Latest revision as of 04:54, 8 September 2018

The Garmin Fenix 5X Plus (5X+) is an upgrade to what was their top of the range running/outdoor watches, the Fenix 5X. I'm only going to look at the differences between the new F5X+ and the original F5X, so please read my review of the Garmin Fenix 5X if you're not familiar with it. At a high level, the F5X+ adds:

• Longer Battery Life, extending out to a claimed 32 hours. This might be the biggest attraction if you're likely to do longer ultramarathons.
• Support for the Galileo satellite navigation system, which could improve distance and pace information.
• Built in Pulse Oximeter, which I found this pretty useless.
• Garmin Pay, which is similar to other NFC payment systems like Apple Pay.
• Music support over Bluetooth.
• Improved navigation, including the option to use known elevation from the built-in maps to calibrate the altimeter.
• A new feature to give more insight into upcoming a sense, a feature called "ClimbPro".
• Not surprisingly, all these features costs more, adding about $150 to the base watch.

It's hard to know how much of this functionality might be retrofitted to the base F5X via a firmware upgrade. Obviously, and will want to limit this to ensure people pay the extra, but the Galileo satellite navigation is in beta on the F5X already.

Please support this site This review was made possible by readers like you buying products via my links. I buy all the products I review through normal retail channels, which allows me to create unbiased reviews free from the influence of reciprocity, or the need to keep vendors happy. It also ensures I don't get "reviewer specials" that are better than the retail versions.

1 Battery Life

If you're an ultrarunner that expecting to be running more than 24 hours, then the extra battery life is really attractive. The only other watch that goes more than 24 hours with continuous GPS is the Epson SF-810, which personally I dislike intensely. Garmin claim 32 hours, and on my test, I saw nearly 33 hours, which is quite impressive. Even if you don't need the full 32 hours, the extended battery life allows for much longer runs whilst using some of the more battery intensive features, such as route navigation. On the F5X I've found the battery life using route navigation to be around 12 hours at best, so all things being equal you might well get 16 hours from the F5X+.

2 GPS Accuracy

As regular readers will know, I do rather more sophisticated testing of GPS accuracy than simply looking at the shape of the recorded tracks. I analyze the accuracy over 32 segments of a standardized course, using statistics to understand how good each device is. I've also started to evaluate the accuracy when running over mountain bike trails. Ignoring the GPS problems noted below, the F5X+ behaves like the F5X it's based on, just as you'd expect. My testing shows that enabling Galileo improve accuracy slightly, though it's still pretty poor compared with the better devices. The good news is the F5X/F5X+ both have excellent support for the Stryd footpod, which is better than any satellite system I've tested.

This is a visual representation of the distance accuracy. This is a synthetic histogram of the results, and a good device will have a tall, narrow curve, with the peak close to the 1.0 value. If the peak is away from the 1.0, the results will be long or short overall, and the flatter the curve the more variation in inaccuracy you're likely to see.

2.1 GPS Problems

As I note in my main article on GPS Accuracy, most watches have "bad days" but I've found that both the F5X and the F5X+ have a disproportionate number of these problems. These "bad days" are not a general degradation of accuracy, but represent the watch either completely losing the GPS signal and recording a straight line, or zigzagging wildly, resulting in a massive error. I exclude these "bad days" from my results to ensure they don't skew things. However, I had a disconcerting cluster of these "bad days" and I really thought I had a hardware issue with my F5X, something that's remarkably improbable. (Hardware issues don't typically result in degraded accuracy but complete failure to acquire a signal.) When I started testing the F5X+ alongside my original F5X and saw similar issues with both units (though not at the same time) that I realized this is a more systemic issue. To see if this is a general GPS issue, I verified the accuracy of the Fenix 3 and the 920XT alongside the F5X/F5X+ and both the F3 and 920XT were fine. Then for no reason I can ascertain, these "bad days" went away.

3 Pulse Oximeter

I confess I was rather excited by the idea of having a watch with a built-in Pulse Oximeter to measure SpO₂ continuously. As is all too often the case, my optimism was wildly misplaced. I found a number of serious shortcomings.

• Like all pulse oximeters, you have to be still to get a reading, but the common struggled even when I keep my arm perfectly still by resting it on a desk.
• Even when kept perfectly still, the F5X+ would take way too long to get a reading.
• Too often, the readings were way out. I had to readings in the low to mid 80s, when my actual SpO₂ was ~97%.
• Wearing the F5X+ normally, it was rarely able to get a reading, and not surprisingly never took a reading while running.

By comparison, a cheap pulse oximeter was much easier to use. While fingertip oximeters require you to be still, they are not as bad as the F5X+. More importantly, even the cheapest fingertip oximeters have a display showing the pulse waveform, which lets you know whether they've got a good lock on your pulse, and giving a reasonable reading. I found even the cheap pulse oximeters provide far better accuracy. I have a $300 Masimo MightySat, as well as numerous cheaper pulse oximeters that I used for comparison. If you're looking for a cheap pulse oximeter, try the one of the CMS range, such as the CMS-50DL

Please support this site This review was made possible by readers like you buying products via my links. I buy all the products I review through normal retail channels, which allows me to create unbiased reviews free from the influence of reciprocity, or the need to keep vendors happy. It also ensures I don't get "reviewer specials" that are better than the retail versions.

4 Garmin Pay

There's not much to say here; the Garmin system works the same as other NFC payment devices. I found this feature to be worthwhile, and it's allowed me to buy drinks and food during a long run.

5 Music

This might be a useful approach for many runners, and I still much prefer my Sansa ClipZip and Koss PortaPro headphones. If you're planning on using Bluetooth headphones, and you want to avoid caring another device, then the Garmin implementation might suit you.

6 The Other Fenix 5 Modes

I've not tested the smaller Fenix 5/5S models, but these are also available as Fenix 5+ and Fenix 5S+. In addition to the difference is noted for the F5X, these smaller models have potentially more significant changes.

• There is some evidence that the F5+/F5S+ have overcome the problems that their base models have with connecting to sensors. These problems seem so serious that I recommend runners avoid the F5/F5S. This is backed up by Garmin's change indicating that the Fenix 5 (FCC ID IPH-A3119-00) has a redesigned antenna that reduces Wi-Fi power output while increasing Bluetooth and Ant+ power. This probably means that the newer versions of the F5/F5S may also be fixed, but personally I wouldn't take the chance. Even if you do get a newer model, a warranty repair may result in you getting an older refurbished model.
• The F5+/F5S+ have the full color topo maps that was previously only in the F5X.

Please support this site This review was made possible by readers like you buying products via my links. I buy all the products I review through normal retail channels, which allows me to create unbiased reviews free from the influence of reciprocity, or the need to keep vendors happy. It also ensures I don't get "reviewer specials" that are better than the retail versions.

7 Comparison Table

I evaluate running watches in three distinct ways. Firstly, you can use a watch on its own, without any kind of Footpod. This is probably the most common way runners use their watch, but you miss out on a lot. The second rating is with a standard Footpod that is available quite cheaply. These Footpod's can be reasonably accurate once the calibrated, but calibration is a little tedious. The final evaluation is with the Stryd Footpod, which is vastly more accurate than any other type of Footpod, or and more accurate than GPS. The table below looks at the score, and the value for money of each watch for each of the three conditions. (I’ve also tested the Apple Watch 3, but I’ve not included it in these tables as it’s not really a running watch.)

The score is the sum of how well each watch can answer the four basic questions (how far, how fast, where are you, what's your cadence), plus some bonus points.

1. The "How far you've run" will be based on GPS only for "without Footpod" and "with Standard Footpod", but based on Stryd if supported in the "with Stryd Footpod" table..
2. How fast you're running assumes you're using a Footpod if it's supported, otherwise the rating is 0-2 based on GPS accuracy.
3. The "Where are you?" is based on various navigation features such as back to start, breadcrumbs, and preloaded maps. For some watches, you have to turn GPS off to get the benefit of Stryd, so those watches have worse "where are you scores" with Stryd than without.
4. The cadence score uses 1 point for an internal cadence sensor, 2 points for footpod support, 1 point for support from chest strap cadence, and 1 point for cadence alerts.
5. I give 1-2 bonus points for application support, 1-2 bonus points for data upload, 1-2 bonus points for Optical Heart Rate Monitoring, and 0-1 bonus points for battery life.
6. Value for money is the score divided by the price (at the time I last updated the table.) Your needs may be different, so you might weight the different aspects of the watches differently, or be basing your decision on different criteria totally. Hopefully this table will give you a good starting point for your decision.

7.1 Score Breakdown without a Footpod

7.2 Score Breakdown with a Standard Footpod

7.3 Score Breakdown with a Stryd Footpod

7.4 Basic Features

8 Navigation Features

For "navigation":

• Color Maps gives you full color maps, rather like a smart phone, with roads and paths marked out.
• Track Outline is a display of where you've run, rather like a breadcrumb trail. If there are maps, the outline is superimposed otherwise this is just the outline on its own without any context.
• Course Outline is an outline of a route that can be downloaded. I've found this useful during ultras or in unfamiliar cities where I've needed to know where to go.
• Back To Start is a simple arrow point to your starting point, so it won't help you backtrack.
• Back To Waypoint returns you to a previously marked location using a simple arrow to point.
• Compass. A magnetic compass can help you orient yourself or the map. Without a magnetic compass you have to be moving for the GPS to give you a sense of direction.

(Older Reviews: Polar RC3 GPS, Soleus 1.0, Motorola Motoactv.)