Notice that i said my opinion. This entire video is purely subjective and opinions will vary, but i did want to share my opinion because i do think there’s some people out there that might be sharing the same feelings as me and on the fence about what device they want to pick up. It turns out size does matter, but before we get into it, make sure you hit that thumbs up button down below. If you find this video helpful or entertaining and consider subscribing down there, so you don’t miss more videos from me in the future. I want to let you know that i did buy this watch with my own money, but i did get a media discount from garmin. However, this is not a sponsored video in any way and i’m, giving you my honest and unbiased opinion. If you are interested in picking up a garmin fenix 6s or any of the other watches that i show in this video i’ll have links down description for the best pricing available. Those are affiliate links, so if you use them, i get a small commission, but it costs nothing extra to you. Okay, let’s rewind time to about a year ago, where one of the first videos on this channel was about the garmin fenix 6, the 47 millimeter middle of the range one as a refresher there’s, three garmin fenix 6 models, there’s the small one, which is the phoenix 6S, the medium one, which is the phoenix 6 and then the big one, which is the 6x across the board, they’re all very similar and there’s, only a couple of differences between them.
At the time. I was really hung up on the battery numbers, so i ended up picking the middle of the road garmin fenix 6.. I really loved my first garmin fenix 6 and it’s really what brought this channel off the ground. I ran about 1400 miles with that watch. I actually posted a video about my feelings after 1400 miles that i’ll link up here if you’re interested i’m not going to dive too deep on every little feature of the garmin fenix 6s, because it’s so similar to the garmin fenix, 6 and i’ve already kind of Beat that to death on this channel. Instead, i want to focus on explaining why i think the garmin fenix 6s is a better fit for me and what i do in my personal life, because i think it might help some of you out there trying to make a decision between these three models over The past year, i’ve been privileged in being able to try out just about every gps or fitness watch, that’s been launched in 2019 and 2020, and because of that, i started rethinking why i chose the garmin fenix 6 in the first place. At the time i was so hung up on the numbers that i didn’t really think about the form factor too much i mean i have a long history of wearing large watches. I used to wear the garmin fenix 3, the 5x, the 5, and then i moved up to the phoenix 6.
I tried the phoenix 6x for a while i’ve tried a lot of watches. I’Ve also been able to try just about every watch from polar sutto and korros. So i’ve had a wide variety of different form factors on my wrist and it turns out. I actually do care about form, factor and weight when i was wearing the garmin fenix 6. As like a daily driver just in everyday life, when i wasn’t running, i was noticing i would be like whacking it on door frames, i was walking through tight corners or even like doing my laundry. I would hit the machine by accident and would scratch the bezel even like reaching under the couch to get my kids. Toys was kind of a struggle, and one of the most frustrating things for me was actually trying to put on like base layers or jackets. When i was in a race environment and the cup of the jacket would get stuck on the watch and you know, it’d be kind of a struggle again. These are first world problems by a long shot but it’s something to consider if you’re shopping for something that costs so much money. So over time. I started noticing that when i woke up in the morning instead of reaching for the garmin fenix 6, i would start reaching for the foreigner 945 and the garmin foreigner 945 is basically 90 of what the garmin fenix 6 is in a plastic body. That feels just a little bit more low profile on your wrist, even though the numbers suggest that it’s almost the same size, but the foreigner 945 is like 50 grams, where the phoenix 6 is like 85 grams, so it’s significantly heavier.
I know we’re talking about grams here, but you definitely notice it when it’s on your wrist. In particular, i noticed this a lot when i was trying to sleep. I would notice that with the garmin fenix 6, i would scratch my face. Sometimes just sometimes it wasn’t comfortable i’d end up taking it off, and then i don’t get my sleep data, so you’re paying money for something that you’re not getting the most out of anyways time went on and i started wearing the garmin foreigner 945. Basically, as my daily driver and the phoenix 6 started to collect dust a little bit and that’s about when the garmin foreigner 745 was released, and this watch i initially didn’t love because it was just about the same price as the 945, but it had significantly worse Battery life and it didn’t have all the same features like mapping and stuff, but it was smaller. So i actually posted a review comparing the 945 to the 745 and my in that video was just to buy the 945, because you get more for the same amount of money. However, since that video guess what i’ve been reaching for, when i wake up every day, the 7 45, sorry and it’s, purely because of the size, but also because there’s a pandemic right now so i’m, not going hiking in unfamiliar areas where i might need the mapping Functionality or backpacking, where i need long battery life or running long races again when i need long battery life.
However, if i was going hiking or something i would still reach for the garmin 945, because it has mapping and way longer battery life i’m, starting to sound. Like a crazy person with all these watches, but i hope you’re trying to understand what i’m getting at here form factor does matter and because the garmin 745 was a little bit lighter and smaller than the 945. I just preferred to wear it as a daily driver, and that got me thinking if i could take all the features from the garmin 945 and cram them into a tiny package like the 745. That might be the perfect watch for me and guess what that already exists: it’s the garmin fenix 6s here’s the weird thing about the garmin fenix 6s. I initially wrote this watch off because it didn’t seem like it was marketed towards me all. The marketing material around the garmin fenix 6s always implied. It was for women and that’s kind of weird in today’s day and age. Even stranger, the garmin fenix 6s is the only fenix 6 that comes out of the box. With the menstrual tracker widget installed, i mean all the phoenix 6’s are capable of using that app and widget, but this is the only one that comes out of the box with it installed and turned on little nuances like that are just weird to me. I wish they just kind of left that out anyways, i swallowed my pride and i bought the phoenix 6s and it turns out.
This is the perfect watch for me. Let’S, take a closer look at the size of the phoenix 6s compared to the 945 and the 745.. So if you look closely between the 745 on the left here and the phoenix 6s on the right here, they’re almost exactly the same size, they almost look like the exact same watch other than this awesome strap. I picked up on amazon. I’Ll have a link for that in the description. The lug to lug distance, which is like the distance between my finger to the thumb, is a little bit smaller on the phoenix 6s than the 745, but they’re almost identical flipping them over to the side. Here you can see that they’re just about the same exact thickness and now, when you compare the garmin fenix 6s on the left here to the garmin 945 on the right here, there’s a much bigger difference you can see the 945 is much bigger and it’s. Also, a bit thicker let’s talk features. So to recap the phoenix 6s has all the features of the 745, but it also has the added benefit of way longer battery life. Basically, the only advantage that the garmin foreigner 745 has over the phoenix 6s is price, because the 6s is still 800 on garmin’s website that’s for the sapphire model i have here, but you can find it for around 650 on amazon right now again, i’ll have links Down description, if you’re interested in checking it out so the 6s is about 150 dollars more right now, all right now that we’ve talked about the 745 let’s.
Take that out of the picture. Let’S talk about the 945 for a second. This is a much closer match up. The 400 945 has a lot of what the phoenix 6 can do. Again. I have a whole video comparing the 945 to the phoenix 6 that’s, very detailed and i’ll post that up here. If you want to go through so in this video let’s just talk about the differences between the phoenix 6s and the 945 in particular, so the garmin fenix 6s has a couple of features that the 945 does not. It has power modes which, let you custom, tailor your power needs. So you don’t drain your battery too fast during certain activities. It also has a variety of different mapping themes. The garmin 945 has two major advantages: first, off the battery life 35 hours in gps on time and about two weeks in standby time and again, the phoenix 6s has about 25 hours of gps on time and about nine days of standby time. The second advantage is the price. The 945 is about 500 right now and again, you can find the phoenix 6s for about 650. let’s talk about battery life for a second initially, i thought i needed all the battery life in the world because i run 100 mile distances while that’s true. It is only a fraction of the percentage of the time that i’m spending with my watch. I wear my watch every day 365 days a year and i only run about five races a year.
So should i really base my entire buying decision on those five days? A year that i need that extra battery life i don’t know, i think i could handle charging at mid race. If i really needed to that 25 hours should get me pretty close to the finish line at 100 miler, and it will cover any distance below that. Like a 100k or 50 miler, so yeah added battery life is certainly nice to have, but it’s, not something that’s totally necessary for my life. However, you do need to keep in mind that the battery in these watches does degrade over time when it has a lot of charge cycles on it. So, after a couple of years, this may not be 25 hours. It may be like 18 to 20 hours. You definitely have to keep that in mind for your purchasing decision. There is one other minor con i found about the garmin fenix 6s and let me put the watch on for that one, for whatever reason they chose to use really tiny buttons on this watch and they’re also very low on the profile of the watch. So they’re close to your skin and because they’re close to your skin, when you go to push one, you can actually pinch your skin between your finger and the button it’s kind of frustrating, especially when you’re running and you’re trying to hit a button. Real quick, quick and it pinches, or if you’re wearing gloves it can be kind of difficult.
I find these tiny buttons really weird, because on the 745 that i have here, they have much larger buttons. These are actually the same size as the 945 or the phoenix 6.. Not a deal breaker it’s, just something i’ve noticed i’m sure i’ll get used to it, but i thought i should let you know, and finally, the only other con i can think about on the garmin fenix 6s compared to the phoenix 6 or the 6x. Is that larger display? The garmin fenix 6s has the same 1.2 inch display as the foreigner 945 and the 745. But if you decide to jump up to the garmin fenix, 6 or 6x, you get a 1.3 or 1.4 inch display on paper it’s, a very small difference, but when you have them in person that larger display is pretty nice, especially if you use the mapping function Of the watch again just something to keep in mind when you’re trying to make a decision other than that i’ve been really enjoying the garmin fenix 6s and i might be wearing this, as my daily driver from now on, i’ll be sure to update you. If my opinions on this watch change, but so far so good, if you made it this far into the video you’re, probably as nerdy as me, but that’s, okay, we’re in this together, that was my long winded ramble about what i think about the garmin fenix 6s And my journey through form factor learning over the past year of using various different watches.
I hope you found this video helpful in some way and if you did please give me a thumbs up down below and whack that subscribe button, so you don’t miss more videos from me in the future. I think i’m done now.RZ7bFS6mjOg
