Garmin Fenix 6

NorthCascades

I sold my F5X and some backpacking gear that never fit me well, to fund the purchase of a 6X. I thought I'd share my first impressions here. Not sure whether this will be off interest to anyone, but the way many of their watches share features it might.

Battery life is insane. On both of my Enchantments hikes, my F5X needed an external battery; even with one the battery ran out before I finished the second hike. 60 hours GPS time will get me through most backpacking trips without having to think about battery.

The watch is much more responsive and the screen is much better, compared to the F5X. Watch faces and widgets are improved very much. Otherwise the UI hasn't changed a great deal.

Respiration rate is only tracked during an activity. I hoped this would be 24/7, I'm recovering from a chest injury and thought the data might be interesting.

Because of that injury, the most I can say about exercise with it is that setting up data screens for an activity was nice, you can see more data at a time now and group relevant things together. There are new HR gauges that fit pretty well, I hope they update it to give power gauges that work as data fields too.

aokoye

And for those who are interested, here's the DCRainmaker in-depth review and one of his two videos on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHTEJjBGrGI

NorthCascades

In my F5, in most sports I'd have one screen with my speed, time, and distance, then another screen with the same info but for the current lap. Even when I wasn't using laps, I'd have to scroll through that screen to get to other data I wanted to see. I always found that a minor annoyance.

I set up cycling, hiking, and Nordic skiing to have the overall numbers on the top of the screen, a gradual HR gauge to as a visual separator, and the lap fields below. Once I get in the habit of knowing where to look for the info I want (which one is miles, etc) they should be big enough to read.

This is a small thing, but makes me happy.

firef1y72

I'm begging santa for one of these got 735xt atm, but want the garmin coach training program and the better route function

MariannaH75

garmin coach training program is awesome,pace proracing strategies as well
I love also they added HR for swimming. Grey color instead of white-this is my new piece of jewelry!

dewd2

Which 6x model did you get?

SwindonJogger

Nice bit of kit but the cost is reaching iPhone levels. Still tempted though.

NorthCascades

dewd2 wrote: »

Which 6x model did you get?

Sapphire. As a hiker and climber, I'll scratch anything else, and a scratch (on the crystal) would bother me to no end.

NorthCascades

SwindonJogger wrote: »

Nice bit of kit but the cost is reaching iPhone levels. Still tempted though.

Ironically, I have a pretty modest phone, and bought it used. I don't have home internet, I use the hotspot feature in my phone. I'm pretty frugal about most things, but outdoor/exercise gear is an exception. I'll have this for years, and use it every day.

tlpina82

I have a 5x and was thinking about the 6x for the battery life and the upgrade to the Wrist based HRM.
Have you had a chance to try the wrist HRM in HIIT, calisthenics or any other exercise that requires lots of wrist moments?,

I found that the 5x is very inconsistent, especially on Calisthenics when pushup jacks, superman and other high impact wrist movements.
Wondering if the 6x corrects that problem.

I hate the chest strap.

BrianSharpe

I'll have to wait until my trusty 920 dies and, with any luck, the price will have come down a bit.

NorthCascades

tlpina82 wrote: »

I have a 5x and was thinking about the 6x for the battery life and the upgrade to the Wrist based HRM.
Have you had a chance to try the wrist HRM in HIIT, calisthenics or any other exercise that requires lots of wrist moments?,

I found that the 5x is very inconsistent, especially on Calisthenics when pushup jacks, superman and other high impact wrist movements.
Wondering if the 6x corrects that problem.

I hate the chest strap.

Sorry that I can't help you with an answer. I'm recovering from a broken rib. Anything that makes me breathe harder is strictly off the table for a while. If it helps I can say it hasn't given me any obviously out of range numbers, the F5X would occasionally think I was doing 40 bpm, no change in how I wear them.