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::::SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO BOTTOM OF REVIEW FOR UPDATES::::: As of 02/12/2012---Detailed Analysis Ok. I will try to make this review as detailed as I can for the limited amount of time that I have had the watch. So here it goes! -From what I can tell, most people are only having luck being able to buy the watch from small running stores. Everyone that I know of that is buying online is EXTREMELY backordered. However, I have heard from DCRainmaker.com that Garmin is putting together a bigger team to meet the outstanding demand from this watch and will hopefully be on a standard production time frame by the time the Tri season really starts. ----My previous experiences with Garmin watches are as follows: 'I own a Forerunner 110 (and now the 910xt). My father owns a Forerunner 305. My mother owns a Forerunner 405. Their neighbor owns the Forerunner 310xt. As I am a college student, I have had to personally set up both of my parents' watches due to the tech being kind of over their heads so I have quite a bit of experience with those watches. I have only very shortly messed with the 310xt. 'In my opinion, the 910xt is far superior to any of these watches. The 305 is definitely bulkier and doesn't sit on the wrist nearly as comfortably. Furthermore, it is only water RESISTANT and not waterproof like the 910xt. The 405 that my mother has, as many of you already know, is basically a huge flop on Garmin's side due to the finicky touch bezel so the 910xt well outranks that watch on a plethora of accounts. The 310xt is the closest in comparison obviously as it is waterproof like the 910xt but it lacks any of the true swimming capabilities that is making the 910xt such a hit. It is also a tad bit bulkier on the wrist and has bright orange accents. I don't mind orange at all as I am in the Auburn University Doctor of Pharmacy program! However, the black color of the 910xt definitely looks very sleek and will go well with anything. I have already had quite a few compliments from my friends on how nice the watch looks. ----Now about the 910xt specifically: ==the watch turns on and off very quickly and gives you a battery logo on the shutdown to show you how much battery is left which is a nice feature. ==My ONLY gripe with the watch so far is that some of the buttons on the sides of the watch (not the start or lap buttons) can be a little difficult to press at times. It just takes a little more effort to press them in than it took on my previous fr110. Maybe this is a good feature to prevent accidental button pushes? I don't know. But I have noticed it taking SLIGHTLY more effort to press the buttons in. However, I will state that it is STILL possible to press the side buttons during a run (to change screens perhaps) without having to put forth too much effort and sacrifice any type of energy during the run. ==the screen is very easy to navigate once you understand it. You do have to change the sport mode to alter the settings for that sport. For example, if you want to change your bike data fields, you first need to hold mode to change sport modes and THEN go to the settings menu to be able to access the bike settings. Other than that, everything is pretty straight forward. ==The watch itself is spectacular. As far as I have been able to stress the watch, I have not come up with any type of software problem. That is not to say that there are not any in the system somewhere, but I have not had the opportunity to use every single feature of the watch (as there are ENDLESS features) and thus have not found one yet. I don't want to jinx it already but thus far it seems like Garmin did an outstanding job of getting this watch out there without any major flaws. ==I have used the interval capability of the watch and that worked flawlessly for me. I went to the track after having made up a workout on Garmin connect to upload onto the watch. However, once I arrived at the track I realized that I never actually sent the workout to the device! I was pissed. BUT, I went into the menu of the watch and was able to recreate my ENTIRE interval workout in less than 1 minute. It was awesome. The function worked very well for creating interval workouts. It asks how many times you want to repeat the interval and how far the interval should be (it also gives the option for time rather than distance for the interval as well). Then it asks about the rest period and whether it should be distance or time also. Furthermore, it lets you specify your "targets" for each interval such as Heart Rate, Pace, etc. I did not use the feature this time around so cannot comment on that specifically. ===The screen of the watch is more inset than on the 310xt which is a nice feature to minimize scratching on the screen. Now for the interval workout, if you decide to have a warm up or cool down, you must hit lap at the end of your workout to start the actual interval sequence and it starts immediately when you hit lap. My interval was set up as a quarter mile on the track. As you get close to your marker, the watch actually gives you warning beeps that you are about to switch into your rest period. It typically beeped 5 times before one final (different) beep and vibration signaled the end of the lap. It did the same for the rest periods as well (mine were 200m recovery jogs). The one thing that I did not expect, however, is that the watch backlight comes on each time you finished one interval/rest period. This REALLY came in handy as I was running at night on a track with only one light fixture. As a side note, there was one extra feature that I found to be QUITE handy that night on the track. The watch has a special feature during running mode only (and only once a workout has begun) that allows you to "tap" the screen of the watch twice to turn on the backlight. I say "tap" because in actuality you kind of have to slap your wrist. Not to say that you are really hitting your watch or that it's difficult to activate the backlight, moreso just that a simple "tap" doesn't quite do the trick. This feature was far superior to the idea of trying to hit the enter button on the side of the watch whilst running to turn on the backlight. ----Swimming Capabilities: ==for the most part, I haven't been able to try out most of the features of the swim portion of the watch. I did one short swim workout just to see exactly how it all worked and to assure it was functioning smoothly. The watch, again, did exactly as promised. I set up my watch to a 25m pool and proceeded to swim laps. During a flip turn I tried glancing at the watch for distance but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Definitely something that im going to have to practice. However, I did notice that if you look at the watch during a flip turn, you will actually only see your distance MINUS the last 25m. This is because the watch does not register the last lap until the entire flip turn/streamline process is over. In other words, if you are doing a long workout and don't want to stop to look at the watch and try to glance at it during a flip-turn, if you have JUST completed the 1000m mark at that wall then when you look at your watch during the flip-turn it will only say 975m rather than the actual 1000m. This is not a glitch in the watch. It is just how the algorithm works for computing your laps and distance. For any of you wondering, I did press a few of the buttons under the water such as the front start/stop and lap/reset buttons without any problems. I know sometimes it seems counterintuitive to press buttons on something while underwater for fear of letting in any water but I have not had any problems with it and the watch continued to work great. Another side note on the swimming capability is that I realized that the strokes per lap feature actually only calculates the one arm stroke calculations. Basically if it says that you averaged 11 strokes per lap, then that means that it's really around 22 if you count each arm as a stroke. Just thought I would throw that in there. ----Size: ==yes the watch is big. Much bigger than my previous forerunner 110. However, it is still without a doubt smaller than the 305 and 310xt. In fact, with the quick release kit installed on the watch whilst hooked up to the wrist strap, the 910xt is still about .05 inches shallower than the 310xt as is. The watch will probably still give most triathletes a problem when removing a wetsuit with sleeves but as mine is sleeveless I can't say for sure but it does give me a few problems with just a standard jacket removal. ---Quick release kit: ==BUY IT. one of the smartest things that you can buy to accompany this watch is the quick release kit. The kit functions beautifully between bike and wrist. The 90 degree turn is very easy. I have noticed on my kit that the watch goes in and removes easier from the bike mount than the wrist mount actually. This is a pro and a con. I like that it's stiffer on the wrist to avoid it being accidentally dislodged if it is hit during a triathlon mass start but it also adds some extra stress onto the wrist strap screws. When you twist it off, you have to twist pretty hard and it seems like this would eventually wear down the wrist strap pin and screws. However, I am talking more like years rather than mere months so honestly not too much to worry about. ==another plus of the quick release kit, however, is the ability to just pop the watch off before taking off a jacket or wetsuit. It is easy enough to pop off right after the swim and hold in your hand while taking off the wetsuit and popping it back on after that sleeve is done. ----Heart Rate Monitor ==upgrading from the old plastic hr monitor, this strap is great. Very comfortable and stays in place well. Tightens down quite a bit for even very petite persons as well (I tried it on my girlfriend who has problems fitting into the plastic one). It should be noted that Garmin has supplied the NEW version of the Premium HR strap that was just released this past summer. Yes, there are TWO premium hr straps, the earlier version having problems with spikes in data and such. So far, I have not had any problems with spikes in the data and the strap works very well! Final Consensus: Overall this is a spectacular watch with unlimited features. Any true triathlete or ultradistance runner (for the 20hr battery life and barometric altimeter) really has no other choice but to get this watch as an all-inclusive feature watch. It has everything you could possible need and want. And again, I will state that so far I have not found any problems or software quirks in the watch and I have been messing with the history, data fields, workouts, etc continuously to make it the way I want it. This watch is nothing short of spectacular. If I happen to discover any particularly cool features in the future then I will come back here and update this review. I will also update if I ever find a glitch in the system of any type. So until I update this review, you can safely assume that I have yet to find any glitch or problems with the watch. I am adamant about keeping updated. I know this is long but I hope it helps you decide in whether this watch is really worth it to you. Any other information can be found by going to Garmin's website and downloading the owner's manual and reading it. It gives you all the features and how to execute them. And like I said, they all work (so far). Good luck in your training and races this year and many years to come with this watch!! ::::UPDATE INFO as of 02/23/2012:::: -just to keep with being updated like i promised, garmin has just issued a software update today (2/23/12) to fix the following issues: Changes made from version 2.30 to 2.40: Improved calculation of instantaneous pace. Fixed occasional watch freeze issue during pool swim. Fixed potential dropout of speed/cadence data when using speed/cadence sensor and particular power meters when GPS off. Fixed occasional problem of multisport activities containing pool swim not uploading to Garmin Connect. Made improvement to reduce elevation spikes at beginning of activities. -I have not personally experienced any of these particular problems in my watch but the update is still a welcome sight to see Garmin working hard to keep their software running smoothly! also, just to let you know how the update process went: ---everything ran very smoothly without me having to intervene. ---once the ant agent sent the update to the watch, it did take between 5 and 10 mins for the watch to fully download the update so for those of you wishing to do this before your next workout, I would reconsider. ---however, once it was downloaded onto the watch, the actual software update on the watch took only a minute or two ---no personal data was changed/deleted during the update that I have been able to find which is definitely a positive as I know other 310xt owners have had this problem with previous software updates NOTE: if you are still having problems with instant pace not being smooth after this update as others have mentioned, @Doug Bishop (another reviewer here on Amazon) mentioned that changing the data recording from "Smart Recording" to "Every Second" has helped him! Worth a shot for those of you out there who are still having problems with instantaneous pace! Furthermore, "Every Second" recording gives a more accurate data curve anyway. If it works for you then kudos to @Doug! :::Feature Update and Problems Update as of 04/03/2012::: --not much has changed with the watch since my last update --however, I have noticed a few times that the screen on the watch has fogged up just a slight bit when it was cooler outside. I havent noticed the problem during really hot days at all but rather cooler days with direct sunlight. I have researched this problem and it does NOT denote a waterproofing issue in the watch but rather a failed attempt at putting the device together in a humid-less environment like it should have been causing minimal amounts of humidity to get trapped under the screen. Garmin does state this on their FAQs page regarding all of their watches. --Also, I have had 1 instance in which I was cycling down a hill at approx 30mph and the watch randomly went into Auto Pause and then immediately Auto Resume right afterward. it didnt really affect the data since it happened so quickly but i just thought that i'd mention it. (as a side note i DO have my watch set to Auto Pause when stopped so more than likely this will not happen if this feature is disabled) --the other point to this update on my review is to point out a feature of the watch that I have noticed after my workouts that Garmin does not mention on the product page or in the Owner's Manual but that i find very nice and handy! ---->the watch has a feature called "Recovery Heart Rate" that comes up about a minute or two after a workout is STOPPED. When you are done with a workout, if you just leave the watch alone after pressing the Start/Stop button then in about 1 or 2 minutes(not sure which as i've never actually timed the delay) after pushing the button the watch will beep again and a screen with a "Recovery Heart Rate [BPM]" denotation will appear. Next to this message it will give you your exact heart rate when it beeped (i.e. 147bpm) and the change in beats per minute that occurred when you stopped the activity. For example, you might see: "Recovery Heart Rate [147]--[30bpm]" Basically what this screen is telling you is that from the moment you pressed stop on the activity, the watch has been counting down to approximately 60 seconds later and states your current heart rate and the change in heart rate that you have experienced (effectively showing you how in shape you are or how hard your workout was because a wider recovery parameter (i.e. 60bpm rather than 30bpm) denotes higher fitness). In other words, when you stopped the activity, your heart rate was at 177 bpm (not sure if this number is the exact number EXACTLY WHEN you press stop or if it is the Average heart rate from the activity) and in 60 seconds it fell to 147bpm. --the trick to being able to utilize this feature is to NOT save/reset your activity immediately when you are done as this will void the algorithm to calculate the recovery heart rate but rather just leave the watch alone for a minute or two --I just thought I would share this information because (as far as I have been able to look) Garmin does not mention this feature in any of their manuals nor on their product page but I think that this feature is really quite useful and should be shared! Software UPDATE Version 2.40 to 2.50 Information: Latest release date: June 11, 2012 Changes made from version 2.40 to 2.50: Fixed several problems causing shutdowns during biking and running activities. Corrected several instantaneous pace calculation issues. Major modifications and additions to Bike Power functionality: 1. Improved support for power based workouts. 2. Added new power metrics (Training Stress Score (TSS), Intensity Factor (IF), Normalized Power (NP), kJ). 3. Automatically modify power zones when functional threshold power (FTP) changes. 4. Improvements to power sensor calibration process. 5. Added support for left right power balance. 6. Added support for 3, 10, and 30s power smoothing. Improved accuracy of distance calculations for pool swim. Rest times are no longer included in the average pace calculation for pool swim. Distance alerts for pool swim will now occur during the last length before completing the configured distance. Swim distance alert will now reset after pressing lap button. Corrected issues displaying history for open water swims. Improved calorie calculations during swim mode. Corrected issue with barometer calibration improving initial elevation readings. Corrected issue where sudden changes in the elevation could be observed on the watch. Fixed problem with auto-scroll that could potentially cause a device malfunction. Added ability for the user to enter ANT+ IDs for all sensor types. Added sensor details page for all ANT+ sensors. Prevented HR alerts from occurring when user was in the correct zone. Improved accuracy of battery charge information. Improved foreign language translations. --As you can see there are a NUMBER of updates this time around! I'm excited that some of my little quirks that I've had with the watch (particularly with swimming calculations in a pool) are now finally addressed! Can't wait to try out the fixed distance alerts! --The update took nearly 20 minutes to download onto the watch from the ANT agent but once it downloaded it only took about 2 minutes to install with no problems! In all honesty, this is the main reason that I bought this watch to begin with: it has built-in ALL of the hardware that is required for it to be the watch of all watches. Only minor software updates across time are needed to make this watch flawless and I plan on having this watch for quite some time. Glad to see Garmin on top of their game with this software update! 5 year update and overall impressions/durability/usability on 1/18/2017: Well it's been 5 years of using this watch for every activity i've done since purchasing. I bought it oh so long ago when it was hardly even in stock. We've been through our ups and downs and I wanted to give a realistic review of this watch for potential future owners. I've used this watch for swimming, biking, running, treadmill running, up to half-ironman triathlon, multiple marathons, one 50K ultra run, one 50 mile ultrarun, and one (failed attempt at) 100 mile ultramarathon (where i only made it 52 miles). I've used this watch. Period. I've used it for everything I ever intended it to do and that was the point. Now, though, I feel we are growing apart. My watch is still in "perfect" working order after 5 years of hard use. The last time I ran the battery down all the way during one activity was during my 100 mile attempt when it lasted 14 hours until I got pulled from the race and was still alive but just barely. I'd say 5 years of use and a 14 hr battery life while using HR monitor, full 1 second gps tracking, and a footpod is pretty good given that the advertised battery life is only 20 hours with just gps. I say "perfect" because as of right this second I am still having a ton of issues getting my workouts to upload to garmin connect through the ant+ stick periodically. The watch will always attempt to upload and then turn itself off only for me to turn it back on and it turn itself back off again. Eventually, after about 4 or 5 tries, it will eventually upload and I've never had a problem with it losing an activity so that's not a problem it's just a huge annoyance and is a big reason I have now bumped my review down to 4 stars from 5. It is just impractical to constantly do this and garmin does not have a fix to date. For many people, I still think this watch is the perfect watch. When many of my friends ask my opinion on running watches, I often direct them to this watch just because of how cheap they can get it and how many features it still has. It's definitely behind many of the newer generations of xt watches and fenix watches for sure but it still does all of the basics of every sport, plus some. No it doesn't have the new wifi or bluetooth connectivity. But that wasn't even heard of when this watch came out and most people really just don't need it. It has a great battery life still and is still slim, easy to wear watch. It doesn't do activity tracking (which again didn't really exist back in those days); and, it won't do a lot of other sports like the newer fenix watches will. It'll do some but definitely not all. I have strongly considered year after year about upgrading to newer watches for different features but I continuously find myself asking if it's really worth it. The watch still does everything I want it to on the surface. Does it have every new feature? No. But if you're looking in the price range of what this watch sells for now, you are not going to find another watch with as many features. You just still can't get as good a watch as this one in the current price range which is why i almost always still recommend it to friends above other watches. Most people just simply don't need as much as a fenix or forerunner 735 or 920. Having said all of that, I will say, that at this point in my life, I do feel that it is now worth it for me to upgrade to a new watch. Many of the new features that are out are simply enough to entice me to switch. It has taken quite some time and many generations of watches but I feel that my athletic career has progressed into newer dimensions over the years and the 910xt is just simply not enough anymore. (In case any of you care, I will be upgrading to the Fenix 5 (not s or x) when it is available pending good enough inventory at launch.) I say all of this to just tell people what I tell my close friends and family. If you feel that new features of newer watches are what you want then why are you even reading this? Because <$140 retail price range is just not going to get you those features. If you're looking for a good reliable watch that does everything that a triathlete or long distance runner really NEEDS then this is the watch for you. And I implore you to buy refurbished. Absolutely no reason to buy new at this point. Watch is just way too old. I hope this last posting on my review is helpful to any of you on the fence still at this point. I really don't think you can go wrong with this watch for actual sport needs. comment or message me if you have any lingering questions about the 910xt!!