chance of convincing Garmin to add a simple “regular watch mode” like on the 610?
The 910XT finally has me itching to replace my 305 if it weren’t for this one omission.
I mean, honestly, how hard is it to get this $449 technological marvel to replicate the basic features of a $10 generic timepiece from Walmart? It’s ridiculous to have to take this thing off to put on my cheap Casio to look at the time without charging it nightly.
Any chance of getting Garmin to include this basic feature, if not at launch then maybe in a firmware update? I’m not going to buy the 610 just for this. What’s wrong with producing a perfect GPS watch that has everything?
Hi Ray, thanks for another great review. Very timely as I’ve just lost my FR305. How easy to read is the screen on the 910xt, especially when cycling? I also have an Edge 500 and find that screen pretty hard to read with sun glasses on, in fact with 8 data fields and a bumpy road it is almost impossible to read and I have good eyesight. The FR305 had a clearer screen.
Hi Ray,
Have you received the updated firmware for this that includes TSS/IF/NP in realtime? If so, can you provide some screen shots?
Thanks for the great review!
Ray – thanks for the great review – do you foresee an issue with getting a wetsuit off while wearing the watch? One could always take off the watch and put it on the bike prior to taking off the wetsuit, but it seems like it would make a faster transition if you could get out of the sleeves on the run to the bike.
Thanks,
twomarks
Hello All-
Here’s another group of questions answered for ya:
RE: Pre-ordering & Order dates
In general, the dates for the initial pre-orders from Garmin.com stand at roughly the end of November, whereas new orders are well into December. Orders from 3rd party companies at this point would have been after the initial announcement date, and thus further down the list based on order date – from Garmin.com orders.
RE: Barometric altimeter
You can see some shifts in barometric altimeter data based on weather, I saw that a bit a week or so ago with a run as a storm came in. Though, you can also re-baseline your data afterwards in Garmin Connect super easily (one checkbox).
RE: TSS/IF/NP
As noted, that’s still coming. It’s not quite in the watch in the most current firmware I have, but will absolutely be there by time the watch ends up in your hands later this month.
RE: Charging from different charger
Anything that has a USB port will – I’ve charged this and every other Garmin watch I own with non-branded Garmin items. Pretty much if it fits, I plug it into it.
RE: Kayak Stroke Rate using accellerometer
In short, it doesn’t work. However, see this post for more details:
link to dcrainmaker.com
RE: Battery life
The FR910XT has a 20 hour battery life.
RE: Metabolic testing at other facilities
Unfortunately, it requires the facility generate a file in a specific format that today only Newleaf can do. Though, since it’s actually a simple text file – there would be nothing stopping an innovate individual from parsing other data into it.
RE: Openwater Stroke Data
When in openwater with it on your wrist, you’ll get stroke data. When in cap – no stroke data. But, with cap you get more accurate distance data in openwater. In a pool, the distance data has been spot on for me, with good stroke data too.
RE: Quick release kit
Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a quick release kit yet.
RE: Indoor use on spinning bike
In my experiance (with a running footpod on a standard Spin bike), it only captures about half of the cadence data.
RE: Vibration Alerts in Openwater
No problems, it calculates distance in realtime. Alerts while swimming can be time or distance based.
RE: Virtual Partner Deadline time (i.e. set by midnight)
Unfortunately not.
RE: Training Effect
It’ll work with all ANT+ straps
RE: RR Data
To my knowledge, none of them have the capability to display that data today.
RE: Auto start time when not around
No.
RE: Kitesurfing
Yes, this is the best Gamrin to use (aside from the FR310XT as well) – since salt water is no problem here.
RE: Downloading to iPad
You can use the Wahoo Fitness iPod/iPad/iPhone dongle to download from the FR910XT, per the above section. It works the same with the iPad.
RE: Regular watch mode
I don’t think we’ll see it since powering the display is much more draining on the FR910XT than on the FR610. Sure you can make it a watch for about 20 hours, but after that it’ll need recharging.
RE: Reading FR910XT Screen – easy?
Yes, no problems at all for me. The screen is absolutely the clearest one I’ve seen yet – much better than Edge 500.
RE: Wetsuit removal
I’ve updated the review to include a video I took of wetsuit removal with the FR910XT on. 🙂
Thanks all!
Ray:
Fee Nam O’ Nell
Thanks
I have used a FR305 for the last several years. Time for a change!!
I was considering the 610 for running and the 500 for cycling and Swimsense for the swim. Here is my dilemma: My eyes are losing their fire power (i.e. OLD), how do the relative size of the data fields and the clarity of display compare on the E500 vs 910?
Also, can you import the data from swimsense to GC? I like the idea of ALL data in one spot!!!
If the display is comparable… Santa just made a pit stop at Amazon!!!
Again, many thanks
sai
THanks for your reviews! im looking for a xmas present for my husband and i’m looking into the timex run trainer vs the garmin 910xt. he’s a hard core runner (ie lots of 100 miles), so i was wondering which watch you would recommend. both seem to have pretty good battery life, fairly customizable, big difference in price…. what do you think? thanks!
Great in-depth review. I am standing by for a run down on the swim features of the watch.
I have a 405CX and to be quite frank, I was so unhappy with the touch bezel that I never wanted to think about owning a Garmin again. I also am not impressed with the readability of the 405CX when using 3 fields. However, a couple of years later, I am now looking for a replacement because the battery capacity is only good for about 4 hours of data collection. Also, it only lasts a couple of days in battery saver mode.
My questions is which would be a better buy, the 610 or the 910. My primary use is running. I do not wear a watch when not exercising. Battery life is very important to me. I do not want to have to recharge every day. I do not mind turning the watch off if it has the capability (does the 910 have this capability)?
What would you recommend?
BTW, I may want to use the watch for route navigation while running, but I am not sure about the mapping capability for either watch.
THANKS!!
Were you able to find out if the run/walk mode can be used during the multisport mode? A previous poster asked this and I’m wondering the same thing.
Thanks!
I understand how the Training Effect works, but how does Energy Expenditure work? I assume it gives you feed back during your actual training, as opposed to after you are done. In general, I would like to hear how the FirstBeat works with the 910XT and Garmin Connect. Thanks.
Ray, thanks very much for the great review. I’m new into triathlons (ran my first marathon last year and first Sprint tri two months ago), and have been looking for a HRM to help take the training more seriously. I found your website a little while back and it has been a ideal source of info – but I couldn’t quite chose which watch to go for (functionality including swim plus a decent look). And then comes the 910XT. Bang – I want it!!!
Your site has been great and I’m more than happy to purchase through you. But you’re US focus (and it seems Garmin will release out there first).
If you can give weblinks, release date and price for UK and Spain I will be happy to click through. Cant wait to have this watch on my wrist.
Mark
markieme@gmail.com
Thanks for the review Ray. I saw the watch at the Garmin booth at the NYC marathon expo yesterday. I do plan on getting it. I have 2 questions.
1. What’s new on the scale front for the holidays? The BC-1000 seems like its due for an upgrade.
2. Have you ever tried out Raceday Apollo for tracking your workouts? Like TP it is sharable with coaches. I know you are really tied in with TP, but Raceday does swimming.
Great info on this watch and other,
In addition to Triathlons, I’m hoping to use this watch for Sailboat Racing. I’m looking to see if any of these watches have “Coarse Over Ground”, “Velocity Made Good” VMG or “Barring” to a waypoint. “Coarse Over Ground” is the one I’m most interested in.
Great review, thanks.
Can you tell me if the FR910XT has the customizable countdown feature like the FR310XT?
Great review, thank you so much for all of the information!
I had 2 random questions:
Any idea when Garmin will upload swim workouts? I feel like that’s way more useful than bike/run- I have a much harder time remembering my entire swim set then say, 6x800s at the track.
Also, do you know if it would ever be possible to get your Trainingpeaks account to sync back TO your Garmin, so that you could upload a weeks worth of planned workouts onto the device? It might be a little too complex, but I thought it would be really neat to just turn on your Garmin and know what workout you are supposed to do that day, and have it automatically ready to go!
Looks pretty incredible and yet when looking at the Moto-actv, I’m drawn to it like a mouth to the flame. Here’s to hoping you do some direct comparisons in your review of the moto-actv.
Do you have any idea if Garmin plans on releasing a FR60-ish type with this swim functionality? That would be *perfect* for me.
Thank you for your great review. Are you already allowed to reveal the new data format for the new pool swimming activities? The schema of the new data is essential for developers of 3rd party software like SportTracks. You might have a look at link to zonefivesoftware.com.
Hi Ray.
Thanks so much for your thorough work reviewing all of this good gear. I do some rope jumping in my training and I wonder if the Garmin 910xt with foot pod will count and time my jumps ? BTW were you the pilot on the review where you clocked 534 mph on a flight ? What type was
that ??
Cheers,
Ted.
Hi Ray. Thank you for all your thorough work reviewing all this good gear. Will the 910xt with foot pod count and time my jumps while rope jumping. BTW what aircraft type was that where you clocked 534mph on a flight ? Were you the pilot ?
Great review, lots of work, really appreciated!
Is there a normal alarm clock functionality?
Can the alarm clock be set to vibrating alert, too?
Like I want a 15 min alert with vibration during a presentation.
While at the pool this morning, I started to think about the 910xt review. You mentioned that in the indoor swim mode the watch detects your turn and counts the lap. I am one who doesn’t flip turn, but rather touches and spins around. Is this going to affect the function of the lap counter?
Hello,
Great review. My question is on the wrist band. I have large wrist. My FR305 I used the larger wrist strap that came with the FR305, and I have 5 openings left towards the end. I bought the FR310XT, but the straps was too small I was on the last knotch. How larger is wrist strap on the FR910XT and the optional velcro strap and quick release? Thank you.
Hi Ray,
I’m not using “miles pr hour”, but “km/t”. Is this possible to change this on the 910xt?
For swimming an HRM with memory, similar to the Suunto memory strap, one that you can sync up when a signal is available would be a real godsend. They seem to have gone half way to solving swimmers problems. What would be the best way of putting this idea to Garmin?
Great review. But i want to ask you how can I upload the swimming pool workouts to the garmin connect, because when i do that, only those are not uploading.
Thank and congrats for you spectacular website
great review. Question: any chance you could put iphone on the comparison chart? clearly iphone can’t handle the swimming (without a waterproof baggie), but i wonder how the iphone apps stack up against the garmin 910XT. If i already have an iphone, can i get most of the functionality of the 910XT from inexpensive iphone apps?
Just received the following from an online store where I pre-ordered 910XT:
Due to production issues, the arrival date for the Garmin Forerunner 910XT is now uncertain. According to the most recent information from Garmin, it is unlikely the 910XT will arrive to our warehouse before the end of the year. We now expect the 910XT to arrive some time January 2012. We apologize for the inconvenience and will email you again once Garmin provides us an updated arrival date.
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nice work
Did Garmin made the swim algorithm on their own or did they buy Swimsense technology? I would appreciate if they took the Swimsense technology because it works fine.
Hi DCR,
I was wondering do you have already a open water graph on connect.garmin.com from the 910XT?
Thanks for the indepth review.
I picked up the Timex Global Trainer a few weeks ago because I lost my 310XT and figured it was time to try something new. Haven’t been happy with the Timex watch and then heard about the 910XT being released. I finally found time to read your review and am glad I did. Already went to your Amazon link and pre-ordered the unit. The Timex will be a good backup but I really look forward to the using a Garmin product again even with their buggy software at times. 😛
Hi – great review. Can you give a heads-up regarding:
1. Signal acquisition
2. Transfer to computer (speeds, liability)
Ad.1. I have en Forerunner 305 and think that it have a slow signal acquisition time (as you also note in your comparison chart by giving it an OK instead of Great). How will you evaluate the 910?
Ad.2. I’m having problems with the connectivity on the 305 dock, where the pins of the dock gets pressured and eventually only charge the unit and too unstable to load data …
Thanks!
Did the release date get pushed back? Was under the belief it was going to be available in November, now I’m reading it will be in January.