My Fenix 5x sapphire is for sale btw.

Dad-O-Lot said:

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The Pilot said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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If GPS is not a requirement, I recommend the Nokia Steel HR.

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For a thread about a running watch, GPS is pretty important though.

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I typically run with my phone, so I use it for GPS.

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I do find it odd you bumped two old threads to pimp out a fitness watch without gps. To me, I don't get the point of a "running watch" if it doesn't have gps. You take your phone, great, wth is the watch for then? Sounds to me like it's just an activity tracker.

I will say we did just get the Nokia scale (wife got it for free through insurance at work) and I like it. Bit of a pain to get it to link to my garmin account but once I got it set up everything is pretty seamless.

Did you call garmin?

htxag09 said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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The Pilot said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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If GPS is not a requirement, I recommend the Nokia Steel HR.

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For a thread about a running watch, GPS is pretty important though.

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I typically run with my phone, so I use it for GPS.

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I do find it odd you bumped two old threads to pimp out a fitness watch without gps. To me, I don't get the point of a "running watch" if it doesn't have gps. You take your phone, great, wth is the watch for then? Sounds to me like it's just an activity tracker.

I will say we did just get the Nokia scale (wife got it for free through insurance at work) and I like it. Bit of a pain to get it to link to my garmin account but once I got it set up everything is pretty seamless.

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I just had a positive experience with their customer service and remembered that I had posted on a thread in Health and Fitness when I was first looking for a fitness tracking watch with a heart rate monitor, so I thought I'd check in to see what others have been saying. I didn't find the old thread, but found these two.

I would have preferred GPS, but didn't want to spend as much. The heart rate monitor was more important for me and my phone doesn't have a heart rate monitor. In the other thread, the OP noted that GPS was preferred but not required.

I have a Garmin Vivoactive Hr that I got in May of '16. The screen is starting to come out (I can physically push it back into the watch body), and the GPS is taking forever to load. Seems like it's on its last leg.
My understanding is that it was warrantied for 1 year, and now to get it fixed would be $120 through Garmin. Are my options st this point to either fix it or get a new watch? Or, is there something else I'm missing? Not real keen on anything that involves me trying to insert some Chinese knockoff screen myself or anything of the like.

Did you get the $120 number from Garmin themselves or someone else? Based on what I have read on here, I would say to call Garmin directly. There have been a number of people who seem to have gotten customer service/replacement/help/etc that far exceeds what may be expected or written down. I have not personally had any issues with mine so far, but they seem to be pretty awesome from a customer service perspective.

I have a Fenix 3 and the GPS quite working last fall. I've contacted Garmin twice and both times got quoted the same $140 for a RMA.

Dad-O-Lot said:

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The Pilot said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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If GPS is not a requirement, I recommend the Nokia Steel HR.

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For a thread about a running watch, GPS is pretty important though.

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I typically run with my phone, so I use it for GPS.

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If you run with your phone, not sure why you need a watch when you can upload your run directly to Strava.

I've had a 935xt for the past few years. If you use the garmin running chest strap it gives lots of data in addition to HR...like height of stride. Was kinda cool looking at the data for a while, but now I typically upload to Strava and look at the data there (not all of it transfers). I like the 935xt because the gps works well, data automatically uploads to Strava, and it's waterproof. It also counts laps in the pool.

JimInBCS said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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The Pilot said:

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Dad-O-Lot said:

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If GPS is not a requirement, I recommend the Nokia Steel HR.

---

For a thread about a running watch, GPS is pretty important though.

---

I typically run with my phone, so I use it for GPS.

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If you run with your phone, not sure why you need a watch when you can upload your run directly to Strava.

I've had a 935xt for the past few years. If you use the garmin running chest strap it gives lots of data in addition to HR...like height of stride. Was kinda cool looking at the data for a while, but now I typically upload to Strava and look at the data there (not all of it transfers). I like the 935xt because the gps works well, data automatically uploads to Strava, and it's waterproof. It also counts laps in the pool.

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because my phone doesn't have a heart rate monitor.

The watch also tracks sleep as well as swimming and other activities.

I didn't want to pay for or wear a chest strap monitor and didn't want to pay more than $200. The watch also tracks sleep which is a plus.

I just couldn't find something under $200 which had both a heart rate monitor and GPS. The GPS was the less important of the two to me.

Watch is the best way to go in my opinion...but if it's the heart rate monitor that's presently holding you up on just using the phone there may be a workaround.

Aggie friend of mine uses his phone while biking. He records the ride directly to strava from the phone, and the strava app picks up data from his cadence sensor, power meter, and heart rate monitor. I think many running apps for your phone (strava included) have the ability to pick up data from a heart rate monitor. If you have a smartphone it most likely can pick up the data you require.

All that being said...consider a garmin with heart rate strap instead.

I found a solution that works for me.

I bought the Nokia Steel HR for activity tracking and Heart Rate Monitor, and then carry my phone when I jog for GPS support.

I have the polar m430 and use it for running, biking, and swimming. For GPS and heart rate, i love it. When you compare the features of this to an equivalent Garmin for a similar price it wins hands down.

I wish their swim features worked better, especially for outdoor, but i can track laps for time.

It does have a smart notifocations, but my samsung galaxy looses connection with it a fair amount.

Just a heads up that HeartRateMonitorUSA has the Garmin certified refurbished 935 right now for $314.99!

That's the cheapest I've ever seen on this watch. My Fenix 3's GPS crapped out a few months ago and I've been waiting for a deal so I pulled the trigger. I've bought 2 Garmin refurbs in the past and both came in brand new condition and lasted forever.

https://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/products/garmin-forerunner-935-gps-watch-manufacturer-certified-refurbished?variant=4122205192213&dfw_tracker=9876-4122205192213&gclid=CjwKCAjw_IPcBRAjEiwAl44QkYmahXa18-Dd8-NmwuD5Qu8JIHsUdQ2uH0bmviu9GEJ2n6aCTI0UEhoCDnMQAvD_BwE