Casio Men Digital Quartz Watch with Plastic Strap DW-H5600-1ER

I had my eye on this watch for a long time and have only recently pulled the trigger. This is the 5th G-Shock I've owned since I've started getting into watches in the past few years; the ones beforehand were the GA-2100, the GBD-H1000, the GW-M5610U and more recently the GA-B2100.This watch, the GW-H5600, is by far and away the greatest I've ever owned.Firstly, the display. This isn't your traditional negative display, it's beautiful and bright. If you haven't seen an MIP, maybe go to your local watch shop to see it up close, or just take my word for it. No quinting, no doubts over the time, it's just there all the time.Secondly, the fact that it's basically the same dimensions as the other squares. I say basically, there's an ever so slight height difference but it's not noticeable on wrist. Crucially, the other dimensions are identical.Thirdly, the feature set and the app. A big bone of contention among a lot of reviewers seem to be the unreliability of the app. I'm happy to say I haven't had any issues with it and everything works perfectly. The sleep tracking is a welcome feature and I love that it links with Strava.The only negatives I have are:- no hourly time signal. Something I love on all my other Casios but it's absent here sadly.- no link to Google Fit for those of us who like that- no independent GPS. The phone link works great but if you want independent GPS, you need to shell out more for the GBD-H2000- no cycling profile. Comes with running and walking but more sports would be welcome in a future update and it could potentially be done via software

I am a long time fan of the 5600 and have a standard solar version and the chrome metal premium model, so when I saw the latest fitness tracker model I was elated, as I do not want all the features of an Apple watch, but something more simple and rugged and would provide basic data such as steps, heart rate and sleep. I ordered despite what I think is a price too high and initially I liked what I saw, however have been sadly let down here on a watch that simply doesn't come up to standard.Dislikes;Yes the screen is positive but still hard to read in dim lightThe screen is too small and hard to see the minute textThe buttons are very hard to press with some having to be pressed 2 or 3 times to activateThe menu is rubbish as to see your steps, probably the most popular info during the day, you have to press the buttons about 9 times to go to the end of the menu! Utterly crazy.Worst of all and the real deal breaker is the app. It is simply not fit for purpose. Not only poorly laid out and clunky, but it constantly fails to connect with the watch and this means whenever you want to look at any data, the app is always about an hour behind the watch.The battery life isn't that good. 4-5 days if you leave heart monitoring on and auto light on wrist movement. Quite poor when the Garmin Instinct (nearest eqv) is 24 days.It sits too high on the wrist as the scan lenses are raised and should be flush.Overall a massive fail by Casio who by the looks of it have cobbled this together using inadequate software from Polar watch company and really have not made a good job of it. The phone needs redesigning, new battery, bigger screen (so much wasted with the border), better battery, slimmer back and much better software app.LikesThe look and feel of the watch as being in most ways a 5600, but that is where it ends.Watch being returned for a refund and buying the Garmin.