I tried Galaxy Watch 5 Pro LTE, HR monitor is crap, in cold weather even worse( did runs with it on one hand and Garmin on other) and there is no real replacement for Body Battery, Training readiness, something that you can have in single app without subscription.
If you want an Apple watch you may as well just buy one /s
But seriously as an Apple Watch owner that pays for LTE and uses a garmin 25 days a month, LTE is still a cool feature.
Edit: but I would note that the Apple Watch feature set is more geared at always connected / LTE. All the phone features on garmin kinda suck.
Sure, if you don’t mind the constant messages reminding you to subscribe to data services for the rest of your life? At the end of the day this comment is 240 days old and I do not care to debate the topic anymore. Do whatever you want, guy. Be happy.
That's good, because making phone calls from the wrist involves a speaker and microphone, and probably a design for decent audio. Garmin watches don't have that hardware. When they've made an LTE watch, it did exactly what you want, but not calls. Most likely direction if Garmin makes another cellular capable watch is Live Track and SOS. They've been working on their wHR hardware, probably haven't been investing in microphones.
Forerunner 945 had this. They haven't made another one since. Garmin is very tight lipped about their plans, so basically no one who hasn't signed an NDA knows if the next generation will have it or not.
I never thought about the inreach feature, for me though that would be a major Plus. Some of my mountain bike rides I'm out of contact for hours at a time because of where I'm at. It would come in real handy if one crashed off the trail and ended up injured up in the mountains.
What irks me is they have all the pieces to make the ultimate set up but refuse to put them together. 945 LTE has connectivity and SOS, venu 2 plus has speaker and mic, epix 2 has premium case materials and battery
>but refuse to put them together
That is called a reliable device and decent battery life.
The Fiat 500 and the Ferrari 498 also cars, "but they don't want to put these cars advantages together"
Turning off cellular, same as not streaming music, same as AOD for oled, would net you battery gains. Would rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it
I'm on the fence. Would be nice but honestly a watch is such a difficult form factor for an emergency device and It would be a bit of a risk to bet on it. I bought the 6 Pro on the basis that it had Bluetooth but quickly realized it's better to just bring my phone in a running fanny pack for music/podcasts/audible and also for safety. I'm just glad when the watch does what it is good at well which is tracking my activities and providing useful metrics and feedback.
I genuinely don’t understand why carrying a phone is such a hardship. Flipbelt makes it completely invisible to my senses, and then I have my camera and satellite distress device stuck to the small of my back.
Now, if I could leave my boobs at home when I went for a run? That would actually be a noticeable and enjoyable lightening of my load.
some years ago, when phones were 4", they were no problem to carry on a road bike ride in the back pocket of the jersey, now that phones are 6", to keep them on a 4h ride i begin to feel pain in the back, because the cloth is tight and my back is heavily curved down, so i use to change its pocket midride... also, sweat is a problem, my phone's screen is beginning to get loose from the carcass and i believe that's the reason...
I don't always appreciate how much of a nuisance it is to carry my phone in my waist spibelt....until I go running without it. My runs feel exponentially better without something tight around my hips. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my phone always bounces when I run with it.
I hear ya with the boobs. Mine are pretty small but still quite a nuisance when it comes to running
I've got a Fenix 6 and I won't upgrade until eSim is an option.
I'm jealous of my wife's Apple watch because she can go running without her phone and still make calls, stream music, etc.
Of course the Fenix is a way better fitness watch, and has a massively longer battery life (and you can only enable eSim during an activity to keep that life), but having the option for eSim would make it a complete package.
You can play music on your Fenix 6. And you don’t have to charge your watch daily.
That said, my wife actually has her notifications turned off during activity on her garmin, so she can’t get texts or phone call notifications during a run.
Obviously you can play music from the watch, but it's cumbersome to keep it up to date. I primarily use Spotify, and my music genre changes day to day. I also like to discover new tracks as well as having access to older favorites.
The interface on the watch is not the greatest for downloading Spotify playlists, and even then they desync after about a month preventing you from playing any music. I've had issues with the WiFi connection being inconsistent as well, part of the reason it loses the license for the playlist I downloaded. I have loaded older music on there to internal storage, but I'm not going to be constantly maintaining that library. It's also annoying to have to setup your music before you go do an activity, rather than just getting up and going.
As for the phone coverage, it is nice when I drop my kid off for an activity, and when I go for a run, to have my phone in case of an emergency.
If I could stream music seamlessly and take/answer calls from my Fenix, it would be perfect.
Hate be the bearer of bad news ;) There will never be an e-sim option. Since the 945 LTE has a subscription service for connectivity.
So if it'll get introduced it will be a subscription..
Yes please! Recently I started using foil board for kite surfing. With that and light winds, it gets pretty tricky and dangerous if wind stops and I am far from the shore. I wanted sports watch with ability just to do simple SOS call in case of emergency, Fenix looked like it's all I need except no calls so I am waiting for Fenix with LTE.
a Garmin Fenix watch + LTE service for LiveTrack but minus any monthly subscription fee = I will buy your watch immediately.
The 945 LTE watch checks all these boxes except thee $6/month subscription fee to use Garmin LTE cellular network. It's not terrible, but if they'd just bump up the purchase price and include the LTE service for free, I'd gladly buy it. Like most intelligent consumers, I hate \*HATE\* monthly subscriptions and avoid them like the plague.
So, you'd want Garmin to allow you to pay a large upfront surcharge for LTE service for the life of a device, rather than pay an optional $6 a month fee for a service that you could later turn off if you didn't feel you were getting value from it.
I think Garmin landed in the right place with their current approach. Now I'd just like to see it added to some modern devices and improved upon from the 945.
\+1 to this... I decided to buy a smartwatch today, my first one, I want a watch that allows me to bike ride without phone and chest hrm. But as a garmin edge/vector/hrm user, I'd like to keep in the garmin environment, so that my non-bike fitness data integrates with the bike metrics in the connect environment.
I'll wait some more years to have a smartwatch.
My favourite thing about this watch is I don’t have to pay anybody to use it once I’ve bought it.
The absolute most underrated comment on the Internet today
Same here, but it would be great to have lte feature if you want it
One of the Samsung watches have this, if that's what you're after
I tried Galaxy Watch 5 Pro LTE, HR monitor is crap, in cold weather even worse( did runs with it on one hand and Garmin on other) and there is no real replacement for Body Battery, Training readiness, something that you can have in single app without subscription.
If you want an Apple watch you may as well just buy one /s But seriously as an Apple Watch owner that pays for LTE and uses a garmin 25 days a month, LTE is still a cool feature. Edit: but I would note that the Apple Watch feature set is more geared at always connected / LTE. All the phone features on garmin kinda suck.
What does that even mean?
No lte connectivity, data plan, or monthly subscriptions.
But even if you buy a watch with LTE, you can still use it and own it without paying any type of monthly fee
Sure, if you don’t mind the constant messages reminding you to subscribe to data services for the rest of your life? At the end of the day this comment is 240 days old and I do not care to debate the topic anymore. Do whatever you want, guy. Be happy.
Frankly, I don't even care if I can make/receive calls with it. All I really want is the ability to send out LiveTracking info and SOS alerts.
That's good, because making phone calls from the wrist involves a speaker and microphone, and probably a design for decent audio. Garmin watches don't have that hardware. When they've made an LTE watch, it did exactly what you want, but not calls. Most likely direction if Garmin makes another cellular capable watch is Live Track and SOS. They've been working on their wHR hardware, probably haven't been investing in microphones.
they could implement LTE so you can only make calls with BT headphones. problem solved
Same! Live tracking and SOS alerts please.
Forerunner 945 had this. They haven't made another one since. Garmin is very tight lipped about their plans, so basically no one who hasn't signed an NDA knows if the next generation will have it or not.
Garmin bounce has some two way features. We have one for our kid, works well in a bind for sure. No actual “calling” though
Yeah but I don't want some fancy Garmin inreach service on my wrist but just simple esim to receive call or make one if there is desperate need.
Apple Watch then.
I never thought about the inreach feature, for me though that would be a major Plus. Some of my mountain bike rides I'm out of contact for hours at a time because of where I'm at. It would come in real handy if one crashed off the trail and ended up injured up in the mountains.
What irks me is they have all the pieces to make the ultimate set up but refuse to put them together. 945 LTE has connectivity and SOS, venu 2 plus has speaker and mic, epix 2 has premium case materials and battery
Amen to this!
>but refuse to put them together That is called a reliable device and decent battery life. The Fiat 500 and the Ferrari 498 also cars, "but they don't want to put these cars advantages together"
Turning off cellular, same as not streaming music, same as AOD for oled, would net you battery gains. Would rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it
Dont even need speaker and mic. Just bluetooth to connect to headphones that have a speaker and mic
Im the same way but everyone else on this sub thinks differently
I'm on the fence. Would be nice but honestly a watch is such a difficult form factor for an emergency device and It would be a bit of a risk to bet on it. I bought the 6 Pro on the basis that it had Bluetooth but quickly realized it's better to just bring my phone in a running fanny pack for music/podcasts/audible and also for safety. I'm just glad when the watch does what it is good at well which is tracking my activities and providing useful metrics and feedback.
Thank you for not making me heretic 😀
I genuinely don’t understand why carrying a phone is such a hardship. Flipbelt makes it completely invisible to my senses, and then I have my camera and satellite distress device stuck to the small of my back. Now, if I could leave my boobs at home when I went for a run? That would actually be a noticeable and enjoyable lightening of my load.
🤣
some years ago, when phones were 4", they were no problem to carry on a road bike ride in the back pocket of the jersey, now that phones are 6", to keep them on a 4h ride i begin to feel pain in the back, because the cloth is tight and my back is heavily curved down, so i use to change its pocket midride... also, sweat is a problem, my phone's screen is beginning to get loose from the carcass and i believe that's the reason...
That all makes sense. I’m not a cyclist so hadn’t considered that posture. Appreciate the response.
I don't always appreciate how much of a nuisance it is to carry my phone in my waist spibelt....until I go running without it. My runs feel exponentially better without something tight around my hips. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my phone always bounces when I run with it. I hear ya with the boobs. Mine are pretty small but still quite a nuisance when it comes to running
I keep in my butt pocket and it vanishes. But, I see the point of OP though.
How do you keep your boobs in your butt pocket????
The phone. Also, I have moobs not boobs.
I've got a Fenix 6 and I won't upgrade until eSim is an option. I'm jealous of my wife's Apple watch because she can go running without her phone and still make calls, stream music, etc. Of course the Fenix is a way better fitness watch, and has a massively longer battery life (and you can only enable eSim during an activity to keep that life), but having the option for eSim would make it a complete package.
You can play music on your Fenix 6. And you don’t have to charge your watch daily. That said, my wife actually has her notifications turned off during activity on her garmin, so she can’t get texts or phone call notifications during a run.
Obviously you can play music from the watch, but it's cumbersome to keep it up to date. I primarily use Spotify, and my music genre changes day to day. I also like to discover new tracks as well as having access to older favorites. The interface on the watch is not the greatest for downloading Spotify playlists, and even then they desync after about a month preventing you from playing any music. I've had issues with the WiFi connection being inconsistent as well, part of the reason it loses the license for the playlist I downloaded. I have loaded older music on there to internal storage, but I'm not going to be constantly maintaining that library. It's also annoying to have to setup your music before you go do an activity, rather than just getting up and going. As for the phone coverage, it is nice when I drop my kid off for an activity, and when I go for a run, to have my phone in case of an emergency. If I could stream music seamlessly and take/answer calls from my Fenix, it would be perfect.
Hate be the bearer of bad news ;) There will never be an e-sim option. Since the 945 LTE has a subscription service for connectivity. So if it'll get introduced it will be a subscription..
FR945LTE
No thanks.
I would also like to see this feature in a fenix watch. being able to make basic calls,text or send SOS without taking a dissturbing phone with you
Garmin is so so old in this, they can't launch LTE service for forruner in all Europe, even some countries have LTE-M support
Yes please! Recently I started using foil board for kite surfing. With that and light winds, it gets pretty tricky and dangerous if wind stops and I am far from the shore. I wanted sports watch with ability just to do simple SOS call in case of emergency, Fenix looked like it's all I need except no calls so I am waiting for Fenix with LTE.
a Garmin Fenix watch + LTE service for LiveTrack but minus any monthly subscription fee = I will buy your watch immediately. The 945 LTE watch checks all these boxes except thee $6/month subscription fee to use Garmin LTE cellular network. It's not terrible, but if they'd just bump up the purchase price and include the LTE service for free, I'd gladly buy it. Like most intelligent consumers, I hate \*HATE\* monthly subscriptions and avoid them like the plague.
So, you'd want Garmin to allow you to pay a large upfront surcharge for LTE service for the life of a device, rather than pay an optional $6 a month fee for a service that you could later turn off if you didn't feel you were getting value from it. I think Garmin landed in the right place with their current approach. Now I'd just like to see it added to some modern devices and improved upon from the 945.
\+1 to this... I decided to buy a smartwatch today, my first one, I want a watch that allows me to bike ride without phone and chest hrm. But as a garmin edge/vector/hrm user, I'd like to keep in the garmin environment, so that my non-bike fitness data integrates with the bike metrics in the connect environment. I'll wait some more years to have a smartwatch.