Garmin Forerunner 935 – Preview – Master Stroke or Minor Tweak

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Garmin’s Forerunner 935 has just been announced and the details of what we mostly knew have largely been confirmed.

Is it what the 920XT should always have morphed into? or something less impressive?

ESSENTIAL READING: 935 Features and 935 Comparisons to F5/920XT.

MASTER STROKE

My biggest complaint with new Garmin products is that they tend not to work in some way or another for about 6 months. Somehow Garmin get away with that. But that approach irks me and many others.

HOWEVER. The Forerunner 935 is essentially a cheapened Fenix 5. That sounds bad. BUT the master stroke is that the firmware has largely been up and running for a couple of months with the new Fenixes. The Forerunner 935 WILL largely work when you and I get our hands on one.

2017 could mark a more tested and more robust year for working, new products for Garmin.

THE MINOR TWEAK

The minor tweak comment from the title refers again to the Fenix-like nature of this product. Which brings up these points:

1. The Forerunner 935 tri watch is basically a Fenix 5t (where t=TRI or t=tweak). The tweak is an inferior casing albeit holding a generally good screen. For a US$500 top-end tri-watch I let out a long breath and can only say “eesh”.
2. The implication is that the rectangular-faced 310xt/910xt/920xt series is dead. Let’s get over it. BANG goes any and all sub-brand loyalty. A lot of people like that form factor, me included. However a LOT prefer the more wearable round face. I will have to suck it up I guess. I just feel though that for a ‘pro’ tri watch, and many of us like to pretend we are pro’s, we want the more usable screen real estate of a rectangular screen .

PRE-ORDERS (USA): HERE at PMC

BITS & BOBS

The newer training load and training effect stuff is a great improvement. Firstbeat have done a great job. But honestly I’ve been using those types of metrics on my PC for probably not far off a decade – c’mon Garmin, keep up.

The battery life looks super-solid. No complaints there. With an Ironman looming closer this year for me I know that I’ll be wearing a Garmin of some sort on race day. I want MORE battery life than ‘might just be enough for the race with all the bits turned off‘, Garmin seem to have that.

There’s also a new running pod from Garmin. That doesn’t look too inspiring either.

At the time of its release, the 920XT seemed near-perfect in all it’s blue and black ugliness. It seemed more perfect after a year or so of firmware updates and feature additions. The Forerunner 935 gets a grudging thumbs up. How could it not? It IS prettier than the 920XT and it has more features and they will all mostly work.

ESSENTIAL READING: 935 Features and 935 Comparisons to F5/920XT.

But Garmin have now left the door open

Here is the chance for Polar to jump in with all their rectangular glory.

Right. I have some black paint. I’m going to paint my 920XT black and go and sit in a corner and cry “for what might have been”

But in the meantime I’ll look to Mr Amazon to boost my Garmin collection and also to do my little bit to boost the Garmin share price.

I have no link whatsoever to Garmin. Other than I buy their products myself. I don’t even get pre-release or loan ones anymore as I try to give my genuine opinions on their products.