[morey000]

With the Ambits- the display setting for each of your sport modes are managed via the web/phone app. Once you've got 10 different sports, each with 3 or 4 screens, each with 5 different variables to display, the thought of having to do a hard reset on a garmin is scary. Not sure how stable the new Fenix is, but the prior firmware versions certainly weren't. I've gotta' say, that my Ambit 2 has been 100% reliable. I'd give up quite a few features for that.

can someone answer my question on the Fenix's ability to store all of your settings off the phone, so that when you re-boot, you can restore? Is that possible?

 

[morey000]

Fenix 1 - the sport mode settings were in files seen on the watch when connected to the PC, you could back them up or even edit
Fenix 2 - the sport mode settings are in the encrypted part of the watch.. NO way to back them up, you need to reconfigure after each hard reset which was a horror.
Fenix 3 - not yet known how they solved it

...

According to DCRainmaker's preview of the Fenix 3. the answer is still 'no'. Settings are not uploadable.
For such a powerful watch which is known for its instability, that one is difficult to overcome.

 

[morey000]

....
Oh, and the Fenix3 is missing the Ambit antenna bump, right? So that nice....

yeah- also, the F3 has the thickness of the 2S/3Sport, with claimed 20hr battery life. It's a 300mAhr battery- so they must have really worked hard to reduce energy consumption on the new F3. Amazing, with that high res color display, ANT and BT, vibe, and such. I kinda like the looks of the new F3, even a touch better than the Ambits.

Looks like a nice product if it's stable. the thought of manually re-loading 10 sport modes, each with 4 screens and 3 variables per screen after every time you need to do a hard re-boot... just doesn't play. yeah- it's got a few nice features, but my Ambit 2S just works. Perfectly. all the time. I never need to yell at it or get frustrated. That's worth a LOT!

 

[morey000]

...

GPS accuracy on the 920xt has unseated my previous GPS champion the Ambit2S. The Ambit2S was amazing but the 920xt's accuracy is unbelievable.

Thanks for your thoughts on the 920 and Fenix.

How have you assessed the GPS Accuracy? My Ambit 2S seems to be about as accurate as I can tell. i.e. if I run an complicated out and back, the distance back is always the same as the distance out... at least to better than 1/10mi. Which means it's consistent. it may or may not mean it's 'accurate'. Ran a certified marathon course last month and it came up 26.3. Pretty close.

Happy to hear about the great stability. My experience with some gamins has been stable (310, edge 500) and others not very stable (405's). I truly want a Fenix3... but I'm not ready to be an early adopter. I want Garmin to work any bugs out on others first.

 

[morey000]

There are currently 609 comments to DCRainmaker's review of the Fenix 3. i just scanned through them, and I can't believe the number of problems. Battery life sucking, pace errors, altitude errors, all kinds of freezes and crashes with apps, etc. It's just littered with them. So, then I scanned through the 700+ comments from the DCRainmaker review of the Ambit 3 from last fall. No problems. well, a few, but primarily with accessories- like not talking to HR straps.

I want the F3... but I also want something that just works. my trusty A2- works. Oh, and it gives me HR in the pool, that the Fenix3 won't, and I can program my own little apps (if they are simple enough )

That's worth a lot.

 

[morey000]

... given that Garmin worked out the same issues with the 920xt within the first couple of months, I suspect we'll see the same for the fenix3.

I'll wait. I hope Garmin cleans up the issues- and if so... I'll miss Movescount. The Fenix 2, however, has always been a basket case.

 

[morey000]

Garmin has pulled firmware version 2.9, as it was causing a lot of problems. They're now back to 2.3. I can only presume that Garmin is working feverishly on 3.0 that will take care of many of these issues. Will the F3 eventually get past it's 'public beta' release and get cleaned up? one can hope. however, the Fenix 2 never did.