Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $699, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
And what do you want in FR 975? 😉
battery optimized LTE live tracking for safety and social reasons
Same screen/battery/features as Fenix 8 (47) in a lighter and cheaper package. Also i could live without the speaker/microphone, the diving stuff and the super waterproof buttons (never had problems before).
I basically want a 965+LTE+flashlight, I think?
-47mm 1.4″ AMOLED w/ 965-like or better battery specs (“up to 23 days battery”)
-LTE for at least 945LTE-like features, ideally something else “cool” (ok if using this reduces GPS/activity battery life, that’s understood)
-Flashlight
-Touchscreen
I’m also ok without the dive features or speaker/mic, I think.
My guess: With current technology, Garmin seems to consider LTE to be „too expensive“ (in terms of component space needed and battery penalty). And i can understand – for the majority of customers it‘s more important to get the maximum size of battery which can be crammed into these small cases instead of having e.g. 10% less battery for an LTE module.
I see the value & beauty of the FR9xx in their simplicity. Ideally a sports watch dedicated to running, perhaps a few other sports.
A watch to take off after the workout. Thus most smart watch functionalities not needed.
So for FR975 I hope for more precise measurement, better info on the screen, better readability, that kind of stuff. And perhaps functionality to sport without smartphone with you.
But I’m afraid it will develop to some cheaper Fenix.
Solar+MIP variant? I know, I know… it’s improbable
“We did forget to talk about one watch though, the Fenix E”
“Garmin forgot to talk about it, too”
Brutal :D
I’ve noticed that the Garmin Fenix E forum over at Garmin still only has one post (mine), basically asking what the point of it was and how it is different from the “classic” Epix Gen 2 apart from restyled case design and the UI. To be fair, they did try to answer my question, but their answer just kind of came across like, “well, you forgot the price, that’s different too”
The last time I saw a Garmin product forum as dead as the Fenix E forum was back when the Instinct eSports Edition came out.
Hello and thank you again for your absolutely brilliant work. great videos. The amazfit Trex 3 dropped , and I would thoroughly enjoy a deep dive comparison to Garmin, as the price is only a quarter with “apparently” similar features… In general I would like to see more tests with the cheap alternatives, nobody can pay these excessive prices. Fenix e seems do be DOA…
There’s a lot of hype about the T-Rex 3 after the videos of CTS. I also hope @Ray can review the TRex3.
I had a T-Rex 2 that had an incredible accurate GNSS even in ultra races of more than 12 hours but had that very bad OHR sensor. I find Chase the Summit’s review review totally correct, and very honest in fact.
The T-Rex 3 seems to have a better screen than the Fenix 8 (1.5 inch with 2000 nits) and if they have solved the OHR problems, it is probably a very good watch for the price (1000 euro cheaper than the pricest F8)
Amazfit is doing very good steps since they started with the (yet buggy) Cheetah and the (later) Kelvin Kiptum sponsorship and everything points that finally, this watch is their very first good watch and with a ridiculous price compared to Garmin (for what it offers). Nobody expect such a movement from Amazfit and that’s why there are so few reviews yet. But the thing is that everybody I know is very expectant to see what the TRex3 can offer
Have you realized all the software bugs people are complaining about at the “garmin forum”?
Do you know something from garmin if there will be a soon fix fir these issues?
Looking at the forum, it’s kinda a bit of a grab bag of random things. Some are personal preference things, some are UI bugs (like font sizing stuff), and some are legit issues that some people see (and others don’t).
Sifting through a few pages of legit issues, I haven’t seen some of the ones people noted (e.g. naps showing hundreds of hours), or such. I have seen ones like the surface interval resetting when you jump in the water (e.g a cannonball). But that’s more of a design aspect than a bug per see.
Either way, in terms of daily usage, I haven’t run into any bugs that are either showstoppers, or honestly even come to mind. Obviously, that’s different than general annoyances I have with the new UI design as outlined in my review.
I think you have seen the reports about the newer F8 models released by Garmin themselves (accidentally): F8 micro LED and F8 Pro (47mm) and F8 Pro (51mm). What do you think about that?
Guess I’m not going to get what I want in a Fenix (or derivative) any time soon – MIP display, no need for solar, don’t need titanium case or sapphire glass. Black bezel. 47mm.
Just a new version of what the Fenix range has been for ages, really. I don’t want my wrist lighting up like the Vegas strip / Blackpool illuminations / (insert equivalent) every time I get a notification, hence wanting a MIP display, but I’ve no need for solar and don’t really want to pay for it.
Really disappointed with the direction the range has gone in.
Ray – what’s the best place to get follow-up questions about the Fenix 8 answered by you or Des?
I’ve tried commenting on your dual YouTube video, with no luck.
Question about the current, or potential future uses of the speaker/mic:
Can you currently, or do you expect you would be able to in the future (any software incompatibilities?), have the watches with microphones read back text messages to you?
And also, to compose text responses, and send thru the watch?
Similar to how Android Auto works, while driving.
These questions assume the watch is paired to your nearby phone, but that the phone is inaccessible/outside of listening distance.
To this end, maybe the watches need something equivalent to an Android Auto mode, to take over some phone functions, while in active use.