It’s no coincidence that in just a few hours one of the toughest trail running races on earth – UTMB – will begin in Chamonix, France. The journey will take competitors on a 171KM loop with literal mountains of elevation climb. Garmin specifically chose today, and in particular – their location of Chamonix to launch the Fenix 6 series. In recent years, trail running has largely been the domain of Suunto devices, primarily due to both longer battery life and frankly, stability. Sponsorships of elite trail runners also helped too.
But that tide is slowly shifting. I spent last week up in Chamonix as athletes from around the world were out doing their final training runs, and these days it’s more of a blend of watches on wrists than the Suunto domination of a few years ago. And there’s no doubt that the specs Garmin has thrown down with the Fenix 6 series will cause many heads there to turn.
The Fenix 6 series is a slate of more than a dozen different watch variants, with battery life extending upwards of 120 days. Yes, days. And GPS-on time for ultra-type scenarios at nearly 150 hours. Or in full expedition mode GPS-on time at 56 days. Yes, again, days. Obviously, there are some caveats to those numbers – but we’ll get to those. Oh, and did I mention there’s now solar charging of the unit? No, it’s not the panacea that your own solar farm might be – but it’s a start and hint at where Garmin is going. And the new PacePro feature will automatically create a course-elevation optimized race plan for your specific goal time.
I’ve been testing the Fenix 6 series in a variety of conditions from the city streets of NYC to the high alpine trails of the French Alps. Plus the beautiful windy flats of the Netherlands. I’ve got a pretty good idea on what works well, and what still needs some love. Don’t worry, I cover it all through the course of more than 11,000 words.
But if words aren’t really your thing, then I’ve got a nice tidy video that runs through the top 16 new features on the Fenix 6 series in one quick go. It’s as good as it gets for efficiency around here:
Oh, and finally, as always I use devices like wilderness trails – leave nothing behind. These are media loaner units that go back to Garmin shortly. In fact, retailers are actually shipping Fenix 6 variants today. You can help support the site here by checking out the links at the end of the post. Doing so makes you awesome.
What’s New:
As you might expect with a product titled its sixth edition (actually, they skipped over a Fenix 4, but then did secondary editions of the Fenix 3 (HR) and 5 (Plus), so we’re roughly in the ballpark), much of the product is about building with new features. Garmin usually follows a bit of a tick-tock pattern with their product releases, specifically when looking at their Fenix and Forerunner lineups at the higher end. One product family will get new features first (in this case the Garmin FR945), and then the next product from the other family will get those features plus some extra (in this case, the Fenix 6 series).
As such I’m going to divide this up into two basic categories. First are the things that are totally new/changed in the Fenix 6 that are otherwise unseen on any other Garmin products to date. And the second is things that have been added since the Fenix 5 Plus or Forerunner 945. There’s slightly more things since the Fenix 5 Plus last summer that came in the FR945 that are joining the Fenix 6.
Here’s what’s totally new/changed in the Fenix 6 series:
– Split product line into two portions: Pro and Base. Pro has WiFi, Maps, Music, Golf Maps
– There are three sizes of watches: 42mm (Fenix 6s), 47mm (Fenix 6), 51mm (Fenix 6X)
– Adds solar charging to Fenix 6 Pro Solar: Termed “Power Glass”, this will increase battery life on sunnier days
– Adds Trendline Popularity Routing Visibility (Pro): This allows you to actually see the ‘heatmaps’ on your device
– Adds map display themes: This includes high contrast, popularity, marine, dark, and outdoor.
– Adds new widget glances concept: Basically shrinks widgets to 1/3rd the screen size, so you can see three at once
– Adds new PacePro feature: This replaces old-school paper race pace bands, creating pace targets for race based on grade/reverse splits/etc…
– Adds new Power Manager feature: Gives detailed information about the impacts/tradeoffs of features on battery life
– Adds new Power Modes feature: Allows you to create custom power/battery modes, with time remaining per activity
– Adds new MARQ Expedition ultra-long mode: For multi-week GPS activities. Basically shuts off everything except reduced rate GPS tracking
– Adds ski resort maps: These started on the MARQ series, with 2,000 ski resorts worldwide
– Adds golf maps pre-loaded: Previously you had to manually load these one by one, also, more detailed golf features
– Adds support for wrist-based swimming HR: This was teased recently on the FR945 beta updates
– Adds new ultra-low battery mode: Gets up to 80 days of battery life, but super basic watch functionality only
– Revamped ClimbPro with new coloring: Now matches the Edge 530/830 styling
– Increased data fields per page: Up to 8 fields on the 6X, and up to 6 fields on the 6S/6
– Increased screen size and reduced bezel (varies by model, but up to 36% bigger screen size on the 6X
– Reduced ‘lug to lug distance’ on Fenix 6S: This should help those with smaller wrists, more on this later
– Reduced thickness of all devices. The 6S shrunk by 10%, the 6 by 7%, and the 6X by 15%.
– Changed from MediaTek GPS chipset to Sony GPS Chipset: Like every other new Garmin 2019 device
– Battery life increased: Up to 80 days in battery saver mode for 6X, and up to 120hrs in max battery mode for 6X, all before solar (see full chart below)
And then here’s the list of items that come from the MARQ & Forerunner 945 series to the Fenix 6. I don’t believe there’s any new software features on the FR945 that aren’t on the Fenix 6 series. It got them all. Here they are:
– Added PulseOx (pulse oximeter data): Within Fenix lineup it was previously only on the Fenix 5X Plus variant
– Added Respiration Rate (post-activity, also as a data field): With chest strap only
– Added new Garmin ELEVATE optical HR sensor: This is the V3, same as MARQ/FR245/945 sensor.
– Added training load focus stats: Shows how workouts benefit a given target/focus area
– Added deeper training effect details/metrics: Further details on the impact of a workout
– Added body battery functionality: Kinda like Street Fighter body energy levels
– Added heat acclimation: For any workouts in temps over 71°F/21.6°C
– Added altitude acclimation: For any time or workouts spent above 850m/2,788ft
– Added Incident Detection: If you crash your bike it notifies someone (this was recently added to the Fenix 5 Plus via firmware update)
– Added Safety/Tracking Assistance: You can press button to send help alert to friends/family (this was recently added to the Fenix 5 Plus via firmware update)
– Revamped race predictor to be a bit more strict on predictions (more than just VO2Max lookup charts now)
– VO2Max now compensates for heat: Previously it didn’t
– Training Status now compensates for heat: Previously it didn’t
– Redesigned a bunch of the user interface, especially for post workout stats
– CIQ data field app limit remains at 2 concurrent per app
Phew. Got all that? Good, I hope so.
If not, fear not. There’s still like 10,000 more words and 120 other photos for these concepts to sink in (or, for you to give up). Either way, I’ve got you covered. First though, let’s get these all unboxed.
Oh wait – for those wondering, the Forerunner 245/245 Music, Forerunner 945, and MARQ series will get PacePro. The FR945 will get the map themes as well as widget galleries. The MARQ series will get everything the Fenix 6 has. No specific timelines for these. For other items I’m awaiting clarification/timing from Garmin.
Unboxing:
Back in my Fenix 5 Plus In-Depth Review unboxing section, I had noted that there were about the same number of editions (SKU’s) of the Fenix 5 Plus as there were Brady Bunch cast members. Well, I’m here to tell you that Marcia got pregnant, because now there’s even more SKU’s. Seriously, it’s kinda nuts. Here’s the entire listing of all of the children in this family photo that Garmin had (all prices parity USD/EUR):
The key takeaway from the above is simply that there are basically two lines of Fenix 6 units:
Base: These don’t include maps, WiFi, or music. Pro: Includes all the maps, music, WiFi, and features that build atop those functions
Essentially it’s as if Garmin is refreshing the base Fenix 5 lineup with the base Fenix 6 lineup, while the Fenix 5 Plus becomes the Fenix 6 Pro series. Roughly.
Now thankfully for you I won’t be doing a full unboxing of all the variants. Instead, I’m consolidating it into a single unboxing of the Fenix 6S Pro. Though frankly – the boxing of all of them is identical in terms of what you get inside, except for the specialty units that come with an extra strap.
And with that, here’s the full unboxing of a single unit:
Up above is your standard issue Garmin wearables box. Or at least, the square variety of the box. On the back you’ve got a bunch of details about exactly which version you bought:
Crack open the top and you’ll find the watch sitting there looking at you:
Meanwhile, unpack the top and here’s all the goodness inside. In this particular case it’s shown with an extra strap that was included in the box sent to me. That is *NOT* the norm. No extra strap for you! I’ll re-shoot this photo sometime after I sleep.
Here’s a closer look at that watch, and the lawless strap:
The charging cable remains the same as the Fenix 5 series:
And the manual will be totally useless after this review:
Now what’s actually notable about the Fenix 6S in particular is that the lug to lug distance has been reduced. You can see it most clearly in the below photo atop the blue Fenix 5S Plus unit. Notice how the white lugs (where the straps connect to), are significantly smaller:
Seen as well from the top-down view too. This helps those with smaller wrists as it makes the watch a bit more compact and not overreaching off the sides of your wrists into thin air. That in turn also gives you better fit on the strap, which finally gives you better optical HR sensor accuracy. See, it’s all about the accuracy.
But sizing tweaks don’t stop there. There’s some big changes in terms of the display and bezels, whereby the bezels have shrunk a bit on the 6/6X units, and the overall thickness has shrunk on all units. This shows you the exact differences in both screen/display sizing and thickness between the Fenix 5 Plus series and the Fenix 6 series. First up, the increased screen size:
And next, the Fenix 6 depth (thickness) sizing:
Got all that? Good, let’s start using the darn thing.
The Basics:
Now that we’ve got ourselves freed of our cardboard bonds, let’s start with some basics. If you’ve been around the Garmin block a few times, then honestly you can skip this section. I’m mostly talking about things like the user interface, daily activity, and sleep tracking, and all those related metrics. We’ll start the sport stuff and things like solar charging and such down a bit later. Though I do discuss the new widget glances feature in this section. First up though, watch faces.
Actually, wait – first up – another video. You can skip this, but if you want the complete tour of the user interface – then this video is for you!
Like all past Garmin Fenix series watches, you can customize the watch face. That includes swapping it out for an entirely different watch face as well as customizing every bit of data you see on it (or, don’t want to see on it):
In addition, you can use Garmin’s Connect IQ app to create your own watch face with a picture of your kids, Ben & Jerry’s container, or whatever else is important to you.
The first chance though that you’ll really notice with the Fenix 6 series is the new glanceable widgets. Widgets are basically full pages that you could scroll through when not in a workout. Mini-apps if you will. Things like weather, steps, training status, music, and so on. But they always took up the full screen, even if they were basically just displaying one line of data. Garmin is now introducing glanceable widgets, which fit three widgets per ‘page’, as you scroll through them:
If you select the highlighted widget, then you’ll get the full widget that you previously knew and loved, such as this:
Frankly, this may be one of my favorite features of the Fenix 6 series. Which sounds silly until you realize I hated scrolling endlessly through widgets trying to find the data I wanted. Now, I can scroll three times less (or faster). It’s brilliant. Here’s a small gallery of widgets currently on my watch. Note the solar widget is only applicable to the Fenix 6X Solar unit. All the other widgets are across all Fenix 6 units.
Like all Garmin wearables these days there’s activity tracking covering your steps, stairs, sleep, and other meanderings. You can see this data under a few different widget glances, but you can also customize your watch face with any of this too. In the case of widgets, you’ll see for example the steps one:
Once I tap into it then I get the last 7 days of steps, or I can also get distance too:
Another metric in that same category is 24×7 heart rate. This is automatically enabled and monitoring every second, all part of recording and ultimately plotting your data. You can have certain watch faces display your HR constantly as well. If you tap into the heart rate widget you’ll get a graph of the last 4 hours – and then again down to the resting HR for the last 7 days.
All of this (steps as well as HR) is accessible on both Garmin Connect (web), and Garmin Connect Mobile (smartphone app). You can graph it and re-graph it a million ways.
Garmin also plots stress levels as well. Both on the device in real-time as well as later in the app. I generally find this metric pretty close to reality, for better or worse.
A new metric introduced over the last year is Garmin’s Body Battery. Think of this like the old Street Fighter arcade game, whereby if you got a good night’s sleep it’d start at 100%, and then throughout the day would degrade. It’d go down faster for more intense things, and re-gain battery status if you’re sitting on a couch watching TV. I find it a good proxy, though occasionally not perfect. Within the watch you can see the last four hours, as well as four hours overlaid against stress. Further, you can see how much has charged or drained since midnight.
And again, all of this is also plotted within the Garmin Connect/Garmin Connect Mobile apps as well.
Related to body battery is sleep metrics. The unit will automatically record your sleep each night, and supposed sleep phases. While I can validate that the sleep times are usually within a couple minutes of my actual fall asleep/wake times, I have no method of validating the sleep phases bits. The sleep metrics are displayed on the app:
New to the remainder of the Fenix 6 series is PulseOx. This initially came to the Fenix 5X Plus last year, but quickly spread like wildfire to the remainder of the Garmin lineup. PulseOx aims to measure your blood oxygen saturation levels. It has two basic purposes in a Garmin wearable, one is around sleep (as potentially an indicator of sleep related issues), and two in high altitude environments as an indicator that something is about to go horribly wrong. Two totally different use cases (note: medical folks and such also monitor blood oxygen levels too for other reasons). For the first one – sleep – you can track your PulseOx readings each night. It’s the red light that’ll light up on the back of the watch.
This is then plotted as part of the greater PulseOx readings widget (below), and on GCM:
Whereas the second one, focused more on the high altitude aspect of things over the course of 7 days, then you can plot PulseOx readings against altitude. You’ll see this in both the widget and online:
Keep in mind that getting a good PulseOx reading requires you be very still. So it won’t typically trigger during a workout. Thus if at high altitudes you’ll need to pause for probably 15-30 seconds to get a clean reading (and doing so manually is your best bet).
Last but not least on our pile of basics is smartphone notifications. The device will display any smartphone notifications from any apps on your device, it’s not limited to just texts or calendars or such. You can configure whether or not to display these, as well as whether or not to display them in a workout. When a notification comes in, you can either cancel/clear it immediately, or you can open it up to get more information:
In the case of iOS users, there’s no further action you can take upon these. For example, you can’t respond to them and text back – that’s a limitation of iOS that Apple only reserves for the Apple Watch. The notifications on the Garmin device support about 120 emoji’s as well these days, which seems to cover most of the things I see come across. Note that images do not render on the screen from a text that may have pictures in it.
Ok, with that we’ve covered all the basics of the watch. Onto using it in sports!
Sports Usage:
The Fenix 6 series follows in the footsteps of the Forerunner 945 & MARQ series watches from a sports standpoint. That means you’re gaining all the new physio-specific features largely based on FirstBeat work. This includes bits like altitude & temperature acclimation, but also the new training load focus and recovery bits. We’ll dive into more of that later. First, we’ll cover some quick basics for those of you new to Garmin, and then I’ll show you how the new PacePro works on a real course, plus all the training load and recovery fun.
To start a workout though you’re going to simply tap the upper right button. This will give you a list of sports that you can customize and set favorites.
Basically every sport you’d want to measure is in there, including all of the following:
Trail Run, Run, Hike, Bike, Bike Indoor, Open Water Swim, Triathlon, Golf, Navigate, Track Me, Map, Multisport, Treadmill, Indoor Track, Climb, MTB, Pool Swim, Ski, Snowboard, XC Ski, SUP, Row, Row Indoor, TruSwing (Golf related), Project Waypoint, Walk, SwimRun, Kayak, Strength, Cardio, Yoga, Floor Climb, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Clocks, Boat, Tactical, Jumpmaster, Other [Custom]
Once you’ve selected a sport it’ll show you the status of GPS & heart rate acquisition, as well as any connectivity to sensors. Technically speaking, while you were pondering which sport to choose, it had already started on all those bits. What you’ll notice at the top though is the battery level. By default this will show you how many hours you’ve got left in that mode:
Alternatively you can enable battery percentage as well, which will show that too. And this would be a great time to talk about battery modes and such, but I’ve set aside an entire section for that down below. It’s super cool stuff that builds upon (read: “borrows”) what Suunto did with their Suunto 9 and battery profiles, but really kicks it up a notch. But we don’t have time for that now. Let’s get to the sport first.
Once you’ve found GPS and heart rate it’s a good time to start the workout. It’s here that you’ll see your data pages as you’ve configured them. Like past Garmin watches, you still (for now) have to configure these on the watch itself and not via a smartphone app. I think Garmin gets the desire for folks to configure them on a phone or web app, but they aren’t there yet.
On the bright side, you’ve now got up to 8 data fields per page for the Fenix 6X, and up to 6 fields per page for the Fenix 6S/6 units. Here’s how that looks:
There’s also multiple new layouts, as well as layouts for 5 and 7 data fields too. So you’ve now got more data than you probably know what to do with. As with before you can use stock data pages or create numerous custom data pages. If you run out of data pages somehow, you’ve got a data consumption problem. You should see a specialist.
In any case, once out running/riding/swimming/etc, you’ll see data fields as normal:
This is a good time to mention that the Fenix 6 now supports optical heart rate while swimming. While Garmin has been beta trialing it on the Forerunner 945 this summer, it’s mostly ready for primetime now. They did note that like other companies, people may see variable results with optical HR in the water. But it’s an option for you to use that, or the HRM-TRI/HRM-SWIM straps if you want to record HR. However, only the optical HR option will show your heart rate in real-time. We’ll briefly discuss optical HR accuracy in the heart rate accuracy section below.
Beyond heart rate sensors the unit supports all the same sensor types as the Fenix 5 Plus series did, including both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart standardized sensor types. They are as follows:
Once you’ve wrapped up and saved an activity you’ll get the new style end screen that mirrors the MARQ/FR945. This includes a course map profile, along with key stats. As you press the top right button you’ll iterate through some of the overriding training load metrics.
Whereas you can scroll down into the weeds for things like lap splits and other summary metrics:
All of this is of course synced to Garmin Connect via WiFi (on the Pro models) or via Garmin Connect Mobile (via Bluetooth Smart on your phone). Or, you can use USB and Garmin Express. Or, you can just go off the grid and ignore all that stuff. If you’ve set up synchronization to 3rd parties like Strava or TrainingPeaks, it’ll instantly send there as well. Here’s how it looks on Garmin Connect Mobile (aka GCM):
But let’s circle back to the training load stats. Each workout is given a specific Training Effect label and details. These are split between Aerobic and Anaerobic benefit, and are associated with a given load value. It also specifies what target area that it’s benefiting:
That data gets fed into the revamped Training Status functionality/widget, which shows the direction your fitness level and load levels are trending.
Below that, you’ll notice the little mountain and sun icons along the bottom. We’ll get to that shortly. First though, hit down twice (once past VO2Max) and you’ll see the 7-day load listed. This is color-coded by the type of load that you’ve gathered, as well as the total load values:
Tap down again and you’ve got your 4-week Load Focus. This basically consolidates all the training you’ve been doing into three specific buckets: Anaerobic, Aerobic High, and Aerobic Low, and then gives you specific target zones to be within (little pill boxes):
As you can see, I’ve blown out my ‘Aerobic High’ target. If I’m short in a given area, then it’ll tell me what to do. Or, in my case, since I’m somehow not short in any areas, it’ll tell me what my training has been doing lately in terms of benefit:
If I go down again, I’ll get Recovery Time until my next hard workout:
After that, we’ve got altitude/heat acclimation. The goal behind both altitude and heat acclimation metrics is to figure out whether or not you’re acclimated to a given temperature or altitude. Obviously, both can significantly impact performance. Starting with heat acclimation, the function leverages nearby weather stations. So your unit has to have connected to Garmin Connect Mobile within 3 hours of starting your ride in order to receive that weather data (it doesn’t use on-device temperature).
If we scroll back to the main Training Status page you’ll remember the small icons on the bottom of the training status page if you’re in the midst of acclimating to anything. In the case of below last week, I managed to score both heat and altitude acclimation icons. I unlocked the altitude badges in the Alps and on transatlantic flights overnight, and then on the heat I got that in both Amsterdam and NYC.
Altitude acclimation/adaption starts with a minimum threshold at altitudes above 850m/2,788ft, and tops out at 4,000m/13,123ft (Garmin doesn’t calculate above that level, sorry folks). Garmin says that they divide up training vs living altitudes, just as typical studies would. The company says that adaptation algorithms within the Fenix 6/MARQ/Forerunner 945/Edge 530/830 assume total adaptation after 21 days, and that adaptation is faster at the beginning of altitude exposure. Additionally, adaptation will decay within 21-28 days depending on acclimation level.
Fun geekery moment for you: On the Fenix 6 Series/Forerunner 945/MARQ, the altitude acclimation is based both on workouts, but also on where you sleep each night. At midnight the unit will quietly take an altitude reading (actually, it’s doing it all the time anyway), and then use that reading to determine acclimation. Where this gets fun is when you take redeye flights (as I did last night from the US to Europe), as it’ll take that reading at between 6,000-8,000ft (pressurized cabin altitude of a commercial airliner). At first you may think this would skew results, but in reality – it’s actually correct. Your body is acclimating to that altitude. Where it’s slightly off is that it assumes you’re spending 24 hours at that altitude, rather than the 5-14 hours you’re likely spending at that elevation.
Meanwhile, the next screen is heat acclimation.
For heat acclimation it applies a heat correction factor for rides above 71°F/22°C, using a percentage based amount from published studies (humidity is also factored into this as well). This is then shown in the training status widget. Garmin says they assume full acclimation takes a minimum of 4 days, and acclimation/adaptation to a given high temperature will automatically decay after 3 days of skipped training within that heat level.
Finally, virtually all of this can be found within the Garmin Connect Mobile and Garmin Connect apps. You can dive into bits like Training Status and Training Effect, where the colors match back up to what you see on the watch:
Same goes for Training Load too:
One of the common complaints that I see about Garmin Connect/Garmin Connect Mobile is that it’s not ‘deep enough’. Honestly, I don’t think that’s valid anymore. Nobody offers as much detail into your metrics as Garmin. Polar and Suunto don’t even come close anymore. However, what Polar tends to do better than Garmin is make these metrics more clear on the main dashboards. Whereas within Garmin you legit need to spend some time figuring out where everything is within Garmin Connect Mobile to make sense of it all. Suunto, of course, is shutting down Movescount next year in favor of their more basic ‘Suunto’ platform, so they need not apply anymore here when it comes to advanced metrics via app/web.
In any case, while I promised PacePro in this section, I’ve decided it deserved its own section. Partially because this section is already too big. And partially because I want to be able to link to the PacePro bits later on more quickly/easily.
PacePro for Running:
No, PacePro is not grade adjusted pace – despite how many times people keep writing it. In fact, it’s both much simpler, and much more powerful than that. It takes the concept of pace bands that any marathoner is undoubtedly familiar with and makes it all electronic. But even more than that, it automatically calculates each split (miles or kilometers) based on the elevation profile of the course you’re doing. In turn, you then get individual split targets for each mile raced.
But wait, we’re not done yet. Atop all that, you’ve got two specific levers to tweak: Intensity of hills (how hard you run them), and then whether you positive or negative split the race/course – and to what extent. Don’t worry, I’ll demo all this.
So to start, this feature is available on both the Pro and non-Pro Fenix 6 models. However, if using it on the non-Pro models, you’ll need to have the course already created (so it has access to the elevation data). Whereas on the Pro models you can actually create a course on the fly on a watch, and then execute a PacePro strategy upon it from the watch. I suspect though that 99.99% of you, no matter which version you have, will be creating courses online and sending them to your device.
Note that when doing it from the watch (versus Garmin Connect Mobile), you can’t adjust the various sliders that you see down below. As such, I’d really just recommend doing it from the app and sending it to your watch to execute.
First, you start off in the area to choose/create a course, and you’ll see the ability to choose PacePro. From there you’re given the option to load a course or not:
Technically speaking you don’t even need to load a course. You can simply use an assumed flat course profile and then do positive/negative splits based on a given time goal or pace goal. Which gets us to the next bit – choosing that goal. You can tweak this later easily if you want, but you need to choose either a time or pace goal. In my case I set up a loop around NYC’s Central Park and went with a sub-7/mile pace goal. Knowing I’d be coming off a transatlantic flight and running this 90 minutes later, I kept things civilized:
Next, you’ll be brought to this screen that shows the course profile with color coding on it. You can expand this and zoom in however you’d like:
But the real magic happens down below. That’s where you can dork with two levers. The first one adjusts whether you want to positive or negative split the course (meaning, get faster over the course, or fade over the course). And the second one adjusts how hard you run the hills. As you adjust those sliders, you’ll see that both the split targets down below change, as well as the split targets over the elevation up above:
It’s frankly kinda fun to play with this. You can do it all day long. Once you’re done, you’ll send this to your watch and it’ll sync via Bluetooth Smart.
Also of note – is that you can create the ‘splits’ based not just on per-mile or per-kilometer, but per elevation changes. So you can divide them up between downhill sections vs uphill sections vs flats, etc… Which frankly, makes a lot of sense.
Next, back on your watch you’ll go to the running activity and load the PacePro strategy up. These actually are files similar to course/workout files that you’ll find on your watch (for those geeks in the house). On the watch it’ll show you some of the stats for that PacePro session:
And then, off you go (once you press start). The watch will then show your target pace (7:00) on the top line, followed by your current pace for that split on the second line (6:35). You can see here I’m overachieving (hey, I’m still getting used to trusting a watch on pacing like this):
Then down below you’ve got distance remaining (0.75) in that lap (either 1 kilometer or 1 mile depending on how you’ve set it up), and then below that you’ve got whether or not you’re ahead or behind for the entire race, and by how much (-0:07).
What’s notable here is is that it locks to your GPS location on the predefined course (think of it like a train track, or roller coaster ride), rather than your watch distance the GPS has measured. This has its pros and cons.
On the plus side, this means that if your GPS accuracy goes to crap (such as with a tunnel, or just life in general), then it doesn’t impact PacePro. That’s really really cool, and is considerably different than something like Virtual Partner or any other pacing functionality. On the downside though, if there’s a difference between the route/course you created in Garmin Connect (or wherever) and the course that you’re running – then you’re up crap-creek. That could happen if either there’s a change on race day due to some road scenario, or if the route you created on GC has unnoticed anomalies in it.
In fact, that’s exactly what happened to me with my NYC Central Park course. I thought I had created a loop around the main road, but upon closer inspection at numerous points along the route the Garmin Connect course creator took short detours. Often only 50-150 meters each, but there was a pile of them, usually just briefly to nearby sidewalks and back. But they added up – and they’re virtually impossible to see unless you zoom way in.
In talking with Garmin, they’re digging into why (on what is arguably the world’s most popular running loop), it repeatedly forces you off the loop onto random detours. In doing some course creation elsewhere this doesn’t appear to be an issue. I suspect the extreme density of heat map (popularity) data Garmin has for Central Park is ironically its downfall here. So just a word of caution – triple-check your course routes/maps.
In any event, that issue aside, the entire functionality of it worked awesomely on the watch itself. It was surprisingly motivating to just focus on a single lap, but more importantly – getting different splits each time. It took my mind off of the larger prize, and had my brain focus on one thing at a time. Well done.
Garmin says they’re bringing this to other devices in the future, but hasn’t specified which existing devices will get it (likely the Forerunner 945, MARQ, and perhaps Forerunner 245).
Maps, Navigation, and ClimbPro:
Garmin’s added some new functionality in the mapping and navigation arena. I’m going to tackle it two ways. First, I’m going to straight-up talk about map themes and popularity data (heatmaps). And then I’m going to show you how the remaining functionality works on a test hike.
Within the Fenix 6 series Garmin has introduced the concept of ‘Map Themes’, which allow you to change the styling of the map in real-time. For example you can go from the default styling to a night styling. Or to a high contrast styling. Or even a marine-focused one. To do so, you’ll go into the sport mode settings (for whichever sport you want) and then under map, go to ‘Map Themes’. To say this feature is buried would be the understatement of the review.
Once in there you can simply toggle between the different maps. This is also where you’ll find the new ski resort map functionality as well as popularity routing overlays.
Here’s an example of high contrast:
The popularity routing is also new here. Previously on the Fenix 5 Plus series Garmin baked in their ‘Trendline Popularity’ data, which is basically the culmination of millions of activities on Garmin Connect. Essentially heatmap data. But you couldn’t actually see the ‘heat’, it was just data under the covers that the unit would route you on. Now however, you can see the purple heat.
It’s organized by sport type. So running vs cycling, etc… But it’s also not quite that simple either. See, it’s also displayed on the nuance of hiking versus running. I see that as a bit of a challenge, and it was super obvious in the area around Chamonix. When I used the ‘hiking’ data sets, almost nothing was visible. Whereas when I used running, there was tons of data. This is likely because most Garmin users would just default to using run no matter what for such activities. The other challenge is that the zoom levels make the feature semi-useless. I can’t zoom more than 0.5mi out (on scale). So basically I can see where people are running down to the end of the street, but not beyond that. I can’t really get the full picture.
Again, these are things Garmin should be able to solve. I’m happy to wait while it loads the tiles for that larger map area. It’s certainly better than trying to zoom around like a drunk idiot.
In any event you can also overlay the ski resorts mode too – which shows you ski lifts and ski runs from some 2,000 resorts around the world, including the ones I was at. Admittedly, it’s a bit hard to see in this photo.
With all that set, let’s go to loading up a course and get hiking. In my case, I just created my course on Garmin Connect. That allowed me to validate against the popularity data more easily. You can do the same these days on Garmin Connect Mobile (smartphone app) as well, though it continues to be a bit clumsy (but is faster than before).
When you load a course you’ll get all the details for it, including most notably ClimbPro.
ClimbPro isn’t new here, that came last year. But what is new is that it’ll start showing you coloring just like the Edge 530/830/1030 do, with the steeper gradient colored more painfully than the lesser gradients. Like this:
Oh, you wanted a picture on the Fenix 6 series? Unfortunately, the feature isn’t done yet, and is expected for release sometime here soonish. Until then, you’ll get the single-tone coloring. Which is still super helpful:
As you start your course you’ll see the map view, and then get little chirps each time you’re coming up on a turn in the trail. It’ll show you exactly what you’re supposed to do and the distance to do it. Even on the steep 20% switchbacks in the Alps it was astoundingly accurate.
The only time I got screwed up was when there was a four-way intersection the middle of nowhere and the posted signs were temporary, and pointed kinda-sorta the wrong way. So I basically ended up trying all paths until the Fenix 6 stopped telling me I had gone the wrong way:
But largely, I lived in ClimbPro. With thousands of feet of elevation gain for each climb, I used that as my metric for how quickly I was ascending and how close I was to the top. It continues to be my favorite feature when hiking.
The remainder of the navigation and related features haven’t changed much with the Fenix 6 (from the Fenix 5). And honestly, within that most of those haven’t changed in a few years either. Keep in mind that features that depend on mapping will depend on having the Pro variant. However, not always.
For example, you can use ClimbPro just fine on the base models. But you need to have the course created first on Garmin Connect so it sends the elevation data to the Fenix 6 base. On the flip-side, it won’t re-route you on trails when you get off-course, because it doesn’t have the trails like the Pro models have. Similarly, you won’t get any of the map themes, because there are no maps.
And finally, like numerous other Garmin devices, it’s still super clunky to buy and install maps on the Fenix 6 series and requires a computer. Though, the pricing is better these days (down to $20/map in some cases). Or, you can just use my guide to download free maps here. However, I’d really like to see Garmin make this totally idiot-proof and just allow you to either buy or download maps from within the Garmin Connect Mobile app, and leverage WiFi to install them. Remember that maps only are included for your region of purchase. So for USA folks that’s North America, for Europe folks that’s all of Europe, and for Australia folks that’s all of AUZ/NZ. Beyond that, you’ll need to triple-check the exact region coverage.
How Solar Works, and Power Modes:
I’ve separated out this entire section from the rest of the review – mainly because it’s such a new and interesting concept that for this review I think it makes sense for it to have a dedicated chunk. The solar feature is only available on the Fenix 6X Solar, and not on any other units. This falls in line with Garmin piloting new technologies on the Fenix ‘X’ series each year. The first year (Fenix 5X) it added maps when the rest of the series didn’t have it. Last year (Fenix 5X Plus) it added PulseOX, a first on Garmin devices. And this year, it’s solar.
However, the new Power Modes and Power Management features are available on all units, yes, all Fenix 6 units.
We’ll start on the Fenix 6X Solar though. So let’s dive into it a bit. On the Fenix 6X Solar you’ll notice a very thin 1mm wide strip just on the inside of the bezel. This is the first of two solar pieces.
This thin strip has 100% photovoltaic levels, meaning, it’s receiving 100% of the sun’s goodness and turning that into solar power. It’s also clearly visible in bright light, though you’d just assume it was a bezel design element. Inside without bright light, this strip almost disappears and blends into the bezel.
However, there’s a second solar panel you can’t see – despite being the entire display face. Under the display is another solar panel that has a 10% photovoltaic level. This panel is of course far larger than that of the thin bezel strip, but is also getting 10% of the sun’s rays, due to the display blocking much of it. Importantly though, both panels are fully under a single sheet of Gorilla Glass (specifically Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with DX Coating). Meaning, you won’t accidentally scratch the bezel solar panel anymore than you’d normally scratch your watch face.
Speaking of that watch face, you’ll notice that there’s a little sun atop the default watch face. That sun is actually showing you the current intensity level. Around the edge of the little sun are 10 pieces, each indicating 10% of full intensity. So if you look at the below picture you’ll see the sun is coming in at 0% intensity as I’m in the shade:
Next, another phone out in some broken clouds conditions and you can see it’s at about 70%
And here’s another at 100% intensity, with all lines lit up as well as the sun itself:
The goal of the solar here isn’t to fully power the watch, under GPS or otherwise. Instead, it’s to provide incremental battery life. Garmin notes this in their super-detailed battery life chart. Note specifically the assumption of 3 hours per day of solar light at a pretty high intensity (full sun basically). That goes both ways though. If you’re mid-summer and spending the day at the beach (or workout side), then you’ll way overachieve here. Versus if it’s mid-winter and you’re indoors…then not so much.
Here’s the basic main takeaways though:
A) If you’re spending 3+ hours outdoors you might be able to pull off something close to battery neutral in a pared down configuration (not much notifications/etc…).
B) While outdoors on longer hikes, solar will definitely extend your battery life, potentially a lot
In fact, I did a bit of battery comparisons between the Fenix 6X Solar and the Fenix 6 side by side on my longer hikes, plotting the battery life. For the most part these watches were configured equal. However, what’s notable is cases where I’m below the tree-line in the trees, you can see battery burn is about equal, but once I clear the tree-line (around 1hr 30 marker), and am back into the sun, battery life burn on the 6X Solar slows. Pretty cool.
By the way, those battery charts are with the DCR Analyzer. We plot battery life for devices that support writing it to the files, including Garmin, Wahoo, and soon Stages. Also note that in the case of the above, I was shooting photos and using maps extensively (though equally) on both devices. Your actual burn rates will likely be better.
Sure, this is only on the Fenix 6X Solar, but make no mistake – this is Garmin’s testbed. And like previous years, I don’t expect it to take long for the feature (hardware addition) to migrate to other units. After all, Garmin announced today the acquisition of technologies from French company SunPartner Technologies. Garmin actually quietly made that acquisition a long while ago, back when the company filed for insolvency, and you can see hints at this in some French news stories (and even see the judgements within the French Société system). Garmin has said that they expect this technology to expand to other devices where it makes sense (meaning, probably not a $75 Vivofit band).
Ok, let’s shift to the next bit of power and battery features, which is the new power modes. These are similar to what Suunto introduced within the Suunto 9 last year, and have pre-defined battery setups that show you how many hours you’ll get in that given configuration:
These can be changed at the outset of an activity, as well as mid-activity.
What’s really cool though is going into Power Manager and creating your own configurations. This allows you to tweak the battery burn profile based on which features you want enabled or disabled. And it’ll actually tell you exactly how many hours it’ll save (or cost you) to make that setting change:
Next, there’s the new low power battery mode, called Battery Saver. This follows in the footsteps of Casio, whereby they basically shut down almost all watch functions in exchange for the watch face remaining with the time – getting you months of battery life. The same is true here:
Once you enable the low power battery mode virtually everything is disabled: Optical heart rate, Bluetooth phone connectivity, external ANT+ sensors, and even the display itself goes into a low-power mode where it uses a custom watch face that doesn’t show seconds. When you ask yourself whether something is disabled in this mode – the answer is ‘yes’. Though, it only takes a single button press and you’re ready to start a run with GPS as normal (or, with your own custom battery mode):
Finally, while not directly a power management feature, Garmin has ported over the ‘Expedition’ sport mode from the MARQ Expedition series. This functionality allows you to get upwards of 56 days of GPS track points on a single battery charge with the 6X Solar. In this mode it’ll go into a lower power state, but then every hour will wake itself up and take a GPS fix before going back into the low-power state.
It’s an interesting concept, but I do wonder how often (if ever) someone would actually use that in 2019. I’d think most people have access to battery packs and such that it’s unlikely that you’d really need 56 days of GPS tracks without some means to charge the unit. In any case – Garmin is clearly investing in longer life options for users within the Fenix 6 series. It’s not just one feature, but a whole pile of prongs in the fire on ways you can get crazy long battery life if you need it.
GPS Accuracy:
There’s likely no topic that stirs as much discussion and passion as GPS accuracy. A watch could fall apart and give you dire electrical shocks while doing so, but if it shows you on the wrong side of the road? Oh hell no, bring on the fury of the internet!
GPS accuracy can be looked at in a number of different ways, but I prefer to look at it using a number of devices in real-world scenarios across a vast number of activities. I use 2-6 other devices at once, trying to get a clear picture of how a given set of devices handles conditions on a certain day. Conditions include everything from tree/building cover to weather.
Over the years I’ve continued to tweak my GPS testing methodology. For example, I try to not place two units next to each other on my wrists, as that can impact signal. If I do so, I’ll put a thin fabric spacer of about 1”/3cm between them (I didn’t do that on any of my Fenix 6 series workouts). But often I’ll simply carry other units by the straps, or attach them to the shoulder straps of my hydration backpack (which I did do here in the Alps). Plus, wearing multiple watches on the same wrist is well known to impact optical HR accuracy.
Next, as noted, I use just my daily training routes. Using a single route over and over again isn’t really indicative of real-world conditions, it’s just indicative of one trail. The workouts you see here are just my normal daily workouts. I’ve had quite a bit of variety of terrain within the time period of Fenix 6 testing. This has included runs, hikes, swims, and rides in: Amsterdam (Netherlands), New York City (USA), and around Chamonix in the French Alps (France/Switzerland border). I’ve probably forgotten some other trips too, it’s been kinda crazy lately.
First up we’ll start with a run around NYC’s Central Park, this is the full loop, and one I was using PacePro for. It is compared to the Suunto 9 and the Garmin Forerunner 935. Here’s the full data set:
Obviously, at a high level things look clean – no drunk uncle moments. So let’s dig a wee bit deeper, starting at the beginning. I know it’s a bit tougher to see the lines in satellite mode, but it’s worth it.
I’m on the inside edge of the roadway, on the usual Central Park runners lane. In this case, the Fenix 6X nails it. Note that all units had about 5-7 minutes to acquire GPS as I walked from the hotel to the starting line, including the Suunto 9. Though, the Suunto 9 was quickly off over in the woods. All units were configured the same in terms of GPS recording rates.
Now a bit around the next corner the Fenix 6X Pro Solar was feeling slightly left out of the tree adventures, so it too went tree-surfing. Slightly less than the Suunto 9 did, but still off-path. Perhaps 3-4 meters offset.
In fact, it’s a tit for tat pattern we’d see repeat itself throughout the run. The Suunto 9 or Fenix 6X Solar would undercut or overreach around a turn, and then the next turn the other would do it. Neither would do so drastically, but just enough that you’d notice.
And the above back and forth bits prove why I don’t typically use final distances, you can undercut and then overshoot easily – and still end up with similar distances. If we assume the FR935 was the best track (and it was), you can see that it was only .06KM different on 10KM than the Fenix 6X Solar. The Suunto 9 had overshot considerably, at 10.22KM.
In the event you want to dig into another NYC run, I’ve got this one here on the DCR Analyzer. The Fenix 6 did struggle a bit to stay on the path, but did better than the FR935 once I got into the main building portion of the city.
Next, let’s shift gears up to the French Alps for some high altitude GPS tracking. I did three days of these, and by and large the tracks were fantastic across the Fenix 6 devices. On all days I was wearing both a Fenix 6 Pro and a Fenix 6X Pro (one per wrist). First, let’s look at a track up to a glacier, starting with steep switchback in pretty heavy forest/woods. Here’s that data set:
At a high level, things look pretty good. No massive errant issues. But let’s zoom deep into the woods and switchbacks:
At the beginning here, none of the units are exactly perfect. Though interestingly, when I look at the trail map as I’m going up, they’re very very close on the device itself.
Once I get beyond the first few minutes, things settle out a bit and they track fairly close to each other:
This next set of switchbacks is largely pretty good as well. Differences between the devices of course – but nothing outlandish.
And again higher up. Slight differences – but we’re really only talking a couple of meters between the tracks.
This continues like this for the rest of the track.
Seriously, look at how good/close these tracks are – from all the watches for that matter.
I’ll add in within a few minutes a few more tracks from the Alps for you to poke out – though as a spoiler – they’re all the same – astoundingly good (better than NYC).
Next, let’s go to Amsterdam for some cycling. For this ride, I was out on country and farm roads, with some initial city bits, and then mostly farmland. GPS-wise it’s not a hard route per se, but I do see units occasionally screw it up. I’m comparing it against the Edge 530 and Polar Vantage V. Here’s that data set:
As I go through some initial city sections, the tracks are locked on very tight – no issues here:
And again the same as I’m out passing a small village:
Seriously, it’s boringly perfect:
Hopping back over across the pond for another cycling jaunt, this one will be quick and easy. It’s not a ‘real ride’ per se, but rather just a NYC bike share bike. But I wanted to show it because it’s astounding. This was a simple commute across the heart of NYC, and the GPS track is astoundingly good. Things wobbled for the first block or two, but then it’s locked onto the road. There’s no need for comparison shots here, we can just look at the map and see it’s locked perfect on the road I’m on. I’m impressed:
Finally, we’ll round things out on an openwater swim from yesterday. Now mind you, I’ve been hyper-critical of Garmin’s openwater swim functionality in 2019 (and even back to 2018). It’s just sucked. Almost all of the newer devices would fail at some point in the swim, ceasing to track – sometimes even after just a few dozen yards. Garmin started digging into the issue back in June, formed a bunch of special committees on it, and has thrown countless employees into the water over the summer to try and fix it, alongside their GPS chipset providers Sony and MediaTek. Progress has been made though, both in public betas and private ones.
While Garmin isn’t saying it’s perfect, they did note in a call a week or so ago that on the last beta firmware they were testing they’ve successfully completed over 100 openwater swims without a single drop (mind you, I could barely go 1-2 swims without a failure back earlier this summer).
Still, with that in mind and all my travel – I’ve only gotten in a single openwater swim. Statically speaking that’s not as much as I’d like for this feature. So perhaps I just got lucky. In any case, my swim from yesterday:
The reference track is near-identical. In fact, actually two reference tracks just for the eff of it. If this is the quality of GPS tracks going forward with the latest GPS firmware for openwater swim, I’m pretty damn happy. Of course, this was also a relatively straightforward giant box of a route. But still, gotta start somewhere.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a GPS openwater swim track as good at this before from *any* watch, ever. It’s seriously impressive.
There’s an itty tiny bit at the first turn where it cuts by perhaps a couple meters – but that’s it. Note that I did not stop at any point during this swim, I kept moving the entire time.
But again, pretty solid stuff here for swimming. Hopefully my future swims continue that way.
So overall in terms of GPS accuracy, it’s mostly good. I found it excellent up in the high alpine and mountains of the French Alps – frankly, doing incredibly well in some really tough conditions, especially up against sharp cliffs or in the denser woods down lower.
On the flip side, I did see some struggles in NYC’s Central Park – where the older Forerunner 935 has no meaningful issues. Certainly Garmin has made great strides with the Sony chipset they’ve used on all new 2019 devices, but it’s not quite perfect yet. But I think for the vast majority of people it’ll be acceptable (or better).
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy portions were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Heart Rate Accuracy:
Before we move on to the test results, note that optical HR sensor accuracy is rather varied from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. Position and how the band is worn, are *the most important* pieces. A unit with an optical HR sensor should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts). You can wear it a tiny bit looser the rest of the day.
Ok, so in my testing, I simply use the watch throughout my usual workouts. Those workouts include a wide variety of intensities and conditions, making them great for accuracy testing. I’ve got steady runs, interval workouts on both bike and running, as well as tempo runs and rides, and so on.
For each test, I’m wearing additional devices, usually 3-4 in total, which capture data from other sensors. Typically I’d wear a chest strap (usually the Garmin HRM-DUAL or Wahoo TICKR X), as well as another optical HR sensor watch on the other wrist (primarily the Polar OH1+ these days, but also occasionally Wahoo TICKR FIT or Scosche 24 too). Note that the numbers you see in the upper right corner are *not* the averages, but rather just the exact point my mouse is sitting over. Note all this data is analyzed using the DCR Analyzer, details here.
First, let’s start and see how it handles steady-state running. This was a run from two days ago – pretty easy and straightforward around Central Park before rushing to the airport to catch a flight. It’s compared against a Garmin HRM-DUAL and Fitbit Versa 2 optical HR sensor. Here’s that set.
Well, that was boring. Everyone basically agreed. A few minor bobbles at what point around the 32-minute marker for a second here or there with the Fenix 6X Solar being a couple beats higher, but it was pretty transient. Again, kinda a boring set. But hey, sometimes boring is good!
Next, we’ve got a much more intense run, albeit also around Central Park. This was using PacePro as my base, so it was more or less full throttle the entire time. Here’s that set.
You can see right out of the gate the Fenix 6X Solar is having a couple of issues with locking onto the HR. It’s plausible that me taking some early photos didn’t help, though I think that might be generous at best.
However, by the 3-minute marker the units are mostly aligned – and stay that way for the remainder of the run. That said, things are a bit wobbly on this run from all units – perhaps due to the intensity, or perhaps because post-flight I felt like I was dying trying to hit the PacePro targets. Either way, even the OH1 Plus seems a bit more wobbly than I’m used to (though, it’s clearly the best of the bunch):
The above is one of those graphs that looks bad from afar, but we’re only talking about a 1-3bpm difference between the different units. It’s just the zoomed in factor that doesn’t help much.
Next, let’s shift to some cycling and heading outside for a ride, this one on mostly good pavement on a fairly warm night. In general the warmer the weather the better optical HR sensors will do. Here’s that set:
Now I’ve crossed out two chunks in yellow. Those are bits where I was stopped on the side of the road not riding, filming something – thus, who knows what funk I was doing then (setting up tripods and such).
However, the rest of the ride is actually surprisingly good by all players. Honestly, one of the better HR performances I’ve seen recently. For example, this first section:
I see a little bit of lag difference between the Garmin sensors and the Polar sensors here. But it’s not possible to know whether that’s real lag or just bad timing on one GPS time clock or the other. However if you look closely you can see that there are cases where the Garmin Fenix 6X Solar and the HRM-DUAL track very closely during some momentary recovery bits, whereas the Polar sensors somewhat unexpectedly miss them.
Again, outdoor cycling continues to be one of the hardest things for wrist-based optical HR sensors to get right. And in this case, things aren’t horrific. Yet, there are still some bobbles, like later towards the end of the ride when the Fenix 6X Solar does some odd spikes:
Finally, what about swimming HR with the optical HR sensor? Well, I took out the unit yesterday for an openwater swim and a Polar OH-1 sensor. Here’s that overlay:
OK then. So…
Yeah, I’m not really sure who’s correct there. But I can say that they don’t match. Historically speaking I’ve had pretty good luck with the Polar OH1/OH1Plus, so if I had to take a stab here, my guess would be it was correct. Or, it could be wrong.
However, they do roughly trend higher, so there’s that. Ultimately, I’ve never found heart rate while swimming super helpful, in part because of how much it lags compared to running or cycling. Still, at least it’s an option I guess.
For swimming, I’d agree with Garmin/Suunto/Polar that when it comes to optical HR sensor, that it’s going to be a ‘YMMV’ (Your Mileage May Vary) type of situation. All three companies have said as such in my discussions with them, and it can depend on numerous factors from positioning to the exact swim stroke you’re using. So definitely do a bit of your own testing to see how well things hold up in the water over multiple sessions (both pool and openwater) before you decide if it works for you.
Ultimately, the performance I see on both the Fenix 6X Solar and 6 is pretty much the same as what I saw on the MARQ series before it – mostly OK in many scenarios, but still some gaps in certain scenarios. It’s not usually as easy as saying that it’ll fail in intervals or high intensity, as I’ve had plenty of cases where it works just fine there. Sometimes it’s just a case of some unknown quirk that gets things distracted.
Product Comparison Tool:
I’ve added the Garmin Fenix 6 Series into the product comparison tool. While I could have added separate line items for each individual SKU/model, that’d get messy pretty quick. So I just noted where certain specs were different on a given metric. For the below chart I’ve compared it against the Fenix 5 Plus series, as well as the Polar Vantage V, and the Suunto 9. I could have tossed in the Forerunner 945, though frankly the only differences you’ll see between the Fenix 6 and the Forerunner 945 once all the firmware updates are done should be mainly materials (though, exact nuances may differ in some software features – that’s a bit TBD). Of course, you can make your own charts here in the product comparison calculator.
And again, don’t forget you can make your own product comparison charts here with all the products in the database.
Summary:
The Fenix 6 is more or less the next Fenix version we expected was coming. No, not because of all the leaks – but simply because Garmin declined to add in the new Forerunner 945 features into the Fenix 5 Plus back this past spring. On one hand, none of these features are earth shattering – yet almost all of them gel together really well. Like the Forerunner 945 before it, we’re starting to see Garmin really differentiate itself from the pack in terms of physio focused features, but also even just more practical things like battery life and ease of use (understanding the impacts of battery choices).
The other thing that this release does is close the gap between the release cycles of the high-end Garmin Forerunner series (FR945) and the high-end Fenix series. Previously that timeframe was upwards of a year or more. Now we’re down to about 4-5 months. It behooves Garmin to get these as close as possible so that people are making decisions not so much on features (which would mostly be the same), but on material and styling choices. Rather than have someone buy a FR945 and then realized they could have gotten a swankier Fenix 6 just a few months later.
In any event, the Fenix 6 production units I’ve been testing have been largely good, but not perfect. There are still occasional quirks that either are transient (such as slow syncing on one unit, but not the other), and of course some GPS oddities in New York City specifically. Plus of course the Garmin Connect driven map creations issues I saw that flowed downhill into my PacePro experience. But on the whole, things are pretty good for a product that starts shipping globally today. Undoubtedly, as more people get on it and find more edge cases – there will be bugs. And realistically it’ll probably take a few months for those bugs to sort themselves out. But I’ve been using it as my primary watch the last little while without issue. Almost all of the uploads you see on my Strava are from it.
Finally – I’m super interested to see where Garmin takes their acquired solar technology. Not just in terms of to other devices, but on how to expand the amount of solar energy it can return to the watch. Undoubtedly with the Fenix 6X Solar they started off pretty cautiously on numerous fronts, so I expect as they gain the experiences of thousands of real-life people, they’ll have learnings and tweaks they can apply going forward to newer devices.
With that – thanks for reading!
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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.
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And finally, here’s a handy list of accessories that work well with this unit (and some that I showed in the review). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors, you can use just about anything though.
This is a dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart cycling cadence sensor that you strap to your crank arm, but also does dual Bluetooth Smart, so you can pair it both to Zwift and another Bluetooth Smart app at once if you want.
This is one of the top straps I use daily for accuracy comparisons (the others being the Polar H9/H10). It's dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, and in fact dual-Bluetooth Smart too, in case you need multiple connectons.
Seriously, this will change your life. $9 for a two-pack of these puck Garmin chargers that stay put and stay connected. One for the office, one for your bedside, another for your bag, and one for your dog's house. Just in case.
This speed sensor is unique in that it can record offline (sans-watch), making it perfect for a commuter bike quietly recording your rides. But it's also a standard ANT+/BLE sensor that pairs to your device. It's become my go-to speed sensor.
This wifi-connected scale will track your weight and related metrics both on the scale display and in Garmin Connect (plus 3rd party apps like TrainingPeaks). It'll also then sync your weight to your watch/bike computer, to ensure accurate calorie data.
The HRM-PRO Plus is Garmin's top-end chest strap. It transmits dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, but also transmits Running Dynamics & Running Pace/Distance metrics, stores HR data during a swim, and can be used without a watch for other sports. Also, it can transmit XC Skiing Dynamics as well.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
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. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
“But I’ve been using it as my primary watch the last little while without issue. Almost all of the uploads you see on my Strava are from it.”
Ok. So, I’ll be the first to ask and get it out of my way: Fenix 6 vs 945? Features are roughly the same, right? So just a matter of style and intended activity? 945 for conventional triathletes and Fenix 6 for those more inclined to head off road?
Correct, features are roughly the same (minus Solar bits of course).
While I’ve had the 6X Solar as my ‘daily driver’ on my left wrist, I’ve been swapping other watches on my right wrist, including the other models as well as the FR945. Personally, as always, I’m not a huge ‘big watch’ kind of person, though the 6X definitely feels slimmer than years past (because it is). And that’s even more noticeable on some of the workouts where I had a Suunto 9 on my right wrist.
Still, I suspect I’ll end up with either the FR945 as my daily, or maybe the 6 Pro, but not the 6X likely. Though, I really do like it.
As someone who had never had a fenix or a forerunner I’m wondering what’s the main differences/different target group between 945 and fenix 6. When comparing the models in product comparison tool I see no difference. So where is the difference in intended activity? What is the difference in material?
Yeah, I’ll try and pull together a more specific chart for those two. It’s tricky with the larger comparison charts from a database perspective, else the entire chart basically just becomes a ‘Garmin product comparison database’, since it’s frankly rare that we see new feature innovation that’s easliy listable from the primary competitors in this space. 🙁
The main differences once the firmware updates are done though is primarily physical in nature (look/materials), but also it’ll be the Fenix 6 will have stronger golf support, better ski resort support, and up to 8 data fields for the 6X (the FR945 will get 6 data fields). Additionally, the battery aspects are still TBD if Garmin will adopt them. That’s it.
Hi Ray – can you comment whether the screen is any brighter than the Fenix 5X. I’m hoping that the Fenix 6X/Pro upped the screen visibility. Thanks for such a great review!
David
One big improvement of the Fenix6 is that the display of the Fenix 6 is bigger than the display of the FR945. I’m waiting comments of users with the Fenix6 how much this display improves readability of numbers during real activities.
I have the fenix 6x and I had the 5x plus prior to that. The display is noticeably bigger and easier to read. The ability to have 8 fields now instead of 4 is huge game changer for me. I no longer need a connect IQ data field to get all my data on 1 screen.
Great review Ray (still have to do an in-depth read)! Thanks for your work. First thought about solar power (from a cyclist point of view): it would be perfect for Edge and really big rides!
And the orientation to the sun is more or less fixed. That should help a lot. On a watch it seems more like a gimmick, since you’re not going to walk/run/ski along with your arm out so the watch can be more or less perpendicular to the sun.
They need to edge solar receptors to the band too. the more the better given that with running/hiking etc (unlike edge that is always pointing up) you want as many cells as possible
In principle it shouldn’t matter because the bezel on a fēnix is the “exo” GPS antenna. If you disassemble an f3 or f5 watch you can see the contact between the motherboard and the bezel for this purpose.
Thank you for all you do Ray. Ordered the Pro from CT just now to hopefully replace my aging but still working FR230. Getting into the trail scene more, so I look forward to this device.
How do the notification actions work on this flagship device ? Can you mark a message or email as read with “Mark as read” notification action (specifically that’s possible on Android) ?
I was talking about the lack of this on the FR 45 review (link to dcrainmaker.com) and how even an older FR 35 had that option.
How does the UI for it look like? Is “Mark as read” as default, then you can select “Dismiss” ? On FR 45 I can only see “Dismiss” which is triggered by the “Down” button.
You might have it on the 45 as well perhaps. When I get say a text it shows a notification on the watch and “Down” button leads to “Dismiss”. I first need to push the Start/Stop button IIRC to “open” the message and then scroll through it to get the options for “Mark as Read” etc.
Hmm, I see now, I found a Youtube clip of this menu on a FR 245 and it’s not on FR 45, because those actions also contain “Reply” function, which lets you reply canned messages back that you set in the Garmin Connect app.
On the FR 45 when you open the notification, there’s nothing at the bottom.
@Garmin: I think it would be fair if you included the “Mark as read” or other Quick notification actions into that menu, even though the “Reply” function isn’t possible.
That is correct. AFAIK essentially there is not really solar charging here in F6X. If you put it to power off and expose it to light/sun it will not charge the battery a bit. The whole solar charging frenzy is misleading.
The first comment was just a typo of ‘now’ versus ‘no’.
As for Exx’s comment, I don’t follow: It clearly adds battery power to the battery. I’m not sure why you’re saying otherwise.
Does it add more batter than is being consumed? No, generally not. But that doesn’t take away the fact that it’s being charged. Just like if you plug your iPad into a lesser USB port and then watch a movie, it won’t add power, and you still might go down – just less fast.
Great review; tasty new watches! Will any of the software features trickle down to the 5 series? I know they’ve done that in the past with things like the relax timer.
It would have been great if they added wireless QI charging. Just toss it on the charger while taking a morning shower, stay fully charged most of the time!
I assume not a chance of any features trickling down to the 5 Plus series? On the other hand, looking at feature set between 5, 5+ and 6, the new features on 5+ – maps, payments, music, ClimbPro make it look more like a Fenix 6, compared to that the “real” Fenix 6 looks more like a 5+
Oh god…. how do I hide the purchase of this watch from the wife LOL… great review Ray, been waiting for the 6, like you nailed (as always) the time difference between the 945 is interesting, I like the new features of the 945 but decided to wait for the 6 and I’m glad I did.
Garmin definitely need to start treating software and hardware separately. The F5+ would easily do most of the new features so even a paid software upgrade would be useful. I have a stack of watches building up that aren’t worth much in the second hand market yet I rarely use. Especially since I tend to buy the “nice” models such as F5 with metal band (£750 new, worth ~£200 now) and F5+ Ti metal band (£950 new, ~£350 now).
Admittedly, all of my old Garmin watches are more useful than my new Suunto 9 or Vantage V! Garmin have really upped their game since the Fenix 3.
I’ve decided to keep my now reliable (post replacement) Spartan Ultra for events, and buy whatever the new Apple Watch is this year for my daily workouts. Apple Pay, Apple Music, and hopefully (for the first time on Watch in NZ), cellular as well. I’m not convinced the new features here, with the possible exception of the pacing tool, are really offering much I can’t get from Training Peaks. I know what you mean about offloading old watches; I certainly wouldn’t get much for my Spartan Ultra now.
First a typo: base Fenix 5 lineup with the baes Fenix 6 lineup … baes should be base I think (unboxing section)
Second a question about bezel size. I know you state the screen size has increased and they gotten thinner. But is the circle of the bezel larger? equally larger or smaller than the 5+ series?
Third and final: so the solar pro does -not- have sapphire but just gorilla glass. Not that that’s a bad thing per se, but I prefer sapphire over gorilla glass. Am I missing the obvious?
As always thanks for the in depth review, a pleasure to read and nice to see it done so fast. My conclusion for myself for now: not worth upgrading from 5x plus yet…
I asked Garmin in a chat a few questions regarding the glass on the Solar version. Indeed it is softer than on sapphire, however, they said in looking at both the solar display is a bit more brilliant than the sapphire which I would like.
I was zeroing in on the Pro 6X sapphire due to tougher glass than solar but now may get the Pro 6X Solar due to the combined features.
Ray, it’s not 100% clear from the post (maybe I missed it) whether the base model supports maps and doesn’t include them or just doesn’t support maps and doesn’t have the storage space?
According to link to buy.garmin.com all of them have maps but, with the 6S and 6, you can opt not to have them and save a bit of money although seems to odd to me to pay all that and not want all the features just for a bit extra. Unclear if you could later “upgrade”. Probably not one would assume.
According to the Garmin people interviewed this morning on the UTMB live coverage yes. They didn’t mention Chamonix specifically but said it would be available in specialty running stores today. Still, I’d take that with a grain of salt.
Excited to check out pacepro. It’s an area I’ve always been interested. A few years ago we did some experimentation with what we called the pacing project link to pacecalculator.com
Do you know if Garmin would open the new format to third parties pushing pacing plans?
Ultimately it seems like they experience some of the same issues we had (and still battle with BBS occasionally) around bad data in = bad data out. Elevation data can be notoriously poor in some locations. To smooth this requires quite an array of techniques and some tricks to detect say bridges, tunnels, etc. Ideally you would leverage the data you have to kind of do a gut check (which I think Strava has done for some major bridges / overpasses).
As for the per km / mile I’m sure that is something they will work on. It’s a fine line between having too many segments and not enough. I don’t think fixed interval is the ultimate path forward however (as in Texas we may have 5 steep rollers within a mile section). We originally did pacing project as a proof of concept for more accurate normalized graded pace equations (specifically for downhill sections now rolled into TrainingPeaks). We didn’t pursue it as much because there wasn’t a great way to get it on devices (watches) at the time.
Now that almost all Garmin watches have maps/course functionality it could be worth a revisit. Things that interest me the most in the area are how to adjust paces to grade along with surface terrain type, heat/humidity / altitude.
Thanks for the reply and thanks again for helping out with my Paris Marathon race plan on Slowtwitch last year!
Yes, I commented below that it’d be nice to have lap-positions determined by changes in target pace (e.g. at points of significant changes in gradient like you do with BBS and TPP) rather than simply roll everything up into automatic fixed-interval laps as it would appear to at the moment.
I guess Garmin already have a foot-in-the-game with regard to heat/altitude effects with some of the recent metrics, but even something as simple as athlete-weight compensation for gradient-adjusted pacing metrics would be really useful.
Do you guys have any more exciting projects in the pipeline at the moment?
I currently have a fenix 5, which occasionally have problems connecting to ANT+ sensors. For instance I have to wear the watch under my wrist for it to reliably stay connected to my power meter when cycling.
I think I read somewhere that this is a known problem with the 5 series, so I assume this is fixed with the fenix 6 series?
I have the 5 and 5+ and this was definitely sorted on the 5+ so I wouldn’t expect the 6 to have the issue. If I recall correctly Ray never suffered the issue, but was certainly aware of it.
Tyop alert: “so it we’re roughly in the ballpark”.
Great review as always. I’m still not quite convinced that I need to spend the money on the upgrade from my 935, but it’s slightly closer than the 945 was. Depending on local pricing, of course (the 945 is way too expensive, IMO, and I suspect the 6 series will be even more so.)
This makes my decision making quite easy, intended for cycling use, almost identical to FR945, which is 100€ cheaper. I don’t really care about the looks, and think the 945 looks as good as the Fenix6.
It may be I haven’t been aware enough when I read your excellent text, but how perfomed the 6s with GPS and battery life.
Furthermore, what is the battery life of the 6s, 6s and 6x without any battery saving function, because example 5s plus never comes over 8 hours.
I assume there is no support for native running power?
For the rest it is “disappointing” that it has no enhanced ECG and/or cellular connectivity; Garmin doesnt stick its head out here beyond the competition. But it has to be said that 6/8 fields over the former 4 is a handy improvement, but not really shocking.
No native running power, or ECG or cellular. I suspect Garmin would rather sit on a burning pile of extra-sharp pinecones right now than try and do another cellular watch. Frankly, Apple’s limitations make this a non-starter for iOS peoples and cohesion. It’s a bit better on Android however.
For PacePro, it uses GPS position data to ‘lock’ you to the course location. Though you can also use it sans-course mode.
Hi Ray and Garmin (who i’m sure is listening). I will be leaving Garmin for Apple, despite the much worse experience for running, just to get cellular data. I was holding out hope for this Fenix 6 which has been rumored forever..but this is disappointing.
The limitations due to Apple are not a concern for me, despite being an iPhone user. Honestly I’d be happier to get a different phone number for my Garmin watch than my normal iphone number so people don’t bother me when running. Just have live tracking support and a dedicated number my family knows for emergencies only. Dragging a phone around for 20 mile long runs is no fun, especially when it’s only for emergencies.
Don’t know how it is on other watches, but Apple Watch doesn’t use a different phone number. Instead it is like another extension to your phone. However, I find it very useful for running, mostly for the data connection, but also knowing I can be reached (or make a call) as well. If I know I’m expecting a call or need to make a call, I just take my phone.
As for Apple, yeah, it’s called various things by various carriers, usually a variation of Number Sync (as on ATT). And in fact, you can do the same thing on Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 LTE too. The challenge is that iMessages won’t make it to it if they’re from an iMessage device. Atop that, if you send any messages, you can’t send iMessages (only real numbers), and you can’t see your sent texts back on your device.
For Android folks that don’t live in the luxury of iMessage – it doesn’t really matter. But if you use iMessage and all your friends/family does – then it really really really matters. I personally can’t deal with that much fragmentation in my message scheme.
Yeah, I think the issue with iMessages is that the iMessage app is actually running on the Apple Watch and not, like notifications, being transferred from the phone. Due to the security in iMessages (which the US govt. can’t even get around), there is no chance Apple will allow it to run on a non Apple device. That does mean that all the advantages of the iMessage infrastructure (messaging to non phone numbers, syncing across devices, high end encryption, sending money, and, of course, animated kittens) won’t work on anyone else’s device. The way Apple does LTE on it’s Watch also kind of extends what it already is doing – you can get phone calls on the Watch even without LTE if you are on the same WiFi network and notifications actual come through your phone, even if you are on cellular.
Yeah, I mean, it just depends on how they (Apple) want to twist it. Realistically speaking there’s no reason why they couldn’t implement an API for it, at least to more gracefully handle sent message, or to store and forward to registered secondary devices. Ultimately, the security logic of that from a intel-type manner falls apart anyway when it’s your local ATT store setting up the Apple Watch as a secondary type device on a shared number. That’s the attack point there for an intelligence service.
But of course, I doubt it’ll happen. Apple likes their walled garden (and, to be fair, they do a good job of keeping that garden health). Though, we did see some hints at possible changes from Fossil a few weeks ago around this sort of thing (phone calls specifically) – so anything’s possible I suppose.
That’s part of a handful of new graphical data fields. That specific bottom data field is cadence. There’s also ones for running dynamics, training effect, a few others, and you can also stash a reduced version of PacePro down there too.
I’m curious to know about the CIQ field limit as well. It seems like they could finally increase the limit (as far as I’m aware it is still a 2 field limit for all watches, other than the 745xt).
With the 2 field limit in past watches, it mostly just served to frustrate me that (1) Garmin doesn’t bother much with easy to read data display on their own and (2) that I couldn’t actually rely on other people’s work here because Garmin decided to cap the field limit so low.
The FR945 will get PacePro, Glanceable Widgets, Map Themes, and maybe some other stuff. They’re sorting out the other stuff bit (such as battery modes). They’re also sorting out the exact timelines.
Would/will the extended battery of the Fenix 6 also take effect on the forerunner 945. On another note adding the battery modes to the 945 would be a huge upgrade to the 945!
It’s being discussed. They came back last night with a list of what is or isn’t coming to the FR945. For example, the ski resorts aren’t coming to the FR945 – nor the extended golf bits (since the FR945 already has golf maps, and they don’t see a huge cross-over with the FR945 to golf as compared to the Fenix with golf folks).
For all the power bits, they’re looking at feedback and deciding whether to pull those features in. It’s definitely not a no, but it’s also not confirmed. I’d suggest voicing that feedback (here, via Garmin social media, etc…). As with any company, they’re just trying to balance dev time for adding those features versus say other features.
The 6 data fields is confirmed as coming to the FR945 though. Timing for everything is ‘the fall’, but some things may be sooner.
Yup, I discussed them throughout the review. They included:
A) Issues with PacePro, primarily due to issues with Garmin Connect (PacePro itself was fine, but the underlying data that drove it from Garmin Connect was problematic)).
B) Some heart rate accuracy issues
C) Some GPS accuracy issues
D) Occasional slow syncing of the Fenix 6X Solar. It’s however extremely likely this is because I have about 30 units tied to my account, which Garmin thinks may be causing Physio TrueUp issues on that unit (I get things, just a bit delayed)
The ErgIQ CIQ app works reasonably well for this (I use it on my Edge 520). I doubt Garmin would have added it in natively without making some sort of note of the feature.
I does not work the way it should. I writes the data into those Connect IQ fields that are not properly combined with other activities. I have Fenix 3, so I’m not sure how it is on the newer watches .. but does it give you “points” after training like cycling would etc? Training effect etc?
Nice to see that Garmin launches such a product before northern hemisphere winter ski mountaineering season starts – maybe its time to upgrade my Fenix 2. A lot of features can be used then, like maps with ski routes, the spo2 sensor, altitude acclimation etc. and solar power is enough on our mountains.
What sucks is, that the altitude acclimation just works by real altitude and not by O2 saturation. I own an altitude tent and with this way you could also acclimate to height. That would also be a reason to buy a new Fenix watch because it will record my O2 saturation during the night. What more sucks, I don´t wear watches at home, just my vivosmart 3… which brings me to the Vivosmart 4 for this scenario, damn 🙂
An also nice feature could be guessing your Vitamin D level by the usage of the solar module. When you feed the algorithm with which kind of clothes you wear for the day, maybe it could tell you, when you spent enough time in the sun – especially in winter (think about winter depression).
Garmin Connect mobile is not just slow but also has bugs for building courses on the phone.
Sometimes refuses to save, some other times, (probably thinking I am a car) it would not let me run a one way street in the forbidden direction
So your preferred choice of pacing assistant now – PacePro or Running Power (and then Stryd or Garmin or Polar!) or just good “old fashioned” pace/HR glances ?
What I was not clear of from your PacePro section is the granularity of the sections? I kind of assumed it would break down the course into varied distance “laps” that were uphill, downhill or flat but your example seems to be fixed mile sections. A lot can happen in a mile of course with ups and downs so is this an effective lap pace checker taking into account the overall difficulty of each lap? I mean if say a mile was uphill to halfway then downhill I might go (and keep the maths simple) 8:00 pace up and 6:00 down and so average 7:00 and that be the mile target but at no time would I be running 7:00 pace.
For me at this point, I’d easily take PacePro. Perhaps just because of the gamification of it.
That said, it breaks it into 1-mile/1-KM chunks, as you as you noted (and I noticed as well in Central Park) that can lead to scenarios where if both a climb and downhill were in the same section, you might be running them at the wrong intensities.
I also get the impression this is really just Garmin’s starting point on PacePro. They’ve spent an incredibly long development cycle getting it to where it is now, and this was a good point to ship and then consider features for the next update.
It’d be nice to see an implementation whereby using a PacePro would override your normal autolap settings, so instead of just lapping rigidly every 1 mile or km, it would lap every time there’s a significant change in gradient (and thus preferred pace) as well possibly intermediate 1 mile/1 km/whatever laps in longer up/downhill sections to keep somewhat regular lap intervals.
So–I have a dumb question. The Fenix 6 Sapphire model…is this a pro with sapphire? or is it just a sapphire 6 without the pro features? I’m so confused haha
The question is about the change from the 5 Plus models, which were all 240×240. So is the change from that to the higher resolution for the 6 and 6X noticeable?
My answer does actually cover that, but let me be a bit more explicit.
5, 5x, all the 5+ and the 6s have 1.2″ screens 240×240, so the pixels are .005 inch squares.
6 is 1.3″ 260×260 and 6x is 1.4″ 280×280, so the pixels are still .005 inch squares. (The 5s was 1.1″ at 218×218, which is the same pixel size again). Won’t look any more or less pixelated at a given viewing distance, it’s not like going to a Retina display with substantially smaller pixels.
If the pixels are .005 inch squares for all watches (this means that all the watches have all the same pixel density), this means that using for example 6 fields in one page, the watch Fenix 6x that has the biggest display with 280×280 pixel should be easier to read because the numbers are bigger. For one number, the watch can use more pixel. If this makes a big difference in reality, one should look at the watches with the same page and see if the difference is appreciable. DCR who has all the watches can comment what it looks like comparing the watches one beside the other.
My feeling is that till 4 fields in one page there is not a big difference, but using 6 fields probably with the Fenix 6X there is a better user experience.
DCR says: “you’ve now got up to 8 data fields per page for the Fenix 6X, and up to 6 fields per page for the Fenix 6S/6 units. Here’s how that looks:”
The Fenix 6X wtith more pixels allows to have more datafields in one page. This is a big plus.
Ray shows then two photos one with the Fenix6 with 6 data fields and one with the Fenix 6X with 8 fields.
Ray, it would be interesting if you add a photo of a Fenix 6s, Fenix 6 and Fenix6X all with 6 fields so we can appreciate the difference between the three watches.
Yes, I agree – further, I think that even with 4 fields, for middle-aged folk like me whose close vision is worsening, the bigger screen is going to be helpful for readability.
All these features and NO LTE. I’m out. They will never compete with Apple until they do this. I know I know. This line isn’t supposed to compete with Apple. However, it does. I’m a prime example. I run a lot. After experiencing the freedom to go out with no phone, my AW4, and PowerBeats Pro, I’ll never go back to a non-LTE device. The peace of mind I get from that to know my wife and son can get in touch with me at anytime is great. The sport specific features of the AW4 are lacking and Garmin nails it. I’d buy the 6X asap if it had LTE. Guess I’m not the majority.
Until Apple opens up their platform to actually allow this, you honestly don’t want a non-Apple Watch LTE offering. Today it means that iMessage doesn’t go through to your secondary device like an Apple Watch would, because Apple locks that down. I’ve tried it on the Vivoactive 3 LTE – and the experience sucks. It’s like going back to the days of pagers where if someone really wanted to get ahold of you they’d send a note to your pager.
Unfortunate. I wish Apple would do this but it’s unlikely given their hold on the LTE enabled watch market. Just once, they should do this for the greater good of moving the technology forward. Frustrating. On the flip side, I’d love to see Garmin simply build a fitness app for Apple Watch. I’d pay $50 for this (maybe more). The hardware on the Apple Watch should be able to collect the data Garmin needs for Running Dynamics, V02, etc…
Live tracking and incident notification are enough reasons to add LTE. Some of us don’t need iMessage or wapp or whatever. Just sending / receiving a message when really needed and letting others know exactly where you we are for joy (grouptrack) or in case an incident happened.
I know this may be sacrilege, but you can pull a Ray and run with 2 watches, that’s what I do. Don’t need my phone, use my Garmin for my activity related data and my AW for anything else, including phone, messaging, music, maps, Apple Pay, and I actually find it’s instant pace more accurate.
Except livetracking doesn’t work so well sometimes. I think Ray in a recent podcast talked about not using livetracking or incident detection because the false positives consistently stressed The Girl.
It’s really disappointing that the livetracking isn’t better. That seems like the ultimate use case for a true sports watch with LTE. I can imagine using it constantly. Significant others could just pop open the app and see exactly how far you are from home and how fast you’re going. And it would be great for races. My running buddies and I spend tons of time refreshing live-tracking websites to get 10k splits during marathons, but it would be awesome to be able to see essentially what is on my teammates’ watches as they run. There’s also tremendous potential for Strava integration. What if you could go onto your Strava feed and see not only completed activities, but runs in progress? Heck, you could even send someone a kudos or comment while they’re running: “You’re flying, dude! Just three more miles!” (Obviously the privacy aspects would have to be carefully considered, and races are going to have their own policies about two-way communication.)
I use an inreach mini whenever i’m far enough out of cell phone range and I need to be able to maintain contact. Great little device, integrates well into the Fenix line already. Messages are not instant send/receive like a text message, but working inside it’s limitations does let me feel comfortable to go places solo or with my young kids that I otherwise wouldn’t. Frankly it gets more use for the kids saying “goodnight” to mom via text message when we are out than it does for anything else, but does do a good job of live track in the wild when off the grid.
I’ve asked this before but have yet to get an answer from anyone – is there a definitive list of the differences between the various activity types and/or what data can be recorded in each?
Like you allude to in the heatmaps…
Why would I choose “hike” versus “trail run” versus “run”? I tend to choose “run” for all of my hikes as well, mainly because the Stryd records power for these too…
Not sure about F6 but, from previous devices, some of it is purely for classification but there have been some functional differences. One I can recall is that VO2 Max computation/adjustument is disabled for “Trail run” given you are likely to be downgraded just because of the likely harder terrain rather than your actual fitness.
Note that the Hike activity now records Stryd data, if you are using the Stryd data field. This works on my Fenix 3HR. I think you can actually use the Stryd data field on any walking or running based native app.
I think you can do podcasts via Spotify, but I’d also like to hear if there are other options. Ordered a 6s ‘Pro’ for my wife and she probably would enjoy some podcasts from time to time (not currently Spotify premium members, but do have Amazon Music).
Just chatted to Garmin- the 6X Pro Solar model is indeed Gorilla Glass, which means that scratches cannot be polished away. They had no idea what the procedure is if the glass shatters either.
In your reply 57 you said that this is a no starter for IOS people? What do you mean with ‘this’?
Are there any issues to use this watch with IOS / OSX?
Do you still have to use FTP to ‘see’ the watch in Finder?
In that particular reply, I think he’s talking about the feasibility of LTE on the watch itself. With an Apple Watch this works, but it’s unlikely Apple would ever allow a third party watch to, say, share a phone number with an iPhone the way the AW does. Apple also does not allow third party watches to send messages, so, unlike an Apple Watch, you can’t reply to texts on a Garmin watch if you use iOS. You can still use the Connect app on iOS to “see” and manipulate (to a certain extent) the watch. And since the 6’s all seem to support music, it will not show up in the Finder. You’ll still need to use something like the “Android File Transfer” app to see the file system on the watch (but speaking as a 5+ owner, that actually works pretty well).
Soooo many models and options. I’m not sure which ones you actually had your hands on, but can you notice a difference between gorilla and sapphire glass as far as color depth or visibility, and have you seen any scratches on either?
In regards to the black bezel options, is the sapphire version really DLC whereas the pro black version is not? Is there a noticeable difference?
My Fenix 5 sapphire in black is pretty beat up. Lots of scratches and dings on the bezel, but the screen remains perfect. I’m having a hard time justifying the extra money for sapphire, unless the black DLC will resolve my issues with beating up the bezel.
That is likely a production error. Had the same issue and have just had the unit replaced by garmin. Search for sticky buttons on the garmin forum. Issue is known.
Well the 6S is the same size as the 5S but the lugs are smaller so it will feel more stable on a smaller wrist. I am not sure about the strap length though – I found the 5S strap to be too narrow and short even on my skinny wrist, and made the watch slip around when I was sweaty. It also helps that the 6S has reduced in thickness and weight, which will help for running. I doubt it will be as comfortable as my 645 though.
I have 6 inch wrists (hey, I’m a runner, not a rock climber). Was very excited about the relatively small size of the 5s after my F3. I found the lugs to be a big issue. I ended up switching to a regular 5 for the battery life because after trying both, I found that there was essentially no difference in how they sat on the wrist. I picked up the 6s, and the smaller lugs make a HUGE difference.
Good to know. Yes I also couldn’t live with the lugs on the original 5S. As someone with small wrists, the watch didn’t stay put and after about half an hour of running with a sweat on it would end it at a 45 degree angle. It drove me nuts and I eventually brought a 935, then swapped that for a 645 as I preferred the smaller watch. If you are a competitive runner, how the watch feels on your wrist is more important than features IMO.
When you review the activity afterwards in Garmin Connect, does the PacePro overlay gray boxes for your target pace for a given split like it does for workouts with segments that have a target pace?
What are the options for the split durations on the PacePro? In the screenshot it looks like it’s every mile, are there options for adjusting that? Maybe every 1/4 mile? Or have some splits be shorter (for a murderous hill section – treat the climb with its own target, then treat the downhill with its own section…)
Maybe I’m overthinking this and it’s meant to just be a replacement for pace bands, and pace bands are often set to mile splits because you will see mile markers on the side of the road and you can glance at your wrist and see if you are on track or not… but with the PacePro lining up against the course it doesn’t need to rely on those points nearly as much and alternative split strategies that would be too much of a pain to manually do with a pace band could be easy to do on a watch.
Now… if it’s _helpful_ to potentially overthink the pacing of a race is a question for another day.
No. The 6X comes in 4 finish levels exclusive of bands:
1. Gorilla glass and vapor deposition bezel
2. Sapphire and DLC (diamond-like coating) bezel.
3. Gorilla glass + solar and DLC bezel.
4. Gorilla glass + solar and titanium bezel.
Should we have any concern with scratching on the Solar Powered Fenix since it does not utilize Sapphire? I have to say, they fixed many of the things I was nitpicking over. Now I’m just deciding if Solar or non-Solar is the way to go.
I think the solar model glass would be scratch resistant but not sure whether it would survive strong impact, eg. bumping into trees, rocks, fall from a bike crash, etc.
In your reply 57 you said that this is a no starter for IOS people? What do you mean with ‘this’?
Are there any issues to use this watch with IOS / OSX?
Do you still have to use FTP to ‘see’ the watch in Finder?
Jim, the 645 was released around 19 months ago, so it isn’t exactly new.
Honestly, I’m not sure why they didn’t kill the 645 all together, as the only major differences between the 245 and 645 are Garmin pay and the barometer. In my ideal world they would have a FR45, 245, 745XT and 945.
“What is the difference between Corning® Gorilla® Glass, Power Glass and sapphire crystal lens?
Corning Gorilla Glass and the Power Glass lens are designed to be scratch resistant, but they are not as durable as the sapphire crystal lens*. The sapphire crystal lens is incredibly durable and is the third hardest mineral, right behind diamond. As a result, the lens is much harder to scratch than glass.”
Does anybody have any experience with the Garmin’s gorilla glass as far as how scratch resistant is it compared to sapphire one on a day to day use over time?
okay so can someone explain the point of the fenix 6s non pro version. The 5s plus has the maps and music, minus the pulseox of course. But otherwise it’s a downgrade and £529 is a huge price to pay for no maps no music?
Ray- you mentioned “more detailed golf features”- is there anywhere I can read about them? I use my fenix 5 for golf, so I’m curious to know what has changed.
The review states: “No, PacePro is not grade adjusted pace,” but Garmin’s websites says: “A first-of-its-kind PacePro feature helps keep you on pace with grade-adjusted guidance as you run a course.”
Maybe I missed it in the review, but what is the difference between grade adjusted pace, and grade adjusted guidance?
I guess it means that here that your pace is still whatever your pace actually is. It might be slower uphill and so have a slower target for that bit etc etc but you aren’t having to deal with some artifically adjusted pace value when looking at what your “pace” is.
GAP is a very specific terminology that some platforms (like TrainingPeaks) use to adjust the displayed pace based on the current incline/decline.
What Garmin is doing is giving you specific targets that are pace based, but they aren’t actually changing (or applying a filter) to your pace as it’s seen on the watch.
ah so would “splits based on elevation changes” solve my earlier comment about to how to “pace” a section that has both up and down hill and so you are uniquely to ever actually be running at the average “lap” pace for that section?
Finally Ray, after years of reading your reviews, I can say I used your code and purchased the 6X through Clever Training Europe. Really happy that this will support the channel in some small way.
Ashamed a bit that it has taken me so long before using them.. but not a bad first purchase! hahaha
No native running power support and still only two CIQ data fields. Those are deal-breakers and I’ll have to stick with my 5X until those limitations are gone.
Great review! I love the solar feature! I am curious to know how much it will lengthen battery life in an ultramarathon when you are out in the sun for 12-16 hours a day.
No plans unfortunately. It may actually be my favorite Fenix 6 feature. I find I actually use the widgets constantly now for exactly what their name implies: Quick glances.
I saw the safety features mentioned at the beginning of the review, but didn’t see any more details on them in the review. Trying to figure out if it is cellular enabled or if those safety features depend on a connected phone being nearby.
I have the Fenix 5 Plus and I found that ClimbPro function gives improper information about the remaing altitude to climb. I checked this on a number of Alp passes (only with tarmac roads) and usually the actual pass was up to 200 metres sooner than the function suggested. Usually in the end the remaining climb was dropping very fast to finally meet with the reality.
What may be the reason for this?
Smaller for tiny wrists, HR on the wrist for swimming, and a nacho dispenser! Might just be time to upgrade from my 5S, assuming I can find someone to buy the 5S at this point!
Thanks for the great review! A question, on Garmin’s website, when comparing the devices, it says “preloaded ski resort maps” and is included in the 6 (standard size) pro/sapphire models, but not the smaller 6S pro/sapphire models. Seems a little odd since it’s basically the same watch for the same price, so would expect preloaded ski resort maps included in both. Is this true??
still no Native run power support ?
thats a big disclaimer for me as a stryd user that garmin still wont open for run power and power based structured workouts
ill stay with my 5X + and see what happens and might even go to apple watch instead
Yeah, agreed. I thought the promo pictures with the purple shoes logo and zone colors in the bottom field of the watch was going to be running power…but no. It seems like it has to show up any day now, as they’ve been working the ANT+ standard for a long time. I’m wondering if they’re going to try to keep the Forerunner 6xx line going and introduce native running power with the FR655.
Realistically though, without adding running power, it’s mostly just the extra battery life & power modes that are a big deal on the Fenix 6 line. The PacePro could be useful if they work out the kinks and make the laps based on hills instead of a standard distance, but as it is PacePro seems less useful than using the Stryd Power Racer app.
What app would you use? Podium Coaching is great on watch// still searching for apps offering as mutch of metrics as real running watches do. Any hints are welcome
For the Sony based chipsets (thus, all 2019 Garmin watches), I’m using GLONASS. Garmin says that’s where they’ve poured the most resources for accuracy right now. They’re starting to ramp up the Galileo side. Sure, it’s there, but they aren’t super focused on it.
For the MediaTek chipsets I’ve been using Galileo with great success (FR935 for example).
Great review, as always. I’ve three questions:
1) The solar option comes with non-sapphire glass (I suppose because transmission of Sapphire is too low). How does this impact the resistance against scratches or even cracks?
2) I’m always using Stryd for my pace (also outside). Can Stryd being combined with PacePRO?
3) More general: Will Garmin at some point allow us to create power based workouts?
same thing im disapointed about with the new models that they still doesnt support native power so power based structured run workouts will still be a pain to use 🙁
Love how in-depth you make these reviews! A couple of questions for ya:
1. I purchased a 5x plus less than a month ago. Would it be worth it to return the watch for a refund and purchase the 6x plus?
2. What are the major differences between the 6x and the 6x plus? Just screen size and battery life?
3. Are you still able to load custom topo maps onto the fenix 6 series?
1) Personally, I would. The brutal truth is that the Fenix 5 series (plus or otherwise) is considered dead-end from a Garmin new features standpoint. It’ll of course continue to get firmware updates, but none of the good stuff. Just being honest there (I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is).
2) 6X vs 6X Pro is maps/music/wifi (and all the features that depend on those)
3) No, you need to have the 6X Pro, as there’s only a trivial amount of storage space on the base.
I have an oddly specific questions. In all my Garmin devices I’ve notice that when it comes to displaying the hour in the HH:MM:SS of an activity during the activity., Garmin doesn’t display the hour number in equal size to the minutes and seconds. It always is smaller and loks like footnote.
has this ever been changed? It seems that developed data fields or apps don’t do this. It a huge pet peeve with the garmin software and I think it looks strange and cheap.
That’s going to stay around. It’s a UI design feature like mixed case vs all-upper letters. Having the hours smaller lets people check the minutes and seconds with a glance vs “reading” the whole thing.
I would like to see a review of the optical HR sensor for indoor trainer rides. I find that sitting on the bike inside the optical sensor just isn’t happy. Not sure if it is all the sweat with lack of airflow but it just doesn’t provide even close numbers. When I go outside on the bike it aligns a bit better but still not great.
That’s odd. For me it’s the opposite. I get super clean results inside on trainers, except when I start dorking with my phone or the remote excessively.
I usually use it as a baseline. I have a few Fenix 6 trainer rides here, but just didn’t have time to include them in the results (they have other unannounced trainers on the files, so it’s messier for me to extract everything right now).
Great review as always. I bought a 945 2 months ago (after having been a Suunto person for 10+ years…) and I’m pretty happy with it.
So nice to read that PacePro will come to the 945 but what about te three widgets page and ClimbPro colors?
The only feature I’ll be missing is the solar power, maybe it will be an FR 955 or 965 🙂
Speaking of ClimbPro and how much you love it, I’d love it as well, if I’d manage to use it!
Whenever I create a course on Connect, GC largely overestimates elevation gain and loss (by about 20-30%!) and that transfers to the watch and ClinbPro, making the feature totally useless. This seems more a GC issue and I’m surprised that nobody else has noticed it, have you? Is there some “elevation correction” toggle in Connect? The same GPX file on other platforms (like Strava) gives perfectly reasonable elevation gain and loss… so I’m very puzzled…
According to Ray on Twitter the other stuff you’ve mentioned will also make it to the 945.
I only used ClimbPro a few times (too flat here to be useful). But if Strava gives you correct elevation, perhaps if you load the course from Strava via the ConnectIQ app you might have more success?
Thank you for the reply. I’ve tried loading a gpx exported from Strava, but when imported on Connect the elevation data change, as if I had made the course directly on Connect.
But that’s not what he’s telling you to try. There’s a ConnectIQ app, “Strava Routes”, that allows you to load a Strava route directly onto your Garmin device. Try that and see if it helps. Connect has nothing to do with it.
Wow! I didn’t know about that app, and I didn’t get the suggestion. I tried it right now briefly and it seems to show the right elevation gain! Thank you so much!
This seems to entirely solve my problem (I’ll do an actual test on my next ride sometime this week) even though it’s a bit annoying that to have such a basic function working I must rely on a third party service…
Hi. It’s not clear to me: what is the difference between the fenix 6x (sapphire) and fenix 6x pro (aside from the solar component)? Specs and features wise are all the same?
The 6x doesn’t come with maps, wifi, or music while the 6x pro (including all editions) come with music, maps, and wifi.
Here’s a link to the garmin website garming all 3: link to buy.garmin.com
That’s not correct. There is no version of the 6X that does not come with maps, wifi, or music. The only difference between the 6X Pro and Sapphire is that the Sapphire version has sapphire glass while the Pro version has Gorilla Glass.
This, and many of the other questions above, point out the fact that Garmin has way too many SKUs for the Fenix line and create consumer confusion. (I wonder if that may be partly intentional, nobody seems to be commenting on the fact that they basically raised the price $100.)
Pending that e-mail. I volley’d it over a few hours ago along with clarification on the remainder of features. I expect I’ll probably get details back by morning. The teams are time-zone split right now with a number of them in Chamonix (France) for UTMB and the Fenix 6 launch, and the remainder back in the US.
1. Are the open water swim firmware improvements coming to any of the older watches (I have the Fenix 5X)
2. Are the TrailForks feature from the Garmin Edge series coming to any of the watches?
I was really hoping to see the TrailForks maps as well. Those maps are super useful for trail running, in addition to mountain biking. I always bring my phone and keep the TrailForks app running in addition to my Fenix, so that I know where the heck I am on new trail systems.
1. The F5X runs the older Mediatek GPS chipset, rather than the Sony chipset on the F6 series. So no to the OWS updates referenced in this article. But I note that a GPS firmware beta for the F5 series claiming to address OWS issues has just been released.
How to test: Within the Garmin forums for each product you’ll find a thread about the beta. It’s just simply download it and install on your device. There’s a dedicated e-mail address for issues as well.
For the F5X and OWS, yes, it too can run into the same ‘Swim-drop’* issues of the new Sony chipset. But just way less often. Garmin is working with them too though.
(*Where a swim track just stops recording distance/GPS points randomly mid-swim, often very early in the swim)
Thoughts on the durability of the solarglass? I am interested in the solar version but would forgo the feature to have the durability of the sapphire glass.
Any word on the scratch resistance of the screen on the titanium solar 6x? You can not get it with the sapphire glass, just wonder the durability. I have 5x plus DLC with the sapphire glass now and after a year of pretty abusive usage both in and outdoors there’s not a single smallest scratch. Thank you.
I’m also interested in your response to this DCR. Like this guy, I occasionally smack my watch and I’m surprised that years later (I have the 5X sapphire) – there’s not a single scratch and I wouldn’t want to go to anything less than that.
It’s hard to say. I can see a very faint scratch on my Solar unit now (only from certain angles). I don’t know what I hit, but frankly, I’m always running into things. The cave is concrete everywhere and so I’m usually whacking stuff.
Uh, already? Like the posters above, I also hate scratches. And I’m clumsy when I’m tired… So if you already have a scratch (in 1 month? of testing), the likelihood of be 3 watch going tight 1+ year without scratches is very very low.
But the solar charging is both a cool technical feature and also somewhat useful. Sigh…
I’ve got to say, the solar feature is cool technology, but doesn’t seem to be that useful in real life scenarios. The new battery features allow you to tailor your usage to what you are doing pretty well and the increase in actual battery time that solar gives you is much less than, for instance, the increase from the 6 to the 6X. They could have made a slightly bigger watch that gave you all that with a slightly larger battery. I think solar needs to get to a point where, on low usage settings, it can actually keep up with usage, or in non activity mode, you rarely need to charge your watch.
TL/DR, If your worried about scratches, I’d just get the sapphire.
I really wanted the Solar titanium model but opted for the Black DLC Sapphire for a few reasons:
-was available to buy on day one of release (and it’s already sitting on my wrist)
-price
-durability- Corning Gorilla Glass DX is known to scratch pretty easily (DX+ might have gotten me to rethink my decision)+ DLC on the bezel of the watch I went for
-solar sounds like a cool new technology but the F6X Pro already has stellar battery life so the gains are of questionable import to me
Well said everyone. I’ve decided as well, will go (again) with the sapphire version since I have the issue with scratches.
To my surprise, the price here (in Switzerland) is the same as it was for the 5X plus sapphire. For some reason, I thought the prices were higher for the 6 series… Anyway, looking forward to it.
I hope that in the future Garmin will find a way to do solar with sapphire and titanium. Not asking for much, b right? ?
Sounds like the right choice! Back when I had the F3, it got a few very minor scratches after heavy use, but they did annoy me. When F3HR came out, I upgraded and got the sapphire verdion. Not a scratch after years of everyday and heavy use. Lots of mountain hikes including climbing.
Correct. Nobody is doing that yet to be honest, though Garmin says they’re monitoring it. Right now doing so would basically whack most of the battery gains of the Sony chipset for them, and the technology still isn’t on any mainstream phones yet.
They did re-iterate they’re watching the dual-frequency space closely, but the time simply isn’t right yet.
I am currently a Fenix 5S user, but tempted to move up to the 6 Pro, for the extra battery life, music etc. I’d love to see a photo comparison of the 5S v. the 6 to see just how much bigger it looks. Any chance Ray? 🙂
Are you saying you want to move up to the 6s Pro? Or the regular 6 Pro? If you’re looking for a 5s vs. 6s comparison, those pics are above. If you’re looking for a 5s vs. regular 6 comparison, you can just look at the 5s vs. regular 5 pics in Ray’s old review. The 6 is no smaller than the 5, except that it’s slightly less thick.
Ah perfect of course – I’m thinking of the regular 6 so yes I can see it is the same body dimensions as the 5, but just with a bit less bezel, more screen and less thick so that gives me a good idea.
Tough decisions!
I think they’re stunning. I’ve got them here, and will clean off the table in a bit and take some shots and add them in. Currently the studio looks like a bomb went off. Need to do a bit of a reset.
Ugh. I was hoping you were going to say they’re a waste of money! Is there much of a difference between the ones that ship with the F6 and the ones that debuted with the Marq?
What is the weight difference between the bands for the quick fit 22 that they have available. I like the nylon bands and have the garmin fenix 6 titanium with titanium band thanks to you and clever training. I was looking at ordering either a silicone band or the nylon strap but was interested in weight comparison. Also they have on the garmin web page a jacquard weave as well ($100) price difference but wanted your thoughts.
Note sure whether you care, but all replacement bands seem to have black buckles. Whereas the silicone bands that come with the watches have buckles that match the watch bezel. For a titanium watch, you would normally get a band with a silver buckle for instance. I was also planning on ordering a silicone band from Garmin, but after noticing this, I’ve decided to find a non-OEM version with a silver buckle instead.
I just started reading, but I already noticed I have to respond:
A couple of functions are available on the fenix 5 plus for sure:
– Added Incident Detection: If you crash your bike it notifies someone)
– Added Safety/Tracking Assistance (you can press button to send help alert to friends/family)
Time to read on, I don’t plan to buy a new watch this year, but maybe next year..
It took a while to read all those words, although I’m not interested in all the features so I didn’t read everything with the same amount of attention.
Something that would make it even longer: the fenix 5 plus is supported by Garmin Explore, so I guess the fenix 6 series would also be supported. It is something most users wouldn’t use, but certainly for hikes and navigating around it can be very useful. I do use it to create waypoints and tracks offline and send them to the watch, even during an activity. It can also help to quickly have a larger map with you current track and navigation on the screen of your phone.
I really like the functions of the 6x solar, so I hope you are right and I can find them on all watches of a next fenix series. No problems with my 5 plus, so that will stay for at least another year.
Thanks Ray, great review. Looking at the features I think I’m in the same place as last time around with the 935 v Fenix 5, I’d rather have the lighter watch on my wrist for running. Plus the slight saving doesn’t hurt, the garmin pricing now is going nuts.
Think the only thing I’d like would be the piste maps on a 945, is there a way of doing that?
I sent over a note asking for specific clarification on that. The FR945 will get map themes, and one of those themes is ‘Ski Resort’. Just not sure if there’s a weird nuanced difference between the ski resort map theme and the ski resort database.
Now that all three Fenix sizes have different sized screens, I took a moment to calculate the Screen over Case surface ratio.
Basically a larger number means more of the front of the watch is occupied by the screen or alternatively the bezels “seem” smaller.
Based on the screen sizes for the 6s, 6 and 6x of 1.2in (30.48mm), 1.3in (33.02mm), 1.4in (35.56mm) and case sizes of 42m, 47mm, 51mm we have the following (dimensionless ratios)
Fenix 6s: 0.527
Fenix 6: 0.494
Fenix 6x: 0.486
It is clear that even though in this generation the 6 and 6x got larger screens, the smaller 6s is still the king/queen of “mostly screen” 🙂
The situation with larger Fenix 6 is much better than the Fenix 5 where the 5s, 5, 5x achieved the following ratios:
Fenix 5s: 0.527
Fenix 5: 0.421
Fenix 5x: 0.357
Keep in mind that modern smartphones achieve ratios as high as 0.9 so watches still use relatively huge bezels which of course is also for aesthetic purposes.
Thank you for this review. I have a Fenix 5x and I have been holding off on purchasing a new watch – mostly because outside of music and a few other features, my 5x rocks and I don’t need anything else until we get something that really offers a quantum leap in metric capturing.
However – and this is a big however – I find that as I get further along in my 40s that my eyesight is getting worse. For those of us with middle aged eyes and struggle with a lot of the fine text on many of the screens, does the added screen size and resolution improve readability?
If the PacePro feature could automatically split the course based on the ClimbPro input that would be Heaven! Instead of splitting in miles or kilometers it could auto-split in uphill / downhill / flat sections each of which could have any distance but some incline metric would be close to constant … that would be something!!!
This is not a new idea and as another poster commented, it is provided by the following site: link to pacecalculator.com
Hi, are you frequently using climpro? For me it’s kind of useless because garmin connect overestimates the elevation gain (and loss) by 20 to 30%. The same gpx file has reasonable elevation differences values in other online platforms. Do you have the same problem?
Oh cool! Even Ray’s text says that:
“Also of note – is that you can create the ‘splits’ based not just on per-mile or per-kilometer, but per elevation changes. So you can divide them up between downhill sections vs uphill sections vs flats, etc… Which frankly, makes a lot of sense.”
Great review!
My Fenix 3 had the black bezel and looked terrible after a while, so I got the Fenix 5 with the stainless bezel. After a year+ it still looks new. How does the black bezel hold up now? It seems as if the object of my desire ( 46mm Pro) only comes in black…
Great job Ray (I picked out the bits I am curious about as I am not in the market currently!).
The sleep section reminded me- any idea if Garmin are planning to address the sleep times issue? As a shift worker I sometimes don’t get to bed until 0900, my pre determined tines are 2200-0600, so this shows as 0 sleep that day despite being in bed for 5-6 hours ..!
Or if anyone has any simple workarounds? My old old Fitbit used to sense sleep regardless of the time, I quite miss that function…
Cheers!
Leigh
I use the edit function in GCM. If your not exactly sure what time you went to bed (or got up) if you put it in approximately you can look at the graph and it will show when you were awake. It recalculates deep vs. light vs. awake as well and your weekly averages don’t get thrown off. It just takes a few seconds.
How apt is the solar glass on the 6X Pro Solar to scratching? It doesnt seem to have the sapphire glass that would make sense spending 1k on the watch. Hopefully, even though not stated on Garmin, it is just as scratch resistant as the sapphire glass in the 5X.
I’m sure the solar is much more scratch-able. The iPhone, for example, has a Corning Gorilla Glass cover on its display. Sapphire is almost impossible to scratch.
“Starting with heat acclimation, the function leverages nearby weather stations. So your unit has to have connected to Garmin Connect Mobile within 3 hours of starting your ride in order to receive that weather data”
Does connecting to GCM sometime before you start work as we’ve done many rides longer than 3 hours?
I’m REALLY glad to see the openwater swim accuracy be that good. As someone who has been torn between the Apple watch’s perfect swim accuracy and the Garmins’ battery life I’d love to see more testing to see if it works with a larger sample size.
The solar stuff is also really cool.
Is there anything in the way of reaching out to emergency contacts witbout a phone if you need to? I remember you reviewing a totally different Garmin device which could do that even without cellular I think?
I’m still torn between stuff like the Apple Watch’s ability to “do it all” away from the phone and the longer battery life I’d need to do an Ironman, but seeing how LTE seems to affect battery life I’ve decided it’s OK if the watch can’t do TOO much in terms of calls/texts, but some way to let the family know I fell down a ditch and am dying would be cool.
I used to rant how it,’s dumb the watches don’t have music, but now that they have music/pay but not any way to emergency-I’m-stuck-in-a-ditch-notify, I found I still feel the need to drag the phone along. And my phone is better at music/pay anyways, so 🙁
That said the openwater swim accuracy and a lot of the fitness features are tempting me from my 935… not the pricetag though.
I might just go for the “Fenix 6 Plastic Edition” though…
Yup, the Garmin inReach Mini. In fact, I tested it with the Fenix 6 as well – I just ran out of time to include it in the post (it finished uploading exactly 6 seconds before embargo time). It’ll probably make it into the V2 update at some point (along with things like updated comparison shots/weight shots/other bands/etc…).
While AW4 has a great HR sensor, and LTE + music, Garmin has actual actionable information in terms of training load and effort. AW4 has none and there are no apps unless you subscribe to a second service.
can you share some usage scenarios when you use Fenix versus when you use Apple Watch?
I’m also considering getting a Fenix (mainly because of battery and mapping) and would love to hear about possible use cases and caveats.
I have a 3LTE and a Fenix 5+. The Apple Watch is a tremendous smart watch. I can use Apple Pay and Wallet, get current weather right on the watch face, control playback from my iPhone for both music and podcasts (can also pair headphones to the watch itself and play from there, but I rarely do that; music and podcasts are synced automatically), can receive and answer texts (either canned responses, dictated responses, or “scribble” on the watch itself). The 5+ is very primitive compared to the Apple Watch as a smart watch.
However, the Apple Watch is a terrible “fitness device”. I don’t care about steps or monitoring my heart rate (> 0 is good enough). It can’t pair with ANT+ sensors, can’t pair with power meters, doesn’t have an always on screen, isn’t that visible in direct sunlight, it’s something of a pain to get data off of it, and it’s a watch, so it sucks for my typical spring/summer/fall activity, cycling. The 5+, on the other hand, has all of that, syncs with Garmin Connect (and then onward to Strava, etc.), and produces a FIT file that can be used elsewhere. I don’t use it for cycling, but it can do everything my Edge 830 can do except for the new MTB/ClimbPro stuff (which is fun but not essential), and can be used if the 830 isn’t available for some reason (traveling, etc.)
Great Review,
Extensive review, thoroughly written and thanks for offering all the images (and YT videos). One thing though concerning the Fenix 6 – as I‘m personally taking a closer look at the FR945 (while trying to justify owning 2 watches besides the Apple Watch) I‘m wondering how the experiences would compare.
As all research of yours and most potential customers will most probably be feature based, I‘m wondering how the run experiences differ/compare between the FR945 and the Fenix 6. you‘ve stated that it is like the 945 and a bit more but as the former is geared especially to runners (1/3 Tri-Ath) I‘m not really sure wether the Fenix6 experiences like an exact amalgam of F5 and FR945 after reading your review (as your reflection of the product is understandably very feature focused).
E.G. I’m very fond of the 945‘s intuitive HRZone display midrun, yet can‘t really make out wether the F6 Sports something like this. And as you righteously compare 945 and F6 so often it’s very hard for someone torn between both watches to find helpful input. I’m case you‘re up for it and wondering: yes, a YTvideo on how both watches compare for potential buyers like me is most probably appreciated by a lot of people.
Also, always think about the weight of the watch.
I own a Fenix 5 for a long time now and always find it a little heavy on my arm/ wrist. Especially when wearing it 24/7 and during sleep.
So, besides new stuff the lighter weight was key for me to change to the Forerunner Series.
And when I got my 945 and could wear them both for comparison I was even more surprised how light the 945 is. It feels so different for me, so much better. Sometimes the 945 even feels to light, not like the Fenix which is too much sometimes. It really feels like a heavy steal watch. (Fenix does look better though, if you only go by looks)
I started with a F3 – but had to wear the velcro strap so it didn’t bounce on my wrist when running. I loved the look of the watch, but the weight was too much.
Went to a 935 and now a 945… absolutely love the size and weight. I now never recommend a fenix watch to a runner.
Did you find “PACE” to be any more accurate and consistent (smooth) versus Fenix 5X Plus, when in Run Mode? I purchased and returned multiple 5X Plus watches, only to discover later on a BLOG that this seemed to be a known issue. Virtually impossible to run a consistent pace as it would bounce +/- 1:30 min per mile every one or two seconds. Highly curious …. your feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and as always stellar reviews.
No, I definitely don’t see fluctuations like that at all.
Then again, I rarely do. I haven’t figured out if it’s my running style (since things like arm movement and such can be accounted for with accelerometer based data smoothing atop GPS), or perhaps I’m just a consistent runner – but by and large I get pretty stable pace numbers across most devices. When I don’t (like an Apple Watch a few years ago), then ya know things are really bad!
Nope. Slightly different target audience, and still considered a very new/premier product (only 3 months old).
As for what happens at Black Friday, who knows. Last year Garmin did actually put some of their premier watches on sale for a short timeframe as a test, a rarity for them. My understanding is that worked out pretty well.
Garmin has a terrible business policy when it comes to updating software … Glances widget, facepro, certainly most of the new firstbeat features can also be part of older fenixes … Eg. Apple updates (functionally not only repairs) macbook (or Watch) for 4 years or more after, Garmin does not want to add new features its not one version below, which is simply a flop that it should not forgive. Even from the price policy, where the price far exceeds the competition. Likewise, he has an app store where most of them are unusable … let the new features (widgets) charge and put them in the shop. But this is too much. Watches are the best, but the approach to the customer has much better all competition – Suunto, Polar…
The only challenge there is that in reality neither Suunto or Polar are any different there. And in fact, it would be trivial to demonstrate that Garmin actually does update older devices far more frequently than Suunto/Polar do (e.g. previous gen devices). One can look at any firmware update for any Garmin device and see that.
I don’t disagree that I think some of these features should have gone to the Fenix 5 Plus. Though, there are also cases where there simply isn’t processing power for certain things (I don’t believe any fall under that in this case). Apple has a much more powerful unit in the Apple Watch in terms of processing/space/etc, but that comes at the cost of battery (a massive cost). There’s also the simple reality that Apple basically releases one watch per year, and has a grand total of four watches (excluding size differences).
Rightly or wrongly, Garmin releases about 12-20 fitness devices per year (ignoring variants). Even if you go back just three years you’re talking some 60 devices to try and add new firmware too, test, test some more, and then release.
Which is ultimately why, aside from Apple, nobody else in this industry or even many other industries does what Apple does. Just like inversely, Apple doesn’t do what Garmin does – despite the fact that it’d be trivial for Apple to add tons of more detailed sport/fitness features. Different companies, different approaches.
Thank you for answer! You’re right about more things though…
“the only challenge there is…” – it is not entirely true, it depends on the view and business policy. For example Polar with older flagship V800 or Vantage has a five-year cycle and its updates are with new features. Yes, Polar is not as big as Garmin, it can’t release new devices as often. Polar Going for one money you have 5 years of guaranteed additional features. If the HW allows it, all compatible devices (maybe later) will complete the new functions. NOT ONLY BUG FIX. So there is bug fix update and additional features update.
Garmin’s business tactic is to sell as much HW and have the shortest cycle. Most people would welcome a longer cycle, more added functional during the cycle. People deserve to use their money for a longer period of time. And I think they would be willing to pay even a smaller monthly fee, which would guarantee the update of functions (if HW allows).
Garmin has the best sports watches on the market, but its approach to customers is simply weaker and the high price of the device is not adequate.
Except the Polar V800 was so horribly incomplete the first 2+ years they had to add features. Remember, they were adding features to catch-up, not to get ahead.
And once the Vantage came along, there were no more V800 features. So basically, just like Garmin.
I don’t think anyone’s watches stop working when new hardware comes out. Instead, it’s just our inner geeks that want to go buy the latest toys.
Everyone would like to get as mach as possible from purchase. As many new features are software only, we would like to receive them to older units as well. Apple approach is fine for me. Premium price, long time of support. Garmin would like to jump to premium as well. I wonder how they will support Marq line. Technically it’s F6Pro with fancy mods. You wrote that all F6 features will go to Marq line. Fine. Will it happen when F7 will be released? Will they release new firmware when watch will be 4 years old? Premium requires not only features, but support. Or is it only overpriced short term toy?
I doubt all new features from a watch that’s likely 14-18 months away would come back to a watch made today.
I also don’t really understand how something becomes a “overpriced short term toy” because one doesn’t get features that don’t even exist yet, at some undefined point down the road. It’s not like as of two days ago the Fenix 5 Plus that one has all of a sudden stops working.
Well, reading some of the comments here, it does look like the specific feature of “top-of-the-line Fenix watch” did matter for a lot of people, and that feature has indeed stopped working ?
Great review Ray! I have a question from the ultrarunning world about the battery life compared to the Suunto 9. Any idea what battery life would be with GPS on highest accuracy, but other battery draining features turned off (HR, music, etc)? And does this have an ability like the Suunto 9 to switch to a less draining GPS option mid-activity, with a menu that show how much you could extend the battery?
I’ll get them all charged to full today, and tweak some settings and see what numbers it spits out. Sensors on or off?
And yup, you can change mid-activity to another profile and it shows you how much battery per profile. Or, you can switch mid-profile to a new profile and tweak that profile in real-time to get to the numbers you need.
Sensors off. Basically trying to prioritize GPS accuracy and battery life without needing any of the other info, would only use that mode during a lonnng race.
Hi DCR,
if you leave a link for purchasing in the EU, I’ll gladly use to support you. Been really enjoying your articles and especially this one. Got to have the 6x! But I am not gonna buy from a British store as they will leave the EU and then there might be guarantee issues for me as EU citizen.
True, CT UK is (currently) in the UK. Obviously, whatever may or may not happen in the UK may or may not impact that – if things happen in a non-ideal way – they do have contingency plans outside the UK. Though honestly, the whole ‘may or may not’ happen thing has been the case for two years now. We’ll see.
However, at the non-store level, fwiw, Garmin actually has a global warranty on products. You can purchase anything, anywhere, and call support anywhere. There are some minor exceptions in certain South American countries where there’s a bit more complexity to it due to local regulations (they still support/service you, it’s just messier if purchased abroad).
UK/US also sucks due 1y warranty only compared to mandatory 2y warranty in EU.
A.S. Adventure is Garmins biggest retailer in Belgium and next to 2y warranty – they offer 0 waiting replacement with NEW product (not refurb) if you have the issue with the product + warranty restarted to 2 years. (Confirmed by Brussels store rep today)
6x Pro is 100e more than with CT UK but these conditions are hard to beat…
Do you know if the Marq line is going to get the new software features, specifically the widget glances and increased data fields? I want to get an everyday watch but the Fenix 6 lineup looks a little too nondescript.
Looks like my Fenix 5x+ really does 99.9% of everything the 6 line (pro) does, save for notably wrist swimming HR.
Right? features like emergency contact/incident detection, which I enjoy on my Edge 830, What is the likelyhood of these features being added via FW updates?
you have more fields and presumably better OHR, but more datafields can be obtained through CIQ fields and OHR sucks for IT, yet if you train by power it should not matter so much
I had high hopes and was thinking about upgrading my fenix 5 right after fenix 6 is announced but clearly we have entered a period of iterative updates and optimizations; after GPS and OHR became mainstream there is no “new” technology that differentiates the watches from a functionality standpoint.
I was really looking forward to the solar charging capability but seeing it’s currently only providing a bit of a “top up” is a bit disappointing (although maybe understandable given it’s 1st gen).
If you look back at the entire history of the Forerunner and Fenix series, it’s always been iterative updates and optimizations. You have to jump a few generations for any product to look revolutionary. I assume that within a few generations, solar will have a major impact, probably more because of reduced power consumption than because of increased capacity to generate a solar charge. I wouldn’t hold my breath on solar as a complete replacement for charging cables, especially if/when LTE becomes the norm, but I do expect that we’ll get to the point where you could get to indefinite use without having to adopt a power management strategy that makes the watch barely usable. I charge the Fenix 5 every 2 days. If I could get to once/week, that would be fantastic.
Ray, thanks for another terrific review. I’ve read through the review and the comments (ok, skimmed some parts) but haven’t seen many comments about pricing relative to other options. I get it that there are many unique features here, especially for the advanced models. But what about the basic 6? How does the pricing line up with other devices? What about longitudinally (i.e. relative to ‘equivalent’ models of the F5 or other similar Garmin units)? Maybe it just me, but I find the pricing to be quite high. Now, the price might be worth it – many new features. But I am telling you now that if you throw down for an F6, you will be Jonesing for the F7 in 18 months at an additional $100 and your F6 will be worth $225. I know that Garmin is tremendously successful, but it is difficult for me to imagine the sustainability of this approach (increasingly high prices, rapid cycle time and few upgrades to previous devices).
Does anybody have long term experience with non sapphire Fenix? I always had the sapphire one and want to get the solar version but worried about scratches on the glass. Thank you.
My non-sapphire fenix 5 is now 2+ years old and there are no visible scratches at all. I am wearing it 24×7 but I do mostly running. I did hit a wall with the watch quite a few times but haven’t done mountaineering or any extreme outdoors sports.
Does anybody know if the silver titanium 6x pro solar will have DLC coating? Being the most expensive it should? Is it worth it buying it if it does not from the scratches stand point? Thank you.
Here’s a little chart of which has what in terms of DLC coating. Sorry it’s a bit of an eyechart, and I’m also too lazy right now to re-format it as proper text somewhere else. But, answers any questions on it at least. 🙂
Great review!
I’ve just ordered the 6s as a replacement for my 920xt, I have Tri HR straps, but I’m very interested in running with power. You mention a separate sensor is required for running power, would that be the run dynamics POD and if so is that already available in Running dynamics HR monitor? If not which sensor would I need?
Great review – really good in depth overview. How’s bluetooth headphone performance? I’ve got a 5+ and one of the best things for me is the ability to go running without my phone and still have music (paired with the army Jabra Elite 65t). I’ve found that I need to swap arms for the watch to my right arm whilst running to stop constant audio dropouts.
How does the 6 pro fair? I’d rather not take the financial hit selling/buying a new one – however if the Bluetooth was significantly improved I would.
Same problem here. It is the second day that i am trying to place an order to clevertraining.co.uk with no luck yet. I’ve sent an email to the company yesterday but there were no response.
How many custom connect IQ fields (stryd or data fields) you can add to each sport ? Fenix 5X plus allow only 2 fields, anything changes in this Fenix 6X ?
Sorry, I answered it somewhere else. Yes, only 2 CIQ data fields at a time (live in a given activity profile, you can download more apps to your watch though).
I’ll try and get some clarification on why this is still a thing. I don’t get it.
As always, thanks for that outstanding review! Just received the shipping confirmation from Clevertraining Europe for my order of an 6S Pro. Really looking forward to it. Looking at the release cycles Garmin might consider introducing a subscription based model for also for hardware 😉
“Looking at the release cycles Garmin might consider introducing a subscription based model for also for hardware”
I think that’s inevitable. I’m undecided on whether or not it’s a good thing or a bad thing. If you’re the type of person who just ends up buying a new unit and putting the older one in a drawer till you find it 12 years later – it’s probably a good program (a great program). Whereas if you’re the type of person that resells their older devices to buy newer devices, it’s less ideal.
Obviously the software world has been doing this for years (and that discussion has been beaten to death). The hardware world also does this, but it tends to be a bit more variable as to success. I find that examples where it succeeds really well are when the manuf can ensure ‘upgrades’ to the new devices. Versus if a company says ‘Here’s our new device, you’ll get it on your program in 6 months’, then the appeal goes away quickly.
I’ve been on the Apple program for iPhones for several years. We now all use the program, so 3 iPhones. 2 to upgrade next month; one inevitably (my daughter’s), maybe mine (we’ll see what the XI or whatever they’re going to call it is like). My wife is off sync, so she won’t be getting a new one for a while. The nice thing about it is the payments are 1/24 of the retail price, so there’s no interest and no extra cost. Your new phone arrives in a box, you get a separate box to ship the old phone back. Upgrading a new phone is trivial (I think it’s down to holding the old phone nearby these days), but I usually do it old school and back up the old phone and reload the new phone from the backup. (Either way, it doesn’t actually transfer apps, merely the presence of the apps, so for a while your new phone spends a lot of time downloading from the app store.) I wish they had a similar program for the Apple Watch; if they did, I’d be wearing a 4LTE rather than a 3LTE right now, and looking forward to September 10.
But that’s Apple. Garmin with its reputation of software unreliability? Do you really want a new Garmin device that’s full of new bugs just when you got the previous one working reliably? I’m not so sure I do, although Garmin has gotten better over the years. My Edge 830 has given me little trouble, but there were still a few problems. My iPhone XS? Aside from some Bluetooth problems (maybe not Apple’s fault) I’ve had zero trouble with it. My Fenix 5+ is more than good enough for what I want it for, and I don’t think I’ll even think about replacing it until the Fenix 8 comes out unless something catastrophic happens to it.
1) Some people are very OCD about keeping their expensive stuff in pristine condition. (Even though they will likely replace it soon!) If tiny marks that have no impact on usability, but are visible when you quint just right, bother you, then get the sapphire.
2) If you actually have a tendency to slam your watch hard into other hard surfaces. This seems pretty unlikely. Most people I run with use the same low end Garmin for years and years. I’m talking 70 miles/week, often on trails, year round, plus 24/7 wear. None of them have ever cracked a screen or scratched it in a way that affects usability.
I got the sapphire just because it was the only way to get the color I wanted.
Ray, can you bring some clarification for the Power Glass on the 6x Pro Solar? Is Power Glass a Gorilla Glass variant? In the German Garmin news release is written, the Pro Models have (only) Gorilla Glass 3. I am confused. Or is there a Power Glass lens under Gorilla Glass 3 on the 6x Pro Solar?
And another one: would a screen protector impairs the solar charging functionality?
Yup, I’ve asked for clarification on the exact model.
I haven’t tried a screen protector. I’ll see if I can find one at a cell store during lunch and see what happens when I put it over it. It’s so-so sunny today.
I really wonder why everybody is constantly asking questions to DC Rainmaker on this forum and why you don’t discuss / ask questions on the official Garmin forum. Cause 95 % of the questions on this forum remain unanswered anyway (just take a look around…).
Which I can understand, cause if DC Rainmaker would answer all the questions on all of the forums on his website, he would have no more time left for anything else!
Because is has always good informations. For example: that there will be an update for the climbPro feature soon (colors like as for the edge series)…You get this information in the forums first, if the update is available…
It also helps when you’re reading these reviews in 4-6-8 months (as I’m doing right now with the Polar Vantage M and Garmin 245 for example).
All the typical quirky questions are asked, sometimes they’re answered as well (btw thanks Ray), people still post their feedback (positive/negative) after various updates, and you end up having a nice little source of very interesting informations all in one page.
Hi Ray, this review is yet another great TOOL for us users to have close at anytime. Thanks.
I’m just curious on a thing that maybe most people will pay little to no attention at all but here it goes anyways:
Do you have any info on who has been in charge of the UI/UX design? I mean, did Garmin commissioned the visual design/interaction design (typefaces, icons, data layout, etc.) to some –say– external UI/Graphic Design studio or agency or did they do it themselves in-house?
As a visual designer myself, I’d be most interested to find out. I honestly think they have done a great job as far as I can see.
It’s all internal. Garmin has designers in-house, and then within that ones that work on specific product teams. Though, they generally attempt to share a given UI design philosophy across the product lines within a given timeframe.
Garmin very rarely outsources anything. Virtually every aspect of their operation is in-house. Even manufacturing, which is increda-rare. And when they do find something outside they like…they acquire it. 🙂
Thanks Ray, I was supposing that too. Although very little time has passed since release not a single agency I am aware of (or even design-related news feed) has claimed authory…
A small side note based on the HRM-TRI/HRM-SWIM links below: is htere a reasonable explanation why HRM-TRI is more expensive then HRM-SWIM (as far as I understand, they should be exactly same in terms of features and the only difference is the strap)?
I got addicted to training effect years ago when it was “accidentally” on the Vivoactive HR for two weeks. Do you think any of the training effect upgrades will ever be moved back to the Vivoactive series?
Also, I am mainly a gym rat. VO2 Max, training load, etc. seem to require gps to work on the 5s and 5s Plus? I get notifications that I need to run outside to actually get these measurements (though one time I was sick and didn’t workout for a week and I DID get a message: Training Status – DETRAINING – go figure).
Do you know if the 6 will be the same way? That most of the training effect/load etc. are only triggered with outdoor activities?
I basically pay a lot for many features I don’t need just because I like that darn Training Effect rating during my workout. It’s VERY motivating to me. I pushed through to a 4.3 yesterday. Woot.
I don’t think the outdoor message is true. I definitely get training status with indoor bike rides (true, with power), and I don’t see why indoor runs (treadmill) wouldn’t give you the same if you have heart rate. But don’t know for sure.
Any indications when these new Fenix 6 features will be available for the 945 and Marq?
Usability note/question on article comments on your site: is there any way to shrink the avatar sizes when reading the comments? I don’t believe it’s just me seeing huge avatar sizes — this makes for lots and lots of scrolling to read through the comments. Would be great to have these downsized.
Just dropping this in a comment for those getting comment updates:
And a bit more updates. The FR945 will get update to 6 data fields per page, and new ClimbPro gradient coloring. For all new battery modes/manager features, they’re TBD on that, maybe/maybe not. The FR245 will get swim optical HR (FR945 has already in beta). This fall at latest.
Thats great news! I started a petition on Garmin forums so people with the 945 could voice their wishes for adding the fenix 6 features to the (few months old) 945: link to forums.garmin.com
I just realised that despite the multitude of SKUs, the choice is limited for some combinations. E.g. you can’t get 6X with both sapphire and titanium. 6X with titanium implies the solar version. Whereas the 6 is available in the sapphire+titanium combination.
That’s been an issue for a while (e.g., if you wanted a 5s in all black, you had to get sapphire, if you wanted a silver bezel, you had to get non-sapphire). It’s already got to be really tough to keep a reasonable selection of the SKUs they have. I imagine the only way to give every possible combination would be to do something like Suunto used to do, where you can special order the combination you want from the factory.
Is there no 6x Pro in titan? I prefer the lightweight gray look 🙁
I guess for titan + battery life I then need to get the Solar version, although I’d prefer sapphire glass.
The added lifetime with solar is neglectible..
Definitely. Especially if the sun is on the opposite side of your body (in which case, I was getting about 30% intensity). However, on the flip side, if the sun is lower in the sky, then it kinda hits it perfectly.
Clever Training UK strikes again! I ordered a 6 Pro almost immediately after it went live on their website with expedited shipping and the order was sitting at “Pending Shipment”. I phoned to see what’s happening only to be told that there are NONE IN STOCK and that nothing was due to arrive until the end of September at earliest! No idea why the website showed stock yesterday but I have now cancelled the order.
They really are a hugely rubbish retailer. I’ll just go and pay full price somewhere else.
Ray – you need to break your ties with that bunch.
Just to be clear this was ordered yesterday almost immediately after the items went live on the website. Please note that they also DO NOT have any 6X Pro stock either.
Sorry Deeko. I’ve just escalated. That’s definitely not good if so.
I know they are having issues this morning with the site (people can’t add certain Fenix 6 SKU’s to the carts). And I also know they definitely had inventory of 6X Pro yesterday (I saw the actual sheets of what came in). Hopefully at the moment the website bugs are just transient and you’re order will clearly/ship shortly as originally stated.
I asked for my order to be cancelled – just placed another order elsewhere. Hope you get the issues resolved. The person who took my phone call said there was no stock of either the 6 or 6X Pro – not sure what’s going on.
Understand. Yup, there’s already a pile of discussion about the call (since it’s definitely not true, there’s units in stock on a shelf). I’ll loop back no matter once it’s all resolved. Sorry again!
How strange (and very frustrating) – still, as I said I have now ordered elsewhere. Someone else can have the one that I would have had. Hopefully they’ll actually cancel the order properly.
Exactly the same story here, ordered the 6 Pro Sapphire, which still shows as being in stock, and they’ve placed it on back-order. Cant explain to me why it says in stock, or when they’ll arrive.
Busy going through the motion of cancelling my order now too, I guess all of the negative reviews they have are there for a reason
Agree – I thought they must have sorted themselves out after the 945 fiasco but alas no. I’m sure there will be quite a few people expecting a shiny new F6 in the next day or so that will be sorely disappointed.
I ordered 6xpro about 6 hours ago from clever UK, moments after order page started working. now I received tracking code, package picked up by DPD, it is on the way.
As Mulder indicated – it sounds like things are getting unclogged, untangled, and shipped out. There’s a pile of people on both sides of the Atlantic doing the untangling on some orders placed in a specific 60 minute window yesterday that caused some issues.
Again – sorry for the troubles. We had a lot of calls after the FR945 issues back in May, and one of those specific items was that I would not link to any products that they didn’t have stock on UK in-house for (hence why I got to see stock sheets for yesterday). Obviously, out of 19 SKU’s like in the US there were a few not there (but listed as such, which is fine) – but if stuff said it was there or was set to ship within a few days I wanted some proof of that. Again, I think things for those impacted yesterday should be untangled shortly if not already.
If you’re having specific issues, I’m more than happy to escalate them (seriously, please do). Hit up the contact thingy in the upper corner here on the site. It hits my e-mail a few seconds later, and I’ll hit someone on the correct side of the pond (or both sides) via text or phone call a few seconds after that. For real.
So I spoke to support yesterday, and they assured me that they now had stock, that my order would be put as a priority, and that I’d receive a tracking number soon. I’m not expecting it to arrive over the weekend but it’s still “pending shipment “, with no tracking number or confirmation in sight – I ordered on Thursday afternoon, just after reading this review ?
I wanted to cancel yesterday to order somewhere else, but was assured that it would happen, Hopefully that trust is worthwhile and I won’t end up needing to cancel anyways ! I’ve been waiting since I broke my Apple Watch a month or 2 ago
Is there a Connect IQ-App around for the Garmin Fenix 5 which does simular things (except for including gradients)? I find it quite useful for running an Marathon. As I normale do not compete in mountain runs I would not need the gradients.
The increased number of data fields per page is great. But how many connect iq apps can be activated for each activity? It is only 2 for my fenix 5x and that’s too limiting.
Wow, that’s a real shame. I thought maybe DC Rainmaker missed it in the review or something. Can JR or DC rainmaker confirm that only 2 connect IQ apps can be used for each activity?
Must be commercially motivated, i guess they don’t want people to beat them to new features they introduce & its a way to throttle it. That’s my ‘guess’ anyway.
Still just two on watches. Not sure why the limitation, though I highly doubt it’s commercial. My guess would be very strongly on some coding/architecture thing.
I believe it’s just a toggle for apps, though I’m not 100% sure. I really wish Garmin would just make apps auto-compatible for things like this, and then let app owners deal with the consequences if they’re not somehow.
Even just testing this was a PITA, there’s like 6 data fields that list as compatible with the Fenix 6 right now.
So the solar version is more prone to scratches? It’s time to upgrade my gen1 F3. Can’t decide between sapphire and solar. Is the solar worth or just a gimmick at this point?
I’ve got a non saphire F5. I wear it daily. I run, bike, hike and swim with it. In addition, I do a bit of farming. It’s not babied at all. No scratches at all.
Changed my order from the Solar Titanium to the Fenix 6X Pro Black DLC with a brown leather strap. Will be receiving it tomorrow.
I like the style better and DLC should be more durable. Also don’t think solar is a game changer with that Gorilla glass vs the more durable sapphire crystal.
Who did you order from? The discounts are good from clevertraining.co.uk but you can’t add the product to basket. Anywhere else offering in-stock discounts?
I can see and use the PacePro feature on my Garmin Connect both on iOS and web and it offers to send to my compatible 945 device?? But on the watch, the PacePro feature doesn’t show up. Hopefully, this feature becomes available before Oct 13, would like to use during the Chicago Marathon.
The best review video
I believe I have all my questions except one solved
Does the solar version charge every time is exposed to light
and if yes does this affects the battery life ?
thank you in advance for your help
Maybe I overlooked it (sorry if so), but is the “usable” diameter of the watch reduced by the 1 mm wide solar strip inside of the bezel, do I have a smaller display area thereby? And is the brightness of the watch reduced by the solar panel placed under the glass?
Thanks a lot for your answer, and a great compliment for your review and your homepage at all !!!!!
Any BETTER screen?
it says MiP tech, but better resolution.
I have F5+Sapphire Titanium and it is nowhere near as my old good FR235 screen. Especially outdoors I can’t see the numbers 🙁
I currently own the fenix 5X Plus DLC Titanium watch. I just ordered the fenix 6x Titanium Carbon Gray DLC with Black Band. However, I wish Garmin would have offered the fenix 6x Sapphire with titanium DLC instead of stainless steel DLC. What was Garmin thinking?
My point is that I would like a 51mm fenix 6x with both the titanium DLC and sapphire glass. The solar function isn’t really that important to me; however, a titanium DLC bezel is more important to me versus sapphire glass…hence why I ordered the 6x Pro Solar with titanium DLC. LOL, I hope I explained myself well!
What about USB connectivity, any idea about the transfer speed?
While charging my Forerunner 935 on my laptop, updating is done on the fly as a backup of all activities.
But copying music or map files via cable to the watch could take a long time, correct?
Great review, thank you. Quick question to those who have/had experience with Garmin’s silver titanium watches:the 6x pro solar titanium in silver does not have DLC coating from what I understand, how does it fare with scratches compared to DLC one? Or am I wrong about no DLC on silver titanium solar? Thank you.
You can find some info about this on Garmin’s website. But in short, titanium is softer than stainless steel and DLC coating gives extra scratch resistance to both stainless steel and titanium. But the problem is, when DLC is scratched, there’s nothing you can do. Whereas titanium would fix itself to some degree via oxidization like JR said and can also be restored by a jeweler.
Hi Ray,
Any news and the stock issue for 6Xpro at CleverTraining UK ?
I also have an order stuck at the “pending shipment” status.
I don’t wish to cancel the order but will do they can’t ship…
Thanks,
It would be nice if some of the segments that someone creates on Garmin Connect could be used for the PacePro. Then the loop of Central Park, which for sure exists as a Strava segment (and can supposedly be sent to Connect), could then just be pushed to the watch.
I don’t know, but what I will tell you is that while at the grocery store tonight I found in the ‘fresh’ section with other charcuterie a small container of fresh nacho cheese. Literally labeled as such. I’ve never seen it before here in the Netherlands like that. Obviously, I got some. And then ate it.
I purchased the MARQ Expedition and the Fenix 5 Plus last week to compare, test, and then select one for an upcoming 12-day trek. I learned this morning about the Fenix 6 Plus. I kept going back and forth about which watch to select, the MARQ or the Fenix 5 Plus. However, now I am toying with the idea to scrap both and go with the Fenix 6 or 6X. Thoughts? Comments?
Ray, thanks as always for a great review. Do you know whether the silver bezel on the 6 and 6S are the same color? The stock photos make it look like the 6 silver bezel is slightly darker and more premium looking than the one on the 6S (which, especially from side and angle views, looks lighter and cheaper like the one on VA3). I can’t find a store near me with these in stock to check myself.
I don’t know for certain. If I look at the big SKU sheet they gave me with all the fancy official color names, those two have identical names. But, they don’t have color codes are anything, so I can’t be sure 100%. :-/
Ok the $1500 ~ $950 dollar question. Ray, I’m debating the Marq Athlete vs the Fenix 6x. I currently wear a 5X Plus. It’s still good, but I crashed with it and it’s pretty beat up. I’m a competitive amateur “older” (lol) cyclist. No running, limited swimming…loads of walking, hiking too. I use data logging/analysis daily including training peaks.
I’m not sure if I’ll make your decision easier or harder, but… the MARQ Athlete will get *all* features from the Fenix 6. When all is said and done, it’ll basically be a fancy Fenix 6.
So to compare those two, simply decide based on aesthetic, and the only difference being the MARQ will have 32GB of space versus 16GB for the Fenix 6.
I’m a little confused about the weight of the watch.
On the Garmin website the weight of the 6Pro is listed as:
Steel: 83 g (case only: 60 g)
Titanium: 72 g (case only: 49 g)
What does “case only” mean? The watch without the strap?
The 945 is simply listed as being 50 g which I assume includes the strap.
Also, have there been any improvements to the HRM sensor which will make it more accurate on heavier varieties? Ray had mentioned in the past the Fenix “X” series watches suffered from poorer HRM results due to the heavier watch wobbling during runs.
Case only means with the strap. I weighed them last night for an unboxing video, and those numbers line up to that concept.
The FR945 50g is the whole thing (strap+case).
There have been improvements in the optical HR as part of the V3 variant, but to some degree overall weight/bounce will still impact. However, the fact that all the watches are actually slightly lighter will probably help more. And in the 6S case, the lug to lug distance reduction will help because it’ll make it easier to get a better fit on your wrist on a smaller wrist.
Looks like a perfect device to me. Problem is that a potential 745 will probably do 95% of what the missus needs in a small package (small is best over every single feature). May just hold out a few more weeks before pulling the trigger on a 6S.
I’d be cautious about listening to the interweb Garmin rumor mill. A lot of what people say are mostly just hopes about what they want to come true. The last time Garmin released a triathlon watch in the fall was 5 years ago, and was mostly done at the time they did it as a showcase product for the introduction of Connect IQ.
I’ve normally been on the initial bandwagon for new Fenix releases. But I’m still $$ shocked from shelling out for the 5x. Unless I can get a pirate’s booty on ebay for it. Question I didnt notice specifically mentioned But does the Solar version support music?
I looked back and couldn’t find anything. But, when people have asked, I’ve been pretty consistent in saying that the Fenix lineup tends to refresh every 14-18 months, and that I expected that trend to continue. So a Fenix 5 Plus June 2018 announcement, puts a refresh at August 2019.
Another 945 vs Fenix 6 question…
I definitely have smaller wrist size so I’m comparing the 6S Pro vs the 945.
As all the features are similar I’m concentrating on the size and weight.
The screen sizes of the 6S Pro and 945 are identical. (945 bezel is bigger.)
6S Pro is physically smaller which is better.
6S Pro is a tiny bit thicker?
6S Pro is ~ 10 grams heavier? Will that feel like a lot?
Subjectively, of course…
Some other type of question according Garmin and Suunto: As being a Suunto and Movescount user for decades I’m very disappointed Suunto is shutting it down (instead of finally improving it).
Because it will be difficult to take all the data to some other system and I”m sure there will be some loose, I think about switching entirely to Garmin at the same time, because it seams their watches have more features and it seams the gap to Suunto is not shrinking – it is expanding. I really liked Suunto because it is a Finnish company and I liked to support them, but …
So what the others think about this? Has someone switched from Suunto to Garmin, how did you take the data. What do you think about the featureset now and in future?
Noone will ever be able to compete with Garmin when it comes to quantity of features, that’s a fact. Now quality wise, it’s different. I take a handful of fletched-out, actionable features for serious athletes or “pros” over a myriad of consumer-grade fluff any day. These days, however, the problem with the latest line-ups from those “athlete-centric” watches by Polar, and Suunto is, that despite aiming at the “pro” or “athlete” market, they dabble in consumer-grade/smartwatch waters with just a few questionable features (SereneBreathing, SleepPlus, anyone?), while stripping off on the “pro” features (Polar has dumbed down their Orthostatic test now for the what 3rd time since the RS800CX, and replaced their perfectly actionable Recovery Status with a sub-par Recovery Pro) at the same time, which puts them neither here nor there, detracting from their reputation as makers of serious tools for serious athletes in the process.
I did when I went from an Ambit to Fenix 3.
I have all my data synced between Movescount to Garmin Connect, Endomondo and Strava
I love the map on Movescount where it changes colour coding depending on what you have selected. But that was about it now, especially with the improved mapping / route tracking features in Garmin Connect.
It only does it if I set it to a manual time (I used 90 minutes for half marathon, but the default 10k time crashes too) and slide the bar negative then positive.
If one were to want to set manual splits based on a wrist band, would you have to edit the file manually?
Apart from the auto sleep detection during the sleep time period, which is set manually, what about the auto daytime sleep detection? Can 6 series detect shorter naps, or is there just the manual go to sleep function?
Wow, I’m glad Garmin is finally adopting more Suunto-like battery/power customization. Looks like they still have a ways to go, but it’s cool nonetheless.
With these Fenix 6 Pro watches with mapping, can you upload maps onto the watch compatible with other garmin units, ie like gmapsupp.img from openstreetmap? I had an etrex 20 and now a gpsmapp 66 it would be great to be able to use these maps on the watch when out running trails.
Another fully detialed read. Thanks!
I missed this in the Marq series but don’t remember anyone mentioning it. Looks like the 6 series will be the same.
The strap pins have change from the screw type (generally reserved for military spec and climbing watches) to spring loaded ones, they are beefy but was wondering about the change. Without having touched the 6 watches myself, the spring pins always feel flimsier.
What’s your take on them. Are they just fat or actually sturdy?
Ray, just got a 5x Plus as gift. Does it worth it to send it back and get the 6x Pro? I was looking what’s new on the 6 series and honestly only see the screen size to be interesting to me.
Stupendous review, as always. Thank you for the detailed write-up.
I’ll also be moving to Amsterdam in two weeks, so I think you’ll be the most qualified human being on the planet to answer my questions.
1) Are the models sold on CleverTraining UK the European models that come loaded with European maps? The single biggest reason I want to upgrade from my Fenix 5 Sapphire is proper map support, as I expect to be doing a lot of biking through unfamiliar areas once I move to Amsterdam.
2) With the Fenix 5 plus and up models that support maps, can I have my house/work/gym saved as locations, and then find biking directions to a saved location from anywhere in the city, like the directions features of Google Maps?
3) I see that ABN Amro: Maestro is one of the Garmin Pay supported bank/cards for the Netherlands, but from your experience, how many stores actually have NFC payment terminals in Amsterdam? For example, can you use Garmin Pay at Albert Heijn stores?
I can answer for #3:
I’m using this from ABN AMRO, just not on a Garmin watch, but on a compatible bracelet. You can pay basically anywhere (if a place accepts Maestro cards – about 90% of places, it most likely has a contactless support). So yes, Albert Heijn, Praxis, public transport etc are fully supported.
For #3: As Pavel says. In my case, I’m on ING and Garmin doesn’t have them lit up yet. But I use Apple Pay with ING which technologically is basically the same, and it works everywhere.
Totally awesome review as always, thanks Ray. Do you have an opinion on what Garmin is going to do in the market, keeping three extremely similar products in the market, the 5, 5 plus and 6 seems that they would be competing with themselves and diluting their own market?
– The Sony chip-set means better battery life. Roughly eight extra hours of GPS at the cost of some accuracy.
– I think the new compacted widgets are a huge quality of life improvement.
– The watch itself is thinner.
– A bunch of little things. OHR while swimming, the pace thing, more data fields, pulse-ox, heat acclimation, etc. Insignificant by themselves unless you really care about something but they add up.
The killer feature is going to depend on what you want out of the watch. For me, the compact widgets and decreased thickness would be probably be enough to upgrade since it improves day-to-day wear.
I just got my fenix 6x sapphire and I tried setting up extended mode with my edge 520 plus and it freezes my watch every time. It becomes unresponsive. Have you ran into any of these issues?
Many people have mentioned concerns with scratching the screen on the uber expensive 6X solar. I’ve had great experience avoiding scratches on my Forerunners with glass screen protectors. Do you think the solar charging function would be affected by a glass screen protector if it does not alter the light as it passes through?
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Historically speaking I’ve had pretty good luck with the Polar OH1/OH1Plus, so if I had to take a stab here, my guess would be it was correct. Or, it could be wrong.
“But I’ve been using it as my primary watch the last little while without issue. Almost all of the uploads you see on my Strava are from it.”
Ok. So, I’ll be the first to ask and get it out of my way: Fenix 6 vs 945? Features are roughly the same, right? So just a matter of style and intended activity? 945 for conventional triathletes and Fenix 6 for those more inclined to head off road?
Correct, features are roughly the same (minus Solar bits of course).
While I’ve had the 6X Solar as my ‘daily driver’ on my left wrist, I’ve been swapping other watches on my right wrist, including the other models as well as the FR945. Personally, as always, I’m not a huge ‘big watch’ kind of person, though the 6X definitely feels slimmer than years past (because it is). And that’s even more noticeable on some of the workouts where I had a Suunto 9 on my right wrist.
Still, I suspect I’ll end up with either the FR945 as my daily, or maybe the 6 Pro, but not the 6X likely. Though, I really do like it.
Thanks. Just watched the video. Really well done. “Nacho cheese dispenser.” Ha. (Do I get bonus points for paying attention?)
nice job on the review. How are your fingers holding up!
I didn’t see any mention of Swim CSS and skiing Dynamics.
Any difference when it comes to the display between the F6 and FR945?
Brighter colors etc?
As someone who had never had a fenix or a forerunner I’m wondering what’s the main differences/different target group between 945 and fenix 6. When comparing the models in product comparison tool I see no difference. So where is the difference in intended activity? What is the difference in material?
Yeah, I’ll try and pull together a more specific chart for those two. It’s tricky with the larger comparison charts from a database perspective, else the entire chart basically just becomes a ‘Garmin product comparison database’, since it’s frankly rare that we see new feature innovation that’s easliy listable from the primary competitors in this space. 🙁
The main differences once the firmware updates are done though is primarily physical in nature (look/materials), but also it’ll be the Fenix 6 will have stronger golf support, better ski resort support, and up to 8 data fields for the 6X (the FR945 will get 6 data fields). Additionally, the battery aspects are still TBD if Garmin will adopt them. That’s it.
I think the more specific chart is not necessary, you already answered my question perfectly with this text 😉 Thanks
REI’s website claims that the 945 is ANT+ only and the 6 has Bluetooth.
Hi Ray – can you comment whether the screen is any brighter than the Fenix 5X. I’m hoping that the Fenix 6X/Pro upped the screen visibility. Thanks for such a great review!
David
They’d be incorrect.
One big improvement of the Fenix6 is that the display of the Fenix 6 is bigger than the display of the FR945. I’m waiting comments of users with the Fenix6 how much this display improves readability of numbers during real activities.
I have the fenix 6x and I had the 5x plus prior to that. The display is noticeably bigger and easier to read. The ability to have 8 fields now instead of 4 is huge game changer for me. I no longer need a connect IQ data field to get all my data on 1 screen.
Great review Ray (still have to do an in-depth read)! Thanks for your work. First thought about solar power (from a cyclist point of view): it would be perfect for Edge and really big rides!
Yup, could be super fascinating in that arena. Also really interesting within Garmin’s handheld outdoor range too.
And on an Edge device there’s so much more space for solar panels too.
Edge with this and sony chip should give enough juice to go for a week with high gps accuracy an navigation 😉
Very interesting indeed. Plus I would finally have a reason to tilt my Edge without looking too weird #aero #marginalsolargains
And the orientation to the sun is more or less fixed. That should help a lot. On a watch it seems more like a gimmick, since you’re not going to walk/run/ski along with your arm out so the watch can be more or less perpendicular to the sun.
They need to edge solar receptors to the band too. the more the better given that with running/hiking etc (unlike edge that is always pointing up) you want as many cells as possible
I wonder how transparent the solar cell is to GPS signals
In principle it shouldn’t matter because the bezel on a fēnix is the “exo” GPS antenna. If you disassemble an f3 or f5 watch you can see the contact between the motherboard and the bezel for this purpose.
Great review. I have not completely read it yet, will do that later in detail, of course.
But a first quick question: how can the user see, how much solar energy is gained? Is there a widget/data page for that?
For clarification: can I see: you have gained 45 minutes/1 hr etc.?
Thank you for all you do Ray. Ordered the Pro from CT just now to hopefully replace my aging but still working FR230. Getting into the trail scene more, so I look forward to this device.
How do the notification actions work on this flagship device ? Can you mark a message or email as read with “Mark as read” notification action (specifically that’s possible on Android) ?
I was talking about the lack of this on the FR 45 review (link to dcrainmaker.com) and how even an older FR 35 had that option.
It’s possible on my FR945 (phone on Android 9), so can’t really imagine that feature would disappear on the flagship product.
How does the UI for it look like? Is “Mark as read” as default, then you can select “Dismiss” ? On FR 45 I can only see “Dismiss” which is triggered by the “Down” button.
You might have it on the 45 as well perhaps. When I get say a text it shows a notification on the watch and “Down” button leads to “Dismiss”. I first need to push the Start/Stop button IIRC to “open” the message and then scroll through it to get the options for “Mark as Read” etc.
Hmm, I see now, I found a Youtube clip of this menu on a FR 245 and it’s not on FR 45, because those actions also contain “Reply” function, which lets you reply canned messages back that you set in the Garmin Connect app.
On the FR 45 when you open the notification, there’s nothing at the bottom.
@Garmin: I think it would be fair if you included the “Mark as read” or other Quick notification actions into that menu, even though the “Reply” function isn’t possible.
@Florian: thanks for the feedback
Maybe a type here: “Oh, and did I mention there’s no solar charging of the unit?”
That is correct. AFAIK essentially there is not really solar charging here in F6X. If you put it to power off and expose it to light/sun it will not charge the battery a bit. The whole solar charging frenzy is misleading.
The first comment was just a typo of ‘now’ versus ‘no’.
As for Exx’s comment, I don’t follow: It clearly adds battery power to the battery. I’m not sure why you’re saying otherwise.
Does it add more batter than is being consumed? No, generally not. But that doesn’t take away the fact that it’s being charged. Just like if you plug your iPad into a lesser USB port and then watch a movie, it won’t add power, and you still might go down – just less fast.
Great review; tasty new watches! Will any of the software features trickle down to the 5 series? I know they’ve done that in the past with things like the relax timer.
Per Ray’s 945 review: Nope.
F5 and F5+ are not getting any new features from the 945, Marq, or F6
clevertraining uk/eu link is dead 🙁
Are the watches similar in functionality except for size, in each type? or are S limited?
I see that the Fenix 6x pro Solar is still cheaper than the Fenix 5x plus. What would be the reason of that?
It would have been great if they added wireless QI charging. Just toss it on the charger while taking a morning shower, stay fully charged most of the time!
I hope Forerunner 945 will get 6 fields data screen in the future.
Admittedly I still need to dice in, but quick question, do the Sapphire versions include music, etc?
I hope FR945 will get 6 fields on page feature in future 😉
Great review – as always Ray. What about the number of IQ datafields? Is that still “only” 2…?
Yes first thing i looked for, still after all these years 2?
Good question! I still have a 3HR, the one reason I have not upgraded is this limitation!
I assume not a chance of any features trickling down to the 5 Plus series? On the other hand, looking at feature set between 5, 5+ and 6, the new features on 5+ – maps, payments, music, ClimbPro make it look more like a Fenix 6, compared to that the “real” Fenix 6 looks more like a 5+
Garmin already have said the new features will not be coming to the 5+
Oh god…. how do I hide the purchase of this watch from the wife LOL… great review Ray, been waiting for the 6, like you nailed (as always) the time difference between the 945 is interesting, I like the new features of the 945 but decided to wait for the 6 and I’m glad I did.
Ahah I can see I’m not the only one with that question
Why do you prefer this one over the 945?
considering both, that’s why i’m asking
Garmin definitely need to start treating software and hardware separately. The F5+ would easily do most of the new features so even a paid software upgrade would be useful. I have a stack of watches building up that aren’t worth much in the second hand market yet I rarely use. Especially since I tend to buy the “nice” models such as F5 with metal band (£750 new, worth ~£200 now) and F5+ Ti metal band (£950 new, ~£350 now).
Admittedly, all of my old Garmin watches are more useful than my new Suunto 9 or Vantage V! Garmin have really upped their game since the Fenix 3.
You, Dave, are Garmin’s target market 😉
I’ve decided to keep my now reliable (post replacement) Spartan Ultra for events, and buy whatever the new Apple Watch is this year for my daily workouts. Apple Pay, Apple Music, and hopefully (for the first time on Watch in NZ), cellular as well. I’m not convinced the new features here, with the possible exception of the pacing tool, are really offering much I can’t get from Training Peaks. I know what you mean about offloading old watches; I certainly wouldn’t get much for my Spartan Ultra now.
First a typo: base Fenix 5 lineup with the baes Fenix 6 lineup … baes should be base I think (unboxing section)
Second a question about bezel size. I know you state the screen size has increased and they gotten thinner. But is the circle of the bezel larger? equally larger or smaller than the 5+ series?
Third and final: so the solar pro does -not- have sapphire but just gorilla glass. Not that that’s a bad thing per se, but I prefer sapphire over gorilla glass. Am I missing the obvious?
As always thanks for the in depth review, a pleasure to read and nice to see it done so fast. My conclusion for myself for now: not worth upgrading from 5x plus yet…
I noticed that too. The sapphire glass may reduce the amount of usable solar to the panel?
Gorilla 6 glass would scratch at level 6 and deeper groove at level 7, while sapphire would not scratch at all till level 9
I asked Garmin in a chat a few questions regarding the glass on the Solar version. Indeed it is softer than on sapphire, however, they said in looking at both the solar display is a bit more brilliant than the sapphire which I would like.
I was zeroing in on the Pro 6X sapphire due to tougher glass than solar but now may get the Pro 6X Solar due to the combined features.
Very tough choice for me. Opinions?
Will these new widgets be available on the 5 plus model?
Because of the bigger display: can the 6x pro/Solar use >6 data fields?
up to and including 8 fields
Great review as always.
UTMB is a 170 km loop, not 150.
Ray, it’s not 100% clear from the post (maybe I missed it) whether the base model supports maps and doesn’t include them or just doesn’t support maps and doesn’t have the storage space?
All of them have maps now.
Sorry, mistake: The Fenix 6 and the 6s do NOT have maps.
According to link to buy.garmin.com all of them have maps but, with the 6S and 6, you can opt not to have them and save a bit of money although seems to odd to me to pay all that and not want all the features just for a bit extra. Unclear if you could later “upgrade”. Probably not one would assume.
Found this myself. The base models have 64MB storage so cannot load music or maps. Other models are 32GB so can have all the maps and more.
Also, you would probably need a WiFi or loading music or maps would take all day over BT.
Thanks for the review Ray. Always informative reading your site.
My question is marq athlete or fenix 6 pro – ignoring the price difference.
Is there any chance that FR945 will display the 6 data fields ? That is the only feature I feel I am missing and would like to have…
I’ve been using datarun premium on my old(ish) fenix 5. link to apps.garmin.com. very customisable
Do you know if is possible to buy them around Chamonix today?
According to the Garmin people interviewed this morning on the UTMB live coverage yes. They didn’t mention Chamonix specifically but said it would be available in specialty running stores today. Still, I’d take that with a grain of salt.
Okey, i’m taking my credit card and going for a walk then 😉
They have them in the expo area 🙂
My condolences to your wallet? ?
Excited to check out pacepro. It’s an area I’ve always been interested. A few years ago we did some experimentation with what we called the pacing project link to pacecalculator.com
Do you know if Garmin would open the new format to third parties pushing pacing plans?
Glad to see you chime in here Ryan, I’d be interested in your thoughts on Garmin’s implementation if/when you have a chance to play around with it.
Ultimately it seems like they experience some of the same issues we had (and still battle with BBS occasionally) around bad data in = bad data out. Elevation data can be notoriously poor in some locations. To smooth this requires quite an array of techniques and some tricks to detect say bridges, tunnels, etc. Ideally you would leverage the data you have to kind of do a gut check (which I think Strava has done for some major bridges / overpasses).
As for the per km / mile I’m sure that is something they will work on. It’s a fine line between having too many segments and not enough. I don’t think fixed interval is the ultimate path forward however (as in Texas we may have 5 steep rollers within a mile section). We originally did pacing project as a proof of concept for more accurate normalized graded pace equations (specifically for downhill sections now rolled into TrainingPeaks). We didn’t pursue it as much because there wasn’t a great way to get it on devices (watches) at the time.
Now that almost all Garmin watches have maps/course functionality it could be worth a revisit. Things that interest me the most in the area are how to adjust paces to grade along with surface terrain type, heat/humidity / altitude.
Thanks for the reply and thanks again for helping out with my Paris Marathon race plan on Slowtwitch last year!
Yes, I commented below that it’d be nice to have lap-positions determined by changes in target pace (e.g. at points of significant changes in gradient like you do with BBS and TPP) rather than simply roll everything up into automatic fixed-interval laps as it would appear to at the moment.
I guess Garmin already have a foot-in-the-game with regard to heat/altitude effects with some of the recent metrics, but even something as simple as athlete-weight compensation for gradient-adjusted pacing metrics would be really useful.
Do you guys have any more exciting projects in the pipeline at the moment?
Any videos of the map data loading? Is it super fast now or still lag on refresh like the 5+?
Great review as always 🙂
I currently have a fenix 5, which occasionally have problems connecting to ANT+ sensors. For instance I have to wear the watch under my wrist for it to reliably stay connected to my power meter when cycling.
I think I read somewhere that this is a known problem with the 5 series, so I assume this is fixed with the fenix 6 series?
I have the 5 and 5+ and this was definitely sorted on the 5+ so I wouldn’t expect the 6 to have the issue. If I recall correctly Ray never suffered the issue, but was certainly aware of it.
I had the issue on the Fenix 5 with Stryd (and noted it in review), but not other sensors. As noted, it was fixed in Fenix 5 Plus.
I didn’t test Stryd with the Fenix 6 (yet).
Tyop alert: “so it we’re roughly in the ballpark”.
Great review as always. I’m still not quite convinced that I need to spend the money on the upgrade from my 935, but it’s slightly closer than the 945 was. Depending on local pricing, of course (the 945 is way too expensive, IMO, and I suspect the 6 series will be even more so.)
Lot of informations! Great review. What about LTE version of F6? Guess no chance in this generation…still waiting for this feature with my old F3.
They did release the LTE version of the VA3 well into the cycle so… it’s not impossible that an LTE F6 comes later.
This makes my decision making quite easy, intended for cycling use, almost identical to FR945, which is 100€ cheaper. I don’t really care about the looks, and think the 945 looks as good as the Fenix6.
It may be I haven’t been aware enough when I read your excellent text, but how perfomed the 6s with GPS and battery life.
Furthermore, what is the battery life of the 6s, 6s and 6x without any battery saving function, because example 5s plus never comes over 8 hours.
What is the max number of CIQ fields?
I assume there is no support for native running power?
For the rest it is “disappointing” that it has no enhanced ECG and/or cellular connectivity; Garmin doesnt stick its head out here beyond the competition. But it has to be said that 6/8 fields over the former 4 is a handy improvement, but not really shocking.
btw how does pace pro rely on sensordata, GPS only, or also on pods?
I’ll have to check on CIQ fields.
No native running power, or ECG or cellular. I suspect Garmin would rather sit on a burning pile of extra-sharp pinecones right now than try and do another cellular watch. Frankly, Apple’s limitations make this a non-starter for iOS peoples and cohesion. It’s a bit better on Android however.
For PacePro, it uses GPS position data to ‘lock’ you to the course location. Though you can also use it sans-course mode.
Hi Ray and Garmin (who i’m sure is listening). I will be leaving Garmin for Apple, despite the much worse experience for running, just to get cellular data. I was holding out hope for this Fenix 6 which has been rumored forever..but this is disappointing.
The limitations due to Apple are not a concern for me, despite being an iPhone user. Honestly I’d be happier to get a different phone number for my Garmin watch than my normal iphone number so people don’t bother me when running. Just have live tracking support and a dedicated number my family knows for emergencies only. Dragging a phone around for 20 mile long runs is no fun, especially when it’s only for emergencies.
What you’re describing is possible with the Vivoactive 3 LTE.
I’m with Steve! Waiting for LTE (outside the states) is getting incredibly frustrating
Don’t know how it is on other watches, but Apple Watch doesn’t use a different phone number. Instead it is like another extension to your phone. However, I find it very useful for running, mostly for the data connection, but also knowing I can be reached (or make a call) as well. If I know I’m expecting a call or need to make a call, I just take my phone.
Mike – Fixed. See, now I have comment editing. 😉
As for Apple, yeah, it’s called various things by various carriers, usually a variation of Number Sync (as on ATT). And in fact, you can do the same thing on Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 LTE too. The challenge is that iMessages won’t make it to it if they’re from an iMessage device. Atop that, if you send any messages, you can’t send iMessages (only real numbers), and you can’t see your sent texts back on your device.
For Android folks that don’t live in the luxury of iMessage – it doesn’t really matter. But if you use iMessage and all your friends/family does – then it really really really matters. I personally can’t deal with that much fragmentation in my message scheme.
Yeah, I think the issue with iMessages is that the iMessage app is actually running on the Apple Watch and not, like notifications, being transferred from the phone. Due to the security in iMessages (which the US govt. can’t even get around), there is no chance Apple will allow it to run on a non Apple device. That does mean that all the advantages of the iMessage infrastructure (messaging to non phone numbers, syncing across devices, high end encryption, sending money, and, of course, animated kittens) won’t work on anyone else’s device. The way Apple does LTE on it’s Watch also kind of extends what it already is doing – you can get phone calls on the Watch even without LTE if you are on the same WiFi network and notifications actual come through your phone, even if you are on cellular.
Yeah, I mean, it just depends on how they (Apple) want to twist it. Realistically speaking there’s no reason why they couldn’t implement an API for it, at least to more gracefully handle sent message, or to store and forward to registered secondary devices. Ultimately, the security logic of that from a intel-type manner falls apart anyway when it’s your local ATT store setting up the Apple Watch as a secondary type device on a shared number. That’s the attack point there for an intelligence service.
But of course, I doubt it’ll happen. Apple likes their walled garden (and, to be fair, they do a good job of keeping that garden health). Though, we did see some hints at possible changes from Fossil a few weeks ago around this sort of thing (phone calls specifically) – so anything’s possible I suppose.
So this picture here: link to wigglestatic.com.jpg?w=430&h=430&a=7
Seems to suggest native running power. The little bar at the bottom looks like a zone monitoring and the trainers and other fields allude to running.
That’s part of a handful of new graphical data fields. That specific bottom data field is cadence. There’s also ones for running dynamics, training effect, a few others, and you can also stash a reduced version of PacePro down there too.
I’m curious to know about the CIQ field limit as well. It seems like they could finally increase the limit (as far as I’m aware it is still a 2 field limit for all watches, other than the 745xt).
With the 2 field limit in past watches, it mostly just served to frustrate me that (1) Garmin doesn’t bother much with easy to read data display on their own and (2) that I couldn’t actually rely on other people’s work here because Garmin decided to cap the field limit so low.
Do you expect most all of the new software features to be added to the Marq Athlete also?
Everything goes to MARQ (save Solar of course).
What about FR945?
The FR945 will get PacePro, Glanceable Widgets, Map Themes, and maybe some other stuff. They’re sorting out the other stuff bit (such as battery modes). They’re also sorting out the exact timelines.
Would/will the extended battery of the Fenix 6 also take effect on the forerunner 945. On another note adding the battery modes to the 945 would be a huge upgrade to the 945!
It’s being discussed. They came back last night with a list of what is or isn’t coming to the FR945. For example, the ski resorts aren’t coming to the FR945 – nor the extended golf bits (since the FR945 already has golf maps, and they don’t see a huge cross-over with the FR945 to golf as compared to the Fenix with golf folks).
For all the power bits, they’re looking at feedback and deciding whether to pull those features in. It’s definitely not a no, but it’s also not confirmed. I’d suggest voicing that feedback (here, via Garmin social media, etc…). As with any company, they’re just trying to balance dev time for adding those features versus say other features.
The 6 data fields is confirmed as coming to the FR945 though. Timing for everything is ‘the fall’, but some things may be sooner.
Shame about ski resorts not going to the 945. Is there any way to add them manually?
You’ve listed all the goodness but can you tell us about the bugs / glitches that you observed?
Yup, I discussed them throughout the review. They included:
A) Issues with PacePro, primarily due to issues with Garmin Connect (PacePro itself was fine, but the underlying data that drove it from Garmin Connect was problematic)).
B) Some heart rate accuracy issues
C) Some GPS accuracy issues
D) Occasional slow syncing of the Fenix 6X Solar. It’s however extremely likely this is because I have about 30 units tied to my account, which Garmin thinks may be causing Physio TrueUp issues on that unit (I get things, just a bit delayed)
Otherwise, pretty good.
I hear there may be issues with the nacho cheese dispenser malfunctioning/missing.
Great review! Thank you. Any news/progress on getting data properly from Concept2 machines?
Best,
Marek
The ErgIQ CIQ app works reasonably well for this (I use it on my Edge 520). I doubt Garmin would have added it in natively without making some sort of note of the feature.
I does not work the way it should. I writes the data into those Connect IQ fields that are not properly combined with other activities. I have Fenix 3, so I’m not sure how it is on the newer watches .. but does it give you “points” after training like cycling would etc? Training effect etc?
Nice to see that Garmin launches such a product before northern hemisphere winter ski mountaineering season starts – maybe its time to upgrade my Fenix 2. A lot of features can be used then, like maps with ski routes, the spo2 sensor, altitude acclimation etc. and solar power is enough on our mountains.
What sucks is, that the altitude acclimation just works by real altitude and not by O2 saturation. I own an altitude tent and with this way you could also acclimate to height. That would also be a reason to buy a new Fenix watch because it will record my O2 saturation during the night. What more sucks, I don´t wear watches at home, just my vivosmart 3… which brings me to the Vivosmart 4 for this scenario, damn 🙂
Native power from stryd? Any chance?:)
Looks like no. Which is a shame, this is the one feature that might have tempted me to upgrade.
An also nice feature could be guessing your Vitamin D level by the usage of the solar module. When you feed the algorithm with which kind of clothes you wear for the day, maybe it could tell you, when you spent enough time in the sun – especially in winter (think about winter depression).
Nice! 6S Pro – Sapphire version though? ;o
Yes
Garmin Connect mobile is not just slow but also has bugs for building courses on the phone.
Sometimes refuses to save, some other times, (probably thinking I am a car) it would not let me run a one way street in the forbidden direction
Great review BTW, and so quick to get out!
So your preferred choice of pacing assistant now – PacePro or Running Power (and then Stryd or Garmin or Polar!) or just good “old fashioned” pace/HR glances ?
What I was not clear of from your PacePro section is the granularity of the sections? I kind of assumed it would break down the course into varied distance “laps” that were uphill, downhill or flat but your example seems to be fixed mile sections. A lot can happen in a mile of course with ups and downs so is this an effective lap pace checker taking into account the overall difficulty of each lap? I mean if say a mile was uphill to halfway then downhill I might go (and keep the maths simple) 8:00 pace up and 6:00 down and so average 7:00 and that be the mile target but at no time would I be running 7:00 pace.
For me at this point, I’d easily take PacePro. Perhaps just because of the gamification of it.
That said, it breaks it into 1-mile/1-KM chunks, as you as you noted (and I noticed as well in Central Park) that can lead to scenarios where if both a climb and downhill were in the same section, you might be running them at the wrong intensities.
I also get the impression this is really just Garmin’s starting point on PacePro. They’ve spent an incredibly long development cycle getting it to where it is now, and this was a good point to ship and then consider features for the next update.
It’d be nice to see an implementation whereby using a PacePro would override your normal autolap settings, so instead of just lapping rigidly every 1 mile or km, it would lap every time there’s a significant change in gradient (and thus preferred pace) as well possibly intermediate 1 mile/1 km/whatever laps in longer up/downhill sections to keep somewhat regular lap intervals.
So–I have a dumb question. The Fenix 6 Sapphire model…is this a pro with sapphire? or is it just a sapphire 6 without the pro features? I’m so confused haha
Yes, Pro features with sapphire glass
Can you see a difference in the screen resolution as compared to the Fenix 5X/Plus?
Fenix 6S 240×240
Fenix 6 260×260
Fenix 6X 280×280
Thanks. I did notice the resolution changes, I am curious if they are noticeable.
The resolution in the sense of pixel pitch is identical; the screen sizes increase from 6s to 6 to 6x. So, no you can’t see a difference 🙂
The question is about the change from the 5 Plus models, which were all 240×240. So is the change from that to the higher resolution for the 6 and 6X noticeable?
My answer does actually cover that, but let me be a bit more explicit.
5, 5x, all the 5+ and the 6s have 1.2″ screens 240×240, so the pixels are .005 inch squares.
6 is 1.3″ 260×260 and 6x is 1.4″ 280×280, so the pixels are still .005 inch squares. (The 5s was 1.1″ at 218×218, which is the same pixel size again). Won’t look any more or less pixelated at a given viewing distance, it’s not like going to a Retina display with substantially smaller pixels.
If the pixels are .005 inch squares for all watches (this means that all the watches have all the same pixel density), this means that using for example 6 fields in one page, the watch Fenix 6x that has the biggest display with 280×280 pixel should be easier to read because the numbers are bigger. For one number, the watch can use more pixel. If this makes a big difference in reality, one should look at the watches with the same page and see if the difference is appreciable. DCR who has all the watches can comment what it looks like comparing the watches one beside the other.
My feeling is that till 4 fields in one page there is not a big difference, but using 6 fields probably with the Fenix 6X there is a better user experience.
DCR says: “you’ve now got up to 8 data fields per page for the Fenix 6X, and up to 6 fields per page for the Fenix 6S/6 units. Here’s how that looks:”
The Fenix 6X wtith more pixels allows to have more datafields in one page. This is a big plus.
Ray shows then two photos one with the Fenix6 with 6 data fields and one with the Fenix 6X with 8 fields.
Ray, it would be interesting if you add a photo of a Fenix 6s, Fenix 6 and Fenix6X all with 6 fields so we can appreciate the difference between the three watches.
Yes, I agree – further, I think that even with 4 fields, for middle-aged folk like me whose close vision is worsening, the bigger screen is going to be helpful for readability.
Will do! Wrote it down on my ‘to add new shots list’. I’ve got a few things to take shots of tomorrow.
Any chance PacePro coming to bike\Multi-Sport activity?
For biking I would think you just a power meter.
Unless, of course, you don’t have one.
All these features and NO LTE. I’m out. They will never compete with Apple until they do this. I know I know. This line isn’t supposed to compete with Apple. However, it does. I’m a prime example. I run a lot. After experiencing the freedom to go out with no phone, my AW4, and PowerBeats Pro, I’ll never go back to a non-LTE device. The peace of mind I get from that to know my wife and son can get in touch with me at anytime is great. The sport specific features of the AW4 are lacking and Garmin nails it. I’d buy the 6X asap if it had LTE. Guess I’m not the majority.
Until Apple opens up their platform to actually allow this, you honestly don’t want a non-Apple Watch LTE offering. Today it means that iMessage doesn’t go through to your secondary device like an Apple Watch would, because Apple locks that down. I’ve tried it on the Vivoactive 3 LTE – and the experience sucks. It’s like going back to the days of pagers where if someone really wanted to get ahold of you they’d send a note to your pager.
Unfortunate. I wish Apple would do this but it’s unlikely given their hold on the LTE enabled watch market. Just once, they should do this for the greater good of moving the technology forward. Frustrating. On the flip side, I’d love to see Garmin simply build a fitness app for Apple Watch. I’d pay $50 for this (maybe more). The hardware on the Apple Watch should be able to collect the data Garmin needs for Running Dynamics, V02, etc…
it’s my pipe dream that Garmin would build a fitness app for the AW, and I’d pay at lot more than $50
But it would never, ever happen. Why would Garmin cannibalize it’s own sales of the higher end devices with high margins?
heck, I’d even be happy with Forerunner 310 capabilities. but no.
Live tracking and incident notification are enough reasons to add LTE. Some of us don’t need iMessage or wapp or whatever. Just sending / receiving a message when really needed and letting others know exactly where you we are for joy (grouptrack) or in case an incident happened.
Technically this is possible through inReach. Maybe they could build an equivalent “dongle” that connects to cellular?
All you have to do is switch to Android, and then it’s seamless.
I know this may be sacrilege, but you can pull a Ray and run with 2 watches, that’s what I do. Don’t need my phone, use my Garmin for my activity related data and my AW for anything else, including phone, messaging, music, maps, Apple Pay, and I actually find it’s instant pace more accurate.
Except livetracking doesn’t work so well sometimes. I think Ray in a recent podcast talked about not using livetracking or incident detection because the false positives consistently stressed The Girl.
It’s really disappointing that the livetracking isn’t better. That seems like the ultimate use case for a true sports watch with LTE. I can imagine using it constantly. Significant others could just pop open the app and see exactly how far you are from home and how fast you’re going. And it would be great for races. My running buddies and I spend tons of time refreshing live-tracking websites to get 10k splits during marathons, but it would be awesome to be able to see essentially what is on my teammates’ watches as they run. There’s also tremendous potential for Strava integration. What if you could go onto your Strava feed and see not only completed activities, but runs in progress? Heck, you could even send someone a kudos or comment while they’re running: “You’re flying, dude! Just three more miles!” (Obviously the privacy aspects would have to be carefully considered, and races are going to have their own policies about two-way communication.)
I use an inreach mini whenever i’m far enough out of cell phone range and I need to be able to maintain contact. Great little device, integrates well into the Fenix line already. Messages are not instant send/receive like a text message, but working inside it’s limitations does let me feel comfortable to go places solo or with my young kids that I otherwise wouldn’t. Frankly it gets more use for the kids saying “goodnight” to mom via text message when we are out than it does for anything else, but does do a good job of live track in the wild when off the grid.
Is the vivoactive LTE built specifically around an Apple account user?
Any better for an Android user?
I honestly wrote off the Vivoactive 3 LTE because Verizon has the worst policies and customer service of any company I can think of.
It works far batter on an Android account because you don’t have to deal with iOS. I’d say it’s borderline seamless. Though again, Verizon. :-/
Ray i can’t see the table in the comparison. lookin in the review if it s coming but haven’t found it metioned.
Sorry if i missed something
I’ve asked this before but have yet to get an answer from anyone – is there a definitive list of the differences between the various activity types and/or what data can be recorded in each?
Like you allude to in the heatmaps…
Why would I choose “hike” versus “trail run” versus “run”? I tend to choose “run” for all of my hikes as well, mainly because the Stryd records power for these too…
Thx
Not sure about F6 but, from previous devices, some of it is purely for classification but there have been some functional differences. One I can recall is that VO2 Max computation/adjustument is disabled for “Trail run” given you are likely to be downgraded just because of the likely harder terrain rather than your actual fitness.
Note that the Hike activity now records Stryd data, if you are using the Stryd data field. This works on my Fenix 3HR. I think you can actually use the Stryd data field on any walking or running based native app.
Any speculation on whether the “descent” dive computer version of this watch will be refreshed anytime soon?
…came here to ask this exact question.
Hard to know without a pre-defined refresh cycle for that product line, but they timed it to a diving convention in the Oct/Nov timeframe last time.
Awesome stuff as always man. Hope you are enjoying my home country!
questions
1) have a 5X and some 3s. is this worth getting another one?
more importantly….
2) how do i listen to podcast on any of these bad boys?
Thanks.
I think you can do podcasts via Spotify, but I’d also like to hear if there are other options. Ordered a 6s ‘Pro’ for my wife and she probably would enjoy some podcasts from time to time (not currently Spotify premium members, but do have Amazon Music).
There is Spotify, Runcasts, and manual file copy for podcasts.
I just placed an order for one of the solar models but might reconsider- not too sure how Gorilla Glass compares to Sapphire.
Sapphire can be polished to get rid of scratches- not too sure if this is also true for Gorilla Glass.
Just chatted to Garmin- the 6X Pro Solar model is indeed Gorilla Glass, which means that scratches cannot be polished away. They had no idea what the procedure is if the glass shatters either.
No solar power for me.
Hi Ray,
In your reply 57 you said that this is a no starter for IOS people? What do you mean with ‘this’?
Are there any issues to use this watch with IOS / OSX?
Do you still have to use FTP to ‘see’ the watch in Finder?
Would like to know before buying one.
Greetings
In that particular reply, I think he’s talking about the feasibility of LTE on the watch itself. With an Apple Watch this works, but it’s unlikely Apple would ever allow a third party watch to, say, share a phone number with an iPhone the way the AW does. Apple also does not allow third party watches to send messages, so, unlike an Apple Watch, you can’t reply to texts on a Garmin watch if you use iOS. You can still use the Connect app on iOS to “see” and manipulate (to a certain extent) the watch. And since the 6’s all seem to support music, it will not show up in the Finder. You’ll still need to use something like the “Android File Transfer” app to see the file system on the watch (but speaking as a 5+ owner, that actually works pretty well).
Thanks for the review as always, Ray.
Soooo many models and options. I’m not sure which ones you actually had your hands on, but can you notice a difference between gorilla and sapphire glass as far as color depth or visibility, and have you seen any scratches on either?
In regards to the black bezel options, is the sapphire version really DLC whereas the pro black version is not? Is there a noticeable difference?
My Fenix 5 sapphire in black is pretty beat up. Lots of scratches and dings on the bezel, but the screen remains perfect. I’m having a hard time justifying the extra money for sapphire, unless the black DLC will resolve my issues with beating up the bezel.
How do the buttons feel as compared to the 945? I’ve found the 945 buttons to be squishy, inconsistent, and wholly unsatisfying to push.
My 645 is the same. A year old and the buttons have lost their “click”.
That is likely a production error. Had the same issue and have just had the unit replaced by garmin. Search for sticky buttons on the garmin forum. Issue is known.
Nice, thanks for the review. For the moment I’ll just hold onto my Fenix 5…..
One question: whats up with CSS? What exactly is it for and how does it work?
IN another web review i’ve read that the 6x pro is without touch screen? seems strange to me…is it true?
None of them have touch screen.
How is the 6s vs 5s on thinner wrists? The 5s is still far too large. Would be nice to see a comparison photo if you are able.
Well the 6S is the same size as the 5S but the lugs are smaller so it will feel more stable on a smaller wrist. I am not sure about the strap length though – I found the 5S strap to be too narrow and short even on my skinny wrist, and made the watch slip around when I was sweaty. It also helps that the 6S has reduced in thickness and weight, which will help for running. I doubt it will be as comfortable as my 645 though.
I have 6 inch wrists (hey, I’m a runner, not a rock climber). Was very excited about the relatively small size of the 5s after my F3. I found the lugs to be a big issue. I ended up switching to a regular 5 for the battery life because after trying both, I found that there was essentially no difference in how they sat on the wrist. I picked up the 6s, and the smaller lugs make a HUGE difference.
Good to know. Yes I also couldn’t live with the lugs on the original 5S. As someone with small wrists, the watch didn’t stay put and after about half an hour of running with a sweat on it would end it at a 45 degree angle. It drove me nuts and I eventually brought a 935, then swapped that for a 645 as I preferred the smaller watch. If you are a competitive runner, how the watch feels on your wrist is more important than features IMO.
When you review the activity afterwards in Garmin Connect, does the PacePro overlay gray boxes for your target pace for a given split like it does for workouts with segments that have a target pace?
What are the options for the split durations on the PacePro? In the screenshot it looks like it’s every mile, are there options for adjusting that? Maybe every 1/4 mile? Or have some splits be shorter (for a murderous hill section – treat the climb with its own target, then treat the downhill with its own section…)
Maybe I’m overthinking this and it’s meant to just be a replacement for pace bands, and pace bands are often set to mile splits because you will see mile markers on the side of the road and you can glance at your wrist and see if you are on track or not… but with the PacePro lining up against the course it doesn’t need to rely on those points nearly as much and alternative split strategies that would be too much of a pain to manually do with a pace band could be easy to do on a watch.
Now… if it’s _helpful_ to potentially overthink the pacing of a race is a question for another day.
Options are split per mile, km and height changes.
Hi Ray, the sapphire version has the solar feature??
No. The 6X comes in 4 finish levels exclusive of bands:
1. Gorilla glass and vapor deposition bezel
2. Sapphire and DLC (diamond-like coating) bezel.
3. Gorilla glass + solar and DLC bezel.
4. Gorilla glass + solar and titanium bezel.
Should we have any concern with scratching on the Solar Powered Fenix since it does not utilize Sapphire? I have to say, they fixed many of the things I was nitpicking over. Now I’m just deciding if Solar or non-Solar is the way to go.
My thoughts exactly.
And mine as well. Sigh, Solar + sapphire would be a no brainer…
I think the solar model glass would be scratch resistant but not sure whether it would survive strong impact, eg. bumping into trees, rocks, fall from a bike crash, etc.
Hi Ray,
In your reply 57 you said that this is a no starter for IOS people? What do you mean with ‘this’?
Are there any issues to use this watch with IOS / OSX?
Do you still have to use FTP to ‘see’ the watch in Finder?
Would like to know before buying one.
Greeting
I’m specifically referring to LTE on a non-Apple device integrating with Apple iMessages. Not the Fenix 6.
Let´s see if the belzel is crap like Fenix 5…
Thanx for the deep review. Always excellent.
Do you have a source for the beta state firmware?
Regards.
Openwater swim? You’ll see it show up in the Garmin Forums for each product, at the top of the product forum.
Ray, is PacePro coming to the 945?
Yes. Confirmed watches that will get PacePro are the FR245, FR245 Music, FR945, and MARQ series.
Not my new FR 645M? :'(
Jim, the 645 was released around 19 months ago, so it isn’t exactly new.
Honestly, I’m not sure why they didn’t kill the 645 all together, as the only major differences between the 245 and 645 are Garmin pay and the barometer. In my ideal world they would have a FR45, 245, 745XT and 945.
Does the solar version use Gorilla Glass or saphire?
From the F6 FAQs:
“What is the difference between Corning® Gorilla® Glass, Power Glass and sapphire crystal lens?
Corning Gorilla Glass and the Power Glass lens are designed to be scratch resistant, but they are not as durable as the sapphire crystal lens*. The sapphire crystal lens is incredibly durable and is the third hardest mineral, right behind diamond. As a result, the lens is much harder to scratch than glass.”
Thanks for pointing this out. This begs two questions:
will the solar power gathering element work with a screen protector
Is the Gorilla glass screen replaceable by Garmin
Does anybody have any experience with the Garmin’s gorilla glass as far as how scratch resistant is it compared to sapphire one on a day to day use over time?
There is a version with DLC coating, does this mean it is a scratch free bezel?
It would be worth the 850 euros.
I think the DLC coating was there since Fenix 3. It is highly resistant to scratch but the coating may wear off over years
Hi
Great review as always. Maybe I missed it but will there be a quick release kit available ?
Thanks
okay so can someone explain the point of the fenix 6s non pro version. The 5s plus has the maps and music, minus the pulseox of course. But otherwise it’s a downgrade and £529 is a huge price to pay for no maps no music?
Not a downgrade.
You get all the new features that the F5+ won’t get for the same price as the F5+. You simply trade maps and music.
For people upgrading from OG F5 and FR x35, it’s a viable price point.
Ray- you mentioned “more detailed golf features”- is there anywhere I can read about them? I use my fenix 5 for golf, so I’m curious to know what has changed.
I’ll try and get some. We had chatted about it over the phone, but it was all Greek to me. I’ll get them to write it down this time. 🙂
The review states: “No, PacePro is not grade adjusted pace,” but Garmin’s websites says: “A first-of-its-kind PacePro feature helps keep you on pace with grade-adjusted guidance as you run a course.”
Maybe I missed it in the review, but what is the difference between grade adjusted pace, and grade adjusted guidance?
I guess it means that here that your pace is still whatever your pace actually is. It might be slower uphill and so have a slower target for that bit etc etc but you aren’t having to deal with some artifically adjusted pace value when looking at what your “pace” is.
GAP is different than Grade Adjusted Guidance.
GAP is a very specific terminology that some platforms (like TrainingPeaks) use to adjust the displayed pace based on the current incline/decline.
What Garmin is doing is giving you specific targets that are pace based, but they aren’t actually changing (or applying a filter) to your pace as it’s seen on the watch.
Could you not just do this yourself manually in a more useful way, ie segmenting the hills?
You can. 🙂
It’s an option within PacePro to do splits based on elevation changes.
ah so would “splits based on elevation changes” solve my earlier comment about to how to “pace” a section that has both up and down hill and so you are uniquely to ever actually be running at the average “lap” pace for that section?
Exactly.
I didn’t see it earlier, the way the UI box is, kinda hides the option.
when are the venu and vivoactive 4 coming out??? :))))
Read the review – went to the Garmin site – saw the pricing – started laughing
l love mySuunto
Can’t see any differences in pricing between a Suunto 9 and the F6…
Finally Ray, after years of reading your reviews, I can say I used your code and purchased the 6X through Clever Training Europe. Really happy that this will support the channel in some small way.
Ashamed a bit that it has taken me so long before using them.. but not a bad first purchase! hahaha
No native running power support and still only two CIQ data fields. Those are deal-breakers and I’ll have to stick with my 5X until those limitations are gone.
Great review! I love the solar feature! I am curious to know how much it will lengthen battery life in an ultramarathon when you are out in the sun for 12-16 hours a day.
Is the HR Sensor the same as the Fenix/934/945 that has issues with the resin cracking?
Hello Ray, have you information new “Widget menu” with 3 rows Will ve in older Fenix 5 (plus)? Thank you very much
No plans unfortunately. It may actually be my favorite Fenix 6 feature. I find I actually use the widgets constantly now for exactly what their name implies: Quick glances.
Really hope to see this on the 945
I saw the safety features mentioned at the beginning of the review, but didn’t see any more details on them in the review. Trying to figure out if it is cellular enabled or if those safety features depend on a connected phone being nearby.
Never mind, found it. Really wishing Fenix 6 had a built in cellular chip.
Cell phone or inreach mini. The mini is much smaller and easy to carry/clip.
Cellular is going to be a nonstarter until Apple opens up their imessage thing. Sucks for Android people, too.
I have the Fenix 5 Plus and I found that ClimbPro function gives improper information about the remaing altitude to climb. I checked this on a number of Alp passes (only with tarmac roads) and usually the actual pass was up to 200 metres sooner than the function suggested. Usually in the end the remaining climb was dropping very fast to finally meet with the reality.
What may be the reason for this?
Smaller for tiny wrists, HR on the wrist for swimming, and a nacho dispenser! Might just be time to upgrade from my 5S, assuming I can find someone to buy the 5S at this point!
Thanks for the great review! A question, on Garmin’s website, when comparing the devices, it says “preloaded ski resort maps” and is included in the 6 (standard size) pro/sapphire models, but not the smaller 6S pro/sapphire models. Seems a little odd since it’s basically the same watch for the same price, so would expect preloaded ski resort maps included in both. Is this true??
I thought about it too. Strange!
The 6S has just 64Mb onboard memory, while the other models have 32 GB…
still no Native run power support ?
thats a big disclaimer for me as a stryd user that garmin still wont open for run power and power based structured workouts
ill stay with my 5X + and see what happens and might even go to apple watch instead
In the comparison charts i thought i saw it was supported, but i don’t know much about it may be worth taking a look.
Yeah, agreed. I thought the promo pictures with the purple shoes logo and zone colors in the bottom field of the watch was going to be running power…but no. It seems like it has to show up any day now, as they’ve been working the ANT+ standard for a long time. I’m wondering if they’re going to try to keep the Forerunner 6xx line going and introduce native running power with the FR655.
Realistically though, without adding running power, it’s mostly just the extra battery life & power modes that are a big deal on the Fenix 6 line. The PacePro could be useful if they work out the kinks and make the laps based on hills instead of a standard distance, but as it is PacePro seems less useful than using the Stryd Power Racer app.
What app would you use? Podium Coaching is great on watch// still searching for apps offering as mutch of metrics as real running watches do. Any hints are welcome
Hi! Does the watch charge from the sun while its off?
I just found out it does. 2% with 3hrs of fun sun exposure while turned off.
What GPS settings did you use in Europe Ray? Glosnass or Galileo?
For the Sony based chipsets (thus, all 2019 Garmin watches), I’m using GLONASS. Garmin says that’s where they’ve poured the most resources for accuracy right now. They’re starting to ramp up the Galileo side. Sure, it’s there, but they aren’t super focused on it.
For the MediaTek chipsets I’ve been using Galileo with great success (FR935 for example).
Hello Ray,
Great review, as always. I’ve three questions:
1) The solar option comes with non-sapphire glass (I suppose because transmission of Sapphire is too low). How does this impact the resistance against scratches or even cracks?
2) I’m always using Stryd for my pace (also outside). Can Stryd being combined with PacePRO?
3) More general: Will Garmin at some point allow us to create power based workouts?
Thanks!
same thing im disapointed about with the new models that they still doesnt support native power so power based structured run workouts will still be a pain to use 🙁
Great review Ray!
Any chance the ski resort maps feature is coming to FR945?
Hey Ray,
Top review as always! Any word if there’ll be other specialist watches in the 6 line as well? Is love solar on my Quatix!
Love how in-depth you make these reviews! A couple of questions for ya:
1. I purchased a 5x plus less than a month ago. Would it be worth it to return the watch for a refund and purchase the 6x plus?
2. What are the major differences between the 6x and the 6x plus? Just screen size and battery life?
3. Are you still able to load custom topo maps onto the fenix 6 series?
Thanks again for doing what you do!
Thanks Mike.
1) Personally, I would. The brutal truth is that the Fenix 5 series (plus or otherwise) is considered dead-end from a Garmin new features standpoint. It’ll of course continue to get firmware updates, but none of the good stuff. Just being honest there (I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is).
2) 6X vs 6X Pro is maps/music/wifi (and all the features that depend on those)
3) No, you need to have the 6X Pro, as there’s only a trivial amount of storage space on the base.
I have an oddly specific questions. In all my Garmin devices I’ve notice that when it comes to displaying the hour in the HH:MM:SS of an activity during the activity., Garmin doesn’t display the hour number in equal size to the minutes and seconds. It always is smaller and loks like footnote.
has this ever been changed? It seems that developed data fields or apps don’t do this. It a huge pet peeve with the garmin software and I think it looks strange and cheap.
That’s going to stay around. It’s a UI design feature like mixed case vs all-upper letters. Having the hours smaller lets people check the minutes and seconds with a glance vs “reading” the whole thing.
Thanks. It’s extremely stupid that they do this.
It’s better that the old way. My 910XT would switch from MM:SS to HH:MM once I cleared one hour.
Ray,
I would like to see a review of the optical HR sensor for indoor trainer rides. I find that sitting on the bike inside the optical sensor just isn’t happy. Not sure if it is all the sweat with lack of airflow but it just doesn’t provide even close numbers. When I go outside on the bike it aligns a bit better but still not great.
Thanks,
Josh
That’s odd. For me it’s the opposite. I get super clean results inside on trainers, except when I start dorking with my phone or the remote excessively.
I usually use it as a baseline. I have a few Fenix 6 trainer rides here, but just didn’t have time to include them in the results (they have other unannounced trainers on the files, so it’s messier for me to extract everything right now).
Great review as always. I bought a 945 2 months ago (after having been a Suunto person for 10+ years…) and I’m pretty happy with it.
So nice to read that PacePro will come to the 945 but what about te three widgets page and ClimbPro colors?
The only feature I’ll be missing is the solar power, maybe it will be an FR 955 or 965 🙂
Speaking of ClimbPro and how much you love it, I’d love it as well, if I’d manage to use it!
Whenever I create a course on Connect, GC largely overestimates elevation gain and loss (by about 20-30%!) and that transfers to the watch and ClinbPro, making the feature totally useless. This seems more a GC issue and I’m surprised that nobody else has noticed it, have you? Is there some “elevation correction” toggle in Connect? The same GPX file on other platforms (like Strava) gives perfectly reasonable elevation gain and loss… so I’m very puzzled…
According to Ray on Twitter the other stuff you’ve mentioned will also make it to the 945.
I only used ClimbPro a few times (too flat here to be useful). But if Strava gives you correct elevation, perhaps if you load the course from Strava via the ConnectIQ app you might have more success?
Thank you for the reply. I’ve tried loading a gpx exported from Strava, but when imported on Connect the elevation data change, as if I had made the course directly on Connect.
But that’s not what he’s telling you to try. There’s a ConnectIQ app, “Strava Routes”, that allows you to load a Strava route directly onto your Garmin device. Try that and see if it helps. Connect has nothing to do with it.
Wow! I didn’t know about that app, and I didn’t get the suggestion. I tried it right now briefly and it seems to show the right elevation gain! Thank you so much!
This seems to entirely solve my problem (I’ll do an actual test on my next ride sometime this week) even though it’s a bit annoying that to have such a basic function working I must rely on a third party service…
Hi. It’s not clear to me: what is the difference between the fenix 6x (sapphire) and fenix 6x pro (aside from the solar component)? Specs and features wise are all the same?
The 6x doesn’t come with maps, wifi, or music while the 6x pro (including all editions) come with music, maps, and wifi.
Here’s a link to the garmin website garming all 3: link to buy.garmin.com
That’s not correct. There is no version of the 6X that does not come with maps, wifi, or music. The only difference between the 6X Pro and Sapphire is that the Sapphire version has sapphire glass while the Pro version has Gorilla Glass.
Whoops, I thought I typed 6. The 6 does not come with those features, but the 6x does. Thanks for clearing that up.
This, and many of the other questions above, point out the fact that Garmin has way too many SKUs for the Fenix line and create consumer confusion. (I wonder if that may be partly intentional, nobody seems to be commenting on the fact that they basically raised the price $100.)
It’s funny, as soon as I saw a Garmin advert for this pop up on Facebook, I just came right here, i didn’t even bother to open the Garmin article 🙂
Love the PacePro – hopefully that trickles down to the 945 soon since I just ordered it!
Yes, the FR245/FR245M/FR945 and MARQ are all confirmed by Garmin to be getting PacePro. They’re getting me timing details as we speak.
Ray, any news on the timing?
Pending that e-mail. I volley’d it over a few hours ago along with clarification on the remainder of features. I expect I’ll probably get details back by morning. The teams are time-zone split right now with a number of them in Chamonix (France) for UTMB and the Fenix 6 launch, and the remainder back in the US.
Hey Ray, can you see if Garmin will tell you if the power glass is based on the Gorilla Glass DX or Gorilla Glass 3 blend?
link to corning.com
Thanks
I’d also like to know this? I assumed GG6, but could be any I suppose…
I’ve asked for clarification.
They confirmed they specifically use Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with the DX Coating.
Thank you.
Hi Ray,
is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with the DX Coating a special production for Garmin? Can´t find this variant on the Gorilla homepage:
link to corning.com
Or did you mean Corning Gorilla Glass DX?
Thanks
Hmm, not sure, when I asked Garmin’s Fenix lead (not a PR person), the exact wording I got back was:
“We use Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 with DX Coating.”
I can ask for clarification.
Yes, please. Thanks!
Hi Ray, any news about this?
Ok, it is Gorilla Glass DX.
link to corning.com
Two questions:
1. Are the open water swim firmware improvements coming to any of the older watches (I have the Fenix 5X)
2. Are the TrailForks feature from the Garmin Edge series coming to any of the watches?
(2) is the only reason to upgrade from the 5X.
Good question on the trailforks integration. I’d be interested if that were the case.
I was really hoping to see the TrailForks maps as well. Those maps are super useful for trail running, in addition to mountain biking. I always bring my phone and keep the TrailForks app running in addition to my Fenix, so that I know where the heck I am on new trail systems.
You can download the GPX file right from the Trailforks app and upload it to connect- all from your phone. Wish MTBProject had the same feature.
1. The F5X runs the older Mediatek GPS chipset, rather than the Sony chipset on the F6 series. So no to the OWS updates referenced in this article. But I note that a GPS firmware beta for the F5 series claiming to address OWS issues has just been released.
Thanks! How do I sign up to beta it?
How to test: Within the Garmin forums for each product you’ll find a thread about the beta. It’s just simply download it and install on your device. There’s a dedicated e-mail address for issues as well.
For the F5X and OWS, yes, it too can run into the same ‘Swim-drop’* issues of the new Sony chipset. But just way less often. Garmin is working with them too though.
(*Where a swim track just stops recording distance/GPS points randomly mid-swim, often very early in the swim)
Any news on Garmin Coach compatibility?
Hi Ray, can you tell me what the length and width of the strap on the Fenix 6S is like compared to the Forerunner 645 and Fenix 5S.
Will Garmin fenix 5 get PacePro
No. Fenix 5 is DOA for new non-bug features.
Thoughts on the durability of the solarglass? I am interested in the solar version but would forgo the feature to have the durability of the sapphire glass.
Any idea if there will be a quick-release kit – to take off the wrist and slap on a quarter-turn mount – for the 6S?
Any word on the scratch resistance of the screen on the titanium solar 6x? You can not get it with the sapphire glass, just wonder the durability. I have 5x plus DLC with the sapphire glass now and after a year of pretty abusive usage both in and outdoors there’s not a single smallest scratch. Thank you.
I’m also interested in your response to this DCR. Like this guy, I occasionally smack my watch and I’m surprised that years later (I have the 5X sapphire) – there’s not a single scratch and I wouldn’t want to go to anything less than that.
It’s hard to say. I can see a very faint scratch on my Solar unit now (only from certain angles). I don’t know what I hit, but frankly, I’m always running into things. The cave is concrete everywhere and so I’m usually whacking stuff.
Uh, already? Like the posters above, I also hate scratches. And I’m clumsy when I’m tired… So if you already have a scratch (in 1 month? of testing), the likelihood of be 3 watch going tight 1+ year without scratches is very very low.
But the solar charging is both a cool technical feature and also somewhat useful. Sigh…
Sorry for the typos above, phone autocorrect. I meant – probability of my watch going 1 year plus without scratches is very low then.
I’ve got to say, the solar feature is cool technology, but doesn’t seem to be that useful in real life scenarios. The new battery features allow you to tailor your usage to what you are doing pretty well and the increase in actual battery time that solar gives you is much less than, for instance, the increase from the 6 to the 6X. They could have made a slightly bigger watch that gave you all that with a slightly larger battery. I think solar needs to get to a point where, on low usage settings, it can actually keep up with usage, or in non activity mode, you rarely need to charge your watch.
TL/DR, If your worried about scratches, I’d just get the sapphire.
My thinking as well, I will stick with Sapphire models as per Ray’s feedback. Sadly, solar sounds like a great innovation.
I really wanted the Solar titanium model but opted for the Black DLC Sapphire for a few reasons:
-was available to buy on day one of release (and it’s already sitting on my wrist)
-price
-durability- Corning Gorilla Glass DX is known to scratch pretty easily (DX+ might have gotten me to rethink my decision)+ DLC on the bezel of the watch I went for
-solar sounds like a cool new technology but the F6X Pro already has stellar battery life so the gains are of questionable import to me
Well said everyone. I’ve decided as well, will go (again) with the sapphire version since I have the issue with scratches.
To my surprise, the price here (in Switzerland) is the same as it was for the 5X plus sapphire. For some reason, I thought the prices were higher for the 6 series… Anyway, looking forward to it.
I hope that in the future Garmin will find a way to do solar with sapphire and titanium. Not asking for much, b right? ?
Sounds like the right choice! Back when I had the F3, it got a few very minor scratches after heavy use, but they did annoy me. When F3HR came out, I upgraded and got the sapphire verdion. Not a scratch after years of everyday and heavy use. Lots of mountain hikes including climbing.
The choice this time was easy: F6 sapphire.
What GPS settings were used for the tests, with Galileo or Glonas, or just defaults?
GPS+GLONASS, which is both the default, and what Garmin recommends these days for the Sony chipset units.
For the FR935, it’s rockin’ Galileo.
The Sony chipset in the Fenix 6 does not support dual-band Galileo reception, right?
Correct. Nobody is doing that yet to be honest, though Garmin says they’re monitoring it. Right now doing so would basically whack most of the battery gains of the Sony chipset for them, and the technology still isn’t on any mainstream phones yet.
They did re-iterate they’re watching the dual-frequency space closely, but the time simply isn’t right yet.
Do you think some of the new Firstbeat features will trickle down to the F5+ of F5?
Nope. It’s in the review. If Garmin were going to trickle down those features, they wouldn’t be debuting a new watch so soon.
I am currently a Fenix 5S user, but tempted to move up to the 6 Pro, for the extra battery life, music etc. I’d love to see a photo comparison of the 5S v. the 6 to see just how much bigger it looks. Any chance Ray? 🙂
Are you saying you want to move up to the 6s Pro? Or the regular 6 Pro? If you’re looking for a 5s vs. 6s comparison, those pics are above. If you’re looking for a 5s vs. regular 6 comparison, you can just look at the 5s vs. regular 5 pics in Ray’s old review. The 6 is no smaller than the 5, except that it’s slightly less thick.
Ah perfect of course – I’m thinking of the regular 6 so yes I can see it is the same body dimensions as the 5, but just with a bit less bezel, more screen and less thick so that gives me a good idea.
Tough decisions!
Ray, any thoughts on the new nylon quick fit bands?
I think they’re stunning. I’ve got them here, and will clean off the table in a bit and take some shots and add them in. Currently the studio looks like a bomb went off. Need to do a bit of a reset.
Ugh. I was hoping you were going to say they’re a waste of money! Is there much of a difference between the ones that ship with the F6 and the ones that debuted with the Marq?
What is the weight difference between the bands for the quick fit 22 that they have available. I like the nylon bands and have the garmin fenix 6 titanium with titanium band thanks to you and clever training. I was looking at ordering either a silicone band or the nylon strap but was interested in weight comparison. Also they have on the garmin web page a jacquard weave as well ($100) price difference but wanted your thoughts.
Yeah, they’re not as nice as the MARQ ones of similiar style. 😉
Mainly cause those ones cost way more to make when all was said and done.
Note sure whether you care, but all replacement bands seem to have black buckles. Whereas the silicone bands that come with the watches have buckles that match the watch bezel. For a titanium watch, you would normally get a band with a silver buckle for instance. I was also planning on ordering a silicone band from Garmin, but after noticing this, I’ve decided to find a non-OEM version with a silver buckle instead.
I just started reading, but I already noticed I have to respond:
A couple of functions are available on the fenix 5 plus for sure:
– Added Incident Detection: If you crash your bike it notifies someone)
– Added Safety/Tracking Assistance (you can press button to send help alert to friends/family)
Time to read on, I don’t plan to buy a new watch this year, but maybe next year..
Yeah, that’s a good point – they’ve been added in the last few months – though not from the start. I’ll update.
It took a while to read all those words, although I’m not interested in all the features so I didn’t read everything with the same amount of attention.
Something that would make it even longer: the fenix 5 plus is supported by Garmin Explore, so I guess the fenix 6 series would also be supported. It is something most users wouldn’t use, but certainly for hikes and navigating around it can be very useful. I do use it to create waypoints and tracks offline and send them to the watch, even during an activity. It can also help to quickly have a larger map with you current track and navigation on the screen of your phone.
I really like the functions of the 6x solar, so I hope you are right and I can find them on all watches of a next fenix series. No problems with my 5 plus, so that will stay for at least another year.
Thanks Ray, great review. Looking at the features I think I’m in the same place as last time around with the 935 v Fenix 5, I’d rather have the lighter watch on my wrist for running. Plus the slight saving doesn’t hurt, the garmin pricing now is going nuts.
Think the only thing I’d like would be the piste maps on a 945, is there a way of doing that?
I sent over a note asking for specific clarification on that. The FR945 will get map themes, and one of those themes is ‘Ski Resort’. Just not sure if there’s a weird nuanced difference between the ski resort map theme and the ski resort database.
Do you have a list of the new items which will eventually make it to the FR945?
Thanks Ray, appreciated
Now that all three Fenix sizes have different sized screens, I took a moment to calculate the Screen over Case surface ratio.
Basically a larger number means more of the front of the watch is occupied by the screen or alternatively the bezels “seem” smaller.
Based on the screen sizes for the 6s, 6 and 6x of 1.2in (30.48mm), 1.3in (33.02mm), 1.4in (35.56mm) and case sizes of 42m, 47mm, 51mm we have the following (dimensionless ratios)
Fenix 6s: 0.527
Fenix 6: 0.494
Fenix 6x: 0.486
It is clear that even though in this generation the 6 and 6x got larger screens, the smaller 6s is still the king/queen of “mostly screen” 🙂
The situation with larger Fenix 6 is much better than the Fenix 5 where the 5s, 5, 5x achieved the following ratios:
Fenix 5s: 0.527
Fenix 5: 0.421
Fenix 5x: 0.357
Keep in mind that modern smartphones achieve ratios as high as 0.9 so watches still use relatively huge bezels which of course is also for aesthetic purposes.
Thank you for this review. I have a Fenix 5x and I have been holding off on purchasing a new watch – mostly because outside of music and a few other features, my 5x rocks and I don’t need anything else until we get something that really offers a quantum leap in metric capturing.
However – and this is a big however – I find that as I get further along in my 40s that my eyesight is getting worse. For those of us with middle aged eyes and struggle with a lot of the fine text on many of the screens, does the added screen size and resolution improve readability?
Thanks!
James
No more screwed strappins. I guess they now use the same ones that the Marqs have. Right? So normal straps might be possible?
Right. They’re just normal springbars. Though I’m not sure what the precise dimensions are (springbars come in a wide range of diameters).
PacePro + ClimbPro = Heaven?
If the PacePro feature could automatically split the course based on the ClimbPro input that would be Heaven! Instead of splitting in miles or kilometers it could auto-split in uphill / downhill / flat sections each of which could have any distance but some incline metric would be close to constant … that would be something!!!
This is not a new idea and as another poster commented, it is provided by the following site:
link to pacecalculator.com
It is actually as options are split per mile, split per km and split at height changes
Hi, are you frequently using climpro? For me it’s kind of useless because garmin connect overestimates the elevation gain (and loss) by 20 to 30%. The same gpx file has reasonable elevation differences values in other online platforms. Do you have the same problem?
Oh cool! Even Ray’s text says that:
“Also of note – is that you can create the ‘splits’ based not just on per-mile or per-kilometer, but per elevation changes. So you can divide them up between downhill sections vs uphill sections vs flats, etc… Which frankly, makes a lot of sense.”
Great review!
My Fenix 3 had the black bezel and looked terrible after a while, so I got the Fenix 5 with the stainless bezel. After a year+ it still looks new. How does the black bezel hold up now? It seems as if the object of my desire ( 46mm Pro) only comes in black…
Great job Ray (I picked out the bits I am curious about as I am not in the market currently!).
The sleep section reminded me- any idea if Garmin are planning to address the sleep times issue? As a shift worker I sometimes don’t get to bed until 0900, my pre determined tines are 2200-0600, so this shows as 0 sleep that day despite being in bed for 5-6 hours ..!
Or if anyone has any simple workarounds? My old old Fitbit used to sense sleep regardless of the time, I quite miss that function…
Cheers!
Leigh
I use the edit function in GCM. If your not exactly sure what time you went to bed (or got up) if you put it in approximately you can look at the graph and it will show when you were awake. It recalculates deep vs. light vs. awake as well and your weekly averages don’t get thrown off. It just takes a few seconds.
Is there a listing of the ski resorts included in the database of the watches? I can’t find one anywhere and would like to check some local spots.
It’s not on the watch in terms of a specific list that you can search as far as I know. I’ll ask if there’s a link to the list somewhere.
How apt is the solar glass on the 6X Pro Solar to scratching? It doesnt seem to have the sapphire glass that would make sense spending 1k on the watch. Hopefully, even though not stated on Garmin, it is just as scratch resistant as the sapphire glass in the 5X.
I found this: “both panels are fully under a single sheet of Gorilla Glass”
I’m sure the solar is much more scratch-able. The iPhone, for example, has a Corning Gorilla Glass cover on its display. Sapphire is almost impossible to scratch.
“Starting with heat acclimation, the function leverages nearby weather stations. So your unit has to have connected to Garmin Connect Mobile within 3 hours of starting your ride in order to receive that weather data”
Does connecting to GCM sometime before you start work as we’ve done many rides longer than 3 hours?
As long as it’s within 3 hours of the point you press the start button.
Cances of getting PacePro on my 945?? Hope so!!! Great review btw… just my wallet doesn’t like it so much!
Yes, PacePro is coming to the FR245/FR245M/FR945/MARQ Series.
Hi Ray
Why is Garmin not adding these features to F5 Plus? It seems like a braindead marketing decision on their part.
For whatever reason, they see the Fenix 5 Plus as ‘legacy’ now.
Legacy?
more like ripping off the customer. Garmin continually craps on their customer base.
I’m REALLY glad to see the openwater swim accuracy be that good. As someone who has been torn between the Apple watch’s perfect swim accuracy and the Garmins’ battery life I’d love to see more testing to see if it works with a larger sample size.
The solar stuff is also really cool.
Is there anything in the way of reaching out to emergency contacts witbout a phone if you need to? I remember you reviewing a totally different Garmin device which could do that even without cellular I think?
I’m still torn between stuff like the Apple Watch’s ability to “do it all” away from the phone and the longer battery life I’d need to do an Ironman, but seeing how LTE seems to affect battery life I’ve decided it’s OK if the watch can’t do TOO much in terms of calls/texts, but some way to let the family know I fell down a ditch and am dying would be cool.
I used to rant how it,’s dumb the watches don’t have music, but now that they have music/pay but not any way to emergency-I’m-stuck-in-a-ditch-notify, I found I still feel the need to drag the phone along. And my phone is better at music/pay anyways, so 🙁
That said the openwater swim accuracy and a lot of the fitness features are tempting me from my 935… not the pricetag though.
I might just go for the “Fenix 6 Plastic Edition” though…
Thanks for the review!
Yup, the Garmin inReach Mini. In fact, I tested it with the Fenix 6 as well – I just ran out of time to include it in the post (it finished uploading exactly 6 seconds before embargo time). It’ll probably make it into the V2 update at some point (along with things like updated comparison shots/weight shots/other bands/etc…).
Full review here of the inReach Mini: link to dcrainmaker.com
I have both the AW4 LTE and Garmin F5s plus.
While AW4 has a great HR sensor, and LTE + music, Garmin has actual actionable information in terms of training load and effort. AW4 has none and there are no apps unless you subscribe to a second service.
At the end of the day, I like my F5s plus more.
can you share some usage scenarios when you use Fenix versus when you use Apple Watch?
I’m also considering getting a Fenix (mainly because of battery and mapping) and would love to hear about possible use cases and caveats.
I have a 3LTE and a Fenix 5+. The Apple Watch is a tremendous smart watch. I can use Apple Pay and Wallet, get current weather right on the watch face, control playback from my iPhone for both music and podcasts (can also pair headphones to the watch itself and play from there, but I rarely do that; music and podcasts are synced automatically), can receive and answer texts (either canned responses, dictated responses, or “scribble” on the watch itself). The 5+ is very primitive compared to the Apple Watch as a smart watch.
However, the Apple Watch is a terrible “fitness device”. I don’t care about steps or monitoring my heart rate (> 0 is good enough). It can’t pair with ANT+ sensors, can’t pair with power meters, doesn’t have an always on screen, isn’t that visible in direct sunlight, it’s something of a pain to get data off of it, and it’s a watch, so it sucks for my typical spring/summer/fall activity, cycling. The 5+, on the other hand, has all of that, syncs with Garmin Connect (and then onward to Strava, etc.), and produces a FIT file that can be used elsewhere. I don’t use it for cycling, but it can do everything my Edge 830 can do except for the new MTB/ClimbPro stuff (which is fun but not essential), and can be used if the 830 isn’t available for some reason (traveling, etc.)
Great Review,
Extensive review, thoroughly written and thanks for offering all the images (and YT videos). One thing though concerning the Fenix 6 – as I‘m personally taking a closer look at the FR945 (while trying to justify owning 2 watches besides the Apple Watch) I‘m wondering how the experiences would compare.
As all research of yours and most potential customers will most probably be feature based, I‘m wondering how the run experiences differ/compare between the FR945 and the Fenix 6. you‘ve stated that it is like the 945 and a bit more but as the former is geared especially to runners (1/3 Tri-Ath) I‘m not really sure wether the Fenix6 experiences like an exact amalgam of F5 and FR945 after reading your review (as your reflection of the product is understandably very feature focused).
E.G. I’m very fond of the 945‘s intuitive HRZone display midrun, yet can‘t really make out wether the F6 Sports something like this. And as you righteously compare 945 and F6 so often it’s very hard for someone torn between both watches to find helpful input. I’m case you‘re up for it and wondering: yes, a YTvideo on how both watches compare for potential buyers like me is most probably appreciated by a lot of people.
Also, always think about the weight of the watch.
I own a Fenix 5 for a long time now and always find it a little heavy on my arm/ wrist. Especially when wearing it 24/7 and during sleep.
So, besides new stuff the lighter weight was key for me to change to the Forerunner Series.
And when I got my 945 and could wear them both for comparison I was even more surprised how light the 945 is. It feels so different for me, so much better. Sometimes the 945 even feels to light, not like the Fenix which is too much sometimes. It really feels like a heavy steal watch. (Fenix does look better though, if you only go by looks)
I started with a F3 – but had to wear the velcro strap so it didn’t bounce on my wrist when running. I loved the look of the watch, but the weight was too much.
Went to a 935 and now a 945… absolutely love the size and weight. I now never recommend a fenix watch to a runner.
Did you find “PACE” to be any more accurate and consistent (smooth) versus Fenix 5X Plus, when in Run Mode? I purchased and returned multiple 5X Plus watches, only to discover later on a BLOG that this seemed to be a known issue. Virtually impossible to run a consistent pace as it would bounce +/- 1:30 min per mile every one or two seconds. Highly curious …. your feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and as always stellar reviews.
No, I definitely don’t see fluctuations like that at all.
Then again, I rarely do. I haven’t figured out if it’s my running style (since things like arm movement and such can be accounted for with accelerometer based data smoothing atop GPS), or perhaps I’m just a consistent runner – but by and large I get pretty stable pace numbers across most devices. When I don’t (like an Apple Watch a few years ago), then ya know things are really bad!
Hi Ray do you expect the price of the 945 to go down after the fenix 6 release?
Thanks.
Nope. Slightly different target audience, and still considered a very new/premier product (only 3 months old).
As for what happens at Black Friday, who knows. Last year Garmin did actually put some of their premier watches on sale for a short timeframe as a test, a rarity for them. My understanding is that worked out pretty well.
I just bought a 5s plus (small wrist).
It looks like the 6s does not have music unless I spring for the Pro.
Is it worth returning the 5s plus and getting the 6s?
If the price difference isn’t much, I’d make the jump so keep yourself in the good graces of new features for the next 12-18 months.
Garmin has a terrible business policy when it comes to updating software … Glances widget, facepro, certainly most of the new firstbeat features can also be part of older fenixes … Eg. Apple updates (functionally not only repairs) macbook (or Watch) for 4 years or more after, Garmin does not want to add new features its not one version below, which is simply a flop that it should not forgive. Even from the price policy, where the price far exceeds the competition. Likewise, he has an app store where most of them are unusable … let the new features (widgets) charge and put them in the shop. But this is too much. Watches are the best, but the approach to the customer has much better all competition – Suunto, Polar…
The only challenge there is that in reality neither Suunto or Polar are any different there. And in fact, it would be trivial to demonstrate that Garmin actually does update older devices far more frequently than Suunto/Polar do (e.g. previous gen devices). One can look at any firmware update for any Garmin device and see that.
I don’t disagree that I think some of these features should have gone to the Fenix 5 Plus. Though, there are also cases where there simply isn’t processing power for certain things (I don’t believe any fall under that in this case). Apple has a much more powerful unit in the Apple Watch in terms of processing/space/etc, but that comes at the cost of battery (a massive cost). There’s also the simple reality that Apple basically releases one watch per year, and has a grand total of four watches (excluding size differences).
Rightly or wrongly, Garmin releases about 12-20 fitness devices per year (ignoring variants). Even if you go back just three years you’re talking some 60 devices to try and add new firmware too, test, test some more, and then release.
Which is ultimately why, aside from Apple, nobody else in this industry or even many other industries does what Apple does. Just like inversely, Apple doesn’t do what Garmin does – despite the fact that it’d be trivial for Apple to add tons of more detailed sport/fitness features. Different companies, different approaches.
Thank you for answer! You’re right about more things though…
“the only challenge there is…” – it is not entirely true, it depends on the view and business policy. For example Polar with older flagship V800 or Vantage has a five-year cycle and its updates are with new features. Yes, Polar is not as big as Garmin, it can’t release new devices as often. Polar Going for one money you have 5 years of guaranteed additional features. If the HW allows it, all compatible devices (maybe later) will complete the new functions. NOT ONLY BUG FIX. So there is bug fix update and additional features update.
Garmin’s business tactic is to sell as much HW and have the shortest cycle. Most people would welcome a longer cycle, more added functional during the cycle. People deserve to use their money for a longer period of time. And I think they would be willing to pay even a smaller monthly fee, which would guarantee the update of functions (if HW allows).
Garmin has the best sports watches on the market, but its approach to customers is simply weaker and the high price of the device is not adequate.
Except the Polar V800 was so horribly incomplete the first 2+ years they had to add features. Remember, they were adding features to catch-up, not to get ahead.
And once the Vantage came along, there were no more V800 features. So basically, just like Garmin.
I don’t think anyone’s watches stop working when new hardware comes out. Instead, it’s just our inner geeks that want to go buy the latest toys.
Everyone would like to get as mach as possible from purchase. As many new features are software only, we would like to receive them to older units as well. Apple approach is fine for me. Premium price, long time of support. Garmin would like to jump to premium as well. I wonder how they will support Marq line. Technically it’s F6Pro with fancy mods. You wrote that all F6 features will go to Marq line. Fine. Will it happen when F7 will be released? Will they release new firmware when watch will be 4 years old? Premium requires not only features, but support. Or is it only overpriced short term toy?
I doubt all new features from a watch that’s likely 14-18 months away would come back to a watch made today.
I also don’t really understand how something becomes a “overpriced short term toy” because one doesn’t get features that don’t even exist yet, at some undefined point down the road. It’s not like as of two days ago the Fenix 5 Plus that one has all of a sudden stops working.
Well, reading some of the comments here, it does look like the specific feature of “top-of-the-line Fenix watch” did matter for a lot of people, and that feature has indeed stopped working ?
Great review Ray! I have a question from the ultrarunning world about the battery life compared to the Suunto 9. Any idea what battery life would be with GPS on highest accuracy, but other battery draining features turned off (HR, music, etc)? And does this have an ability like the Suunto 9 to switch to a less draining GPS option mid-activity, with a menu that show how much you could extend the battery?
I’ll get them all charged to full today, and tweak some settings and see what numbers it spits out. Sensors on or off?
And yup, you can change mid-activity to another profile and it shows you how much battery per profile. Or, you can switch mid-profile to a new profile and tweak that profile in real-time to get to the numbers you need.
Sensors off. Basically trying to prioritize GPS accuracy and battery life without needing any of the other info, would only use that mode during a lonnng race.
Hi DCR,
if you leave a link for purchasing in the EU, I’ll gladly use to support you. Been really enjoying your articles and especially this one. Got to have the 6x! But I am not gonna buy from a British store as they will leave the EU and then there might be guarantee issues for me as EU citizen.
True, CT UK is (currently) in the UK. Obviously, whatever may or may not happen in the UK may or may not impact that – if things happen in a non-ideal way – they do have contingency plans outside the UK. Though honestly, the whole ‘may or may not’ happen thing has been the case for two years now. We’ll see.
However, at the non-store level, fwiw, Garmin actually has a global warranty on products. You can purchase anything, anywhere, and call support anywhere. There are some minor exceptions in certain South American countries where there’s a bit more complexity to it due to local regulations (they still support/service you, it’s just messier if purchased abroad).
Appreciate the support!
Cheers!
UK/US also sucks due 1y warranty only compared to mandatory 2y warranty in EU.
A.S. Adventure is Garmins biggest retailer in Belgium and next to 2y warranty – they offer 0 waiting replacement with NEW product (not refurb) if you have the issue with the product + warranty restarted to 2 years. (Confirmed by Brussels store rep today)
6x Pro is 100e more than with CT UK but these conditions are hard to beat…
Does the Fenix6 series have Strava segments?
Yup, same as most other Garmin devices.
Why doesn’t Garmin specify what version of bluetooth they support. It’s very annoying. Anyone know if this has Bluetooth 5.0?
Do you know if the Marq line is going to get the new software features, specifically the widget glances and increased data fields? I want to get an everyday watch but the Fenix 6 lineup looks a little too nondescript.
See post #82+83
Short version: MARQ gets everything (period).
Awesome. Thanks for the help.
Looks like my Fenix 5x+ really does 99.9% of everything the 6 line (pro) does, save for notably wrist swimming HR.
Right? features like emergency contact/incident detection, which I enjoy on my Edge 830, What is the likelyhood of these features being added via FW updates?
Thanks
you have more fields and presumably better OHR, but more datafields can be obtained through CIQ fields and OHR sucks for IT, yet if you train by power it should not matter so much
I had high hopes and was thinking about upgrading my fenix 5 right after fenix 6 is announced but clearly we have entered a period of iterative updates and optimizations; after GPS and OHR became mainstream there is no “new” technology that differentiates the watches from a functionality standpoint.
I was really looking forward to the solar charging capability but seeing it’s currently only providing a bit of a “top up” is a bit disappointing (although maybe understandable given it’s 1st gen).
If you look back at the entire history of the Forerunner and Fenix series, it’s always been iterative updates and optimizations. You have to jump a few generations for any product to look revolutionary. I assume that within a few generations, solar will have a major impact, probably more because of reduced power consumption than because of increased capacity to generate a solar charge. I wouldn’t hold my breath on solar as a complete replacement for charging cables, especially if/when LTE becomes the norm, but I do expect that we’ll get to the point where you could get to indefinite use without having to adopt a power management strategy that makes the watch barely usable. I charge the Fenix 5 every 2 days. If I could get to once/week, that would be fantastic.
Ray, thanks for another terrific review. I’ve read through the review and the comments (ok, skimmed some parts) but haven’t seen many comments about pricing relative to other options. I get it that there are many unique features here, especially for the advanced models. But what about the basic 6? How does the pricing line up with other devices? What about longitudinally (i.e. relative to ‘equivalent’ models of the F5 or other similar Garmin units)? Maybe it just me, but I find the pricing to be quite high. Now, the price might be worth it – many new features. But I am telling you now that if you throw down for an F6, you will be Jonesing for the F7 in 18 months at an additional $100 and your F6 will be worth $225. I know that Garmin is tremendously successful, but it is difficult for me to imagine the sustainability of this approach (increasingly high prices, rapid cycle time and few upgrades to previous devices).
Does anybody have long term experience with non sapphire Fenix? I always had the sapphire one and want to get the solar version but worried about scratches on the glass. Thank you.
My non-sapphire fenix 5 is now 2+ years old and there are no visible scratches at all. I am wearing it 24×7 but I do mostly running. I did hit a wall with the watch quite a few times but haven’t done mountaineering or any extreme outdoors sports.
Thank you!
Does anybody know if the silver titanium 6x pro solar will have DLC coating? Being the most expensive it should? Is it worth it buying it if it does not from the scratches stand point? Thank you.
Here’s a little chart of which has what in terms of DLC coating. Sorry it’s a bit of an eyechart, and I’m also too lazy right now to re-format it as proper text somewhere else. But, answers any questions on it at least. 🙂
I wonder if something similar to PacePro will come to the Edge 530/830 as a (slightly simpler) competitor to BestBikeSplit…?
Great review!
I’ve just ordered the 6s as a replacement for my 920xt, I have Tri HR straps, but I’m very interested in running with power. You mention a separate sensor is required for running power, would that be the run dynamics POD and if so is that already available in Running dynamics HR monitor? If not which sensor would I need?
Thanks in advance
HRM Tri, will provide running power.
So 90% things that could have just been added to the 5plus with a software update then? A bit scammy.
Ray,
Great review – really good in depth overview. How’s bluetooth headphone performance? I’ve got a 5+ and one of the best things for me is the ability to go running without my phone and still have music (paired with the army Jabra Elite 65t). I’ve found that I need to swap arms for the watch to my right arm whilst running to stop constant audio dropouts.
How does the 6 pro fair? I’d rather not take the financial hit selling/buying a new one – however if the Bluetooth was significantly improved I would.
Thanks,
Jon
You cannot add on clevertraining.co.uk Fenix 6 x pro or Shaffire version to the cart :/ Works for all other versions…
That’s definitely weird (and I can validate it). On it!
Same problem here. It is the second day that i am trying to place an order to clevertraining.co.uk with no luck yet. I’ve sent an email to the company yesterday but there were no response.
How many custom connect IQ fields (stryd or data fields) you can add to each sport ? Fenix 5X plus allow only 2 fields, anything changes in this Fenix 6X ?
I am asking the same question as well, seems no one with a review unit is interested in answering it for some reason
Apparently, only 2. DC rainmaker has confirmed this somewhere in the comment section below. I apologize for speaking before checking.
Sorry, I answered it somewhere else. Yes, only 2 CIQ data fields at a time (live in a given activity profile, you can download more apps to your watch though).
I’ll try and get some clarification on why this is still a thing. I don’t get it.
As always, thanks for that outstanding review! Just received the shipping confirmation from Clevertraining Europe for my order of an 6S Pro. Really looking forward to it. Looking at the release cycles Garmin might consider introducing a subscription based model for also for hardware 😉
Thanks for the support!
“Looking at the release cycles Garmin might consider introducing a subscription based model for also for hardware”
I think that’s inevitable. I’m undecided on whether or not it’s a good thing or a bad thing. If you’re the type of person who just ends up buying a new unit and putting the older one in a drawer till you find it 12 years later – it’s probably a good program (a great program). Whereas if you’re the type of person that resells their older devices to buy newer devices, it’s less ideal.
Obviously the software world has been doing this for years (and that discussion has been beaten to death). The hardware world also does this, but it tends to be a bit more variable as to success. I find that examples where it succeeds really well are when the manuf can ensure ‘upgrades’ to the new devices. Versus if a company says ‘Here’s our new device, you’ll get it on your program in 6 months’, then the appeal goes away quickly.
I’ve been on the Apple program for iPhones for several years. We now all use the program, so 3 iPhones. 2 to upgrade next month; one inevitably (my daughter’s), maybe mine (we’ll see what the XI or whatever they’re going to call it is like). My wife is off sync, so she won’t be getting a new one for a while. The nice thing about it is the payments are 1/24 of the retail price, so there’s no interest and no extra cost. Your new phone arrives in a box, you get a separate box to ship the old phone back. Upgrading a new phone is trivial (I think it’s down to holding the old phone nearby these days), but I usually do it old school and back up the old phone and reload the new phone from the backup. (Either way, it doesn’t actually transfer apps, merely the presence of the apps, so for a while your new phone spends a lot of time downloading from the app store.) I wish they had a similar program for the Apple Watch; if they did, I’d be wearing a 4LTE rather than a 3LTE right now, and looking forward to September 10.
But that’s Apple. Garmin with its reputation of software unreliability? Do you really want a new Garmin device that’s full of new bugs just when you got the previous one working reliably? I’m not so sure I do, although Garmin has gotten better over the years. My Edge 830 has given me little trouble, but there were still a few problems. My iPhone XS? Aside from some Bluetooth problems (maybe not Apple’s fault) I’ve had zero trouble with it. My Fenix 5+ is more than good enough for what I want it for, and I don’t think I’ll even think about replacing it until the Fenix 8 comes out unless something catastrophic happens to it.
Thanx for this GREAT review. Truly awesome.
Is it worth extra cash getting the sapphire version? Looking forward to get your opinion. Thanks
sure if you like a scratch free glass after a year of intensive use.
Very user dependent.
1) Some people are very OCD about keeping their expensive stuff in pristine condition. (Even though they will likely replace it soon!) If tiny marks that have no impact on usability, but are visible when you quint just right, bother you, then get the sapphire.
2) If you actually have a tendency to slam your watch hard into other hard surfaces. This seems pretty unlikely. Most people I run with use the same low end Garmin for years and years. I’m talking 70 miles/week, often on trails, year round, plus 24/7 wear. None of them have ever cracked a screen or scratched it in a way that affects usability.
I got the sapphire just because it was the only way to get the color I wanted.
Ray, can you bring some clarification for the Power Glass on the 6x Pro Solar? Is Power Glass a Gorilla Glass variant? In the German Garmin news release is written, the Pro Models have (only) Gorilla Glass 3. I am confused. Or is there a Power Glass lens under Gorilla Glass 3 on the 6x Pro Solar?
And another one: would a screen protector impairs the solar charging functionality?
Thanks
Yup, I’ve asked for clarification on the exact model.
I haven’t tried a screen protector. I’ll see if I can find one at a cell store during lunch and see what happens when I put it over it. It’s so-so sunny today.
Awesome, thanks Ray. Really want to know this too.
I really wonder why everybody is constantly asking questions to DC Rainmaker on this forum and why you don’t discuss / ask questions on the official Garmin forum. Cause 95 % of the questions on this forum remain unanswered anyway (just take a look around…).
Which I can understand, cause if DC Rainmaker would answer all the questions on all of the forums on his website, he would have no more time left for anything else!
Because is has always good informations. For example: that there will be an update for the climbPro feature soon (colors like as for the edge series)…You get this information in the forums first, if the update is available…
I generally try and answer the questions here that nobody else can answer.
When I have spare time, I try and go answer the remaining questions. I do think we’re well above only 5% of questions getting answered though. 😉
It also helps when you’re reading these reviews in 4-6-8 months (as I’m doing right now with the Polar Vantage M and Garmin 245 for example).
All the typical quirky questions are asked, sometimes they’re answered as well (btw thanks Ray), people still post their feedback (positive/negative) after various updates, and you end up having a nice little source of very interesting informations all in one page.
Clever training UK is not working.
WHen i click add to cart on fenix 6 pro i get to a page that says “your cart is empty”
If i add something else like a shirt, then add the fenix 6 it also empties the cart!
However fenix 6s seems to get added to the cart.
Strange bug…
Hey Martin – sorry about that!
Texting with them as we speak on the issue. Just popped up.
Hang tight (and fear not, the stock won’t go away…since…well…nobody else can order it either;) ). I’ll post back as soon as it’s fixed.
Hi Ray, this review is yet another great TOOL for us users to have close at anytime. Thanks.
I’m just curious on a thing that maybe most people will pay little to no attention at all but here it goes anyways:
Do you have any info on who has been in charge of the UI/UX design? I mean, did Garmin commissioned the visual design/interaction design (typefaces, icons, data layout, etc.) to some –say– external UI/Graphic Design studio or agency or did they do it themselves in-house?
As a visual designer myself, I’d be most interested to find out. I honestly think they have done a great job as far as I can see.
Thanks!!!
It’s all internal. Garmin has designers in-house, and then within that ones that work on specific product teams. Though, they generally attempt to share a given UI design philosophy across the product lines within a given timeframe.
Garmin very rarely outsources anything. Virtually every aspect of their operation is in-house. Even manufacturing, which is increda-rare. And when they do find something outside they like…they acquire it. 🙂
Thanks Ray, I was supposing that too. Although very little time has passed since release not a single agency I am aware of (or even design-related news feed) has claimed authory…
Cheers!
Yes, similar to autodesk “acquisitions”.
I’m waiting for Garmin/Vector to acquire Favero anytime now 😉
A small side note based on the HRM-TRI/HRM-SWIM links below: is htere a reasonable explanation why HRM-TRI is more expensive then HRM-SWIM (as far as I understand, they should be exactly same in terms of features and the only difference is the strap)?
HRM-TRI also supports Running Dynamics, whereas the HRM-SWIM doesn’t.
Speaking of that, does Garmin have a chest strap with both the running dynamics and duo ANT+ and BT?
Hello!! Just checking if the brightness and clarity of 945 is the same as Fenix 6?
Interfacing wise, seem that 945 had some fields that mirror the older Garmin watches, any chances of that changing? E.g.: more data fields etc.
I got addicted to training effect years ago when it was “accidentally” on the Vivoactive HR for two weeks. Do you think any of the training effect upgrades will ever be moved back to the Vivoactive series?
Also, I am mainly a gym rat. VO2 Max, training load, etc. seem to require gps to work on the 5s and 5s Plus? I get notifications that I need to run outside to actually get these measurements (though one time I was sick and didn’t workout for a week and I DID get a message: Training Status – DETRAINING – go figure).
Do you know if the 6 will be the same way? That most of the training effect/load etc. are only triggered with outdoor activities?
I basically pay a lot for many features I don’t need just because I like that darn Training Effect rating during my workout. It’s VERY motivating to me. I pushed through to a 4.3 yesterday. Woot.
I don’t think the outdoor message is true. I definitely get training status with indoor bike rides (true, with power), and I don’t see why indoor runs (treadmill) wouldn’t give you the same if you have heart rate. But don’t know for sure.
Hmmm. I get “Run outside twice to see status.” My 3-5 times a week in the gym doesn’t seem to count.
Thanks for your response.
Ray, your reviews are always awesome!
Any indications when these new Fenix 6 features will be available for the 945 and Marq?
Usability note/question on article comments on your site: is there any way to shrink the avatar sizes when reading the comments? I don’t believe it’s just me seeing huge avatar sizes — this makes for lots and lots of scrolling to read through the comments. Would be great to have these downsized.
Thanks!
This fall (probably sooner for some features).
Hmm, I’ve never seen the large avatar sizes, that’s odd! Can you screenshot?
Thanks for the reply, Ray.
Screenshot attached of the avatar issue. Maybe an issue with iOS but I do see it in both Safari and Chrome browsers. I’m on an iPad Pro.
Woah, that’s crazy pants! I’ll pass off to the developer support folks and see if they can help.
Thanks
I get the same on iOS (iPad), but normal on Android phone. Go figure…
Yep – same when I access via ipad
Here they are, I must have sent you an email about them some time ago.
Just dropping this in a comment for those getting comment updates:
And a bit more updates. The FR945 will get update to 6 data fields per page, and new ClimbPro gradient coloring. For all new battery modes/manager features, they’re TBD on that, maybe/maybe not. The FR245 will get swim optical HR (FR945 has already in beta). This fall at latest.
Thats a very very good news. But… there always is but. I will belive when it arrives on FR945 😉
Thats great news! I started a petition on Garmin forums so people with the 945 could voice their wishes for adding the fenix 6 features to the (few months old) 945: link to forums.garmin.com
Awesome – thanks.
Will my 945 get solar charging ?! I’d be disgusted in garmin if not, I’ve only just bought this watch!! **
** JOKE!!!
They will soon release a quick release solar add on 😉
This is great news for 945 owners. I would argue that all features that 99.99% of people will use and care about in real life will make it to the 945.
Honestly, even the 5 Plus lasted a full (slow) Ironman for me and most will race shorter distances anyway.
I just realised that despite the multitude of SKUs, the choice is limited for some combinations. E.g. you can’t get 6X with both sapphire and titanium. 6X with titanium implies the solar version. Whereas the 6 is available in the sapphire+titanium combination.
That’s been an issue for a while (e.g., if you wanted a 5s in all black, you had to get sapphire, if you wanted a silver bezel, you had to get non-sapphire). It’s already got to be really tough to keep a reasonable selection of the SKUs they have. I imagine the only way to give every possible combination would be to do something like Suunto used to do, where you can special order the combination you want from the factory.
Thanks for an excellent review!
Thanks for the extensive and informative review!
Is there no 6x Pro in titan? I prefer the lightweight gray look 🙁
I guess for titan + battery life I then need to get the Solar version, although I’d prefer sapphire glass.
The added lifetime with solar is neglectible..
wouldn’t the solar panel be very limited to converting solar to power based on the angle of your wrist?
Definitely. Especially if the sun is on the opposite side of your body (in which case, I was getting about 30% intensity). However, on the flip side, if the sun is lower in the sky, then it kinda hits it perfectly.
Clever Training UK strikes again! I ordered a 6 Pro almost immediately after it went live on their website with expedited shipping and the order was sitting at “Pending Shipment”. I phoned to see what’s happening only to be told that there are NONE IN STOCK and that nothing was due to arrive until the end of September at earliest! No idea why the website showed stock yesterday but I have now cancelled the order.
They really are a hugely rubbish retailer. I’ll just go and pay full price somewhere else.
Ray – you need to break your ties with that bunch.
Just to be clear this was ordered yesterday almost immediately after the items went live on the website. Please note that they also DO NOT have any 6X Pro stock either.
Sorry Deeko. I’ve just escalated. That’s definitely not good if so.
I know they are having issues this morning with the site (people can’t add certain Fenix 6 SKU’s to the carts). And I also know they definitely had inventory of 6X Pro yesterday (I saw the actual sheets of what came in). Hopefully at the moment the website bugs are just transient and you’re order will clearly/ship shortly as originally stated.
Hang tight!
Hi Ray,
I asked for my order to be cancelled – just placed another order elsewhere. Hope you get the issues resolved. The person who took my phone call said there was no stock of either the 6 or 6X Pro – not sure what’s going on.
Derek.
Understand. Yup, there’s already a pile of discussion about the call (since it’s definitely not true, there’s units in stock on a shelf). I’ll loop back no matter once it’s all resolved. Sorry again!
How strange (and very frustrating) – still, as I said I have now ordered elsewhere. Someone else can have the one that I would have had. Hopefully they’ll actually cancel the order properly.
Exactly the same story here, ordered the 6 Pro Sapphire, which still shows as being in stock, and they’ve placed it on back-order. Cant explain to me why it says in stock, or when they’ll arrive.
Busy going through the motion of cancelling my order now too, I guess all of the negative reviews they have are there for a reason
Agree – I thought they must have sorted themselves out after the 945 fiasco but alas no. I’m sure there will be quite a few people expecting a shiny new F6 in the next day or so that will be sorely disappointed.
Where did you end up ordering from ?
I ordered the 6x pro with them yesterday and shipment still pending….
I ordered 6xpro about 6 hours ago from clever UK, moments after order page started working. now I received tracking code, package picked up by DPD, it is on the way.
As Mulder indicated – it sounds like things are getting unclogged, untangled, and shipped out. There’s a pile of people on both sides of the Atlantic doing the untangling on some orders placed in a specific 60 minute window yesterday that caused some issues.
Again – sorry for the troubles. We had a lot of calls after the FR945 issues back in May, and one of those specific items was that I would not link to any products that they didn’t have stock on UK in-house for (hence why I got to see stock sheets for yesterday). Obviously, out of 19 SKU’s like in the US there were a few not there (but listed as such, which is fine) – but if stuff said it was there or was set to ship within a few days I wanted some proof of that. Again, I think things for those impacted yesterday should be untangled shortly if not already.
If you’re having specific issues, I’m more than happy to escalate them (seriously, please do). Hit up the contact thingy in the upper corner here on the site. It hits my e-mail a few seconds later, and I’ll hit someone on the correct side of the pond (or both sides) via text or phone call a few seconds after that. For real.
Thanks for the support!
So I spoke to support yesterday, and they assured me that they now had stock, that my order would be put as a priority, and that I’d receive a tracking number soon. I’m not expecting it to arrive over the weekend but it’s still “pending shipment “, with no tracking number or confirmation in sight – I ordered on Thursday afternoon, just after reading this review ?
I wanted to cancel yesterday to order somewhere else, but was assured that it would happen, Hopefully that trust is worthwhile and I won’t end up needing to cancel anyways ! I’ve been waiting since I broke my Apple Watch a month or 2 ago
Does Pace Pro work for cycling? Also, I’m not “blown away” by anything enough to rush out and upgrade my Fenix 5x Plus… unless I missed something?
Larger display size, more pixels, and better battery life. Plus the first beat changes. So I’m very tempted…
It doesn’t work for cycling, just running at this point.
Is there a Connect IQ-App around for the Garmin Fenix 5 which does simular things (except for including gradients)? I find it quite useful for running an Marathon. As I normale do not compete in mountain runs I would not need the gradients.
The increased number of data fields per page is great. But how many connect iq apps can be activated for each activity? It is only 2 for my fenix 5x and that’s too limiting.
Just 2. Otherwise it would have been mentioned as a novelty.
Wow, that’s a real shame. I thought maybe DC Rainmaker missed it in the review or something. Can JR or DC rainmaker confirm that only 2 connect IQ apps can be used for each activity?
Must be commercially motivated, i guess they don’t want people to beat them to new features they introduce & its a way to throttle it. That’s my ‘guess’ anyway.
Still just two on watches. Not sure why the limitation, though I highly doubt it’s commercial. My guess would be very strongly on some coding/architecture thing.
How long will it take for apps like stryd power meter to be updated for 6 series?
I believe it’s just a toggle for apps, though I’m not 100% sure. I really wish Garmin would just make apps auto-compatible for things like this, and then let app owners deal with the consequences if they’re not somehow.
Even just testing this was a PITA, there’s like 6 data fields that list as compatible with the Fenix 6 right now.
I know it’s Garmin-specific, but could you please include that info in the comparison tables?
And if Garmin’s listening: That is the only reason I’ll skip another generation. So much wasted potential… My trusted 920XT can already do two fields.
That’s actually a good one that’s not super Garmin specific (max data fields per page).
Or are you talking CIQ fields? In that case, I’ll just stick it in the review somewhere – since it still hasn’t changed on any Garmin wearable. 🙁
Yes, I meant CIQ. It hasn’t changed for wearables, but Edge devices support different numbers.
So the solar version is more prone to scratches? It’s time to upgrade my gen1 F3. Can’t decide between sapphire and solar. Is the solar worth or just a gimmick at this point?
I’ve got a non saphire F5. I wear it daily. I run, bike, hike and swim with it. In addition, I do a bit of farming. It’s not babied at all. No scratches at all.
Changed my order from the Solar Titanium to the Fenix 6X Pro Black DLC with a brown leather strap. Will be receiving it tomorrow.
I like the style better and DLC should be more durable. Also don’t think solar is a game changer with that Gorilla glass vs the more durable sapphire crystal.
Who did you order from? The discounts are good from clevertraining.co.uk but you can’t add the product to basket. Anywhere else offering in-stock discounts?
Great review as ever! Quick question on case choices, is the Titanium more resistant to damage than the DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) option?
I can see and use the PacePro feature on my Garmin Connect both on iOS and web and it offers to send to my compatible 945 device?? But on the watch, the PacePro feature doesn’t show up. Hopefully, this feature becomes available before Oct 13, would like to use during the Chicago Marathon.
Correct, the firmware update for the FR945 hasn’t been released yet. Current timing is ‘Fall’.
Hello ray,
I noticed a bunch of complains on the forum about pairing issues of 6X pro and Android phones. Are you able to pair with an Android???
I really like the look of this but am worried about the weight on the wrist of the 6Pro.
Is it really noticeable and will it bounce around a lot?
I guess it’s between this and the 945 but I like the screen better on the 6Pro.
The best review video
I believe I have all my questions except one solved
Does the solar version charge every time is exposed to light
and if yes does this affects the battery life ?
thank you in advance for your help
Maybe I overlooked it (sorry if so), but is the “usable” diameter of the watch reduced by the 1 mm wide solar strip inside of the bezel, do I have a smaller display area thereby? And is the brightness of the watch reduced by the solar panel placed under the glass?
Thanks a lot for your answer, and a great compliment for your review and your homepage at all !!!!!
Best regards
Marcus (Germany)
Any BETTER screen?
it says MiP tech, but better resolution.
I have F5+Sapphire Titanium and it is nowhere near as my old good FR235 screen. Especially outdoors I can’t see the numbers 🙁
sapphire is the glass not the screen
all sreens are MIP
I know but Sapphire glass makes the screen more “deep” and difficult to read. It is not flat glass, it is dome. I wonder if another dome is used now
Can I still charge it during an activity (in my backpack) ?
I currently own the fenix 5X Plus DLC Titanium watch. I just ordered the fenix 6x Titanium Carbon Gray DLC with Black Band. However, I wish Garmin would have offered the fenix 6x Sapphire with titanium DLC instead of stainless steel DLC. What was Garmin thinking?
My point is that I would like a 51mm fenix 6x with both the titanium DLC and sapphire glass. The solar function isn’t really that important to me; however, a titanium DLC bezel is more important to me versus sapphire glass…hence why I ordered the 6x Pro Solar with titanium DLC. LOL, I hope I explained myself well!
Jim, I agree. If I didn’t already have my 5x+ Ti Sapphire, that would be the product I want. Luckily, i am not compelled to upgrade.
Brilliant review – as expected 😉
What about USB connectivity, any idea about the transfer speed?
While charging my Forerunner 935 on my laptop, updating is done on the fly as a backup of all activities.
But copying music or map files via cable to the watch could take a long time, correct?
Great review, thank you. Quick question to those who have/had experience with Garmin’s silver titanium watches:the 6x pro solar titanium in silver does not have DLC coating from what I understand, how does it fare with scratches compared to DLC one? Or am I wrong about no DLC on silver titanium solar? Thank you.
Titanium will scratch, but the scratches will oxidize, so it ends up looking fine.
You can find some info about this on Garmin’s website. But in short, titanium is softer than stainless steel and DLC coating gives extra scratch resistance to both stainless steel and titanium. But the problem is, when DLC is scratched, there’s nothing you can do. Whereas titanium would fix itself to some degree via oxidization like JR said and can also be restored by a jeweler.
link to support.garmin.com
Hi Ray,
Any news and the stock issue for 6Xpro at CleverTraining UK ?
I also have an order stuck at the “pending shipment” status.
I don’t wish to cancel the order but will do they can’t ship…
Thanks,
It would be nice if some of the segments that someone creates on Garmin Connect could be used for the PacePro. Then the loop of Central Park, which for sure exists as a Strava segment (and can supposedly be sent to Connect), could then just be pushed to the watch.
Great review. One question on the nacho cheese dispenser. Is Garmin using free range cheese and is it keto and paleo compatible?
Thanks for the laugh.
I don’t know, but what I will tell you is that while at the grocery store tonight I found in the ‘fresh’ section with other charcuterie a small container of fresh nacho cheese. Literally labeled as such. I’ve never seen it before here in the Netherlands like that. Obviously, I got some. And then ate it.
I purchased the MARQ Expedition and the Fenix 5 Plus last week to compare, test, and then select one for an upcoming 12-day trek. I learned this morning about the Fenix 6 Plus. I kept going back and forth about which watch to select, the MARQ or the Fenix 5 Plus. However, now I am toying with the idea to scrap both and go with the Fenix 6 or 6X. Thoughts? Comments?
I’m right there with ya! I have the 5X plus. How’s the Marq?
Ray, thanks as always for a great review. Do you know whether the silver bezel on the 6 and 6S are the same color? The stock photos make it look like the 6 silver bezel is slightly darker and more premium looking than the one on the 6S (which, especially from side and angle views, looks lighter and cheaper like the one on VA3). I can’t find a store near me with these in stock to check myself.
I don’t know for certain. If I look at the big SKU sheet they gave me with all the fancy official color names, those two have identical names. But, they don’t have color codes are anything, so I can’t be sure 100%. :-/
Oh, and here’s that table again. Still on my to-do list to re-type it all up into a handy CSV table and stick it in the post.
Are all the carbon grey dlc bezels titanium?
Is everything else steel?
Thanks for a great review!
Are all the carbon grey dlc bezels titanium?
Is everything else steel unless otherwise noted?
Thanks for a great review!
Ok the $1500 ~ $950 dollar question. Ray, I’m debating the Marq Athlete vs the Fenix 6x. I currently wear a 5X Plus. It’s still good, but I crashed with it and it’s pretty beat up. I’m a competitive amateur “older” (lol) cyclist. No running, limited swimming…loads of walking, hiking too. I use data logging/analysis daily including training peaks.
I value your opinions and reviews. Your thoughts?
Thanks
Dan
I’m not sure if I’ll make your decision easier or harder, but… the MARQ Athlete will get *all* features from the Fenix 6. When all is said and done, it’ll basically be a fancy Fenix 6.
So to compare those two, simply decide based on aesthetic, and the only difference being the MARQ will have 32GB of space versus 16GB for the Fenix 6.
Showing 32GB for both my MARQ Expedition and 6x Pro Solar.
Garmin site shows 32GB for every F6 Pro models.
Good catch, late night brain fart.
I’m a little confused about the weight of the watch.
On the Garmin website the weight of the 6Pro is listed as:
Steel: 83 g (case only: 60 g)
Titanium: 72 g (case only: 49 g)
What does “case only” mean? The watch without the strap?
The 945 is simply listed as being 50 g which I assume includes the strap.
Also, have there been any improvements to the HRM sensor which will make it more accurate on heavier varieties? Ray had mentioned in the past the Fenix “X” series watches suffered from poorer HRM results due to the heavier watch wobbling during runs.
Case only means with the strap. I weighed them last night for an unboxing video, and those numbers line up to that concept.
The FR945 50g is the whole thing (strap+case).
There have been improvements in the optical HR as part of the V3 variant, but to some degree overall weight/bounce will still impact. However, the fact that all the watches are actually slightly lighter will probably help more. And in the 6S case, the lug to lug distance reduction will help because it’ll make it easier to get a better fit on your wrist on a smaller wrist.
Ok, you have confused me even more.
If Case only means with the strap, then what is the heavy weight measurement of?
Looks like a perfect device to me. Problem is that a potential 745 will probably do 95% of what the missus needs in a small package (small is best over every single feature). May just hold out a few more weeks before pulling the trigger on a 6S.
I’d be cautious about listening to the interweb Garmin rumor mill. A lot of what people say are mostly just hopes about what they want to come true. The last time Garmin released a triathlon watch in the fall was 5 years ago, and was mostly done at the time they did it as a showcase product for the introduction of Connect IQ.
That’s as close to a “definitely not happening” as you’re gonna get from Ray.
I’ve normally been on the initial bandwagon for new Fenix releases. But I’m still $$ shocked from shelling out for the 5x. Unless I can get a pirate’s booty on ebay for it. Question I didnt notice specifically mentioned But does the Solar version support music?
I’m sure somebody, somewhere in a 945 review said “don’t expect a new Fenix any time soon”.
🙁
I looked back and couldn’t find anything. But, when people have asked, I’ve been pretty consistent in saying that the Fenix lineup tends to refresh every 14-18 months, and that I expected that trend to continue. So a Fenix 5 Plus June 2018 announcement, puts a refresh at August 2019.
Another 945 vs Fenix 6 question…
I definitely have smaller wrist size so I’m comparing the 6S Pro vs the 945.
As all the features are similar I’m concentrating on the size and weight.
The screen sizes of the 6S Pro and 945 are identical. (945 bezel is bigger.)
6S Pro is physically smaller which is better.
6S Pro is a tiny bit thicker?
6S Pro is ~ 10 grams heavier? Will that feel like a lot?
Subjectively, of course…
The 945 for my money actually feels the same size or smaller than the 5s. The 6s is a different ballgame entirely. It feels quite a bit smaller.
I find 10g to be pretty unnoticeable in a watch. YMMV.
Some other type of question according Garmin and Suunto: As being a Suunto and Movescount user for decades I’m very disappointed Suunto is shutting it down (instead of finally improving it).
Because it will be difficult to take all the data to some other system and I”m sure there will be some loose, I think about switching entirely to Garmin at the same time, because it seams their watches have more features and it seams the gap to Suunto is not shrinking – it is expanding. I really liked Suunto because it is a Finnish company and I liked to support them, but …
So what the others think about this? Has someone switched from Suunto to Garmin, how did you take the data. What do you think about the featureset now and in future?
Noone will ever be able to compete with Garmin when it comes to quantity of features, that’s a fact. Now quality wise, it’s different. I take a handful of fletched-out, actionable features for serious athletes or “pros” over a myriad of consumer-grade fluff any day. These days, however, the problem with the latest line-ups from those “athlete-centric” watches by Polar, and Suunto is, that despite aiming at the “pro” or “athlete” market, they dabble in consumer-grade/smartwatch waters with just a few questionable features (SereneBreathing, SleepPlus, anyone?), while stripping off on the “pro” features (Polar has dumbed down their Orthostatic test now for the what 3rd time since the RS800CX, and replaced their perfectly actionable Recovery Status with a sub-par Recovery Pro) at the same time, which puts them neither here nor there, detracting from their reputation as makers of serious tools for serious athletes in the process.
I did when I went from an Ambit to Fenix 3.
I have all my data synced between Movescount to Garmin Connect, Endomondo and Strava
I love the map on Movescount where it changes colour coding depending on what you have selected. But that was about it now, especially with the improved mapping / route tracking features in Garmin Connect.
Got my 6x today. Everything is good, but PacePro crashes Garmin connect every time you slide the bar towards a positive split on my Android pixel 3
I would open up a bug with Garmin support so that can get iterated on quickly. I didn’t see it on iOS, but obviously, that doesn’t mean much.
I know Garmin is watching comments here, but with nearly 500 comments thus far, it’s hard for them to keep track.
just tested on a oneplus 7 pro and didn’t have this issue.
It only does it if I set it to a manual time (I used 90 minutes for half marathon, but the default 10k time crashes too) and slide the bar negative then positive.
If one were to want to set manual splits based on a wrist band, would you have to edit the file manually?
Apart from the auto sleep detection during the sleep time period, which is set manually, what about the auto daytime sleep detection? Can 6 series detect shorter naps, or is there just the manual go to sleep function?
No nap support on Garmin. 🙁
So do you think Garmon will release a Descent MkII based on the 6 series?
Any improvement in music connectivity with stronger battery?
Anyone know if the lug to lug distance only reduced on the 6s? Or is that seen in the 6 and 6x also?
Garmin shows the same quickfit strap sizes for the fenix 6 line as it does for the fenix 5+ line so they should be interchangeable.
Looks like lug-to-lug is the same on the bigger models.
Wow, I’m glad Garmin is finally adopting more Suunto-like battery/power customization. Looks like they still have a ways to go, but it’s cool nonetheless.
Literally just got a 5x plus a few weeks ago. I like it a lot, but now this comes out. Is it worth taking it back and exchanging for the 6x?
With these Fenix 6 Pro watches with mapping, can you upload maps onto the watch compatible with other garmin units, ie like gmapsupp.img from openstreetmap? I had an etrex 20 and now a gpsmapp 66 it would be great to be able to use these maps on the watch when out running trails.
Definitely yes. Same as Fenix 5X.
Another fully detialed read. Thanks!
I missed this in the Marq series but don’t remember anyone mentioning it. Looks like the 6 series will be the same.
The strap pins have change from the screw type (generally reserved for military spec and climbing watches) to spring loaded ones, they are beefy but was wondering about the change. Without having touched the 6 watches myself, the spring pins always feel flimsier.
What’s your take on them. Are they just fat or actually sturdy?
Ray, just got a 5x Plus as gift. Does it worth it to send it back and get the 6x Pro? I was looking what’s new on the 6 series and honestly only see the screen size to be interesting to me.
Stupendous review, as always. Thank you for the detailed write-up.
I’ll also be moving to Amsterdam in two weeks, so I think you’ll be the most qualified human being on the planet to answer my questions.
1) Are the models sold on CleverTraining UK the European models that come loaded with European maps? The single biggest reason I want to upgrade from my Fenix 5 Sapphire is proper map support, as I expect to be doing a lot of biking through unfamiliar areas once I move to Amsterdam.
2) With the Fenix 5 plus and up models that support maps, can I have my house/work/gym saved as locations, and then find biking directions to a saved location from anywhere in the city, like the directions features of Google Maps?
3) I see that ABN Amro: Maestro is one of the Garmin Pay supported bank/cards for the Netherlands, but from your experience, how many stores actually have NFC payment terminals in Amsterdam? For example, can you use Garmin Pay at Albert Heijn stores?
Thank you so much!
I can answer for #3:
I’m using this from ABN AMRO, just not on a Garmin watch, but on a compatible bracelet. You can pay basically anywhere (if a place accepts Maestro cards – about 90% of places, it most likely has a contactless support). So yes, Albert Heijn, Praxis, public transport etc are fully supported.
For #1: European Maps.
For #2: Yup, you can save locations.
For #3: As Pavel says. In my case, I’m on ING and Garmin doesn’t have them lit up yet. But I use Apple Pay with ING which technologically is basically the same, and it works everywhere.
Totally awesome review as always, thanks Ray. Do you have an opinion on what Garmin is going to do in the market, keeping three extremely similar products in the market, the 5, 5 plus and 6 seems that they would be competing with themselves and diluting their own market?
So the 5 was kept around with the 5 Plus to serve as a secondary tier. But with the 6 & 6 Pro, that’s basically replacing that as-is.
I expect we’ll see Garmin use the Fenix 5 lineup as low-ball Black Friday deals, and by early 2020 it’ll be gone.
I have the 5 Plus Titanium..
What is the killer feature of the 6 that mine doesn’t have? I don’t get it ? (besides ofc solar)
– The Sony chip-set means better battery life. Roughly eight extra hours of GPS at the cost of some accuracy.
– I think the new compacted widgets are a huge quality of life improvement.
– The watch itself is thinner.
– A bunch of little things. OHR while swimming, the pace thing, more data fields, pulse-ox, heat acclimation, etc. Insignificant by themselves unless you really care about something but they add up.
The killer feature is going to depend on what you want out of the watch. For me, the compact widgets and decreased thickness would be probably be enough to upgrade since it improves day-to-day wear.
I just got my fenix 6x sapphire and I tried setting up extended mode with my edge 520 plus and it freezes my watch every time. It becomes unresponsive. Have you ran into any of these issues?
Many people have mentioned concerns with scratching the screen on the uber expensive 6X solar. I’ve had great experience avoiding scratches on my Forerunners with glass screen protectors. Do you think the solar charging function would be affected by a glass screen protector if it does not alter the light as it passes through?
How long does it take to change from empty to full, through the cable without solar? The 6X Sapphire is the one I’m most interested in.