I am wanting to move on from my Apple Watch and looking for your input in order to narrow down options.
What is important:
*Battery life
*Fit and comfort
*Load maps
*Upload to Strava
*Connect to chest heart rate strap
*Button controls
Not so important:
*Smart watch features
*Touch screen
*Heart rate accuracy
*Sleep tracking
*Structured workouts
*Swim related features
*triathlon transition features
I have very skinny wrists. My current Apple Watch size of 42mm is a good fit between size, comfort and weight, but I dislike the battery life, the non-customizable Strava app display, and lack of mapping features. The ideal watch for me would be 42 to 44mm in size, probably around 50 grams in weight, ability to load maps for backpacking, long mountain runs and climbs, and have at least 12 hours of GPS battery.
Initially, this would seem to direct me to a Garmin Fenix 5s or 6s. Are there other watches similar to the size, weight and ability to load maps of the Garmin 5s / 6s I should consider?
Most of your priority features are table stakes for nearly every watch. But a couple are the differentiators… maps and battery. I don’t think the Fenix 6s has maps. Then, battery life seems to fall in 2 major bands: good enough for a half Ironman, and good enough for a full Ironman. If you want 12 hours, a that puts you in the big battery category. The Fenix 5s wouldn’t make it 12 hours reliably.
So, you are looking for one of the full-size premium watches that has >20 hours battery. Most of those do maps too.
Maybe saying maps is incorrect. I understand the 5x, 6x and 945 have full topo maps pre-loaded. I guess I am looking for navigation. The ability to upload a route/trail and follow along, get an alert if you Alger off the route.
Aaah, I think most of them do that. I call that breadcrumb mapping. It works OK if you are running on streets, but if you are hiking or trail running, it might not be as useful since the route is unstructured. Also, I did that with my old Garmin 735XT, and I don’t think it gave me an alert if I was off route-- it would just show my position different from the bread crumbs.
One of the Coros watches might be a great option. I’ve been looking into a new watch too and have been impressed with the reviews I have read about the Coros brand. Battery life is supposed to be quite spectacular and, while I’m looking at a lower level watch than you, it seems like some of their higher level watches meet most of your criteria.
If you can live without maps the Polar Vantage M will do everything else you require. I have had mine for a year and love it. Very accurate and reliable, two things to help my training be consistent.
I am wanting to move on from my Apple Watch and looking for your input in order to narrow down options.
What is important:
*Battery life
*Fit and comfort
*Load maps
*Upload to Strava
*Connect to chest heart rate strap
*Button controls
When you say “Load Maps” what do you mean? You want to have ride maps on a display device on the bike?
For everything else and if you are just looking at basics - HR, GPS and measuring Power on the bike, sync with Strava, then as some others have suggested the Polar Vantage M - should be more than sufficient. The Polar Flow app is easy to understand and straightforward be it mobile or the more advanced desk-top version. The H10 Chest Strap has been the Gold Standard for heart-rate measuring for some time. I still think in this power-meter obsessed world there is an important role for HR to play. It’s all I measure and use GPS - so for me the Vantage M is perfect. Been using one since it first came out.
Thank you (and others so far) for the feedback. I have initially just tried to determine what Garmin watch would be best, but with a few responses on Polar, looks like It may be beneficial to look into their watches. As for mapping, I would like to be able to load a route and have the watch aid in navigation, which I understand this is different than a full on map included with more expensive Garmin fenix products. From my research so far, seems like a forerunner 245 is nearly what I am looking for, just lacks the barometric altimeter for when I am backpacking and long day trail adventures. For that, it looks like the polar vantage 2 and Garmin 745 are both priced the same.
Thank you (and others so far) for the feedback. I have initially just tried to determine what Garmin watch would be best, but with a few responses on Polar, looks like It may be beneficial to look into their watches. As for mapping, I would like to be able to load a route and have the watch aid in navigation, which I understand this is different than a full on map included with more expensive Garmin fenix products. From my research so far, seems like a forerunner 245 is nearly what I am looking for, just lacks the barometric altimeter for when I am backpacking and long day trail adventures. For that, it looks like the polar vantage 2 and Garmin 745 are both priced the same.
As somebody else said, look at Coros watches. The Pace 2 is great (best value for money for a multisport watch) but won’t have the maps feature. But their higher level watches will I think.
I also have small wrists and 1 year ago transitioned from my apple watch which I disliked due to poor GPS accuracy. I would recommend the Garmin Fenix 6S Pro if you are willing to spend the money. It checks all your boxes. It is weak in the wrist base hr accuracy while running for me and so so in swimming accuracy but otherwise has been an excellent watch. It has a smaller screen size than other Garmin Fenix which affects battery life, but if you turn off lots of the smart watch features the battery can last up to a week depending how much you use the GPS.
I have a Coros Apex 46, which isn’t that big, but the 42 they make is smaller. From your needs:
What is important:
*Battery life **yeah definitely **
*Fit and comfort **Fine for me **
*Load maps *Set a course to navigate and then follow it by looking at the watch? yes, I usually make the route on strava then transfer it, which is a bit wonky but less than it was on my fenix 3 ** Upload to Strava yes, have it set to do this automatically (though there’s sometimes a lag time, i don’t know why and haven’t tried to figure it out) **
*Connect to chest heart rate strap I don’t know
*Button controls **Uhm… it’s got 1 button and a wheel thing which, whatever, not a big deal for the kind of running i do but when i’ve tried to do a track workout with it it was a pain in the butt **
If integrated support for music is at important, check out the Garmin Forerunner 945 Music. It is a multi-sport watch with full support for triathlon as well as lots of other sports. If you crash on your road or MTB it’ll notify your contacts. You can download spotify playlists and bring your music with you on the run without having to bring your mobile phone - I use this feature a lot. It has GPS maps with turn-by-turn directions. Supports both pool swimming (accelerometer based) and open water (GPS based). You can design workouts and it’ll guide you through each set. It of course sync’s your workouts to Garmin Connect, which can then sync with TrainingPeaks. It has full smart-watch support, so you receive all the notifications you’d get on your iphone (texts, phone calls, calendar events and reminders, etc). You can configure the watch face from a large list of choices and add whatever info you want to the face. It is very light and you can customize it with aftermarket wristbands to match your kit, change colors, etc. Battery life is pretty good - a single charge will last through a week of workouts and it’ll handle long duration events. You can get it with and without integrated music feature. And Garmin’s customer support has always been excellent to me - replacing watches that failed after warranty period with no questions asked.