Garmin Fenix 5 – quick commentary and specification highlights

Bad news for non-Garmin companies. The Fenix 5 has lots and lots and lots of stuff; lots of versions available cMarch 2017 upwards of US$600 – maxing out at US$850.

Pre-order HERE at our preferred partner Power Meter City.

• It never used to have maps – it does now. A proper one!! At least at the top end of the F5 range, that is. It will work like your SATNAV and you can add your own maps to it.
• It didn’t used to have many meaningful variants – it does now (check the exact features for the model you are interested in)
• The F3 screen wasn’t quite hi-res enough – it still isn’t BUT it has improved further over the Chronos/F3 (now 240×240 compared to 218×218; and the SPARTAN has 320×300). Although note that the smaller 5s is still 218×218 [Source: Garmin.com] – that is disappointing if correct.
• Battery life was always pretty good – now it’s better. Although the precise battery power over and above the 300mAh of the F3 is not stated. ULTRATRAC is officially cited as up to 100 hours otherwise you may well get the official 20 hours of GPS battery life…not bad at all!
• It used to have 16 colours – now it has 64.
• F5 comes in slightly smaller than the F3 (three) sapphire: 47x47x15.5mm compared to 51.5×51.5×16.0mm
  • There are 3 case variants: 42mm, 47mm, 51mm (maps) – for small, medium and large wrists ! But the form factor does affect the hardware spec inside.
  • F5s comes is NOTABLY SMALLER at 42.0×42.0x14.5 mm. This might appeal to smaller-wristed people.
• F5 comes in with a slightly larger display than the F3 sapphire: F5-30.5mm vs F3-30.4mm (27.94mm on the F5s)
• F5 Sapphire with silicon band is 87g whereas F3 Sapphire/titanium with silicon band was 78.2g. The F5s with silicon band is 67g
• It used to have just enough memory – now, overall, it’s doubled (although no doubt to cope with greater demands)
• wifi wasn’t on the chronos…now it’s back (Sapphire)
• It has training effect 2.0 features (some of which look interesting), comes with a HRM-TRI (in the appropriate version) and all that that entails with regards to multi-sports and caching.
• It supports footpods
• It does SUP and other new profiles
• It has music control (NOT on-board music)
• It supports TEMPE
• oHR – naturellement (option)
• CIQ 2 – mais oui.
• ANT+ – doh. But reports of Bluetooth sensor support are coming in (yes SERIOUSLY)
• Higher prices than the F3 but nothing any more, or less, eye-watering for those who can afford the price tag.
• Trackback, ultratrac, glonass, EXO, power…yes, yes, yessity, yes, yes.

Missing: With native support of some Bluetooth sensors and native support of BSX/Moxy’s muscle oxygen data it seems strange that RUNNING POWER is not there. More intriguing than strange.