Fénix 6 user here, solar if it matters. Pairs with iPhone nicely, does notifications and can be used for music via a number of systems, but perhaps a little more convoluted for that than Apple Watch.

Plus side, battery is at 7-10 days even with HR and O2 monitoring on constantly. Works great for tracking routes, especially MTB where you may not want an out front mount.

I will admit that Garmin Connect is very difficult to use in real terms, the app is better than the website, but crap for route planning. Explore is much better, but not intuitive as to how you get routes from the app onto the device. Once you work it out it’s fine though.

Does the solar add any significant battery endurance?

While I was in Spain definitely! Here, depends on how much time you spend outside. It’s not dependant in direct light so ambient light works too. I got the solar variant as I came to it from a Casio Pro Trek which was solar only, and that suited my purposes for outdoor activities etc

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/garmin-fenix6-pro-solar-series-review.html

Thanks for the replies. Looking throgh the garmin user forums it looks lke their software is a long-running problem so I’m not expecting a quick fix! Maybe AW is not the solution for me – the Polar mentioned by @loum looks interesting!

p.s.

I will admit that Garmin Connect is very difficult to use in real terms, the app is better than the website, but crap for route planning. Explore is much better, but not intuitive as to how you get routes from the app onto the device. Once you work it out it’s fine though.

I have been unable to transfer a course (is that what it’s called? or is it a track. Or a route? Or an activity? Or …?) from Connect to Explore. I am not the only one on the forum to have exactly the same problem. Silence from Garmin.

On Garmin Explore, you click the plus symbol on the map screen to create a route then save it. You have to add it to a collection, then sync with device. It should then appear in the relevant section on your device.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Garmin 945 was still on 60% battery after a day cycling (12.5 hrs) of GPS/Galileo usage. Worried it would run out of battery, I turned of the smart notifications ie connection to phone, and change recording intervals to smart rather than every sec (turns out this wont affect battery anyway). oh and I have pulse ox turned off anyway.

I used navigation on my fenix 5x today. Rode 100km off road in about 7hrs and the battery down to 58%. Happy with that.

Gave the Apple Watch a good test today, 10 hours out on the bike running the Strava app (constant HRM and phone gps) and getting home I had 42% remaining. So I’d guess the battery life is good enough for any length of day ride if you bring your phone (I don’t have 4g version anyway). Phone in pocket all day so plenty of notification etc use.

It’s a series 5 (latest, 6 coming in September) for reference with the always-on function off (works the same as previous generations) and charged to 100% overnight.

I really like my suunto watch

But currently the only way to get a route onto the watch is with movescount on a pc. But this is scheduled be turned off soon. Makes suunto hard to recommend

I once rented a garmin edge explore. It would connect to my phone but refused to transfer a route

No idea what I’ll do when my suunto dies