I picked up a 920 a week before IM in Kona. I have not taken the thing off since.

It is fantastic and puts my 910 to shame, shame, shame.

Instant pace: spot on. Solid. Doesn't jump around by :30-2:00. Not sure why my 910 was so awful, but the 920 is now solid.
Weight/Form: That's the first thing you will notice. It's (what feels like) much lighter than the 910. Thinner. Fits my tiny wrist very well. I wore it during a manta ray dive and it had no problem going under the wetsuit. Didn't get caught up at all.
Display: the new color display is really nice. Best part is that when you wear polarized sunglasses, you don't get the black-out screen like you did on the 910. Can view from any angle easily. Can set up black or white BG in watch mode as well. Color options are "cute" and a nice touch if you are into that.
GPS Signal: Acquires super fast. Going from watch mode to run or bike mode is less than 1 minute to get GPS signal.
Battery Life: Holy shit. Nice. I will do a short run or bike 2 times a day, have the device on "watch and activity tracking" mode and not have to think of charging it for 4 days. Bluetooth connected as well.
Bluetooth/Wifi: The instant uploads are....kinda freaky. It's up on Strava before I get in the door. So nice to step away from that damn ANT stick!
Wifi issues: the wifi I was on in Kona would kick the watch off Bluetooth as soon as I got into the network. You need to know the password type for the wifi (WEP, WPA, WPA2) or it seems to have some issues.
ANT+ connections: Super quick and easy pairing with my Mio Heartrate monitor, my Garmin Footpod, and my Stages Power meter.
Treadmill: Not sure how it does it but the watch was SPOT ON EXACT during a 4 mile treadmill run. In the past I've used the footpod on the 910 and it was off on pace by :45 or more and the distance was a joke. The 910 would report .4 miles of running after 3 miles on the treadmill. With the 920, the watch was matching the 10:14 pace that the treadmill said exactly. Distance was nearly exact as well. The pace didn't seem to uncouple until around the "fast walk" pacing during cool down - 15:00 min/mile on treadmill came up as a 14:00 on the watch. Could still get a spot on pace match at 12:20 or 13:00 pacing. Not a fast runner so the 10:14 was the best I could do and still keep my eye on the watch really well.
Bike: We rented a house up the mountain in Kona about 2 miles from the pier. I had my cross bike with me so I'd ride it up and down that mountain the whole week. The elevation was pretty steady each ride...off by no more than 10' or so each way.
Swim: Haven't done any pool or open ocean swims with it yet.
Metronome: LOVE IT. You can set the beats to every step, every 2nd step, every 4th step, etc. It can beep and vibrate or just one or the other. Really helpful for me and a very nice feature that I didn't think I'd like as much as I do. I have it set to vibrate only and it's subtle enough to feel and yet not piss me off. (or other runners for that matter)
Alerts: I want that Apple Watch because I am a freelancer working everywhere. It's nice not to have to look at your phone every time you get a text, email, or call. However, the Apple watch isn't waterproof. The alert feature of the watch when connected to my phone is really freaking great. My husband was dubious, but now he's totally into it as well.
Activity Tracker: Meh. Don't really care. But it's actually kinda ok. I turned off the "move" reminder. Is it useful info? Not really as I'll be running or biking most days anyway. Seems a little bit of a "basic consumer/fit bit/fuel band" feature that the 920 is far too advanced for. But whatever. I am tracking it now, probably won't bother with it in about 6 months.
Sleep Tracker: Another fit-bit kind of feature. But I actually find it interesting. Especially during my current training as I'm nearing the peak phase. Seeing that I always seem to have a shit sleep time around 2:30am. Good to see the data on that. And actually being able to report this to a coach is helpful for tracking - especially for coaches that want 8-10 hours of sleep per night.
Watch Mode: Brilliant and I love it. Haven't work a "watch" device for all day use in about 15 years. Haven't taken this one off since Kona. That says something.
Set-up: A bit difficult to get used to at first. The select color/highlight is opposite in some areas vs others (reported it to the Garmin guys in Kona and they took a video of it to send to their devs)
Sync: Worked great with the Connect app on my phone. The UI still needs a little help, but it's better than it used to be
Integration with Apple Health App: It does talk to Apple Health, but the Health app itself is still shit. Not Garmin's fault.

Any specific questions, let me know. Would I suggest this if you have a 910. YES YES YES. Especially if your 910 had shit instant pace. And if you want a watch you can wear that talks to you phone and displays your messages/alerts. Honestly, the 920 is really a great watch and I'm shamefully in love with it!

Denise

I got the same email from Clever Training and also an email from REI saying they were canceling my order due to the delay.

I stole one today from local editor... I'm
Not giving it back! Everything you just said was spot on. It "wears" as light as my normal Timex watch! I was impressed

Hello MrsTiki,
Thank you so much for your post on 920XT. Not many people has the watch yet, and those who does hasn't talked much.

1. Swim - Have you had a chance to do indoor and open water swim with it? In particular, is it any better or same as 910XT?
2. Mio - Have you paired with Mio Link to transmit heart rate info from your Mio Link to the watch real time?
3. Swim + Mio - Have you tried swimming with Mio and sending the HR info to watch? I wonder if you can set HR range while swimming

Thank you and hope to hear from you.

KT

Hope that helps!
Denise

Initially I was pretty excited about the addition of GLONASS in the 920xt, but after some research, iphones have been using GLONASS since the 4s. GLONASS was new in 2010, so I'm pretty disappointed that it took Garmin this long to incorporate it into their devices. Hopefully their algorithms for plotting GPS are good; otherwise, we'll be looking at accuracy as good as iphones at best (which are arguable pretty good.)

Mrs tiki, Thanks so much for your quick reply!

Gotta say that as far as the swim goes, the alert is very hard to detect. The drill mode and rest timer are great.

I'm not a big fan of the sensor pool, but it has it's advantages. At the moment my GSC10 seems to drop a couple of times most rides, but then that used to happen for me on the 910 when I first got it, not sure if they specifically addressed it in the firmware but it stopped happening for me.

I find the Activity Tracker a great motivator when I perhaps wouldn't otherwise be inclined to head out for a run, and I like having the extra running metrics.

There seems to be a few bugs that don't seem to be effecting everyone the same way, but I hope these will be ironed out soon in a firmware update.

All in all I rate the 920 quite highly. Sadly I rate Garmin's consumer relations at the opposite end of the scale.

How has the GPS accuracy and precision been?

x2 I have wasted hours of my life on the phone with Garmin "customer service" recently. Got a different answer from 6 customer service reps. Finally someone figured it out.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

What was your problem?

In the end, it all boils down to poor internal communication between Garmin staff and poor external communication with consumers. I wasted hours of my life just to find out the ship date was pushed back. A simple email to customers who pre-ordered could have solved the whole issue. Probably ought to work on the internal communication a bit as well. Ridiculous for a multi-billion dollar company. The story goes:

I ordered the 920XT with the watch only and was charged. I was given a ship date of the 31st of October. The charge appeared on my account the same day as the order, as Garmin always does. I called two days later to upgrade to the HRM Run package (wanting the running metrics) and was given the same ship date. The initial charge for just the watch dropped off my account that day. However I was never recharged for the new bundle. I call back about 3-4 days later to confirm my new bundle and the ship date. I am told both are good to go. However, 31st came and went with no new charge to my account for the bundle upgrade or no shipping information.

I call yesterday to ask why my bundle had not shipped on the original date. The first person I spoke to yesterday 11/3 said that my order did not go out with the initial shipment on the 31st because I amended the order placing the ship date to later. However, I told him I was assured the same ship date by the customer service rep I spoke to on 10/3 as well as the rep I spoke to a few days after. He apologizes, offers a shipping upgrade and I go to check my bank account.

When I got off the phone and checked my account today tada...a miracle, a new charge appears for the correct bundle amount. I call back to address the issue. I talk to this new representative (for those counting, this is customer rep number 5) and explain the situation. He says the same line that the amendment to the order is what pushed it back. So immediately I point out the two representatives that informed me it would ship out the 31st and that I was never rechaarged the bundle amount until today and now it is miraculously processing and going to ship out in another month. He says that the new charge appearing today was a coincidence.

I ask to be transferred to a supervisor. They get me to another customer service rep, because of course, all supervisors are in a meeting. She (customer service rep number 6) finally told me that there was no shipment at all on the 31st and everything was pushed back. I ask her then why the prior reps that said I was not apart of the initial shipment because of the amendment. She said she was not sure why I was receiving all of this contradicting information.

Horrible customer service. I wasted hours of my life talking on the phone to Garmin reps yesterday all who apparently don't know what is going when it was as simple as telling me that the ship date got pushed back.


I spent about 2 & 1/2 hours until someone finally told me, "Oh, the shipment got pushed back" lol

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

Been getting a weekly update email from Clevertraining.com & this was today's update:

Thank you for your recent order for the Garmin 920xt. This is a pre-order item that is scheduled to be released from the manufacturer this month. We’re excited to announce that Garmin has told us that they will begin to ship us units next week! At this time, we’re not sure how many units we’ll be receiving of each style. As the units arrive to our warehouse, we will begin fulfilling each order based on the date it was placed and email you the tracking information. As more shipping information becomes available from Garmin, we will be sure to update you on the status.

Did anyone order through Amazon? Any luck?

From DCRainmakers review:

That's awesome! Great customer service over at Clevertraining! Let us know if you get the desired tracking information email!

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

A statement with no evidence provided at all, other than it basically matched another watch and was almost as accurate as that other watch when swimming compared to a hopefully more accurate method of swimming with a watch...

Still waiting for word that these things have shipped in the U.S.!!!

Well thats easy, just wait till 2016 so there will be enough out to satisfy your desired evidence. ......................so dont buy one

Haha. I was going to say the same thing. Also, more or less the same thing he's said for all the Garmin watches, many of which have had significant GPS issues recently. Alas, Ray is viewed as a saint around here who can't do wrong even though he makes money from the industry now through his partnership with Clevertraining. Not saying his reviews aren't helpful, but I have to appreciate sources of potential bias...

OK, how about naming someone that does better reviews? Nobody is perfect, but he seems pretty transparent about his methods to me. And evaluating GPS accuracy isn't that difficult. I've carried my Garmin and phone together on some recent mountain bike rides and it's not hard to evaluate the differences. Nor can he be expected to anticipate every problem that might be encountered in the field with thousands of units from different production runs.

In my silly little world view, ALL of us have biases. You, me, Ray, etc.
I find his reviews very helpful, if not a bit tedious, but I don't detect overt bias.

The 920xt is a killer watch from all looks (although, as a daily wearer, many will disagree) as it accomplishes everything that a triathlete would want. I don't have one and have not ordered one (yeah I'm sponsored by garmin, so bias). I have a watch I'm generally happy with right now is all.

All of us have some degree of bias on every issue in life. Ray's does not pass over the line in my useless opinion.

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Founder of THE TRIATHLON COLLECTIVE (Closed Facebook Group). A SBR discussion group without the white noise/trolling!

It's not a personal attack to point out that saying "this is the most accurate device" without backing it up is somewhat suspect. "Go name someone better" isn't a valid response to that lack of proof that makes a claim valid.

Evaluating GPS accuracy is EXTREMELY difficult. If you've carried your garmin and another device, all you have done is evaluated the differences relative to those devices, that has nothing to do with the accuracy of one of those devices or the other. If you're assuming that your phone GPS is perfect and checking to see how your garmin agrees, you're wrong. Same if you do it the other way. Calculating distance traveled over time with a system such as GPS is filled with really big compromises and the watch or phone providers best guess as to what you did in between calculations or when something as simple as a building throws it even slightly off.

You could probably get most watches to agree relatively closely in a straight line mile (I would assume they would be precise at least), but practically nobody runs that and it's not a good representation of what a runner wants in a accurate watch. So unless Ray is running around streets and trails with a Keson wheel, I don't see how this is the most accurate garmin to date.

Quite honestly, I get that instant pace has been a deal breaker for a lot of 910 users, I've never heard of accuracy being a legit complaint, so I don't even see why the comparison is being made.

Well GPS are basically sharing the same chip.... so it's more about firmware...

GPS test means nothing. It all depend of the environment, speed, weather, location...

You all need to relax. Maybe the quote needs to be seen in context, but he never reported he's doing extensive GPS testing. He mentioned that in the month of training with multiple devices, the 920xt is inline with Garmin's most recent competitors and better then other Garmin's he's used.

GPS accuracy will vary depending on your location, so only YOU can decide how well it works for you.

Like mentioned above. If GPS accuracy is so important, then wait to see how it performs for most people (especially those close to your typical routes)