Intro, design and field testing
The idea that we should just "know" our fitness abilities is outdated: the technology exists to rebuild us, though it isn't necessarily cheap. There are a plethora of lower-cost fitness-tracking bands and watches for the aspiring athlete, but the Garmin Forerunner 920XT is something altogether more serious: a powerhouse of a watch that's like a coaching team that sits on your wrist. It's designed to be your perfect companion for running, swimming, cycling or a combination of the three (a triathlon, I think that's called)
So as well as the kind of activity tracking that a band provides – updates on your sleep and daily steps, combined with regular poking to encourage you to do more of the latter – there's also GPS, social connectivity to compare and contrast your activity levels with your fitness buddies and the world at large, plus the option of adding this chic 'n' stylish heart-rate monitor.
All this power comes at a price, mind you: at £390 for the basic unit and another £80 for the heart rate monitor, which also packs an accelerometer for other clever measurements, you're going to have to really want to know everything about your fitness to shell out.
Design
One of the main drawbacks of a GPS-enabled watch has traditionally been its size… and that's not really changed here with the 920XT. It's not unpalatable to wear - I've been happily using it as an actual watch for a couple of weeks - but is much larger than some fitness watches. Garmin's Forerunner 620 is much slimmer for a start, although it's shorn of the swim and cycling compatibility.
The larger size has its advantages, though. Whereas the smaller 920 is touch-based, this has big, easy to hit buttons on the front and side, which are a cinch to find without looking when belting through a brisk 10K.
Putting it through its paces
One of the key elements here is the ability to accurately track your runs, and the 920XT has proven to be one of the most in-depth watches I've ever tested. Having spent a long time with its predecessor, the 910XT, I'd already learned that almost every statistic is on offer here, if you're willing to dig around in the menus.
So whether it's laps, average speed, heart rate (with the optional strap), alerts to keep you on pace or even when the gosh darn sun is going to rise, it can all be customised onto the screen, with up to four data fields per display.
The key question many ask with a running watch is: how quickly does it get a GPS fix? The 920XT uses a Bluetooth link to your smartphone to build a better database of location info, and this often helps it lock on really quickly – even indoors at times. However when there are a large number of buildings around, it can take an oddly long time to click in.
Overall, the average time taken wasn't terrible by any means - and the smartphone link-up certainly helped with accuracy.
When finally out running, the 920XT was rather strict in its measurement - erring slightly on the stingy side in terms of distance run, I at least always felt confident that I'd completed my distance if I listened to the drill sergeant on my wrist.
It was similarly excellent at tracking cycling, and if you're willing to invest in ANT+ power meters or speed sensors, you'll get a lot more from the watch. It even has the ability to twist into multiple cycling mounts if you're willing to get the screwdriver out (which isn't as onerous a task as you might think) giving you an excellent cycling computer.
Although I wasn't able to test the swimming ability of the 920XT, if it builds on the excellent power of the 910XT you'll easily be able to track your performance in the pool or in open water - although the latter can't really make good use of the GPS tracking as all that pesky H2O gets in the way.
Track fantastic
The Garmin ForeRunner 920XT also offers a number of other treats that will appeal to both the fitness newbie and seasoned pro alike. The simple upgrade is as an activity tracker, being able to tell your steps and then autoplacing you into similar groups online so you can try and run around more than the next person, in order to ascend an ad hoc league table.
The same functionality also tracks sleep, although you have to manually enter your period of slumber and, as always with sleep tracking, once you've got the data it's hard to know what to do with it.
The more advanced stuff is useful too: VO2 Max lets you know how much fitter you're getting, and over time the watch becomes more adept at working out your abilities. It's not perfect, and the predicted race times it generates are more a target than where you are right now in your training, but it's a useful tool for those trying to regain some semblance of fitness as it's automatic.
Swimming
I've used this watch during a triathlon, but a lot of that prep was used for swimming. The watch is pretty good for tracking lengths or working in the open water, but for the latter it's relatively useless at working out how far you've gone.
The GPS is shorted out by the water, so it's a VERY rough approximation of your pace and distance. It's only any use for reminding yourself where you've been.
In the pool, it's different. You'll need to calibrate it to the length of the pool (and irritatingly it's limited to 17m, which won't help those with smaller training pools).
The length tracking is the most useful feature, where it can tell you how many times you've gone up and down the pool. However, I found that if you went over 12 it would invariably miss one here and there, so you'd miss your distance by 25m mostly.
The SWOLF meter is good at tracking your effort / pace by taking an average of how many strokes each length is taking - it takes a while to work out how useful this really is until you've used it multiple times, but it's a decent metric to try to beat.
Again, the Garmin 920XT is great for tracking swimming - it's not super, super accurate and I've no idea why it misses some lengths, but now it's going to have a heart rate monitor that can work in the water, it's going to be supercharged for training.
Battery, app, comparison and verdict.
Battery life and Garmin Connect app
The upgraded battery life over the 910XT and the interactivity with my phone were the two things I really adored about this new watch. I'm happy using it as a watch because, even with a daily hour's run and the all-day activity tracking, it still lasts 4-5 days before needing a charge.
The Connect app is also excellent, bar some annoying and mysterious "server connection" issues that prevented the watch from syncing up on occasion. Once the data is in, you can interact with it in all manner of ways - even setting up "Segments" to let you race other people who have trodden the same course.
This is still better on something like Strava (which you can happily auto connect to this watch) but there's just so much you can use to work out what's going on with you here, without the need to regularly connect the thing to your computer. I think it's a really, really good upgrade.
Comparison
The Garmin ForeRunner 920XT is an excellent watch, but it's expensive, so the competition is pretty minimal at this high level.
Garmin ForeRunner 910XT
Given this inexplicably still costs over £300 to buy, it's not that far off in price from this model, which is a far superior option.
It does have a simpler interface, but at the same time it doesn't do as much - the loss of activity tracking alone makes it hardly worth checking out, although the battery life is arguably greater.
Garmin ForeRunner 620
The 'runner's only' version of the watch packs nearly all the same functionality for a lower cost - although with some of the buttons being on the screen and capacitive, it can be harder to manipulate. However, if you don't need the cycling or swimming elements, or are on more of a budget, it's worth looking at.
Adidas SmartRun
A decent looking watch, but one that doesn't even play in the same league as the Garmin when it comes to battery life or tracking multi sports. It does have a nice tie in with MixRadio, allowing you to download playlists to stream wirelessly on your run, and the web interface is arguably more powerful, but it doesn't pack the punch of the 920XT.
Verdict
The 920XT is one of the best watches Garmin has ever produced, and shoves in a fantastic amount of technology considering it's got such a strong battery life.
We liked
The sheer variety of options mean that you can't really fault this device for anything once you've bitten the bullet and shelled out for it.
Even if it's something a little more left field that you want to track, the 920XT lets you customise so much that you'll easily find a way to monitor it.
And if you just like running with it, the easy to view interface and generally fast GPS lock make it a must have, if you've got the budget.
We disliked
Ah, the issue of cost. It's not cheap, so you'll really need to want it, or have very generous loved ones, when your birthday rolls around.
There are little other niggles too, the main one being a lack of support for Bluetooth chest straps, but largely there's a way around most things you could take umbrage with.
Verdict
If you can afford it, buy it. The Garmin 920XT delivers on nearly all fronts, and while it's larger in the size stakes than some rivals, you're getting a lot of technology in there.
It's not for everyone, and runners who are more casual or more money-conscious should check out the 620 or the Polar M400 as lower-priced options with similar functionality. However, as a do-it-all fitness watch, the 920XT is right at the front of the pack.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1SYiwD0
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