Garmin watch experience

[Kayl]

I've owned two Garmin watches...I'll never own another. Both crapped out within a year. If you can do the same thing on your phone, just carry that and save some money.

Did you bother to contact support? I had a watch lug break (entirely my fault) and they replaced the watch immediately. My daughter lost her kids vivofit (it fell out of the band), they sent her a new one. I know the best support is one you don't need, but my limited experiences have been amazing.

I've had a Instinct Solar for a year now and had a Forerunner645m for several before that. I have nothing but positive things to say about them. I'll stay with Garmin for my watch needs for the foreseeable future.

 

[Casey_NorCal]

Did you bother to contact support? I had a watch lug break (entirely my fault) and they replaced the watch immediately. My daughter lost her kids vivofit (it fell out of the band), they sent her a new one. I know the best support is one you don't need, but my limited experiences have been amazing.

I've had a Instinct Solar for a year now and had a Forerunner645m for several before that. I have nothing but positive things to say about them. I'll stay with Garmin for my watch needs for the foreseeable future.

To be honest, I did not. For the $$ being dropped was a lot, I choose not to return to Garmin. I don't need the heart monitor and my phone does everything I need it to...with a bigger screen. The phone goes were I go, so no need to keep dropping $$ on watches.

 

[jKsled]

Wife has vivoactive 4s, I have the Fenix. We have fun comparing numbers. Fenix has quite a few additional features obviously. I don't think her sensors are as accurate. The touchscreen works fine, but she wishes it could take calls like a normal smartwatch. Battery life seems adequate.

My recommendation is either get the fenix or a normal smartwatch depending on your actual needs.

 

[Savage99]

Wife has vivoactive 4s, I have the Fenix. We have fun comparing numbers. Fenix has quite a few additional features obviously. I don't think her sensors are as accurate. The touchscreen works fine, but she wishes it could take calls like a normal smartwatch. Battery life seems adequate.

My recommendation is either get the fenix or a normal smartwatch depending on your actual needs.

Did you consider the Forerunner 955 at all? I’ve been looking at a GPS/ABC/smart watch and was looking at this one too.


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[Flaboy]

That's good to know. I just figured the touch screen would be handy when toggling back and forth through options on the watch, or playing music. I would for sure use it for music while running. Maybe the touch screen isn't as essential as I feel

I have a Tactix 7 Pro but it functions similarly to the Fenix line. I love the touchscreen but turn it off when I’m at work so my sweaty long sleeves don’t scroll through the watch. It really shines when you’re using the maps.

 

[txjustin]

I have the new enduro 2 and love it. Very pricey though


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[fwafwow]

I moved from an Instinct to a Fenix 7 (Saphire Solar) earlier this year. The Fenix was a splurge for sure, but I love it. It is overkill for hunting, but I also use it for hiking, running, mountain biking, and more. Even then, I am not using everything it can do. The battery life is insane.

+1 on Instinct and I’m at year 3.

@Mark at EXO - I’m curious about your upgrade decision. I think I’ve yet to use all of the capabilities of the Instinct, but I find myself sometimes wishing the screen was bigger or brighter - but more for non-outdoor uses. Then I think I should get an iWatch to pair with my iPhone, but I think the battery on the Apple sucks - needs to be recharged daily, and I like the sleep apps on the Garmin.

 

[Mark at EXO]

@fwafwow Big benefits of the Fenix over Instinct for me: Battery life, screen, GPS accuracy/reliability, advanced health/training data. I use my Fenix to track some sort of activity (with GPS) 6 days a week and I only charge it about every 3 weeks or so. I used it to track our AK Death Hike this summer and it only used maybe 15-20% of the battery (from what I recall) for a 43-hour effort. The GPS is way faster, more accurate, and more reliable. They continue to roll-out new features via updates; there was a huge upgrade released just this week.

Yes, it is overkill from a purely hunting perspective, but for a do-it-all watch I really love it and would buy it again.

Having one watch (as opposed to the Garmin and iWatch combo you mentioned) gives you a massive benefit of having one system/app/platform and always wearing the same watch, allowing the metrics to have a better look at everything you're doing (training, rest, recovery, stress, etc). You miss out on the big picture of health/training/recovery data if you are going back-and-forth between two watches or platforms.

 

[fwafwow]

@fwafwow Big benefits of the Fenix over Instinct for me: Battery life, screen, GPS accuracy/reliability, advanced health/training data. I use my Fenix to track some sort of activity (with GPS) 6 days a week and I only charge it about every 3 weeks or so. I used it to track our AK Death Hike this summer and it only used maybe 15-20% of the battery (from what I recall) for a 43-hour effort. The GPS is way faster, more accurate, and more reliable. They continue to roll-out new features via updates; there was a huge upgrade released just this week.

Yes, it is overkill from a purely hunting perspective, but for a do-it-all watch I really love it and would buy it again.

Having one watch (as opposed to the Garmin and iWatch combo you mentioned) gives you a massive benefit of having one system/app/platform and always wearing the same watch, allowing the metrics to have a better look at everything you're doing (training, rest, recovery, stress, etc). You miss out on the big picture of health/training/recovery data if you are going back-and-forth between two watches or platforms.

Thanks Mark. Yes, I would never switch between the Garmin and an Apple Watch - too much effort. I love the idea of the Apple for so many mundane “in town” things, but I can’t get past the one day battery life.

 

[Marbles]

I have a Fenix 7X, and turned the touch screen off. Button navigation is less temperamental with rain/sweat.

My wife likes her Garmin with touch screen. So, much of it is going to be personal preference.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Just sent my Instinct Solar back, had it a year and couple months. It developed a weird battery issue where it would just decide to die overnight, or go from 26 days left on charge to 3 days while I'm sitting on the computer middle of the day. I'm out of warranty but contacted support and they're replacing it for me anyway with a refurb w/90 day warranty. I don't know how I feel about it all, on one hand it crapped out, on the other hand they were great about trying to make it right. I guess that makes me neutral so far. Wife has a Forerunner 45S, no issues with that one so far, same timeframe.

 

[ptarmiganchaser]

I liked the simplicity of my Garmin Instinct and their Connect App. I will say now after 3 years the altimeter is constantly off by hundreds of feet when hiking, so I don’t really use it to track activities anymore.

 

[fwafwow]

I liked the simplicity of my Garmin Instinct and their Connect App. I will say now after 3 years the altimeter is constantly off by hundreds of feet when hiking, so I don’t really use it to track activities anymore.

Tangent - I was never a fan of the altimeter being based on air pressure and having to be recalibrated. Since watches now can have locations and maps via GPS, how hard would it be technically to list your altitude based upon your location? And maybe this approach need not be exclusive, but could be used for the recalibration, or at least as an approximation? (I have no idea if there would be some loss in accuracy with my idea.)

 

[jbaker]

I know this is an older thread but does anyone know if the newer watches (instincts/Fenix) will give you Microsoft teams messages?



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[Kayl]

I know this is an older thread but does anyone know if the newer watches (instincts/Fenix) will give you Microsoft teams messages?



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They should give you any notifications you get on your phone.

 

[displacedtexan]

I know this is an older thread but does anyone know if the newer watches (instincts/Fenix) will give you Microsoft teams messages?



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I don't use teams, but I have Outlook and a few other Microsoft apps set to not notify me on my fenix 6.

 

[TxTaurus74]

I have the new Tactix watch and with WebEx Teams I get the notifications on my watch as long as I have the app on, on my phone. Most notifications on your phone vibrate your watch and show up with the notification.

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[ChrisS]

I know this is an older thread but does anyone know if the newer watches (instincts/Fenix) will give you Microsoft teams messages?

Yes the Fenix will. I feel like the instinct did too.
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As for upgrading from the instinct to a fenix, I did as well. I had the instinct 1 and really loved it, but it has a polymer lens on the HR optical sensor. It started to give me some bad skin irritation - almost to the point of an open sore. I would take it off until I healed, put it back on and within a week the rash was back. I think some combination of saltwater, pool chemicals, sweat, insect repellant, and sunscreen eventually degraded the polymer until it started irritating my skin. The Fenix 7 has a glass cover for the sensor. Really love this watch as well as the garmin connect app.

 

[travisurkul]

@fwafwow Big benefits of the Fenix over Instinct for me: Battery life, screen, GPS accuracy/reliability, advanced health/training data. I use my Fenix to track some sort of activity (with GPS) 6 days a week and I only charge it about every 3 weeks or so. I used it to track our AK Death Hike this summer and it only used maybe 15-20% of the battery (from what I recall) for a 43-hour effort. The GPS is way faster, more accurate, and more reliable. They continue to roll-out new features via updates; there was a huge upgrade released just this week.

Yes, it is overkill from a purely hunting perspective, but for a do-it-all watch I really love it and would buy it again.

Having one watch (as opposed to the Garmin and iWatch combo you mentioned) gives you a massive benefit of having one system/app/platform and always wearing the same watch, allowing the metrics to have a better look at everything you're doing (training, rest, recovery, stress, etc). You miss out on the big picture of health/training/recovery data if you are going back-and-forth between two watches or platforms.

Do you have a 7 or 7X?

 

[Mark at EXO]

Do you have a 7 or 7X?

7x