Garmin Fenix 5 Plus: Design
As mentioned above, there’s nothing new to see on the outside beyond a few new strap colors. In fact the only noteworthy cosmetic change in this year’s lineup is on the 5S Plus, which has had its screen bumped up to the same size as the middle model, making those TOPO maps more easily readable.
That screen is 1.2 inches with a 240 x 240 resolution, by the way, the same as last year’s Fenix 5, which just about gives those color maps enough room for visibility. The watch comes in either stainless steel or black diamond-like carbon, with those exposed screws unashamedly bare for that industrial - somewhere ugly, if we’re honest - look.
The Plus also measures 47mm across and 15.8mm thick, weighing 86g. It’s hefty by today’s standard of sports watch, but remember that Garmin has packed a lot in here; the Fenix range is still one of the most feature-laden sports watches on the market.
All three watches have the same physical dimensions as their Plus-less counterparts, and for those who want something smaller, go for the 5S Plus. I don’t mind the size of this one, but the weight can be a bit of a nuisance when running as it tends to want to bounce around a lot. Thankfully Garmin’s silicon straps are nice and comfortable even when fastened tight.
All of the controls are done via the three buttons on the left hand side of the watch and two down the right. Unlike the Vivoactive 3 Music, there’s no touchscreen option here.
Garmin Fenix 5 Plus: Sports tracking and maps
This is the meat of it. This is what you came for. If you’re already an owner of a Fenix watch, you’ll know that these devices are exhaustive in their range of trackable activities. Running, cycling and swimming are table stakes for today’s sports watches, but the Fenix 5 Plus can track everything from golf to yoga, to stand-up paddleboarding. As I said in the 5X review: if it can’t track it, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. And if your activity is nowhere to be found among Garmin’s pre-set list, you can build a custom one.
The 5 Plus has built-in GPS and a heart rate sensor on the back, equipping it to track those all-important metrics during your workout. Data screens can also be customized on the watch, so you can choose to see only what you want. You can also set auto laps, a metronome, and customize alerts. However there are limits here when it comes to customizing workouts, and when it comes to creating custom training programs, you can build them on the Garmin Connect site and have them synced to your watch.
One of the key new features here is full topographic maps, something that only the 5X got in last year’s lineup. This means you no longer need to opt for the most expensive, and biggest, of the three to get this feature. If you’re an avid hiker, this is a big deal, but note that you will forego the pulse ox acclimation feature. This gives you a measurement of your blood oxygen saturation ((how much haemoglobin is carrying oxygen), which varies as you rise to higher altitudes.
TOPO maps, for those not in the know, are more rich in detail and better at representing what’s actually there. That includes displaying vegetation, buildings, streams and, importantly, contour lines. Garmin has also added Galileo satellite tracking to the existing GPS and GLONASS, improving satellite coverage in more challenging areas, like cities and canyons.
TOPO maps means you also get Garmin’s Trendline popularity routing, which will pick out popular courses nearby. We’ve tried this both when hiking in the hills and in more urban areas, and in both cases it managed to come up with options. You can set these as round trip routes, but only for running and cycling activities.
Another benefit of TOPO maps is being able to search for points of interest on the watch, and then have it route you to them. You can also put in the coordinates or set it to point at a location you’ve saved. For finding nearby restaurants or entertainment spots - both options Garmin gives you - it’s much more fiddly than just pulling out your phone, but say you’re out of service range and in search of somewhere to rest, this feature could be handy.
Let’s talk sport tracking accuracy. Heart rate is more or less as expected, and the story hasn’t really changed since last year. We took the 5 Plus out on a few runs and heart rate performance was largely good against the Polar H10 chest strap, but certainly not perfect. Take the below example, where we were doing some interval training. For the first climb, the 5 Plus was struggling to get a good read, resulting in quite a dramatic difference, before it latched on for the rest of the workout.
It also took the 5S Plus a little longer to rise and fall, meaning it sometimes didn’t drop as low as the chest strap during those rests. It wasn’t massively off, but 5bpm still is a noticeable margin.
GPS tracking is still pretty good across the range. Garmin’s improved this tech considerably over time, and while there are still some diversions or blips in the results, they’re relatively minor.
We should also touch on performance measurements, which anyone in training should find valuable. These can be access via a widget and display your training status, training load, recovery time, VO2 Max and more. You’ll need to work out for a week with the watch to get this up to snuff, but this is useful stuff if you’re training for a marathon: there’s a race predictor that will give you estimated times for different marathon lengths based on your current performance.
Garmin Fenix 5 Plus: Music, Garmin Pay and smart features
Slowly but surely, Garmin Pay and music streaming, two relatively recent features, are spreading across all of the Garmin sports watch family. The Fenix Plus trio are the latest to get them.
Garmin’s put aside enough space for about 500 songs on the watch. To get them on there, you’ll need to use the Garmin Express desktop program. Sadly, you can’t sync them from your phone, unless you happen to be an iHeartRadio subscriber. Garmin has formed a partnership with the service to let you sync your offline playlists to the watch, via a downloadable Connect IQ app. Deezer support has been promised too, but is yet to surface.
Playing music from the watch is pretty straightforward once you know how. A long push of the down button while in an activity will bring up the playback menu where you can skip and pause tracks, or change your playlist to something else. You’ll also be prompted to connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones when you want to play something. I paired both the Apple AirPods and a pair of Libratone headphones with no problem.
Garmin Pay is the other new skill the Fenix 5 Plus has learned. In the smartphone app, under the device options, you’ll see an option for Garmin Pay. Tap it and you’ll be prompted to set up your wallet, and Garmin will ask if you’re adding a Visa or Mastercard. Once you’ve added your card details you’ll need to verify it. Annoyingly our bank, HSBC, isn’t yet supported, so we haven’t been able to try this out yet.
When it is working, you’ll be asked to enter a pin, using the buttons on the watch, before making a payment. It’s not as elegant as tapping a fingerprint on a smartphone, but it does the job, so long as the store you’re using it at supports NFC.
Then there are your widgets and notifications. Scrolling up and down from the main watch face will run you through all of your widgets which, out of the box, include notifications, calendar, weather report, music, compass, performance measurements, stress (which is tracked using heart rate variability and a graph of your heart rate throughout the day.
Finally, let’s talk battery life. Of the new lineup, the 5X Plus is the only one to actually get a battery increase. In fact, the Fenix 5 Plus has less battery and its non-Plus counterpart. Sadly that’s just a fact of having all these new features. Garmin now predicts you’ll get 18 hours in GPS mode, down from 24 hours, and 42 hours in Ultratrac (which increases battery by decreasing quality of data recording), down from 60. We’ve certainly noticed the battery draining a big faster after workouts, and music streaming is only going to aggravate it.
It’s still decent, and with intermittent use for workouts between bouts of wearing it as a smartwatch, you’ll get a few days of use. But if you’re planning to have this as your trusty hiking companion, be warned that battery performance has been compromised a bit.
Garmin Fenix 5 Plus
Garmin refreshes its Fenix 5 with some welcome new features. Full TOPO maps give this more appeal to explorers of the great outdoors, while new smart features will enhance workouts by letting you leave your phone at home. And of course it's still overflowing with sports modes, offering the most comprehensive tracking for runners, cyclers, hikers and golfers. It's not without faults, but the Fenix 5 Plus is still the sports watch to beat.
Hit
- Full TOPO maps
- Garmin Pay, onboard music
- Overflowing with sports modes
Miss
- Optical HR still iffy
- Controls still sometimes confuse
- Battery life gets a cut
