Garmin fenix review

For those who want their GPS in a watch.

Sent to you by Roleigh via Google Reader: Garmin fenix review via GPS
Tracklog by Rich Owings on 10/8/12


Hands on review of the Garmin fenix
The Garmin Fenix is a new backcountry sportswatch, Garmin’s first to
use their popular Forerunner form factor. With an up to 50 hour battery
life, this wrist-top GPS is most likely to appeal to two classes of
users: (1) those who want both hands free (rock climbers, off trail
hikers, and even some hunters and fishermen) and (2) those who demand a
long battery life, such as backpackers.


Quick links
More Garmin fenix reviews
Garmin fenix resources
How much does it cost?
Garmin fenix hardware
The fenix feels a little large on my (admittedly skinny) wrist, as you
can see above. You probably don’t want to use it when you’re out
stylin’ on the town, or even in your office unless you’re surrounding
by geeks, but it isn’t too big for the outdoors. I’d rather have this
on my wrist than carry a Montana.

I’ve included a couple of pictures below to try to give you an idea of
the size of it. First with a 12 ounce soda can, then with a couple of
AA batteries…



Here you can see the back of the watch and the USB charger. An AC
charger is also included.





I found it awkward to connect the charger, but only the first few
times. Now it’s second nature. Charging takes about 2-1/2 hours with
the li-ion battery fully drained.
Notable specs
The fenix will hold 1000 waypoints, 50 routes, 10,000 trackpoints, 100
saved tracks and 2,000 geocaches. It is rated as waterproof to 50
meters.
Garmin fenix interface
The fenix has five buttons, shown in the image below.



They function as follows:

- Turns the backlight on and off; hold down to power on or off
- Scrolls up through menus, pages and options
- Scrolls down through menus, pages and options
- Returns to the previous screen; hold down for status (see screenshot
below)
- Acts as enter button; used to select an option or go to the menu for
the current screen; hold to mark a waypoint


The functions are about as intuitive as you could wish for on a device
like this, and you’re not likely to forget what they do after using it
a time or two. The up and down buttons on the right can be customized
for what happens when you hold them down. Unfortunately those options
are pretty limited (e.g., Start/Stop, Lap, Man Overboard, Flashlight).
Starting up the fenix
Once you power on the fenix, you’ll be greeted with the first screen,
which is typically a clock screen, depending upon the profile you are
using (more on profiles shortly). Press the orange button and you’ll
see the screen at right. It’s very important to realize that the watch
doesn’t start receiving satellites upon powering on; you have to select
start GPS first. It took me a couple of times to realize this, which
left me cooling my heels at the trailhead while I waited a minute or
two for it to acquire satellites.
Customizing the Garmin fenix
Between profile options, multiple screens and a wealth of data fields,
the fenix can be heavily customized.
Profiles
You can select your activity type by choosing a pre-loaded profile.
These include hiking, running, cycling, geocaching, fishing, sailing,
aviation, and mountaineering, but you can also create your own. Changes
made to data pages and selection of data fields within a profile are
saved, so you’ll have the same setup the next time you return to that
profile.
Data pages
These are the pages within a profile that the up and down buttons
scroll though. Under Setup > Data Pages, you’ll get separate options
for setting up screens while Tracking or Navigating. Typically,
depending upon which profile you are modifying, 7 or 8 pages are
available, but more can be added. Standard pages can include one to
three data fields, and there are also barometer, compass, map, heart
rate, cadence, time, dual grid screens, altimeter, and temperature
screens (the last two are shown below).


Data fields galore
I won’t go into all the menu options, but I did have a request to list
the available data fields. They are: accuracy, ambient pressure,
ascent, average ascent, average cadence, average descent, average heart
rate, average lap, average pace, average speed, barometer, battery,
bearing, cadence, calories, compass heading, compass, course, date,
descent, distance, elevation, final destination, final distance, final
ETA, final ETE, final location, final vertical distance, final vertical
speed, glide ratio, GPS, GPS elevation, GPS heading, glide ratio
destination destination, grade, heading, heart rate, heart rate zone,
lap ascent, lap cadence, last descent, lap distance, lap heart rate,
lap pace, lap speed, lap time, lap total, laps, lat/lon, last lap
ascent, last lap cadence, last lap descent, last lap distance, last lap
heart rate, last lap pace, last lap speed, last lap time, location, max
ascent, max descent, max elevation, max speed, max temperature, minimum
elevation, minimum temperature, moving average, moving time, next
destination, next distance, next ETA, next ETE, next vertical distance,
none, odometer,off course, pace, speed, stop time, stop watch, sunrise,
sunset, temperature, time, timer, to course, time of day, track
distance, turn, vertical speed and velocity made good. Whew!
ABC
You’ll see the fenix referred to as an ABC watch, meaning that it has
an altimeter, barometer and compass. Basically this means it has a
barometric altimeter and a tri-axial, tilt-compensated compass. The
compass auto-calibrates and worked well for me. Like any compass,
standing near large metal objects (like your car at a trailhead) can
throw it off. The manual says it can be calibrated ”if you experience
irregular compass behavior, for example, after moving long distances or
after extreme temperature changes.”
Navigating with the Garmin fenix
The fenix works as well for navigation as any GPS without a map. It
does have a rudimentary map, shown at right, but if you want a GPS with
a map, this isn’t the model for you.

And while I am definitely into maps, I didn’t have any trouble
navigating to a destination or along a route with the fenix, While
doing the latter, the fenix advanced to the next waypoint promptly.

In the images below, you can see two pointer marks on the perimeter of
the screen. These act as a bearing pointer anytime you are actively
navigating.

I was very pleased to see that the fenix includes advanced track
navigation, which automatically creates a route with any of your
waypoints along a track, as well as key high and low elevation points
(shown at left below), whenever you navigate a track or use trackback.
At right below you can see the distance to next waypoint along the
track in the top data field.


POIs
The only points of interest (POI) data on the device is a list of
cities; there is no geographic POI dataset, which would be nice for
navigation purposes. I was able to upload a custom POI (.gpi) file
using Garmin POI Loader though, so that is another way to get the data
in there.
There’s a map for that
A couple of weeks ago, Garmin released their BaseCamp Mobile app for
iOS (screenshots below). So you can carry your iPhone 4s or 5, link it
to your fenix and view your position on a map. If you have a cell
connection. Hopefully Garmin will soon bring Android compatibility, and
add onboard map storage and other features. When I asked Garmin about
this, I was told…

“Correct, the BaseCamp app doesn’t include onboard maps. In general,
I’d like to point out though that this is only the first version of the
BaseCamp app and we plan to add many additional features down the line.”



I’m an Android guy, so I wasn’t able to test the app.
Bluetooth and ANT+
The fenix has built-in Bluetooth SMART/4.0 and ANT+ functionality. The
former is how it communicates with iOS devices. ANT+ gives the fenix
the ability to pair with sensors such as compatible heart rate
monitors, tempe temperature sensor (review forthcoming) and the chirp
geocaching sensor.
Geocaching with the Garmin fenix
The fenix has paperless geocaching capabilities, although it does not
have a built-in filter function. But you can still view logs, hints,
etc., and it can hold 2,000 caches. You can see a couple of screenshots
below.


Garmin fenix performance Interface performance
I did see some sluggishness with the unit on occasion but it was pretty
rare. I noticed it more loading and viewing geocache information than
any other time. Since it was so spotty, I’m assuming the processor is
adequate and they just need to tweak the firmware some. Hopefully that
will happen.

I also saw some other random bugs that I can no longer replicate and
I’m assuming they were fixed in the 2.60 or 2.70 firmware updates.
Tracklog accuracy test
To test tracklog accuracy, I wore the fenix on my wrist and mounted
several other units on the handlebars of my mountain bike. I rode an
out and back section of logging road that has at least one challenging
section for GPS reception, where the trail is pinched by rock walls in
a canyon-like setting. All units were set to record one trackpoint per
second. The main things I try to look for in this sort of test are
stray track points and track separation, i.e., how far apart the track
collected by each unit was on the out and back sections. You can click
the image below for a larger view.



The fenix is in red, 62s in orange, eTrex 20 in blue and Oregon 450 in
purple. The fenix did very well, especially for a new unit (firmware
updates tend to improve things). The peak track separation was only
65′, though one stray track point where I stopped to chat with a couple
of mushroom hunters was 100′ off. At a couple of other stops though,
the fenix show no significant stray points, even though other units did.

The GPSMAP 62s performed best, with track separation errors up to about
45′ and one stray point at a rest stop about 70′ off the road. My
Oregon 450 was the worst, with track separation errors up to 180′.
Coming in better than that but worst than the 62s and fenix was the
eTrex 20, with tracklog separation errors of up to 100′.
Altimeter test
I’ve seen a great deal of variation within a single unit in terms of
accurately tracking elevation. So I put a fair amount of effort into
eliminating as many variables as possible for this test.

All units were tested using the most recent firmware update, and set to
collect one trackpoint per second. They were then reset, clearing the
tracklog and trip data, and calibrated at a USGS benchmark (2384′). All
units except the wrist-mounted fenix were on the handlebars of my
mountain bike.

I then proceeded to climb a hill that, according to USGS maps, should
have been about a 430′ climb, with perhaps 10′ of descent at one
culvert crossing. All units were equipped with a barometric altimeter.
I’ll also note that I picked a calm day when little change in
barometric pressure was anticipated. You can see the results below. I
recorded reported elevation, total ascent and total descent, both at
the top of the ride and at the bottom.
Garmin fenix Garmin GPSMAP 62s Garmin Montana 600 Garmin Oregon 450
Total ascent at top 441′ 345′ 356′ 308′ Elevation at top 2807′ 2816′
2803′ 2828′ Total descent at top 17′ 0′ 0′ 1′ Total ascent at bottom
467′ 345′ 359′ 308′ Elevation at bottom 2390′ 2411′ 2393′ 2429′ Total
descent at bottom 460′ 408′ 438′ 433′
In terms of reported ascent, the fenix outperformed the other models.
Nevertheless, I would take this with a grain of salt, since altimeter
performance is highly variable in handheld GPS receivers.
Geocaching test
I’ve yet to come up with a good test for geocaching, but I did take the
fenix and a few other models to three geocaches and recorded the
reported distance to cache with each unit on top of the cache. Remember
that the units aren’t showing distance to the cache location
necessarily, but distance to the coordinates posted by the cache owner,
which are likely off to some extent. Regardless, the fenix came out in
the middle of the pack, behind the eTrex 20 and Oregon 450, but ahead
of the 62s. I’d take these results with a big grain of salt too.
Garmin eTrex 20 Garmin fenix Garmin GPSMAP 62s Garmin Oregon 450 Cache
1 23′ 40′ 58′ 31′ Cache 2 45′ 54′ 58′ 32′ Cache 3 19′ 32′ 39′ 26′
AVERAGE 29′ 42′ 52′ 30′ Battery test
I tested the battery, leaving the device stationary until the battery
went from 100% to 0% and shut down. The fenix ran for 18 hours and 4
minutes with the tracklog set to auto, and 18 hours with it set to once
per second. I did not test Ultratrac mode which claims a battery life
of 50 hours.
Garmin fenix pros
- Excellent for hands free tracking and navigation
- Works as well as any non-mapping GPS for navigation
- 50 hour reported battery life in Ultratrac mode
- Extensive customization options
- Fairly intuitive interface
- Pause track function (I sure would like to see this across Garmin’s
handheld line)
- Paperless geocaching
- Advanced track navigation features
- Impressive accuracy for a newly introduced unit Garmin fenix cons
- BaseCamp Mobile app requires cellular connection to view map
- BaseCamp Mobile app not available for Android at this time
- No geographic POI database
- No geocache filter function
- Sluggish when loading and viewing geocache logs Conclusion The fenix
is a good solution for those wanting a hands-free backcountry GPS or
long battery life. I found it surprisingly easy to use, and have been
pleased with the speed of firmware updates and the improvements that
have been made in them. Hopefully Garmin will give us offline maps for
the BaseCamp Mobile app and bring said app to Android. If they can do
those things, they’ll have a solid offering with the fenix. In short, I
like it and look forward to what they will be able to do with the
fenix/BaseCamp Mobile app combo.

More Garmin fenix reviews
- Consumer-authored Garmin fenix reviews have been posted at Amazon
- A long, ongoing fenix review on a forum
- Outside Magazine likes the fenix
- Sam Penrod reviews the fenix
I’ll be posting more hands on GPS reviews as they appear, but in the
meantime, here are some…


Other Garmin fenix resources
- The Garmin fenix owners manual
- To see how the fenix stacks up against other backcountry models,
check out our Garmin handheld GPS comparison chart
- The official Garmin fenix web page



Compare prices on the Garmin fenix at these merchants:
- Check the current Garmin Fenix Hiking GPS Watch with Exclusive
Tracback Feature price at Amazon
- Check out the Garmin fenix at REI.com, where satisfaction is
guaranteed and members get 10% back on eligible purchases
- Get a great deal on the Garmin fenix at GPS City, one of our favorite
small vendors
- Buy the Garmin fenix direct from Garmin


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