Garmin 010-01733-00 Fenix 5X Sapphire - Slate Gray with Black Band

Love This Watch. Im not a big review writer but I must tell everyone that this is a great watch. I must first tell everyone that I purchased a Fenix 5 and sent it back, because the menu button didnt work. Then I purchased a forerunner 935 because of reviews that I had read. I really liked the 935. Functionality is exactly the same as the Fenix 5. I kept it for nearly a month and then decided that the plastic look just wasnt for me. I decided to upgrad to the 5x strictly for vanity reasons. It looks better. While I was concerned about the size I actually really like the larger size. Im a big guy and it doesnt look too big. Its also not heavy, like I thought it would be. I think I have looked at every fitness watch on the market. I hate the thought of charging a watch. I travel a lot and am absent minded so I will just forget. With daily exercise and no gps, I charge the watch about once ever 14 days, which works for me. I almost never take this watch off. I swim, shower and do everything else and it just works. Just getting into the different apps and watch faces. My wife has a Fitbit and I just cant understand how people charge a watch every other day and take it off to shower. I shower at the gym and would definitely lose it. In all honesty, I could live without the notifications but they also work really well. Anyway, I love this watch. Ill update my review of I find any issues.

Am in love with this watch. Came from a Fitbit Charge 2, Garmin Vivoactive HR, and this watch provides way more analytics such as recovery time, post workout review, and the HR sensitivity is a lot more consistent too. However the best part about this watch is its ability to be used in all occasions. Something which the vivoactive was terrible at. One thing I recommend though. Is that you consider the sizes carefully. I am a fan of big faced watches, and have a decent sized wrist. The standard 5 is as large as I would go. Also, I went with the non sapphire version because: 1. I dont need the wifi for syncing 2. Reviews on the Garmin forum have shown that the sapphire vs mineral: mineral is clearer. 3. Go with slate grey if you want darker. But not the black that is the only option avail for the sapphire with black silicon band. The black chips easily. And will reveal the silver metal underneath - feedback from Garmin forums. 4. Added a $7 screen protector, and I think my glass will remain as scratch free if not better than a sapphire one. 5. These watches are constantly updated with new models so often, I cant imagine myself keeping this longer than a year before wanting an upgrade - for features.

Do you want a flashy mini-phone on your arm? One that can display pictures and crystal clear multimedia? Are you concerned with getting perfect emojis on your wrist? Then this is NOT your watch. This is a TRAINING watch that looks great even in a suit, and has some smart watch features. Be warned: This is a watch for physical training above all. The screen looks great outside, but is designed for maximum battery life (lasting a week for me). What this watch CAN do is track your run, hike, bike ride, or any other activity your can imagine. Fenix will track your heart rate, elevation gain, pace, route with GPS/GLONASS, VO2 Max and training load. This watch has helped me push myself and work harder, and gives GREAT feedback about your performance. This watch is light years ahead of Apple when it comes to exercise tracking and feedback. My old Apple watch looks like a cheesy toy in comparison. But ask yourself... are you tough enough to sport this timepiece?

This is generally a watch designed for the uber-sports guy/girl, but Im not. I do some open-water swimming and general workouts, but Im no triathalon guy running 20 miles with sensors all over my body. Im pretty much a lazy bum who sits in front of a computer all day. So why the fenix?? Well, my last watch was a pebble steel. This is truly the closest comparison. Ive been through several, most recently the fitbit ionic (which I returned after a week). Here are the priorities: 1. Always On. Sorry apple watch people and ionics, etc... If Ive got a kid on one hip and a bag of groceries in the other, I dont want to be doing some weird flex/gyrate to get my hand in the right position to see the time. I want to glance down at my wrist thats already facing me and see the time. Youd think this isnt a big deal, but next time you look at your watch,bring it up level, close your eyes then roll it towards yourself and open your eyes when its facing you. Its a slight pause but thats what you get with a watch that isnt LCD. Sure, its pretty when its on, but seriously? I want the time or the text, period. 2. Sunlight. The Fenix/Pebble use a color LCD screen. In the sun its even more bright and crisp. At night, its dark, but it has a back light, just like the apple watch or fitbit ionic does, where you have to roll it towards yourself, or pick it up just right (except its much more adjustable). Like most people, however, I dont hang out in the dark all day. When Im out and about, I want to see the time/texts 3. Readability. The Fenix/Pebble let you read the entire text or email. I dont know why, but the ionic didnt let me see anything but the date, part of the subject and who it was from. The fenix lets you see that and then read the rest if you want. (like the pebble). 4. Connectability. The Fenix/Pebble both maintain a solid connection. With the ionic, I had terrible trouble keeping it connected. I had several others that were even worse, but cost less than $100, so I cant compare. 5. Interface. The Fenix/Pebble are button nav. This is a 2 way street, but think carefully about your life here. I happen to swim, meaning my hands are wet and that isnt good for touch screens. I go to cold places where I have gloves on, and that isnt good for touch screens. It took some getting used to, but after a week or so, I could navigate around the Fenix even faster than the pebble. Its very snappy and you can reach various items from more than one direction. Pretty cool. 6. App Store. Both the Fenix and Pebble have custom apps made by both Garmin and independent programmers. Its not nearly as large a selection of programmers, but I think its coming up. Ionic actually uses a javascript/typescript base for its app, so my guess is that their app-store will grow quite faster, but I think the hardware itself has some problems that a software fix isnt going to help. The Fenix has a bunch of cool gadgets that Ill never use, but its cool to have them. If you bike or hike or do things where you need to track your GPS location and altitude and heartbeat.... the Fenix does it all. For me.... meh. Oh.... and just a note again about the #1 issue of always on. Look at the pics I have posted. Its me at work with my hand on a keyboard. If Im coding away like the geek I am, and I get an email, I want to glace at my wrist and see if thats something I can ignore and just move on without even stopping typing. If youre a coder, you know exactly how debilitating it is to take your hands off your keyboard to check something or even switch over from whatever app youre coding in to your email..... even if its just a few keystrokes.... you lose your flow.

So i bought this more for hiking and snowboarding purposes (as well as the gym), but mainly because of the map feature on here. I have yet to try it out snowboarding, but myself & my wife did hit a few of the national parks in Utah recently and I found it brilliant. Firstly we had been hiking in one of the canyons around capital reef national park, Utah, and we had ventured off our trail and I was able to use the Back to Start function to get us back to our car, and it worked a treat. It did tell me a few times that i was off course, but that was because i was a few feet away from the exact path i took or i was taking a small short cut. Also, in the Canyon, especially when it got narrow, i did lose the GPS signal, but it quickly came back. People do mention the battery life, and i have to agree it was brilliant. After coming from a fitbit blaze when i had to charge every 2nd /3rd day, this shines head & shoulders above. As i mentioned earlier i took this on a hiking trip, i had hit 3 national parks for 3 days straight using the GPS function on each of my 5-6hr hikes. Little did i realize when i left for my trip was, that i forgot the charging cable. So 3 hrs into my final days hiking (and after hiking approximately 12hrs in the last 2 days), the watch told me i was running low on battery. At this point i switched off the hiking activity so it would be on the watch mode, then soon after, the power saving function kicked in. At this point my fitbit would have been getting ready to switch off completely, but not this guy. I had 3hrs of a hike left and 2 days before i arrived home from my trip, where this could be reunited with the charging cable, and guess what, by the time i arrived home 2 days later this was still going. I may have had only 3% battery life left, but after 15 hrs of hiking, with the GPS maps going, and wearing the watch for 6 days, i think that this is good going. This may be expensive, but personally, functions like the GPS (which doesnt need a phone signal) and the back to start function, if running, hiking, biking, skiing or snowboarding will be beneficial for outdoor people everywhere. I will go as far to say that i think this may even be life saving if you are the type of person who has got lost on trails before. One thing to keep in mind for those who have a partner with the similar frame of mind as my wife, she figured this to be similar a GPS for your car and cant understand why i spent so much money on something like this if you cant use it like your car or phone GPS. With so much functions packed into this, who knows maybe it can do that on here, but if i want a GPS for my car, i will use my phone or car GPS. In conclusion, this is packed full of functions i havent even discovered yet. I love the battery life, the map, the fact its waterproof and load of other activities it has on here for the things like the gym, and as an outdoors individual i see it as a worth while investment.

Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire. This is one great looking watch. Used the Garmin Connect IQ App to add the “Crystal” watch face which is awesome. Really easy to see in the daylight, I can check my data in a second while I’m riding and launching the Bike program takes only seconds. Getting used to the button functions takes a few days but it’s mostly intuitive. Adding or editing data on the Garmin Connect App couldn’t be easier. I can’t comment on the accuracy of the HR monitor but it seems to mimic my prior Fitbit Charge 2 , resting rate is the same. Sleep tracking is pretty basic and works for my purposes. The watch automatically connected to the Ant+ signal from my bike headlight but if it can do the same with my cadence counter I don’t know how to do it. Seamless data transfer from Garmin app to MyFitnessPal. So far I’m pleased with battery life, haven’t tracked it but it lasts at least a week and that’s using GPS 4-5x a week for 1.5 hour rides. I’d give it 5 stars if I could figure out how to connect it to more stuff and analyze the data easier. Fitbit’s website is more robust in that area. I’m very happy with my watch and the deal I scored on it on Prime Day.

Great watch. Looks fantastic with the champagne band. Im able to wear it in dressy as well as casual situations without problems. Love the ability to quickly swap the band to one of the silicone ones when Im going to exercise (or sleep for that matter). I use it primarily for running, weight training, hiking, and boating (mainly for the nautical speed). The battery life is also fantastic. I never have to bring a charger with me when I go on a weekend trip. I also really appreciate that the watch does not rely on a touch screen, or attempt to be a full-on smart watch. Limiting the phone-integration to just calls/messages is all I really care for, and keeps things simple. Note: the HR monitor is mostly useless during strength training/weight lifting. Luckily you can get an external HR chest strap for cheap, which definitely works better. The only other issues are that the temperature sensor doesnt seem to work particularly well, and the sleep monitor is not the most accurate, mistaking awake but not moving much with asleep pretty often. Better than nothing though, particularly for tracking how much sleep Ive been getting over the past week.

I love love love my Garmin Fenix 5S. It is an upgrade from my previous ones and I l love it. I love the color and receive many compliments over it. Ive even had runners on course point it out. I did however swap out the champagne metal band for a rubber purple one so that I didnt ruin the metal band. I use the metal band for when I go out and want to wear my watch. This product works great. I love all the features it has and use it daily. No complaints. I run Spartan races as well and it as survived two of them already without a scratch. Note: I did put a glass screen protector on it even though its the sapphire edition. For the price you cant go wrong with a little extra protection (meaning the screen protector). So far this watch has survived swimming in the the water, crawling through mud and water and rocks and obstacles. It has survived banging into things as well as being dragged across things. It does not interfere with my wrist motion especially in the bent position. Every now and again I do twist my wrist enough to hit a button but it goes back easily if you press the back button. It has a good life to the battery (I charge it every three days as I constantly use its features). The heart monitor has yet to stop working when I get sweaty or wet like the last versions did. I have nothing but great things to say about this watch.

The battery life lasts a long time compared to its competitor the Apple Watch. I charge mine once a week at most and that with daily use. I wear this while lifting at the gym to help me track set times and rest intervals while also tracking my heart rate. Its become the best motivator and tool for me to lose weight and get in shape. I absolutely love this product. I will say this. It isnt very accurate at guessing my exercises and rep count. If this is important to you then you may need to find another tracker but fortunately this isnt something I care about and what it does do works wonders for me. Ive also used this to track my swimming, hiking, dog walks, and snowboarding. May be a bit dangerous giving me my top speed on a snowboard but I want to beat my top speed every time I hit the slopes.

Its large but its great for easy at a glance updates and info. Only hassle is while hunting. When taking off a heavy pack the straps always hang up on my watch. I dont use the map but I do use the tracking. The map on a 1.2 screen is impossible to read but I suppose if you were lost itsbetter than nothing. I do use the compass, tracking, sight and go feature and way points a lot. Each night back in camp I can review my hunt on my tablet. For work I use it to tell time... Imagine that! Also for notifications and finding my phone when Ive missed placed it. Thats another cool feature, when paired with your phone your watch notifies you if you are out of range. This feature has been a great reminder for me not to leave my phone or helped not get too far from a dropped or misplaced phone.