Garmin 5

13owners with an opinion

82%of verdicts positive

7/2positive/negative since 2024

6 yrslongest happy owner

4happy after 3+ years

Praised for battery and value; criticized for software and build quality.

What owners wrote

Likes itOwned 6 yearsStill going

fenix 5 - I have one too - within the 6+ years I have had mine - some people have replaced their Apple Watches 2 - 3 times maybe for a light weight version I will go for a gshock

Recommends itOwned 5 yearsStill going

I’ve not used a Fitbit since the first version they released, I continue to be a huge Garmin fanboy though. I’m very happy with my Fenix 5, though I’m semi-regularly tempted to upgrade to a newer one for the “body battery” feature which uses training load, intensity, sleep, and other stuff to work out a more accurate recovery efficiency between activities. I also use a mix of Strava and Garmin Connect for various other analysis things. Which I guess is part of the appeal, they’re pretty open with the data integrations so you might be able to put your data into something else if you need more specific performance analysis. Honestly the only complaints I have with my Garmin is the best kind of complaint to have: they last so long. My previous forerunner I had for 12 years. This Fenix must be close to 5 already. I keep looking at these new ones and I just can’t justify it. Battery life is still many days, features are still great. It’s just an absolutely rock solid watch that doesn’t actually need to be upgraded. Which is ultimately why I chose a Garmin instead of an Apple Watch last time - I didn’t want another Apple device that might be on a 3 year upgrade cycle.

Likes itOwned 4 yearsStill going

Happy owner for 4 years of a Garmin Fenix 5. I wear it everyday and it has happily survived many water sports including a lot of surfing sessions. Practical, no bullshit (I don't want most of "smart" watch features, I have my phone for that), long battery life (I can record several day hike or full ski days without needing a recharge) and quite resistant (I took the Sapphire + Titanium version). Only thing that could make me take a new Garmin model would be glucose tracking.

Likes itOwned 4 years

Peloton bike+ - I got suckered into the hype but 84 rides in 9 weeks and it truly does live up to it Garmin Fenix 5 - Ok this was actually 4 years ago but still it was first to mind Hive heating - Again, 6 years ago, but my partner and I use this all the time through the colder months. Being able to control the heating from your phone when you're an hour away from home is delightful

Likes it

2nd hand Garmin or Apple Watch. These things are basically being thrown away and watches like a Gen 6 AW or a Fenix 5 can be found for so little money and they work very well even today if you only care about sports tracking. I personally cannot stand Apple for sports, which is why I have a AW Ultra 1 AND a Fenix 7 lol. Got both 2nd hand for ~30% of their MSRP. Personally something like a 2nd hand Garmin Forerunner 55 with a chest based HR monitor is for me the best budget setup. But when shopping second hand you, use what you can find. I often see great deals on things like the Garmin instinct series. 2 years ago I got a Fenix 5 for 180 and it was amazing for me. Just turn off all the "smart" features.

Doesn’t like it

I am currently using both an apple watch SE 2 and a garmin vivoactive 5 simultaneously. Even if the Garmin has better battery life, I don't really like it for 2 reasons: - the round watch UI is ugly and doesn't work with the other UI elements. Also I don't mind using a squared watch, I like it. My Casio is also square-ish. - the UX is terrible, the customization is terrible. The default watch faces are all quite ugly, and the Garmin app makes the customization experience even worse. Also, I feel like the sleep is more accurate on the Apple watch than on the Garmin from a couple episodes that happened and in general from the differences in tracking time. Also, as you already said, I just charge the watch everyday while I shower, so battery life is not really an issue for 80% of the time. For the other 20% it's really annoying... but I think a newer model (and I hope that the new ones will be even better on that side) will have better battery life. When the battery life will be ~48 hours it will be perfect for me.

Likes it

I have all the features enabled on my Garmin watch (vivoactive 5), including always-on display, and still get at least 4-5 days of battery.

Likes it

I just got a new Garmin Vivoactive5 this week, because my old one broke (also vivoactive3). For now I am quite happy with it, but I bought it knowingly, that Garmins APIs and possibilites are not _optimal_ at all. I looked into getting a Apple Watch series 10, but ultimately decided against it (battery lasting not longer than 1.5days / no real use for messaging or smart apps a side from health / 2x price compared to the vivo). I would love to find an _open_ watch, that allows for hacking, nice APIs, self-hosting of dashboards even, nice apps et cetera. I feel like there is market for people like me. Maybe the rebirth of the pebble will be able fill this void?

Doesn’t like it

Garmin vivoactive 5 I think. It’s in the bottom of a drawer of shame somewhere. Possibly the worst consumer gadget purchase I have ever made which is quite some achievement.

Neutral

I've been using Fenix 5 and then Fenix 7 for many years now and I don't recognize any of the points you're making. I might agree on the awful charging port, but that's fixed by getting one of the cheap charging "pads" from Amazon.

Likes it

Garmin is expensive? Maybe, but I got my Vivoactive 5 for $190. For a watch that I need to charge every 7-10 days (vs every day like it is for many other brands) it's a good value, imo.

Likes it

Go garmin. I have a vivoactive 5, it has 11 days of battery and loads of stats. I love it. My wife liked mine so much she dumped her Fitbit and now has the same watch. It's great.

Neutral

For me the larger screen has much more value than the ability to have a small phone with me. For typing reasons and for doing research on a larger screen or reading news or ebooks. Also, I use my iPhone more like a PDA, the telephone feature is used lesser and lesser. And if I do use it to do phone calls I do it in combination with my AirPods while my iPhone is in my pocket. And in that case perceptionally my AirPods + Siri ("Hey Siri, call my wife") are my telephone. The way I see it a small(er) phone or even a small dumbphone makes sense for people who use their devices mainly for doing phonecalls. Having said that I must add that going for a run with my iPhone 7 Plus is cumbersome because it's too bulky. I need it to listen to music while running. Cant't load music on my running watch from Garmin (Fenix 5)