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

The best thing about the watch, thankfully, is the watch itself. The hardware for my 5S is light years ahead of the fitbit ionic it replaced. It feels like a tank, but is light and satisfying on the wrist. Unfortunately, thats where the fun times end, because everything else about the device is desperately frustrating. Lets eat this elephant of frustration one bit at a time. Garmin Express: It just never worked. I tried it across two of my Macs, on different versions of the OS, different versions of the app. Always the same thing. It would install, but then would time out saying the background service is unreachable . I worked at it for a few hours, scouring the Internet for hints. None of them worked. I work in the tech field professionally, so I am not lacking in the skills to fix this sort of issue, but it was nevertheless fruitless. Garmin Connect: This mobile app suffers from an identity crisis. The cards you see for My Day are the kind of data-dense and friendly analysis you would expect from a modern app, but everything about managing the devices is ancient and awful. Wifi was impossible to connect to, even after I finally tricked the watch and phone in to listing the endpoints. The IQ store is awful and the controls to manage watch faces is so counterintuitive as to be indecipherable. In short, the software is a crime against usability. It is obvious that Garmin just doesnt have it together here. They made a solid watch that is hard to operate, has a terrible and ancient interface that only half works, and a desktop app (in 2018? Seriously?) that is nonfunctional. Each of these components feels like they were made separately by dev groups that actively disliked each other, and conspired to make a 700$ watch that makes you curse them in ways great and small. Also, to top it off, if you look at the Size dropdown for this listing (at least at present moment) it says that its a 5 Plus, not the plain 5. Add this piece of misrepresentation to the whole wretched experience and you will see why the process was desperately frustrating. IF you like the watch for what it can already do, and dont intend to do much beyond tracking workouts and getting a nice summary of your overall activity and vitals, it is a solid piece of hardware. For everything else, look for something more polished, less expensive, and less poorly supported.

This watch has been perfect. I had a Garmin about 6 years ago, and loved the app, but not the screen. This watch is by far a better build quality and although its not a bright, OLED, touchscreen like other watches, it is more than what I expected. This is a fully-featured watch and to summarize the quality, this is what the standard should be for military-grade products. Ive had the Apple Watch (Series 3 & 4), the Garmin Fenix 5S, and the Fitbit HR, and this watch wins out because it is highly focused on training, but is more reliable than any other option when it comes to notifications. Give this one a shot. Its worth it and now comes at a great price. I wish I would have purchased this one first, before wasting my time with the other options. (I use this watch for strength training, running, yoga, and cycling. So my review is biased by it needing to track and reflect those training sessions, most accurately.)

100% love this watch and wear it a my daily watch in addition to, of course, my training. Im not going to get into all of the specifics about the watchs functions and capabilities. Ill just let you know why I like it. Im new to the whole tracking your fitness with your watch game - so I immediately decided to just get the best of the best and go with this one. I love this watch, and how it syncs so seamlessly with the Garmin App. I love being able to have all of my runs and workouts stored in the app so effortlessly. I love having my texts and other notifications pop up on the watch instead of having to grab my phone - I am a wedding videographer full-time so its nice to be able to check texts coming in from my assistant without having to drop what Im doing to reach for my phone. No, you cant respond to notifications from the watch directly, but who cares? It would be silly to try and reply from your watch or TALK to your watch anyways. I leave my phone at home on my runs so I like how I can come home and have all of the data sync up immediately after my runs. GPS works great. HRM works well.. I cant find anything bad to say about this watch, honestly. Satisfied customer - money well spent -

I went from a Galaxy watch to this watch and at first I hated the lack of smartness to it. But in reality, I like it more now because I dont get bugged by constant alerts about my life on my wrist. I got it as a training watch but I wear it every day and all night. I love that it tracks sleep, it lasts at least a week unless you work out hours a day, it is integrated with the Connect environment, and is really one of the best adventure watches you could ask for. I wanted it for hiking, but it turned out being a big factor in me getting back into fairly decent running shape and it became my cycling computer. It works so well, that it convinced me to upgrade my Edge 800 to the 830 for the advanced metrics the new devices give and I am every trying to convince myself to get the 6X. It is huge, but I am 61 and it fits well on my wrist. It doesnt play music and music control for your phone isnt great... but the 6X has it haha. The GPS isnt all that great for serious running and the barometric altimeter has a pretty serious drift too large for reliable data in flat terrain. I live at sea level and in flat terrain and the drift is 100 ft or so throughout a bike ride or longer run. Sure, it is within the GPS accuracy but I demand a lot from my altimeter. For hiking, the altimeter can work like a charm if you properly calibrate it and such. Sometimes it was a few hundred ft off and when I pay attention to calibration it was within 50ft - closest you will really get. Overall... I love this watch and it hurts my wallet to say that I dont see getting a watch outside of the Fenix line until some other company targets this line specifically. I know there is Suunto... but they are similar enough for me to stick with the Connect ecosystem since I do multiple sports that are in the Garmin environment.

I waited about a year to price go down and after release of Fenix 6, finally got it. Arrived in his sealed box, brand new, right away connect to my app and recharged, arrive with 80% aprox of charge. This watch seems like a US version. Shouldnt be any difference anyway. I dont use maps options cause I live in outside the US. 9Battery consuption is almost the same at my old Fenix 3HR. This is the only dissappointment, however charging time is actually faster than my previous fenix. I downloaded some apps and watch faces, just make sure you need to download the IQ app on your phone. Otherwise it wont work. Some people bought the refurbished model and leaving nasty comments on this one, which is a brand new model. If yoy need US or Europe maps in the watch, you need to install the Garmin Express in a computer and download it, also it helpa to update any firmware and fix the bugs, do it ofter only make sure you dont disconnect watch by unplugging Use the USB ejection option on your windows otherwise maps wont be updated.

I bought the Fenix because I was dissatisfied with what I had - a low-end smart watch (Zenwatch II) and an older GPS watch for my activities (Forerunner 310XT). I wanted a device that would replace both, serve as both a reliable daily timepiece and a GPS watch for my runs, bike rides, and open water swims. The Fenix 5 turned out to do that and much more. Here are my biggest likes and not-likes (there arent really any dislikes). On the plus side: - Instantaneous GPS fix with no wait (older Garmin devices could take a few minutes and if not allowed sufficient time for the GPS fix would produce very inaccurate GPS data for the first few miles) - Quick charging, e.g. while I am in the shower and getting ready in the morning, means that I can wear it almost 24x7. This means I am not missing any steps and can use it for sleep tracking every night. - I dont have to travel with 2 devices, chargers, and cables. - I dont have to bring any charger on shorter business trips. If I make sure that I give it a full charge on Sunday night, I still have 30% or more of charge left when I return on Thursday. - While the visibility is not stellar and inferior to the Forerunner, and some screens and watch faces can be difficult to read for the 50+ generation, I do not need reading glasses for the basic functions and I can operate all its features equally well in complete darkness and in bright sunlight. - Tracking alpine skiing activities worked surprisingly and unexpectedly well. Just turn it on and forget. It detects runs. - The watch was easy to pair with all my legacy accessories (mainly speed/cadence sensors on 3 bikes, and chest HRM straps) - I dont need scientific HR data. When I compare the HR data between the watch and the chest strap on similar activities, the accuracy of the built-in optical HR monitor is similar enough that I dont fret when I forget the chest strap. - The voice announcements via the phone speaker are configurable and useful, e.g. for lap times. - Notifications from the phone, mainly for texts, emails, and incoming calls make it less likely to miss something important and are the main reason why I liked wearing the Zenwatch. The Fenix does this equally well. On the could be improved side: - The lack of voice operation is a small inconvenience. I appreciated the ability to make calls or send short texts with the Zenwatch while driving or riding a motorcycle or bicycle. It would be great if this could be added in future models to make it truly perfect (but I realize that this poses technical challenges and might require a compromise with waterproofness). - I did get an external temp sensor that is attached to a running shoe. The built-in temp sensor does not provide useful temperature data because it displays a mix of ambient and body temperatures. Garmin says its real purpose is for calibration of the altitude sensor. Then I dont understand why they bothered with exposing the data to the user. - The altimeter requires frequent manual calibration, especially after air travel. It does not recover on its own and will happily display negative altitudes for a while after landing. When I am on a plane, it seems to cut off at about 5,000 feet, which is odd. I have not taken it to higher elevations on the ground yet, so I dont know what it does during workouts on Mt. Everest. - I prefer the metal band even while running, but the clip makes it a bit difficult to use the Garmin handlebar mount on a bicycle. - Sizing of the metal watch band was more difficult than expected, even with all the right tools. The pins were very difficult to remove, did not have a defined click when pushing them out, and required substantial force that almost destroyed my watch band link pin remover. I took it into the pool with no issues but have not had a chance to track a swim workout yet. I hope it will produce better GPS data than the 310 when worn on the wrist in the water. I used to put the Forerunner under my swim cap to get meaningful GPS tracking in open water. With the Fenix, I fear that it might slip out from under the cap due to its size and weight. I wore it on the wrist on a mountain bike ride with good results.

Garmin continues to impress me with the level of quality in the product the more I use it and get used to its features. The only reason this product is getting 4 stars is because of the price point; I am used to paying around $200 for fitness watches/trackers but I decided this time around to get something with more features and durability. I have been a Fitbit user since 2014 with the Flex, then Surge, then Blaze and I decided that I would switch to Garmin after I purchased my husband the Garmin fenix 5X. After tinkering around with his watch and the app interface, I decided to upgrade from my 1.5 year old Blaze due to sheer number of functions it couldnt perform and I was not happy with it anymore. Once I got my watch, it was a hard adjustment, as with any brand-to-brand switch. In addition to the non-touch screen interaction, I had to familiarize myself with activity selection and start/stop buttons as well as data review functions. If you are making a drastic switch like I did, I recommend setting quite a bit of time aside to familiarize yourself with this watch as well as the Garmin Connect app. This watch is VERY customizable; there are so many things you can change to your liking that it is overwhelming (coming from a Fitbit user). I really like this aspect but it takes some getting used to. You can also customize the band; this particular package comes with a yellow band as a bonus. I do not have the intention of using this color, I actually ordered the turquoise band from Garmin. The watch itself is very sturdy feeling and has some weight to it (rugged). I prefer the round face versus the square with my old Fitbit; it just looks better in my opinion. The 5 buttons on the side of the watch feel very good when you press them. You can choose whether or not to have haptic feedback when you press the buttons as well as a tone/chime; I have both enabled. The watch face is obviously customizable as well, you dont use the pre-loaded one like Fitbit, you have the ability to download more from the Garmin Connect app and even further customize it (colors and data displayed). With the same app, you can also download widgets and add them to your watch and the order they appear. I got this watch just in time for a class I am now participating in; RIP = running improvement program. I have only ran with this watch 3 times since I got it about 1.5 weeks ago. The GPS is not exact, I was running 1.5-mile run test and it gave me my 1-mile time about 75m too soon. I am not too finicky with the distance difference. What really sent me over the moon was the VO2 max as well as the heart rate zones; not only will track this for you but based on this data it will suggest a rest time (usually 24-48 hours for me). I also loaded a yoga activity function on this watch as well; it tracked my heart rate as well as time spent in this activity. I have not tried the golfing function on this yet but I intend to use it whenever I get to the course in the springtime. I recommend this watch to anyone; you dont need to be a hardcore gym rat or marathon runner to get use out of it. I am not super athletic by any means but I have been using fitness watches for a few years now. I also like to jog/run for hobby and as job security (military member) so the fact that this watch and the app can track every aspect of my workout and improvements is amazing. If you can afford it, I think it is worth the money.

Bluetooth wont pair and stay connected, Update 5/30/2017 The latest firmware has solved the random bluetooth disconnect problem :) I have been running v3.30 for almost 3 weeks, it the bluetooth only disconnected once. Bumping the the rating back to 4 stars Bluetooth wont pair and stay connected, Update 5/10/2017 Sent the 5s to Garmin, they wont send out the replace until they receive the defected unit. Took 2 weeks to receive my replacement unit. The replace unit does connect however, randomly once to twice a day the bluetooth will loose connection with the phone... Contact tech support, they claimed a new firmware is about to release, they want me to download the new firmware to see if fixes the problem. I have another week before my 30 return policy expires with Amazon, I hope Garmin releases the new firmware in time and fixes the problem... Bluetooth wont pair and stay connected - 4/20/2017 Waited 3 months for Fenix 5S to arrived and it did this week. Everything worked as expected(I owned a Fenix 3) except it wont pair and stay connected with my Samsung S8. It would connect for 10-20 seconds then disconnect for 20-30 seconds. Did all the troubleshooting steps, eg reinstall the Garmin Connect app, rebooting the cellphone, rebooting Fenix 5S... Called Garmin tech support, on the phone with the support for 40 minutes performing all the troubleshooting steps, including connecting Fenix 5S to another cellphone(Samsung S7), same problem with 2nd cellphone. Garmin tech support is asking me to send this Fenix 5S to them and they will send me a replacement. 2 stars = spending $750 to wait for 2 weeks to get a replacement

I recently bought this Garmin sports watch at Amazon, and I thought about it for a long time, compared to other brands, and then I chose Garmin, and I caught up with this discount promotion, and I bought it, and I felt like it was worth it. First of all, I want to express this device first, really good! Secondly, although this watch is a little big for me, it means that the watch is not suitable for thin people because their arms are very thin. But that doesnt mean I like this watch. He has a full range of functions, running, walking, triathlon (though my current training is not designed to do this), swimming, and so on. Recording the number of steps and heart rate monitoring is very accurate, calorie consumption and stress monitoring are also great. It can also add some widgets, such as weather and gyroscopes, and so on. Its what I like very much. The watchs biggest feature, GPS, is very powerful. Built-in bike route maps, as well as TOPO maps, are ideal for cyclists and walkers. Very convenient, the map is very intuitive. One of the features I value is that the watch lasts a long time, and I can now guarantee that I can charge it for more than 15 days and use it normally. Watch and mobile phone can be easily connected, mobile phone app can clearly display all kinds of recorded data, very convenient. The strap can also be removed quickly if I like other types of watch band, I can also buy the corresponding watch band, very nice. On the whole, this watch is powerful, has a long life and meets my requirements. I like it very much.

I had two fitbit charge, and then I bought the versa the week it came out when my fitbit had broken a few weeks earlier. When my versa broke - I knew one thing - I was done if with fitbit if I could get my data off their system. I worked the data problem out and thought I would just buy the new iwatch that came out a few weeks before. The iwatch 5 seemed to have worked out many of the earlier issues or limitations and it seemed like a no brainer until my son in college told me that you had to charge them every night...what? How do I track sleep? That is a pain, after the fit bit I removed my clock radio and keep my watch on virtually 24 hours a day. Well back to the web for research. My dogs are on the garmin alpha 100 system, so I looked at garmin and noted that I could track my dogs with the Fenix 6, but as I read I just wasnt sure - the model I was looking at with the sapphire bezel was $900 give or take. Back to the iPhone, back to the garmin, even back to the fitbit website. Then amazon showed me this watch (Fenix 5x sapphire) - while not used to buying anything but bleeding edge tech since I was in high school this was not only out of character it seemed stupid. but then I looked at the price and thought I would much rather waste $450 than twice that. I liked the bigger size and the battery life is more than a week with everything on - and I can track my dogs on my wrist! I have waited 6 weeks to review the watch though I pretty much knew I loved it the second day (when I finally decided I needed to sit down and actually read the manual). This watch does everything - it is big but not awkward but also means I can see the time without readers! The battery life is just awesome I actually think it is twice as good as my versa and the Fenix doesnt suck for everything else like the versa (another story though). I do know this, my next watch will be a Fenix and it will be a sapphire - as rough as I am on watches sapphire bezels are a must. Whether it is Fenix 8, 7, or 6 I really dont know - but I am happy with my sport watch for the first time in way over a year. Aside from all the other compliments I can throw at it, the watch updates better than fitbit, is far more accurate - the pulse coincides perfectly with my wifes pulse-ox meter. The data tells me much more about my day. The only thing I will miss is when I would win an award like the Chinese wall or the length a penguin walks for something, but unfortunately I have won so many of those, new ones only come about once a year. Garmin reminds me a pro tool and fitbit reminds me of a DIYer model. Garmin is clearly head and shoulders above fitbit for serious training metrics - and while I dont need that level of excellence the precision and usefulness are absolutely a positive. There is nothing worse than data that really isnt accurate. I like the band and the styling, but that is just icing on the cake. The display options are extensive and based on your needs I promise that you can find not one that works but the perfect watch face. The apps actually work and dont just crash like my experience on fitbit and this watch keeps perfect time without syncing with your phone every week. I just could not be happier. If you are looking for