Thanks to my REI dividend, I now have a Garmin 910XT. Since some might be interested in comparing it with the Finis Swimsense, I wore both for my workout today. Here are the uploaded details: Swimsense and Garmin. As is obvious, I’m not a particularly fast swimmer, especially on long workouts. In this case it was straight freestyle for 2750 meters; the only pause was after lap 10 (length 20) to adjust my goggles. Both watches were running the latest firmware (beta firmware in the case of the Swimsense.) Observations of note:
Garmin mischaracterized a few lengths as backstroke. Guess I need to work on my form. (Although Swimsense nailed them all correctly.)On easy swims like today, I do reverse flip turns, which can involve a little extra gliding. Swimsense (on automatic interval mode) seems to occasionally count glides as a rest, so it shows 5 intervals instead of 2. (I did not hit the lap button on the Garmin, so it’s correct in showing only 1 interval.)
More subjectively:
With my 50-year-old eyesight, the Swimsense is essentially unreadable during the swim. I have it configured to only show lap count, and I can barely make that out. (With only one value displayed, it’s a pretty decent sized font.) The Garmin, OTOH, is very legible (again, only showing 1 value; in this case lengths).Even though the Swimsense is lighter, the Garmin feels much better on my wrist. I think that’s because the Swimsense is pretty boxy while the Garmin is more “aero.”
The Swimsense is actually a fine watch, and I’ve enjoyed having it. But nothing beats the convenience of having to deal with only one watch for all sports. (No getting confused about which button does what; having a common workout log, etc.) After a couple of more swims to make sure the Garmin works for me, I’ll be selling the Swimsense. If anyone wants to beat me to eBay, send me a PM.
Stephen
I think that’s because the Swimsense is pretty boxy while the Garmin is more “aero.” hydro
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I’ll add my own take as I have both as well, though my eyes are about half as old. Pool swim the finns takes the cake. The garmin has had exactly 2 error free swims out of 20 or so when I stopped using it. Swimsense 1 out of close to 40k yards worth of workouts. I went back the the finns after getting fed up with 910 errors, I’m sure they’ll fix it but for now the finns is awesome. I can see all 3 lines but not quite as good as the garmin with a back light.
Stephen,
You have noticed a few things that I’ll confirm for your readers. I also switched from Swimsense for the convenience factor. I too have had lengths combined into one but it’s not just for non-fast swimmers. I swam a 29.5 second 50 this morning (2 x 25yds) and it downloaded into GC as 1 x 25 at 30 seconds (round up is understandable). Flip turns! About half of my 50s were recorded as slow 25s.
As for the 50 year old eyes, I have 56 year old eyes and could not see the swimsense either and honestly I have trouble with the small print on the 910xt. Let’s hope they have people over 45 on their staff that recognize our needs.
Don’t kick your form to hard, I swam in school and have good form and find that the 910 takes a head fake even when one hasn’t been delivered. The swimsense never got it wrong as long as I used mine and I had one of the first 200 made.
Stephen,
You have noticed a few things that I’ll confirm for your readers. I also switched from Swimsense for the convenience factor. I too have had lengths combined into one but it’s not just for non-fast swimmers. I swam a 29.5 second 50 this morning (2 x 25yds) and it downloaded into GC as 1 x 25 at 30 seconds (round up is understandable). Flip turns! About half of my 50s were recorded as slow 25s.
As for the 50 year old eyes, I have 56 year old eyes and could not see the swimsense either and honestly I have trouble with the small print on the 910xt. Let’s hope they have people over 45 on their staff that recognize our needs.
Don’t kick your form to hard, I swam in school and have good form and find that the 910 takes a head fake even when one hasn’t been delivered. The swimsense never got it wrong as long as I used mine and I had one of the first 200 made.
If you are losing lengths is it because you are not pressing lap at the end of the 50m? It looks like the 910 operates differently to the Swimsense in that a lap is not registered unless another turn is intitiated, lap is pressed, or stop is pressed.
The only time I have errors if I do something unexpected like bash a lane rope or someone swimming the other way etc. And my swimming is pretty crap - 1:45/100m
yes, I hit lap at the wall at the end of an interval. Garmin support recognizes the problem and is working on it. Hitting the lane line is just one of the “head fakes” that will confuse the 910. Never had it happen with the swim sense.
also it seems that swimsense it looking into making the watch being able to be used in open water swims
at least this is what they say in twitter fyi
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Another race (running) today with no earthly idea what my pace was as the 910 was all over the place. Calling Monday to return this POS.