The year is almost coming to a close, nothing will stop the ticking forward of time, even the year 2020. I think no one is in disagreement on what a year 2020 has been. It has upended normal life as we know it, with the entire tourism and aviation industry being upended with no end in sight for their troubles. Even with a vaccine in sight now, the logistical undertaking to administer the vaccine widely will mean that COVID-19 will linger among us for a long time.
Being in tiny Singapore, we have been fortunate to have handled the situation effectively besides during April and May. What COVID-19 has instead done is to show that Singapore needs the world to be open, our very survival depends on it. Without an influx of tourists, many businesses have become unviable overnight, and hotels, hostels and tour operators are pretty much bleeding money trying to survive until the tourists come back again. I don't see this happening anytime soon, not with all the social unrest that has been unearthed by COVID-19. Travel and regular leisure activities will be in the back of people's minds for at least a few years to come.
Meanwhile, being stuck in such a tiny country has also presented a set of challenges that everyone living here faces. There just isn't very much to do in this country, not least with many activities being restricted in some form due to 'social distancing' or otherwise outright disallowed. So, I took to a particular activity that is both cheap (or not) and good for health; walking. Since April when we started having lockdowns in my country, I've been going on long, long walks to pass time and also preserve my sanity. One should never underestimate the effect of not having anything to do on the days off work. A mind cooped up at home makes for an irritable person.
This is where the Garmin Fenix 6 comes in. After walking for about 2 months and using my phone to track my walks, I wanted something that would allow me to look at my surroundings more and my smartphone less, and down the rabbit hole I went. I settled on a used Garmin Forerunner 945 initially, and it did serve me very well indeed. The topo maps on the Garmin are a delight to use, letting you know with turn-by-turn directions how to get to your destination. I have taken walks anywhere from 10km to nearly 40km and the topo maps are an excellent guide.
But once you're in the rabbit hole, it only goes deeper and deeper. Come November, I was no longer pleased with the Forerunner 945. It performed well, but physically was not what I expected out of a watch. It was really light since it was completely constructed of plastic, and that was really good when going out for a run since I don't feel the weight on my wrist, but it didn't feel like a quality watch. So what's the really expensive solution to add some weight to your wrist? I still very much liked the implementation of maps by Garmin, as well as the battery life a Garmin offers. No other smart watch using an OLED will have a two week battery life, so it was going to be a Garmin again. At the time, the Descent Mk2i was already available but it costs something like SGD2,300, enough to buy an iPad and the Fenix 6, so that was out of the question. I had always liked the Descent line of watches since I think I will one day use the diving features. The price tag though was something I could not bear, especially not for a smart watch that will be obsolete in three years.
Ah, as luck would have it.. 11.11 sales came soon enough and the Garmin official store on Shopee was having the Fenix 6 on sale for SGD 838. After further rebates from my credit card, I could have the Fenix 6 for about close to SGD 800. Still a mighty high price for a smart watch, but also based on the resale value that I saw Fenix 6 was capable of, I felt comfortable making the purchase.
I will not go too much into the details and specifications of the watch itself, but share more on my experience in using the Fenix 6. First, what's the difference from the Forerunner 945 and second, what value does a Garmin smart watch add to my life? Truth is, if you already have a Forerunner 945, the Fenix 6 is almost identical functionally. Everything you can do with the Fenix 6, you also can with the Forerunner 945. You have topo maps, music and NFC payments on both (albeit reduced music storage on the 945), and the Forerunner 945 will do it for a significant lower cost. The real difference is in the construction of the watches themselves. The 945 is unapologetically plastic, this is part of the draw of the 945, so that the weight is kept down and isn't a hindrance in a triathlon. The Fenix 6 is composed of a steel bezel and a steel caseback, which sandwiches the middle part which is made of plastic.
Essentially, the price difference between a Fenix 6 and 945 is entirely down to the physical construction of the watch, and the Forerunner 945 at about SGD 700 and the Fenix 6 at about SGD 900, I do feel that asking an extra SGD 200 is a lot for simply making the bezel and caseback steel instead of plastic. It is what it is, Garmin still makes a killing with their smart watches and this is how their price structure is, but they've certainly been going upwards in price which I do not like one bit.
So what does owning a Garmin do for you? Well, I got into the habit of taking long walks especially during the lockdown period in April where people weren't allowed to gather in groups and shops deemed non-essential were closed for a full two months. In that period, it truly was a challenge finding ways to spend leisure time and I took up a cheap and healthy activity of taking walks of upwards of 10km. I thought it would be good to have topo maps so that I didn't have to take out my phone at every turn (really an expensive solution to a first world problem) and in this regard, the Garmin did very well. The screen on the Fenix 6 is large enough to make it useful in knowing how far ahead to go before a turn is needed. Besides that, I tracked all my walks and it does give a certain sense of satisfaction to see your history especially when I went on longer walks (my furthest walk was about 38km).
I've also been running much more since COVID and I use my Garmin to track all these runs too. It's nice to be able to see your heart rate, pace, and other metrics that the Garmin tracks. Of course, there are much cheaper solutions to seeing such basic run info, your smartphone would be good enough if you just wanted to track pace. Rather, it's the complete package of having a watch that tracks everything, and does topo maps and also has some basic smartwatch functions that makes it such a fancy gadget that I felt like owning one. Well, in this regard, I am totally a gear junkie and I do read up on gear to acquire. I felt the Garmin is pretty much the most 'do-it-all' watch available. The maps would be especially helpful oversees if I didn't want to keep taking my phone out (and of course 2020 happened, smashing any hopes of travel). Most smartwatches will be able to do GPS maps, but I didn't want to be charging my phone all the time. <To be continued>
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