Garmin Fenix

[madman1892]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Garmin's new outdoor navigation GPS watch, that includes paperless Geocaching

 

Garmin Fenix mini site

 

50 hour battery on GPS, 6 week as a watch

paperless caching

1,000 waypoints

50 routes

100 tracks of 10,000 points each

Custom POIs (hhmmm can I squeeze in 20,000 caches into a watch!?!)

basic map

Altimeter

Barometer

Compass

ANT+ for CHIRP, heartrate monitor, Cadence sensor, external temp sensor, and wireless transfer of caches etc, with other Garmin GPS's, including Oregon

Fitness profiles and functions

 

and Bluetooth, to wirelessly connect to Basecamp Mobile on your smartphone! (app not out yet)

 

in stores in August

Edited July 14, 2012 by madman1892

[+Triple Crown]

Also check out the new Garmin GLO for iPad...

[the3gmen]

Also check out the new Garmin GLO for iPad...

 

It works for Android devices too.

[+eusty]

Suggested Retail Price: £ 349.99

 

Ouch! you can get a Montana for that!

 

[+user13371]

...1,000 waypoints... (hhmmm can I squeeze in 20,000 caches into a watch!?!)...

Doubtful. The specs page says 20MB of memory. I figure you'll get between 500-1000 geocaches or POIs and around there you'll start getting "low memory warnings." Number you squeeze in will vary with how verbose the cache descriptions and logs are.

 

But in every other respect, this is a toy I would want. It may cost as much as a Montana but it's aimed at a different market. Compact, light weight, hands-free features would appeal to cyclists, hikers, the ultra-light backpacking crowd. Weight weenies, the whole lot of them...

Edited July 15, 2012 by user13371

[+Atlas Cached]

...1,000 waypoints... (hhmmm can I squeeze in 20,000 caches into a watch!?!)...

Doubtful. The specs page says 20MB of memory. I figure you'll get between 500-1000 geocaches or POIs and around there you'll start getting "low memory warnings." Number you squeeze in will vary with how verbose the cache descriptions and logs are.

 

But in every other respect, this is a toy I would want. It may cost as much as a Montana but it's aimed at a different market. Compact, light weight, hands-free features would appeal to cyclists, hikers, the ultra-light backpacking crowd. Weight weenies, the whole lot of them...

 

Wait, what?

 

A whopping 20mb of internal memory with no method of increasing?

 

I wanted one until just now.

 

For that amount of coin, Garmin couldn't put more than 20mb of memory in the unit?

 

FAIL.

[+user13371]

Yes, this would be a fail for someone who wants lots of memory and/or an expansion slot - or for that matter, a color screen and custom maps. But getting the features they wanted for the target market into something that small meant leaving some things out.

 

For me it doesn't center on price or memory expansion -- I want to know how good a GPS it really is, in terms of reception and accuracy under varying conditio

Edited July 15, 2012 by user13371

[ChefRd2000]

Yes, this would be a fail for someone who wants lots of memory and/or an expansion slot - or for that matter, a color screen and custom maps. But getting the features they wanted for the target market into something that small meant leaving some things out.

 

For me it doesn't center on price or memory expansion -- I want to know how good a GPS it really is, in terms of reception and accuracy under varying conditio

 

Wow..looks great. I have a foretrex 301 and LOVE it. This looks very close to that.... Just smaller and better battery life.

 

Can't wait to see some reviews!

[+user13371]

... Just smaller and better battery life. ...

...and altimeter, barometer, and compass, and basemap, and ANT+, and Bluetooth, and waterproof, .... and that danged price tag

Edited July 15, 2012 by user13371

[ChefRd2000]

... Just smaller and better battery life. ...

...and altimeter, barometer, and compass, and basemap, and ANT+, and Bluetooth, and waterproof, .... and that danged price tag

 

The foretrex 401 has all that ( well... No Bluetooth ) I didnt want or need those extras. Just gave the foretrex a workout hiking in Alaska . It is a great device! Hope this watch is good also.

[+user13371]

I don't really need a compass or barometer either. Or a 10Hz sampling rate. A minimal basemap, on a 70 pixel square doesn't interest me either.

 

But it looks about a 1/3 smaller overall than the 301 and 401 models. Not sure what to make of the battery life claim - "up to" 50 hours may mean "depending on usage" or "you'll be lucky to get this if you turn off most of the features."

 

The 301/401 models might have only gotten a long day's use from a pair of AAA batteries, but I could carry extra batteries easily enough. If I have to carry my cellphone charger for the Fenix (either the wall wart or an external battery box), it kinda offsets the battery and weight advantages.

[ChefRd2000]

I don't really need a compass or barometer either. Or a 10Hz sampling rate. A minimal basemap, on a 70 pixel square doesn't interest me either.

 

But it looks about a 1/3 smaller overall than the 301 and 401 models. Not sure what to make of the battery life claim - "up to" 50 hours may mean "depending on usage" or "you'll be lucky to get this if you turn off most of the features."

 

The 301/401 models might have only gotten a long day's use from a pair of AAA batteries, but I could carry extra batteries easily enough. If I have to carry my cellphone charger for the Fenix (either the wall wart or an external battery box), it kinda offsets the battery and weight advantages.

 

Battery life on my 301 is one of my only complaints... But I have got in the habit of bringing extras. With rechargeable batts ( mine are junk ) I rarely make it through a good day hike without swapping batts. 6 hours maybe?

 

If it can even make 30 hours.... That would just about cover every situation I can think of for my use!

[+akkatracker]

How can you read paperless on such a small screen?

[+user13371]

ONE

WORD

PER

LINE

 

FOUR

LINES

PER

SCREEN

 

NO

WORDS

LONGE

R

 

THAN

FIVE

CHARA

CTERS

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

It's not quite that bad...

 

 

But at 70 x 70px, it is pretty limited.

[+user13371]

Display is too small

To show overly long text

Or even haiku

Edited July 20, 2012 by user13371

[+D&CsBooty]

How does the interface work for paperless geocaching? Does it mean that there is an app to send the cache coordinates to the watch & then you log the find in from another device? What about for event caches, can you just enter coordinates? LOL- what exactly will it do & how? Honestly I just use my iphone & the geochache app for everything, but the battery is a BIG issue. Was hoping that this would at least help with the main part of navigation & love that its basically hands free... I understand that its a new item, but does anyone have more info on the particulars of how it works for geocaching?

[+Walts Hunting]

Display is too small

To show overly long text

Or even haiku

 

?????

???????

?????

[+GadgetMonster]

I just preordered one on amazon. This may be the first of its kind, but I think its a great idea and I intend to play with it. If i hate it, i'll just return it. It appears to require basecamp for communication, and that probably includes caches. Amazon has a great return policy.

[+lensgrabber]

Going over to REI in a few to pick one up. I was hoping to see more cache reviews with this watch but will go ahead and buy first.

 

EDIT:

 

So far I have found the following. Fenix is not compatible with the BC-1000 scale. No footpod support. CHIRP is read only so the unit I got that is still in the clamshell cannot be programmed by the watch. Not much time to do anything else but will try to do a cache soon.

Edited September 18, 2012 by lensgrabber

[+user13371]

Okay, so if I'm not going to use it with a Foootpad, Chrip, or body-fat measuring scale - how well does it perform as a GPS?

[team tisri]

Yes, this would be a fail for someone who wants lots of memory and/or an expansion slot - or for that matter, a color screen and custom maps. But getting the features they wanted for the target market into something that small meant leaving some things out.

 

For me it doesn't center on price or memory expansion -- I want to know how good a GPS it really is, in terms of reception and accuracy under varying conditio

 

Seems to me it's a major fail regardless. Memory is so cheap these days, you can get several gigabytes of memory on a microSD card for next to nothing. Restricting something to so little memory at that price point is ridiculous, when they could have put a decent amount in it and probably not even had to increase the price. 8GB might still be very limited with no SD card but at least it's usable, where 20MB is useless. My local pocket query export runs to double that as a matter of routine, and that's just looking at caches I'd regard as being within striking distance by bicycle.