The other day, I met up with a work colleague and caught up with her for a bit; we chatted about running, like we always do, when I saw it.
Her watch.
Until that moment, I was perfectly content with my Garmin Forerunner 235. I am a simple person and don’t often splash out for the latest and greatest. My Garmin Forerunner 235 was three years old and still going strong.
I am happy with my Forerunner 235. In fact, I love my watch so much, I wear my running watch every day to work, to sleep – and if I’m honest, it’s with me more than my phone.
But I kept thinking about the watch. Dreaming about it. Talking myself out of it. So, naturally I started researching it.
Research
Like with most tech things, I did a ton research over the last month in an effort to convince myself I didn’t need the latest and greatest. I checked review sites, blogs, youtube reviews, and at first the features – and the price – were a bit much.
The Garmin 5S and the Garmin 5S Plus start around £299 and go up to over £600. Given I had managed to find my Garmin Forerunner 235 on sale several years ago for less than £180, this was a much higher price point than I usually liked to spend running watches.
I previously had the Garmin 620 and before that, the Garmin Forerunner 45 – so while I’m not the most prolific watch consumer out there, I have had my fair share of GPS watch experience over the last ten years or so.
What I want from a running watch
The smartwatch craze was never something that appealed to me, but after wearing my 235 everyday for the last few years, I became accustom to seeing my step count, checking on my sleep cycle, and monitoring heart rate.
The one thing that I didn’t like about the 235 was its rather sporty appearance, especially as I have a job in a conservative finance environment; I was more at ease wearing smarter watches.
Additionally, my 235 also started activities without meaning to. A lot.
Garmin 5S vs Garmin 5S Plus vs Garmin Forerunner 235
I narrowed down my research to the Garmin 5S and Garmin 5S Plus. I couldn’t make my decision so I ordered both and compared them to my 235.
Left to right: Garmin 235, Garmin 5S, Garmin 5S Plus
Size-wise, you can see the 235 on the far left is the largest face and the 5S and the 5S Plus have around the same size face. Comparatively, both the 5S and the 5S Plus weighed a bit more than the 235. Between the 5S and the 5S Plus, the 5S weighed more.
Looking at the watch faces, I also liked the sleeker face of the 5S Plus than the 5S. It looks more fashion-forward than the 235, something I noted above is important to me because I wear it all the time.
(I have a small/small-medium wrist and small hands for reference.)
| Forerunner 235 | Fenix 5S | Fenix 5S Plus | |
  |   |   | |
| Watch face | 1.23″ (31.1 mm) diameter | 1.1” (27.94 mm) diameter | 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter |
| Weight | 42 g | 67 g | 65 g |
| Battery life | Up to 9 days in watch mode; up to 11 hours in GPS mode with HRM | Up to 9 days in smartwatch mode (depending on settings), up to 14 hours in GPS mode, and up to 35 hours in UltraTrac™ battery saver mode | Smartwatch: Up to 7 days GPS: Up to 11 hours GPS and Music: Up to 4.5 hours UltraTrac™ mode: Up to 25 hours |
| Wrist-based HR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Sports | Running, Cycling | Running, Cycling, Swimming, Outdoor | Running, Cycling, Swimming, Outdoors + more |
| Memory | 200 hours of activity data | 64 MB (54 MB available) | 16 GB |
| Music | ✅ | ||
| Garmin Pay | ✅ | ||
| Smart notifications | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Clearly, the 235 still does a lot for a running watch and the 5S and 5S Plus have similar features. The battery lives are all similar and, from experience, my 235 would last me a week with multiple activities (bike, running, strength) a week.
My heart wanted the 5S Plus, but I couldn’t make up my mind.
So I took to Twitter and asked for #Running Twitter’s help.
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Running twitter’s verdict
Running Twitter came back with various opinions – some who love it, others with advice to go for cheaper versions, quite a few loved their Fenix 5S (or 5S Plus).
However, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
So I bought it.
Garmin Fenix 5S Plus review
The Fenix 5S Plus is a running watch that is starting to catch up with the more stylish wearables like Fitbit, where you can change straps and even buy designer jewellery to camouflage its sporty intent. Garmin has, in my opinion, caught up to Fitbit with the Fenix 5S Plus. The watch is more fashionable and style-conscious and the band is changeable, which is appealing to me since I wear it everyday.
The battery life, so far, has been no more than four days with use of GPS tracking at least one or two times a day of at least 30 minutes each. I am currently trying to turn off the altimeter and a few other trackers due to this
The number of activities to choose from is amazing – almost overwhelming. I love it. I have used at least five different activities and found the tracking to be exception, especially when running, which is its main use.
The syncing with the Garmin Connect app on my phone remains as easy as it was with the Forerunner 235 and automatically updates my steps, sleep, and activities with ease.
The price is only thing I disliked, but when compared to smartwatches like Apple Watch (starts at £399), it’s not too far out in price – and Garmin does running well. (Apple, not so much.)
Believe it or not, there is an even more expensive Fenix 5S and Fenix 5S Plus as they offer a sapphire version. However, this wasn’t worth it for me and I instead opted to buy a screen protector instead.
Overall, I am very pleased with the watch so far and working to get a longer battery life out of it. I am also working to set up my Garmin Pay and Music capabilities for testing in the next few weeks while I train for the 2019 Chicago Marathon.
What running watch do you use? Do you have the Fenix 5S or the 5S Plus – what’s your battery life tips or tricks?
Let me know in the comments!
Running
I’m a Chicagoan living and working in London who loves running and currently training for my 14th marathon. I’m a keen bargain hunter, slow-cooker enthusiast, and DIYer who blogs about the meeting the challenges I set for myself.
