I never bought maps for my garmin 810.

DC Rainmaker had instructions on how to do it.

With that said i use an 830 and it works well.

I also use a 945 for the run and it navigates well but I've only used it with a preloaded course.

Map updates are free on both of them.

The Garmin 935, 945, and 945 LTE are the masters of mapping. I used mapping heavily last year for the first time, and the Garmin suite are far and away the best. I also have an Apple Watch, and they are almost useless for exercise. The only time I use my AW is if I forgot my Garmin. And then it is an exceptionally mediocre experience.

Edit: Only the 945 and 945 LTE of the 9xx series have true mapping. The fēnix 5X, fēnix 6 Pro, and tactix watches in their other lines also do routable mapping.

Slight correction - the 935 does NOT include mapping. The Fenix 6 Pro series also includes mapping. The Fenix 5X (same generation as the 935) did include mapping.

If you're in the Apple ecosystem, the apple watch is a great option. I have considered moving to the apple ecosystem from android for that sole reason. (I couldn't pull the trigger... just die hard Samsung lover here. The Samsung watch is a joke compared to the apple watch though)

Don't worry too much about any swimming errors the apple watch might have. My Coros Apex Pro is fantastic for all things but open water swims. It's laughably bad for that purpose. My wife's Garmin Fenix 5s is similarly atrocious for open water swimming. Could also be that we often swim in pretty remote and wooded places. *shrug*

My coros apex pro has mapping, but honestly if I ever want better mapping when I run, I just carry my wahoo bolt. :)

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Great to know. Do you know if with the watch you need the phone while you run for mapping?

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Running is the best source of fiber that I know of...

Good to know. Are the maps 'detailed' to the street level for the 945? I remember that basic (county roads, etc) were always included (8-9+ years ago when I bought the 800)

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Running is the best source of fiber that I know of...

detail level of 945 maps is very impressive, I've yet to encounter the first (small) track in some obscure forest that it doesn't know ... atleast for western Europe; not sure whether this is different in other regions.

Pretty sure the Apple Watch does not do mapping, with or without a phone. At least, I have not found an app that will do it. The native activity app, doesn't. The epic problems with the AW, besides mapping, is its inaccuracy, limited data field configurability, and limited connectivity.

Good catch, thanks. Post corrected. I never did mapping with a 935, so I forgot that it was introduced later. (I did mapping with a 735XT-- it was crude, but functional.)

Apple Watch Series 6 or SE both have cellular capabilities that let you leave your phone behind. Get an app for the Watch called Workoutdoors, it’ll give you mapping capabilities and tons of data field customization capabilities.

I also use an app on the Watch called Intervals.

I run (and swim) exclusively with Apple Watch (never carrying my phone along). After around Series 4 any concerns about GPS accuracy were resolved. As always ymmv.

Not entirely true, with an astrisk... Apple made some major improvement with the Series 6. The Series 5 and older might still be janky if they did not retroactively apply the improvements or if they were specific to the latest hardware.

Even the Series 6 still has course smoothing, but it is a lot closer to a legit GPS watch.

The root problem, I believe, is that Apple takes far fewer GPS readings to extend battery. The result was that they had to use software to try to guess the gaps in between the GPS readings. This was really bad for a while. It is better now, but I think they are still accuracy-limited by the infrequent GPS readings (you can see it in AWS6 course plotting). The other wild card is whether these course accuracy improvement algorithms only apply to the native workout app or if 3rd party apps get them too. If 3rd party apps to not have access to Apple's improved course approximation algorithms, then their GPS accuracy could righteously suck. Or not. It would depend on the app.

The other AW problem, which I do not think they resolved, is that the watch will not get its GPS lock until you begin an activity. So, it can go a while before locking, and then the watch retroactively does course corrections based on accelerometer activity. Sometimes this looks OK. Sometimes it is massively jacked up. And again, this works for the native app, but it could be ugly if 3rd party apps do not get the retroactive course corrections.

I may be using the term "mapping" incorrectly here. I meant "using maps, or directions on a map" rather than "make a route and upload it to the device." I don't know if apple does this but another poster below seems to have figured that out with a 3rd party app.

I do know that I have a few friends with the watch and they love never having to carry their phone with them. Their watch is, in effect, a second phone. Makes calls, texts, and most other things a phone does, all through it's own data connection (an additional line on your cell bill, I believe).

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

From my watch



Major roads but not backstreets

I think that the 945 maps are detail to small streets. But, you got me curious to verify. I ran extensively over the past 18 months with 945 and 945 LTE mapping, and to my limited memory, I do not recall ever being on a street that the watch did not recognize. I was definitely on a lot of obscure back roads and minor neighborhood streets.

Edit: If you click the zoom-in button, does it show more detail on your map?

It took a couple extra clicks but the backstreet detail came in.

I just didn't zoom enough before