Newer garmins

[fingerboy]

I'm feeling time for an upgrade but I've only read terrible things about the latest generation - 620/Fenix 2. Does anyone have them and can they put my fears to rest? My birthday is coming up in a month

[Jwolf]

Love my 910xt.

[fingerboy]

I love my 910xt as well... but it's not a daily watch. Not that I really need one.

[5km]

I have a 620 and been using it since January. It took me a while to come to terms with it. I debated long and hard between the 620 and the Suunto Ambit 2S (the Ambit 2R hadn't come out yet).

Con:
The display is NOT like the advertisements. It is much duller.
The current pace is rounded to the nearest 5 seconds per k and is not very responsive. I haven't tried current pace using the footpod.
Vo2 Max calculation is puzzling. Mine seems too high and doesn't seem to vary enough.
For treadmill running you'll need a foot pod. The internal accelerometer in the watch doesn't work in my experience.

Pro:
Unlike the Suunto which must be connected to the web, the Garmin watch settings and data displays can be set directly on the watch. This is a biggy for me.
The GPS distances seem pretty accurate although map tracings seem a bit off but who cares, really.
Love the vibration alert feature.
Lap Pace is to the nearest second per K and seems pretty accurate and useful.
Light weight.
GPS lock is fast usually.
Touch screen is good.

I don't use the WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities and do everything old school via USB connection. I haven't tried any of the workout features either. The running dynamics stuff is interesting at first and may be useful for a beginning runner. For an experienced runner, I question its real value. A firmware update to add cycling features is supposed to come out some time soon. We'll see.

For a long time I was thinking of returning it but I've gradually "made friends" with it and accepted both its shortcomings and its strengths so I'm OK with it now. I don't know if there is such a thing as a perfect GPS watch. Largely it depends on what you use it for and how obsessive you are.

Good luck in your search.

[Jwolf]

Are there other settings you can use for pace so that it doesn't round to the nearest 5 sec?

Other watches have done some sort of VO2 max calculation but they really shouldn't- that's not something a watch can properly calculate from the available data.

The wifi and BT data transfer is a feature I would really like to have and it ALMOST makes me want to get this watch and sell my 910xt. Almost. BT to my phone would be very handy for when I'm not at home and don't want to take my PC with me travelling.

[5km]

Are there other settings you can use for pace so that it doesn't round to the nearest 5 sec?

Per DC Rainmaker's comments, I have come to use "Lap Pace" as my prime pace variable. It is reads to the nearest second, for example 5:17 per k. Lately, I have been running some fartlek workouts so I have set the autolap to 0.5 k. This gives me a more frequent "check in" than every 1 k.

[fingerboy]

As a follow up, I ended up getting the F2 and love it.

[5km]

Notwithstanding all the positives I said about my Garmin 620, I just returned it! Thank goodness for MEC.

I had adjusted to using lap pace instead of current pace. I understand the issues around current or instant pace. I'd gotten used to the duller display. I loved the vibrate alert. I loved being able to adjust setting directly on the watch, the 4 data items per screen and the WiFi upload. The running dynamics, Vo2 Max, race time prediction, personal records and bluetooth capabilities were interesting but not really useful. The GPS seemed pretty accurate overall but a bit flakey.

There had been a lot of comments on Garmin 620 forum about the latest firmware Version 2.9 increasing the number of spontaneous reboots or restarts mid-run. I hadn't had any at all and thought I was one of the lucky ones. Then on two consecutive runs it happened. The first time, I restarted the watch and the run was recorded as two separate runs. Some of my data had been corrupted naturally. The second time, the reboot seemed different and indeed post run, I discovered that the first part of the run had been lost entirely and all the previous activities, still remaining on the watch, had also been wiped. If I hadn't downloaded them after each run they would all have been gone.

So that's it. I just replaced the battery in my old Timex Digital Heart Rate Monitor chest strap and I'm going without a GPS watch, again! This makes three tries to find a GPS-based watch that works for me.

[Spirit Unleashed]

fwiw, one reason I don't use my garmin online at all is because I don't want some update to eff operations. I've had enough electronics stop working because of downloads.