Upgrading my old forerunner and I am wondering if the 920 is worth the significant difference in price over the 910. I am on a budget (like most) and prepping for a fall IM. I searched relevant threads and didn’t see this question…so forgive me if it has already been discussed. Thx!
Upgrading my old forerunner and I am wondering if the 920 is worth the significant difference in price over the 910. I am on a budget (like most) and prepping for a fall IM. I searched relevant threads and didn’t see this question…so forgive me if it has already been discussed. Thx!
I actually preferred the 910 over the 920. I like the 910 for swimming and the display is bigger and better, specifically for night swims this is great. You can score a 910 on eBay for $80-90 used.
If you put the 910 alongside the 920, the display is much clearer on the 920. Sometimes saving money buying obsolescent devices is not really saving money. The 920 has settled down to being a very reliable and stable device (at least I think so!) and is still being supported. It was a massive step up from the 910 and well worth the investment.
If you put the 910 alongside the 920, the display is much clearer on the 920. Sometimes saving money buying obsolescent devices is not really saving money. The 920 has settled down to being a very reliable and stable device (at least I think so!) and is till being supported.
I have had a 910xt and 920xt - I got rid of the 920xt. I prefer the 910xt for how I use it. I am now in the market to buy a used 910xt. I should’ve never sold mine. If anyone wants to skip fleaBay and avoid fees I will buy. Otherwise I will pick one up at some point for $75 on fieabay.
If you buy a 910xt for $75 you can sell it in two years for $65. If you buy a 920xt the depreciation will be much steeper, likely around $200. They both do what I want but the 910 does it better for me.
The wi-Fi and BT uploading feature alone was worth the price difference for me, plus the 920 straps are free moving compared to the 910. It may be a better fit for your wrist.
If you want the best deal then go with the 910XT. It does most of what the 920 does and you won’t get close on the price difference.
My wife and I recently swapped our 910XT’s for 920XT’s when they were on sale for the holidays. I was pretty happy with my 910 and didn’t know that the 920 would be worth it. But if you upload your data often, the 920 wifi or BTLE upload options are so much more convenient than the ANT+ stick configuration. I used to travel with a laptop and didn’t mind. Now that I travel with only my phone and tablet (IOS on both so no native ANT+) having the 920XT upload options is sweet. The 920XT can also connect through USB as a mass storage device. So it has these three options up against the 910XT ANT+ stick.
As Thomas mentions, the display is disappointingly a bit smaller on the 920 than the 910. That is the only negative I can think of when comparing the devices.
The 920 also uses the new style Garmin ANT+ sensor pool format where you can link all sorts of different sensors and don’t have to assign then to a specific bike, etc. I really like this set up better. The GPS on the 920 syncs up much faster. At least in the Northern Latitudes where I use mine a lot. The GLASNOSS satellite augmentation may be the difference here, but even travelling to Hawaii the GPS seems to lock up faster.
I’ve used the Forerunner series for years - 305, 310, 910 and now 920. Each one is an improvement on the past one. Tho timing the purchase of the upgrade can make a big difference in budget! There are a couple 920XT’s w/o HRMs in the classifieds new for $320.
The wi-Fi and BT uploading feature alone was worth the price difference for me, plus the 920 straps are free moving compared to the 910. It may be a better fit for your wrist.
The Wifi and BT uploading are handy. I went through three 910s, all with failed barometric altimeters, as have many others. I purchased it new from a local shop and wasn’t real happy about having it replaced with a refurbished one after 6 months. That one failed a few months later as did the next one which was again replaced with a refurbished one that I haven’t even opened since getting my 920.
As far as using the 910 and the features it offers it’s fine but I wouldn’t buy one at any price without a warranty since they obviously haven’t fixed the altimeter issue. I’m surprised they are still selling them new at garmin.com.
The wi-Fi and BT uploading feature alone was worth the price difference for me, plus the 920 straps are free moving compared to the 910. It may be a better fit for your wrist.
^^this. 920. Period. Love it versus the 910.
I like using it for my daily watch. It’s nice to have it with me all the time. I’ll occasionally have slow days at work so I would take a long lunch and hit the pool, trails, etc. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about forgetting my watch. That alone is worth it for me.
The wi-Fi and BT uploading feature alone was worth the price difference for me, plus the 920 straps are free moving compared to the 910. It may be a better fit for your wrist.
This^^^^^^^^^^
Uploading is a breeze. Hardly have to think about it now.
Another like for the upload procedure of the 920.
Also like the phone connection to see who is calling when riding outside.
The rest mode of the pool swim mode I find also useful.
The wi-Fi and BT uploading feature alone was worth the price difference for me, plus the 920 straps are free moving compared to the 910. It may be a better fit for your wrist.
This. The wifi option is fantastic and makes life so much easier.
Plus you’ll have more options if you go to garmin with a current watch than an older one if there’s issues with it down the line. Also if you use power get the 920 as it’s way easier to use.
I had been using a 910XT but got a birthday present of a 920XT last week. I was quit happy with the 910XT so hadn’t had any plans to update it. I didn’t think there’d be much difference but in practice it’s quite different to use. The 910XT was always reliable and did almost everything I wanted. The 920XT is perfectly useable as an everyday watch. Mine is the Tri-bundle edition which is black and silver so probably less obviously sporty than the white/red and black/blue versions. However it’s still not exactly a stylish day-to-day watch in my opinion. I’ve been using it for activity tracking for the last week and it’s interesting but not something I feel is essential. Uploads are simpler and quicker via WiFi than the ANT+ uploads with the 910XT.
I always found the 910XT screen pretty good. The 920XT screen is very different but no worse for normal data screens and better for some stuff like the Running dynamics and map screens. It is a little smaller (same height but narrower, i.e. more square) but it’s still big enough.
I’ve been using it with the new triathlon HR strap that came in the tri bundle. The strap seems like a slight improvement over the previous version for comfort and the running dynamics adds lots of new data. This is certainly interesting but I’m not sure yet if it’s actually useful. The fact that both the watch and HR strap now give you cadence is nice. I’ve lent my footpod to a friend now! If you want HR for swimming the 920XT gives compatibility with caching HR straps like the ones that come in the bundle. I don’t think the 910XT will do this, at least not for now. I’m not sure how useful this is as you only get the data after you stop and let the watch download from the strap so you don’t have live HR data when swimming. For live data you could use an optical sensor like the Mio Link or Scosche Rhythm+ placed beside the watch but this will work with any ANT+ or BT watch, it doesn’t need to be the 920XT.
Another significant new ability for the 920XT is, I think, that you can report your location and data during activities to the Garmin site via your phone. This could be useful if you train alone and want others to know where you are for safety reasons, or just as a way to let people see how you’re doing in an event. Finally the 920XT can be used as a semi-smart watch to provide notifications and messages from your phone on your wrist.
I haven’t used several of the new features including the live tracking and phone notifications but I probably will in due course.
The 920XT is a very nice watch and if the price difference was not huge I’d go with it. If money is a big factor in the purchase, the 910XT is a great watch and will do most of the same stuff in terms of measuring and displaying pace, time, location, HR etc for triathlon training and competition.
Incidentally, I went for a 15km run on Saturday on a forest track. With my 910XT I’d very occasionally drop GPS signal on this route but it generally worked fine and gave consistent distance and pace values. On Saturday, the 920XT never said it had lost signal (that I noticed) but the distance recorded continually lagged behind what it should have been. I did 3 laps of a route I know is very close to 4.97km per lap. Expected to end up at about 14.9km but I ended up with 14.54km which is definitely well short - each of the 3 laps came in short so it wasn’t a one off drop of the signal. I had GLONASS on as well so expected the 920Xt to at least equal or more likely beat the performance of my 910XT but this was not the case. My running companion’s 910XT recorded the expected pace and distance. However, this was a single incident and I have no reason to believe it will be a frequent occurrence. I don’t usually run a lot of know distance routes so I might carry both watches for my next few runs to see how they correspond and if the errors are confined to the forest!
The two biggest deciding factors in my opinion should be:
- Do I want to wear this as a full time watch or only when training/competing?
920XT will work as a daily watch, the 910XT isn’t really suitable. - Do you want to use the watch for routine activity tracking such as number of steps taken and calories used each day?
920XT is designed for this use. The 910XT won’t do this.