I’ve been on the lookout for a few months for a new watch. My old watch was the Garmin Forerunner 225. I have had that watch for several years. I loved it, but it was starting to have problems. Every time I ran faster than 7 min pace, it seemed to get off by a couple seconds per mile. I needed something accurate.
Most of the girls I train with have the Fenix. They all seemed to love it. After looking at several reviews, I decided that was the watch for me. Garmin had just dropped the price and it is so pretty! I’ve now had the watch for about 2 1/2 weeks. I’ve used it for long runs, recovery runs, and workouts. I feel like I have a good feel for it. Here are the PROS and CONS I’ve found with this watch.
PROS
Pretty! Rose gold and white band. Sapphire crystal screen edition. It’s a 42mm screen, which is aimed for women. The 5x has the larger screen. I love the look. My old watch was black and had a larger face that was really big for my wrist. The band fits well on my wrist.
Pace accuracy. When I raced the Phoenix Half Marathon, I could tell my watch was off. I was running in a pack of 10-15. We would pass the mile markers and everyone’s watch would beep and mine would take a few seconds. It became further and further behind as the race went on. This new watch seems to be more accurate. A few seconds means a lot to me.
Lap pace. My very favorite improvement from my old watch. This has helped me so much to hit my intervals right on. Instead of seeing my current pace, I can see what my lap pace (per mile) will be. This was key for my last workout where I was switching paces every 1k.
Screen light. If you tip the watch up to look at it in the dark, it will automatically light up. No need to push the button. This was a nice surprise when I had a run that started in the dark and I needed to see my pace.
Heart rate accuracy. My old watch was one of the first to have the wrist heart rate monitor. It was never accurate. My easy days would show a heart rate of 180 and my workouts a heart rate of 140. The Fenix seems to be more accurate and more consistent when it comes to the heart rate.
GPS Connectivity. Connects way faster than my old watch. No more making others wait for my watch to connect. It also connects very quickly to my phone and to Garmin Connect. My other watch took awhile to download.
Smart notifications. Im not a big fan of keeping my watch on all the time and using bluetooth. It’s nice when I need it though.
Plenty of information. Weather, VO2 Max, recovery recommendation, steps, training load, race predictor (hopefully not perfectly accurate), altimeter, and the list goes on.
CONS
No music. The 5S Plus has music. This isn’t really a con for me, since I don’t usually use music. If I do use music, it’s through another source.
Heavy. Even though this watch looks smaller than my old watch, it’s heavier. I was a little disappointed when I pulled it out of the box. I thought that it would be light. It even felt heavy putting it on my wrist. The good news is that I don’t even notice it at all while running, which is the most important thing for me.
Battery life. Not as long as I expected it to be. When it is connected to bluetooth, it seems to run out much quicker. I don’t mind charging it every couple days, but it definitely wont last longer than just a few days.
Too much information. This was a pro, but it’s also a con. sometimes I don’t want to see that I’m a -1 performance or that I need to recover for 72 hours. I don’t feel like all these things are entirely accurate and it can get in your head. Also, the race times predictor is cool, but I would like to think it’s got my marathon time wrong. I assume it will be more accurate as I use it more.
I’m sure I’ll learn more as I continue to use the watch. So far I’m happy with my decision!