JUMP TO:

Week in Review–November 8th, 2020

WeekInReview22

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

Sports Tech Deals of Note:

We’re currently in the lull between Amazon Prime Day a few weeks back, and the start of Black Friday type sales in November. Still, there’s some decent options out there. Oh, you can always access all deals at dcrainmaker.com/deals

Also – Backcountry.com has a 20% off one item sale right now. While it’s not valid for most of the sports tech products you might want, it is valid on plenty of other supporting gear you probably buy. Using this link you’ll see the 20% coupon on the homepage to add to your cart. Plus, it helps support the site here.

ProductSale PriceAmazonSale Notes
AmazFit T-Rex 3 - $80 off$199This is a solid deal, especially for a watch that has offline mapping.
Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen with USB-C) - $100 off$149⚡ Both myself and my wife have been using these since last fall, after years of using the Beats Studio Buds...man, these things rock. Sure, they're good for sports, but frankly, I use them on planes, editing, and such more than anything else. In fact, I've been listening to them now for 8 hours as I type away on my flight across the ocean. Only briefly putting them in the case to top-up.
Apple AirTags (4-Pack) - 33% off!$64⚡I make no secret how much I utilize AirTags, mainly, cause they've saved my butt numerous times already. We have them in every suitcase, and every backpack, and every bike bag. They're also hidden in most of our bikes (sometimes two of them). We were able to get our cargo bike back when it disappeared, as well as figure out when all our suitcases went missing during an annual family vacation where they were (for 5 days!), and plan appropriately. Seriously, just get them.
Apple Watch Series 10 - $120 off
$399/$499 (cellular)
$279⚡ This is by far the lowest price we've seen to date for the Apple Watch Series 10. Of course, we're probably only 60 days away from an Apple Watch Series 11, but Apple has alreay announced WatchOS 26 last month, which the Series 10 gets all the new features from.
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $150 off$649⚡ This is the lowest price on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 we've seen to date. It's likely we'll see an Apple Watch Ultra 3 this September, but like the Apple Watch Series 10 above, WatchOS26 has already been announced and all the new features there go to the Ultra 2.
DJI Action 4 - $90 off$209While prior gen unit (and probably, 2 generations behind in a few weeks), it's still a very strong contender at this price point especially.
DJI Mini 4K Drone - $60 off$239If you're looking to get into flying with a DJI drone, this is a solid place to start. Of course, moreso than that, the days are very limited for how much longer you can actually buy at DJI drone in the US. So, grab them while you can.
DJI NEO - $30 off!$159This is the lowest price on this drone, and is a great option if you want a follow-me drone that's pretty hard to kill, at a price point that's still super reasonable.
Elite Riser - $250 off!$749This appears to basically just be an Uncle Amazon sale, but hey, if you've got an Elite trainer and wanted Rizer, this is a super good deal for US folks!
Fitbit Ace LTE Kids Activity Smartwatch - $100 off$129This is (by far) the lowest price we've seen on this watch to date. This is their first full smartwatch focused on kids activity tracking and gamification.
Fitbit Charge 6 - 38% off!
$159
$99⚡ This is the go-to sale price for the Fitbit Charge 6. It happens often, but it still doesn't take away from the fast that it's argueably the best bang for your buck fitness tracker out there.
Garmin Edge 1040 Cycling GPS - $150 off!$399⚡⚡ This is a very solid deal, and the lowest price we've seen to date on it.
Garmin Edge 540 Solar - $150 off$299⚡⚡This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
Garmin Edge Explore 2 - $60 off
$299
$237
Garmin Epix Pro Series - $200 off!
$899/$999
$609I believe this is the lowest price we've seen for the Epix Pro series (which has an ECG-capable HR sensor). Note that while some sites might tout $500+ off, in reality, this watch has been floating around $800 recently.
Garmin Epix Sapphire/Titanium (Gen 2) - $400+ off!$469⚡ This continues to be one of the best deals out there. While this watch won't be getting much in the way of big ticket new features, it does continue to get minor software updates - and for the money, has far more software features than any of Garmin's competitors (or for that matter, products like the Instinct 3 AMOLED lineup).
Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Solar - $100-$200 off
$799+
$499
Garmin Fenix 8 Series - $100 Off!
$999-$1,199
$899While not as good as last month's $200 off, that annual spring sale price won't likely be seen again till Black Friday-ish type sales. Thus, if you want a Fenix 8 for the summer, might as well take the $100 off and put it towards ice cream.
Garmin Forerunner 165 (Base) - $75 off!
$249/$299
$219
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S - $100 off$199This is the lowest price we've ever seen the Forerunner 255 at.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music - $100 off!
$349/$399
$249This is the lowest price on this watch to date (previous low was $299).
Garmin Forerunner 265 Series - $50 off!
$449
$399
Garmin Forerunner 55 - A Few Dollars Off
$199
$169Honestly, I just put this one in there, merely to point out you shoudn't buy it at this price. Buy the FR255 at $30 more, far better watch. This thing should be priced at $129 or something to move units.
Garmin Forerunner 955 - $150 off!$349⚡ This has been one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's down to a very strong price. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It'd be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc...). I say '$100ish', because it's usually been on forever sale at $499.
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $150 off!
$499/$599
$399See everything I said above on the Forerunner 955 base, except this one also has solar.
Garmin Forerunner 965 - $50 off
$599
$549This had been $499 for much of the spring, so $549 isn't that great of a deal.
Garmin Instinct 2 Series - $75 Off$169⚡I believe $169 is the lowest price we've ever seen for the Instinct 2. Or at least, I have no record of it being sub-$199. Very solid deal for a solid little watch.
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar$266
Garmin Instinct 2S & 2S Solar$217
Garmin Lily 2 - 20% off
$249
$199The leather version is also on sale as well.
Garmin Venu 3 - $50 off!
$449
$399
Garmin Venu 3S - $50 off$399
Garmin Vivoactive 5 - $110 off!
$299
$189This is a great deal for Garmin's little-sibling to the Venu series. It has almost all the same features as the Venu 3, except the voice calling related bits.
Garmin inReach 2 Mini Satellite Communicator (2-way) - $20 off$379This is a pretty small deal for this product. This is my defacto satellite communicator when out of coverage area, and I've used it on a number of major treks over the past two years when well outside of cellular service, both in a 24x7 tracking mode for friends and family, but also there in case of emergency. Would strongly recommend for anyone doing anything in the wilderness.
GoPro Hero 12 Black - $100 off!$279This is the older gen model, and to me, $279 seems a bit high. Get the Hero 13 Black for $50 more and have access to all the new accessories. Or, save yourself $50 and get either the DJI Action 4 (prior gen) or Insta360 Ace Pro 1 (prior gen) models.
GoPro Hero 13 Black - $70 off$329
Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $100 OFF$299
Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $100 OFF$249
HoverAir X1 Drone Combo - $100 off!$279This has become one of my favorite drones, given it's tiny size (fits in my running shorts pockets) and ease of use. Plus, you can crash the crap out of it (hundreds of times for me and my wife) without any issues. This combo includes an extra battery and fast charger.
HoverAir X1 Pro Drone Combo Kit - $155 off$599This is a solid deal on a solid drone, and one of the two main ones I use when taking videos of myself hiking or running. This includes the two extra batteries as well as the fast charger (so 3 batteries total).
Hyperice Normatec Elite Leg Recovery System - $100 off$999
Insta360 Ace Pro Action Cam - $50 off$239This is the previous edition, as the Ace Pro 2 just came out last fall. But for this price, it's hard to beat.
Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Machine by De'Longhi Delux Kit - 30% off!$149⚡ Let's be honest: This place runs on Nespresso (or, well, the knock-off pods we buy). But, the machine is Nespresso. Without it, reviews most definitely would not get done (and certainly not on time). This is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!
Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Outdoor Pizza Oven - $80 off$319I use the Fyra 12 (with wood pellets), and love it. The Karu 12 is essentialyl the newer version of that, and there's both a gas-only version, and a multi-fuel option (gas or wood). Love it!
Oura Ring 4 - $50 off!$299This is the first time we've seen a deal on the Oura Ring V4.
Peloton Bike - $300 off!$1,144This is still a solid bike, and actually one that I use at home (I have the newer Peloton Bike+ at the office). Both my wife and I use these bikes interchangeably, and while the Bike+ has a bigger screen and better accuracy, there's very little difference in the core Peloton experience. I'd still recommend this model to most people.
Peloton Bike+ is $500 off$1,995This is a solid deal for the Bike+, albeit largely the normal sale/deal price. Both my wife and I use both the Peloton Bike+ and the regular Bike (one at home, one at office) on a weekly basis. We like both. The Bike+ is more accurate than the regular bike, and also has a bigger screen and automatic resistance control. That said, the core Peloton experience isn't any different between the two - it's the same platform there.
Peloton Row - $330 off!$2,964
Peloton Tread - $300 off$2,694This is my main treadmill at home, and I really like it. I've got no complaints about it, and am happy I went with the smaller Peloton Tread versus the bigger unit.
Polar Verity Sense - 15% off
$99
$84I use this as one of my reference devices for heart rate accuracy testing.
SHOKZ OpenRun Headphones - 31% off$89
SHOKZ OpenRun Pro 2 - 31% off!$124
SHOKZ OpenRun Pro 2 Mini - 31% off!$124
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (40 & 44mm) - 50% off$159As with the Samsung Watch Ultra, Samsung is less than 24hrs away from announcing a new version of the Samsung Watch series.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra - 50% off$325Look, Samsung is less than a day away from likely announcing a new version (on July 9th), so if you buy now, you might want to wait a few extra hours after delivery to decide if you want to return it. Otherwise, this is Samsung's best watch to date.
SanDisk 1-4TB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - 30% off$128-$279⚡This is one of the two the high speed drives types I use to store the footage I'm actively video editing. I typically buy the 2TB and 4TB ones, and then eventually offload the footage onto a NAS array when I'm done.
Wahoo BOLT V2 - $30 off
$279
$279
Wahoo KICKR Bike V2
$3,999
$2,974⚡ This is one of the lowest prices we've seen the Wahoo KICKR Bike at (ever).
Wahoo KICKR CORE with Zwift Cog+Click ($75 off)
$499
$424
Wahoo KICKR MOVE - $190 off
$1,599
$1,104⚡ This is a very solid deal.
Wahoo KICKR ROLLR - $90 off
$599
$509

DCRAINMAKER.COM Posts in the Past Week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page this past week:

Tuesday: Tuesday Tidbits: Quarq Bitter Battery Warning, COROS Major Firmware Update, Garmin Major FR245/FR945 Updates
Wednesday: DJI Mini 2 In-Depth Review

A bit of a quieter week on the site, busier week on YouTube, and working behind the scenes on posts for next week. Enjoy!

YouTube Videos This Past Week:

Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!

Stuff I Found Interesting Around The Interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:

1) Full presentations from Garmin Developer Virtual Conference Now Available: You can watch most of them, and while I haven’t yet had the opportunity to listen to them all, there’s usually some solid behind the scenes nuggets in these presentations. Often especially from the business track ones (like this one). Also, semi-related, it’s cool to see nearly 30,000 people have streamed my full 45-minute-long ‘State of Sports Tech’ presentation. But even cooler is the intelligent comments in the comments section there. YouTube often has the (usually correct) reputation of the comments section being a dumpster fire. But this is a nice example of that not being the case. Also, somewhat astoundingly, assuming people made it past the first 60 seconds, almost 60% made it then the full 45 minutes. That’s crazy for YouTube. Which isn’t to be like ‘Oh, people liked it’ – but to point out that there is an audience for some long-form fitness tech on YouTube. Kinda like last year when DesFit and I did a 34+ minute long video together discussing the year in smartwatches…that now has 300,000 views!

2) AI Camera System Continuously Mistakes Bald Football (Soccer) Ref for Ball: To be fair, the guys head does look like a soccer ball.

3) Spotify Can Now Stream On Apple Watch Without Phone: But somehow, impossibly, you still can’t offline music on the Apple Watch app. Thus, you do have to be connected for this to work (such as cellular).

4) Panasonic makes gadget to rescue AirPods/etc from train tracks: This isn’t sporty tech per se, but it’s related enough that I found it super interesting.

5) Magene P325 CS Power Meter Kickstarter Launches: I generally think Magene actually makes good products. They primarily focus on the Asian market, with most depth in China. But they also partner with some major western sports tech companies for OEM of equipment.  Thus, I’m a bit surprised to see a very well established company on Kickstarter. All about marketing. I haven’t tested this unit yet. Maybe soon.

6) Fitbit posts pretty good Q3 results: Of note is that this actually wouldn’t have likely included any meaningful number of their newest Sense/Versa 3 units, since those only started shipping the last few days of the quarter.

7) And yes, Peloton posted strong Q3 results: As did Garmin, but in the case of Peloton, they managed to ship some 243,000 smart bikes out to consumers. Yet the waiting list is mostly into the December to January timeframe right now. Kinda crazy. Still, for the next quarter they’re expecting to ship roughly the same number of units out – which tells you that they haven’t quite found a way to add additional manufacturing capacity yet.

image

8) Livestream with Dave from Chase The Summit: Since there was no ‘Week in Review’ last week, I didn’t have a place to stick this. But you can sit back and listen to an hour-long chat on sports tech geekery, plus lots of random historical DCR bits and bobs.

Sports Tech Device Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software, and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one-liners are perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, and a few other firmware updates.

Garmin Edge 530/830/1030/1030 Plus Series BETA Firmware update: Mostly just minor fixes, and CIQ additions.

Garmin Venu & Vivoactive 4 Series BETA Firmware Update: Mostly just fixes, but I did notice the ability to set/calibration elevation from Garmin Connect Mobile, which is definitely new across the Garmin world.

Garmin FR245/745/945 BETA Firmware Update: Just bug fixes.

Hammerhead Karoo Series Firmware Update: Added navigation cues, quick-action menu, in-ride banners, battery saver mode, and a bunch of other things.

With that – thanks for reading all!

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked.
If you would like a profile picture, simply register at Gravatar, which works here on DCR and across the web.

Click here to Subscribe without commenting

Add a picture

*

21 Comments

  1. John

    Do you know when you’ll be able to post your review of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3? Trying to decide between it and the Venu since the Sense has not gotten great reviews. Thanks for all your in-depth analysis of these products!

  2. Ihsan

    Sorry to read Peanut 2’s mishap guys. Hope the recovery is easy and fast.

  3. Nighthawk700

    For your point about ‘if people make it past 60 seconds” of your YouTube video, I hope I’m not skewing the stats. I check every few days to see if YouTube has yet added the autocraptions so I can follow the video. (Still a no). On a slightly related note, I got the Edge 1030 and Varia 510 from the Amazon Prime Day. The 510 refused to pair with the 1030. I went through the process with Garmin support, still no dice. I sent it to Garmin HQS, and they sent me a Varia 515 as a replacement. Sweet! Pairing went without a hitch. I did a ride the other day, and found that “seeing” the multiple cars behind me, and just about to pass me, make me much more comfortable out on the road, where I can’t hear them and have sometimes been caught by surprise when they whiz pass.

    • Yeah, the auto-caption situation sucks. It’s been escalated within YouTube support and is now with engineering somewhere. Essentially, I can’t get any auto-captions generated for really any of my videos since late September. Which means I can’t then correct/fix them like I often do.

      :(

  4. Docmax

    Hi Ray – thanks for all the exhaustive reviews. Really enjoy the long format articles – such a rare pleasure in a world of 280 characters and listicles.

    I’ve noticed that Wiggle have started their Black Friday deals and have the Garmin 1030 at £299. Seems like a steal, but will I miss not having the ‘+’?

    • klaus

      I think you will miss the + ? The + has the newer low energy GPS Chip from Sony and is really faster for Route calculation.

  5. Pawel

    Thoughts on the Descent MK2?

  6. Derek Chan

    Not impressed with Magene’s quality. Got a heart rate sensor that would stop transmitting after 40mins.

    • Israel Lima

      Good to know! Did you buy the magene’s cadence sensor? I wish to know if it is good, because it is very cheap!

    • Tomasz

      I’ve used two cadence sensors from magene. The first one failed pretty quickly (after about 300 km), I think because the battery cover thread was very fragile, and it was impossible to close the battery cover tightly. Now I use the slightly updated model (called 210 I believe), and after one full season of cycling it is still good.

  7. I think the bald chap was the linesman not the ref but minor detail, still funny.

  8. Sam

    am i the only one who missed the podcast with shane ?

  9. Daryl

    I always enjoy your keynote and I can usually get my wife to listen to some of it, too. Now I have to figure out how to get her interested in the year in review videos you do. It is always fun to see you with Des or Shane.

  10. Arkie Marquez

    Am I the only one missing the Fit file podcast???

  11. Andrew

    About £227 to get a genuine dual-sided powermeter – the 40% discount is a lot so I guess retail it’ll sit nearer £400 but if they pull it off the likes of Stages charging £700 for an inaccurate Shimano based PM are going to have to have a rethink you would suspect. Whilst pedals will always be able to command a premium for their installation and portability ease, this seems like a bit of a shot across the bows of the likes of Favero as well at £600.

    Could this be a little bit of a prod that, if they get something accurate to market, we start to see another little downward jump in PM pricing (the fact that you can get an early bird single sided for £120 is mind boggling!)

    • “if they get something accurate to market”

      And thus, the most important question.

    • Bill O'Hara

      A mention of IQ squared should be made. We have seen no reviews of the actual production unit. Until a manufacturer actually ships the product being sold can we consider buying it. Too often the product being offered changes during the solicitation period. They will downgrade the offerings or it will not actually happen.

      IQ sent a product to DCR, which was entirely operable but they have subsequently changed it according to their posts.

  12. Frank Goehner

    Hmmm, another kickstarter power meter, I will put down money that it goes as well as IQ2 and Limits