Grab a Garmin fenix 5 Plus if you’ve got a mountain to climb

With one of Garmin’s new fenix 5 Plus watches, you’ll be able to ‘climb ev’ry mountain, ford ev’ry stream, follow ev’ry rainbow’.

The Garmin fenix 5 Plus range.

“Climb ev’ry mountain, ford ev’ry stream, follow ev’ry rainbow”. Those famous lyrics from The Sound of Music aptly describe three features of Garmin’s new fenix 5 Plus watches, for rugged outdoor types.

Garmin appears cock-a-hoop about the fenix 5 Plus’s wrist-based Pulse Ox Acclimation sensor that measures blood oxygen saturation levels, which can help if you’re scaling mountain peaks in Peru or the Himalayas.

You’ll be able to “ford ev’ry stream” and even fall in, thanks to the watch’s claimed water resistance to 100m.

And you can “follow ev’ry rainbow” thanks to Garmin’s full-colour topological maps preloaded on all three 5 Plus watch types.

Garmin introduced the feature on its premium cycling computer, the Trendline. Garmin says users find the best trails and running routes from the analysis of billions of kilometres logged by previous Garmin users.

Garmin fenix 5 Plus

Garmin is trying mighty hard to compete in the cutthroat smartwatch market against the likes of Apple Watch, Fitbit and Nike. While last year’s fenix 5 range boasted some great qualities, such as 10-day battery life (provided you didn’t overuse the GPS), there was functionality that made it seem archaic, such as operating it by buttons with long and short presses, and not using a touch screen.

The three models — fenix 5s Plus, fenix 5 Plus and fenix 5X Plus — improve on last year’s without being full-blown reworks.

There’s a tad more stylishness. You can choose either a PVD-coated stainless-steel bezel with a silicone watch band, or a lighter, titanium bezel version with a brushed-titanium bracelet.

All watches have LED backlighting for sunlight readability.

Listening to music on your smartwatch while you’re training in the gym or jogging in the neighbourhood is already a favourite feature of activity watches.

It’s taken time for Garmin to catch on, but now music storage and playback is on both vivoactive and fenix smartwatch models.

Garmin is promising “extra pep in your step” with the storage of up to 500 songs. You can download offline playlists and copy songs from your computer.

Garmin has also introduced its contactless watch payments system, Garmin Pay wallet. After climbing ev’ry mountain, you can visit a summit kiosk and buy a coffee without taking cash or your regular credit cards in your shorts. But you need to have the right card.

In Australia Garmin Pay works with ANZ and NAB Visa, and Bendigo Bank, CBA, Westpac and Latitude Financial Services Mastercard.

Garmin fenix 5s Plus

The fenix 5 Plus range measures and shows your wrist-based heart rate. It also supports Galileo services, which offer better location accuracy. That’s in addition to multi-network satellite services.

Whereas standard location services offer 50 to 100m accuracy, Galileo, now commonplace in smartphones, can deliver an accuracy of less than 1m in good conditions.

You may not have heard about the Galileo satellites service, but it’s available on a swag of smartphones including recent iPhone and Android premium models.

This year’s Garmins offer as little as four hours’ battery life (fenix 5S Plus with GPS on) to as much as 20 days (fenix 5X Plus in smartwatch mode).

Users can track workout stats, measure progress and they can customise their watch with widgets, watch faces and apps.

Should you take a smartphone with you, you can get call, texts and emails on your wrist — depending on the phone model.

Unfortunately, the fenix 5 is not cheap so you’ll need deep pockets and this range is more for those with specialised training interests.

Garmin fenix 5 Plus; fenix 5s Plus; fenix 5X Plus. Price: $999 to $1699