Garmin Fenix 5x ultimate tips and tricks user guide

This is the Garmin Fenix 5x tips and tracks guide. I have had both the Garmin Fenix 5x and the Fenix 5 for several months now and put them through extensive testing to see which one is best. Check out the video to help set up the Fenix 5 series to give you better battery life, maps and user experience.

If you follow this Garmin Fenix 5x tips and tracks guide I will help you setup up the Garmin Fenix 5x to give you a better experience and improve the battery life, maps and many other features

Watch the Garmin Fenix 5x tips and tricks on YouTube

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Garmin Fenix 5x Profile setup

Setting up the profile on the Garmin Fenix 5x is very simple and if you already have a Garmin connect profile because you a Garmin fitness product its even easier. But you need to watch out for a few settings to get the best out of the data post workout. Make sure the following is set correctly and regular updated

Age

Weight

Height

Also remember to check the resting heart rate and check this matches what the resting HR you have recorded. You can do this by going to

Settings

User profile

Heart rate

Check that you have a resting heart rate in here, use the one its recorded or if you know what it is yourself enter it now

Garmin Fenix 5x Apps and widgets

The Garmin Fenix 5x comes with a boatload of activity profiles such as running, cycling, swimming and many more. But what a number of people don’t know is that the Garmin Fenix 5x comes with a number of other profiles hidden behind a menu in the Activity profile menu

All you need to do is goto the activity menu and then scroll all the way to the bottom and select add. You will then be presented with a number of activities you can add. You can also recorder them and take ones off

I suggest when it comes to the widgets that you have these set to the ones you use regular. You can again add and remove these by going to

Settings

Widgets

You can then make the changes from there

Garmin Fenix 5x Data screens

The Garmin Fenix 5x is very detailed when it comes to the data it presents on the screen and you can have unto 4 data points and 7 screens. My strongest advice is before you go out for a run, bike ride or whatever activity you do is to set the data screens up. My tip is to have the information you need at a glance on the first screen, this was if you are on the bike or running at pace you can quickly see the information you need quickly.

Garmin Fenix 5x Backlight

The backlight is important not only to see the screen clearly but if you set the screen backlight brightness you can save a lot of power and improve the battery. To change the settings you simply go to

Settings

System

Backlight

You will then be presented with a “during activity” and “watch mode” simply change to these settings to help with better battery life performance

During Activity

Keys “on”

Alerts “on”

Gestures “on”

Timeout “15 secs”

Brightness “20%”

Watch mode

Keys “on”

Alerts “on”

Gestures “on”

Timeout “30 secs”

Brightness “70%”

The Garmin Fenix 5x is very detailed when it comes to the data it presents on the screen and you can have unto 4 data points and 7 screens. My strongest advice is before you go out for a run, bike ride or whatever activity you do is to set the data screens up. My tip is to have the information you need at a glance on the first screen, this was if you are on the bike or running at pace you can quickly see the information you need quickly.

Garmin Connect

The Garmin connect app has a App Store and whilst its not as vast as the Apple App Store or Googles store it does have some good apps, widgets and watch faces. Its worth checking out to see if you can find a app or watch face that will improve things for you.

Garmin fitness watch alternative: Checkout the Amazfit Stratos review

Garmin Fenix 5x Sensors

The Garmin Fenix 5x has the ability to pair to ANT+ for a variety of sensors along with Bluetooth for chest HR monitors. I have mine attached to a host of different sensors from power-meters, speed and Cadence sensors. I also use mine in the gym with equipment such as wattbikes and collect power, speed and cadence data.

The biggest tip I can give you in this area is to rename the sensor to something that you associate with that gym equipment once you have paired it. The reason being is that ANT+ sensors identifies are normally just numbers and renaming it to something that easily identifies the equipment makes like easy when using multiple gym stations.

Garmin Fenix 5x GPS and GLONASS

People have been complaining of the GPS accuracy of the Garmin Fenix 5 series. I have personally not had many issues with it and I have made a video about my thoughts.

My top tip is to turn on GPS and GLONASS together to increase accuracy and this needs to be done for each activity profile that supports GPS tracking. So if you set it for running and you also want it for cycling ect.

Todo this

When you are in the activity you want to enable for GLONASS

Long press left menu button

Bike settings

Scroll down to GPS

Enable GPS and GLONASS

Garmin Fenix 5x Maps and Navigation

The Garmin Fenix 5x comes with navigation and mapping capability and in the US the maps come with contours and this is particular useful for hikers to understand elevation changes. However in the UK and Europe the maps don’t include contours and you need to purchase maps from Garmin to have them.

Below is a link to a article that shows you how to install third party maps with contours for the fraction of the price that Garmin charge

Must read: Garmin Edge 1030 release date

Garmin Fenix 5x Watch faces

The Garmin Fenix 5x allows you to customise the watch faces with either the preloaded watch faces or from the Garmin Connect app store. My top tip to save battery is to use a watch face that does not have much animation. So try and choose a watch face that does not have things like a seconds hand going around or constantly moving graphics. These types of animations decrease the battery life and having a watch face that is static will help with battery performance.

The Garmin Fenix 5x comes with navigation and mapping capability and in the US the maps come with contours and this is particular useful for hikers to understand elevation changes. However in the UK and Europe the maps don’t include contours and you need to purchase maps from Garmin to have them.

Below is a link to a article that shows you how to install third party maps with contours for the fraction of the price that Garmin charge

Garmin Fenix 5x Update

Whilst the Garmin Fenix 5x does have a auto update function I have found sometimes that it does not always keep things up to date and you have to plug into a computer to get an update. This is true in regards the map updates and I have found plugging into my Mac once a week and connecting to Garmin Express I am getting regular updates and it certainly helps with performance and battery life