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Garmin Fenix 2 review
- Price Paid:$185.00
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User rating:(4.6)
- Would buy again from this company: Yes
- Used product for: 2 years
- # of logged workouts:
"The Garmin Fenix has been a great investment. I use it all the time, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a watch to track heart rate and time and speed for triathlon training. Also, it has a chest strap for the heart rate monitor, which is good. Many of the watches that measure heart rate on the wrist have to be fastened uncomfortably tight to work properly."alicefoeller
Quality of Construction
My friend calls this my "Darth Vader watch." Seems pretty indestructible, but I put a screen protector over the face of it to prevent scratches.
Fit
I have TINY TINY wrists. My old Garmin 305 Velcro strap was never small enough to fit me. This watch fits great and I even have one or two holes left in the band, so someone even smaller than me could wear it.
Comfort
For a large behemoth of a watch that has an altimeter and everything else, I hardly notice it's there. I think the round shape helps.
Adjustability
Well, it fits great, but there's no bike mount. I miss that about the 305. I could take it off the watchband and mount it to the bike. With it on my wrist, it's very hard to see the data while cycling.
Durability
No problems in 2 years. The heart rate strap plastic that touches my skin has started cracking, but I use it a lot, and often wash the strap in the shower after detaching the actual receptor.
Value
I was upset that my 305 was run over by a truck, and I really didn't want to spend the money for a new Garmin, but I'm glad I did. It's much more versatile than the old one, and can be used as a regular watch.
Appearance
It looks a little ridiculous on my arm, because I'm small, but it's actually a nice looking tech watch. The display is easy on the eyes, too. I like that I had a color choice. It wasn't much of a choice, but my phone and laptop are both orange to match my company logo, so being able to get an orange watch was cool.
Customer Service
Haven't had to call, thankfully. I did have to look up how to reset it one time. And I had trouble deleting old workouts and it filled up, so I had to Google that and try a few things.
Performance
I hasn't run out of charge during a workout or race when I started fully charged. Even when it says Low Battery at the start of a workout, I can often get in a 30-minute run without losing power.
Strengths
This watch is really great if you want to use it for triathlon training and some backcountry hiking. I mostly just do triathlon training, but I took my kids on a backcountry trip in the Smoky Mountains, and I was able to load in some waypoints. Although you can't see the trails, it was enormously comforting to be able to see the little triangle and know I was getting closer, especially alone with two kids. It's been great for open water swimming, and has performed well for anything I've done. It's also fun to see the temperature or altitude randomly on vacation, and things like that. It does allow you to set up auto lap pretty easily. You can also create an interval workout in Garmin Express and then send that to the watch. The watch will then alert you for the start and end of each interval. You can set up intervals by heart rate, too.
Weakness
There is probably a way to set up custom screens, but none of the default screens display the heart rate alongside the elapsed time and pace. That is the screen I want to see most of all, and I'm always paging back and forth 3 or 4 screens to check my heart rate and then go back to viewing distance and pace, or time and pace.
- 5 people use
- 0 workouts logged
- 0 miles / 0 hours logged
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Ease of use
It was fairly easy for me to figure out for regular use. Uploading maps or waypoints was more challenging, and importing workouts into the watch from Garmin Communicator was interesting, too.