Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had such high hopes for this watch. At this stage, it is a failure - but I am trying /*hard*/ to hang in there with hope as I want to believe Garmin MUST know about all of this and MUST be working on fixes as it is a beautiful looking watch with a lot of potential - but at this stage it is just a "watch". When you review the stand alone Fenix 3 microsite, you would think this is the most amazing GPS based uber watch ever. Great visuals, awesome video (since pulled), fantastic claims: WORLD'S FIRST ADVENTURE SPORT TRAINING GARMIN GPS/GLONASS WATCH, uncompromising performance meets uncompromising design., state-of-the-art in satellite navigation, accurate performance data during running to reliable navigation aids for safe orientation off the beaten track, explorers and alpinists f'nix 3 provides the degree confidence they require to safely reach their destinations while navigating challenging environments, classic ABC outdoor navigation tool set refined with cutting edge GPS + GLONASS satellite navigation technology to provide our highest sensor precision and performance.... need I go on? You can go see yourself. The realities (which are easily verifiable on Garmin's own user forums if you think I lie as some accuracy threads are OVER 150 pages long): -for most USA users, the agreed reality is that the mythical GLONASS sensor being "on" makes already bad GPS results..... worse -GPS is consistently short in distance -barometric altitude you cannot lock in means you have to constantly keep up with manually setting it to make sure your altitude is proper. This means all kinds of manual research (web, topos, trail head markers) on your locations and their altitudes - IF you remember to do so. Forget to set or check your altitude? Sleep over in the wilderness and don't have your location stats? take a different trail? Oh, well, maybe your altitude numbers and climb and descent accumulations are correct. But then again, maybe not. -GPS tracks are shockingly (1) so far off as to not be on the track/trail/road/path you are on - meters off and (2) overly smooths your track so you cut through buildings, miss 90 degree turns, run through oceans, cut straight across single track switchbacks. See attached images to show what you can expect. -Hike, trail run, mountain bike, walk under heavy tree coverage - one of the things it is touted for - forget it. Accuracy and tracking are terrible & take a noticeable further hit. -activity tracker has decided that cycling (RPMs) should count as steps. Sure, so don't go for a walk much in the day? No worries, go ride and it looks like you took 20,000 "steps". And, no way to auto turn off activity tracking if you start an activity like cycling or running. Walking is walking. Cycling is NOT walking. Cycling gathers my data. Activity tracking gathers my steps. Why meld the two? I can go on and on (only 1 alarm, no timezones, limited hot key functions, wifi has never worked for me, don't expect 6 weeks of battery life, cannot arrange the menu, limited activity alarm and lap programming). And you can research my claims yourself. So what does this all add up to for a $500 state of the art most advanced ABC GPS based watch? Data you simply cannot rely on, count on, consider accurate, trust, or use to properly train and assume what was reported was actually true. Having truly poor GPS knocks everything off: pace, speed, averages, altitudes, miles, distance, elevation gains/losses, map tracks, etc. You even have people trying so hard to get this to work and be what we want, that there are the most nonsense efforts being made to try to demonstrate the F3 works better on your right hand than left (I know I know, don't get me started on that - but is shows what Garmin is up against). There has been 1 significant update released. Well, one released and then pulled and then a new release of note bringing us to 3.2. And - nothing improved in the most core areas of competency it is touting itself to be specifically designed for. I really hope the antenna in the bezel they brag about as a huge design advancement is not the actual downfall of this watch - recall Apple's Antennagate anyone? I hope it just comes down to software refining. Either way, it certainly feels like, at this stage, we are all being beta testers for a $500 watch that was not ready for primetime release by one of the biggest names in the industry. I intend to give it a few more months and if they cannot get a handle on it, I am returning it to a very well known outdoor shop where I bought it. p.s. - there are some real upsides to this watch I admit: battery life does seem decent & it charges quick, lots of ways to program - via computer and sync - different workouts for things like Crossfit, it looks great, huge display, sync to the web so you can investigate data, phone notifications (if you want nonsense like that), wifi sync (has not worked for me), and just the potential of what data it can collect and the value of this data IF it were ever to be accurate, widgets and apps you can download and install. EDIT: I give up. This is a truly unreliable, unpredictable, not accurate watch even now with version 4.0 - so 3 updates since i have owned it. Enough is enough. It ends today for me after this watch killed off 8 days of workout data while trying to sync. It might sync. It might not. Wifi might work. It might not. But today, after 20 minutes of trying to get it to sync, it killed all of my workouts off the watch - those are forever lost. Killed off my Activities and some settings as well. I am done. Boxed it back up and taking back to REI. Truly an awful experience.