Garmin Fenix 5s, Premium And Rugged Smaller-Sized Multisport Gps Smartwatch, Sapphire Glass, Black,

Garmin fenix 5s, Premium and Rugged Smaller-Sized Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Sapphire Glass, Black, (Renewed)

• Premium smaller-sized (42 mm) multisport GPS watch with Elevate wrist heart rate technology
• Preloaded activity profiles for all of your sports and adventures
• Put key stats at your fingertips with the performance widget that shows your training status, training load and more
• Connected features (when paired to compatible smartphone) include smart notifications, automatic uploads to Garmin Connect and personalization through free watch faces and apps from connect IQ
• Outdoor sensors, including GPS and GLONASS satellite reception and 3-axis compass with gyroscope and barometric altimeter.Display resolution: 218 x 218 pixels

Buy Now : Garmin fenix 5s, Premium and Rugged Smaller-Sized Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Sapphire Glass, Black, (Renewed)

Brand : Amazon Renewed
Category : Electronics,GPS, Finders & Accessories,Sports & Handheld GPS,Running GPS Units
Rating : 4.6
ListPrice : US $374.99
Price : US $269.99
Review Count : 8533
ChildASIN : B01NAK0DSD,B01NBL9XGP,B01N0RWFO5,B07BTWFRYK,B01MRYHAS1,B0BLTZ9Z72,B07HMJ6172,B01N7J9APR,B01MQX3306,B07MPZDPWC,B07CY9XRPX,B01N9IH64D

Garmin fenix 5s, Premium and Rugged Smaller-Sized Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Sapphire Glass, Black, (Renewed)

• This review has been updated and its rating increased from 3 to 4+ stars since Garmin Fenix 5 software upgrades have improved Altimeter accuracy (see TIPS section below for accuracy improvement settings).While I use my Fenix 5/S for all sorts of things, this review is predominately from the perspective of the hike/climb activities. I have no association with Garmin or any other seller. I use the Fenix 5/5S to track half-day and full-day activities. Activities include on/off-trail hikes with steep mountain ascent/descents, with/without trekking poles. Climbing in mountainous terrain can present unique accuracy issues, especially for Altimeter, Ascent/Descent, and Step-Count metrics. See the TIPS section at the end of this review for ways to improve the accuracy of these metrics.---------- BACKGROUND ----------This is the fifth Garmin wearable device I\'ve used (my first 3 were FR610s, my forth F5, and fifth F5S). I was originally going to purchase a Fenix 5 (F5) when someone who was having accuracy issues asked me if I would like to try it out. While I liked the F5, my thinking evolved as follows:1) I noticed May-June F5 devices had un-explainable Altimeter accuracy issues.2) I knew historically Garmin software updates have addressed accuracy issues.3) I felt the F5 47mm was too big for me (8\" wrist) which excluded F5 and the F5X.4) Fenix 5 devices come in 3 models: 42mm F5S, 47mm F5, and 51mm F5X.5) I originally excluded the Fenix 5S as a women\'s watch due to colors shown.6) After reading reviews, I realized Fenix 5S does everything the Fenix F5 does.7) As a result, I found the Garmin Fenix 5S a welcome alternative to the F5/F5X.8) In June 2017 I ordered a black/black Fenix 5S (42mm) with Sapphire option.I picked the Sapphire option not so much for the crystal, but for direct WiFi connectivity and fast upload associated with the sapphire option. While the sapphire crystal is nice to have, I still purchased tempered glass screen protectors which I strongly recommend for hike/climb activities because these are \"contact sports\" with rock. The screen protectors for the F5S fit great. You cannot tell they\'re installed unless you bash your watch into a rock while climbing and the protector saves the watch face from being scratched.---------- IMPRESSIONS AFTER 1 DAY ----------My first impression of Garmin Fenix 5 devices is that they are precision made, especially in comparison to many other GPS watches. The buttons on the Garmin Fenix 5/S/X have a very high-quality look and feel. Within 15 minutes of setup, I found the watch friendly and easy-to-navigate. That\'s coming from someone who has only used touch screen devices until now. Button functions seemed logical and rugged with advanced features such as programmable hot-key/long-press button re-assignment.I quickly learned how to customize the display of altimeter, elapsed time, distance, lap, heart-rate, sunrise-sunset, moon rise/set/phase, and GPS info. These are all useful features for mountain wilderness climbing activity. Out of the box these watches allow customization of up to 4 fields per screen. For example, for hiking in mountainous terrain I setup one screen with: Elapsed Time, Distance, Elevation, and Heart-Rate. You can also add multiple-screens to an activity, so I added a GPS screen to show GPS signal strength, longitude, latitude, and elevation; I also added a screen with current time, sunrise, sunset and elapsed time so I can be aware of how much daylight or night time I have left during an activity. You can also add more customized screens to an activity if needed. There are also add-on screens/data-fields that allow many more fields per screen (if desired, but I found I didn\'t need these).---------- IMPRESSIONS AFTER 60 DAYS ----------I initially encountered accuracy issues with Altitude, Ascent, Descent, Heart-rate, and Distance metrics. After the first month, I\'d found partial solutions for some accuracy issues (see TIPS section below for detailed info). After 30 days, I liked my F5S enough to keep it. I had initially considered returning the device because I was unhappy with Altimeter and Heart-Rate accuracy. After 60 days I still liked the watch, but was disappointed with Altimeter inaccuracy.For the first 3 months, my Fenix 5 altimeter was off by up to 150 feet per 1000 foot gain. But after the Garmin software update in October 2017, Altimeter accuracy became greatly improved. Altimeter error was reduced from 15% error down to less than 2% elevation error. My daily workout involves an activity with known elevations. Thus my altimeter accuracy analysis is based on waypoints with known elevations compared to the amount of elevation error observed per 1000 feet ascent/descent. Before the October update, the elevation error per 1000 foot of vertical climb was accurate to only within 150 feet (15%). After that Garmin software update, the altimeter was accurate to within 20 feet per 1000 feet (2%). That\'s a BIG improvement. I now feel the Fenix 5 is an awesome watch for Hike/Climb activities (see TIPS section below for settings used to achieve this accuracy level).After 60 days I was also surprised by many features present in the Fenix 5 devices that I was not expecting. For example, I was not expecting FENIX F5 watches to be \"smart\" watches in the sense that they could display: text messages, email, and calendar notifications. The watch also includes a widget to display your mobile device\'s music track name and artist automatically. In addition to that, the Music widget lets you control Volume, Pause, Play, and Skip music on your paired mobile device. I was also surprised I could control the Spotify app on my mobile device from my Fenix F5 device. To be clear, you can use your F5 watch to control Spotify on your mobile device. What was most surprising, you can control the Spotify Desktop for Windows from your F5 device via your paired mobile device. Thus, you can control a whole home sound system\'s Volume, Pause, Play, and Skip music. These features were not something I was expecting, nor was I looking for them, but now that I have them on my wrist, I find that I use.Another pleasant surprise was Garmin Connect IQ (which is the Garmin app store). Connect IQ includes many useful additional apps, widgets, watch-faces. For example, there\'s a Weather Underground widget that lets your obtain localized Temperature, Wind, Humidity, Precipitation for the closest WU weather station near you. The WU Weather widget is especially useful for those of you who adventure in remote areas, since the standard Weather Connect IQ app from Garmin only provides weather information for major cities (which is not useful in mountain wilderness areas). In contrast, the WU widget lets you assign a \"home\" weather station. With over 100,000 weather stations in the WU database, that means you can obtain localized weather info such as Wind, Temp, Humidity, and Precipitation for your local hike activity.Battery life is also much improved over older Garmin wearable devices such as the FR610 which could only GPS track for about 5-6 hours before the battery was dead. In contrast my Garmin F5S on its first 9 hour climb used less than half the battery (with HR turned off). Thus, you can GPS track 2 day treks on a single charge on the 5S, and 3 half-day treks on a single charge (I turn OFF the wrist Heart Rate monitor except during steep ascents to conserve battery... no point burning wrist LEDs to monitor hours of level/downhill HR).---------- IMPRESSIONS AFTER 120 DAYS ----------Altimeter accuracy errors were fixed with Garmin Fenix 5S October 2017 software updates. As mentioned above, my altimeter accuracy per 1000 foot is now within 2% (within 20 feet per 1000 foot gain, and often is within 10 feet). Given these improvements in altimeter accuracy, I now use my Fenix 5S for all hike/climb activities, and have become a Fenix 5/S fan. Through software updates, the Garmin Fenix 5S became the high-quality high-precision activity tracking device I hoped it would be.I have noticed there are still several Amazon reviews that state they have Fenix F5 or F5X altimeter accuracy problems. Hopefully this is a case of folks not updating their firmware and/or their reviews, rather than defective devices. Or could altimeter accuracy be due to differences between different Fenix 5 models? If recent Garmin software updates did not fix altimeter issues on your F5/F5X device, please comment below. I\'m considering purchase of a second backup Fenix 5 device, but cannot decide whether I should consider a F5, F5S, or F5X due to concerns about this altimeter issue with different models.---------- PROS ----------1. Built-in heart-rate accuracy improved (was inaccurate until I used Tips below)2. WiFi with Sapphire (WiFi allows fast SAVE of activity without mobile phone/wires)3. Mobile Connect interface seamless (allows up/download of data, apps, widgets)4. Decent Battery Life (can do multiple/day-long GPS activities on single charge)5. Custom screens: Elapsed-Time, Distance, Elevation, Heart-Rate, GPS, Sunrise/set6. Custom activities and fields allow extreme customization of data fields/screens.7. Copy/Create activity allows Copy HIKE, Create HIKE2 with different metrics/screens.8. Custom watch faces allow extreme customization (e.g. Hands Five dial watch face)9. Text, Email, Calendar Notifications display on watch, with easy read/delete functions.10. Music app controls Volume, Pause, Play, Skip; even works with Spotify for PC.11. Up-to-speed quickly with easy-to-learn, intuitive user-interface.--------- CONS ----------1. Wrist Heart-Rate monitor not always accurate (see Heart Rate Tips below).2. Altimeter/Ascent had 10-15% error out-of-the-box (see Altimeter Tips below).3. GPS setting caused inaccurate Distance metric (see GPS Tips below).4. Step-Count is inaccurate with hike/trek poles (see Step-Count Tips below)---------- TIPS ----------1. HEART-RATE monitor is not accurate unless the watch band is VERY tight. If you find this bothersome, or cannot obtain accurate readings, use a chest strap instead for accurate heart rate info. As someone who has used a heart rate strap for 5+ years, I like the freedom of a wrist heart-rate monitor, especially since I only use heart-rate during steep ascents to avoid overreaching my HR. I especially like not having to wear a chest strap while climbing. I turn OFF the wrist heart-rate monitor while not climbing during long activities to:a) Reduce Battery drain from illuminated wrist LEDs.b) Not track low effort heart-rate activities during long hikes in/out of climb.2. ALTIMETER and Ascent/Descent metrics had accuracy issues out-of-the-box, especially in mountain terrain. The watch consistently under estimated Altimeter/Ascent metrics by 10-15% while hiking steep terrain. For example, a known 2000\' ascent instead showed as being a 1700-1800 foot ascent. I discovered the cause for this: a) Fenix 5 software needed updating, and b) the Fenix 5 watch by default uses the AUTO setting for the built-in Barometer to determine elevation changes during the hiking activity. Fenix watches have a setting that allows you to indicate whether pressure changes are due to weather conditions or due to elevation changes. The default AUTO setting for the Fenix watch allows the watch to potentially incorrectly attribute barometric pressure changes to changing weather conditions rather than to elevation changes while climbing. When climbing in steep terrain, the AUTO setting consistently resulted in underestimation of pressure changes due to elevation changes. You can eliminate these types of elevation ascent/descent accuracy issues by changing the Barometer Watch Mode setting from AUTO to ALTIMETER with the following steps:a) Long Press Up/Menu button.b) Scroll and select Settingsc) Scroll and select Sensorsd) Scroll and select Barometere) Scroll and select Watch Modef) Scroll and select ALTIMETEROnce you do this, you should also re-calibrate the altimeter at the start of a climb regardless of the barometer setting. Thus at the beginning of each hike scroll to the Altimeter Widget, select Calibrate, and either Enter Current Elevation, or Use GPS so you start with the correct elevation. It is always better to calibrate using known elevation, rather than use GPS, since Garmin advises that GPS derived elevations can be off by hundreds of feet (although from my experience hiking/climbing in the Colorado Rockies, the GPS elevation is usually accurate to within 50 feet). For more about this subject you can Google \"Troubleshooting Fenix 5 barometer\".3. GPS and DATA RECORDING settings can cause Distance accuracy issues when hiking in mountainous terrain. I almost returned my Fenix because I kept getting wildly inaccurate distance metrics when the GPS setting was set either to ULTRATRAC or to GPS. Distances were consistently 10-20% lower than the actual distance when GPS was set to UltraTrac when hiking is mountainous terrain. Distances were wildly and erratically higher when GPS was set to GPS instead of GPS+GLONASS, with distance metrics off by as much as 50% (e.g. a known 8.5 mile hike kept coming up as 12.5 miles).How to set HIKE Settings for GPS to GPS+GLONASS instead of GPS or UltraTrac:a) Long Press Up/Menu button.b) Scroll and select Settingsc) Scroll and select Activitiesd) Scroll and select Hikee) Scroll and select Hike Settingsf) Scroll and select GPS+GLONASS.How to set DATA RECORDING to Every Second to avoid inaccurate tracking:g) Repeatedly press Back button to return to main screen.h) Long Press Up/Menu button.i) Scroll and select Settingsj) Scroll and select Systemk) Scroll and select Data Recordingl) Set to Every second.4. STEP-COUNT metric can be inaccurate when hiking in steep terrain and/or with trekking/hiking poles. People who hike/climb in steep mountain terrain often use trekking/hiking poles to reduce odds of slipping/falling on scree, talus, boulder-fields, snow, ice, etc.As a result, step count can be low due to:A) Hiking with poles makes arms stationary for duration of pole plant (3-5 steps instead of 2).B) Hiking in steep terrain and slowly selecting pole placement results in little/no arm motion.C) If hiking steeps with poles, actual step-count is 1.5 to 2.5 times more than reported by F5.D) Even without poles, hiking/climbing causes use of hands to steady oneself, resulting in inaccurate step-count since it relies on arm motion.Step count assumes you take 2 steps per arm swing, but when hiking in steep terrain actual steps per pole plant are from 3 to 5 steps instead of 2, thus step count reported by F5 is much lower than your actual step count. If you are steadying yourself with poles or climbing with hands on rocks, there is less arm motion for more steps, thus step count reads low. Step count for trekking pole hikers would be greatly improved if Garmin provided an external sensor for step count. Unfortunately, the Garmin Foot Pod accessory does not update the step count metric, but rather provides an alternative distance metric, and only if GPS is unavailable (e.g. when on a treadmill or indoor track). Readers, please comment if you know of an accessory that attaches to the foot and provides an accurate step count for F5 devices as an alternative to wrist-arm movement step count.2017/11/8 – Updated review, corrected grammar, changed rating from 3 to 4+ stars due to greatly improved Altimeter accuracy. Why not 5 stars? I still occasionally experience a GPS track issue that causes a wild GPS track in valleys (I will upgrade rating when/if the issue is resolved).
• I love this watch - though my review is based on only three days of use and I\'ve sadly had to return it. The seller I purchased from (OE USA) sent me the version with EU topo maps and not the US topo maps as advertised in the description. I called them and they said the EU version was sent by mistake. I have returned it to them, they received it today, and they are sending me the US version of the watch. They were very helpful fixing the situation. There is no marking on the box to indicate that you have an EU version - you won\'t know until you go in and check the watch settings and see which TOPO maps were loaded. Make sure to check the map version right away just in case there is a limited return window on the product.I have been a Microsoft Band user since the first generation and I loved all of the data the band collected as well as the integration with my phone (yeah, I\'m in the minority as a Windows Phone user). I love the look and feel of the watch, but I miss seeing all of the data on the inside of my wrist while I am running instead of having to turn my arm over and look at the top of my wrist. I was concerned that the heart rate data wouldn\'t be as good if I wore it on the inside of my wrist so I wore it on the outside. When I get the replacement I will experiment with it on the inside of my wrist and update my review. I also really like that it doesn\'t have a touchscreen. I live in Georgia and after a run on a humid day, the condensation on the glass of my Microsoft Band made it VERY difficult to navigate any of the functions, and I usually didn\'t have a dry spot on my sweat-soaked shirt to wipe it off so I would struggle with it for a few minutes. With the buttons on the Fenix 5x, I can easily start/stop a workout with no issues in the humidity.I was very pleased with how customizable the screens are on the Fenix 5x watch as well as the data that is pushed to Garmin Connect. During the three runs I took while I had it, I also used the Endomondo app on my phone just to compare distances and they were fairly similar, though the watch always showed less mileage than the Endomondo app on my phone showed. The difference was negligible to me so it wasn\'t a big deal.I was able to get everything (mostly) working with my Windows Phone. The only functionality that was really lacking was the ability to switch songs from the watch - the only thing I could do was start and stop the music. If you are having issues getting things working with your Windows Phone (I\'m using a Lumia 950XL) I highly recommend downloading Garmin Express to your PC/Mac and syncing once through the computer. I think some firmware updates were installed to the watch when I used Garmin Express that then got everything working as expected with my phone (with the exception of the music widget) on both the watch and the phone. I did (briefly) also pair my watch with Garmin Connect on my iPhone 7 and my Surface Book and it worked fine with both of those devices, too.I really wanted to test out the mapping functionality, but if you get the watch that is not preloaded with the TOPO maps for your region, you only get some pretty high-level maps. I couldn\'t even see any of the streets near me on the maps - it was just the major state and interstate highways in the Atlanta area. I considered just keeping the watch and buying the US TOPO maps from the Garmin store separately, but the cost of the maps was too prohibitive, and they should have come with the watch anyway because that is what I was paying for when I bought the watch.I also like the haptic feedback for notifications and alarms. Having a vibrating alarm allows me to wake up in the early mornings without waking up my spouse.I used the metronome feature on two of my runs and my feelings are mixed. The first time, it really helped me pick up the pace and I ran a faster time compared to the previous day. The second run with the metronome I completely ignored it because I was running a really tough course and there was no way I could keep up. I think this is a feature that I\'ll use based on the course and what I\'m trying to accomplish. You can set the tempo, how you want it to alert you (tone, vibration, or both), and how frequently it should alert you (every beat, once every 4 beats, etc.).I can\'t wait for the exchange to be processed so I can start using it again.

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