Which do you prefer and why?
I had the Fenix 3. I wanted a watch that would function for triathlon and look decent as an every day watch. I was an early adopter…there were a ton of issues with it…random resetting, would just start vibrating and would not stop until the battery died, it was very inaccurate (off on the run and horrible in the pool, did not use it for cycling). After numerous Garmin updates failed, I gave up. I went back to my 910 and eventually bought the 920. I am very pleased with the 920. Apart from aesthetics, the 920 is lighter than the Fenix, and is more accurate than the Fenix 3 I had early on.
I am sure work has been done to improve the Fenix 3, because when I owned it is was not a functional watch or GPS device. Best bet is to go on the Garmin forums and read up on the Fenix 3 current issues to see if it sounds like there is a laundry list of outstanding issues.
Thanks Mike!!
A friend of mine and I were comparing watches, and while we were looking at my Fenix 2 and his 920, I think some of what we noticed would be of interest to you.
First, I love my Fenix 2. It’s not perfect, but I haven’t had any of the big problems others have reported in the close to 2 years I’ve had it. I only mention my affinity for my watch so you can get some perspective on my comments.
The biggest advantage I noticed comparing our watches is that the face of the 920 if easier to read, especially if you’re using multiple fields. With the Fenix; 4 fields make it a challenge to read. When I do run work outs I like elapsed time, pace, and HR. I would add more (like lap time), but if you’re running intervals the smaller screen makes it impossible to see your pace if you go to 4 fields.
One of the big reason I went for the Fenix 2 was the size relative to the 910 (the 920 wasn’t out yet). The 920 is now far smaller and looks alot closer to the Fenix size wise (in particular I found the thickness of the 910 off putting).
The only other thing I’ll mention is that while running his 920 reported pace changes a lot quicker than my Fenix 2. Maybe they fixed that with the 3, I can’t say.
As I said, I quite like my Fenix 2, but if I were able to upgrade this week with out getting divorced, I’d be getting the 920.
Added: With the Fenix 3 (and 2) there is no quick release kit for cycling.
Thank you Captain-Tri!
Added: With the Fenix 3 (and 2) there is no quick release kit for cycling.
There is a QR kit for the Fenix 3 now.
I love my Fenix 2, for what you can pick one up used, I don’t think there is a better device for the money out there.
Sure I’d like a F3 but I can’t justify the cost when my F2 does pretty much everything I need it to do.
Mine has basically been trouble free since September 2014.
I originally had a 920 and I wore as an everyday watch as well. There wasn’t anything that was wrong with it…I simply wanted a watch that “looked better” to wear as an everyday watch. I switched to the Fenix3 Rose. It took a little bit of getting used to since the data screens are laid out a bit differently, but all of my info is still there and easy to find now that I know where to expect it to be displayed. I have heard from other users that have glitches with both the 920 and the fenix when it comes to dropping sensors. I’ve upgraded my vectors to the new vector 2 pods and I haven’t had a problem with dropped power meter since then. Otherwise, I’ve never had the problem of dropped sensors (heart rate strap, foot pod, etc.) It was purely an aesthetic choice for me.
Agreed - the Fenix 2 is a great watch. I haven’t looked to see if any of the recent updates have remedied it, but my only serious beef with the Fenix 2 is you can’t use multi-sport mode if it involves a pool swim.
As I said, F2 is great, but if I had the money to upgrade now I’d probably get the 920 before the Fenix 3. But I think you’d be hard pressed to buy any of the newer multi-sport watches out there and not be happy with it.
Thanks P90Puma!
Thanks Rdracer99!
I have a Fenix 3. Love it - zero complaints. I haven’t had any of the issues that many early owners were reporting.
I bought the 920 XT before the Fenix 3 existed, liked the functionality, but not the looks. The Fenix 3 came out, I returned the 920, bought the Fenix and have been happy. Here’s the link to the Fenix quick release kit https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/products/partNum/010-12168-11.ep
I got my Fenix over the summer. It has slowly been getting better. I haven’t had a chance to try it out running forested areas. That is the weakness of any GPS, but apparently the Fenix has a really tough time. Other than that, it works as advertized and you can wear it as a day watch.
The only complaint I have is that once a month or so it will lose bluetooth connection and wear down the battery trying to get it back. When it does that it will lose about 10% an hour. I usually catch it before it gets totally drained.
Thank you everyone!!!
Ive been happy with my Fenix 3. Especially like the looks so I can wear 100% of the time. Bought the sapphire edition through REI so I would get the metal band, sapphire face, and HR monitor. Still have yet to use the metal band though. I feel as if the tracking has gotten much better over the past couple months. There are quirks a lot of the time after updates. I have found after updates are automatically installed it is best to restart the watch. A few times after updates it would drain the battery incredibly quick, (in one day, when typically I only need to charge once a week). I have avoided this problem the last few months but simply restarting the watch after all updates.
The only complaint I have is that once a month or so it will lose bluetooth connection and wear down the battery trying to get it back. When it does that it will lose about 10% an hour. I usually catch it before it gets totally drained.
Torrey, how do you solve this issue? I have lost BT for the last 2 or so days, and can’t figure out how to make it work. First time happening with this issue for me.
I’m a lucky puppy and have both. I love the fenix 3 and it’s my everyday watch. I’ve never had a problem with it when training or in daily life, and the screen is amazingly scratch proof, unlike my forerunners (eg 620).
That said, I have encountered two issues. First is at the start of OW legs of races. For some reason it misreads the start of the swim, but then calms down and is accurate. This may be due to me not allowing enough time between switching function and start of race to allow satellite pickup. The second is user incompetence, that is my pressing the lap button and moving the unit onto the next ‘phase’ of the triathlon (this Saturday’s HIM I pressed it twice in T1 and it thought the bike leg was T2). I haven’t had either of those problems with the 920, but that’s mainly due to me having to think about where the lap button is…
Finally, Strava hates the data recorded for the run leg. I don’t know if it’s a fenix thing or a garmin thing though
I am loathe to switch out my fenix for the 920 for racing, but will at this weekends HIM for comparison purposes.
That said, if I could only have one watch, it would be the fenix 3.
Sometimes I can fix it by simply turning the BT on the watch off and on. The sure fire way to fix all the problems is to turn off both the phone and the watch. Then turn on the phone. After the phone is fully booted I make sure the Garmin Connect app is running, then I turn the watch on. Only takes a couple of minutes and Has worked every time so far.
I might be coincidence but it seems like I have the problem most often when I use the ‘resume later’ function.
I am loathe to switch out my fenix for the 920 for racing,
Why own the 920 if you don’t want to use it?
I’ve noticed something similar when multisport activities get pushed to Strava, it just can’t handle them properly. IIRC the run activity would show the TOTAL distance/time for the whole event, not just the run leg and all the laps get completely buggered up too. I go back and manually edit the files so that they make sense, so can’t check exactly what the deal was, but Training Peaks seems to handle them correctly so I suspect it’s a problem with Strava.
As for my experience the Fenix 3, there’s no doubt that the GPS could be a bit better but on the whole it’s an awesome piece of kit. I usually use it in particularly difficult GPS conditions, city environment, narrow streets with tall buildings and when I’m in a park it’s mostly under tree cover. I rarely get a run when all the km splits look sensible, usually there’s one or two that look a bit suspect and if check the pace chart there’s always some spikes a dropouts, but generally it’s good enough.