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Review of Fenix 3 Watch

I'd thought of buying an Apple Watch for some time before getting this instead. I work in an environment where getting your phone out to check emails, messages etc is frowned upon so this seemed a more discreet way of staying connected. I also like the idea of using a watch for basic navigation in the hills (see my previous post on my Casio).
But, although I am heavily committed to Apple, the watch didn't seem to be what I wanted. It doesn't have in-built gps, so you need to keep your phone with you at all times. It doesn't have its own app for fitness and tracking - you have to use third party apps like Strava, Runkeeper, Edmondo etc. And it isn't waterproof, so I'd worry about constantly checking it in a Highland downpour. The battery life is poor, compared to what I eventually bought. It does have a Viewranger app, but this wasn't enough to sway me.

A comparison of the screens of Fenix 3 and 2

So after a quick trial of the Fenix 2, which I sent back after a few days as the notifications drained the battery very quickly and the screen was nowhere near as good, I settled on the Fenix 3. I use it to record any walks, runs or bike rides I do. These are then automatically uploaded to Garmin's Connect website with routes, speed, ascent, pace amongst the information available. Routes can be exported from there, so I can import the routes into Viewranger and view them on a decent map.
The screen is excellent in sunlight, however bright. But from twilight onwards it's less easy to see. There is a backlight though, which can be configured to come on automatically.
I've yet to experiment with importing routes to the watch and then following them. There are simpler functions you can do directly from the watch, for example re-tracing your route, having directions to your starting point or any other point you record. I left a rucksack on a pathless slope to complete the summit and recorded its position as a waypoint.On my return I selected navigate to waypoint and the watch showed me the direction, distance and how long it would take to get there; all while continuing to record the whole route. It was very accurate.
Although the forums were, until the latest update, full of people complaining about gps inaccuracy I've yet to have a problem. Updates are frequent and continue to add functionality to the device: the most recent added new apps (activities you can record) such as indoor rowing, widgets (data screens you can access at any time), as well as automatic sleep tracking.
Notifications match those on your phone, so anything you have set up as a notification will appear on the watch screen. This is very useful as you can decide whether or not it's worth getting your phone out.
You can get further watch faces, apps, widgets and data screens from Garmin's Connect IQ store. I've tried a few watch faces out but none of them seem as good as the ones done by Garmin. I don't find any analogue watch face to be as good as the digital ones - why would you use a digital watch to copy, in rather a bad way, what analogue watches do?
I've worn this watch on every walk/run/bike ride/visit to the gym for the last 6 months and it looks as good as new. Battery life depends upon how many activities with GPS you record. I charge mine up every week, having used it for perhaps 5 or 6 hours of recording.
So far, I'm really pleased with the watch. There's still a lot I haven't tried out: following routes, pairing it to a heart rate monitor etc and the configurations of data screens within activities are endless and I haven't played with these much.
I'll finish with some pictures to give you a better idea of how apps, widgets and data screens look.



My current watch face

An email arriving

The activity widget, showing steps goal, total steps, distance, flights of stairs climbed and the red inactivity bar




That's an all-day event, I wasn't doing this in a staff meeting!



Walking app started, finding gps

Still here

A Slight Delay

It’s been 3 years since I last blogged in a personal capacity. My last posts dealt with donating a kidney and since then I’ve been trying to get back the energy I used to have to get my job done and still find time for other things.

The stages in this were:

• get used to working again
• get fit again
• get back to being able to read without falling asleep

I’ve managed to do all those at last. What set me back was having to go through two further operations for three hernias, which arose as a result of the initial operation. I’ll post about these later on. But for now I think I’ll just post something different as I feel it may be unhealthy and tedious to write too much about health!

I’ll do future posts on hillwalking, Scotland, books and music (although that’s the day job and I aim to do something different).

So, while I’m preparing quick reviews of what I’ve read over the past two years, here’s a review of my latest toy, sorry, vital navigational equipment.