Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

2021 update: There still isn't a better watch in my opinion, while newer models have a few more features, the price point and battery life of the 935 are still the best. Also, since my review: - Garmin fixed the Android app. its not perfect but everything now works just fine - Software update no longer requiring anything, its automatic through the phone and you don't even have to know about it. Great stuff. - Apps. There's so many now. If you want something, it probably exists. Even the watch faces are better than ever. - Battery: 4-5 year later its still strong. There's been improvements to the software but also my battery is old, so it seems to even out.. which means it still lasts for weeks, even when the 1-4h sport tracking usage every now and then. Should you buy it in 2021/2022? Yes. Maybe the to-be-announced-maybe-one-day 955 or another model will eventually beat it, but there's a reason why this watch is sold to almost the same price today as it did years ago. It's really good. Original review (2017): Summary: If you're looking for a sport watch that records a lot of data, is useful for training and don't care about "smart features" except notifications. This is it. Its fast, its accurate, it lasts forever and its probably the best there is right now. Pros: - You can actually have maps and directions, soon navigation even thus this is not a Fenix 5x (search for "485" on your phone appstore). Its surprisingly useful. - battery life and charge speed is crazy good. by the time i plugged it in to update (which took 5min, so it got 5min of charge, which went up to 89% charge) a couple days ago.. i, uhm, did not go below the charge level it was at when I got it. It's at 79% now, and I got it out of the box at 70%. I have 3 hours of GPS use since. I have no doubt this can last a week. I've also no doubt that it lasts more than a day in ultratac mode (they claim 60h) and close to 20h in normal full-tracking mode (they claim 24h) though I'll update when I have the .. draining.. opportunity to test a 20h work-out. - non-back-lit screen: somehow reviews don't do this justice. Non-back-lit means the screen emits no light by default, just like the amazon paper/papershite kindles. It means its readable in ANY sunlight conditions, and uses very little power. Of course, there is an auxillary back light for when it's absolutely dark outside. - no-non-sense menus. I was afraid of that one. No touch screen? How good are buttons going to be? Well they're fine. The menus are all logical and everything is actually quite simple and easy to use. Nice. - Customizable - it's not a samsung or apple watch but you do have multiple watch faces and apps - and they work. - light and "thin" for a smart watch. This is lighter and thinner than my microsoft band 2, for example. Can't feel the thing on my wrist. - GPS, Glonass, HR tracking work well. Better than any watch I've had. It reacts quickly to HR changes and is quite accurate for a wrist-HR sensor. Some still would want to have a separate HR strap - but it's not really all that necessary. - ANT+, Bt connection. That I can see data from my bike equipment on the watch, and transmit watch data to my Wahoo bike computer is absolutely great. - Amount of stats: This is a Garmin sport watch. You get everything they can record, and more. That's just cool. - Automatic pausing, etc. during activities: i always wondered how well it works on Garmins. Well, it's been flawless so far, so there's that. - Notifications: I had read how bad notifications are on Garmin devices. Well now that I've used it I can tell: it is not bad at all. In fact it's quite great. Legible, fast, reliable - at least on this watch right now. Sure, you cannot type a reply from the watch, but I never cared for that - it seems more gimmicky than it is useful in most cases... Cons: - its kinda big. if you have a small wrist, be prepared. Its not the biggest watch in the world, but its certainly not small either. - Android software is terribad. Login, app store, general reliability is not great. It does work, but it can sometimes take a few attempts.. Garmin, please hire a real Android dev? Thanksfully you don't need to interact much with it except for reading your sport stats, and that part works ok. - Poor documentation. I had to google how to software update the watch, which involved copying a file.. on the watch. its not that bad, but i expect auto update wirelessly and/or an actual document from Garmin that explains how to do this, not a forum post. - Price. If you want the best, this is it. Yet it's still overpriced compared to what you'd get from a Garmin 235 or even an Apple Watch. Basically value/price ratio is not good. - I would prefer a wireless charger - though since this thing rarely needs to be charged, its not a big deal - No ability to play music from the watch - No ability to use regular maps out of the box (needs additional, paid third party software) Pictures: - 42mm Seiko vs FR-935 vs Microsoft Band 2 sizes. Wrist diameter 6 inches. - 485 app for mapping - SF Google offices location - back-side of the watch