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My wife and I do quite a bit of walking , I use a Garmin Oregon 700 for navigating and recording routes . I have been fancying a Fenix 5 or 6 with maps but am not sure if the screen size would make navigating tricky . . There isn’t anything wrong with the Oregon , other than it being a bit chunky and I could use the Fenix for the bike too. Has anyone got any experience or opinions to offer ?
I’ve got a 5s (smaller again) - it’s pretty good for navigation as it tells you if you’re off the track you’re trying to follow. Best with well defined footpaths rather than just wandering in the middle of nowhere
I'll have to disagree with @dashed - I've got a Fenix 5 and it's crap for navigating. The screen's too small, it's a breadcrumb view (so no actual maps), and to make matters worse the damn watch has a habit of hanging on me when I try to use it for navigation...
I should say it's great otherwise: the only complaint I have about it is navigation!
So I ended up buying an Edge 530, which has the additional advantage of being nice to use on the bike. As a handheld navigator it works well, with a decent size screen and proper maps. FWIW I also bought a bright red rubber case for it, just in case I drop it.
I've got a fenix 6 Pro, which has proper maps (but I thought the fenix 5 also had proper maps) and I used it for navigating round new routes, in my opinion it works really well. I either plot a route in garmin connect or download someone else's gpx file, then. The watch guides me round it turn by turn. It works really well.
My plan was to fall back to using my phone if the screen on the watch was too small but so far I haven't had to do that.
Obviously a bigger screen is better, but surprisingly the watch works well enough.
No problems using my Fenix 6 Pro for navigation.
Fenix 5X Plus is great for navigation. Proper maps. I like how you can overlay the course screen with two work-out metrics (I use heart rate and distance).
Not all Fenix 5/6 have full mapping so pick your variant carefully.
I have a 5X plus, with talkie toaster maps on, and it's great for maps and navigation. Use it all the time when I'm in an area I'm unsure of. Stops me having to look at a map or a phone
i'm off on a run tomorrow. Few miles away, on paths I've never used before. No qualms about just going and relying on the watch to see me around for an hour or so
I've got the fenix 5 x.
For downloading rotes for nav its great. If you miss a turn, the map is good enough to find your way back on course.
Im using it for touring and on 100mile routes I only use 50% of the battery and it charges in no time. The only issue is if the route is too big, it loses accuracy as not all points will be shown. I break the routes into 50mile segments and its fine.
For planning it'll be pretty crap so I still use garmin connect, komoot or cycle.travel for that. Cycle travel is particularly good as it will send the route you've planned direct to your garmin account.
Fenix 6 Saphire here. No way I would trust it to navigate in the mountains. I still send it a gpx of my route though. Only as a back up. Too small and fiddly with gloves on at this time of year. I have it on jacket mode and the tactical activity so grid ref is always available to confirm on paper map. For the bike way too small to be of much use in an unknown area if used as only navigating tool. Keep the Oregon and get an Instinct. Wish I had stayed with my Instinct. The Fenix isn't worth the extra for me. I'll keep it until they move the altimeter and barometer on the Instinct then I'll be going 'back'.
5 plus is okay for navigation if you're following a route. Wouldn't want to use it without a route.
Yeah I think it depends what is meant by navigating as to whether a fenix is acceptable or not.
If you mean following a pre planned gpx route then I find it fine as per my post up above. If navigating means for using it to find your way without without a pre planned route loaded then the screen is probably too small for that, although I guess its better than nothing.
Scrolling the map isn't too challenging, nor is creating a route on the device. Can be slow to calculate though.
Definitely practice before using it in anger as some aspects are not intuitive (ie typical Garmin...)
I’ve created and followed a route ok on a 5plus, and it’s fine for that, wouldn’t want to rely on it for navigating around somewhere unfamiliar though
Should have been clearer in my post - good for following pre-loaded gpx routes but wouldn’t use it for anything else. Not great in the mountains where there are often two paths / sheep trods in similar directions. But for simple nav on obvious footpaths then no issues.