This product has been discontinued by the manufacturer. It's been replaced by the Garmin Forerunner 945, you may want to check out that review instead.
Today, Garmin has officially announced the successor to the FR910XT triathlon/multisport watch, the FR920XT. The swim-bike-run focused watch effectively takes all of the recent new features from a number of other new Garmin fitness devices and plunks them into this watch. Yet at the same time there’s also a number of features which aren’t seen elsewhere on Garmin devices such as cycling-specific VO2Max, a new metronome mode, and then support of Garmin Connect IQ, which allows companies to make apps for the watch.
I’ve had small windows of time with the watch over the past few months, so definitely consider this in the camp of a ‘first look’ post and not an in-depth review. Which means I’m mostly focused on explaining all the new features and functionality, versus deciding if it’s worth the cash (that comes in my full review). Sound good? Grab a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and let’s get started.
The New Features:
In many ways there are few major unexpected surprises when it comes to the FR920XT. This is largely because as most people assumed the feature-set really builds upon that established by the Garmin FR620 and Edge 1000 – Garmin’s latest cycling and running units. So one is squeezing out all the new features from those units and adding it to the FR910XT. Still, it’s a substantial list. Here’s a rundown of the purely new items (over the FR910XT):
– Addition of Bluetooth Smart, WiFi connectivity
– Addition of Daily Activity Tracking (steps, Sleep, etc…)
– Ability to create Internet connected apps, widgets, data fields (Connect IQ)
– Addition of Live Tracking (requires you carry a phone)
– A Color Screen (that actually really shows colors)
– Creation of Activity Profiles (allows you to create your own)
– Running Dynamics (Vertical Oscillation, Ground Contact Time, Cadence)
– Recovery Advisor, Recovery Time, Race Predictor
– Cycling VO2Max
– PR’s (Personal Records)
– Regular Watch Mode
– UltraTrac (for up to 40 hours of GPS activity…with ANT+ sensor data)
– Addition of GLONASS (for increased GPS accuracy)
– Garmin VIRB action camera control
– Indoor Treadmill support (without a footpod pace/distance)
– Metronome Functionality
– Swimming Drill mode (as found on Garmin Swim, Fenix2)
– Swimming Interval Rest Timer
– Racing against past performances, downloaded performances
As you can see, while there are some completely new things (like the metronome and cycling VO2Max), virtually all the remaining features can be found in other recent Garmin products (FR620, Edge 1000, FR15). Which, I’ll point out might actually be a good thing – as it means those particular code chunks have had time to ‘bake’ a bit more and get the bugs worked out.
Now, there are a few things that many people saw in the wild rumor mill that aren’t in the FR920XT, specifically:
– No support for heart rate while swimming (though, there should actually be a workaround there with Connect IQ)
– No optical heart rate sensor in the unit itself
– No 3G/cellular connectivity
– No Bluetooth Smart sensor support (i.e. BLE heart rate sensors)
– No Di2 support at this time (though, this too could likely be added in Connect IQ)
– No small ponies
Also, note that the screen is not touchscreen. For a triathlon watch where it’s all about water, I think that’s probably a good thing at this point.
To that end, this post will largely focus on all the new stuff. In general, unless I specify otherwise in this post you can assume all the previous FR910XT functionality is carried over. So everything from indoor/outdoor swim metrics to regular GPS running/cycling recording to power meter functionality and anything else that’s been on the FR910XT or the FR620, is here. In my full in-depth review (based on final firmware/hardware), I’ll dive into all those regular features like I always do.
But in the interest of most folks who just want the new stuff, we’ll keep it quick and short here. Actually…who am I kidding? Nothing is short or quick here. And for those not so into reading and photos, I’ve put together a bit of a video detailing my first tri with it, as well as the analytics side of the data afterwards. You can watch that below:
With that, let’s start diving into the details!
Colors, Size, & Weight Comparisons:
The FR920XT comes in two color variations, seen above. They are a red/white option and a blue/black option. Like all previous multisport watches, there is only one size of the watch (meaning, not separate sizes for women or men).
The FR920XT reduces its size a bit compared to the previous FR910XT. To begin, it’s effectively the same thickness now as the FR620, which makes it pretty darn thin:
Here’s a quick glance at the difference in size between the FR920XT (right) and the FR910XT (left). As you can see the screen is similar in size though slightly smaller, additionally, the outer shell has shrunk a bit. Note, in the below image the status bar at the top is showing, but that disappears after a few seconds giving more viewable screen space (as seen in other photos here).
And looking at the Fenix2 (regular and special edition), it’s got a substantially bigger screen size, though the overall width/height of the watch isn’t terribly different – just rectangle instead of square.
You can see quite a difference in thickness there as well:
And for completeness, here’s a few on my wrist, and one with the Fenix2 on my wrist:
Next if we look at the color differences you’ll see it’s much more vibrant than the FR620 was, which didn’t really use the colors for any practical purpose – nor did it have terribly sharp colors.
Finally, weight-wise the FR920XT sits in at 61g, a reduction of 11g from the base FR910XT which is at 72g (without quick release kit).
Daily Activity Monitoring & Regular Watch Mode:
The FR920XT adds to it all of the common daily activity monitoring/tracking functions found in typical activity trackers like Fitbit and Garmin’s Vivo line (Vivosmart, Vivofit). These metrics include daily steps, step goals, distance walked, calories burned, and sleep. Most of these specific metrics will also be transmitted to Apple’s Health Kit (which is semi-implemented right now).
You can see your daily activity on the above page, which shows your progress towards the daily goal, as well as metrics related to that. This page is accessible from the lock screen by just pressing the up/down side buttons. Like other Garmin Vivo devices, the step goal is dynamic and will shift slowly from day to day depending on your step count trending. Thus if you walk more, the goal will increase. If you instead watch more Ironman Kona TV marathons, the goal will likely decrease.
Additionally, the unit includes a move alert, which will trigger if you’ve been sitting idle too long – a reminder to do something. You can always override the goal setting, as well as simply turn off activity tracking altogether.
The new activity monitoring function is also directly accessible on the watch-face home page. The watch mode is now accessible 24×7 in non-GPS mode for 33 days without having to re-charge the battery. And if you have activity monitoring and smart notifications enabled, it’s about 30 days of battery (1 month). If you turn off activity tracking, you’ll get 4 months in straight watch-only mode.
This is a significant change from the FR910XT in a lot of ways, but most notably in that it didn’t offer a regular watch mode at all.
The unit also supports the creation of a single time alarm, to help you wake up at 4:45AM for that joyous morning swim session (or not, as in my case).
Now I will say that when it comes to the endurance athlete, sometimes less is more here. Meaning that if you’ve gone out and done a 120 mile long ride followed the next day by a 20 mile long run, it’s quite likely that the end-state goal shouldn’t actually be to hit 10,000 steps for the next day. Instead, recovery is likely a better approach. In that respect, Garmin doesn’t quite seem to have the same cohesive picture of activity total (including steps) vs recovery that the Ambit3 has. I’m not sure if it’s a significant loss as the FR920XT still has recovery time inclusive of those activities you do in sport modes.
Wireless Connectivity (Bluetooth/WiFi), Smartphone Notifications, Live Tracking:
The FR920XT adds in all of the wireless capabilities found on the FR620 that was released roughly a year ago. That means it starts by adding in Bluetooth Smart phone connectivity. This connection to Android and iOS phone allows for the following functions:
– Live Tracking
– Completed workout uploads
– Transfer of Step/Sleep data
– Ability to transfer scheduled workouts
– Firmware updates
– Course transfers
– Satellite pre-population data
– Smartphone notifications
Smartphone notifications enables your iOS or Android device to send notifications to the unit from apps or services. For example, incoming calls or text messages, or an update from Twitter or other critical apps like Words with Friends.
Live Tracking enables you to send your current location as well as ANT+ data (like heart rate, power, cadence) via your phone to friends and family tracking you. They’ll see where you went and where you are. This feature works exactly like the FR620 (rather than the Fenix2) in that it does allow concurrent ANT+ data transmission and recording a swell as location transmission via Bluetooth Smart. Note that some races prohibit the use of cell phones, so you’ll want to double-check that before you get DQ’d.
In addition, some connected features are also available via WiFi. For example completed workouts can be uploaded via WiFi, as well as download of firmware updates and satellite pre-population data.
Satellite pre-population data (officially known as EPO, Satellite Ephemeris), allows the unit to predict satellite locations and thus allows for super-quick satellite reception, typically within 10 seconds or less. So yes, just like in EPO doping, the EPO for these devices makes it faster too.
In using units in three different global locations, I found that all three picked up satellites within 10 seconds, and in one case the unit hadn’t been turned on in that country previously. The EPO data can be downloaded for 7 days in advance.
(Update: Apparently not, this page seen below was only on one beta unit I happened to grab photos for.) This information can be quickly checked via a handy little page in the settings menu, showing you the current age of the EPO data, and when it expires. Sorta like the date stamp on a gallon of milk:
Anytime you connect the device to your phone, WiFi network, or computer (with Garmin Express installed) it’ll automatically pull updated EPO information.
The FR920 adds in many of the same functions found initially in the FR620 and then in the Fenix2/Fenix2SE. For example, it now supports Running Dynamics, which is the collection of running metrics that include Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time. These metrics come via the HRM-RUN heart rate strap. The strap also provides cadence, however, the unit itself will do wrist based cadence without any heart rate strap. And further yet, if you have a footpod you can get cadence there too.
In addition to Running Dynamics, the unit supports VO2Max estimation on not only running, but also cycling. This is the first Garmin unit to support VO2Max estimations on cycling. To get such estimation, you’ll simply do your normal rides. Ones with slightly more intensity will help give more accurate results however.
Next, there’s Race Predictor. This takes the estimated VO2Max values and then corresponds it with data for your particular gender and age from the Cooper Institute to determine the theoretical best case time for a given distance. Note that this doesn’t mean you’ve trained enough to do so, but rather just that your VO2Max would allow you to do so.
Additionally, for astute readers, you’ll note that these figures below are a bit low for me. This was just on a watch I happened to borrow, so the numbers were for someone else.
Finally, there’s Recovery Advisor and Recovery Time. These aim to give you information about how quickly you’re recovering. Recovery Advisor will display about 6-10 minutes into an activity and let you know how recovered you are from your previous workout. I’m interested to see if this has improved over the FR620, which I found is ‘too nice’, and rarely tells you that your recovery is ‘Poor’ (ok, never tells you that). Note that Recovery Advisor will not use step activity from the activity monitor, but only heart rate based activity data. This is because it’s looking at heart rate variability to determine its results.
Meanwhile, Recovery Time is a post-workout thing that tells you how much time it’ll take to recover from that workout.
For multisport athletes the recovery time should best be judged more along the lines of ‘how much time until the next really hard workout’, rather than just any workout.
Training Calendar, Racing an Activity (Virtual Racer):
The FR920XT carries into it the Training Calendar, which allows you to download training plans and scheduled workouts from Garmin Connect into your watch. These workouts are sync’d each time you sync your watch, and then can be executed on the watch itself. They are always structured workouts with specific steps. On Garmin’s site it offers specific training plans for different running, cycling, and triathlon events. These training plans comprise specific workouts for certain days of the week that will then appear on your watch to complete on that given day.
Next, is ‘Race an Activity’, better known as ‘Virtual Racer’. This feature took a bit of a break within the FR620, so it’s good to see it’s not been cut from the FR920XT. In the case of the FR920Xt, it’s been expanded a little bit however and split into two specific sections.
First is the ability to race your past efforts that happen to be on the watch. For example, if you run the same route each week you could race last week’s effort. It’ll then show where you are in relation to that time last week during your run.
Secondly, you can now easily send other activities (not yours) to the watch. For example, you could send a Pro Athlete’s training or racing file to your Garmin (assuming they’ve set that activity file as public), and then race against that. The same could be done from family or friends for given routes/races. For example, I could go run a 39 minute 10K on a specific course with specific speed sections, then give it to The Girl to go execute and follow the same pacing.
Indoor Treadmill Mode, Metronome:
The FR920XT follows the FR620 and adds an indoor treadmill mode that doesn’t require a footpod to be utilized to gather pace and distance. This means you can get both metrics indoors (or in places with no GPS signal like tunnels) without paying extra for a footpod.
Of course, the accuracy of such technology for pace tends to be a little…variable. I haven’t had a chance to test the FR920XT’s treadmill accuracy, but in recent tests on both the Fenix2 and FR620 (which uses the same technology), I’d give the accuracy a ‘B+’ grade. Sometimes it’s better, sometimes it’s worse. It’s rarely (never) perfect for me, but each person has different running styles. It’ll be something I’ll be testing in more detail in my in-depth review. For cadence data (also gathered from the wrist by default), I find it virtually spot on.
Next, Garmin has added one feature completely out of left field – which is the metronome. This functionality allows you to set a specific beat, typically a run cadence, which can be used for anything from running drills to trying to maintain a specific stride rate.
Within the feature you can set the specific cadence and it’ll beep just like a traditional metronome would. You would then align your footsteps to that. You can also set an Alert Frequency, which will allow you to reduce how often the beat happens, such as every 2,3,4, or 6 beats. Further, you can at any time hold down the menu button and select ‘Mute’ to tell the metronome to STFU.
Generally speaking there’s a strong link between running cadence and running efficiency. This is interesting because this falls inline as a component that could be used to actually improve the Running Dynamics metrics you get. I’ve often lamented that Running Dynamics metrics were more about marketing fluff than actual beneficial things that were/are scientifically proven based on a training methodology. With the metronome you could leverage that for various drills and/or focus on running turnover.
Swimming Features:
There’s been a few minor swim enhancements. First is that the unit now adds the Swim Drill mode that was found in the Garmin Swim watch (and on the Fenix2 watch). This mode allows you log drills that might not be easily recognized by the watch, and then simply lets you enter a total distance for those drills.
The second item is a more clear interval/rest timer for swimming. This makes it a bit easier to see how long the previous interval was and then what your current rest time is. This is useful so you can setup a timer for how long your rest should be and then keep each set consistent.
Note that it doesn’t add full pre-defined structured workout support for swimming however like in running or cycling.
The FR920XT largely keeps the status quo when it comes to sensor support, which means it natively supports the following ANT+ sensor types previously found on units:
– ANT+ Heart Rate sensor
– ANT+ Bike Speed Sensor
– ANT+ Bike Cadence Sensor
– ANT+ Bike Speed & Cadence Combo Sensor
– ANT+ Bike Power Meters
– ANT+ Running Footpods
In addition, it also adds support for this new type of ANT device:
– Garmin VIRB action cam control
With that, the unit can now control your Garmin VIRB action cam, such as starting/stopping recordings as well as taking photos from it.
It does not at this time support either the Edge Remote, or Shimano Di2 data recording like the Garmin Edge 1000 does. Nor does it support the ANT+ weight scale (a loss from the FR910XT) or the rarely seen Fitness Equipment (ANT+ enabled gym treadmills/bikes/rowers).
Note that the unit officially supports the above ANT+ sensors, as I discuss in the section at the end around Garmin Connect IQ, it can now effectively support any ANT devices out there via custom apps and data fields. Thus, devices like BSX, Moxy and even the ANT+ weight scale could be added by 3rd party developers with relative ease. I would expect to see that occur pretty quickly by some 3rd party developer.
Also note that the FR920XT does not support Bluetooth Smart sensors, thus while there is Bluetooth Smart within the unit, it’s used for connecting to the phone and not for sensors. In discussing this with them, Garmin has “no plans” to enable Bluetooth Smart sensor support on the FR920XT.
Next, the FR920XT adopts the Activity Profile concept found on the Edge 510/810 and then in the Edge 1000. In the case of the FR920XT, it aligns more to the Edge 1000 variant as it includes the sensor pool concept. This means that instead of having to manage sensors separately for each bike, you simply pair all your sensors. Then, you define specific activity and multisport profiles. You can have up to 10 single-sport profiles, and 5 multisport profiles.
The unit will automatically use whatever ANT+ sensors are enabled when you start that profile, just like the Edge 1000. This actually works out fairly well and allows you to easily create a different set of data pages for training than for racing. Or perhaps yet another set different for a running race (single-sport) than a triathlon (multisport)
The FR920XT brings with it the navigation features found on the FR910XT (but not found on the FR620), while also adding in an UltraTrac mode found on the Fenix series, and then finally adding in support for GLONASS for increased GPS accuracy in some environments (note: WAAS is not included).
The navigation component has two core areas. The first is to follow downloaded courses (routes) that you created ahead of time on Garmin Connect and then synchronized to the watch.
The second is more ad-hoc navigation. In this scenario you can navigate back to the start, while also saving waypoints along the way. So you could save a waypoint for the start of a trailhead (or where you parked your car), and then navigate back to it (or forward to it).
In this mode it’ll show you exactly how far you are away from the waypoint. It was here that I was fairly impressed with the satellite accuracy shown on the device. As I stayed put to where the marker was, the accuracy of the unit stayed within 1-3ft (not meters, but feet). Then as I walked away it increased, and walked back to the same spot it went back to those 1-3ft. Garmin notes that they made changes to the antenna placement and positioning on the unit that should offer increased satellite performance.
All of this navigation also utilizes the units onboard magnetic compass.
As noted, the unit also supports GLONASS, similar to some of the newer Edge devices like the Edge 1000.
Next, the unit adds in an UltraTrac mode. In this mode you can reduce the GPS recording rate down to a less frequent rate, but enables you to get upwards of 40 hours of GPS-on/recording battery time. Outside of that, it’s now 24 hours of 1-second recording GPS data (a bump up from the previous 18-20 hours).
When in the UltraTrac mode you will see reduced data points however, so you’ll want to use this only in cases where your single activity is going to be more than about 24 hours. Otherwise, you’ll lose a lot of data/accuracy due to the reduced recording rate of approximately 15-20 seconds on, and 40-45 seconds off, per minute. The approach is slightly different than the past, because it’s more dynamic than previous units which simply jumped up and grabbed a data point every 60 seconds and went to sleep.
Further, unlike like previous units the FR920XT will record ANT+ sensor data at the same 1-second or smart recording rate in UltraTrac mode. The UltraTrac only impacts GPS updates. This is potentially huge for ultra runners that want to maintain that additional sensor data, but don’t mind as much on the GPS track being less accurate.
Garmin Connect IQ Apps Support:
Last week Garmin announced Connect IQ, which allows 3rd party developers to develop apps for supported Garmin devices. At the time of the announcement though, no such devices had been announced – making the announcement slightly…intriguing. The FR920XT however will be the first device to support Connect IQ apps. The unit will support all four modes of apps. These modes are:
Apps: Full blown multi-level/interactive apps Custom Data Fields: The ability to create custom data fields that you can add to any data page Widgets: The ability to create basic screens that pull data from other sources Watch Faces: The ability to create customized watch faces, from a picture of your bike to something more data oriented.
The real power for the FR920XT will be the ability to support sensor types that aren’t traditionally supported by Garmin. For example, I’d expect that someone like BSX would look at adding in support for their sensor via a simple app. The same could be true of anything from hydration sensors to aerohelmet position sensors.
I won’t re-hash all the Connect IQ functionality/components here, for that simply read last week’s post for all the details. Note that the Connect IQ app store doesn’t launch until January, so you won’t see that functionality quite yet on the FR920XT. However, developers can already download the SDK and there will be an updated emulator that’s clearly marked as the FR920XT soon (though, the default rectangle one is actually the FR920XT already…).
Garmin Connect Changes:
In addition to a slew of hardware changes, Garmin is also rolling out changes to Garmin Connect, one of which is specifically aimed at the triathlon crowd. That change is the addition of a new Multisport display mode for triathlon data on Garmin Connect. Currently (or, I suppose previously), the triathlon watches would split up each segment of your race/training day into separate activities. So one file for swim, one for bike, one for run, etc…
This made it somewhat complex to see the triathlon as a single cohesive event. Now, that’s changed. For Garmin FR920XT, FR910XT, FR310XT, and Fenix2 and Fenix2 Special Edition users, the new activity view allows you to see your triathlon as a single activity:
You can still view each individual leg if you’d like to, but this gives a cleaner picture of things. My understanding is this change should go live sometime today on the site.
In addition to this, Garmin has tweaked a few other areas. First is a new activity detail page. The new page cleans up the view a bit and includes a larger map and then consolidates the player feature that was on the second tab, as well as now shows cumulative lap times. I haven’t spent time with this new view, so it’s unclear to me yet if other things were ‘lost’ as part of it, for that we’ll have to dive into it later today.
Next, there’s now the ability to group different activity trackers together to determine which data you want from which devices. For example, you could have step data from the Vivofit, whereas have running data from the FR15.
Finally, there’s a new Group Leaderboard that ties into mileage and step goals.
This is primarily aimed at being more social with your daily activity amongst friends on Garmin Connect.
Product Comparison Charts:
I’ve added the Garmin FR920XT to the Product Comparison Tool, which means you can mix and match it against any other watch’s/unit’s that I’ve ever reviewed for feature comparisons.
For the sake of simplicity, I’ve just selected the Garmin FR920XT, FR910XT and Fenix2. However, you can easily make your own chart with any device you want here at this link.
The tables are updated dynamically and thus if/when things change that’s represented automatically in this section. And again, remember you can create your own charts easily here with any product you’d like.
Wrap-up:
There’s no doubt considerable new features in the FR920XT. I suspect it hits almost every feature people have been asking for, short of heart rate recording while swimming and Bluetooth Smart sensor support. Even more exciting in my mind is it will be the first device to support Connect IQ apps, which opens the door to tons of creativity for apps that people are already thinking about – but also apps people haven’t even considered. For example I suspect we’ll soon see people writing custom alerts and apps for remembering to take your hydration and nutrition during a race as well as even queue sheets for sections of a race on guidance. So much incredible potential there.
Of course, the proof will be in the pudding when it comes to validating there aren’t teething pains with the new device – be it stability issues or GPS accuracy issues. For that, I’ll need the remainder of the month with a production unit and production firmware. I can only hope that Garmin used the extra time they spent moving the previously planned release dates out from various earlier planned dates that the unit got extra testing and bug squashing. It hopefully helps that Garmin enlisted a group of athletes outside the company to beta test the device since this past spring.
As for availability, a semi-small number of units will be available at Ironman Kona (next week). Beyond that there are extremely limited numbers of units available globally for the next few weeks before production is significantly ramped up. Thus, expect that it might not be until at least mid or late November that Garmin is able to get through a backlog (or even longer). The whole early bird and worm thing is definitely at play here (just like it was for the FR620 running watch last year).
Next, the unit does see a slight bump in price to $449US for the base, and $499 for the version with the HR strap. I suppose this might be to match both Suunto and Polar triathlon watches which have higher prices (yet those units arguably have far less features).
Finally, as noted a moment ago, I plan to spend October putting the final unit through it’s paces. I’ve got a very accommodating work travel schedule that takes me to the perfect places that I need so I can easily get in the openwater swims, bricks and other triathlon focused activities that I need to beat the crap out of the device. Thus, expect a full Garmin FR920XT In-Depth Review the first week of November, just in time for me to decide whether or not the unit makes the cut for my 2014 Fall/Winter Sport Device Recommendations.
With that – thanks for reading! Feel free to drop questions below, and as usual I’ll try my best to post answers.
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Found things here useful? Wanna help support the site?
You can pre-order the Garmin FR920XT below now via Clever Training, which helps support the site and makes posts like this and other reviews possible. They also have all the other FR920XT accessories such as the quick release kit, extra colored straps and the like available. Here’s the link to the FR920XT pre-order page, you can use the drop-down menu on their site to choose which edition (with or without HR strap), and which color you want.
I’m so excited about this. The metronome functionality is so simple and great, it has been on my wish list for my 620 since I got it. Will certainly be picking one of these up as soon as I can.
Can add basically unlimited pages to different activity profiles (a la fenix 2)? And access all the different metrics and scramble them any which way you want on those pages? Sorry if I’ve missed this already covered somewhere else on the page. Thanks!
“There are 4 fully configurable data screens per activity profile that can each have up 1 to 4 data fields each. There is a Clock screen that can be enabled or disabled; there is a Map screen that can be enabled or disabled; there is Virtual Partner screen that is enabled or disabled depending on its setting as well as other features that may be in use (such as Set a Target or Race an Activity).
In Running there is a Running Dynamics screen that may be present if an HRM-Run is present or may also be disabled even if an HRM-Run is in use. There is a Workout/Interval screen that is enabled when you follow a planned workout or interval set. In Pool Swimming there is a Rest screen and a Drill Log screen that may be enabled; the Rest screen is context dependent, of course. So, the number you’re looking for depends on the profile in use.”
(Handy little text snippet courtesy the FR920XT team on an e-mail I had with them)
Hello Ray
Great review as always!
I want to have only one data field per screen as I run, will that make the font bigger? like filling the whole screen like on FR610?
thx
6co
I appreciate all of the insight you provide, and the timely feedback.
I’m just wondering if you know why they limited the size of the display so much within the face/bezel of the watch.
A huge amount of real estate devoted to borders/argyle print/Garmin logo.
A little bummed to see the display reduced from the 910, and the font seems less readable at a glance, imo.
It’s where the antenna is (loops around the outside edge), among other things. So instead of a screen, there’s other components of the watch. Those components went somewhere when the watch was further slimmed down.
Ah, I had assumed the antenna was still in the down angled part (where the start/lap buttons are) like in the old 305.
Was wondering how they managed that with the buttons.
Do you think any of the new running features and fitness tracker will be available via an update to the 620? It’s only been for around 12 months, but it is looking “old” compared to this! Or do you think these features will be available on a 630, which will probably be out in the next 12-18 months?
Most of the running features have come from the 620. Which do you mean?
It’s been previously discussed that the 620 hardware would not work as an activity tracker.
Awesone, want one! Had the 310xt and now 910xt, wonderful gadgets with one major hardware “bug”: i am hating garmin’s HR straps. using the polar ones with garmin sensor. DC, is that still possible with the new device 920xt? greetings from austria, sebastian
Yup, that still works. You won’t get Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time (without the HRM-RUN), though, you could put the HRM-RUN pod into the Polar strap.
Is it the same HRM-RUN that’s been around for a while now or is this a NEW type HRM-RUN w/ the 920XT?
Guess what I’m getting at is could you use your current HRM-RUN that you use with your Fenix2?
It’s fairly similar. Check out my FR620 or Fenix2 review for more discussion on the Running Dynamics metrics (which came a few months prior to TICKR X). Ultimately they’re basically the same metrics.
Ray – great initial write up, as always. I have a sizing question for you that I don’t see answered in any other questions you’ve responded to.
I have an FR620 that I love, but wish the screen was a bit bigger for faster mid-run glances to get my stats. I had a Nike+ SportWatch and loved the massive main stat, but find I have to look at the FR620 longer to get the numbers I need due to size.
It appears that the 920 screen isn’t really much bigger than the 620s, but perhaps being rectangular helps vs the circular 620. Since you’ve seen both, do you feel the readout is bigger on the 920 than the 620?
That would be the lynch pin for me to make the switch and eBay my 620.
While I’ve got you – is the red a nice, manly red, or is it more of a ladies color? I kinda like it, but want a good deep red more than a light red.
Thanks! I ordered the black from CleverTraining (and got a VIP membership – thanks for the deals!). I literally had a dream last night that I should have gotten the white/red. How pathetic is it that I’m dreaming about this watch now?!?!
Can you use a soft strap with this?
This pretty much ticks all the boxes for me, I wish it was allot less ugly i’m really not sure what is going on with the design team at Garmin still stuck in the early 90s by the looks of things. The colour display somehow makes it look even more ugly imo. But i’m going to have to buy the damn thing.
Ray, once again a gem of a preview. Just ordered over on Clever Training. I am glad I have expendable income, if this stuff was coming out about 40 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Currently at 80,678 miles run. My 620 will go to my running Grandson, the Vivosmart to one of my daughters and the Basis may go to a friend I am attempting to get more active. Thanks again for all you do. Nick
The nerd in me just says “I WANT IT” but I am so frustrated with Garmin Support Service in Portugal, that i am definately leaving this line of products. (single tear drama scene)
Not so much Connect IQ actually in this case, but rather you can do it today through MyFitnessPal actually. I’ll be posting on it shortly (next week). Or, you can just wander to the Garmin Forums and find the quick how-to there.
Hi Rey,
I would appreciate if you could clarify the following:
1) Compass. Garmin site says that 920XT has no Electronic compass, your site (in the comparison table) shows it has “Magnetic” compass.
2) Routes. Garmin’s site shows that 920XT does not work with “routes” on your site you mention “Download courses/routes from phone to unit – YES”. How is that possible?
3) Auto Lap®, Time/distance alert and Customizable screen(s) are shown on Garmin’s site as not supported on Fenix 2 but I am pretty sure they are as I have the watch. Or are this somehow different on 920XT?
1) It’s true, it doesn’t have Electronic, but rather a Magnetic compass, which is better than Electronic. No idea why Garmin’s site isn’t showing magnetic, I’ll send a note over for them to correct (we just chatted about it yesterday, so I know it’s magnetic).
2) It’s more of a terminology thing. I call them courses/routes because they’re basically the same thing and people get confused otherwise. Garmin officially splits them out whereby routes including stuff like ‘Turn left on Maple street’, which I put into a different category of “Turn by Turn Navigation”. This mostly comes from years of questions. ;)
3) Yeah, that’s wrong on their site too. It’s pretty common for stuff to be wrong. I’ll send a note to that team too.
Thank you for this detailed first review .After a FR15, I’ve bought one of the early Ambit3 available , and have been bitterly disappointed both by the product and the so called “customer support”. Since i don’t expect to see any improvement (activity/steps/sleep tracker, Android app, BT sensors debugging, etc) before decades ,the 920xt should be my birthday gift in january since it includes all my wishes.
I will send you Haribo alligators as a happy christmas card :)
I find it unfortunate that the Garmin Running team is sticking to the ‘unconventional’ color schemes unlike the Outdoor team. Are they ever planning to offer more sedate colors for this (or the 620) in the future?
What kind of a charger is used here? Is it again something different/new just for this watch?
Also – why Garmin doesn’t have 1 or only few charging set ups. Seems like that every new watch comes out w/a new charger set up?
It’s different. I think sometimes there’s valid reasons for different chargers – such as improvements. And yet for others it seems silly. For example, the FR220 and Fenix lineup are virtually identical – and with even a bit of force they actually do work with each other. Yet…they’re not exactly perfect. Go figure.
It’s only for newly uploaded activities as of about noon US Eastern today. But, if you still have the original .FIT file you can re-upload it and it’ll show up in the new format.
Do you know if the auto-pause feature will work with indoor swimming pools like the Suunto Ambit3 and Finis Swimsense do? You said a while back the 910xt didn’t so I’m wondering if the new one will.
If not, it seems like a big drawback compared to the Ambit3 for people who do lots of intervals and don’t want to press start/stop every time.
Just chatted with them, it should be up by the morning. They were waiting on the official imagery from Garmin to be able to list it. If you’re worried about snagging your place in line you can just order the 920XT now and then simply e-mail/call them in the morning and they’ll easily add in the quick release kit (including DCR discount).
Ray,
With whom did you speak at CT? I send them an email before originally posting on your site and I received a reply from Jennifer today stating the triathlon bundle is not available.
I think there might be a tiny bit of confusion. With the FR920XT, there isn’t a full ‘triathlon bundle’ (like there was for the FR910XT). So, it’s the HRM-RUN bundle, or no bundle (just the base unit).
There is additionally the Quick Release Kit,which is a separate accessory that you can add. But, Garmin doesn’t have a SKU at this point that has it all in one like past products (why, I have no idea).
Hope this helps! Oh, and I just talked to them, and it should be up any moment I’m told. I’ll post back here as soon as I get the note.
One thing that I have always hated about this line, compared to the 610/620, Fenix, Ambits, and now the Polar v800, is the form factor of the watch and the screen. I have never been a fan of the quad screen. Wish they would have updated that to be vertically stacked.
Thanks for all the time that you put in these reviews. Just wish you had posted a little hint that this Watch was coming out 5 weeks ago because I wouldn’t have bought the Fenix2. Got one from the 2QA series that have very poor accuracy (even sent Garmin a video of my 910xt, my Edge800 and the Fenix2 to show them how bad it was.) They are suppose to change it but I have to ship it to Raytech and heard from friends that the service isn’t really good there. I even ask Garmin if they would exchange my Fenix2 for the new 920xt
You should do video unboxing and reviews as a way to see things in the real world and earn some ad revenue for the budding family. With the comment hoards like this watch you would get tons of views.
Great preview! Your the tech hero for us triathletes
I actually did one for the Polar M400 last week in that review. Meant to do one for this unit, but just ran out of time. I’ll have one up on Friday for it though, probably a one-stop 4-7 minute walk through video.
The only challenge with unboxing videos for me is that I take most of my unboxing photos while…unboxing. Thus that breaks the flow a bit. Perhaps on the second unit (my retail unit), I’ll do that via video. Hadn’t thought of that.
Overall though, Youtube generally pays barely pennies compared to other mediums, so I try and focus my time as much as possible on getting quality reviews out. For something like a one-shot 4-7 minute video, that’s easy to do though without impacting other things.
One more question for you: any possibility of the daily activity tracker utilizing the altimeter to get “flights” similar to the Fitbit One/Force? (As a future update as I’m almost sure it’s not currently included — since you have an open line of communication with the Garmin team, just seeing if that’s a possibility)
I haven’t heard of any discussion there at this point, though I’ve gotta believe it’s on their radar for the Vivo line in general. My suspicion would be that you’d see it added somewhere and probably backported into the 920XT down the road (if they did stairs).
Ray…if you were to required to chose today between the Garmin FR920XT Triathlon Watch or the Suunto Ambit 2S, which model would you go with and why?
I love the features of the 920XT but as many commenters have stated, the cosmetic appearance of the watch, in my opinion, is cheap looking, dated and a turn off for a 24/7 watch. That being said, it’s functionality certainly helps overcome it’s overall appearance. But for the financial outlay versus the pricing of the Ambit 2s on Clever Training coupled with your promotional discount, do you feel the 920 XT is worth the extra money just to acquire the features being touted versus the Suunto Ambit 2s, less features? Perhaps in your case money may not be an issue but you strike me as one being practical, and do think of the wee people who may not have an unlimited discretionary funds in your final assessment of a product. What say ye?
I see those as two different markets. The Ambit2S is less than half the price of the FR920XT. It will, at least for the time being, remain my go-to suggestion for people looking to get into triathlon and wanting a watch. It’s a sweet deal at $219US.
And ultimately, there are tons of people happy with that watch, and the functionality of devices before today. I’d really boil it down to whether or not you care about connectivity to the phone and apps. If not, save the cash.
Does Clever Training support international delivery, like to south east Asia? It will take too many moons for this device to reach our shore if we were to wait for local Garmin launch. Nice work there..:)
Does 920xt support auto-lapping by location, just like what 910xt did. This would be quite useful for counting laps and thus accurate distance when keep running on a playground one lap after another.
I noticed that both Garmin 620 and Fenix 2 have removed the function of auto-lapping by location, not sure why Garmin did this but hope this function will be kept on 920.
I’m disappointed with the look. Shiny, patterned face and blue stripes. Not something I would wear on my wrist every day. I think I’ll stick to my 910XT until they bring out a more subtle colour scheme (e.g. matte black). Time for an Ambit 3 Black perhaps?
I really hope that Garmin Connect update their customised workout page as part of this refresh. It drives me crazy not having a bike “3sec average power” setting in workouts. The devices I transfer the workouts to have the setting but not the website…
Great preview, and I’m pleased to see your hint that you might have something in the works for your euro fan-base as an online ordering partner! Your full review and 920 availability should hit just as I’m getting back on my feet from my impending cruciate reconstruction, at which point this looks like it will be my next purchase barring any disasters in the full review.
One thing occurred to me, that the whole app/widget side of things might change a lot in terms of how you would view the 920 (and other similarly ‘extendable’ devices) at various points in the future. Do you have plans for reviewing the more useful third party software further down the line, either as released of in a semi-regular round-up?
Thanks. Yup, I’ll probably do some sort of look at apps for the 920XT (and/or other supported Connect IQ devices) down the road. Perhaps upon launch of Connect IQ, and then perhaps every once in a while when something significant pops up, or as you suggested, if things are changing enough to cover them more regularly.
Great preliminary review. You mentioned that VO2 has been added to the cycling mode. Did Garmin add the training Effect (TE) feature, available for the running mode, to cycling? I find this feature very helpful when I am on a trainer, to gauge objectively my overall effort.
Good to see that TE is available for swimming, cycling, and running.
How about other sports? If I create a hockey profile, will it contain TE?
If not, what happens if choose running, but later change it to ice hockey in Garmin Connect? Also, what happens to Running Dynamics if you change the sport in Garmin Connect?
I’ve been waiting for this post for a while now. I’m quite happy with my Fenix2 and Vivosmart combo but the 920xt could replace both. The added features are awesome but the color options are a huge letdown. Like others have mentioned above, the color schemes make the device look rather cheap.
Thank you for your comment regarding the Suunto Ambit 2s vs. 920 XT. Your objectivity and honesty is most appreciated. Now, go out an enjoy a quaint French caffe, coffee and a croissant. Cheers….
1. What routes/courses does 920 exactly support? 910 supported both TCX (turn-by-turn) courses and GPX (breadcrumb) tracks. The Garmin product comparison tool shows 910 & 920 with identical “Maps & Memory” features (“Routes: 0; Waypoints/favorites/locations: 100”.)
2. Iff 920 does support Edge-style turn-by-turn TCX courses (a la 910), will the nav screen be customizable? The 910 course screen with four fields is practically useless for turn-by-turn, esp. when you really only care about two fields: intersection name w/turn direction and distance or time to turn. “Time to Point”, “Distance to End”, “Course Time” etc. are practically useless screen clutter.
3. Will 920 sync to desktops via ANT & Garmin ANT Agent? Or to iOS Wahoo Fitness via the ANT dongle?
4. Is the charging / USB sync cradle interchangeable with any other Garmin unit? The watch leads look almost identical to 620, but just slightly too far apart.
And finally:
5. If specific ANT+ devices already have built-in connectivity options for other Garmin wrist / bike units (e..g Tempe, Di2, …), what’s the point of requiring Connect IQ apps to pull in the data when the support should be a factory feature for a $450 device?
I’ll circle back tomorrow with more details on all the navigational questions (bundling them up and testing them all, and will add in some more screenshots there on a final unit).
As for a few other questions…
#3: No ANT Agent sync anymore (nor ANTfs transfers). But on iOS/Android you can use the native app, and that syncs to Garmin Connect which in turn sync’s to many major services now (more tomorrow too).
#4: No, it’s different.
#5: I have no idea. I agree, I think it’s silly that the FR920XT doesn’t have Tempe support. For Di2, I suspect we’ll see it added. I suspect they’re sorting out some of the UI display issues for gearing before adding it all in (versus adding in recording support now and causing consumer confusion on the split).
Is that weather station temps or from the device? A recorded bike ride on my edge 810 which does record temp built in has a graph of the temp during the ride but this 920 activity is showing no graph of the temp
Re 5: I am more than curious whether Garmin people change their minds and finally add the Tempe as a pairable sensor. It would be so easy to increase the level of the difference between 910XT and 920XT. I guess not all the people are bought by the features they added.
Anyway the daily watch function is a big hit, even if it has nothing to do with exercising or competing. The same would be for temperature. Not an item in sporting, but people are got used to know the temp data.
Would love to measure water temperature. Presumably not a standard feature but maybe via ConnectIQ in the future? But ANT+ can’t transmit through water, right? Hmmm…
Ultratrac mode still seems no good for ultrarunning. Any race over 24 hr worth doing will be on trail and will require frequent GPS measurements due to the winding nature of such trail. The only solution would be some sort of charging en route and looks like it’s not practical with that watch.
I have charged my 8 yr old bike garmin via mini usb at around 18 hours for a 30+ hr race and i get detailed GPS and it allows charging while running. Just pick up a battery powered charging unit and carry it for a 5 or 10 mile interval between aid stations.
I’d guess that the vast majority of Ultra’s are under 24 hours. And, I’d guess that the vast majority of Ultra’s that are over 24 hours have participants going at rates slow enough that having some sort of variable recording rate (it’s more than once per minute) is probably less of an issue than it might appear.
I’d guess the number of people doing ultras longer then 24 hours and going fast enough on twisty trails that ultratrac isn’t good enough is not enough people to design a watch for…. (though it does seem strange it can’t work while charging)
wait. did i miss that comment. the 920xt cannot be charged while in use? the Fenix2 can, and I thought I read the 910xt can as well. perhaps my search through the comments didnt work. 920xt cannot be charged while in use? really. BTW I think the bast majority of Ultra’s ARE over 24hr. Except for elites. The cutoff for most 100 milers is often in the 30hour time range.
So i guess its a software issue then? I hope they fix that because that may put me off, unless the ultratrac is really really good, i don’t like the idea of even less accuracy. Personally i run as much as possible in an ultra & then mix in walking its not a constant slow pace. I guess the ultratrac will dynamically change with your pace.? Really looking forward to the proper review as we don’t really know how well this new glonass & ultratrac will work in terms of accuracy.
Great review. I’m sorry if a similar question was already asked in the comments. I skimmed through them quickly and did a search for Edge 500 and didn’t see anything.
I have a couple of questions about the Edge 500 from a cyclist considering turning triathlete…
I also have the soft strap premium HRM and am wondering if a) This HRM is waterproof and safe to swim with and b) if this HRM is compatible with the 920xt or if I’ll need to buy the bundle?
I am next to say it’s ugly :-P but I got used to 310XT (that I think was much worse in looks).
And this one simply has everything! Also the fact that it was designed by “sport” team of Garmin, makes it a big promise to really perform. Probably I’ll get one early 2015…
@Ray: please quickly pair with some retailer in Europe as I would love both: get some 10% and support You :-D
Does Clever Training charge when it ships or when you buy it? I know it will authorize at the moment but was wondering whether it’s just the preauthorization that falls off or whether they put the charge through right away. Thanks!
Thanks, still in! I’m done with the Polar V800 (which I think overestimates distance, RunKeeper had 3.02, Polar had 3.32, and MapMyRun had 3.2. And I’ve done routes and it will give me different distances each time. And I think the treadmill is way off.
I have a 910XT so I have all bike/foot pod sensors and the new run strap looks interesting and the Polar Flow websites … blows. And September come and gone and no promised export.
Now I have a $500 doorstop that I’m ok having because I hate it that much and I need a GPS watch. Off to eBay to get something back for it.
Yes, the VIP membership will apply for this specific product for a considerable time period (basically until the next the FR930XT), so no difference there.
As for selling out, yes, I don’t expect Garmin to be able to stock enough units until at probably at least Thanksgiving (US), based on the weekly production numbers currently planned. They could change those numbers, but they’re somewhat purposefully starting low in case there are any unforeseen issues in the first few weeks of batches.
Yeah just tried it and my V800 has automatic laps at every mile ran and I just exported/imported… and the activity just has one lap, the whole activity. Really?
Thanks Ray. I’ll wait for a month or two for all the production kinks to clear out and to also to read your full review on it. I’m also disappointed about the lack of BTLE support for HRMs, pods, etc. I was really hoping for it since I purchased the Dash and the runScribe. Fortunately, runScribe will have the Ant+ support.
Thanks for this nice overview Ray. Definitely looking forward to the full review. If there’s no major issues that come up I am pretty sure this one will find its way onto my wrist :P
From the viewpoint of a runner only, it would seem the only reasons I would consider moving from the 620 to this are: more vibrant screen, longer battery life, knowing who is calling or emailing while on a long run versus having to take my phone out of my waist pack. Anything else I didn’t pick up on from your detailed comparison chart? My first watch years ago was the 305. I do miss the rectangular screen a bit.
Metronome for running cadence, support for connect iq (620 may support it and guessing it will but they hadn’t said anything and not sure how an app written for a rectangle screen with buttons for navigation 920 will work on a round screen with a touch screen for navigation 620), better gps (newer chipset and support for glonnas), breadcrumb map and limited route support (sure, no street map but better then not knowing where you’re going at all), no touch screen (I know the touch screen on my 610 gets annoying)
Simply an amazing first look and responses to comments (as always). Where do you find the time?! I’ve read all the posts and am left with a question. I suspect I’ll need to wait for the full review…
Turn by turn direction alerts: yup or nope?
If yes, I’ll sell my Garmin 800 and 620 for an all-in-one since it’s all covered…
Thoughts?
Nope, not like the Edge 800. Though, I want to validate some pieces if you can pass through some basics in the TCX file – I’ve gotta validate that as some of the navigation pieces I only had limited time with.
Looks like the chipset in the 920 doors support waas link to google.com.pdf&cd=3&ved=0CCIQFjAC&usg=AFQjCNFyIk0-cWxpmXFK8953n-0UsLzDGw&sig2=Dk-tU-5Bg5EVxrH3PDOQbA
Great preview, the 920xt definitely has some exciting features. I’ve two quick questions:
1) will there be customizable modes, so rather than select outdoor cycling, I could select customizable mode 1 which would record cycling and then have a transition and switch to running without having to start a new session?
2) any talk of enabling heart rate in swimming mode. It’s the 1 thing I find disappointing here but if I could use a Mio or Ant+ memory belt (not sure if one exists) then I think I’d go with 920xt. Perhaps this would be an app option down the road?
1) Yes, fully customizable in that sense. You can have customizable single-activity modes, as well as customizable multisport activity modes made up of single sports.
2) It (HR) works in openwater mode, not in pool, for those with the Mio Link. An ANT+ memory belt doesn’t exist at this time.
Ray,
Your blog and reviews are definitely high value for me.
Do you think the V800 or the 920XT will ultimately enable the Mio Link to transmit heart rate to it while swimming in the pool? (I currently do that for the Mio Link to the Polar Flow; but realize that there might be a technical issue for the 920XT since it requires ANT+ while Polar could do it via software.)
Since your original first look at the V800, I thought when Polar finally came out with indoor swimming, then I could get one and consolidate my current setup of 910XT, Polar Loop, and Mio Link down to the V800 and the Mio Link. Now with the 920XT out, I wonder if I should just abandon the idea of capturing heart rate in the pool and just keep using the Mio Link with running and biking with a future 920XT.
Every new model bring new user experience. I mean menu style, button placement and button functions. After 910, getting used to Fenix2 was hard. And now it seems again everything changed in 920. Interesting desicions…
It’s interesting, on the FR910XT the buttons are actually basically the same. The Fenix2 is a shift from the FR series. Though, the Fenix2 is actually a significant shift from the Fenix1, specifically to align to more of the forerunner button layout and function set for people coming from that world. Sorta a middle ground.
a general question: Is there a good way to share a device such av the 920xt between
two persons and have them separated, like switch fast between two profiles?
(You know like when you and your better half wants to use the same gadget.)
Ray answered this earlier and said no it’s not possible on this watch or any GPS watch, simply because they make more money by not having that.
Now if you didn’t mind only manually uploading files to different Strava accounts and just wanted different data fields to appear for each of you while you are running, you could just create two different activity profiles.
The way to do this is to have Garmin Express installed on 2 different computers: on the one machine configure Express to upload to your account, and on the other machine configure it to upload to your better halfs account.
Hi Ray,
Very good review about an very waited device!
I had the the Forerunner 305 and switch it for the 910xt few years ago. This spring, I’ve try the Fenix 2 who seems to not work good for me and have remplace it for the Polar V800 (my wife like the 910 right now). Yesterday, I’ve made myself an DCRainmaker VIP on CleverTraining and now waiting for the brand new 920Xt to arrived ;-))) My V800 will be on sale in few weeks. Not that it does’t work well, but the fact that it always a pain to get connected the other device, the poor website to analyse the data, the lack of phone notification and all other inbox feature that the V800 doesn’t have right now make me return to the more than userfriendly Garmin ecosystem.
So thx a lot Ray, keep the good work!
Nice preview Ray, as always!
I love everything it does and hope that Suunto is paying attention and puts some of these things in my Ambit3 on updates(although I guess that would require me to actually get MC to work on my hub’s computer! (Argh….another day & another story!)
If it wasn’t so ugly, I’d actually contemplate returning my Ambit3. But between the v800, Apple Watch, the Moactive, Nike, and now 920XT, maybe the current style is square for watches?!?! I guess I am more traditional, I sortof wish my Ambit had the choice of an analog looking dial choice for main time screen, I’d dig that!
Hey Ray, could you keep an eye for this in your testing??
About my only beef with the 910XT is that it vibrates when it looses satellites. When I’m doing a long open water swim, I set the watch to vibrate every 20 minutes, so I can’t get a sense of where I am and how much farther I have to go. Extraneous vibrations mess up that plan.
Does the 920XT vibrate when losing satellites and/or can that function be turned off?
I’ll keep an eye out as I often run through a few longer tunnels that are closed to traffic on weekends. That said, I suspect it would, simply because it’s considered ‘an alert’. As such, you’d have to turn off alerts altogether (not what you want).
That would actually be a very nice software update – adding in the ability to pick which alerts get vibrations, which get tones, which get nothing, etc. For example, when I swim, I have arts set for both every 60 seconds and for every 250 yards – the first so I have some idea what pace I’m carrying; the second just to track my overall distance. It would be really nice to be able to set one to a tone and the other to vibrate, or to have one alert vibrate for a longer time than the other.
Just suggesting in case the folks at Garmin are reading.
We all know its in the pipeline. So its more of a matter of when. But in the posts some folks did a good job or trying to differentiate why the Fenix series or why the forerunner series. There is crossover between them. That said, I fit more into the Fenix series. But love LOVE some of the new features on the 920xt. metronome, activity monitor, the ultratrac with ant+. Heck any Ultrarunner would LOVE that. Currently we just need to carry USB batteries to rechard Fenix during ultras. I would expect a F3 to have some of these new 920xt features. Can you give your guess about if F2 will get some updated (metronome?) via firmware? Would you think the F3 is in 2015? While I’m ok with GPS receiption… would welcome improvements.
I suspect we won’t see the Metronome come to the F2/F2Se, but perhaps I’ll be wrong. That team appears to enjoy adding features frequently…simply because they can.
1) TICKR X: As noted, no, it won’t send Running Dynamic type metrics
2) Yes
3) Virtually the same (1y different to 17y instead of 18y)
4) Yes, see full section on that here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Any word on how much storage this may have?… The FR620 seems to have so little space that I have to remove all the previous activities every time there is a firmware update. At least with the 910xt I was able to keep a history (though usually too corupt to actually delete).
Also has the issues with the BT connectivity to the phone been addressed or resolved?… Again refering to my FR620 having significant BT connectivity issues since the firmware update supporting cycling. Live Tracking is pretty much worthless to me since that update, and the auto sync rarely works anymore. To me, I’m not sure if this is an App issue on the Android side since that update or a watch issue. But I’m guessing similar hardware and firmware will be on the 920xt.
Another question would be support for the Tempe sensor?… Looks like that’s still missing from all but the Fenix?
And to continue the semi related questions, how about the VO2Max (cycling especially) and Rest calculations. Do they yet take into account training done on other devices synced on Connect (such as an Edge)?… I know you mentioned that it does not take into account steps. Which is sad, since I don’t usually log long hikes but currently carry a Fitbit to keep semi tabs on those (long as in 5mi-20mi+).
Another question probably related to the need for 3rd party development via the Connect IQ (I’m already reading the SDK and trying to figure out how to write in Monkey C and get the simulator running)… How about support for other Wifi enabled scales to update the users profile?… I haven’t seen anything in the SDK saying this would really be possible other than maybe an app writing a profile related FIT file and forcing it to sync. But I haven’t seen any of my devices pull that info down and update from the Connect site when I update it manually. This might not be totally related to the hardcore triathelete… But the 920xt seems to also consolidate the Vodofite and the FR620… So weight loss and activity tracking should be considered.
Oh… And great review… I look forward to finding a unit to get my hands on it and see how it compairs.
1) The unit has 10MB of space, of which 8.6MB is free. My 1hr 7min multisport activity took 124KB, including HRM-RUN data, and power meter/cadence data. So roughly speaking it’s about 80ish hours of recording time in a worst case scenario.
2) No support for Tempe
3) VO2Max does not take into account other devices that you use unfortunately. It has to re-learn.
4) The SDK does support writing to the .FIT file, it’s unclear (to me) to what extent that will be though beyond data fields and some custom data.
For non-giveaways, I believe so. Total posts to a particular product page is almost 3,000, for the Fenix2. I don’t quite think (and hope not) we’ll get their on this preview post. I’ve been trying to continually add in questions’ answers into the post above over the last 24 hours.
How have you been able to get any sleep (or do anything else for that matter) with the number of posts you have replied to in the last 24 hours? Do you have a secret lab full of minions doing research and posting replies for you?
True, though, tonight it’s fueled by a fancy Nutella multi-layer cake that was supposed to go out today…but someone put the wrong date on the form, thus, made a few days too early. My stomach wins I suppose (though, not my running times).
Hmm, “someone” put the wrong date on the form, just when potentially the biggest preview of the year is going up on the site. I smell a conspiracy. A yummy, Nutella fueled conspiracy that no one could be blamed for participating in, but a conspiracy nonetheless!
Hi
I have read your really great reviews of both the 920xt and Ambit 3 with interest. I am after an enhanced replacement for an old Suunto watch, and have narrowed my search to these 2 units. I want something that records running, cycling, indoor gym/treadmill, but also allows me to create activities ( 5 a side football and squash mainly), and also allows me to record daily activity tracking (dog walking and hiking) for routes, distance calories burned, etc.
Can you advise me if both these units cover these requirements adequately, and which one may be most appropriate to my needs? Many thanks.
You can create custom activities, which you can assign custom icons (such as a hiking boot or a snoboard, or paddle), and then assign either default names (i.e. Skiing), or make up your own custom name (i.e. Cow Tipping).
Those custom activities can then have their own data pages/attributes.
do you know the maximum pool length the unit can handle? The 910XT had a 100m limit and I have a 137m pool nearby, so all of the swim metrics are always out-of-whack whenever I swim there…
Hi Ray, does the 920 allow it to be recognized as a USB drive by MacOS, Windows, or Linux, like the old 110/210 series? Can the .FIT files be dragged and dropped from the watch once it is connected to the computer? Thanks!
Hello! I have a question not about Garmin. It is about trainingpeaks.com. Can you help me to describe info about my rTSS and IF? I have read help pages on trainingpeaks but don’t understand it practically. May be you know good resource about it?
Thank you!
I actually found all of the information on the TP help files. But here’s the “30 second summary”.
To use rTSS, you have to configure a “Threshold Pace” in TP. A good approximation of this is you 10K pace. (for faster runners, it should be slower).
For each run, TP calculates a number called NGP (which is you Normalized Graded Pace). This corresponds to the speed you would have run on flat ground for the same effort.
IF = NGP / Threshold Pace (where both numbers are actually calculated in m/s, not time/mi)
rTSS approximately IF * IF * TIME (in hours) * 100. I say approximately because it is calculated over small discrete pieces, so your final complete workout numbers will not exactly match. But this is close.
So if you Threshold Pace is 5:00/km and you run for 45 minutes with an NGP of 6:00/km, your IF would be 0.833 and your rTSS would be 52.
Some of the functionality of the watch (recovery info, vo2 max, etc) depends on r-r intervals from the heart rate strap. Currently no optical heart rate sensor gives that info so they would have to cut those feature to do optical heart rate
Am I right that the only ANT+/BTLE bridge options are the Viiiva HRM (running and cycling) and the Wahoo RFLKT+ (cycling)? Or do I miss a device?
If so are there any other device to expect in the near future?
I’m now using a 910XT, a Viiiva HRM and a iPhone5 (iCardio) with BT headphones for running and an 910XT, Viiiva HRM, iBike Newton PowerStroke, iBike ANT+ speed and cadence unit for cycling.
Having no ANT+/BTLE bridge would mean that I can’t use a Garmin HRM-RUN (with the extra info) without skipping iCardio HR on my headphones.
Having no HR info on my headphones isn’t the biggest issue but as I would like to combine everything to the max ;-), it would be nice to have a real bridging unit ;-).
For the Viiiiva unit, keep in mind it’s ANT+ to BLE, not BLE to ANT+. Wahoo has said they’re looking to put something out there, likely using the TICKR. Further, Mio is working on their Fuse (and I’ve been testing it on and off). Alternatively, you also have the 4iiii pods coming out sometime this fall, which are optical and still have the bridge functionality.
I do agree, you’re in a bit of a pickle if you really want Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time. Though, I’d argue the glamour of those metrics wears off fairly quickly.
Hi, great “non review” post!
I’ve just looked on the garmin shop sites (US and UK) and in the US it’s $450 and in the UK £390! I know we always pay higher prices in the UK but that is jaw droppingly bad.
Shame as it is a nice size for those of us without massive wrists!
As a Brit also its worth noting that your not comparing like with like.
I spend a fair amount of time in the US & Canada and once you factor in the actual costs the UK price isn’t that bad.
$450* is about £285. Add on (from memory) 5.5% import duty which takes it to £300. Now add on 20% VAT for a grand total of £360. So Garmin are charging about £30 to cover it’s UK costs of distribution, advertising and support (free phone number) etc. Which you have to admit isn’t bad! if your still feeling envious of the American price just think….. “Free Health Care!” Sorry Ray ;)
* worth bearing in mind that most (but not all) will need to pay US Sales Tax on this price which is going to add around $30 to $50.
Hi, I’m aware of the taxes and duty angle (accountancy does have some benefits), it’s just disappointing that the margin seems smaller than other products that make it across the pond.
Mind you, triathletes get a 25% discount on garmin :-)
Actually I’m glad they didn’t do anything with an optical heart rate monitor on the device itself. I always wear a sweatband underneath my Garmin for comfort. Have done so for years.
Im curious about the altimeter and gps positioning.
Is it possible at any given time, to view your current height? Without having to make a waypoint?
Can you at anytime view your current location in UTM coordinates? And vice-versa at any time plot multiple waypoints and having the device lead you to them? Possible with and/or without computer?
Thanks for a great review, looking forward to the in detph.
You can see your current altitude simply by configuring one of data fields to show this, so no need for waypoint.
As for coordinates – I ‘m not really sure, could be also data field available for that…
You can define multiple waypoints (on device and/or computer) and plot route using these waypoints. This is functionality of forerunners since 305. Mind that creating waypoints on device ( I mean entering coordinates, not just ‘marking’ waypoint) is very time consuming! 100x better to do it on PC.
There is a “Where Am I?” screen which will tell your current position,
Can’t see a setting for coordinates however so it is just in lon/lat.
You can save a single waypoint and navigate to that.
you can’t do a “Route” made up of multiple waypoints although there is the courses feature to follow a previous activity etc.
Which sports can you choose for a custom activity? Is it just running, cycling and swimming or is it similar to the Fenix with a wide range? I would love to be able to create custom activities for e.g. hiking, football, XC skiing, weight lifting etc. This also makes it much easier when you upload activities as you don’t have to change it manually, especially as it often syncs to other connected sites before you even have time to change it.
I really liked that you could manually edit the activities with a text editor on the Fenix1 as I could just change the integer to whichever sport I wanted. I don’t know why Garmin doesn’t just make it possible to select every sport they have on Connect. Would make it so much simpler. It seems so easy to add as well.
You can setup a custom activity profile and name whatever you care to.
There also some pre-installed “Other” ones with representative icons. I can see, for instance, “Strength, “Cardio”, “Paddle”, “Ski”.
Not sure if it correlates these “other” ones with Garmin Connect activity types however.
I do hope I don’t get next to someone in a marathon who is using that metronome feature. I can just here it now…. little beeps going off all over the place.
That was my first thought too! But in looking at the sparse info on Garmin website, it sounds like the metronome is both audible and vibration, so you can probably go with just vibrate like the alerts on the 910xt.
Of course that doesn’t mean the annoying people will do that, otherwise they wouldn’t be annoying.
It must record this “internally” as the Firstbeat algorithms rely on it.
In the past with other devices you could install a file provided by Firstbeat to have this stuff stored in the FIT for use with their own software. I kind of assume a similar arrangement will exist at some time but no definite info on that.
I know it is a lot to do when you do one of these reviews but If you could add a part just like you did with the Fenix 2 “Wich Watch” it would be great.
Also a comment if it is worth it to change from a Fenix 2 to the 920 XT.
Thank you for the great work you do. Will continue to support you thru amazon and CT as much as possible.
Yup, I plan to as part of the final in-depth review. Though, I’ll also be publishing an updated ‘2014 Winter Sports Tech Recommendations’ post probably about a week later.
Just ordered mine from Clevertraining.com with my VIP code! Excited to get this. I’ve seen a few questions around this but haven’t seen it specifically addressed (though I’m assuming it will be addressed in the in-depth review).
Just curious as to the GPS function while cycling? I know it will obviously record my route but what else will it do? Some have asked about the bread crumb trail. Turn by turn is probably not included. I guess the better question would be – what Edge unit does the 920’s cycling functionality most closely match up to?
Great review Ray! I do have a question however not related to the 920xt. Where did you get the example triathlon screenshot (Half Iron June 28 2014) used at the top of the Garmin Connect Changes section? I competed in the Olympic distance race that day. Did you compete in the race or find the screenshot somewhere? Needless to say I was surprised to see it.
The garmin 920 isexactly waht I wanted and am very tempted to replace my fenix 2 (especialy due to better accuracy expected with gps+glonass)
BUT WHY IS THE DESIGN SO UGLY (colorish and childish) – how can it be used as a day to day watch as it should be (major upgraded functionality over the 910xt).
I guess i’ll waitfor a different desgin or at least a different color scheme.
As I said further down, my personal view is that it looks a lot better in the flesh and on your arm.
Of course beauty (or otherwise) is in the eye of the beholder.
And of course when I go running/cycling my “other” kit isn’t always like it came out of a 1950s black and white film…
There is an elevation view page for courses yes.
As the 920 is a USB device, you can manually place a course “FIT” file in the NewFiles directory and it will find its way to the courses section.
Being a Polar fan for many years and only recently getting a Forerunner XT310 I think we are safe to say that with the 920XT Garmin just gave Polar some serious work to do to catch up!! Well done Garmin!!
Currently I use the Fenix 2 and before that the 910XT.
As a triathlete I use seperate heartrate zones voor cycling and running.
One flaw of the Fenix 2 relative to the 910XT is that you can’t set up these different heart rate zones.
Do you know if the 920XT has the option to set up different heart rate zones for cycling and running ??
Thanks !!
Does the watch keep recording an activity while charging like the 910?
use case: ultra long distance runs and a slow runner (crawler seems more appropriate at some times :)), can I keep the activity running while reloading the watch at aid stations for example?
No you can’t am afraid.
If you put on the charger while the timer is going it will stop the timer and save it.
However thebattery lasts for up to 24 hours and if you want to go longer than that there is an “Ultratrac” mode which saves battery by reducing GPS sampling considerably.
Cant’s charge while in use? that’s a step backwards. Its not like it even uncommon USB capability either. Very strange. The Fenix2 has different USB modes. Does the 920xt have different USB modes, perhaps a different one will allow charging while in use. Thats a real head scratcher. I guess 920xt is off my list. Ultratrac just doesnt cut it unless you can pull gps in the 5-10s range.
FR15/220/620 all like this so in that respect it is at least consistent.
How long are you wanting to be out for? More than 24 hours?
If I was out that long I would almost certainly want to be out with 2 devices anyway so maybe that is an option for you.
Anyway is there a current wrist mounted GPS watch that has more than 24 hours battery?
it this on Your list to ask why?
It does seem a bit strange… 24hrs battery is nice for ultra runners, but if that’s it (no charging beyond that possible) it could be deal breaker for this crowd :-/
This watch have my attention and DC Rainmaker, I truly hope you’ll be able to answer them for me as I don’t know of any other way to get the answers to these questions.
1. Can the FR920XT output a GPX file? Will the GPX file’s name be in the YYYYMMDD format?
2. Can I also set the watch to “Auto Archive Daily” for the tracks?
3. Garmin’s handheld unit have the ability to set the recording method to “Auto” and recording interval to “Most Often”. Does the FR920XT have this option available as well?
4. In the table above, you stated that the FR920XT’s recording interval is 1 second or smart. What does smart mean?
1. Not directly but you can export from Garmin Connect as GPX
2. Not quite sure what you mean? Once an activity is done, it will upload via WiFi or Bluetooth if in range/configured. The 920 is a USB device so has a finite “hard disk”. At some point older activities will need to be deleted. I think this happens automatically but not had enough on there to “fill it up” yet!
3. Every second or “Smart”
4. It takes a point when it thinks it needs to – typically the GPS sampling rate is smart is probably around 5 secs. If you want to use your track in 3rd party software, every second is definitely best. Neither method will effect the “accuracy” of what the watch calculates as it gets a new GPS reading every second regardless. Smart was more important when devices had less “space” and download times were slower. I generally don’t really see a compelling reason to use Smart nowadays but it remains the default.
1. What I meant is a track log. I’ve been told the Fenix 2 can output a GPX track log. Can the FR920XT do that?
2. This is related to track logs. Garmin’s handheld (i.e 62s) units have this option. I don’t know if the FR920XT have this option or not.
3. I know it can record every second. These two options for recording method and recording interval can be adjusted in Garmin’s handheld units. I don’t know if this exist for the FR920XT or not.
1) No, it outputs a .FIT file. On Garmin Connect, if you’d like, you can then export a .GPX file.
2) It does not have this option.
3) No, on Garmin’s Forerunner series (all of them), it’s always been either Smart Recording or 1-second recording. For the Fenix series (which comes from the outdoor team), you could do variable time recording.
1. What’s the difference between a FIT file and GPX file? Is there a reason why the FR920XT output a FIT instead of GPX? Why does Garmin use GPX for its other devices? Is it possible for you to upload a sample of a FIT file from the FR920XT for me to see?
2. Do I have to upload the FIT file to Garmin Connect in order to use it on my computer? Or can I connect the FR920XT to my computer via USB and copy+paste the FIT files to Windows Explorer?
3. Can the FIT track logs be set to archived daily?
1) The FIT file is far more compressed, can store more data types (power, speed, cadence, etc…). Garmin actually only uses GPX for it’s outdoor data types these days. Everything else converted to .FIT format about 5 years ago now.
2) There’s a lot of other applications in the sports world that support .FIT (all of them).
3) As noted above, there’s no concept of archival in Fitness devices, as there’s no reason for it. You save a file upon completion and it’s there. Those files automatically sync to Garmin Connect as well.
4) 10MB, which for .FIT files is about 80ish hours with full sensors (power/speed/cadence/HR/etc…).
1. So from what I’m hearing from you, there’s actually no advantages to the GPX format. I’m assuming all of the GPS information (latitude, longitude, altitude, UTC time, and etc.) that would appear in a Garmin outdoor unit (GPX format) will also be outputted into a FIT file with the additional data types that you have specified. So if I were to convert the FIT file to GPX, then there should be no conversion issue right?
2. Can I connect the FR920XT to my computer via USB, enable mass storage, then copy and paste the FIT files into Windows Explorer?
3. Thanks for the clarificatoin. I now understand that there’s no concept of archival in a fitness device. What if I am doing multi-day running sessions and I forget to log on to Garmin Connect to upload the data? Will the FR920XT automatically create two different FIT files for the different dates and then name the FIT files base on the date? Or all of the data is lumped together?
4. For your upcoming review, will you test the FR920XT’s GPS accuracy against its competitors? Will you also make any recommendations on which accessories to pair up with the watch?
Thanks again for taking the time to help me better understand the features of this watch.
1) Correct, no technical advantages there at all. There are compatibility advantages though for some non-fitness apps that utilize GPX. And correct, no conversion issues.
2) Yes.
3) Yes, two different .FIT files. There are some apps to stitch them together afterwards. Check out my tools page here: link to dcrainmaker.com – and see the one called Fit File Tools.
4) Yes, I’m already doing that using 3+ watches on runs to see how they compare. I’ll be providing the raw files from those runs as well for those people that want to do their own analysis. And yup, I’ll cover accessories as well like usual. All of which will be in the in-depth review. Though, at the same time, until then I continue to sprinkle in tidbits here (such as the instant pace videos a few mins ago, and my files from two days ago). Finally, you can always check out my Strava profile. The FR920XT automatically sync’s there. The link is up in the upper right corner of the page.
1. The only “advantage” of GPX is that it is a text XML format – so if you open it in say Notepad you can actually read it. “FIT” is a binary file so you can’t. But by being binary it can actually store the data “exactly” and far more compactly.
2. Yes
3. It’s more like a stopwatch concept. Start the timer, do your run/bike/swim etc etc, stop the timer and press Save then the FIT file is created and will exist until it is deleted so you have to upload straight away. The next timer you press Start it goes into a new track.
4. Not for me to answer of course but it would be good. That said it is a tricky topic. AFAIK Ray has not related any major issues with GPS tracking for him on say the 620 but some users seem to get some bad ones and have even accused him of what is basically misrepresentation! Initial experience suggests the 920 is looking very promising in this area but no consumer GPS device will ever be perfect.
Thanks again for the information Ray. I do have some more questions to ask so please bear with me!
1. I’m ultimately looking for a watch that can do it all, but obviously that won’t happen. I originally had my eyes on the Fenix 2, but with the FR920XT coming out, I think the features that you listed in the article makes it tempting to go with that instead. I also want to use the watch to create a track log to geotag my photos. Ideally if I can have this one watch that I can use with my workouts and then also use it to create a track log for geotagging purposes, then that would be ideal and save me money from having to buy another accessory. I was originally concerned about FIT files as I had no understanding of what they are. It seems like it won’t be an issue since I can easily convert them to GPX files.
Tim Grose’s example seems to have got me confused a bit despite you telling me that the FR920XT will create FIT files by dates. What is the criteria that the FR920XT will use to create a new FIT once it’s the start of another day? For example, midnight in Paris is the start of a new day. Yet, that’s not the start of a new day in Boston. Will the watch be utilizing UTC time to determine when a new FIT file is created?
Or let’s put it like this. Base on Boston time, I’m out running at 11:00 PM on October 7th. I’m assuming a FIT file will be created for October 7th. 1 hour later, it becomes October 8th. Will the watch create a new FIT file once the clock hits midnight Boston time? Again, I don’t know what the standard is used to define the start and end of a day on the watch. I think my Garmin handheld units uses UTC time.
2. I’ve also went through the recommendations that you have made in the past for the smart weight scales. I know I probably shouldn’t go for an ANT+ scale. Which scale are you currently using and whether it connects with Garmin Connect? I have the Withings WS-30 and Fitbit Aria in mind. Since neither of these smart scales have ANT+ support, how will I be able to get that information into the FR920XT?
1) No, the FR920XT will create a new .FIT file based on each new activity. Single activity = Single file. An activity is defined as when you start and save the activity file. Even if it spans multiple days…still a single file.
2) I use both a FitBit Aria and a Withings WiFi scale. Neither have ANT+. You can search the Garmin Forums for how to use MyFitnessPal to get that data though into Garmin Connect nonetheless. It’s a post I have partially written, but not quite yet done.
Thanks for the example. From what Ray is saying, there should be plenty of storage available since the FIT files are compressed in nature. Why would I have to upload the FIT files right away? I can understand if I accumulate hundreds of hours of data that eventually the oldest data will be deleted to make room for new data.
For sure that we’ll probably never achieve 100% perfection. However, the closer the better! I’m really hoping the FR920XT will be the most accurate watch ever made. With GLONASS support and pre-satellite caching, I really do hope it’ll make a difference in terms of acquisition speed and accuracy as well. It’s a shame that it doesn’t have WAAS support. Is there a reason why Garmin didn’t implement WAAS support into the watch?
Oh…now I get it. If I want to also use the FR920XT to create a track log to geotag my photos, do you have any idea on how to best use the watch for that purpose so that I won’t have to buy another unit that’s dedicated for outdoor activities?
Just start your watch when you leave your car to go take photos (hiking or whatever), and stop the recording when you’re done. When you get home after your trip download your un GPSed photos and the track from the Garmin, merge them using your normal workflow, and voila.
If you’re going on a multi-day trip you’re SOL 920 wise as the battery won’t last for multiple long hikes (without charging in the middle), but you can either charge it at night or get something (garmin handheld, as you suggest) with a slower recording interval and average the time between the GPS logs…
Not quite related to this review (although I did check for availability) but I just got a gift from my employee for working so hard, any recommendations on appropriate cycling gadgetry based on all the recent reviews I should put it towards (its an Amazon voucher), I’ve got $450 or so budget? (I already have a 910XT Garmin but no cycle computer, camera etc.).
It would really depend what kind of device you’re looking for. Personally, if you had the FR910XT yourself, I’d just use that for swim/bike/run and get a nice camera if you’re into photography. But, if you want a cycling device, I’d look at the Edge 510/810. I think we’ll continue to see good updates there in new features, so those are you’re best bets.
I was actually looking at the 1000 but reading your review it pushed me more towards the 810 as it just doesn’t seem to justify the cost hike between the two units.
I’m pretty happy with the 910XT, its rock solid and despite being small (for cycling) easily applicable to all sports (though I struggle with it on intervals).
In terms of camera, I was thinking the Garmin Virb Elite.
Stuck between two options now:
a) Garmin Edge 810 (I dont need the HR edition as I guess I can use my existing 910XT HRM)
b) Garmin Virb Elite
I love how you can overlay your riding metrics into the video on your review of that but it is a bit big as a device.
Thanks once again for all your hard work in terms of reviews, it is much appreciated.
I’ve actually just started reading your blog from when it first began (well as far back as it goes) as I came here pretty late on, I like your old training posts!
I think having stroke metrics for OW swimming is good, but doesn’t that mean that position data will be way off due to choppy GPS reception under water? I think the perfect solution would be an external GPS sensor that could be placed in the swimcap for the swim, thus getting the best of both worlds (accurate GPS + stroke metrics). Any chance of seeing something like that in the future?
Just to give a heads-up to the readers. In the FR620 review, Ray is saying: “Looking at GPS accuracy, I’ve seen good stuff with the FR620.”
All nice and dandy, only that the horrendous GPS accuracy of new Mediatek-chipped Garmins is widely reported and well documented, FR620 being the absolute worst of the bunch: link to fellrnr.com
My own Fenix (that has the same chip as Fenix 2 and 620) is indeed plotting insane GPS tracks, taking me over buildings and having me running far off in the sea, thus straightening the curves and reducing tempo and distance by 10-15%. What can I say – I read DC Rainmaker’s review and bought into it :)
As I’ve noted numerous times on my FR620 review in the comments, I don’t agree with his testing methodology for a lot of reasons (all outlined in the post comments). Also, unlike him, I do actually publish all my tracks for folks to dive into, so it’s not just blending together of the worst (or best) tracks. Further, almost every activity I do I publish to Strava, for folks that want to follow along.
If you’re seeing distance/accuracy issues with a unit (of any sort), I really encourage you to ring up support and get it swapped out.
Oh man do I see accuracy issues. For instance, see this one. I ran both ways on the very same path, so… Yeah. link to strava.com
Of course I don’t have the experience you have – but I’ve also had many GPS watches, and Fenix and 620 are the worst, beyond any comparison.
I’ll send the watch in like you suggested. But I assume it comes back just the same, since the Garmin forums are also packed with accuracy complaints for the recent models. Let’s see.
People trust you. It puts a certain responsibility on you.
“People trust you. It puts a certain responsibility on you.”
Which is a core reason why I publish GPS tracks (something Fellrnr doesn’t do). Ultimately though, I can only publish what I actually see on my runs/rides. I can’t make things up to look worse than they are, and I don’t cherry pick the best and the worst. I’m just not seeing widespread accuracy issues, and I’m running in what is a pretty tough urban environment day after day. Not every track is perfect (one can see a small variance a bit on my run last night for a few hundred meters on the FR620), but, they’re all inline with what I’m seeing with any other device on the market.
Hmmm, I read all those comments in the 620 review, and with one exception they don’t seem to reflect the detail provided at link to fellrnr.com
I don’t see any biases, calculation errors or lack of statistical significance in the testing. The routes seem extremely varied in how he breaks down his route into many courses, without “blending” on the detailed stats page. Looking at each track map for each sample would not be reasonable for the number of samples he does, and does not add or detract from the statistical analyses, IMHO anyway. I haven’t found any GPS accuracy test for running watches available on the internet as rigorous as fellrnr’s.
I think “route” (singular) is the point!
If I did the same route every day i would undoubtedly know the exact distance to every tree, bump in the path etc etc.without the need for any device.
So statistically you could infer that all you can really say is device x works better for him over device y on that route in the way he himself runs and at his normal pace.
A “proper” study would engage hundreds of runners over lots of different courses and at differing paces.
You could conclude all GPS devices are rubbish and a foot pod is best. It probably is if you ran the same course every day at the same pace but we don’t…
But you are right such a study does not seem to have been done.
I sent the watch in, and it basically went missing. It hasn’t come back, it’s status is not updated on the Garmin RMA website, and support is not answering my e-mails :)
At least, the problem seems to be solved – i.e. no watch, no problem.
BTW Suunto’s support is much better in this regard. They use DHL and you get your fixed watch back in 5 days.
But you see my track, don’t you? Am I making it up? Crossing a 4-lane motorway 7 times in a zigag, just to make Garmin look bad?
Take a look at Garmin forums – there are tons of people who hold a grudge against Garmin for some reason, and complain about the accuracy of just the latest models. It is unclear why they don’t complain about earlier models such as 910 and 310. May be it’s against their religion or smth :)
A while ago, I also got the FR610 since you said in your review that the touchscreen is OK. Which it wasn’t, and this is also a common complaint amonst my friends and on Garmin forums. How on earth could you say it’s “OK”? It is impossible to use, at least in sub threshold zone :)
I do not trust you any more, and I just wanted to warn others that specifically in the case of Garmin, your representation is optimistic, to put delicately.
I don’t disagree that your track is off, but that’s not really the point. I can pick any GPS watch and find bad tracks, a mere look at any single Garmin sub-forum will find someone with a bad GPS track, even ones that people like FELLRNR say are perfect. How quickly people forget about their previous unit and the occasional bad track. Just like how in your case on Strava you’ve only published that single track. What about all your other runs?
The point isn’t “let’s see if we can find issues on other peoples tracks and then single them out”. Which, as a reminder, is the entire point of the Garmin Forums – just like any other company forum. People don’t go to the Garmin Forums when they’re happy, they go when they have issues. Just like the hospital. Thus, you’re only going to find people with problems there.
As for the FR610 touch screen, I can’t help you there. I’m perfectly happy with it, and used it for years up until the FR620. And my friends are also perfectly happy with it, and tons of people on the review are perfectly happy with it. People have different preferences on touch technology. The FR405/FR410, yes, I don’t very much like that touch bezel, as I’ve stated numerous times.
(And, this post is about the FR920XT, not the FR620/FR610, or Garmin Forums)
“People don’t go to the Garmin Forums when they’re happy, they go when they have issues. Just like the hospital.”
This. Times 1000x. When I got my Fenix2 and saw a couple really bad tracks, then reading Garmin’s forum, I was convinced everyone who had a Fenix2 had severe issues. After talking with several people in a local trail running group, I was flabbergasted that none had the issues I had. I ended having my watch replaced and it’s worked beautifully* ever since.
*Once in a while still, I’ll have a bad track and get all annoyed with the Fenix2… Only to look back on the same run from a year or two ago with a different watch and see my track was actually worse then.
I’ve owned Garmin Edge, 605, 705, 500, fenix, fenix2 and 910xt. I’ve never noticed any tracks outrageously out of wack. I’m pretty particular on post activity anylyzation too. Problems with original fenix crashing and water ingress to 910xt? Yes. But tracks have been ok in my book.
That being said, with GLONASS being available in the 920xt, perhaps that will appease people like Mart.
@Mart – whilst I understand your issues, as mentioned above far more people with issues go the forums to make their voices heard than those who are happy with their tech gear.
Ray’s processes (IMHO) and his integrity are beyond reproach, a formula that means folks like you and I come here to read his thoughts and support his work.
I (and countless others) trust and value his opinions, his transparency, and his selflessness and appreciate all his work.
Let’s be grateful for his dedication and willingness to do all this for those who would be otherwise lost.
Thx Ray for this great pre-view as usual, looking forward for the final.
great to see comments from all readers as well, including Mart’s one above.
glad that comments are not moderated , good to see view from other angles too.
I’ve to say that i did noticed here and there a huge burden on fenix2 accuracy as well, hence why was quite surprised how Ray could recommend it over its direct competitor (Ambit3) for multiday hike.
Actually i realize that there is No GPS accuracy comparison done by Ray (at least recently).
Would certainly be very interesting to have comparison “a la fellrnr” but with DC own protocol , of some recent GPS watchs , e.g. so FENIX2, FR620, FR920XT, AMBIT3S, AMBIT3, V800, M400.
I’ve had the exact same bad GPS accuracy as you, FELLNER and countless others and it even happened on my 2nd Fenix2 replacement, so IT IS a real issue, however, the reality of it is that it’s probably more of a Garmin quality control issue and rest assured that if Ray had received a poor GPS unit, he would have revealed it just like he did with the Garmin Edge 100 review.
I’ve come to this Garmin quality conclusion based on my own experience after replacing 2 separate units, plus the fact that others including FELLNER also replaced their units multiple times and experienced the same bad GPS accuracy issues.
In my running team, they’re both people who don’t have GPS issues and others that do, and interestingly enough most of them haven’t bothered calling Garmin or looking through the forums cause it’s just too much of a hassle for them. So, it goes to tell you that both people with or without problems do not necessarily bother posting on forums.
In the end you cannot blame Ray if he happens to get a perfectly working unit, whereas some of us were just out of luck. Keep up the great work Ray!
“Actually i realize that there is No GPS accuracy comparison done by Ray (at least recently).
Would certainly be very interesting to have comparison “a la fellrnr” but with DC own protocol , of some recent GPS watchs , e.g. so FENIX2, FR620, FR920XT, AMBIT3S, AMBIT3, V800, M400.”
I, too wish that Ray performed that same GPS accuracy, as I’m looking to replace my Fenix2 due to too many bugs (Workouts, Multisport, GPS accuaracy, etc.) even on the latest V4.00!
Sadly, the 920XT is not an option due to the loud “blue” coloring and just simply not being an office-friendly watch. Right now, I’m trying to decide between Suunto Ambit 3 or the Polar V800 which I could definitely wear with a suit and not look unprofessional.
Ray, pls consider doing the long over due GPS accuracy comparison review as that is a huge concern for me and I’m sure countless others that are sick and tired of terrible GPS tracks that should not be happening on $400+ GPS watches!
This is my take on the issue:
1. There are a lot of complaints in the fenix2 and 620 forums about GPS tracks with lots of examples
2. There are almost no (I did a search) complaints in the 910xt forums about GPS accuracy. The few that exist are solved within 1 page unlike the 20+ page threads in the f2 and 620 forums
3. My personal experience of running a couple of months with the fenix2 and the 910xt at the same time. The 910xt was better and more consistent, but the fenix2 was good enough.
4. When I look back at old 910xt tracks, there are some bad ones.
5. Loved my 610 and still have it as a souvenir today.
We are all adults and should not treat reviews as the final say. I think that blaming Ray and claiming he’s being unethical is nothing short of absurd.
Amen. Paul S – I went to the Garmin forums based on posts on Ray’s website on the Fenix. I was simply making sure I had the latest firmware and getting tips from others. But, as I began having problems with the Fenix, the forums clearly indicated I was not alone. I’ve gone to the forums for the 305 many times. Mainly out of curiosity or boredom. I’ve never had a problem with either 305 I’ve had. The Fenix went back to Garmin and a new one is on its way. Interestingly, I called Garmin to find out what was wrong with my Fenix after I got a shipment notice. I was told they simply throw the ones coming in on a pallet to be shipped back to manufacturing and ship me a refurbed coming from the factory. What this should mean to everyone is that when you send your Garmin in you get back one that someone else already had problems with. So, if they have a bad set of chips, they all go back to Garmin, Garmin wipes the unit, reloads software and does minimum checks. In the end, you still get a watch back from probably the same lot of bad chips. You do not get a new watch.
PS I agree with Olu. When I could get the Fenix to work, I was not unhappy with the GPS track. There are so many things that could cause a single bad track. Potentially wearing on one are versus the other with your body blocking the unit could cause a lesser signal. Remember when the government wouldn’t even open up the GPS signal. Remember that these units were only made for accuracy within a few meters. The Fenix simply wouldn’t work. It shut down, wouldn’t connect to foot pod, or failed to keep a track at all 6 out of the last 8 times I used it. I had had enough.
As you told yourself, you searched the forums, and your results demonstrate the very fact that I’m drawing attention upon: there are widely reported problems with Fenix/F2, 620, 220 and all other watches that use Mediatek chips, and almost no accuracy problems with 910, 310, 610 and other watches with Sirf chips.
Now even though we can see such clear correlations in Garmin forums (and Fellrnr, and many readers’ personal experience), DC Rainmaker has failed to even once slightly mention something like that. This is fact, not a question of anyone’s personal opinion. You or Ray may like this fact, or dislike it, but it’s there. The only question is how to interpret this fact.
This was so close to being the device I’ve been searching for. Alas, it doesn’t have a optical Heart rate monitor. I would have bought one asap if it did.
Looks like I’ll be getting the Basis Peak, although there’s no indication that it will track swimming. It doesn’t have GPS either!
Robbie, to compare the soon to be released Basisi Peak with the 920XT is not even as close to comparing apples and oranges. I have a Basis and a Garmin 620. Each device targets quite a different market. I got the Basis as a “toy” and to get an idea of my sleep patterns. Works great, most of the time. The optical HR concept is neat, though I did try the Tom Tom Vardio Runner and was not overly impressed. I am not thrilled with HR straps, but the improvements over the last 20 years has been quite noticeable to me. With all the new tech stuff hitting the market place, I hope you can find a gadget that works for you.
I would say that optical HR monitors, as of today, are still in baby age of this technology. Therefore, companies producing devices for serious athletes (and I find Garmin, Suunto and Polar with their 920XT, V800 and Ambits, all being primarly devices for serious athletes) cannot afford to use this technology yet… this may and probably will change, but not yet. Just for a quick example (mentioned in comments above) is VO2max and recovery extimations, that are based on r-r not available on any optical sensor (again as of today). This itself would cut some of flag features of these devices. So, bottom line is that optical HR monitors are not yet serious enough for serious devices.
With a triathlon kit, on the bike your watch won’t be on your wrist, and a bike has no heart beat…
Optical HR will never come with a Garmin triathlon watch.
I wouldn’t say never. Keep in mind, TomTom has their optical HR multisport unit, they simply allow you to also pair to a HR strap on the bike if you put it in their quick release bike kit.
technology will come, will it be optical HR built-in the device? not sure here. This has serious limitation as Jey mentions, that device would have to be worn all the time – not good for triathlons.
I would like to see some different solutions coming out. Solutions other than built-in to the watch. Still external units just more comfortable than the strap. Like the concept of Hr monitoring from headphones…
I would like to see something like a HR monitoring patch! That You would simply stick anywhere on Your body. Could take energy from a charge, but maybe also from movement and body heat… We will see what future will bring :-D
Excellent review on the FR920xt (as all your reviews are) . I can’t wait to purchase the 920 (from your link) since I am a gadget person and I must have the latest toy (which helps other people since I donate my used items to the local school or somebody who can put it to good use). I am a Garmin fan, my 620 has worked flawlessly and the largest error I have ever experienced is about 4 feet from my actual location which is within the specs of the GPS accuracy. link to connect.garmin.com
Would love to see some more pictures with the 920xt and either FR620 or FR220 on the wrist at the same time with different angles. Trying to get an on the arm comparison, i.e. will it fit under long sleeve dress shirt cuffs etc. how far it sticks out in comparison.
One more question, have you tried it at all angles with polarized sunglasses? Any issues? I expect no, but you never know…. Be really cool too if they allowed font sizing for those “reading glasses” impaired :-)
Question: Any chance there will be a second version of 920xt with BT sensor capability or is that pie in the sky?
I currently use Tomtom Multisport (and am satisfied with it) so I only have BT hrm and s/c sensors. I would consider the 920xt to get daily activity tracking, extra/more reliable swimming metrics, tri/brick modes, etc. — just can’t justify the extra $ for sensors.
I was considering the Ambit3 sport, but seems like 920xt daily activity tracking is not only better than the A3 but 920xt looks way more comfortable (actually looks a little like the Tomtom in size) as an everyday watch. I’ve tried the A3 and can’t see wearing the it all day and not sure if A3 does sleep tracking or not but I would never try to sleep with it on my wrist!
Thought: the 920xt looks like 100% better than the A3 for everyday watch wearing (which I assume Suunto a kick in the bottom to improve the A3.
Sorry, but I think that’s pie in the sky. Garmin is heavily invested in ANT+. They’ve shown no inclination to support BLE sensors, and I can’t imagine what would make them rethink that as people line up to buy the 920xt.
I don’t think it’s pie in the sky medium term or long term. Short term, perhaps. Had Suunto delivered a dual unit, I think that would have nudged Garmin. But Suunto didn’t, and instead went BLE and poorly implemented sensor support. So I suspect Garmin feels pretty confident right now there.
But don’t mistake that for a BLE-only posture. I think in time they’ll be forced to do dual and I don’t think they’re horribly opposed to it either if the market overwhelmingly wants it.
Yeah, that makes sense. I was responding to the idea of a second version of the 920xt, which seems unlikely to me. Could the 930xt be dual? That seems more possible. When did you say the 930xt is coming out again, Ray? ;)
I think these questions always depend on what features a newer device has over your current one and whether they are actually of practical interest to you.
Hooray! I’ve been dying for this to come out and I pre-ordered through Clever Training with your VIP program immediately. Oddly, the metronome addition was a big selling point for me. I’m mostly a runner and looking forward to the running dynamics and metronome for cadence, but have been getting into Tri’s recently with the hope of doing a Ironman 70.3 next year, so I didn’t want to get the 620 and I didn’t really like the Fenix2 over it so I’ve been holding out. But I also do Dragon Boating and I have been thinking about getting a metronome like thing to wear on my wrist to help keep a certain pace at practice. I am very excited to put this through it’s paces.
Swim: For the swim, I was trying to stay about 10m off the banks of the river, as to not get run over by any cargo ships, minus the portions I crossed it. For those curious, I had the Suunto Ambit3 on the other wrist for the swim: It was within 2yds (seriously) of the FR920XT. I don’t think I’d ever get that if I tried. You see the track is pretty similar to most openwater tracks while on wrist in that it’s blocky. Same for all watches on the market here. Not perfect, but in the general vicinity of where I went.
Bike: A bit of a lollipop back to the city. It’s rush hour here in Paris, on a Friday, so a few stops and go’s, but actually fairly fluid all the way back. Attached to Garmin Vector for power, plus HRM-RUN for HR. No other sensors.
Run: A simple 5K loop of sorts, with the HRM-RUN strap for heart rate/cadence/Running Dynamics.
The files all auto uploaded via WiFi (and straight to Strava). I’ll get links to the Suunto files for track comparisons in a bit, though, quite frankly when you look at the track, especially on the run, I think you’ll be impressed. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that perfect of GPS running track files…ever. Every little silly detail like where I ran a few feet to one side or the other near Bastille around some bocce ball courts, nailed.
Of course, it’s just one swim/bike/run (actually, plus another bike to get there), so tomorrow it could all go to crap. But, thus far I’m fairly impressed with the final prod HW/SW, both in terms of little details in the device I didn’t see before (like time in zone), as well as things I couldn’t test before (like GPS accuracy).
I’ll be circling back to answer unanswered questions over the course of the evening, particularly on the navigation front – some really interesting nuggets there…
Excellent to see some good tracks (even if it is only one run). One thing to check (in addition to navigation) is the charging while an activity is running, if you could?
GC modern is doing some strange things with HR. A bit of cropping on the bottom end. I’m seeing that on almost all my runs. When I go back to non-modern, I see the whole HR plot correctly.
Cool share! Looks like you only stepped in the water a couple times!
I was pretty interested in the gps accuracy and tri mode, so this is a great share. Thank you.
Is the swim HR data just noise from starting and finishing with the watch + strap outside of the water? Looks like the HR data was flowing smooth from T1 and everything after. I LOVE the transition maps!
A “feature” of the new triathlon activity that perhaps you could pass along to Garmin. If I am not logged in to Garmin connect, I cannot see your triathlon activity maps. I can see all of the data. But the map is just the default Olathe, KS region (even if I move the map to Paris, I don’t see your “tracks”). However, if I click on the “previous” button, I can see maps of each of your previous (non-triathlon) activities.
If I log in, I can see your triathlon activity maps.
Matt B – No, no luck with charging during an activity, it stops it. I’ve got it on my list to ask why.
A_circelli & Patrick – It’s permitting pairing and recording of HR during openwater swims (but not pool swims), thus, you’re seeing the first few beats at the start of my swim, and the last few beats. For the next OW swim I’m going to wear the Mio Link and see how it looks.
Olu – Thanks for the CT support!
David – Nice catch on figuring that out. My coach was seeing the same Kansas view, and I couldn’t figure out why it was fine for me. I’ll raise that to Garmin.
Olu- The instant pace was very stable. I saw it holding on 6:30 the majority of the time, except up the hills where I slowed a bit. I’ll try and get some instant pace video sometime this weekend. Like the FR620, it aligns to 5s increments.
heh, love Your pace in the run! 5k in 19:57 after already swimming and biking! Just today I did a test for my best 5k and ended up with 19:18! No swimming nor biking before though, and it was my absolute max… You’re awesome athlete Ray!
Claudio: Didn’t even know they were available until you mentioned it. At least the FR910XT bands don’t look horrible with the black watch face. The 920 bands just don’t match at all! lol
Besides from all technical stuff: the design is a shame compared to the Polar V800. Imho it looks more like a toy for my little daughter than a professional sports tool… Just my 2 cents
It’s a lot better in the flesh and on your arm (well the black/blue one) – well in my opinion. A lot more “sleek” than a 910 and especially a 310 and certainly no orange! The colourway is also very similar to a 620.
I am kinda digging the childish appearance of the watch. I look at it as a security feature. Most people may think you have a cheap $20 wrist watch. I spend a lot of time going through high crime areas. I would prefer that most people would not realize I have a $450 device on my wrist.
Hi,
Thank you very much for this complete review (as usual) :-)
I’m trying to buy my first triathlon (multisport) watch and I’m really hesitating between the FR920 and the Suunto Ambit 3
According to you what are the pros and cons of each watch if we compare them ?
Ray – I did a search on the comments here before posting this one, so hopefully I’m not duplicating anything you already answered in the last 36 hours…
Any feedback from Garmin on the possibility for a minor software update to the 910xt? Specifically, I was hoping that some minor enhancements like the Drill log feature and improved rest interval tracking/screens of the Garmin Swim that made it into the 920xt could be applied to the 910xt. It would be great to see some lifecycle management of the 910xt in Garmin’s plans.
(BTW: I love the hardware of the Polar V800 a lot, but due to the expense of switching to BTLE (new cap for the PowerTap, new speed/cadence sensors, new stride sensor), I’ll probably upgrade to the 920xt rather than change to a different communication protocol!)
Not that I would presume to speak for Ray, but no.
Garmin tends to not update “old” watches after a little while, and certainly doesn’t update watches after their replacements are introduced.
That said, with the introduction of Connect IQ you could see a situation, IN THE FUTURE, where independent people could update the 920XT with the cool new feature found on the 930XT (or some similar situation).
But the chances of the 910 getting an update are the same as the chances of the Edge 500 getting an update (zero).
Thanks, Luke. I’m holding out hope that Garmin will advance the 910xt software past 3.00. I really just need a few minor tweaks, then I can ditch the Garmin Swim! (Which is why they will never update it, I guess)
Yeah, the Garmin Swim hasn’t seen updates in more years than I can count.
I keep hoping they update the Swim, simply adding in BLE sync to my phone, but keeping the 1yr battery life. It’s probably my favorite little watch, just sits in my swim bag at all times, and then sync’s quietly when I get home. Would love for it to just sync quietly to my phone instead.
Curious how the support for multiple activity trackers works, I’m not seeing it. But have just one.
Also curious if the multisport workout can take data from multiple units. Edge 500 for bike, for example? Rather than the QR kit I just use the Edge on the bike. With the 910XT at least the data is more reliable as well.
It seems from other comments, it requires a single multisport .FIT file. So even someone using a multisport watch and just manually changing workout types would not see this feature.
Pleasure as always reading your stuff. How about instant pace on the FR920X? I’m thinking, try go (practically I mean run) for 1 min with 5 min/km then walk for 1 min. Then go for 1 min with 4 min/km and then walk again for 1 min and finally, try go for 1 min 3 min/km and then reco the rest. I wonder how the pace chart will look and least but not last, how responsive the FR920X is to catch up on changing instant pace.
Re current pace, I did a very undulating and partly tree covered route yesterday and was watching current and lap pace on both a 920 and 620. Each time I looked current pace looked to be similar on both devices. The 920 has the 5 sec rounding on current pace that the 620 introduced which generally makes for a much more stable reading. Like GPS accuracy this was however a topic that some 620 users saw somewhat differing results so I am sure Ray will be monitoring for his final review.
I know you say Firstbeat support is TBD….do you have any inkling as to how they might be leaning. I was super bummed that the Fenix2 didn’t support Athlete. I realize that it wasn’t exactly their target audience, but I still can’t figure out why it’s not supported.
Historically, it has been best to buy these gadgets for the functionality they have rather than functionality that might be added. Has the programming api been released and beta tested by outside programmers?
Is the current rom production release? And if so are there any feature gaps or obvious glitches?
Received my 920XT yesterday. The ONLY thing I miss from the 310XT (so far) is NO Auto Lap by position.
Auto Lap by position is quite useful for hill repeats or looped cycling courses or similar (needs to be longer than 600m- 1km or so as inherent GPS inaccuracies can false trigger.)
Hope that it comes back in a future firmware update.
A question regarding auto lap. Can the 920xt differentiate between auto lap and a manual lap? In other words, can I have the device set to auto lap on, then during an activity create manual laps as i go then analyze them separately on GC?
No – lap functionality is same as all previous Forerunners.
If say you have auto lap set a 1 mile and then do a manual lap, auto lap will next trigger a mile after that manual lap unless of course you do another auto lap.
You can however see all these laps in GC later and do your own analysis…
Hi Greg, the Polar ambassador (if I’m not mistaken)…,
It pisses me off that when you have Polar automatic laps on, you never get any information on the previous (last) auto lap registered and thus no information neither on the present auto lap you are running. You only get that information afterwards via Polar Flow.
If you want information on the last lap you ran or on the present lap, you actually have to register a manual lap each mile/km. And certainly not forget to do it…
With Garmin, no such problem, you always get the information on the current and last automatic lap.
I agree with your issue about no user field for any of the last auto lap information on the polar V800. I even told them that it is unacceptable during my beta testing of the V800 just as is the fact that you don’t get average HR on the manual lap summary page when you push the lap button. We’re talking about Polar here, the HR brand and they don’t bother showing average HR for the lap. Disclaimer: I am indeed a Polar Ambassador.
Does the 920xt will use the same heart rate belt as a 620? I mean, will it be possible to use belt from 620 with 920xt to get all running dynamics data?
Ray,
I was a happy owner of Forerunner 220 but unfortunately fell while running, cracking the glass to bits.
Now I am thinking of a more robust model. The question is do you know if the Forerunner 920XT’s has the same shock-resistant glass as Fenix2? Which multisport watch model would you recommend as the tougher one?
920xt functions in fenix 2 styling and am sold. Well maybe a slightly thinner lighter build than fenix 2. If they want people to wear this as a watch and activity tracker and also a triathletes fitness unit it needs to look less speak and spell.
It appears to be similar to the FR220/FR620 from a face standpoint. The thing is though, ultimately with the right person-assisted fall and hitting the right object with enough force that a human body can exert during fall, just about every watch is going to be in the same ballpark.
For watches, I expect that if I drop it, or bump it on a doorway it’ll be fine. But when you get into the tripping and falling watch-face first onto a sharp rock, I think that’s largely in the category of luck if it breaks or not, not matter the watch face.
I read this at slow twitch: “This Garmin 920XT has several settings which should satisfy a variety of athletes. The pool specific swim one is one of 7 different modes and lets the user log swim drills and kick sets at the pool, plus record swim distance, pace, stroke type, stroke count and SWOLF score. ”
How about logging kick sets? How does the watch do that?
It’s the same functionality there as the Garmin Swim. When you’re in the middle of your swim workout you enable drill mode, it then starts a timer, upon completion of the timer you tell the watch how far you went during the drill mode.
Yes, with the FR920XT when you make a custom multisport mode (which you can name whatever you want), you can add in any individual sport files you’ve created, including indoor swim.
So for example, I just created one that was a typical indoor tri:
1) Indoor Swim
2) T1
3) Indoor Bike
4) T2
5) Outdoor Run
Thanks Ray – that’s a big improvement over Fenix 2.
Do you think the Fenix team will pick up the gauntlet on that one – I am guessing there is some tricky reason they have not been able to add pool swimming to multisport so far, but you would hope they would be able to do it sometime?
Is it possible at any given time, to view your current height? Without having to make a waypoint?
Can you at anytime view your current location in UTM coordinates? And vice-versa at any time plot multiple waypoints and having the device lead you to them? Possible with and/or without computer?
What about the elevation resolution, which had been always a question of barometric FRs and Edges? The same fine resolution of appr 0.2m as it is in latest firmware of 910XT, or a stair-wise implementation, like it was origionally with 910XT. If I remember well, it was a nasty graph with increments of 2m.
Just as a heads up to folks, I published last night a video walking through the watch post-tri and showing some of the features, how the colors look and a bit on navigation. The last third of the video is walking through the new Garmin Connect multisport view with the FR920XT data.
I really hope that ‘time in different HR-zones’ will appear on GC. This is one thing that I have missed since I decided to switch from Polar to Garmin.
You could use your garmin watch, but TrainingPeaks (for instance) for analysis, which will give you this data. TrainingPeaks and Strava can automatically sync your activities from garmin connect.
Thanks Ray! Always love your reviews. Have been waiting for this for too long now… The slow ant+ activity uploads and gps initialization on the 910 are quite frustrating.
Any chance we can get an sneak peak at a rolling pin shot with the 910 and 920 together?
Ray, great review
I have a Garmin connect question.
I can’t view the splits’ details on cycling activities. Is that a temporary problem with the new version or is my computer messing with me?
Cheers
Not as annoying as the fact that my garmin connect somehow turned all my old swims from yards to miles for the overall distance reports. Turns out I swam over 10,000 miles last month…
How exactly does that “look good” from an accuracy perspective in a statistically valid way? I saw no accuracy info, much less anything statistically significant regarding accuracy. What is your benchmark for accuracy for this exact course to determine accuracy? How did you account for the many variables that affect accuracy and evaluate them in a credible manner with an “n” of 1? If your point is that it looks “pretty”, well…
But thanks for demonstrating the uselessness of showing route tracks when discussing accuracy at a statistically meaningful level. Individual routes are meaningful only for debugging accuracy issues, and only when one has statistically significant data for the same with many route tracks. If you are a competent engineer or scientist, you already know this and never would have posted what you did. If you are a fanboy, you’ll never agree to applying scientific method principles to the topic of accuracy or any other topic. But maybe more reasonable minds may read this and avoid similar mistakes.
Hi Scirunning/Wingingit/izzy/blindbatrunner (and any other names you’ve used to post here that I may have missed)-
Welcome to the blog (though, since you’ve been here many times before under various names, I suppose you’ve been before). I have pretty much only one rule around here: Don’t be a dick.
If you’re a dick, I ban you. It’s really that simple.
You’re welcome to conduct in constructive discussions, but you aren’t allowed to be a dick in doing in. Because again, that breaks my singular rule. Got it? Good.
Thank you Ray for saying what everyone else following this thread was thinking (although honestly dick was a bit tamer than the word I would have used)!
OK to indulge. I think most of the time most of us run on a road or some defined path. When viewing a track on an aerial overlay you can see how well you followed that path. Obviously I did not provide a detailed commentary on which side of the road I ran on and when I crossed it but even so i hope it was reasonably clear I was generally “on the path” on this run.
Sure you can do the same analysis with some of Ray’s tracks and any others that people may post…
Any insight into improved connectivity with Stages PM? My 910 only worked when on the top tube, on my wrist in aerobars the 910 constantly dropped the connection, I think that was a common issue.
Don’t think Ray ever had that so not sure he could test it unless he tests lie signal ant+ broadcasts and seeing if the 920 can receive a weaker signal then a 910
Correct, I never saw that issue. It’s highly dependent on body position, bike setup/materials, power meter type (crank based most impacted), exact power meter used, arm position…and just a bit of good (or bad) luck.
Funnily enough I was going to get a Stages with my new Cervelo P3 (same as Ray) that I got recently. However it does not fit with Dura Ace cranks that was going to get so went for Rotor Power Q Rings instead (before saw Ray’s latest review :) )
I am 1.95m tall so a good person to test this. My observation so far is that the 920 is definitely better than the 910 in this regard. For cycling however, I use an Edge 810 as my main device so really my main use case for the 920 and power is the curiosity of seeing what VO2 Max the 920 gave me. Quite similar to my running one as it happens…
Any chance you’ll be doing a comparison with the Fenix2 more extensively? I am on the fence about which to get. I am primarily a runner and biker, but I do love the compass function on the fenix2 for hiking.
As part of the in-depth review, yes. Though, most of the answers are within the comments section here as far as specific functionality differences (+ the comparison tables up in the review).
The 920 is a different shell/case to the 910 and has it’s own quick release kit. So yes, you would need to buy a new one.
It will however fit on the same bike fittings so you will not need to change those.
If your HR strap is ANT+ (ie any Garmin unit) then this will work with the 920.
How is the possibilities to configure interrvall training sessions on 920XT compare to Ambit 3, Polar V800 and Fenix2? Is it possible to manually shift from part to next part of the intervall training?
Yesterday I was playing around with different interval settings in my Polar RS800CX and in my Garmin 910XT. The configuration part seems moore flexible in the Polar RS800CX (through Polar Personal Trainer 5) than in the Garmin 910XT (through Garmin Connect).
Once training with the the watch however, I found it much easier to manually shift to next interval part in the Garmin than inte the Polar. Way to many bottoms to press in the Polar RS800CX compared to the Garmin 910 XT.
As far as I know Polar has no plans to support PPT5 with any of their new watches. Everything is in the cloud with Polar Flow now, be it as may. However, they are planning on allowing the import of all existing PPT5 and ppt.com workouts into Flow.
Having played with both Flow and Garmin Connect I like neither and find Strava the best for on-line logging while I still prefer SportTracks 5 for off-line logging and true data mining.
Hi Ray, thanks for the preview, I can’t wait for the full review.
I use a Suunto T6 and have become accustomed to using EPOC for training and recovery.
Can you tell me if the 920XT can display EPOC in real-time / mid-workout? Can it calculate and display EPOC at all or must it be calculated by uploading data to post-exercise software?
Now this is the watch I have been waiting for so long. But I will be curious about its new features too / not the mobile apps, facebook sh*t etc, we are trying to be sportsmen, not……..
I will be one of the people in Hungary who will use this product for the first time, and I hope it lacks bugs. If the trend continues inherited from 910XT its ancestor , we will be extremely satisfied.
I was horrified by the fact it does not allove Ant+ data connectivity, but wifi almost does the same trick, problem solved :-)
I will be waiting for having this staff on my arms.
Compared to Suntoo, the outer materials are cheaper, but Suntoo does not allow me to create and utilize workouts as Garmin do. (or Am I wrong?) And its functions are much better than the rest.
But I really do now know why Garmin, Suntoo and Polar do not develop a GPS watch with an integrated solar sendor on the surface of the watch /like Casio Tough Solar / to reduce the occassions of charging batteries, or increase the battery life of a watch during sport. For an ultra runner GPS watches turn off after 20 hours of using, which not the best during a 28-32 hour long race…… – my comment, sorry :-)
I suspect for a solar panel the size that would fit on the edge of the watch, it wouldn’t actually give enough power to allow continuous draw of GPS functions.
Casio is completly different league since it doesnt have GPS which drains battery most. Solar energy recuperation wouldnt worth it because it would be so slow and I think it even would not be good for battery.
Curious where you ordered to be getting delivery ?
I ordered from Clever Training and I swear at the moment I ordered it appeared they had the watch in stock.
Now I check and it says it will ship once they get them. Not sure if I was seeing things. .lol
If you mening me about thie pre-order thing, I have already pre-ordered here form local official Garmin distributor, I have meant I will be the one of the first who will use this watch in Hungary, (once I got it after deliveries launched worldwide)
Curious where you ordered to be getting delivery ?
I ordered from Clever Training and I swear at the moment I ordered it appeared they had the watch in stock.
Now I check and it says it will ship once they get them. Not sure if I was seeing things. .lol
What about the elevation resolution, which had been always a question of barometric FRs and Edges? The same fine resolution of appr 0.2m as it is in latest firmware of 910XT, or a stair-wise implementation, like it was origionally with 910XT. If I remember well, it was a nasty graph with increments of 2m.
Great review, thanks. Do you know if they will be selling a plain black plastic band, I prefer something less blue for work? I saw the fabric ones link to buy.garmin.com but prefer plastic if available.
Ray thanks for great preview!
Also last video is pretty good since it showing live how everything work. Would like to know if there is at least minimal chance that there will be different color variation? All black would be best :))
I would have thought by now we’d have seen that on the FR620, so given that’s a much more ‘day to day’ focused watch than the FR920XT is (in terms of likeliness that people will actually wear it to the office), and we haven’t seen a all-black variant there, I doubt we’ll see one anytime soon on the 920XT.
The 920 has activity tracking which kind of requires you to wear the watch all the time to track your activity while the 620 doesn’t have that functionality
Ray tks so much for the time you spent on your reviews, always a very great help for all of us!.
Is the reduction in screen size creating problems to read data? I start to have problems in seeing the numbers w/out glasses but I’m not yet at the point to use glasses.
Hi Ray. First, thanks for the work you do. Two questions that I haven’t seen addressed in the comments here:
1. Does the 920 have a buzz alarm? It has vibrating alerts, but does that translate into setting an alarm and having it buzz me awake in the morning? And if so, does it do sleep tracking with data for hours slept, etc?
2. Related but not 920 specific: i no longer see my swim data charts/graphs from my 910 since the connect update Oct 1 or so. Doo you think I will ever see my swim charts again if I keep using 910?
1) Yes, you can set the watch to vibrate as a time alarm (i.e. to wakeup). When you do so, it will also chirp as well as vibrate. You can dismiss it by pressing the side buttons (the front buttons won’t work, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally rolling over and dismissing them).
2) I’ve heard of lots of wonkiness on Garmin Connect since Oct 1st. I’ll be asking about some of that tomorrow.
Can you set the alarm to buzz, but not chime (aka a silent alarm)? I’m hoping to not wake up my wife at 4:45am when I’m getting up for my early morning workouts. :-)
Hi Ray, can you set alarm clock to wake you up only on weekdays (like on Fenix, there you can set one time alarms, every day alarms or weekdays alarms and you can choose vibration, tone or vibration+tone) or is there just single alarm annoying you every morning (like on Ambit 2; its alarm repeatedly forgotten to turn off by my worst half, waking me up at ungodly hours this Saturday morning, again!)
I’m a happy owner of the FR620 (by your recommendation by the way :-)) and I just miss 1 feature. Now seeing it in the FR920 makes me wanna ask you if you believe it will pop up in the FR620 updates when it’s available source ways in the 920.
Back to start? Do you think that and maybe other related navigation options like virtual racer (against a earlier track) will hit the 620?.
Br,
Lars
Yeah and one news for you maybe… In the old Garmin connect view (not the modern strangely thou) you can send workouts to your 620 when you running Linux on your computer!!!
I don’t know what changes (if any), we’ll see on the FR220/FR620 at this time. I’d agree some sort of back to start would be ideal on the FR620, heck, especially since the Polar M400 has it at 1/3rd the price.
Ray, can you confirm (or deny) that the 920 will have a territory warranty eg US unit can only be serviced in the US and not in other territorys such as the UK?
I don’t know, however, I’ve never heard of people having issues with Garmin warranty no matter where they are assuming there is a local warranty option (the one exception being Brazil, due to significant wonkiness there with the way warranty repairs have to happen due to local laws).
I had been looking to get the Fenix 2 for doing the triathlons. I have been using the 310xt (which is a great piece of kit) I now see the 920xt and it looks to go one step further. However unsure if anyone can answer this yet, we as a family do go geocaching. The fenix 2 does have this function. Will the 920xt have this? To many decisions to make. Ray love your reviews.
Yes, I’ll be doing more detailed comparisons of them in the in-depth review. Though, most of that detail is already here in the comments if you’re looking for specific things.
On the 910XT you were able to set the Foot Pod as the primary source for speed data even if there was a strong GPS signal and it continued to log position via GPS for the track. Are you able to do this with the 920XT, in the manual it only says that the Foot Pod is used in times of poor GPS signal or during indoor i.e. treadmill runs. I have found the foot pod to be much more accurate for pace.
Some of you have asked for an instant-pace video. On tonight’s run I shot one. As usual, these are a bit tricky to shoot because you’re running along at a good clip. But, it should be quite easy to follow along. As you can see, the instant pace is perfectly stable.
@Hugin. So we’re looking at about a 5-6 second delay in the change of pace using GPS. If the GPS pace is accurate I think I’d prefer that over the footpod.
In my experience the foot pod might be marginally faster to register changes, but it’s much less accurate when I run at paces further from the pace and conditions I calibrated it for.
Hi Ray–
You do great work. I look forward to reading your reviews in this site and on Slowtwitch.
I hope that this watch has fewer bugs than the 910XT did when it was introduced. Compared to my 310XT, when introduced, the 910XT had serious GPS accuracy issues. That was fixed over a period of time. What wasn’t fixed and still exists on my 910XT is the screen fogging over. Actually my first 910XT screen cavity filled with water and was replaced under warranty. The subsequent two 910XTs all had screen fogging issues that occurred on the bike when it was cool out. Ray , perhaps you can check for this and GPS accuracy when you do your full test.
I’ll be watching for fogging issues, but what you’re talking about isn’t widespread. It means when your unit was made the humidity was wonky. Honestly, you can probably get Garmin to swap it out.
I have had to replace my 910XT three times due to fogging issues over the course of a year. All 3 of my units must have been made in wonky humidy. LOL
Each time i went back the harder it was for everyone involved to offer me a replacement.
Really put me off getting another Garmin problem, they effectively said that this is not an issue and would replace in “good faith”. Pretty poor if you ask me.
None from me. Obviously as noted up earlier somewhere else delayed shipping a bit due to some waterproofing issues seen in the first batch of units by a handful of their beta testers, but I haven’t seen anything on mine and I’ve spent a ton of time in the water this month.
Just curious if anyone knows if CleverTraining ever had a few units to sale? I maybe was seeing things but when I checked and ordered I swear it was available..but now I see the “will be shipped when we get em'” notice..lol.
1) Does the 920 have the same phone locator feature as the VivoSmart? That is a neat feature and it’d be nice to have on the 920.
2) Does the 920 show seconds on the time display in 4-field view past 59 minutes? Not having seconds display on the 910 for anything longer than an hour is just ridiculous.
I have a funny story related to that with my 910XT. I was running my first half-marathon after I broke the 2 hour barrier. I had set a goal for myself for 1:55. As I was nearing the end, I didn’t think I was going to make it. But I sprinted hard, and hit the stop button on my watch as I crossed the finish line, 1:56, bummer. Downloaded the data onto my computer when I got home, my actual time 1:56:00.3. Had I been 4 tenths quicker on the button, I would have probably been doing back-flips to see a 1:55 on the watch.
Tim, how tiny is “tiny”? Legible with 50 year old eyes, do you think? (The Leikr watch does the same thing and the hour number is illegibly small even when I have varifocals on, never mind contact lenses where my close vision is poorer). Could you maybe post a picture somewhere, when you have the opportunity to take one?
(I do usually have some idea how many hours I’ve been running, but can get a bit vague on very long runs!)
Thanks Tim. That looks a bit more legible and sensibly placed than on the Leikr (which would be showing a tiny 1h above and to the right of the minute and second time).
thanks a lot for all your dedication to this ^^^^^^:)
Quick requests (I’ve read a lot of the comments but didn’t find my answer)
– confirmation that the activity still records while charging (the battery is always less than announced and ultra runners may like exhaustive datas ;) )
– a little bit more depth int he day to day watch comparison, for example i love the quick answer to the timer or the stopwatch while in day to day watch mode
Ray is there is anyway on the new watch of setting a multi-sport total event or segment / cut-off event time countdow. For example during my first full Ironman I was very conscious of key completing certain segments in a given time and getting in under the 17 hour cut off? Is this possible now?
Another useful feature would be a real-time race predicator, i.e. you set various segment lengths (Swim, bike & Run) plus transition times and the watch gives you a predicted finish time based on the segments (including transitions) you have completed and your average pace in the current active segment. This would also be great for BRICK work. Just a thought.
TOD doesn’t really work, unless you remember that at 4:15 PM you need to be at Mile 93 on the bike, etc. Although, if cut-offs are a concern, most AG BOP ppl carry a small cut-off cue sheet on the IM bike/run.
I have a 310xt and a Garmin Swim, both still working great. I tried to explain to my wife and kids, why I really needed the 920xt, but failed to convince.
Live Tracking could be a key feature, if it works well..
It does. Well unless you do something where there is no mobile/cell phone coverage.
Tricky to convince somebody why you need something “new” for yourself though!
PS In a reply to asking what the 920 has over the 910 (and implicitly the 310) I said:
Activity tracker
Bluetooth and WiFi uploading potential
LiveTrack
24 hour battery
Sleeker design (i.e. bit lighter)
Custom activity profiles
Colour screen
Can wear as a watch as there is a low power mode
Running dynamics first seen in the 620
VO2 Max estimators for running and cycling (need Power meter & HR)
Another person added:
metronome
running cadence (inbuilt)
swim drills support
Thanks for another sterling review. I am a cyclist mainly, and lovingly use an Edge 800. I’m dabbling into triathlons for the next season, which is why I find myself looking at a number of different GPS watches.
As a price-conscious athlete, who is likely not to consider the triathlon as their main event, would you recommend paying the full hog for the 920xt? I do swim, cycle and run every week at the moment, but it’s only the competition element of the tri which has made me consider getting a multisport watch. I am competitive!
Previously I have managed to live with the pool clock and counting in my head for swimming, the iPhone in my armband for running, and my Edge for cycling. This has only been for my day-to-day fitness, and I am yet to step up the run and swim training for tri events.
Do you think the 920xt will create new training opportunities for me, or is there another watch which you would recommend for a more competitive price? I love training and gadgets though, so if you think it’s good value based on features alone, then let me know!
Close. I’d argue to get the Ambit2S ($219US), specifically for the addition of pool swimming over the FR310XT. If you don’t care about that however, then you can save the $50ish or so dollars and get the 310XT.
I’m interested in a watch that records all my activity 24/7 (including HR when training) and tells me when to take recovery time.
After quite a bit of research on wrist based computers the bit that I don’t get is how any watch that doesnt record HR underwater can do this accurately if it doesn’t know how hard I’ve trained in the pool? Or does it calculate my effort based on time/pool metrics and use this to define training effect?
No, it’s like the 620. You can setup Intervals on the watch. Custom workouts would need to be downloaded although you can do this without the USB cable by using GC and the Garmin Connect Mobile app.
Is the navigation like the old forerunner 305 I used to have? The youtube looks like it, which is great for runs, but lets hope they change the zoom angle, especially for us running in the middle of no where
Does it beep near a turn? and provide a direction or anything?
Hi Ray,
Couple of questions:
1) What’s the ‘feel’ like on the enter /back buttons? Soft push, or a solid click? Compared to 910xt?
2) With the auto-lap feature, how long does the notification pop-up stay on screen, and can you adjust the length of time it stays there? Bugs me with the 910xt that it stays there for 10 secs,when 5 secs would be better.
Thanks!
1) More solid/tactile, very similar to the buttons on the front of the Edge 1000.
2) You can’t adjust the length, but you can adjust the data displayed on it. You can also always dismiss it.
I ordered one the morning it was announced and am fired up. Does anyone know if it has the305 feature “simple workout” feature that would allow you to program simply something like “6 miles @ 7:30 pace” then race the virtual partner? One screen would show you the time and distance remaining which was cool and easy to setup on the fly. I thought with virtual racer and partner back in, maybe this one would be there too.
Yes, Virtual Partner and Virtual Racer are in there. As is workout support, interval support, and the ability to set a specific distance and time target (combo or solo), as you noted above.
In regards to “set a target” – does the watch automatically stop recording once your set distance is reached? For example, if I set a target to run a 20.00min/5K – does the timer stop the very second I hit 3.10 miles?
This was answered elsewhere but I just verified it myself. The timer does NOT stop but shows a message instead. It seems to display this when the distance entered has been covered.
You mentioned the quick release is different to the 910xt. None of the 920xt I have seen for sale mention that they come with a quick release kit. Will this be sold separately or will it come with every watch ?
You can still create them in Garmin Connect and transfer to 920 either via USB cable or via the mobile phone app. Once there ready for next time of course. Intervals workouts are still configurable on the watch – things like 10×400, 60s with a warm up and down etc etc
So like on the Fenix/FR620 you can’t edit workouts sent from Garmin Connect? That can come in really handy if you need to adjust the pace, often do it on my FR610. Can you at review check all the workout details?
Question…the “metronome” feature…do you see any reason an official USAT sanctioned event (i.e. Ironman) would give you any grief for using that during a race? I know you’re not allowed headphones/music during a race or anything to give you “outside help” and I wonder what they would think if they saw a person running and heard their watch beeping at them helping them keep their cadence…
Honestly it’s really going to depend on an individual official (part of the problem right now with muddy electronics rules). I suspect you’d be fine, but I also suspect others would be annoyed by it. Thus, I’d only use it if nobody else is around and then press mute if someone else pops up.
Thanks! That’s kind of what I was thinking myself…I guess I’ll just be smart about using it (if I even decide to) and try not to use it around others (both for the annoyance factor like you say, and not to give the USAT official any reason to penalize me). Better to be safe than sorry, especially on race day!
Hi! Thank you for the review. Months ago I bought the 910xt triathlon bundle. I wonder if you can tell me which of the accessories I can keep now that I want to upgrade to the 920xt.
thank you.
ciao
I already have a small Seiko digital metronome that I can clip to my shorts, and that I sometimes use for running drills (it is also interesting to compare the frequency to the Fenix 2 wrist-based cadence, which can sometimes be off). The Seiko metronome is relatively expensive, but cheap alternatives are available for under $10.
It would be great if the metronome feature could trickle down (or rather across) to the Fenix line, but I don’t see myself buying a new watch just for that. My next sports watch will most likely run an open system like android, and then artificially limited feature sets will hopefully be a thing of the past.
Can anyone point to 920XT test runs that are made in a forest?
MTK chips are quite OK under open skys, that’s no suprise. Where problems begin, and where Sirf is superior, is when there’s limited visibility. Thus probably it can be an antenna thing, and this give hope that the signal could be better this time around.
link to connect.garmin.com
was done on a fairly twisty and hilly trail course where parts of it were under trees. So maybe not a “forest” but challenging enough compared to most of my road runs. I was pleased with the GPS track here…
Thanks a bunch. It does seem nice! Where there are more trees, it develops a ~10m error, yet this is not much, and secondly it holds it stably, not bouncing here and there like a drunk rabbit. Great news because other than accuracy anxiety, it’s clearly the superior device on the market. I’ll get one :)
How would you comment on the responsiveness on instant pace. Did it fluctuate while running or was rock stabil also when you changed pace. From your file it seems you did a couple of times.
Ray posted a video on pace stability the other day. I was wearing a 620 as well on this run (indeed most runs of late) and whenever I look at current pace it is similar on both and seemed to give me a sensible number. Current pace has the 5 second rounding, first seen on the 620, which I actually now prefer as it goes give a much more stable reading and really I cannot tell the difference between say 7:00 and 7:01 min/mile pace etc etc whereas I just might between 7:00 and 7:05!
Thx for your fast reply :-) I had the 620 but I found the watch terrible at doing intervals. In fact impossible! The responsiveness of instant pace simply wasn’t fast enough. I had many interval sessions I stopped due to 620 keept telling me I ran with i.e. 5 min/km but in fact I was doing more like 4 min/km. It’s a known issue for the 620 (see Garmin forum). My question here is, do you experience the 920 alike or did Garmin fix the issue?
Haven’t tried 920XT yet, but if instant pace is what you’re after, then Suunto Ambit 2/3 is a viable choice. The accelerometer-adjusted pace is actually quite good.
Of course, Ambits do not really support workouts, so… :) But pace accuracy and responsiveness are great!
Hi Mart,
I know – I’m using Ambit2S for the very same reason. But would of course love to add another gadget to my fine collection. But this point is the key for me. So if any can report about pace responsiveness in intervals, I’d be happy to know about it.
Hi Ray,
Thanks Ray – I already saw your video and agree for a steady run, instant pace if quite good. But what I’m trying to ask for here is; try do an interval, just a simple one and see if instant pace changes instantly to true pace.
How long an interval? If you watch the second half of the video, I go from stopped to at-pace – thus simulating an interval. Or are you looking for something different? Sorry, just trying to understand.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for your patience here ;-) Let me be more specific; run with say 5 min/km, then shift to walk (say 10 min/km). Start running again at 5 min/km and then walk again say 1 min later. Do this process with no coverage to the sky and again under trees.
Now here comes what I’m asking for; how quick is the FR920 to adjust instant pace with to true pace? The FR620 is really poor at this (check Garmin forum). Now I would love to see a video of this small test, so if possible, I would thank you BIG time for doing so. Of course I know you’re a busy mann, so I do of course understand if you can’t. But thanks anyway.
Does this unit allow any kind of navigation while cycling – ie, could I get away with buying just this watch rather than an 810 or 1000?
I’m currently running a 500 as my head unit for powertap and considering an 810 as an upgrade, as I’d like to be able to pre-program routes to then go out and ride – would the 920 be any use for this, or will (as I suspect) need to buy both?
It’d basically be giving you the same navigational capabilities as your Edge 500 already has. So, it’s somewhat of a wash there. It’s not like the Edge 800/810/1000 with turn by turn navigation.
If say you want to run at a certain cadence it bleeps at that cadence to try and help you maintain that.
Personally I can do without the “ringing” in my ears!!!
In regards to “set a target” – does the watch automatically stop recording once your set distance is reached? For example, if I set a target to run a 20.00min/5K – does the timer stop the very second I hit 3.10 miles?
Just ran a Target distance of 5k. At 5k the watch fired of notifications of time and Personal Records (not surprising for my first run!) but the watch did keep recording after 5km giving me a final distance of 5.11km with all the final data based on that distance.
I only got the watch yesterday evening so this was my first run with it. Overall, I’m pretty impressed. I’ve moved from a (non-GPS) FR60…so quite a big change in features. Screen is crystal clear and I was surprised how light it felt as I was expecting it to be more noticeable on my wrist.
The GPS track was a bit wibbly on my run but I did have quite a lot of tree cover for most of it…and compared to the GPS track recorded on Runkeeper on my iPhone it was actually much better.
Ah good to know, I tried it once but forgot what happened at the end. I think it used to stop the timer in “Simple” workouts on older devices but think I prefer it to carry on because if say you were doing a 10K race would be annoying if the timer stopped up the finish straight just because of small GPS variance in distance.
Great review ! An indepth comparison between Garmin 920xt, Polar V800 and Suunto Ambit3 (including their software / webtools) would have been awesome :-)
You say that the Recovery Advisor uses Heart Rate Variability to determine its results. Do you know if there is anyway of seeing your actual heart rate variability numbers as well? It would be nice to be able to see the raw data for tracking such a number as well as the 920XT using it within the recovery advisor.
If it can measure and collect HRV data then it would be good to be able to see this data either on the watch or within Garmin Connect. Will that be possible?
It doesn’t show those values in Connect (or on the device). I don’t know if they’re recorded for FirstBeat (3rd party software), like some other Garmin devices.
We have been chatting about this today on the Garmin Forums link to forums.garmin.com
I’ll see if can find with more certainty if the “enable_HRV” file for the 620 works with the 920.
Wiggle exclusive in UK at present it seems
Some people on Garmin forum seem to have placed orders and are now receiving their watch – see link to forums.garmin.com
@AJohns – earlier in the comments Twig and Scott Buchanan share some numbers and discuss it a bit too. You can check it out here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Enjoy.
Can we get a quick Yay or Nay on pulling the trigger on this thing? The suspense of waiting on a full review is a killer! My 310XT just shit the bed. I have been waiting for 2 weeks for Garmin to give me the ok to return for a replacement. My plan was just going to be to sell the refurbished 310 they give me and upgrade to a 910 or 920.
The problem there though is that if I say ‘Yay’ now, and then find over the next few weeks things that really suck, you (and others) will be upset.
At present, with the activities I’ve done (including one I just finished link to strava.com), things look good. There are issues I’ve noted around navigation, as well as little odds and ends that aren’t in the product but were in previous ones (auto lap by position for example). I may find more. I may not.
Interesting that Autolap is missing. I use Autolap 1k and combine that with Pace showing current lap pace. But maybe I can switch to Actual pace instead these days.
Ah OK! Thanks to both of you for that answer. I thought it was a weird omission. I didn’t even know you could do auto lap by position! Can’t wait for my 920xt to arrive!
Hi Ray and others,
What about charging time?
I like my Polar V800 for that. It take only +/- 1hr to get it back full. How does the 920?
I’m very impress right now on battery life with activities tracking and smart notification on. 30 days, that’s huge!
On the Fenix 2, it was only 1 day or less… On my pebble, I can do around 5-6 days right now. And on my V800… behhhh Nada ;-)
That’s a real most for me this feature. No need to have two watch anymore ;-) Hope that it will make the number…
Can’t wait to receive my new 920!
Steph
I put on USB charger connected to laptop at 23:15 and it was at 53% and at 23:45 it has reached 73% so 20% charge in 30 mins. Assuming it charges at same rate would take 2.5 hours for a full charge. Not bad I think for a device with a rated battery of 24 hours.
Smart notifications can be handy yes. I was about to set off driving last night and a text came through that I could read on the 920 without fishing for the phone.
Generally very positive so far.
I got my 920xt yesterday and find the smart notifications disappear too quickly from the watch (home) screen. I have to go digging in the menus to read the alerts. Any tips on how to get the messages to display for longer, or any shortcuts to quickly retrieve them again?
If you’ve missed the notification, while on the main/watch home screen, simply press the up/down arrows until you see the Notifications screen. At which point, it’ll list the number of notifications.
Select enter, and you’ll see a list of notifications. Select any specific notification and press enter to see the full details.
Any screenshots of how it actually looks? (Ditto on the same question another person asked. Can’t find any YouTube links to smart notifications in action)
How does the functionality look like in comparison to say the pebble or the metawatch strata (both of which I have an rely on a daily basis)
Am wishin that the 920xt can be the do it all and replace my strata. Else I keep on having to take 2 watches around.
That’s seriously would be awesome. Scouring the internet (and chancing on the YouTube of your mini Tri – only to hear – “I don’t have my phone with me” – was kind of a bummer)
I seriously don’t get it why there is little to no mention or videos of How smart notifications would work or look like on the inter webs.
Esp after seeing the apple watch thing, I’m not really impressed esp with the fact that optical hr monitoring needs the watch tight and snug on the wrist. (Something I don’t like). But I prefer the chest strap (go figure. To each their own I guess)
Really really appreciate seeing how it looks like.
That is awesome.. Really appreciate it.
Looks like it’ll fit the bill and works like the pebble/strata does.
Can I be so bold to as, when a message is receive, the message would flash on the screen (for x seconds which I believe I read above is not configurable – which is ok for me) and the watch would also vibrate.
For the messages that gets flashed, does it occupy the entire screen for x seconds or would it just show up as a single banner on top of the watch (like the garmin ad for the 920xt). I’m hoping that it works like the pebble/strata where the notification shows up and takes the entire screen for x seconds.
Thanks again!!
(I’m so buying this. But, as it’s new, I’ll have to NOT use your clever training link due to warranty purposes, local garmin don’t honor international purchases.:-( which is a real bummer given that local garmin only expects it in 2 mths time.
Hi Ray,
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a FR920XT from Wiggle, I’ve only had it 24 hours so not much time to play yet it is looking impressive so far with the exception of one annoyance. The device software versions are current but I seem to be unable to get it to recognise my Kickrs power meter, do you know if it should?
Have you by chance gone outside and got satellite yet? I ask because I saw an issue where it wouldn’t find any new ANT+ sensors until it had satellite once, then it was happy again (I’ve sent a note off to Garmin asking what the deal is).
I’ll go and double-check the KICKR here in a second though.
Yes,
Finding a satellite for the first time appeared to set the time/date which I thought was quite cool.
I have so far successfully paired 2 HRM’s, the one that came with it and an older deluxe model and an older style speed/cadence sensor.
Will be interested to hear your result.
Thanks again.
I’ve just tried again, failed the first few times until I tried to get the FR920XT as close to the KICKR as I could while still peddling and not falling off and it all worked.
One happy bunny here.
Any views on how easy it is to get a wet suit over when removing (including avoiding pressing any buttons suggesting you’ve already started the bike leg prematurely ) ?
I haven’t done any wetsuit swims yet (still warm enough water here), but I’ll likely be down in the southern hemisphere in a few weeks and will try there.
You have both the 620 and the 920. Will you keep both? The reason I ask, I have the 620 as well and a 510. I was thinking of using the 920 for multi sport mode and set a target and for swimming.
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As always, the quintessential review…the croissants must be helping.
Meh, no bottle opener?
You should be able to use the metal portion of a watch clasp as a bottle opener.
I’m so excited about this. The metronome functionality is so simple and great, it has been on my wish list for my 620 since I got it. Will certainly be picking one of these up as soon as I can.
Can add basically unlimited pages to different activity profiles (a la fenix 2)? And access all the different metrics and scramble them any which way you want on those pages? Sorry if I’ve missed this already covered somewhere else on the page. Thanks!
“There are 4 fully configurable data screens per activity profile that can each have up 1 to 4 data fields each. There is a Clock screen that can be enabled or disabled; there is a Map screen that can be enabled or disabled; there is Virtual Partner screen that is enabled or disabled depending on its setting as well as other features that may be in use (such as Set a Target or Race an Activity).
In Running there is a Running Dynamics screen that may be present if an HRM-Run is present or may also be disabled even if an HRM-Run is in use. There is a Workout/Interval screen that is enabled when you follow a planned workout or interval set. In Pool Swimming there is a Rest screen and a Drill Log screen that may be enabled; the Rest screen is context dependent, of course. So, the number you’re looking for depends on the profile in use.”
(Handy little text snippet courtesy the FR920XT team on an e-mail I had with them)
Hello Ray
Great review as always!
I want to have only one data field per screen as I run, will that make the font bigger? like filling the whole screen like on FR610?
thx
6co
It’s bigger, though, not crazy big. You can see some pics of it mid-way through this section, on my wrist: link to dcrainmaker.com
I appreciate all of the insight you provide, and the timely feedback.
I’m just wondering if you know why they limited the size of the display so much within the face/bezel of the watch.
A huge amount of real estate devoted to borders/argyle print/Garmin logo.
A little bummed to see the display reduced from the 910, and the font seems less readable at a glance, imo.
It’s where the antenna is (loops around the outside edge), among other things. So instead of a screen, there’s other components of the watch. Those components went somewhere when the watch was further slimmed down.
Ah, I had assumed the antenna was still in the down angled part (where the start/lap buttons are) like in the old 305.
Was wondering how they managed that with the buttons.
Do you think any of the new running features and fitness tracker will be available via an update to the 620? It’s only been for around 12 months, but it is looking “old” compared to this! Or do you think these features will be available on a 630, which will probably be out in the next 12-18 months?
Most of the running features have come from the 620. Which do you mean?
It’s been previously discussed that the 620 hardware would not work as an activity tracker.
Awesone, want one! Had the 310xt and now 910xt, wonderful gadgets with one major hardware “bug”: i am hating garmin’s HR straps. using the polar ones with garmin sensor. DC, is that still possible with the new device 920xt? greetings from austria, sebastian
Yup, that still works. You won’t get Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time (without the HRM-RUN), though, you could put the HRM-RUN pod into the Polar strap.
Is it the same HRM-RUN that’s been around for a while now or is this a NEW type HRM-RUN w/ the 920XT?
Guess what I’m getting at is could you use your current HRM-RUN that you use with your Fenix2?
Same one. And yup, you can use the same one as the Fenix2. Same-same.
How doe the HRM run analytics compare to what is being offered on the Tickr X?
It’s fairly similar. Check out my FR620 or Fenix2 review for more discussion on the Running Dynamics metrics (which came a few months prior to TICKR X). Ultimately they’re basically the same metrics.
What about multi-user (profile) support ?
Would be nice to have on the FR devices (and even more important on an Edge)
No, just single user. I honestly wouldn’t really expect to see any major vendor add it, simply because it limits sales.
Ray – great initial write up, as always. I have a sizing question for you that I don’t see answered in any other questions you’ve responded to.
I have an FR620 that I love, but wish the screen was a bit bigger for faster mid-run glances to get my stats. I had a Nike+ SportWatch and loved the massive main stat, but find I have to look at the FR620 longer to get the numbers I need due to size.
It appears that the 920 screen isn’t really much bigger than the 620s, but perhaps being rectangular helps vs the circular 620. Since you’ve seen both, do you feel the readout is bigger on the 920 than the 620?
That would be the lynch pin for me to make the switch and eBay my 620.
While I’ve got you – is the red a nice, manly red, or is it more of a ladies color? I kinda like it, but want a good deep red more than a light red.
THANKS!
The display font is definitely bigger on the FR920XT, just simply due to screen font.
It’s more fire truck red than pink-red, so more manly than not (but perfectly fine for woman too).
Thanks! I ordered the black from CleverTraining (and got a VIP membership – thanks for the deals!). I literally had a dream last night that I should have gotten the white/red. How pathetic is it that I’m dreaming about this watch now?!?!
Thanks again!
Thanks for the support Bryan!
Can you use a soft strap with this?
This pretty much ticks all the boxes for me, I wish it was allot less ugly i’m really not sure what is going on with the design team at Garmin still stuck in the early 90s by the looks of things. The colour display somehow makes it look even more ugly imo. But i’m going to have to buy the damn thing.
Yup, there’s a soft wrist strap available.
Ray, once again a gem of a preview. Just ordered over on Clever Training. I am glad I have expendable income, if this stuff was coming out about 40 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Currently at 80,678 miles run. My 620 will go to my running Grandson, the Vivosmart to one of my daughters and the Basis may go to a friend I am attempting to get more active. Thanks again for all you do. Nick
Thanks for the support Nick! Keep the miles on ticking!
The nerd in me just says “I WANT IT” but I am so frustrated with Garmin Support Service in Portugal, that i am definately leaving this line of products. (single tear drama scene)
Wifi scale support? Could it be done thruw Connect IQ?
Not so much Connect IQ actually in this case, but rather you can do it today through MyFitnessPal actually. I’ll be posting on it shortly (next week). Or, you can just wander to the Garmin Forums and find the quick how-to there.
Hi Rey,
I would appreciate if you could clarify the following:
1) Compass. Garmin site says that 920XT has no Electronic compass, your site (in the comparison table) shows it has “Magnetic” compass.
2) Routes. Garmin’s site shows that 920XT does not work with “routes” on your site you mention “Download courses/routes from phone to unit – YES”. How is that possible?
3) Auto Lap®, Time/distance alert and Customizable screen(s) are shown on Garmin’s site as not supported on Fenix 2 but I am pretty sure they are as I have the watch. Or are this somehow different on 920XT?
VVK, I note your points too, I think that GARMIN does not update Web Page info according to firmware updates.
1) It’s true, it doesn’t have Electronic, but rather a Magnetic compass, which is better than Electronic. No idea why Garmin’s site isn’t showing magnetic, I’ll send a note over for them to correct (we just chatted about it yesterday, so I know it’s magnetic).
2) It’s more of a terminology thing. I call them courses/routes because they’re basically the same thing and people get confused otherwise. Garmin officially splits them out whereby routes including stuff like ‘Turn left on Maple street’, which I put into a different category of “Turn by Turn Navigation”. This mostly comes from years of questions. ;)
3) Yeah, that’s wrong on their site too. It’s pretty common for stuff to be wrong. I’ll send a note to that team too.
Thank you for this detailed first review .After a FR15, I’ve bought one of the early Ambit3 available , and have been bitterly disappointed both by the product and the so called “customer support”. Since i don’t expect to see any improvement (activity/steps/sleep tracker, Android app, BT sensors debugging, etc) before decades ,the 920xt should be my birthday gift in january since it includes all my wishes.
I will send you Haribo alligators as a happy christmas card :)
I find it unfortunate that the Garmin Running team is sticking to the ‘unconventional’ color schemes unlike the Outdoor team. Are they ever planning to offer more sedate colors for this (or the 620) in the future?
What kind of a charger is used here? Is it again something different/new just for this watch?
Also – why Garmin doesn’t have 1 or only few charging set ups. Seems like that every new watch comes out w/a new charger set up?
It’s different. I think sometimes there’s valid reasons for different chargers – such as improvements. And yet for others it seems silly. For example, the FR220 and Fenix lineup are virtually identical – and with even a bit of force they actually do work with each other. Yet…they’re not exactly perfect. Go figure.
A bit off topic, but how do you get Garmin Connect to display the Multi-Sport display for a triathlon?
It’s only for newly uploaded activities as of about noon US Eastern today. But, if you still have the original .FIT file you can re-upload it and it’ll show up in the new format.
now you can download the original FIT file (from the swim part) and reupload it, it will sho in the layout (check my website for a quick tutorial)
Hi Ray,
Thanks for all the real info that you provide.
Question, the lack of weight scale support, is this likely in a software update?
I don’t think we’ll see it honestly. Especially if 3rd parties are able to bridge the gap there.
Do you know if the auto-pause feature will work with indoor swimming pools like the Suunto Ambit3 and Finis Swimsense do? You said a while back the 910xt didn’t so I’m wondering if the new one will.
If not, it seems like a big drawback compared to the Ambit3 for people who do lots of intervals and don’t want to press start/stop every time.
No auto pause on the 920XT either.
No autopause AT ALL, or no autopause in the pool?
As someone who bikes in the city a lot please please please tell me the watch has biking autopause…
Just the pool.
Will there be a triathlon kit? I didn’t see it on Clever Training.
Hey Steve-
Just chatted with them, it should be up by the morning. They were waiting on the official imagery from Garmin to be able to list it. If you’re worried about snagging your place in line you can just order the 920XT now and then simply e-mail/call them in the morning and they’ll easily add in the quick release kit (including DCR discount).
Thanks for the support!
Ray,
With whom did you speak at CT? I send them an email before originally posting on your site and I received a reply from Jennifer today stating the triathlon bundle is not available.
Hi Steve-
I think there might be a tiny bit of confusion. With the FR920XT, there isn’t a full ‘triathlon bundle’ (like there was for the FR910XT). So, it’s the HRM-RUN bundle, or no bundle (just the base unit).
There is additionally the Quick Release Kit,which is a separate accessory that you can add. But, Garmin doesn’t have a SKU at this point that has it all in one like past products (why, I have no idea).
Hope this helps! Oh, and I just talked to them, and it should be up any moment I’m told. I’ll post back here as soon as I get the note.
Thanks for the support!
And just like that, a moment is over. Quick release kit on Clever Training here: link to shareasale.com
Thanks for the support!
Ray,
Using these quick release mounts – would it be ideal to have a velco type band instead of the standard strap?
fortunately i use my garmin edge 510 during the bike leg while in a triathlon.
One thing that I have always hated about this line, compared to the 610/620, Fenix, Ambits, and now the Polar v800, is the form factor of the watch and the screen. I have never been a fan of the quad screen. Wish they would have updated that to be vertically stacked.
Nope, not yet. Just tried. Very nice people by the way. Thanks to you and them… keep it coming.
Thanks for all the time that you put in these reviews. Just wish you had posted a little hint that this Watch was coming out 5 weeks ago because I wouldn’t have bought the Fenix2. Got one from the 2QA series that have very poor accuracy (even sent Garmin a video of my 910xt, my Edge800 and the Fenix2 to show them how bad it was.) They are suppose to change it but I have to ship it to Raytech and heard from friends that the service isn’t really good there. I even ask Garmin if they would exchange my Fenix2 for the new 920xt
Side by side and wrist pics of 620 vs 920 please?
You should do video unboxing and reviews as a way to see things in the real world and earn some ad revenue for the budding family. With the comment hoards like this watch you would get tons of views.
Great preview! Your the tech hero for us triathletes
I actually did one for the Polar M400 last week in that review. Meant to do one for this unit, but just ran out of time. I’ll have one up on Friday for it though, probably a one-stop 4-7 minute walk through video.
The only challenge with unboxing videos for me is that I take most of my unboxing photos while…unboxing. Thus that breaks the flow a bit. Perhaps on the second unit (my retail unit), I’ll do that via video. Hadn’t thought of that.
Overall though, Youtube generally pays barely pennies compared to other mediums, so I try and focus my time as much as possible on getting quality reviews out. For something like a one-shot 4-7 minute video, that’s easy to do though without impacting other things.
One more question for you: any possibility of the daily activity tracker utilizing the altimeter to get “flights” similar to the Fitbit One/Force? (As a future update as I’m almost sure it’s not currently included — since you have an open line of communication with the Garmin team, just seeing if that’s a possibility)
I haven’t heard of any discussion there at this point, though I’ve gotta believe it’s on their radar for the Vivo line in general. My suspicion would be that you’d see it added somewhere and probably backported into the 920XT down the road (if they did stairs).
Thanks for the info! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a future update.
Ray…if you were to required to chose today between the Garmin FR920XT Triathlon Watch or the Suunto Ambit 2S, which model would you go with and why?
I love the features of the 920XT but as many commenters have stated, the cosmetic appearance of the watch, in my opinion, is cheap looking, dated and a turn off for a 24/7 watch. That being said, it’s functionality certainly helps overcome it’s overall appearance. But for the financial outlay versus the pricing of the Ambit 2s on Clever Training coupled with your promotional discount, do you feel the 920 XT is worth the extra money just to acquire the features being touted versus the Suunto Ambit 2s, less features? Perhaps in your case money may not be an issue but you strike me as one being practical, and do think of the wee people who may not have an unlimited discretionary funds in your final assessment of a product. What say ye?
I see those as two different markets. The Ambit2S is less than half the price of the FR920XT. It will, at least for the time being, remain my go-to suggestion for people looking to get into triathlon and wanting a watch. It’s a sweet deal at $219US.
And ultimately, there are tons of people happy with that watch, and the functionality of devices before today. I’d really boil it down to whether or not you care about connectivity to the phone and apps. If not, save the cash.
If the wrist belt strap (i.e. the blue/ green one) of 910XT can be used on 920 ?
I don’t believe so, but I’ll check.
There are alternative (Blue and Green) replacemant straps now listed in the accessories on the US site.
Does it show&record temperature with built in sensor(or/and with the Tempe Pod
accessoar?
No, not natively, but it could via Tempe with Garmin Connect IQ app extensions (I suspect that’ll be one that someone writes).
Please recommend a more professional color scheme, like all gray, as in the FR610 and FR910 and the outdoor watches.
Hi Ray. Awesome review again.
Does Clever Training support international delivery, like to south east Asia? It will take too many moons for this device to reach our shore if we were to wait for local Garmin launch. Nice work there..:)
Does 920xt support auto-lapping by location, just like what 910xt did. This would be quite useful for counting laps and thus accurate distance when keep running on a playground one lap after another.
I noticed that both Garmin 620 and Fenix 2 have removed the function of auto-lapping by location, not sure why Garmin did this but hope this function will be kept on 920.
At this time it does not support Auto Lap by location, it’s on my list to ask why (or when).
I’m disappointed with the look. Shiny, patterned face and blue stripes. Not something I would wear on my wrist every day. I think I’ll stick to my 910XT until they bring out a more subtle colour scheme (e.g. matte black). Time for an Ambit 3 Black perhaps?
I really hope that Garmin Connect update their customised workout page as part of this refresh. It drives me crazy not having a bike “3sec average power” setting in workouts. The devices I transfer the workouts to have the setting but not the website…
Hi Ray,
Great preview, and I’m pleased to see your hint that you might have something in the works for your euro fan-base as an online ordering partner! Your full review and 920 availability should hit just as I’m getting back on my feet from my impending cruciate reconstruction, at which point this looks like it will be my next purchase barring any disasters in the full review.
One thing occurred to me, that the whole app/widget side of things might change a lot in terms of how you would view the 920 (and other similarly ‘extendable’ devices) at various points in the future. Do you have plans for reviewing the more useful third party software further down the line, either as released of in a semi-regular round-up?
Thanks. Yup, I’ll probably do some sort of look at apps for the 920XT (and/or other supported Connect IQ devices) down the road. Perhaps upon launch of Connect IQ, and then perhaps every once in a while when something significant pops up, or as you suggested, if things are changing enough to cover them more regularly.
Great, I look forwards to seeing what people come up with!
Hi Ray,
Do you know which connectivity chipset resides within the 920?
That’s not been released.
Well, i will be the 7th person until now finding 920 ugly !
Can i have the features with the ambit 3 or v800 looks ?
Great preliminary review. You mentioned that VO2 has been added to the cycling mode. Did Garmin add the training Effect (TE) feature, available for the running mode, to cycling? I find this feature very helpful when I am on a trainer, to gauge objectively my overall effort.
Yes, TE is available for swimming (at least openwater it was), cycling, and running.
Thanks for your hard work.
Good to see that TE is available for swimming, cycling, and running.
How about other sports? If I create a hockey profile, will it contain TE?
If not, what happens if choose running, but later change it to ice hockey in Garmin Connect? Also, what happens to Running Dynamics if you change the sport in Garmin Connect?
I’ve been waiting for this post for a while now. I’m quite happy with my Fenix2 and Vivosmart combo but the 920xt could replace both. The added features are awesome but the color options are a huge letdown. Like others have mentioned above, the color schemes make the device look rather cheap.
Will sleep on it before I pull the trigger.
Good morning Ray…
Thank you for your comment regarding the Suunto Ambit 2s vs. 920 XT. Your objectivity and honesty is most appreciated. Now, go out an enjoy a quaint French caffe, coffee and a croissant. Cheers….
Excellent preview; thank you! Questions :)
1. What routes/courses does 920 exactly support? 910 supported both TCX (turn-by-turn) courses and GPX (breadcrumb) tracks. The Garmin product comparison tool shows 910 & 920 with identical “Maps & Memory” features (“Routes: 0; Waypoints/favorites/locations: 100”.)
2. Iff 920 does support Edge-style turn-by-turn TCX courses (a la 910), will the nav screen be customizable? The 910 course screen with four fields is practically useless for turn-by-turn, esp. when you really only care about two fields: intersection name w/turn direction and distance or time to turn. “Time to Point”, “Distance to End”, “Course Time” etc. are practically useless screen clutter.
3. Will 920 sync to desktops via ANT & Garmin ANT Agent? Or to iOS Wahoo Fitness via the ANT dongle?
4. Is the charging / USB sync cradle interchangeable with any other Garmin unit? The watch leads look almost identical to 620, but just slightly too far apart.
And finally:
5. If specific ANT+ devices already have built-in connectivity options for other Garmin wrist / bike units (e..g Tempe, Di2, …), what’s the point of requiring Connect IQ apps to pull in the data when the support should be a factory feature for a $450 device?
I’ll circle back tomorrow with more details on all the navigational questions (bundling them up and testing them all, and will add in some more screenshots there on a final unit).
As for a few other questions…
#3: No ANT Agent sync anymore (nor ANTfs transfers). But on iOS/Android you can use the native app, and that syncs to Garmin Connect which in turn sync’s to many major services now (more tomorrow too).
#4: No, it’s different.
#5: I have no idea. I agree, I think it’s silly that the FR920XT doesn’t have Tempe support. For Di2, I suspect we’ll see it added. I suspect they’re sorting out some of the UI display issues for gearing before adding it all in (versus adding in recording support now and causing consumer confusion on the split).
Thank you!
Re: Tempe: Weird that the new multisport Garmin Connect shows temperatures against the 920XT device data. Must have been a cold day at HalfMax Innsbrook.
Is that weather station temps or from the device? A recorded bike ride on my edge 810 which does record temp built in has a graph of the temp during the ride but this 920 activity is showing no graph of the temp
That weather data would be from a station, there’s no temperature data showing on GC in my multisport activity.
Re 5: I am more than curious whether Garmin people change their minds and finally add the Tempe as a pairable sensor. It would be so easy to increase the level of the difference between 910XT and 920XT. I guess not all the people are bought by the features they added.
Anyway the daily watch function is a big hit, even if it has nothing to do with exercising or competing. The same would be for temperature. Not an item in sporting, but people are got used to know the temp data.
Does it have ability for temperature? In swim mode and/or air?
No, neither.
Would love to measure water temperature. Presumably not a standard feature but maybe via ConnectIQ in the future? But ANT+ can’t transmit through water, right? Hmmm…
Probably not even with ConnectIQ, unless you had the Tempe right next to the watch somehow on your wrist.
Ultratrac mode still seems no good for ultrarunning. Any race over 24 hr worth doing will be on trail and will require frequent GPS measurements due to the winding nature of such trail. The only solution would be some sort of charging en route and looks like it’s not practical with that watch.
I have charged my 8 yr old bike garmin via mini usb at around 18 hours for a 30+ hr race and i get detailed GPS and it allows charging while running. Just pick up a battery powered charging unit and carry it for a 5 or 10 mile interval between aid stations.
I’d guess that the vast majority of Ultra’s are under 24 hours. And, I’d guess that the vast majority of Ultra’s that are over 24 hours have participants going at rates slow enough that having some sort of variable recording rate (it’s more than once per minute) is probably less of an issue than it might appear.
I wonder how well the ultratrac would work with navigation.
I’d guess the number of people doing ultras longer then 24 hours and going fast enough on twisty trails that ultratrac isn’t good enough is not enough people to design a watch for…. (though it does seem strange it can’t work while charging)
wait. did i miss that comment. the 920xt cannot be charged while in use? the Fenix2 can, and I thought I read the 910xt can as well. perhaps my search through the comments didnt work. 920xt cannot be charged while in use? really. BTW I think the bast majority of Ultra’s ARE over 24hr. Except for elites. The cutoff for most 100 milers is often in the 30hour time range.
Correct, it cannot at this time be charged while in an activity.
So i guess its a software issue then? I hope they fix that because that may put me off, unless the ultratrac is really really good, i don’t like the idea of even less accuracy. Personally i run as much as possible in an ultra & then mix in walking its not a constant slow pace. I guess the ultratrac will dynamically change with your pace.? Really looking forward to the proper review as we don’t really know how well this new glonass & ultratrac will work in terms of accuracy.
:-(
that’s strange…
the navigation mode don’t work with the Fenix 2 in UltraTrac mode
Great review. I’m sorry if a similar question was already asked in the comments. I skimmed through them quickly and did a search for Edge 500 and didn’t see anything.
I have a couple of questions about the Edge 500 from a cyclist considering turning triathlete…
I also have the soft strap premium HRM and am wondering if a) This HRM is waterproof and safe to swim with and b) if this HRM is compatible with the 920xt or if I’ll need to buy the bundle?
A) Yes
B) Yes, though you won’t get Ground Contact Time and Vertical Oscillation (from Running Dynamics) with an older non-HRM-RUN strap.
I am next to say it’s ugly :-P but I got used to 310XT (that I think was much worse in looks).
And this one simply has everything! Also the fact that it was designed by “sport” team of Garmin, makes it a big promise to really perform. Probably I’ll get one early 2015…
@Ray: please quickly pair with some retailer in Europe as I would love both: get some 10% and support You :-D
I think it’s pretty ha
Does Clever Training charge when it ships or when you buy it? I know it will authorize at the moment but was wondering whether it’s just the preauthorization that falls off or whether they put the charge through right away. Thanks!
They currently charge at time of purchase. Thanks for the support!
Thanks, still in! I’m done with the Polar V800 (which I think overestimates distance, RunKeeper had 3.02, Polar had 3.32, and MapMyRun had 3.2. And I’ve done routes and it will give me different distances each time. And I think the treadmill is way off.
I have a 910XT so I have all bike/foot pod sensors and the new run strap looks interesting and the Polar Flow websites … blows. And September come and gone and no promised export.
Now I have a $500 doorstop that I’m ok having because I hate it that much and I need a GPS watch. Off to eBay to get something back for it.
PS Do you think it will sell out? I.e. difference in buying now vs. later? That special rate of $5.XX to join will apply then also? Thanks!
Yes, the VIP membership will apply for this specific product for a considerable time period (basically until the next the FR930XT), so no difference there.
As for selling out, yes, I don’t expect Garmin to be able to stock enough units until at probably at least Thanksgiving (US), based on the weekly production numbers currently planned. They could change those numbers, but they’re somewhat purposefully starting low in case there are any unforeseen issues in the first few weeks of batches.
Data export for Polar Flow has been announced on September 25th.
link to updates.polar.com
Yeah just tried it and my V800 has automatic laps at every mile ran and I just exported/imported… and the activity just has one lap, the whole activity. Really?
this thing is ugly as sh1t..
Do they even employ industrial designers at Garmin? There are no words to describe how ugly this watch is.
They launched a microsite http://forerunner920.garmin.com
Thanks Ray. I’ll wait for a month or two for all the production kinks to clear out and to also to read your full review on it. I’m also disappointed about the lack of BTLE support for HRMs, pods, etc. I was really hoping for it since I purchased the Dash and the runScribe. Fortunately, runScribe will have the Ant+ support.
Do you think it is ugly? Or you disagree? Let Garmin know your opinion in their official forum here link to forums.garmin.com
Meh, I think it’s pretty. And blue’s my favorite color.
Hi Ray – does it support the full list of Vector data (ie efficiency data and the new metrics)? thanks
Thanks for this nice overview Ray. Definitely looking forward to the full review. If there’s no major issues that come up I am pretty sure this one will find its way onto my wrist :P
From the viewpoint of a runner only, it would seem the only reasons I would consider moving from the 620 to this are: more vibrant screen, longer battery life, knowing who is calling or emailing while on a long run versus having to take my phone out of my waist pack. Anything else I didn’t pick up on from your detailed comparison chart? My first watch years ago was the 305. I do miss the rectangular screen a bit.
Metronome for running cadence, support for connect iq (620 may support it and guessing it will but they hadn’t said anything and not sure how an app written for a rectangle screen with buttons for navigation 920 will work on a round screen with a touch screen for navigation 620), better gps (newer chipset and support for glonnas), breadcrumb map and limited route support (sure, no street map but better then not knowing where you’re going at all), no touch screen (I know the touch screen on my 610 gets annoying)
Any ideas if there will be a UK exclusive supplier for the first batch – like they did with the 620 and sweatshop.com?
Simply an amazing first look and responses to comments (as always). Where do you find the time?! I’ve read all the posts and am left with a question. I suspect I’ll need to wait for the full review…
Turn by turn direction alerts: yup or nope?
If yes, I’ll sell my Garmin 800 and 620 for an all-in-one since it’s all covered…
Thoughts?
You’re the best.
Nope, not like the Edge 800. Though, I want to validate some pieces if you can pass through some basics in the TCX file – I’ve gotta validate that as some of the navigation pieces I only had limited time with.
So can work like an edge 500/510 with courses from ride with gps?
At this time it doesn’t appear to consume a TCX file. Haven’t yet tried a GPX file.
Doing a “strings GPSChipsetTypeM5_FitnessRegionFile__250.rgn | less” in linux and going a bit above the end of that output it shows:
MT3333
Software Version
2.50
Chipset should then be:
link to mediatek.com
Doing the same against the last fw for the fr620 shows:
MT3339
Software Version
3.10
An older chipset without GLONASS
Looks like the chipset in the 920 doors support waas link to google.com.pdf&cd=3&ved=0CCIQFjAC&usg=AFQjCNFyIk0-cWxpmXFK8953n-0UsLzDGw&sig2=Dk-tU-5Bg5EVxrH3PDOQbA
It seems that 2.50 is the latest 920XT firmware, not a GPS software.. see link to gawisp.com
so we can’t be sure which chipset is in it..
On the other hand M5 is probably only fitness chipset that supports GLONASS.. so I hope you are right..
That is not the watch firmware, it is an updatefile for the Display with version of 2.50 We find the GPS firmware files in gawisp directory:
link to gawisp.com
Since the M5 is the only GPS fw of recent date (15-Sep-2014) logic dictates that it belongs to the FR920XT. My FR620 uses the M426 file.
You can find which FR920XT files have been updated recently by using:
link to gmaptool.eu
Or filter for the forerunners:
link to gmaptool.eu
Doing so I’ve come to the conclusion that the FR920XT presently is at file versions:
Watch: 2.30
TZM: 14.0
GPS: 2.50
Display: 2.10
Ant: 2.50
Wifi: 2.20
Language: 2.10
That is not the watch firmware, it is an updatefile for the Display with version of 2.50 We find the GPS firmware files in gawisp directory:
link to gawisp.com
Since the M5 is the only GPS fw of recent date (15-Sep-2014) logic dictates that it belongs to the FR920XT. My FR620 uses the M426 file.
You can find which FR920XT files have been updated recently by using:
link to gmaptool.eu
Or filter for the forerunners:
link to gmaptool.eu
Doing so I’ve come to the conclusion that the FR920XT presently is at file versions:
Watch: 2.30
TZM: 14.0
GPS: 2.50
Display: 2.10
Ant: 2.50
Wifi: 2.20
Language: 2.10
/Regards
“updatefile for the Display” should read “updatefile for ANT” naturally. Too much info on screen, got confused. Sorry about the double post btw.
Thanks for the review
Some people claim the Mio HRM works in the water with the 910xt if worn on the same wrist.
But the 910 does not allow to pair a HRM in swim mode.
Does the 920 ?
Any comments on the useability of the Mio in the water
thanks again
Yes, the FR920XT permits this in openwater swim mode at this time. Not in indoor mode.
Great preview, the 920xt definitely has some exciting features. I’ve two quick questions:
1) will there be customizable modes, so rather than select outdoor cycling, I could select customizable mode 1 which would record cycling and then have a transition and switch to running without having to start a new session?
2) any talk of enabling heart rate in swimming mode. It’s the 1 thing I find disappointing here but if I could use a Mio or Ant+ memory belt (not sure if one exists) then I think I’d go with 920xt. Perhaps this would be an app option down the road?
1) Yes, fully customizable in that sense. You can have customizable single-activity modes, as well as customizable multisport activity modes made up of single sports.
2) It (HR) works in openwater mode, not in pool, for those with the Mio Link. An ANT+ memory belt doesn’t exist at this time.
Ray,
Your blog and reviews are definitely high value for me.
Do you think the V800 or the 920XT will ultimately enable the Mio Link to transmit heart rate to it while swimming in the pool? (I currently do that for the Mio Link to the Polar Flow; but realize that there might be a technical issue for the 920XT since it requires ANT+ while Polar could do it via software.)
Since your original first look at the V800, I thought when Polar finally came out with indoor swimming, then I could get one and consolidate my current setup of 910XT, Polar Loop, and Mio Link down to the V800 and the Mio Link. Now with the 920XT out, I wonder if I should just abandon the idea of capturing heart rate in the pool and just keep using the Mio Link with running and biking with a future 920XT.
Thanks.
Every new model bring new user experience. I mean menu style, button placement and button functions. After 910, getting used to Fenix2 was hard. And now it seems again everything changed in 920. Interesting desicions…
It’s interesting, on the FR910XT the buttons are actually basically the same. The Fenix2 is a shift from the FR series. Though, the Fenix2 is actually a significant shift from the Fenix1, specifically to align to more of the forerunner button layout and function set for people coming from that world. Sorta a middle ground.
Ray,
a general question: Is there a good way to share a device such av the 920xt between
two persons and have them separated, like switch fast between two profiles?
(You know like when you and your better half wants to use the same gadget.)
Any other watch that takes this into account?
Ray answered this earlier and said no it’s not possible on this watch or any GPS watch, simply because they make more money by not having that.
Now if you didn’t mind only manually uploading files to different Strava accounts and just wanted different data fields to appear for each of you while you are running, you could just create two different activity profiles.
Ok, didn’t see that, thanks for pointing it out.
At least then I know I can stop looking for that feature at the moment.
The way to do this is to have Garmin Express installed on 2 different computers: on the one machine configure Express to upload to your account, and on the other machine configure it to upload to your better halfs account.
Hi Ray,
Very good review about an very waited device!
I had the the Forerunner 305 and switch it for the 910xt few years ago. This spring, I’ve try the Fenix 2 who seems to not work good for me and have remplace it for the Polar V800 (my wife like the 910 right now). Yesterday, I’ve made myself an DCRainmaker VIP on CleverTraining and now waiting for the brand new 920Xt to arrived ;-))) My V800 will be on sale in few weeks. Not that it does’t work well, but the fact that it always a pain to get connected the other device, the poor website to analyse the data, the lack of phone notification and all other inbox feature that the V800 doesn’t have right now make me return to the more than userfriendly Garmin ecosystem.
So thx a lot Ray, keep the good work!
Steph
Thanks for the support Steph!
Wouhou! Exciting news, thanks for the great article!
Nice preview Ray, as always!
I love everything it does and hope that Suunto is paying attention and puts some of these things in my Ambit3 on updates(although I guess that would require me to actually get MC to work on my hub’s computer! (Argh….another day & another story!)
If it wasn’t so ugly, I’d actually contemplate returning my Ambit3. But between the v800, Apple Watch, the Moactive, Nike, and now 920XT, maybe the current style is square for watches?!?! I guess I am more traditional, I sortof wish my Ambit had the choice of an analog looking dial choice for main time screen, I’d dig that!
Hey Ray, could you keep an eye for this in your testing??
About my only beef with the 910XT is that it vibrates when it looses satellites. When I’m doing a long open water swim, I set the watch to vibrate every 20 minutes, so I can’t get a sense of where I am and how much farther I have to go. Extraneous vibrations mess up that plan.
Does the 920XT vibrate when losing satellites and/or can that function be turned off?
Thanks!
I’ll keep an eye out as I often run through a few longer tunnels that are closed to traffic on weekends. That said, I suspect it would, simply because it’s considered ‘an alert’. As such, you’d have to turn off alerts altogether (not what you want).
That would actually be a very nice software update – adding in the ability to pick which alerts get vibrations, which get tones, which get nothing, etc. For example, when I swim, I have arts set for both every 60 seconds and for every 250 yards – the first so I have some idea what pace I’m carrying; the second just to track my overall distance. It would be really nice to be able to set one to a tone and the other to vibrate, or to have one alert vibrate for a longer time than the other.
Just suggesting in case the folks at Garmin are reading.
Love it, can’t wait for the full review.
We all know its in the pipeline. So its more of a matter of when. But in the posts some folks did a good job or trying to differentiate why the Fenix series or why the forerunner series. There is crossover between them. That said, I fit more into the Fenix series. But love LOVE some of the new features on the 920xt. metronome, activity monitor, the ultratrac with ant+. Heck any Ultrarunner would LOVE that. Currently we just need to carry USB batteries to rechard Fenix during ultras. I would expect a F3 to have some of these new 920xt features. Can you give your guess about if F2 will get some updated (metronome?) via firmware? Would you think the F3 is in 2015? While I’m ok with GPS receiption… would welcome improvements.
I suspect we won’t see the Metronome come to the F2/F2Se, but perhaps I’ll be wrong. That team appears to enjoy adding features frequently…simply because they can.
Hey great news on the new Garmin,
Some doubts?
Does the new tricker X work with the Garmin?
Can you connect ant+ sensors and at the same time conect Bt to phone?
Pool sizes you can set smaller sizes tha the fenix2?
Is it wearable as a watch, like the fenix2
1) TICKR X: As noted, no, it won’t send Running Dynamic type metrics
2) Yes
3) Virtually the same (1y different to 17y instead of 18y)
4) Yes, see full section on that here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Any word on how much storage this may have?… The FR620 seems to have so little space that I have to remove all the previous activities every time there is a firmware update. At least with the 910xt I was able to keep a history (though usually too corupt to actually delete).
Also has the issues with the BT connectivity to the phone been addressed or resolved?… Again refering to my FR620 having significant BT connectivity issues since the firmware update supporting cycling. Live Tracking is pretty much worthless to me since that update, and the auto sync rarely works anymore. To me, I’m not sure if this is an App issue on the Android side since that update or a watch issue. But I’m guessing similar hardware and firmware will be on the 920xt.
Another question would be support for the Tempe sensor?… Looks like that’s still missing from all but the Fenix?
And to continue the semi related questions, how about the VO2Max (cycling especially) and Rest calculations. Do they yet take into account training done on other devices synced on Connect (such as an Edge)?… I know you mentioned that it does not take into account steps. Which is sad, since I don’t usually log long hikes but currently carry a Fitbit to keep semi tabs on those (long as in 5mi-20mi+).
Another question probably related to the need for 3rd party development via the Connect IQ (I’m already reading the SDK and trying to figure out how to write in Monkey C and get the simulator running)… How about support for other Wifi enabled scales to update the users profile?… I haven’t seen anything in the SDK saying this would really be possible other than maybe an app writing a profile related FIT file and forcing it to sync. But I haven’t seen any of my devices pull that info down and update from the Connect site when I update it manually. This might not be totally related to the hardcore triathelete… But the 920xt seems to also consolidate the Vodofite and the FR620… So weight loss and activity tracking should be considered.
Oh… And great review… I look forward to finding a unit to get my hands on it and see how it compairs.
1) The unit has 10MB of space, of which 8.6MB is free. My 1hr 7min multisport activity took 124KB, including HRM-RUN data, and power meter/cadence data. So roughly speaking it’s about 80ish hours of recording time in a worst case scenario.
2) No support for Tempe
3) VO2Max does not take into account other devices that you use unfortunately. It has to re-learn.
4) The SDK does support writing to the .FIT file, it’s unclear (to me) to what extent that will be though beyond data fields and some custom data.
Is 642 comments within 24 hours a new DCRainmaker record?
For non-giveaways, I believe so. Total posts to a particular product page is almost 3,000, for the Fenix2. I don’t quite think (and hope not) we’ll get their on this preview post. I’ve been trying to continually add in questions’ answers into the post above over the last 24 hours.
Aww, no change history section :-(
How have you been able to get any sleep (or do anything else for that matter) with the number of posts you have replied to in the last 24 hours? Do you have a secret lab full of minions doing research and posting replies for you?
I got a few hours last night.
No minions unfortunately.
If no minions, at least some cupcakes I hope. It can be your new slogan: “DCRainmaker: Fueled by Cupcakes”!
True, though, tonight it’s fueled by a fancy Nutella multi-layer cake that was supposed to go out today…but someone put the wrong date on the form, thus, made a few days too early. My stomach wins I suppose (though, not my running times).
Hmm, “someone” put the wrong date on the form, just when potentially the biggest preview of the year is going up on the site. I smell a conspiracy. A yummy, Nutella fueled conspiracy that no one could be blamed for participating in, but a conspiracy nonetheless!
Less then 2000 posts to go to beat the comment count on the fenix2 review ;)
Does the barometric altimeter calibrate with GPS like the Fenix2? Thanks.
Hi
I have read your really great reviews of both the 920xt and Ambit 3 with interest. I am after an enhanced replacement for an old Suunto watch, and have narrowed my search to these 2 units. I want something that records running, cycling, indoor gym/treadmill, but also allows me to create activities ( 5 a side football and squash mainly), and also allows me to record daily activity tracking (dog walking and hiking) for routes, distance calories burned, etc.
Can you advise me if both these units cover these requirements adequately, and which one may be most appropriate to my needs? Many thanks.
Hi,
I’m interesting in this question too. Could anybody help?
You can create custom activities, which you can assign custom icons (such as a hiking boot or a snoboard, or paddle), and then assign either default names (i.e. Skiing), or make up your own custom name (i.e. Cow Tipping).
Those custom activities can then have their own data pages/attributes.
do you know the maximum pool length the unit can handle? The 910XT had a 100m limit and I have a 137m pool nearby, so all of the swim metrics are always out-of-whack whenever I swim there…
150y/m, per the product comparison charts above.
kits pool?
Hi Ray, does the 920 allow it to be recognized as a USB drive by MacOS, Windows, or Linux, like the old 110/210 series? Can the .FIT files be dragged and dropped from the watch once it is connected to the computer? Thanks!
Yes, just like those.
Hello! I have a question not about Garmin. It is about trainingpeaks.com. Can you help me to describe info about my rTSS and IF? I have read help pages on trainingpeaks but don’t understand it practically. May be you know good resource about it?
Thank you!
I actually found all of the information on the TP help files. But here’s the “30 second summary”.
To use rTSS, you have to configure a “Threshold Pace” in TP. A good approximation of this is you 10K pace. (for faster runners, it should be slower).
For each run, TP calculates a number called NGP (which is you Normalized Graded Pace). This corresponds to the speed you would have run on flat ground for the same effort.
IF = NGP / Threshold Pace (where both numbers are actually calculated in m/s, not time/mi)
rTSS approximately IF * IF * TIME (in hours) * 100. I say approximately because it is calculated over small discrete pieces, so your final complete workout numbers will not exactly match. But this is close.
So if you Threshold Pace is 5:00/km and you run for 45 minutes with an NGP of 6:00/km, your IF would be 0.833 and your rTSS would be 52.
Thank you very much!
It suprises me they don’t have a build in heart rate monitor! You see it with other brands…. What does Garmin say about that?? Would be great!!
Some of the functionality of the watch (recovery info, vo2 max, etc) depends on r-r intervals from the heart rate strap. Currently no optical heart rate sensor gives that info so they would have to cut those feature to do optical heart rate
Hi,
Great review. Thanks.
Am I right that the only ANT+/BTLE bridge options are the Viiiva HRM (running and cycling) and the Wahoo RFLKT+ (cycling)? Or do I miss a device?
If so are there any other device to expect in the near future?
I’m now using a 910XT, a Viiiva HRM and a iPhone5 (iCardio) with BT headphones for running and an 910XT, Viiiva HRM, iBike Newton PowerStroke, iBike ANT+ speed and cadence unit for cycling.
Having no ANT+/BTLE bridge would mean that I can’t use a Garmin HRM-RUN (with the extra info) without skipping iCardio HR on my headphones.
Having no HR info on my headphones isn’t the biggest issue but as I would like to combine everything to the max ;-), it would be nice to have a real bridging unit ;-).
Cheer,
Twan
For the Viiiiva unit, keep in mind it’s ANT+ to BLE, not BLE to ANT+. Wahoo has said they’re looking to put something out there, likely using the TICKR. Further, Mio is working on their Fuse (and I’ve been testing it on and off). Alternatively, you also have the 4iiii pods coming out sometime this fall, which are optical and still have the bridge functionality.
I do agree, you’re in a bit of a pickle if you really want Vertical Oscillation and Ground Contact Time. Though, I’d argue the glamour of those metrics wears off fairly quickly.
Hi, great “non review” post!
I’ve just looked on the garmin shop sites (US and UK) and in the US it’s $450 and in the UK £390! I know we always pay higher prices in the UK but that is jaw droppingly bad.
Shame as it is a nice size for those of us without massive wrists!
As a Brit also its worth noting that your not comparing like with like.
I spend a fair amount of time in the US & Canada and once you factor in the actual costs the UK price isn’t that bad.
$450* is about £285. Add on (from memory) 5.5% import duty which takes it to £300. Now add on 20% VAT for a grand total of £360. So Garmin are charging about £30 to cover it’s UK costs of distribution, advertising and support (free phone number) etc. Which you have to admit isn’t bad! if your still feeling envious of the American price just think….. “Free Health Care!” Sorry Ray ;)
* worth bearing in mind that most (but not all) will need to pay US Sales Tax on this price which is going to add around $30 to $50.
Hi, I’m aware of the taxes and duty angle (accountancy does have some benefits), it’s just disappointing that the margin seems smaller than other products that make it across the pond.
Mind you, triathletes get a 25% discount on garmin :-)
Wow what a terrible echo!
Garmin isn’t at fault here IMHO…. the blame lies with HMRC. Theres an election in the Spring, vote for a low Tax party?
Actually I’m glad they didn’t do anything with an optical heart rate monitor on the device itself. I always wear a sweatband underneath my Garmin for comfort. Have done so for years.
Hey!
Im curious about the altimeter and gps positioning.
Is it possible at any given time, to view your current height? Without having to make a waypoint?
Can you at anytime view your current location in UTM coordinates? And vice-versa at any time plot multiple waypoints and having the device lead you to them? Possible with and/or without computer?
Thanks for a great review, looking forward to the in detph.
Does anybody the answers to my questions above?
You can see your current altitude simply by configuring one of data fields to show this, so no need for waypoint.
As for coordinates – I ‘m not really sure, could be also data field available for that…
You can define multiple waypoints (on device and/or computer) and plot route using these waypoints. This is functionality of forerunners since 305. Mind that creating waypoints on device ( I mean entering coordinates, not just ‘marking’ waypoint) is very time consuming! 100x better to do it on PC.
There is a “Where Am I?” screen which will tell your current position,
Can’t see a setting for coordinates however so it is just in lon/lat.
You can save a single waypoint and navigate to that.
you can’t do a “Route” made up of multiple waypoints although there is the courses feature to follow a previous activity etc.
When you go into the Navigation Menu, there’s an option for ‘Where I am’, which shows you current coordinates and current elevation.
Funny, looks like just about everything technical-wise outstanding has now been answered.
There are a few outstanding ‘which watch’ questions, but I’ll largely leave those until I have more hands-on time with the unit.
And finally, for the 159 of you receiving e-mail subscriptions to this post…you’re getting your money’s worth.
(And thanks Tim for answering questions!)
This was my first time subscribing to replies…. maybe the last!
its nuts you do this. :)
As one of those 159, I can safely say my phone has been exploding since this post was published on Wednesday…
Which sports can you choose for a custom activity? Is it just running, cycling and swimming or is it similar to the Fenix with a wide range? I would love to be able to create custom activities for e.g. hiking, football, XC skiing, weight lifting etc. This also makes it much easier when you upload activities as you don’t have to change it manually, especially as it often syncs to other connected sites before you even have time to change it.
I really liked that you could manually edit the activities with a text editor on the Fenix1 as I could just change the integer to whichever sport I wanted. I don’t know why Garmin doesn’t just make it possible to select every sport they have on Connect. Would make it so much simpler. It seems so easy to add as well.
You can setup a custom activity profile and name whatever you care to.
There also some pre-installed “Other” ones with representative icons. I can see, for instance, “Strength, “Cardio”, “Paddle”, “Ski”.
Not sure if it correlates these “other” ones with Garmin Connect activity types however.
I do hope I don’t get next to someone in a marathon who is using that metronome feature. I can just here it now…. little beeps going off all over the place.
That was my first thought too! But in looking at the sparse info on Garmin website, it sounds like the metronome is both audible and vibration, so you can probably go with just vibrate like the alerts on the 910xt.
Of course that doesn’t mean the annoying people will do that, otherwise they wouldn’t be annoying.
The idea of something vibrating once per step sounds like a battery killer.
What about hrv- rr ?????
It must record this “internally” as the Firstbeat algorithms rely on it.
In the past with other devices you could install a file provided by Firstbeat to have this stuff stored in the FIT for use with their own software. I kind of assume a similar arrangement will exist at some time but no definite info on that.
Do you know when the release date is and will the 920Xt be released with the same accessories as the 910Xt ie. quick release kit
Check out the Wrap-Up section, where I talk about the release dates waves/times. And yes, same basic accessories as the FR910XT.
I know it is a lot to do when you do one of these reviews but If you could add a part just like you did with the Fenix 2 “Wich Watch” it would be great.
Also a comment if it is worth it to change from a Fenix 2 to the 920 XT.
Thank you for the great work you do. Will continue to support you thru amazon and CT as much as possible.
Yup, I plan to as part of the final in-depth review. Though, I’ll also be publishing an updated ‘2014 Winter Sports Tech Recommendations’ post probably about a week later.
VIRB support. I would run with fr920 and virb (w/o gps), take photos. Back home I’ll have gpegs with GPS data included (taken from FR). Right?
Yup, correct.
Thanks for such a great review and beautiful photos!
Sergey from Moscow.
Is the wrist band the same as for the 620, so you can buy the extra colors released for the 620 on this one?
Yep, my question too. Would be nice to tone down the black and blue wrist band with something more subtle.
No the 920 is a wider device so needs a wider strap.
Just ordered mine from Clevertraining.com with my VIP code! Excited to get this. I’ve seen a few questions around this but haven’t seen it specifically addressed (though I’m assuming it will be addressed in the in-depth review).
Just curious as to the GPS function while cycling? I know it will obviously record my route but what else will it do? Some have asked about the bread crumb trail. Turn by turn is probably not included. I guess the better question would be – what Edge unit does the 920’s cycling functionality most closely match up to?
Yes. It is displayed on the Garmin homepage.
Question,
Can you have 4 fields at a time on one screen for Running mode?
Yes. It is displayed on the Garmin homepage.
Great review Ray! I do have a question however not related to the 920xt. Where did you get the example triathlon screenshot (Half Iron June 28 2014) used at the top of the Garmin Connect Changes section? I competed in the Olympic distance race that day. Did you compete in the race or find the screenshot somewhere? Needless to say I was surprised to see it.
“Multisport by Garmin” kinda gives it away.
link to garmin.blogs.com
I didn’t see Tempe support listed, but I guess that would be pretty easy to add that via the apps.
Not directly but yeah maybe via the apps in due course.
unlike the 910 does it support all Vector data ??
Yes, it does.
Thanks for the great review.
The garmin 920 isexactly waht I wanted and am very tempted to replace my fenix 2 (especialy due to better accuracy expected with gps+glonass)
BUT WHY IS THE DESIGN SO UGLY (colorish and childish) – how can it be used as a day to day watch as it should be (major upgraded functionality over the 910xt).
I guess i’ll waitfor a different desgin or at least a different color scheme.
As I said further down, my personal view is that it looks a lot better in the flesh and on your arm.
Of course beauty (or otherwise) is in the eye of the beholder.
And of course when I go running/cycling my “other” kit isn’t always like it came out of a 1950s black and white film…
Great review as always mate!
Tossing up between the 920xt or v800? Based on your experiences with both devices. What’s your recommendations?
I don’t use Garmin Connect to create Routes. Is there a way to send Routes over Wifi to the watch from other sites?
Can the 920 show the Elevation like a Graph e.g. link to dcrainmaker.com
There is an elevation view page for courses yes.
As the 920 is a USB device, you can manually place a course “FIT” file in the NewFiles directory and it will find its way to the courses section.
Being a Polar fan for many years and only recently getting a Forerunner XT310 I think we are safe to say that with the 920XT Garmin just gave Polar some serious work to do to catch up!! Well done Garmin!!
Hi Ray,
Currently I use the Fenix 2 and before that the 910XT.
As a triathlete I use seperate heartrate zones voor cycling and running.
One flaw of the Fenix 2 relative to the 910XT is that you can’t set up these different heart rate zones.
Do you know if the 920XT has the option to set up different heart rate zones for cycling and running ??
Thanks !!
Remco
There are separate zones for running and cycling.
920xt and new garmin connect activity display are awesome!
This will probably make me go back to Garmin and ditch Suunto…
Ray,
Does the watch keep recording an activity while charging like the 910?
use case: ultra long distance runs and a slow runner (crawler seems more appropriate at some times :)), can I keep the activity running while reloading the watch at aid stations for example?
regards and keep up the good work
hans
No you can’t am afraid.
If you put on the charger while the timer is going it will stop the timer and save it.
However thebattery lasts for up to 24 hours and if you want to go longer than that there is an “Ultratrac” mode which saves battery by reducing GPS sampling considerably.
Cant’s charge while in use? that’s a step backwards. Its not like it even uncommon USB capability either. Very strange. The Fenix2 has different USB modes. Does the 920xt have different USB modes, perhaps a different one will allow charging while in use. Thats a real head scratcher. I guess 920xt is off my list. Ultratrac just doesnt cut it unless you can pull gps in the 5-10s range.
FR15/220/620 all like this so in that respect it is at least consistent.
How long are you wanting to be out for? More than 24 hours?
If I was out that long I would almost certainly want to be out with 2 devices anyway so maybe that is an option for you.
Anyway is there a current wrist mounted GPS watch that has more than 24 hours battery?
uh ? the fenix 2 is still recording while in charge, i’ve made a test at home
Do you own the 920XT ? Would you mind do this test ?
It does not. Once you plug a charging pack in, it ends the activity and goes into charging mode.
it this on Your list to ask why?
It does seem a bit strange… 24hrs battery is nice for ultra runners, but if that’s it (no charging beyond that possible) it could be deal breaker for this crowd :-/
This watch have my attention and DC Rainmaker, I truly hope you’ll be able to answer them for me as I don’t know of any other way to get the answers to these questions.
1. Can the FR920XT output a GPX file? Will the GPX file’s name be in the YYYYMMDD format?
2. Can I also set the watch to “Auto Archive Daily” for the tracks?
3. Garmin’s handheld unit have the ability to set the recording method to “Auto” and recording interval to “Most Often”. Does the FR920XT have this option available as well?
4. In the table above, you stated that the FR920XT’s recording interval is 1 second or smart. What does smart mean?
Thanks for the help in advance!
1. Not directly but you can export from Garmin Connect as GPX
2. Not quite sure what you mean? Once an activity is done, it will upload via WiFi or Bluetooth if in range/configured. The 920 is a USB device so has a finite “hard disk”. At some point older activities will need to be deleted. I think this happens automatically but not had enough on there to “fill it up” yet!
3. Every second or “Smart”
4. It takes a point when it thinks it needs to – typically the GPS sampling rate is smart is probably around 5 secs. If you want to use your track in 3rd party software, every second is definitely best. Neither method will effect the “accuracy” of what the watch calculates as it gets a new GPS reading every second regardless. Smart was more important when devices had less “space” and download times were slower. I generally don’t really see a compelling reason to use Smart nowadays but it remains the default.
Tim,
1. What I meant is a track log. I’ve been told the Fenix 2 can output a GPX track log. Can the FR920XT do that?
2. This is related to track logs. Garmin’s handheld (i.e 62s) units have this option. I don’t know if the FR920XT have this option or not.
3. I know it can record every second. These two options for recording method and recording interval can be adjusted in Garmin’s handheld units. I don’t know if this exist for the FR920XT or not.
4. Thank you for explaining what “smart” means.
1) No, it outputs a .FIT file. On Garmin Connect, if you’d like, you can then export a .GPX file.
2) It does not have this option.
3) No, on Garmin’s Forerunner series (all of them), it’s always been either Smart Recording or 1-second recording. For the Fenix series (which comes from the outdoor team), you could do variable time recording.
Thanks for the response Ray!
1. What’s the difference between a FIT file and GPX file? Is there a reason why the FR920XT output a FIT instead of GPX? Why does Garmin use GPX for its other devices? Is it possible for you to upload a sample of a FIT file from the FR920XT for me to see?
2. Do I have to upload the FIT file to Garmin Connect in order to use it on my computer? Or can I connect the FR920XT to my computer via USB and copy+paste the FIT files to Windows Explorer?
3. Can the FIT track logs be set to archived daily?
4. How much internal storage does the watch have?
Thank you so much for the information!
1) The FIT file is far more compressed, can store more data types (power, speed, cadence, etc…). Garmin actually only uses GPX for it’s outdoor data types these days. Everything else converted to .FIT format about 5 years ago now.
2) There’s a lot of other applications in the sports world that support .FIT (all of them).
3) As noted above, there’s no concept of archival in Fitness devices, as there’s no reason for it. You save a file upon completion and it’s there. Those files automatically sync to Garmin Connect as well.
4) 10MB, which for .FIT files is about 80ish hours with full sensors (power/speed/cadence/HR/etc…).
Thanks again for the response Ray.
1. So from what I’m hearing from you, there’s actually no advantages to the GPX format. I’m assuming all of the GPS information (latitude, longitude, altitude, UTC time, and etc.) that would appear in a Garmin outdoor unit (GPX format) will also be outputted into a FIT file with the additional data types that you have specified. So if I were to convert the FIT file to GPX, then there should be no conversion issue right?
2. Can I connect the FR920XT to my computer via USB, enable mass storage, then copy and paste the FIT files into Windows Explorer?
3. Thanks for the clarificatoin. I now understand that there’s no concept of archival in a fitness device. What if I am doing multi-day running sessions and I forget to log on to Garmin Connect to upload the data? Will the FR920XT automatically create two different FIT files for the different dates and then name the FIT files base on the date? Or all of the data is lumped together?
4. For your upcoming review, will you test the FR920XT’s GPS accuracy against its competitors? Will you also make any recommendations on which accessories to pair up with the watch?
Thanks again for taking the time to help me better understand the features of this watch.
1) Correct, no technical advantages there at all. There are compatibility advantages though for some non-fitness apps that utilize GPX. And correct, no conversion issues.
2) Yes.
3) Yes, two different .FIT files. There are some apps to stitch them together afterwards. Check out my tools page here: link to dcrainmaker.com – and see the one called Fit File Tools.
4) Yes, I’m already doing that using 3+ watches on runs to see how they compare. I’ll be providing the raw files from those runs as well for those people that want to do their own analysis. And yup, I’ll cover accessories as well like usual. All of which will be in the in-depth review. Though, at the same time, until then I continue to sprinkle in tidbits here (such as the instant pace videos a few mins ago, and my files from two days ago). Finally, you can always check out my Strava profile. The FR920XT automatically sync’s there. The link is up in the upper right corner of the page.
1. The only “advantage” of GPX is that it is a text XML format – so if you open it in say Notepad you can actually read it. “FIT” is a binary file so you can’t. But by being binary it can actually store the data “exactly” and far more compactly.
2. Yes
3. It’s more like a stopwatch concept. Start the timer, do your run/bike/swim etc etc, stop the timer and press Save then the FIT file is created and will exist until it is deleted so you have to upload straight away. The next timer you press Start it goes into a new track.
4. Not for me to answer of course but it would be good. That said it is a tricky topic. AFAIK Ray has not related any major issues with GPS tracking for him on say the 620 but some users seem to get some bad ones and have even accused him of what is basically misrepresentation! Initial experience suggests the 920 is looking very promising in this area but no consumer GPS device will ever be perfect.
Thanks again for the information Ray. I do have some more questions to ask so please bear with me!
1. I’m ultimately looking for a watch that can do it all, but obviously that won’t happen. I originally had my eyes on the Fenix 2, but with the FR920XT coming out, I think the features that you listed in the article makes it tempting to go with that instead. I also want to use the watch to create a track log to geotag my photos. Ideally if I can have this one watch that I can use with my workouts and then also use it to create a track log for geotagging purposes, then that would be ideal and save me money from having to buy another accessory. I was originally concerned about FIT files as I had no understanding of what they are. It seems like it won’t be an issue since I can easily convert them to GPX files.
Tim Grose’s example seems to have got me confused a bit despite you telling me that the FR920XT will create FIT files by dates. What is the criteria that the FR920XT will use to create a new FIT once it’s the start of another day? For example, midnight in Paris is the start of a new day. Yet, that’s not the start of a new day in Boston. Will the watch be utilizing UTC time to determine when a new FIT file is created?
Or let’s put it like this. Base on Boston time, I’m out running at 11:00 PM on October 7th. I’m assuming a FIT file will be created for October 7th. 1 hour later, it becomes October 8th. Will the watch create a new FIT file once the clock hits midnight Boston time? Again, I don’t know what the standard is used to define the start and end of a day on the watch. I think my Garmin handheld units uses UTC time.
2. I’ve also went through the recommendations that you have made in the past for the smart weight scales. I know I probably shouldn’t go for an ANT+ scale. Which scale are you currently using and whether it connects with Garmin Connect? I have the Withings WS-30 and Fitbit Aria in mind. Since neither of these smart scales have ANT+ support, how will I be able to get that information into the FR920XT?
1) No, the FR920XT will create a new .FIT file based on each new activity. Single activity = Single file. An activity is defined as when you start and save the activity file. Even if it spans multiple days…still a single file.
2) I use both a FitBit Aria and a Withings WiFi scale. Neither have ANT+. You can search the Garmin Forums for how to use MyFitnessPal to get that data though into Garmin Connect nonetheless. It’s a post I have partially written, but not quite yet done.
Tim,
Thanks for the example. From what Ray is saying, there should be plenty of storage available since the FIT files are compressed in nature. Why would I have to upload the FIT files right away? I can understand if I accumulate hundreds of hours of data that eventually the oldest data will be deleted to make room for new data.
For sure that we’ll probably never achieve 100% perfection. However, the closer the better! I’m really hoping the FR920XT will be the most accurate watch ever made. With GLONASS support and pre-satellite caching, I really do hope it’ll make a difference in terms of acquisition speed and accuracy as well. It’s a shame that it doesn’t have WAAS support. Is there a reason why Garmin didn’t implement WAAS support into the watch?
Oh…now I get it. If I want to also use the FR920XT to create a track log to geotag my photos, do you have any idea on how to best use the watch for that purpose so that I won’t have to buy another unit that’s dedicated for outdoor activities?
Sorry, I forgot to ask. Since you have used both, do you now have a clear favourite? Which one seems to best meet your needs?
Thank you.
Sorry typo in my reply – you DON’T have to upload there and then.
Just start your watch when you leave your car to go take photos (hiking or whatever), and stop the recording when you’re done. When you get home after your trip download your un GPSed photos and the track from the Garmin, merge them using your normal workflow, and voila.
If you’re going on a multi-day trip you’re SOL 920 wise as the battery won’t last for multiple long hikes (without charging in the middle), but you can either charge it at night or get something (garmin handheld, as you suggest) with a slower recording interval and average the time between the GPS logs…
Ray,
Not quite related to this review (although I did check for availability) but I just got a gift from my employee for working so hard, any recommendations on appropriate cycling gadgetry based on all the recent reviews I should put it towards (its an Amazon voucher), I’ve got $450 or so budget? (I already have a 910XT Garmin but no cycle computer, camera etc.).
Thanks :-P
It would really depend what kind of device you’re looking for. Personally, if you had the FR910XT yourself, I’d just use that for swim/bike/run and get a nice camera if you’re into photography. But, if you want a cycling device, I’d look at the Edge 510/810. I think we’ll continue to see good updates there in new features, so those are you’re best bets.
Thanks Ray
I was actually looking at the 1000 but reading your review it pushed me more towards the 810 as it just doesn’t seem to justify the cost hike between the two units.
I’m pretty happy with the 910XT, its rock solid and despite being small (for cycling) easily applicable to all sports (though I struggle with it on intervals).
In terms of camera, I was thinking the Garmin Virb Elite.
Stuck between two options now:
a) Garmin Edge 810 (I dont need the HR edition as I guess I can use my existing 910XT HRM)
b) Garmin Virb Elite
I love how you can overlay your riding metrics into the video on your review of that but it is a bit big as a device.
Thanks once again for all your hard work in terms of reviews, it is much appreciated.
I’ve actually just started reading your blog from when it first began (well as far back as it goes) as I came here pretty late on, I like your old training posts!
I’d go with the VIRB Elite given those two, but only if you are actually interested in recording/playing back the videos.
Great thanks Ray, I’ve re-read your review and ordered myself one today!
I think having stroke metrics for OW swimming is good, but doesn’t that mean that position data will be way off due to choppy GPS reception under water? I think the perfect solution would be an external GPS sensor that could be placed in the swimcap for the swim, thus getting the best of both worlds (accurate GPS + stroke metrics). Any chance of seeing something like that in the future?
No chance unfortunately. There just isn’t a sustainable market for such a device for a company the size of Garmin.
Just to give a heads-up to the readers. In the FR620 review, Ray is saying: “Looking at GPS accuracy, I’ve seen good stuff with the FR620.”
All nice and dandy, only that the horrendous GPS accuracy of new Mediatek-chipped Garmins is widely reported and well documented, FR620 being the absolute worst of the bunch:
link to fellrnr.com
My own Fenix (that has the same chip as Fenix 2 and 620) is indeed plotting insane GPS tracks, taking me over buildings and having me running far off in the sea, thus straightening the curves and reducing tempo and distance by 10-15%. What can I say – I read DC Rainmaker’s review and bought into it :)
Come on, man. That’s not nice :(
As I’ve noted numerous times on my FR620 review in the comments, I don’t agree with his testing methodology for a lot of reasons (all outlined in the post comments). Also, unlike him, I do actually publish all my tracks for folks to dive into, so it’s not just blending together of the worst (or best) tracks. Further, almost every activity I do I publish to Strava, for folks that want to follow along.
If you’re seeing distance/accuracy issues with a unit (of any sort), I really encourage you to ring up support and get it swapped out.
Oh man do I see accuracy issues. For instance, see this one. I ran both ways on the very same path, so… Yeah.
link to strava.com
Of course I don’t have the experience you have – but I’ve also had many GPS watches, and Fenix and 620 are the worst, beyond any comparison.
I’ll send the watch in like you suggested. But I assume it comes back just the same, since the Garmin forums are also packed with accuracy complaints for the recent models. Let’s see.
People trust you. It puts a certain responsibility on you.
“People trust you. It puts a certain responsibility on you.”
Which is a core reason why I publish GPS tracks (something Fellrnr doesn’t do). Ultimately though, I can only publish what I actually see on my runs/rides. I can’t make things up to look worse than they are, and I don’t cherry pick the best and the worst. I’m just not seeing widespread accuracy issues, and I’m running in what is a pretty tough urban environment day after day. Not every track is perfect (one can see a small variance a bit on my run last night for a few hundred meters on the FR620), but, they’re all inline with what I’m seeing with any other device on the market.
Hmmm, I read all those comments in the 620 review, and with one exception they don’t seem to reflect the detail provided at link to fellrnr.com
I don’t see any biases, calculation errors or lack of statistical significance in the testing. The routes seem extremely varied in how he breaks down his route into many courses, without “blending” on the detailed stats page. Looking at each track map for each sample would not be reasonable for the number of samples he does, and does not add or detract from the statistical analyses, IMHO anyway. I haven’t found any GPS accuracy test for running watches available on the internet as rigorous as fellrnr’s.
I think “route” (singular) is the point!
If I did the same route every day i would undoubtedly know the exact distance to every tree, bump in the path etc etc.without the need for any device.
So statistically you could infer that all you can really say is device x works better for him over device y on that route in the way he himself runs and at his normal pace.
A “proper” study would engage hundreds of runners over lots of different courses and at differing paces.
You could conclude all GPS devices are rubbish and a foot pod is best. It probably is if you ran the same course every day at the same pace but we don’t…
But you are right such a study does not seem to have been done.
Mwahahaha :D
I sent the watch in, and it basically went missing. It hasn’t come back, it’s status is not updated on the Garmin RMA website, and support is not answering my e-mails :)
At least, the problem seems to be solved – i.e. no watch, no problem.
BTW Suunto’s support is much better in this regard. They use DHL and you get your fixed watch back in 5 days.
But you see my track, don’t you? Am I making it up? Crossing a 4-lane motorway 7 times in a zigag, just to make Garmin look bad?
Take a look at Garmin forums – there are tons of people who hold a grudge against Garmin for some reason, and complain about the accuracy of just the latest models. It is unclear why they don’t complain about earlier models such as 910 and 310. May be it’s against their religion or smth :)
A while ago, I also got the FR610 since you said in your review that the touchscreen is OK. Which it wasn’t, and this is also a common complaint amonst my friends and on Garmin forums. How on earth could you say it’s “OK”? It is impossible to use, at least in sub threshold zone :)
I do not trust you any more, and I just wanted to warn others that specifically in the case of Garmin, your representation is optimistic, to put delicately.
I don’t disagree that your track is off, but that’s not really the point. I can pick any GPS watch and find bad tracks, a mere look at any single Garmin sub-forum will find someone with a bad GPS track, even ones that people like FELLRNR say are perfect. How quickly people forget about their previous unit and the occasional bad track. Just like how in your case on Strava you’ve only published that single track. What about all your other runs?
The point isn’t “let’s see if we can find issues on other peoples tracks and then single them out”. Which, as a reminder, is the entire point of the Garmin Forums – just like any other company forum. People don’t go to the Garmin Forums when they’re happy, they go when they have issues. Just like the hospital. Thus, you’re only going to find people with problems there.
As for the FR610 touch screen, I can’t help you there. I’m perfectly happy with it, and used it for years up until the FR620. And my friends are also perfectly happy with it, and tons of people on the review are perfectly happy with it. People have different preferences on touch technology. The FR405/FR410, yes, I don’t very much like that touch bezel, as I’ve stated numerous times.
(And, this post is about the FR920XT, not the FR620/FR610, or Garmin Forums)
“People don’t go to the Garmin Forums when they’re happy, they go when they have issues. Just like the hospital.”
This. Times 1000x. When I got my Fenix2 and saw a couple really bad tracks, then reading Garmin’s forum, I was convinced everyone who had a Fenix2 had severe issues. After talking with several people in a local trail running group, I was flabbergasted that none had the issues I had. I ended having my watch replaced and it’s worked beautifully* ever since.
*Once in a while still, I’ll have a bad track and get all annoyed with the Fenix2… Only to look back on the same run from a year or two ago with a different watch and see my track was actually worse then.
I’ve owned Garmin Edge, 605, 705, 500, fenix, fenix2 and 910xt. I’ve never noticed any tracks outrageously out of wack. I’m pretty particular on post activity anylyzation too. Problems with original fenix crashing and water ingress to 910xt? Yes. But tracks have been ok in my book.
That being said, with GLONASS being available in the 920xt, perhaps that will appease people like Mart.
@Mart – whilst I understand your issues, as mentioned above far more people with issues go the forums to make their voices heard than those who are happy with their tech gear.
Ray’s processes (IMHO) and his integrity are beyond reproach, a formula that means folks like you and I come here to read his thoughts and support his work.
I (and countless others) trust and value his opinions, his transparency, and his selflessness and appreciate all his work.
Let’s be grateful for his dedication and willingness to do all this for those who would be otherwise lost.
Thx Ray for this great pre-view as usual, looking forward for the final.
great to see comments from all readers as well, including Mart’s one above.
glad that comments are not moderated , good to see view from other angles too.
I’ve to say that i did noticed here and there a huge burden on fenix2 accuracy as well, hence why was quite surprised how Ray could recommend it over its direct competitor (Ambit3) for multiday hike.
Actually i realize that there is No GPS accuracy comparison done by Ray (at least recently).
Would certainly be very interesting to have comparison “a la fellrnr” but with DC own protocol , of some recent GPS watchs , e.g. so FENIX2, FR620, FR920XT, AMBIT3S, AMBIT3, V800, M400.
@Mart
I’ve had the exact same bad GPS accuracy as you, FELLNER and countless others and it even happened on my 2nd Fenix2 replacement, so IT IS a real issue, however, the reality of it is that it’s probably more of a Garmin quality control issue and rest assured that if Ray had received a poor GPS unit, he would have revealed it just like he did with the Garmin Edge 100 review.
I’ve come to this Garmin quality conclusion based on my own experience after replacing 2 separate units, plus the fact that others including FELLNER also replaced their units multiple times and experienced the same bad GPS accuracy issues.
In my running team, they’re both people who don’t have GPS issues and others that do, and interestingly enough most of them haven’t bothered calling Garmin or looking through the forums cause it’s just too much of a hassle for them. So, it goes to tell you that both people with or without problems do not necessarily bother posting on forums.
In the end you cannot blame Ray if he happens to get a perfectly working unit, whereas some of us were just out of luck. Keep up the great work Ray!
@REM
“Actually i realize that there is No GPS accuracy comparison done by Ray (at least recently).
Would certainly be very interesting to have comparison “a la fellrnr” but with DC own protocol , of some recent GPS watchs , e.g. so FENIX2, FR620, FR920XT, AMBIT3S, AMBIT3, V800, M400.”
I, too wish that Ray performed that same GPS accuracy, as I’m looking to replace my Fenix2 due to too many bugs (Workouts, Multisport, GPS accuaracy, etc.) even on the latest V4.00!
Sadly, the 920XT is not an option due to the loud “blue” coloring and just simply not being an office-friendly watch. Right now, I’m trying to decide between Suunto Ambit 3 or the Polar V800 which I could definitely wear with a suit and not look unprofessional.
Ray, pls consider doing the long over due GPS accuracy comparison review as that is a huge concern for me and I’m sure countless others that are sick and tired of terrible GPS tracks that should not be happening on $400+ GPS watches!
This is my take on the issue:
1. There are a lot of complaints in the fenix2 and 620 forums about GPS tracks with lots of examples
2. There are almost no (I did a search) complaints in the 910xt forums about GPS accuracy. The few that exist are solved within 1 page unlike the 20+ page threads in the f2 and 620 forums
3. My personal experience of running a couple of months with the fenix2 and the 910xt at the same time. The 910xt was better and more consistent, but the fenix2 was good enough.
4. When I look back at old 910xt tracks, there are some bad ones.
5. Loved my 610 and still have it as a souvenir today.
We are all adults and should not treat reviews as the final say. I think that blaming Ray and claiming he’s being unethical is nothing short of absurd.
Amen. Paul S – I went to the Garmin forums based on posts on Ray’s website on the Fenix. I was simply making sure I had the latest firmware and getting tips from others. But, as I began having problems with the Fenix, the forums clearly indicated I was not alone. I’ve gone to the forums for the 305 many times. Mainly out of curiosity or boredom. I’ve never had a problem with either 305 I’ve had. The Fenix went back to Garmin and a new one is on its way. Interestingly, I called Garmin to find out what was wrong with my Fenix after I got a shipment notice. I was told they simply throw the ones coming in on a pallet to be shipped back to manufacturing and ship me a refurbed coming from the factory. What this should mean to everyone is that when you send your Garmin in you get back one that someone else already had problems with. So, if they have a bad set of chips, they all go back to Garmin, Garmin wipes the unit, reloads software and does minimum checks. In the end, you still get a watch back from probably the same lot of bad chips. You do not get a new watch.
PS I agree with Olu. When I could get the Fenix to work, I was not unhappy with the GPS track. There are so many things that could cause a single bad track. Potentially wearing on one are versus the other with your body blocking the unit could cause a lesser signal. Remember when the government wouldn’t even open up the GPS signal. Remember that these units were only made for accuracy within a few meters. The Fenix simply wouldn’t work. It shut down, wouldn’t connect to foot pod, or failed to keep a track at all 6 out of the last 8 times I used it. I had had enough.
I’ve been using the 920 a bit. No particular issues with GPS accuracy at this time. As stated no consumer GPS will be perfect.
As you told yourself, you searched the forums, and your results demonstrate the very fact that I’m drawing attention upon: there are widely reported problems with Fenix/F2, 620, 220 and all other watches that use Mediatek chips, and almost no accuracy problems with 910, 310, 610 and other watches with Sirf chips.
Now even though we can see such clear correlations in Garmin forums (and Fellrnr, and many readers’ personal experience), DC Rainmaker has failed to even once slightly mention something like that. This is fact, not a question of anyone’s personal opinion. You or Ray may like this fact, or dislike it, but it’s there. The only question is how to interpret this fact.
Mart – Strange, it comes up about every 5 days from folks asking questions, I’ve answered more times than I can count here. Seriously, go read.
This was so close to being the device I’ve been searching for. Alas, it doesn’t have a optical Heart rate monitor. I would have bought one asap if it did.
Looks like I’ll be getting the Basis Peak, although there’s no indication that it will track swimming. It doesn’t have GPS either!
Robbie, to compare the soon to be released Basisi Peak with the 920XT is not even as close to comparing apples and oranges. I have a Basis and a Garmin 620. Each device targets quite a different market. I got the Basis as a “toy” and to get an idea of my sleep patterns. Works great, most of the time. The optical HR concept is neat, though I did try the Tom Tom Vardio Runner and was not overly impressed. I am not thrilled with HR straps, but the improvements over the last 20 years has been quite noticeable to me. With all the new tech stuff hitting the market place, I hope you can find a gadget that works for you.
I would say that optical HR monitors, as of today, are still in baby age of this technology. Therefore, companies producing devices for serious athletes (and I find Garmin, Suunto and Polar with their 920XT, V800 and Ambits, all being primarly devices for serious athletes) cannot afford to use this technology yet… this may and probably will change, but not yet. Just for a quick example (mentioned in comments above) is VO2max and recovery extimations, that are based on r-r not available on any optical sensor (again as of today). This itself would cut some of flag features of these devices. So, bottom line is that optical HR monitors are not yet serious enough for serious devices.
With a triathlon kit, on the bike your watch won’t be on your wrist, and a bike has no heart beat…
Optical HR will never come with a Garmin triathlon watch.
I wouldn’t say never. Keep in mind, TomTom has their optical HR multisport unit, they simply allow you to also pair to a HR strap on the bike if you put it in their quick release bike kit.
technology will come, will it be optical HR built-in the device? not sure here. This has serious limitation as Jey mentions, that device would have to be worn all the time – not good for triathlons.
I would like to see some different solutions coming out. Solutions other than built-in to the watch. Still external units just more comfortable than the strap. Like the concept of Hr monitoring from headphones…
I would like to see something like a HR monitoring patch! That You would simply stick anywhere on Your body. Could take energy from a charge, but maybe also from movement and body heat… We will see what future will bring :-D
Excellent review on the FR920xt (as all your reviews are) . I can’t wait to purchase the 920 (from your link) since I am a gadget person and I must have the latest toy (which helps other people since I donate my used items to the local school or somebody who can put it to good use). I am a Garmin fan, my 620 has worked flawlessly and the largest error I have ever experienced is about 4 feet from my actual location which is within the specs of the GPS accuracy. link to connect.garmin.com
Would love to see some more pictures with the 920xt and either FR620 or FR220 on the wrist at the same time with different angles. Trying to get an on the arm comparison, i.e. will it fit under long sleeve dress shirt cuffs etc. how far it sticks out in comparison.
As always FANTASTIC reviews and info!
One more question, have you tried it at all angles with polarized sunglasses? Any issues? I expect no, but you never know…. Be really cool too if they allowed font sizing for those “reading glasses” impaired :-)
Great review and thanks.
Question: Any chance there will be a second version of 920xt with BT sensor capability or is that pie in the sky?
I currently use Tomtom Multisport (and am satisfied with it) so I only have BT hrm and s/c sensors. I would consider the 920xt to get daily activity tracking, extra/more reliable swimming metrics, tri/brick modes, etc. — just can’t justify the extra $ for sensors.
I was considering the Ambit3 sport, but seems like 920xt daily activity tracking is not only better than the A3 but 920xt looks way more comfortable (actually looks a little like the Tomtom in size) as an everyday watch. I’ve tried the A3 and can’t see wearing the it all day and not sure if A3 does sleep tracking or not but I would never try to sleep with it on my wrist!
Thought: the 920xt looks like 100% better than the A3 for everyday watch wearing (which I assume Suunto a kick in the bottom to improve the A3.
Sorry, but I think that’s pie in the sky. Garmin is heavily invested in ANT+. They’ve shown no inclination to support BLE sensors, and I can’t imagine what would make them rethink that as people line up to buy the 920xt.
I don’t think it’s pie in the sky medium term or long term. Short term, perhaps. Had Suunto delivered a dual unit, I think that would have nudged Garmin. But Suunto didn’t, and instead went BLE and poorly implemented sensor support. So I suspect Garmin feels pretty confident right now there.
But don’t mistake that for a BLE-only posture. I think in time they’ll be forced to do dual and I don’t think they’re horribly opposed to it either if the market overwhelmingly wants it.
Yeah, that makes sense. I was responding to the idea of a second version of the 920xt, which seems unlikely to me. Could the 930xt be dual? That seems more possible. When did you say the 930xt is coming out again, Ray? ;)
Love it. Bought it. Only thought regarding the look. Would of thought to keep color off the watch itself and just add it with a variety of bands.
Hi Ray,
Do you know if the metronome thingy will be usable while in Swim mode?
That could be useful to use that as a tempo trainer.
Thanks!
Unfortunately I understand that won’t be available in Swim mode.
So I was a very early adopter on the Fenix 2. The big question is whether it is worth it to now transition to the 920XT.
I think these questions always depend on what features a newer device has over your current one and whether they are actually of practical interest to you.
Hooray! I’ve been dying for this to come out and I pre-ordered through Clever Training with your VIP program immediately. Oddly, the metronome addition was a big selling point for me. I’m mostly a runner and looking forward to the running dynamics and metronome for cadence, but have been getting into Tri’s recently with the hope of doing a Ironman 70.3 next year, so I didn’t want to get the 620 and I didn’t really like the Fenix2 over it so I’ve been holding out. But I also do Dragon Boating and I have been thinking about getting a metronome like thing to wear on my wrist to help keep a certain pace at practice. I am very excited to put this through it’s paces.
I’ve tried the metronome for running and it “works”. It however is not for me so fortunately there is an “Off” setting !
Hi Ray,
Any idea if the sleep metrics are taken into consideration with regards to the recovery advisor?
Not at this time.
For those interested (I suspect, everyone), I just knocked out a bit of a impromptu triathlon with the FR920XT:
1) Openwater Swim: Approx Half-mile
2) Outdoor Bike: About 8.2ish miles back to the city
3) Outdoor Run: 5K loop
You can dig into the multisport Garmin Connect files here: link to connect.garmin.com
Swim: For the swim, I was trying to stay about 10m off the banks of the river, as to not get run over by any cargo ships, minus the portions I crossed it. For those curious, I had the Suunto Ambit3 on the other wrist for the swim: It was within 2yds (seriously) of the FR920XT. I don’t think I’d ever get that if I tried. You see the track is pretty similar to most openwater tracks while on wrist in that it’s blocky. Same for all watches on the market here. Not perfect, but in the general vicinity of where I went.
Bike: A bit of a lollipop back to the city. It’s rush hour here in Paris, on a Friday, so a few stops and go’s, but actually fairly fluid all the way back. Attached to Garmin Vector for power, plus HRM-RUN for HR. No other sensors.
Run: A simple 5K loop of sorts, with the HRM-RUN strap for heart rate/cadence/Running Dynamics.
The files all auto uploaded via WiFi (and straight to Strava). I’ll get links to the Suunto files for track comparisons in a bit, though, quite frankly when you look at the track, especially on the run, I think you’ll be impressed. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that perfect of GPS running track files…ever. Every little silly detail like where I ran a few feet to one side or the other near Bastille around some bocce ball courts, nailed.
Of course, it’s just one swim/bike/run (actually, plus another bike to get there), so tomorrow it could all go to crap. But, thus far I’m fairly impressed with the final prod HW/SW, both in terms of little details in the device I didn’t see before (like time in zone), as well as things I couldn’t test before (like GPS accuracy).
I’ll be circling back to answer unanswered questions over the course of the evening, particularly on the navigation front – some really interesting nuggets there…
Cheers.
Excellent to see some good tracks (even if it is only one run). One thing to check (in addition to navigation) is the charging while an activity is running, if you could?
Thanks again!
GC modern is doing some strange things with HR. A bit of cropping on the bottom end. I’m seeing that on almost all my runs. When I go back to non-modern, I see the whole HR plot correctly.
Hi ray, what’s HR during swim? Why you can see it?
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that perfect of GPS running track files…ever.”
Ray this is music to my ears! I can’t wait to get the unit. I purchased the VIP membership and got my 10% refund today. Thank you!!
Cool share! Looks like you only stepped in the water a couple times!
I was pretty interested in the gps accuracy and tri mode, so this is a great share. Thank you.
Is the swim HR data just noise from starting and finishing with the watch + strap outside of the water? Looks like the HR data was flowing smooth from T1 and everything after. I LOVE the transition maps!
A “feature” of the new triathlon activity that perhaps you could pass along to Garmin. If I am not logged in to Garmin connect, I cannot see your triathlon activity maps. I can see all of the data. But the map is just the default Olathe, KS region (even if I move the map to Paris, I don’t see your “tracks”). However, if I click on the “previous” button, I can see maps of each of your previous (non-triathlon) activities.
If I log in, I can see your triathlon activity maps.
Can you comment on instant pace? The pacing in your run looks smooth and accurate! You weren’t wearing a foot pod correct?
Matt B – No, no luck with charging during an activity, it stops it. I’ve got it on my list to ask why.
A_circelli & Patrick – It’s permitting pairing and recording of HR during openwater swims (but not pool swims), thus, you’re seeing the first few beats at the start of my swim, and the last few beats. For the next OW swim I’m going to wear the Mio Link and see how it looks.
Olu – Thanks for the CT support!
David – Nice catch on figuring that out. My coach was seeing the same Kansas view, and I couldn’t figure out why it was fine for me. I’ll raise that to Garmin.
Olu- The instant pace was very stable. I saw it holding on 6:30 the majority of the time, except up the hills where I slowed a bit. I’ll try and get some instant pace video sometime this weekend. Like the FR620, it aligns to 5s increments.
Ray,
if you do instant pace videos, it would be great if you could stop in between and start running again to see how fast the watch picks up pace changes.
heh, love Your pace in the run! 5k in 19:57 after already swimming and biking! Just today I did a test for my best 5k and ended up with 19:18! No swimming nor biking before though, and it was my absolute max… You’re awesome athlete Ray!
Apparently if you’re not happy with the black/blue and white/red bands you can order a few more colors for the FR920XT!
I’m sure everyone will really like these colors- they match the current watch faces perfectly! ;)
Maybe this means more watchface color schemes are on the way… I pre-ordered already, so be it if they do come out.
link to clevertraining.com
There were blue and green bands for the 910XT too, but the watch stayed black…
Claudio: Didn’t even know they were available until you mentioned it. At least the FR910XT bands don’t look horrible with the black watch face. The 920 bands just don’t match at all! lol
Besides from all technical stuff: the design is a shame compared to the Polar V800. Imho it looks more like a toy for my little daughter than a professional sports tool… Just my 2 cents
It’s a lot better in the flesh and on your arm (well the black/blue one) – well in my opinion. A lot more “sleek” than a 910 and especially a 310 and certainly no orange! The colourway is also very similar to a 620.
I am kinda digging the childish appearance of the watch. I look at it as a security feature. Most people may think you have a cheap $20 wrist watch. I spend a lot of time going through high crime areas. I would prefer that most people would not realize I have a $450 device on my wrist.
Hi,
Thank you very much for this complete review (as usual) :-)
I’m trying to buy my first triathlon (multisport) watch and I’m really hesitating between the FR920 and the Suunto Ambit 3
According to you what are the pros and cons of each watch if we compare them ?
Many thanks for your help
Ray – I did a search on the comments here before posting this one, so hopefully I’m not duplicating anything you already answered in the last 36 hours…
Any feedback from Garmin on the possibility for a minor software update to the 910xt? Specifically, I was hoping that some minor enhancements like the Drill log feature and improved rest interval tracking/screens of the Garmin Swim that made it into the 920xt could be applied to the 910xt. It would be great to see some lifecycle management of the 910xt in Garmin’s plans.
(BTW: I love the hardware of the Polar V800 a lot, but due to the expense of switching to BTLE (new cap for the PowerTap, new speed/cadence sensors, new stride sensor), I’ll probably upgrade to the 920xt rather than change to a different communication protocol!)
Not that I would presume to speak for Ray, but no.
Garmin tends to not update “old” watches after a little while, and certainly doesn’t update watches after their replacements are introduced.
That said, with the introduction of Connect IQ you could see a situation, IN THE FUTURE, where independent people could update the 920XT with the cool new feature found on the 930XT (or some similar situation).
But the chances of the 910 getting an update are the same as the chances of the Edge 500 getting an update (zero).
Thanks, Luke. I’m holding out hope that Garmin will advance the 910xt software past 3.00. I really just need a few minor tweaks, then I can ditch the Garmin Swim! (Which is why they will never update it, I guess)
I wouldn’t expect any further updates to the FR910XT.
Was that a diplomatic silence on an updated Swim? Does the 920 going forward make the Swim obsolete?
Yeah, the Garmin Swim hasn’t seen updates in more years than I can count.
I keep hoping they update the Swim, simply adding in BLE sync to my phone, but keeping the 1yr battery life. It’s probably my favorite little watch, just sits in my swim bag at all times, and then sync’s quietly when I get home. Would love for it to just sync quietly to my phone instead.
Curious how the support for multiple activity trackers works, I’m not seeing it. But have just one.
Also curious if the multisport workout can take data from multiple units. Edge 500 for bike, for example? Rather than the QR kit I just use the Edge on the bike. With the 910XT at least the data is more reliable as well.
Thanks!
Each device would record separately.Given suitable software you could potentially construct an activity made up of different parts later on.
Yes.
My question is how well Connect (the web portal) deals with this.
Or will it only create a mulit activity from a single device in mulitsport mode?
It seems from other comments, it requires a single multisport .FIT file. So even someone using a multisport watch and just manually changing workout types would not see this feature.
Correct, must come from a single .FIT file from a multisport capable device.
Is there going to be a quick release kit to accompany the 920xt, as with the 910xt?
It’s already been released! link to clevertraining.com
Hi Ray,
Pleasure as always reading your stuff. How about instant pace on the FR920X? I’m thinking, try go (practically I mean run) for 1 min with 5 min/km then walk for 1 min. Then go for 1 min with 4 min/km and then walk again for 1 min and finally, try go for 1 min 3 min/km and then reco the rest. I wonder how the pace chart will look and least but not last, how responsive the FR920X is to catch up on changing instant pace.
Re current pace, I did a very undulating and partly tree covered route yesterday and was watching current and lap pace on both a 920 and 620. Each time I looked current pace looked to be similar on both devices. The 920 has the 5 sec rounding on current pace that the 620 introduced which generally makes for a much more stable reading. Like GPS accuracy this was however a topic that some 620 users saw somewhat differing results so I am sure Ray will be monitoring for his final review.
Ray,
I know you say Firstbeat support is TBD….do you have any inkling as to how they might be leaning. I was super bummed that the Fenix2 didn’t support Athlete. I realize that it wasn’t exactly their target audience, but I still can’t figure out why it’s not supported.
Sounds like a fairly exciting device.
Historically, it has been best to buy these gadgets for the functionality they have rather than functionality that might be added. Has the programming api been released and beta tested by outside programmers?
Is the current rom production release? And if so are there any feature gaps or obvious glitches?
Received my 920XT yesterday. The ONLY thing I miss from the 310XT (so far) is NO Auto Lap by position.
Auto Lap by position is quite useful for hill repeats or looped cycling courses or similar (needs to be longer than 600m- 1km or so as inherent GPS inaccuracies can false trigger.)
Hope that it comes back in a future firmware update.
R
Hi Richard
Where did you get your 920xt from? Didn’t think they were released yet?
Great review as always, thank you for all you do!
A question regarding auto lap. Can the 920xt differentiate between auto lap and a manual lap? In other words, can I have the device set to auto lap on, then during an activity create manual laps as i go then analyze them separately on GC?
No – lap functionality is same as all previous Forerunners.
If say you have auto lap set a 1 mile and then do a manual lap, auto lap will next trigger a mile after that manual lap unless of course you do another auto lap.
You can however see all these laps in GC later and do your own analysis…
Per the manual, 920XT doesn’t have 910XT’s Auto Lap by Position.
Separate auto and manual laps is one of the nice and unique features of Polar HRMs. Garmin was never really interested in this feature.
Hi Greg, the Polar ambassador (if I’m not mistaken)…,
It pisses me off that when you have Polar automatic laps on, you never get any information on the previous (last) auto lap registered and thus no information neither on the present auto lap you are running. You only get that information afterwards via Polar Flow.
If you want information on the last lap you ran or on the present lap, you actually have to register a manual lap each mile/km. And certainly not forget to do it…
With Garmin, no such problem, you always get the information on the current and last automatic lap.
Trainingpeaks premium do it for you. And much more. But it costs $
Hi Stepan,
I mean seeing the information on the watch DURING the run.
@TonyH,
I agree with your issue about no user field for any of the last auto lap information on the polar V800. I even told them that it is unacceptable during my beta testing of the V800 just as is the fact that you don’t get average HR on the manual lap summary page when you push the lap button. We’re talking about Polar here, the HR brand and they don’t bother showing average HR for the lap. Disclaimer: I am indeed a Polar Ambassador.
Thx for the answer Greg.
I like the V800 a lot, just the missing info ‘upsets’ me…
Ray,
Does the 920xt will use the same heart rate belt as a 620? I mean, will it be possible to use belt from 620 with 920xt to get all running dynamics data?
Yes, same exact belt.
thsnks:)
Ray,
I was a happy owner of Forerunner 220 but unfortunately fell while running, cracking the glass to bits.
Now I am thinking of a more robust model. The question is do you know if the Forerunner 920XT’s has the same shock-resistant glass as Fenix2? Which multisport watch model would you recommend as the tougher one?
920xt functions in fenix 2 styling and am sold. Well maybe a slightly thinner lighter build than fenix 2. If they want people to wear this as a watch and activity tracker and also a triathletes fitness unit it needs to look less speak and spell.
It appears to be similar to the FR220/FR620 from a face standpoint. The thing is though, ultimately with the right person-assisted fall and hitting the right object with enough force that a human body can exert during fall, just about every watch is going to be in the same ballpark.
For watches, I expect that if I drop it, or bump it on a doorway it’ll be fine. But when you get into the tripping and falling watch-face first onto a sharp rock, I think that’s largely in the category of luck if it breaks or not, not matter the watch face.
Ray…
I read this at slow twitch: “This Garmin 920XT has several settings which should satisfy a variety of athletes. The pool specific swim one is one of 7 different modes and lets the user log swim drills and kick sets at the pool, plus record swim distance, pace, stroke type, stroke count and SWOLF score. ”
How about logging kick sets? How does the watch do that?
It’s the same functionality there as the Garmin Swim. When you’re in the middle of your swim workout you enable drill mode, it then starts a timer, upon completion of the timer you tell the watch how far you went during the drill mode.
Any idea if the Garmin 920xt can still be used as a daily watch with the triathon kit, the height won’t increase too much ?
Hi Ray.
I don’t think this has been answered but apologies if it already has been.
With the Fenix 2 multisport you can’t include a pool swim – only open water (quite a strange restriction). Is this also present in the 920XT?
Yes, with the FR920XT when you make a custom multisport mode (which you can name whatever you want), you can add in any individual sport files you’ve created, including indoor swim.
So for example, I just created one that was a typical indoor tri:
1) Indoor Swim
2) T1
3) Indoor Bike
4) T2
5) Outdoor Run
Cheers.
Thanks Ray – that’s a big improvement over Fenix 2.
Do you think the Fenix team will pick up the gauntlet on that one – I am guessing there is some tricky reason they have not been able to add pool swimming to multisport so far, but you would hope they would be able to do it sometime?
Is it possible at any given time, to view your current height? Without having to make a waypoint?
Can you at anytime view your current location in UTM coordinates? And vice-versa at any time plot multiple waypoints and having the device lead you to them? Possible with and/or without computer?
Yes.
1) You can simply add the elevation data field to any data page on the watch
2) You can go to ‘Where am I’, to see your coordinates.
Hi Ray,
What about the elevation resolution, which had been always a question of barometric FRs and Edges? The same fine resolution of appr 0.2m as it is in latest firmware of 910XT, or a stair-wise implementation, like it was origionally with 910XT. If I remember well, it was a nasty graph with increments of 2m.
Just as a heads up to folks, I published last night a video walking through the watch post-tri and showing some of the features, how the colors look and a bit on navigation. The last third of the video is walking through the new Garmin Connect multisport view with the FR920XT data.
It’s embedded in this post: link to dcrainmaker.com
Or, you can just go straight to YouTube: link to youtube.com
Oh, and sorry, the video is slightly longer than I anticipated it would be. Though, I suspect nobody here will complain. :)
Interesting that you can view your time in different zones on the watch but not in Garmin Connect. Any plans on adding this functionality?
I really hope that ‘time in different HR-zones’ will appear on GC. This is one thing that I have missed since I decided to switch from Polar to Garmin.
You could use your garmin watch, but TrainingPeaks (for instance) for analysis, which will give you this data. TrainingPeaks and Strava can automatically sync your activities from garmin connect.
Thanks Ray! Always love your reviews. Have been waiting for this for too long now… The slow ant+ activity uploads and gps initialization on the 910 are quite frustrating.
Any chance we can get an sneak peak at a rolling pin shot with the 910 and 920 together?
Interesting that you can view your time in different zones on the watch but not in Garmin Connect. Any plans on adding this functionality?
Sorry, replied to the wrong thread…
Ray, great review
I have a Garmin connect question.
I can’t view the splits’ details on cycling activities. Is that a temporary problem with the new version or is my computer messing with me?
Cheers
Not as annoying as the fact that my garmin connect somehow turned all my old swims from yards to miles for the overall distance reports. Turns out I swam over 10,000 miles last month…
For those interested in GPS accuracy here is one of mine – my run last night.
Looks good to me….
link to connect.garmin.com
How exactly does that “look good” from an accuracy perspective in a statistically valid way? I saw no accuracy info, much less anything statistically significant regarding accuracy. What is your benchmark for accuracy for this exact course to determine accuracy? How did you account for the many variables that affect accuracy and evaluate them in a credible manner with an “n” of 1? If your point is that it looks “pretty”, well…
But thanks for demonstrating the uselessness of showing route tracks when discussing accuracy at a statistically meaningful level. Individual routes are meaningful only for debugging accuracy issues, and only when one has statistically significant data for the same with many route tracks. If you are a competent engineer or scientist, you already know this and never would have posted what you did. If you are a fanboy, you’ll never agree to applying scientific method principles to the topic of accuracy or any other topic. But maybe more reasonable minds may read this and avoid similar mistakes.
Hi Scirunning/Wingingit/izzy/blindbatrunner (and any other names you’ve used to post here that I may have missed)-
Welcome to the blog (though, since you’ve been here many times before under various names, I suppose you’ve been before). I have pretty much only one rule around here: Don’t be a dick.
If you’re a dick, I ban you. It’s really that simple.
You’re welcome to conduct in constructive discussions, but you aren’t allowed to be a dick in doing in. Because again, that breaks my singular rule. Got it? Good.
Consider it your one and only warning.
Happy Saturday
-Ray
Thank you Ray for saying what everyone else following this thread was thinking (although honestly dick was a bit tamer than the word I would have used)!
OK to indulge. I think most of the time most of us run on a road or some defined path. When viewing a track on an aerial overlay you can see how well you followed that path. Obviously I did not provide a detailed commentary on which side of the road I ran on and when I crossed it but even so i hope it was reasonably clear I was generally “on the path” on this run.
Sure you can do the same analysis with some of Ray’s tracks and any others that people may post…
Any insight into improved connectivity with Stages PM? My 910 only worked when on the top tube, on my wrist in aerobars the 910 constantly dropped the connection, I think that was a common issue.
Don’t think Ray ever had that so not sure he could test it unless he tests lie signal ant+ broadcasts and seeing if the 920 can receive a weaker signal then a 910
Correct, I never saw that issue. It’s highly dependent on body position, bike setup/materials, power meter type (crank based most impacted), exact power meter used, arm position…and just a bit of good (or bad) luck.
Funnily enough I was going to get a Stages with my new Cervelo P3 (same as Ray) that I got recently. However it does not fit with Dura Ace cranks that was going to get so went for Rotor Power Q Rings instead (before saw Ray’s latest review :) )
I am 1.95m tall so a good person to test this. My observation so far is that the 920 is definitely better than the 910 in this regard. For cycling however, I use an Edge 810 as my main device so really my main use case for the 920 and power is the curiosity of seeing what VO2 Max the 920 gave me. Quite similar to my running one as it happens…
Sorry if i dont mention any answer about :
What about hrv rr with the 920???
I replied to a similar post by nelos on October 2, 2014 at 3:17 pm
And it’s also in the product comparison chart section. :)
Any chance you’ll be doing a comparison with the Fenix2 more extensively? I am on the fence about which to get. I am primarily a runner and biker, but I do love the compass function on the fenix2 for hiking.
As part of the in-depth review, yes. Though, most of the answers are within the comments section here as far as specific functionality differences (+ the comparison tables up in the review).
I have a quick release strap on my 910xt. Do I have to get another one? I assume my hrm strap also needs replacing?
I understand they are different.
Certainly
link to buy.garmin.com
(the 920 one)
and
link to buy.garmin.com
(the 910 one)
are different.
You can use your current HR strap but won’t get the running dynamics fields (VO & GCT) unless you have an HRM-Run HR strap.
The 920 is a different shell/case to the 910 and has it’s own quick release kit. So yes, you would need to buy a new one.
It will however fit on the same bike fittings so you will not need to change those.
If your HR strap is ANT+ (ie any Garmin unit) then this will work with the 920.
My Garmin Fenix2 crashes continuosly! I love it but I think to sell and come back to Suunto!
Forerunner 920XT is too plasticky…
How is the possibilities to configure interrvall training sessions on 920XT compare to Ambit 3, Polar V800 and Fenix2? Is it possible to manually shift from part to next part of the intervall training?
In general, the order of Interval & Custom Workout Creation goes:
Best (by a long ways): Garmin
Good: Polar
Poor: Suunto*
And yes, you can always advance to the next section by pressing the lap button.
*Yes, you can crack open code and create your own app, or use one of the pre-set ones, but those are all a mess for adhoc interval creation.
Thans for your answer, Ray!
Yesterday I was playing around with different interval settings in my Polar RS800CX and in my Garmin 910XT. The configuration part seems moore flexible in the Polar RS800CX (through Polar Personal Trainer 5) than in the Garmin 910XT (through Garmin Connect).
Once training with the the watch however, I found it much easier to manually shift to next interval part in the Garmin than inte the Polar. Way to many bottoms to press in the Polar RS800CX compared to the Garmin 910 XT.
Fwiw, the new Polar watches (V800, M400), can’t utilize PPT.
Does Polar have any plans for making V800 compatible with Polar Personal Trainer in the future?
@Niklas,
As far as I know Polar has no plans to support PPT5 with any of their new watches. Everything is in the cloud with Polar Flow now, be it as may. However, they are planning on allowing the import of all existing PPT5 and ppt.com workouts into Flow.
Having played with both Flow and Garmin Connect I like neither and find Strava the best for on-line logging while I still prefer SportTracks 5 for off-line logging and true data mining.
OK! Does 920 work with Garmin Training Center?
Hi Ray, thanks for the preview, I can’t wait for the full review.
I use a Suunto T6 and have become accustomed to using EPOC for training and recovery.
Can you tell me if the 920XT can display EPOC in real-time / mid-workout? Can it calculate and display EPOC at all or must it be calculated by uploading data to post-exercise software?
No, no live display of EPOC, nor display of it in Garmin software afterwards.
Now this is the watch I have been waiting for so long. But I will be curious about its new features too / not the mobile apps, facebook sh*t etc, we are trying to be sportsmen, not……..
I will be one of the people in Hungary who will use this product for the first time, and I hope it lacks bugs. If the trend continues inherited from 910XT its ancestor , we will be extremely satisfied.
I was horrified by the fact it does not allove Ant+ data connectivity, but wifi almost does the same trick, problem solved :-)
I will be waiting for having this staff on my arms.
Compared to Suntoo, the outer materials are cheaper, but Suntoo does not allow me to create and utilize workouts as Garmin do. (or Am I wrong?) And its functions are much better than the rest.
But I really do now know why Garmin, Suntoo and Polar do not develop a GPS watch with an integrated solar sendor on the surface of the watch /like Casio Tough Solar / to reduce the occassions of charging batteries, or increase the battery life of a watch during sport. For an ultra runner GPS watches turn off after 20 hours of using, which not the best during a 28-32 hour long race…… – my comment, sorry :-)
Ray, Greeting from Hungary You are the Best !!!
I suspect for a solar panel the size that would fit on the edge of the watch, it wouldn’t actually give enough power to allow continuous draw of GPS functions.
Casio is completly different league since it doesnt have GPS which drains battery most. Solar energy recuperation wouldnt worth it because it would be so slow and I think it even would not be good for battery.
Curious where you ordered to be getting delivery ?
I ordered from Clever Training and I swear at the moment I ordered it appeared they had the watch in stock.
Now I check and it says it will ship once they get them. Not sure if I was seeing things. .lol
Walter,
If you mening me about thie pre-order thing, I have already pre-ordered here form local official Garmin distributor, I have meant I will be the one of the first who will use this watch in Hungary, (once I got it after deliveries launched worldwide)
Kriszo
Sorry I mis-replied..that was actually for Marcos who said he should be receiving his unit in days.
Looking forward to taking delivery in the next few days but wondered, will the existing 910XT quick release/bike mount be compatible?
Secondly I use a wetrome set to my CSS pace whilst swimming but would love to use the 920. Does the 920 support a hundredth of a second?
Thanks for the in depth info!
1) No, different quick release
2) Yes, it shows hundredths of a second on the display.
Many Thanks :-)
Curious where you ordered to be getting delivery ?
I ordered from Clever Training and I swear at the moment I ordered it appeared they had the watch in stock.
Now I check and it says it will ship once they get them. Not sure if I was seeing things. .lol
Hi Ray,
What about the elevation resolution, which had been always a question of barometric FRs and Edges? The same fine resolution of appr 0.2m as it is in latest firmware of 910XT, or a stair-wise implementation, like it was origionally with 910XT. If I remember well, it was a nasty graph with increments of 2m.
Within Garmin connect, I can see 1ft differences on the track file of the FR920XT.
Great review, thanks. Do you know if they will be selling a plain black plastic band, I prefer something less blue for work? I saw the fabric ones link to buy.garmin.com but prefer plastic if available.
I suspect we’ll continue to see accessory bands added over time, but I wouldn’t expect any others before at least January or so.
Unfortunately, the FR920XT band is just a smidgen too wide for the Fenix series bands, and far too wide for the FR620/220 bands. :-/
Ray thanks for great preview!
Also last video is pretty good since it showing live how everything work. Would like to know if there is at least minimal chance that there will be different color variation? All black would be best :))
I would have thought by now we’d have seen that on the FR620, so given that’s a much more ‘day to day’ focused watch than the FR920XT is (in terms of likeliness that people will actually wear it to the office), and we haven’t seen a all-black variant there, I doubt we’ll see one anytime soon on the 920XT.
The 920 has activity tracking which kind of requires you to wear the watch all the time to track your activity while the 620 doesn’t have that functionality
Ray tks so much for the time you spent on your reviews, always a very great help for all of us!.
Is the reduction in screen size creating problems to read data? I start to have problems in seeing the numbers w/out glasses but I’m not yet at the point to use glasses.
I don’t think you’ll see it be any harder to read the data. It’s honestly a bit hard for me to judge though, since my eyesight is still pretty good.
Hi Ray. First, thanks for the work you do. Two questions that I haven’t seen addressed in the comments here:
1. Does the 920 have a buzz alarm? It has vibrating alerts, but does that translate into setting an alarm and having it buzz me awake in the morning? And if so, does it do sleep tracking with data for hours slept, etc?
2. Related but not 920 specific: i no longer see my swim data charts/graphs from my 910 since the connect update Oct 1 or so. Doo you think I will ever see my swim charts again if I keep using 910?
Thanks!
Darin
1) Yes, you can set the watch to vibrate as a time alarm (i.e. to wakeup). When you do so, it will also chirp as well as vibrate. You can dismiss it by pressing the side buttons (the front buttons won’t work, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally rolling over and dismissing them).
2) I’ve heard of lots of wonkiness on Garmin Connect since Oct 1st. I’ll be asking about some of that tomorrow.
Cheers.
Can you set the alarm to buzz, but not chime (aka a silent alarm)? I’m hoping to not wake up my wife at 4:45am when I’m getting up for my early morning workouts. :-)
Hi Ray, can you set alarm clock to wake you up only on weekdays (like on Fenix, there you can set one time alarms, every day alarms or weekdays alarms and you can choose vibration, tone or vibration+tone) or is there just single alarm annoying you every morning (like on Ambit 2; its alarm repeatedly forgotten to turn off by my worst half, waking me up at ungodly hours this Saturday morning, again!)
Just a simple off/on.
It seems to always bleep and also Vibrate if you have that setting on.
Thanks Tim! What a shame, at least for me, but maybe with new Connect IQ you could create app with multiple alarms, we will see.
Hi Ray,
I’m a happy owner of the FR620 (by your recommendation by the way :-)) and I just miss 1 feature. Now seeing it in the FR920 makes me wanna ask you if you believe it will pop up in the FR620 updates when it’s available source ways in the 920.
Back to start? Do you think that and maybe other related navigation options like virtual racer (against a earlier track) will hit the 620?.
Br,
Lars
Yeah and one news for you maybe… In the old Garmin connect view (not the modern strangely thou) you can send workouts to your 620 when you running Linux on your computer!!!
I don’t know what changes (if any), we’ll see on the FR220/FR620 at this time. I’d agree some sort of back to start would be ideal on the FR620, heck, especially since the Polar M400 has it at 1/3rd the price.
Ray, can you confirm (or deny) that the 920 will have a territory warranty eg US unit can only be serviced in the US and not in other territorys such as the UK?
I don’t know, however, I’ve never heard of people having issues with Garmin warranty no matter where they are assuming there is a local warranty option (the one exception being Brazil, due to significant wonkiness there with the way warranty repairs have to happen due to local laws).
Garmin Thailand won’t repair any unit that hasn’t been sold in Thailand.
Can you enable the foot pod to be the primary data for pace whilst still retaining the GPS logging like the 910XT can
Not at this time. It’s on my Monday list.
I had been looking to get the Fenix 2 for doing the triathlons. I have been using the 310xt (which is a great piece of kit) I now see the 920xt and it looks to go one step further. However unsure if anyone can answer this yet, we as a family do go geocaching. The fenix 2 does have this function. Will the 920xt have this? To many decisions to make. Ray love your reviews.
No, per the product comparison table above, it does not have a geocaching function.
That said, with Connect IQ, it’d actually be trivial for someone to add using the empty ANT channel.
Any chance you’ll be doing a comparison with the Fenix2 more extensively?
Yes, I’ll be doing more detailed comparisons of them in the in-depth review. Though, most of that detail is already here in the comments if you’re looking for specific things.
Is it chargeable with the 910 charger at all or will it break?
No afraid not.
Order placed (using the VIP link). Now I can only wait and hope it arrives prior to Thanksgiving with enough time to get it setup for IMCoz.
Thanks for the support Todd! And good luck at IM Cozumel!
On the 910XT you were able to set the Foot Pod as the primary source for speed data even if there was a strong GPS signal and it continued to log position via GPS for the track. Are you able to do this with the 920XT, in the manual it only says that the Foot Pod is used in times of poor GPS signal or during indoor i.e. treadmill runs. I have found the foot pod to be much more accurate for pace.
Thanks!
No, at this point you’re unable to set the footpod as the speed source. I have it on my list to ask why.
As a heads up/FYI…
Some of you have asked for an instant-pace video. On tonight’s run I shot one. As usual, these are a bit tricky to shoot because you’re running along at a good clip. But, it should be quite easy to follow along. As you can see, the instant pace is perfectly stable.
Video: link to youtube.com
I also stopped mid-way through the video, let it zero out, and then began running again. Enjoy!
Nice.
I commented further up that I was seeing very similar current pace on both a 620 and a 920 on my run yesterday.
French Guy #1: What in the world is that dude doing?
French Guy #2: Oh, don’t worry. That’s just DC Rainmaker. He does this all the time.
:)
What, no drone by your side so you can just hold your wrist out? :-p
And here are the numbers from that video. I think it looks quite like pace on the FR620, and why many would prefer instant pace from a foot pod:
Time – Pace
08:40 – 7:15 / mile
— Steady 7:15 pace.
08:59 – 7:10
— Steady 7:10 pace.
09:04 – 7:10 Full stop at a crossing.
09:05 – 7:05
— Pace still showing 7:05 numbers.
09:10 – __|__ Pace erasing numbers.
—
09:13 – __|__ Start running again.
— Pace still not showing numbers.
09:19 – 8:00 First pace numbers.
09:20 – 8:00
09:21 – 6:45
09:22 – 6:35
09:23 – 6:30
09:24 – 6:35
09:25 – 6:45
09:26 – 6:40
— Steady 6:40 pace.
09:30 – 6:45
— Steady 6:45 pace.
09:33 – 6:50
— Steady 6:50 pace.
09:37 – 6:55
— Steady 6:55 pace.
09:43 – 7:00
— Steady 7:00 pace.
09:50 – 6:55 After which Ray removes the watch from view.
@Hugin. So we’re looking at about a 5-6 second delay in the change of pace using GPS. If the GPS pace is accurate I think I’d prefer that over the footpod.
In my experience the foot pod might be marginally faster to register changes, but it’s much less accurate when I run at paces further from the pace and conditions I calibrated it for.
Hi Ray–
You do great work. I look forward to reading your reviews in this site and on Slowtwitch.
I hope that this watch has fewer bugs than the 910XT did when it was introduced. Compared to my 310XT, when introduced, the 910XT had serious GPS accuracy issues. That was fixed over a period of time. What wasn’t fixed and still exists on my 910XT is the screen fogging over. Actually my first 910XT screen cavity filled with water and was replaced under warranty. The subsequent two 910XTs all had screen fogging issues that occurred on the bike when it was cool out. Ray , perhaps you can check for this and GPS accuracy when you do your full test.
I’ll be watching for fogging issues, but what you’re talking about isn’t widespread. It means when your unit was made the humidity was wonky. Honestly, you can probably get Garmin to swap it out.
I have had to replace my 910XT three times due to fogging issues over the course of a year. All 3 of my units must have been made in wonky humidy. LOL
Each time i went back the harder it was for everyone involved to offer me a replacement.
Really put me off getting another Garmin problem, they effectively said that this is not an issue and would replace in “good faith”. Pretty poor if you ask me.
Any reports on fogging Ray? I went through ten (yes ten) 910xts and a garmin swim cause of this
None from me. Obviously as noted up earlier somewhere else delayed shipping a bit due to some waterproofing issues seen in the first batch of units by a handful of their beta testers, but I haven’t seen anything on mine and I’ve spent a ton of time in the water this month.
Just curious if anyone knows if CleverTraining ever had a few units to sale? I maybe was seeing things but when I checked and ordered I swear it was available..but now I see the “will be shipped when we get em'” notice..lol.
Thanks!
Two quick questions:
1) Does the 920 have the same phone locator feature as the VivoSmart? That is a neat feature and it’d be nice to have on the 920.
2) Does the 920 show seconds on the time display in 4-field view past 59 minutes? Not having seconds display on the 910 for anything longer than an hour is just ridiculous.
1) No, not there today.
2) I’d have to check as I can’t remember, I’ll run a timer and let you know.
Good news here. It shows the hours in tiny font upper left leaving time and secs at regular size.
Thanks Tim, that is good to know. There is a big difference between a 1:16:01 and a 1:16:59 half marathon.
I have a funny story related to that with my 910XT. I was running my first half-marathon after I broke the 2 hour barrier. I had set a goal for myself for 1:55. As I was nearing the end, I didn’t think I was going to make it. But I sprinted hard, and hit the stop button on my watch as I crossed the finish line, 1:56, bummer. Downloaded the data onto my computer when I got home, my actual time 1:56:00.3. Had I been 4 tenths quicker on the button, I would have probably been doing back-flips to see a 1:55 on the watch.
Tim, how tiny is “tiny”? Legible with 50 year old eyes, do you think? (The Leikr watch does the same thing and the hour number is illegibly small even when I have varifocals on, never mind contact lenses where my close vision is poorer). Could you maybe post a picture somewhere, when you have the opportunity to take one?
(I do usually have some idea how many hours I’ve been running, but can get a bit vague on very long runs!)
Here you go
link to instagram.com (lap time)
That was taken indoors so colours look more representative
but just to show overall time is same
link to instagram.com (overall time)
Thanks Tim. That looks a bit more legible and sensibly placed than on the Leikr (which would be showing a tiny 1h above and to the right of the minute and second time).
For those interesting in getting old multisport activities in the new garmin connect layout here is a quick tutorial
link to nfkb0.com
It’s a little bit off-topic, sorry if you feel it’s inappropriate, juste erase my message, I do understand
it is glad to learn that the GPS accuracy is very good
may I know if you use GPS only or “GPS + GLONASS” ?
thank
GPS+GLONASS
Hi Ray !
thanks a lot for all your dedication to this ^^^^^^:)
Quick requests (I’ve read a lot of the comments but didn’t find my answer)
– confirmation that the activity still records while charging (the battery is always less than announced and ultra runners may like exhaustive datas ;) )
– a little bit more depth int he day to day watch comparison, for example i love the quick answer to the timer or the stopwatch while in day to day watch mode
thanks and sorry for the double posting
1) No, it currently disconnects when you connect a charger, and ends/saves the activity.
2) No method of either in day to day mode, it’s just the time screen, activity screen, and then the Smartwatch Notifications screen.
Ray is there is anyway on the new watch of setting a multi-sport total event or segment / cut-off event time countdow. For example during my first full Ironman I was very conscious of key completing certain segments in a given time and getting in under the 17 hour cut off? Is this possible now?
Another useful feature would be a real-time race predicator, i.e. you set various segment lengths (Swim, bike & Run) plus transition times and the watch gives you a predicted finish time based on the segments (including transitions) you have completed and your average pace in the current active segment. This would also be great for BRICK work. Just a thought.
All the best
Mark
+1
A watch with a racing predictor working during the race would be great :) at least a virtual racer working during the full triathlon :)
No countdown timer of that sort, nor multisport predictor.
Probably the best bet, in the case of an Ironman, is to set the time of day field – since almost all Ironman races end at midnight.
TOD doesn’t really work, unless you remember that at 4:15 PM you need to be at Mile 93 on the bike, etc. Although, if cut-offs are a concern, most AG BOP ppl carry a small cut-off cue sheet on the IM bike/run.
I have a 310xt and a Garmin Swim, both still working great. I tried to explain to my wife and kids, why I really needed the 920xt, but failed to convince.
Live Tracking could be a key feature, if it works well..
It does. Well unless you do something where there is no mobile/cell phone coverage.
Tricky to convince somebody why you need something “new” for yourself though!
PS In a reply to asking what the 920 has over the 910 (and implicitly the 310) I said:
Activity tracker
Bluetooth and WiFi uploading potential
LiveTrack
24 hour battery
Sleeker design (i.e. bit lighter)
Custom activity profiles
Colour screen
Can wear as a watch as there is a low power mode
Running dynamics first seen in the 620
VO2 Max estimators for running and cycling (need Power meter & HR)
Another person added:
metronome
running cadence (inbuilt)
swim drills support
I was successful with the “Early Christmas Present” line.
Good luck with the Finance Department at your home :)
Hi Ray
Thanks for another sterling review. I am a cyclist mainly, and lovingly use an Edge 800. I’m dabbling into triathlons for the next season, which is why I find myself looking at a number of different GPS watches.
As a price-conscious athlete, who is likely not to consider the triathlon as their main event, would you recommend paying the full hog for the 920xt? I do swim, cycle and run every week at the moment, but it’s only the competition element of the tri which has made me consider getting a multisport watch. I am competitive!
Previously I have managed to live with the pool clock and counting in my head for swimming, the iPhone in my armband for running, and my Edge for cycling. This has only been for my day-to-day fitness, and I am yet to step up the run and swim training for tri events.
Do you think the 920xt will create new training opportunities for me, or is there another watch which you would recommend for a more competitive price? I love training and gadgets though, so if you think it’s good value based on features alone, then let me know!
Timbo
get the 310 XT. so cheap now….
Close. I’d argue to get the Ambit2S ($219US), specifically for the addition of pool swimming over the FR310XT. If you don’t care about that however, then you can save the $50ish or so dollars and get the 310XT.
I’m interested in a watch that records all my activity 24/7 (including HR when training) and tells me when to take recovery time.
After quite a bit of research on wrist based computers the bit that I don’t get is how any watch that doesnt record HR underwater can do this accurately if it doesn’t know how hard I’ve trained in the pool? Or does it calculate my effort based on time/pool metrics and use this to define training effect?
Does 920 have the ability to create custom workout directly from the watch like 610 (620 doesn’t)?
No, it’s like the 620. You can setup Intervals on the watch. Custom workouts would need to be downloaded although you can do this without the USB cable by using GC and the Garmin Connect Mobile app.
Ray
can you set different HR zones per sport?
Yes. This is all done via Garmin Connect and pushed to your device. Remember – no HR for the swim = no heart rate zone needed.
Is the navigation like the old forerunner 305 I used to have? The youtube looks like it, which is great for runs, but lets hope they change the zoom angle, especially for us running in the middle of no where
Does it beep near a turn? and provide a direction or anything?
It doesn’t beep at a turn, just when you miss it.
Does the new FR920xt work with Wahoo Fitness TICKR Run HRM?
Yes, but it won’t get any running dynamic information from it (Garmin has that running on a proprietary interface).
Hi Ray,
Couple of questions:
1) What’s the ‘feel’ like on the enter /back buttons? Soft push, or a solid click? Compared to 910xt?
2) With the auto-lap feature, how long does the notification pop-up stay on screen, and can you adjust the length of time it stays there? Bugs me with the 910xt that it stays there for 10 secs,when 5 secs would be better.
Thanks!
1) More solid/tactile, very similar to the buttons on the front of the Edge 1000.
2) You can’t adjust the length, but you can adjust the data displayed on it. You can also always dismiss it.
I ordered one the morning it was announced and am fired up. Does anyone know if it has the305 feature “simple workout” feature that would allow you to program simply something like “6 miles @ 7:30 pace” then race the virtual partner? One screen would show you the time and distance remaining which was cool and easy to setup on the fly. I thought with virtual racer and partner back in, maybe this one would be there too.
Yes, Virtual Partner and Virtual Racer are in there. As is workout support, interval support, and the ability to set a specific distance and time target (combo or solo), as you noted above.
It’s called “Set a Target” rather than “Simple” as on the 305. There are 3 options:
Distance Only
Distance & Time
Distance & Pace
For Distance the “record” distances (1K (if using metric for distance)/1M/5K/10K/HM/Mar) can be selected from a pick list and there is also a Custom.
For Time you either use Custom or your record or your prediction if you had selected a “record” distance.
Pace is entered manually although might annoy some that you have to enter to nearest 5 secs.
Tim,
In regards to “set a target” – does the watch automatically stop recording once your set distance is reached? For example, if I set a target to run a 20.00min/5K – does the timer stop the very second I hit 3.10 miles?
This was answered elsewhere but I just verified it myself. The timer does NOT stop but shows a message instead. It seems to display this when the distance entered has been covered.
Do you know anything about pairing it with goggles, as mentioned by Tom Danielson?
You mentioned the quick release is different to the 910xt. None of the 920xt I have seen for sale mention that they come with a quick release kit. Will this be sold separately or will it come with every watch ?
AH! I see another comment about this now. Separate purchase. Hopefully I can find a UK source for this.
Ordered through Clever Training. Can’t wait!
Thanks for the support Debbie!
Custom workouts created on the watch like 610 are great, I can’t believe that garmin remove it!
You can still create them in Garmin Connect and transfer to 920 either via USB cable or via the mobile phone app. Once there ready for next time of course. Intervals workouts are still configurable on the watch – things like 10×400, 60s with a warm up and down etc etc
So like on the Fenix/FR620 you can’t edit workouts sent from Garmin Connect? That can come in really handy if you need to adjust the pace, often do it on my FR610. Can you at review check all the workout details?
Question…the “metronome” feature…do you see any reason an official USAT sanctioned event (i.e. Ironman) would give you any grief for using that during a race? I know you’re not allowed headphones/music during a race or anything to give you “outside help” and I wonder what they would think if they saw a person running and heard their watch beeping at them helping them keep their cadence…
Honestly it’s really going to depend on an individual official (part of the problem right now with muddy electronics rules). I suspect you’d be fine, but I also suspect others would be annoyed by it. Thus, I’d only use it if nobody else is around and then press mute if someone else pops up.
Thanks! That’s kind of what I was thinking myself…I guess I’ll just be smart about using it (if I even decide to) and try not to use it around others (both for the annoyance factor like you say, and not to give the USAT official any reason to penalize me). Better to be safe than sorry, especially on race day!
Hi! Thank you for the review. Months ago I bought the 910xt triathlon bundle. I wonder if you can tell me which of the accessories I can keep now that I want to upgrade to the 920xt.
thank you.
ciao
Accessories that will work:
1) Speed/Cadence sensors
Accessories that work but will be limited:
1) HR Strap, it doesn’t have the HRM-RUN strap, so you won’t get vertical oscillation and ground contact time as part of Running Dynamics.
Accessories that simply won’t work:
1) Quick release kit (the part that attaches to the watch)
I already have a small Seiko digital metronome that I can clip to my shorts, and that I sometimes use for running drills (it is also interesting to compare the frequency to the Fenix 2 wrist-based cadence, which can sometimes be off). The Seiko metronome is relatively expensive, but cheap alternatives are available for under $10.
It would be great if the metronome feature could trickle down (or rather across) to the Fenix line, but I don’t see myself buying a new watch just for that. My next sports watch will most likely run an open system like android, and then artificially limited feature sets will hopefully be a thing of the past.
Can anyone point to 920XT test runs that are made in a forest?
MTK chips are quite OK under open skys, that’s no suprise. Where problems begin, and where Sirf is superior, is when there’s limited visibility. Thus probably it can be an antenna thing, and this give hope that the signal could be better this time around.
link to connect.garmin.com
was done on a fairly twisty and hilly trail course where parts of it were under trees. So maybe not a “forest” but challenging enough compared to most of my road runs. I was pleased with the GPS track here…
Thanks a bunch. It does seem nice! Where there are more trees, it develops a ~10m error, yet this is not much, and secondly it holds it stably, not bouncing here and there like a drunk rabbit. Great news because other than accuracy anxiety, it’s clearly the superior device on the market. I’ll get one :)
Hi Tim
How would you comment on the responsiveness on instant pace. Did it fluctuate while running or was rock stabil also when you changed pace. From your file it seems you did a couple of times.
Ray posted a video on pace stability the other day. I was wearing a 620 as well on this run (indeed most runs of late) and whenever I look at current pace it is similar on both and seemed to give me a sensible number. Current pace has the 5 second rounding, first seen on the 620, which I actually now prefer as it goes give a much more stable reading and really I cannot tell the difference between say 7:00 and 7:01 min/mile pace etc etc whereas I just might between 7:00 and 7:05!
Hi Tim,
Thx for your fast reply :-) I had the 620 but I found the watch terrible at doing intervals. In fact impossible! The responsiveness of instant pace simply wasn’t fast enough. I had many interval sessions I stopped due to 620 keept telling me I ran with i.e. 5 min/km but in fact I was doing more like 4 min/km. It’s a known issue for the 620 (see Garmin forum). My question here is, do you experience the 920 alike or did Garmin fix the issue?
Haven’t tried 920XT yet, but if instant pace is what you’re after, then Suunto Ambit 2/3 is a viable choice. The accelerometer-adjusted pace is actually quite good.
Of course, Ambits do not really support workouts, so… :) But pace accuracy and responsiveness are great!
Search this page for Instant Pace, or, go to my YouTube channel (link at top upper corner of page), I have a video showing Instant Pace.
Hi Mart,
I know – I’m using Ambit2S for the very same reason. But would of course love to add another gadget to my fine collection. But this point is the key for me. So if any can report about pace responsiveness in intervals, I’d be happy to know about it.
Here’s the specific Instant Pace video: link to youtube.com
Hi Ray,
Thanks Ray – I already saw your video and agree for a steady run, instant pace if quite good. But what I’m trying to ask for here is; try do an interval, just a simple one and see if instant pace changes instantly to true pace.
How long an interval? If you watch the second half of the video, I go from stopped to at-pace – thus simulating an interval. Or are you looking for something different? Sorry, just trying to understand.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for your patience here ;-) Let me be more specific; run with say 5 min/km, then shift to walk (say 10 min/km). Start running again at 5 min/km and then walk again say 1 min later. Do this process with no coverage to the sky and again under trees.
Now here comes what I’m asking for; how quick is the FR920 to adjust instant pace with to true pace? The FR620 is really poor at this (check Garmin forum). Now I would love to see a video of this small test, so if possible, I would thank you BIG time for doing so. Of course I know you’re a busy mann, so I do of course understand if you can’t. But thanks anyway.
Does this unit allow any kind of navigation while cycling – ie, could I get away with buying just this watch rather than an 810 or 1000?
I’m currently running a 500 as my head unit for powertap and considering an 810 as an upgrade, as I’d like to be able to pre-program routes to then go out and ride – would the 920 be any use for this, or will (as I suspect) need to buy both?
Thanks
Rob
It’d basically be giving you the same navigational capabilities as your Edge 500 already has. So, it’s somewhat of a wash there. It’s not like the Edge 800/810/1000 with turn by turn navigation.
That’s my answer, thanks. Time to pull the trigger on a new 810 then!
Thanks
Rob
Hi,
what it is and how the metronome works in garmin 920?
Thanks
If say you want to run at a certain cadence it bleeps at that cadence to try and help you maintain that.
Personally I can do without the “ringing” in my ears!!!
Tim or Ray,
In regards to “set a target” – does the watch automatically stop recording once your set distance is reached? For example, if I set a target to run a 20.00min/5K – does the timer stop the very second I hit 3.10 miles?
Thanks.
Doug
Just ran a Target distance of 5k. At 5k the watch fired of notifications of time and Personal Records (not surprising for my first run!) but the watch did keep recording after 5km giving me a final distance of 5.11km with all the final data based on that distance.
I only got the watch yesterday evening so this was my first run with it. Overall, I’m pretty impressed. I’ve moved from a (non-GPS) FR60…so quite a big change in features. Screen is crystal clear and I was surprised how light it felt as I was expecting it to be more noticeable on my wrist.
The GPS track was a bit wibbly on my run but I did have quite a lot of tree cover for most of it…and compared to the GPS track recorded on Runkeeper on my iPhone it was actually much better.
Ah good to know, I tried it once but forgot what happened at the end. I think it used to stop the timer in “Simple” workouts on older devices but think I prefer it to carry on because if say you were doing a 10K race would be annoying if the timer stopped up the finish straight just because of small GPS variance in distance.
Great review ! An indepth comparison between Garmin 920xt, Polar V800 and Suunto Ambit3 (including their software / webtools) would have been awesome :-)
You say that the Recovery Advisor uses Heart Rate Variability to determine its results. Do you know if there is anyway of seeing your actual heart rate variability numbers as well? It would be nice to be able to see the raw data for tracking such a number as well as the 920XT using it within the recovery advisor.
If it can measure and collect HRV data then it would be good to be able to see this data either on the watch or within Garmin Connect. Will that be possible?
Thanks,
Al.
It doesn’t show those values in Connect (or on the device). I don’t know if they’re recorded for FirstBeat (3rd party software), like some other Garmin devices.
In italy it hasn’t been released yet. where have you bought it?
We have been chatting about this today on the Garmin Forums
link to forums.garmin.com
I’ll see if can find with more certainty if the “enable_HRV” file for the 620 works with the 920.
Ray – Do you know £ pricing? I’m having a bit of trouble finding EU release dates and pricing.
Wiggle exclusive in UK at present it seems
Some people on Garmin forum seem to have placed orders and are now receiving their watch – see
link to forums.garmin.com
@AJohns – earlier in the comments Twig and Scott Buchanan share some numbers and discuss it a bit too. You can check it out here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Enjoy.
@TimGrose @Dr.D Thank you both.
A fantastic article thanks for taking the time!
Can we get a quick Yay or Nay on pulling the trigger on this thing? The suspense of waiting on a full review is a killer! My 310XT just shit the bed. I have been waiting for 2 weeks for Garmin to give me the ok to return for a replacement. My plan was just going to be to sell the refurbished 310 they give me and upgrade to a 910 or 920.
The problem there though is that if I say ‘Yay’ now, and then find over the next few weeks things that really suck, you (and others) will be upset.
At present, with the activities I’ve done (including one I just finished link to strava.com), things look good. There are issues I’ve noted around navigation, as well as little odds and ends that aren’t in the product but were in previous ones (auto lap by position for example). I may find more. I may not.
Interesting that Autolap is missing. I use Autolap 1k and combine that with Pace showing current lap pace. But maybe I can switch to Actual pace instead these days.
Sorry, to be clear, autolap by position. Regular autolap is still there.
Auto lap by position is not on the 920 but the standard one by distance definitely is.
Ah OK! Thanks to both of you for that answer. I thought it was a weird omission. I didn’t even know you could do auto lap by position! Can’t wait for my 920xt to arrive!
Is autolap fullscreen (like the FR620) , or in a smaller centered screen (like the FR910) ?
Hi Ray and others,
What about charging time?
I like my Polar V800 for that. It take only +/- 1hr to get it back full. How does the 920?
I’m very impress right now on battery life with activities tracking and smart notification on. 30 days, that’s huge!
On the Fenix 2, it was only 1 day or less… On my pebble, I can do around 5-6 days right now. And on my V800… behhhh Nada ;-)
That’s a real most for me this feature. No need to have two watch anymore ;-) Hope that it will make the number…
Can’t wait to receive my new 920!
Steph
I put on USB charger connected to laptop at 23:15 and it was at 53% and at 23:45 it has reached 73% so 20% charge in 30 mins. Assuming it charges at same rate would take 2.5 hours for a full charge. Not bad I think for a device with a rated battery of 24 hours.
I agree, thx Tim.
How’s your feeling with the watch so far?
Do you think everything works fine? Are notification any good?
Thx,
Stephane
Smart notifications can be handy yes. I was about to set off driving last night and a text came through that I could read on the 920 without fishing for the phone.
Generally very positive so far.
I got my 920xt yesterday and find the smart notifications disappear too quickly from the watch (home) screen. I have to go digging in the menus to read the alerts. Any tips on how to get the messages to display for longer, or any shortcuts to quickly retrieve them again?
If you’ve missed the notification, while on the main/watch home screen, simply press the up/down arrows until you see the Notifications screen. At which point, it’ll list the number of notifications.
Select enter, and you’ll see a list of notifications. Select any specific notification and press enter to see the full details.
Awesome. Thanks!
Any screenshots of how it actually looks? (Ditto on the same question another person asked. Can’t find any YouTube links to smart notifications in action)
How does the functionality look like in comparison to say the pebble or the metawatch strata (both of which I have an rely on a daily basis)
Am wishin that the 920xt can be the do it all and replace my strata. Else I keep on having to take 2 watches around.
I’ll grab some photos and throw together a quick video tomorrow.
That’s seriously would be awesome. Scouring the internet (and chancing on the YouTube of your mini Tri – only to hear – “I don’t have my phone with me” – was kind of a bummer)
I seriously don’t get it why there is little to no mention or videos of How smart notifications would work or look like on the inter webs.
Esp after seeing the apple watch thing, I’m not really impressed esp with the fact that optical hr monitoring needs the watch tight and snug on the wrist. (Something I don’t like). But I prefer the chest strap (go figure. To each their own I guess)
Really really appreciate seeing how it looks like.
Hi Nik-
I put together a video of the notifications piece here: link to youtube.com
I’ll backfill some photos from that into this post sometime this week, but that walk-through should cover it.
Cheers!
That is awesome.. Really appreciate it.
Looks like it’ll fit the bill and works like the pebble/strata does.
Can I be so bold to as, when a message is receive, the message would flash on the screen (for x seconds which I believe I read above is not configurable – which is ok for me) and the watch would also vibrate.
For the messages that gets flashed, does it occupy the entire screen for x seconds or would it just show up as a single banner on top of the watch (like the garmin ad for the 920xt). I’m hoping that it works like the pebble/strata where the notification shows up and takes the entire screen for x seconds.
Thanks again!!
(I’m so buying this. But, as it’s new, I’ll have to NOT use your clever training link due to warranty purposes, local garmin don’t honor international purchases.:-( which is a real bummer given that local garmin only expects it in 2 mths time.
Yup, the incoming message only occupies the top little bit of the screen, roughly 2 lines of tiny text.
Hi Ray,
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a FR920XT from Wiggle, I’ve only had it 24 hours so not much time to play yet it is looking impressive so far with the exception of one annoyance. The device software versions are current but I seem to be unable to get it to recognise my Kickrs power meter, do you know if it should?
Cheers
Rob
Have you by chance gone outside and got satellite yet? I ask because I saw an issue where it wouldn’t find any new ANT+ sensors until it had satellite once, then it was happy again (I’ve sent a note off to Garmin asking what the deal is).
I’ll go and double-check the KICKR here in a second though.
I’ve sometimes found with any device (not just a 920) that for the initial pairing the two items need to be quite close.
Yes,
Finding a satellite for the first time appeared to set the time/date which I thought was quite cool.
I have so far successfully paired 2 HRM’s, the one that came with it and an older deluxe model and an older style speed/cadence sensor.
Will be interested to hear your result.
Ok, just checked. No issues with KICKR pairing, pairs right up and shows me speed/power.
Thanks, I will go and try again then.
Thanks again.
I’ve just tried again, failed the first few times until I tried to get the FR920XT as close to the KICKR as I could while still peddling and not falling off and it all worked.
One happy bunny here.
If you are in triathlon mode do you need to push anything at the beginning and end of each transition to move onto the next sport?
The lap/back button.
Join British trithlon @ £50 and you get 25% off Garmin products – about £100 saving on 920XT – worth joining even if you don’t race!
Great pre-review as ever
Any views on how easy it is to get a wet suit over when removing (including avoiding pressing any buttons suggesting you’ve already started the bike leg prematurely ) ?
I haven’t done any wetsuit swims yet (still warm enough water here), but I’ll likely be down in the southern hemisphere in a few weeks and will try there.
Hi,
Does the 920 offer the ability to display cycling info (speed, cadence, HR, etc …) on a smartphone or any third party bike computer ?
Thanks
You can broadcast Live Tracking for others to view that information, but not really for your own phone.
This could possibly be enabled in the future with a third party app and the Connect IQ API
Re courses and following one, Ray’s comments in
Section 5 of link to dcrainmaker.com
and mine (which largely confirm Ray’s observations) in
link to forums.garmin.com
maybe of interest.
Tim,
You have both the 620 and the 920. Will you keep both? The reason I ask, I have the 620 as well and a 510. I was thinking of using the 920 for multi sport mode and set a target and for swimming.
Will you use both the 920 and 620 for runs still?
Doug