I’m looking at a fenix 3 sapphire.

Mainly for the hr monitor during roadie sessions, and for tracking rides without having to remember the Garmin. The amount of times I’ve left it behind or taken it with the battery drained, doh.

Wanted to get any real world reviews of it, particularly if the he is any good, and it is useable for directions or is it track back only (return home)? How’s the battery life, any other positives or negatives.

I think it looks pretty cool as a watch with some of the downloadable faces.

Cheers.

I’ve got one and think it’s superb. Get about 15-20 hours of GPS life out of it. I use a Mio Link Wrist HR as I can’t be bothered with the faff of a chest strap.

Route guidance fine but the PC software is hideous.

I would look at a TomTom Spark HR or Adventurer too….

Bookmarked

Been interested in one too so following with interest!

A

Love mine and seemingly no issues with accuracy at all. Brilliant bit of kit.

I’ve got the HR one replacing an old 310xt and a garmin swim. Use it as an everyday watch and I really like it. Loads of cool features, locks on quickly, battery lasts a week with 5 or so hours of training.
Navigation wise – it’s just following a breadcrumb like the early garmins but it’s useable. Nice and easy to plot a route on connect and fling it to the watch via the app.

I have the non HR version. Absolutely love it. It’s basically my every day watch.
I Wear it to work (handy for receiving texts etc) .. Step counter …. There’s a whole load of stuff it does that I’ve not really explored ..

I have used mine on the bike (subsequently sold my garmin 500) but I got mine predominantly for running. Was previously using a forerunner 10 but it’d be out of battery after 3.5/4 hours. I ran a 63 mile ultra in September and the watch was recording GPS for 17 hours and still had 18% battery when I stopped it.

Using the watch Day to day as a watch , with maybe the odd shorter run thrown in at lunch time / evening .. the battery lasts for weeks.

I suspect the HR version will get through the battery much quicker.

Yeah .. It’s great tho

Have had the HR version a couple of weeks. Really impressed with it. Mostly got it so I don’t have to keep remembering a larger standalone garmin. Found it has loads of other cool things to play with, I’m particularly obsessed with my resting heart rate.

I don’t think it replaces a dedicated unit for rides where you want to see your stats regularly , like riding to power. I haven’t used navigation yet but imagine it won’t be a patch on my 1000. Battery life is good I’m getting a week with commuting recorded

Ive had one almost since it was released and it’s by far my favourite piece of kit.

It really comes into its own if you’re using it for multi sport training because it’s good on the bike but it’s great for running. Also pairs with my tacx smart trainer so good for indoor training and it has a power sensor which is very accurate.

You can programme in a structured training session on garmin connect and download it onto the watch which is an excellent feature.

Breadcrumb Nav is good but better for running than cycling just because you have more time to react when you’re not travelling at 20mph.

Auto upload generally works well but can be occasionally temperamental.

It’s a fantastic watch though, amazing how much it can do really.

Using one as a day to day watch here as well, absolutely love it. Even purely as a smart watch it’s great, the battery lasts over a week, I’ve got the old non-HR version too. It also merrily pairs with all my ANT+ stuff, so I can use it with a food pod + heart rate for treadmill jogging.

The Garmin software has really come along as well, very easy to get it auto syncing with Strava/MyFitnessPal etc. On the note above about auto upload, I’ve never had an issue, it’s normally synced and uploaded quietly via my phone within minutes of finishing a workout.

Another happy user here.

Pretty much my daily watch now. Dont have the sapphire version though, just standard with a £1 amazon screen protector.

Generally used on the bike, not much variation on daily route.

Love the very basic smart watch features. Connect website is nice, using the app on iphone which works well enough for me.

Do all of you F3 lovers still suffer from slow screen updates, especially when looking at exercise info? Pushing a button, and having to wait for anything to happen etc. I find this infuriating!

Though, having said that, everything else is pretty much up to scratch.

consider a 235 as an alternative. 90% of the functionality, lighter, smaller, half the price.

Everyone raves about Fenix only negative as a women or man with small wrists is size of it! I’ve just got myself a 735XT as a crimbo pressie from crashtestmokney looks awesome and considerably smaller and lighter.

I love mine, using all the functions on the running side of it(and swimming). Don’t use all the apps on it, but wouldn’t be without it now. No major problems with it so far and had it since March 16.

I have one, had it for about a year now.

it’s a bit big & bulky, but otherwise it works well.

I use it for cycling, running & a few other sports so it’s quite useful, along with the other features aforementioned.

The new 735XT probably looks the better watch in reality for me – but that’s subsequently come out. I guess the smaller size means shorter battery life though.

Is there any GPS watch that’s as good as the fenix 3 for super long distance events? i.e. anything where the battery lasts as long and it can be recharged without interrupting the recording?

I had one for about 6 months and found it too big and bulky on the bike as it kept sliding down my wrist and into my hand. Good bit of kit but sold it on and have a 230 now which does all I need , hr and upload to strava but is half the weight and the battery lasts forever.

Anyone tried the Garmin Quatix 3? Looks like it’s based on the Fenix, but with marine/sailing functions (tides, racing times etc)?

Nick

Another Fenix 3 fan here, got a refurb one half price through Sport Pursuit a few months ago as I was retiring an old Garmin 610.

It’s my everyday watch, and along with the GPS recording, and nav functions, the smart notifications are good too. The bluetooth connection means that if you have your phone with you at the same time, it can work as a tracking device.

No regrets at all. The 735 is arguably more powerful and smaller, but was 3 times the price I paid for my Fenix.

Cheers, Rich

Liking the look of the FR235, might get one of them when my Pebble goes dead.

I like that you can use it as an HR strap for an edge, would be one less thing to put on for the commute

I’ve got the Sapphire non HR version too.

Again, I love it, I wear it all the time, as others have said, the battery lasts for weeks and the range of apps cover more than I’ll ever need.

The only issue with using it on the bike is the visibility of data, I’ve got an Edge 800 that is out front on the bars.. ok, I say it’s an issue, but truth be told I’ve not used that since I’ve had the fenix!

I keep the charge lead in the car instead of doing it when I may wander off.

The only way I’d buy something else was if they can somehow include the Casio solar panel into the display

Got a Fenix 3 HR, love it! use it as my everyday watch plus tracking cycling and swimming.
Only thing i can see to improve it would be make it slightly smaller.

Thanks Jam Bo. Just ordered a 235.

Love my Fenix 3 HR (non-sapphire). Had the Fenix 3 before it, and initially was disappointed in the wrist-based HR, but after the latest software update it works very well. If you want serious HR monitoring (including measuring things like VO2 max), you’ll want to use a chest strap, but for general use the wrist-based one works great and is fairly accurate.

I use it for trail running, hiking and MTB. The navigation features aren’t amazing but very usable. Keep GPX files smallish as it doesn’t seem to like very large files.