So i bought the gshock this may, wanting to upgrade from my protrek to the gshock community. At first i loved it, its “bare” aspect, not being a smartwatch but more a rugged watch with smart capabilities. Then i started to have doubts. Mostly because of two things : the cheap plasticky feeling of the watch and the poor software (watch as well as app). About the cheap plasticky aspect, i thought a gshock would feel robust, unbreakable, have some metal in it etc… However the gbd h2000 has no metal whatsoever, and feels like a toy. The plastic bezel protection feels hollow when i tap on it, not even like it’s full, but more a flimsy plastic shell, not a robust feeling at all. The software side is even worse … The app feels like Casio hired only one person to work on it, the ux and interface are really really bad, it’s slow, when you launch it the first screen you’re presented with is some ads, not even your watch screen or your health stats, it’s just really bad. The watch itself also feel half assed, the text is sometimes misaligned, some obvious usability issues are present everywhere (for example when you want to set a new timer length and want it to stay you need to do it in the app)… All in all i started to have doubts that maybe i should have gone with Garmin instead. I went and checked the instinct 2 solar, and was surprised to see that despite it being miles ahead software side (and i mean thousands of miles ahead) it felt even more like a cheap plastic toy. At least the Casio feels cheap but has some style to it, which the Garmin doesn’t. But really if style is not an issue, for a lower price you get a waaaaay more complete watch with the instinct. Then i decided to go with a second hand fenix 7 solar. At first i was in love with it. It felt sturdy, the software of the watch as well as the app are just on another planet. I was ready to sell my gshock but slowly, when i looked at my Casio, i started to feel like trying it on again. The fenix also started to show its weak points with time. For example, the watch has weather on it which could be cool except… The weather is never right. And from Reddit as well as the Garmin forums I’m not the only one with this complaint: it gathers the weather informations from the nearest airport which, if you don’t live next to one, means you’ll get informations that are mostly just plain wrong. Then there’s the solar widget which gives the amount of lux gathered. It’s fun but completely useless as there’s no way to know what battery you saved or gained, only the kilo lux, that means nothing all in all. I made an experiment and the watch, when in plain sunlight for a whole day on battery saving mode, gained 1% battery. Might as well skip the solar option and get a better screen. (To be fair i can’t compare it with the Casio as i did the same experiment with my Casio one week in the sun and i don’t gain one single bar, however a bar equals to 20% so i don’t know if i gained 6% or 19% or just nothing). Then there’s the feeling of the watch. Me who thought the lightness of the Casio was a downside, now i have the fenix on my wrist with some weighty metal to it, i need to tighten the strap more for it not to move in my wrist, which leads to some slight skin rash from time to time. And the fenix silicone strap when i put it on our remove it, tend to take some arm hairs with it while the plastic strap of the Gshock is so much easier to put on and remove. Then the most important aspect of the fenix that i didn’t like is also it’s strength: it’s way more complete… But for me who already tries hard to reach less to my phone to lose less moments with my kids, i started to look more and more at my watch… Curious about the sun gathered, about the body battery left, the weather (even if it’s always wrong i tend to look at it from time to time), taking health snapshots that i never will use, activating the workout app every time i workout and being amazed that the watch detected by itself that i did some push-ups, however knowing i will never have any use of those stats… Also i used it while hiking with the kids and i spent more time looking at the watch even with it’s GPS losing signal and drifting away as soon as i was under trees or close to houses, instead of enjoying the scenery and playing with my kids at “who find the next turn sign first”. All in all, for most of the aspects i thought i would need this watch for, i took my cell to check them anyway (weather and hike navigation). In the end, i decided to put the fenix back on sale and i can now enjoy the gshock with peace of mind, knowing that some of the things i hated about it, finally, are what made me go back to it (even though i really would love the app to be cleaner and the watch faces to be a little more aligned).