Can the Garmin X50i Replace Your Shearwater? My Real World Test

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Shearwater dive computers are the
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benchmark by which other technical and
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CCR dive computers are measured. I've
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used Perdix 2, Perdix, Petrel, various
0:11
versions of those in different forms for
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a number of years and I'm super familiar
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with them.
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But what there is on the market now is a
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whole load of other dive computers that
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offer different features to the
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Shearwater and I've been diving with a
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number of them alongside my rebreather
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to see how well they work as independent
0:32
secondary decompression computers.
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When I asked you guys which one you
0:37
wanted me to make a video about first,
0:41
the answer was really clear. It's this
0:43
one, the Garmin X50i.
0:47
It's very popular. Uh it's got uh
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different features to the Shearwater.
0:52
Good example, it's got a touchscreen on
0:54
the surface, it's got GPS, it's got
0:58
mapping,
0:59
even a built-in backup dive light.
1:02
But there's also access to a much wider
1:05
Garmin ecosystem of products. Now, I
1:09
haven't tested all of those things,
1:12
but what I have focused on is how good
1:15
is the X50i as a standalone secondary
1:19
CCR decompression computer cuz that's
1:22
basically what I want.
1:24
Now, while I was testing it, I noticed
1:27
something very interesting on on a few
1:29
dives, but it was really apparent on a
1:31
70-m dive. My TTS on this turned out to
1:35
be nearly 30 minutes longer than my
1:39
Perdix.
1:41
At the end of my 2 hours of
1:42
decompression, it cleared to only about
1:46
3 minutes.
1:47
What I did was I fed that information
1:49
back to Garmin. They had a look at it.
1:52
They came back to me with an explanation
1:54
and I I they're in the process of
1:56
updating the firmware to remove that
2:00
issue. They also gave me a manual fix
2:02
that works really well, and I'm going to
2:04
talk about all of that later on in this
2:07
video. But first of all, let's look at
2:10
the computer itself. So, the X50i is a
2:13
substantial bit of kit. It's got this
2:16
lovely 3-in screen. I haven't found the
2:19
size of it to be an issue either on the
2:22
surface or underwater. In fact, I really
2:24
like it because it makes it easy to
2:27
operate.
2:28
It's got four physical buttons you can
2:30
see here,
2:31
and the touch screen, which I mentioned,
2:34
works on the surface, but underwater,
2:36
everything is controlled using those
2:38
four buttons.
2:40
They're large, well-spaced, and they
2:43
work really well even with thick drysuit
2:45
gloves.
2:47
It's also got an internal rechargeable
2:49
battery, which I'm going to come back to
2:51
later.
2:52
Rated to 200 m, which is deeper than I'm
2:56
ever going to take it, and will be
2:57
deeper than the vast majority of people
2:59
ever take it. So, overall, it feels
3:03
really solid and really well-made.
3:07
The display is particularly impressive.
3:09
It's certainly much better than my
3:13
original Perdix, this one here.
3:15
It's It's bright, clear, really easy to
3:19
read underwater. That size gives it room
3:22
for a huge amount of information.
3:25
Now, I think that's probably a mixed
3:27
blessing, and it's one of the things
3:28
that I've seen on several large-screen
3:31
computers.
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How much information is too much?
3:35
On the bottom, there's only a few things
3:37
that I really need immediately. I want
3:40
time to surface. I want to know what set
3:43
point is set. I want to know how long
3:45
I've been there. I want to know the
3:47
depth. I want to be able to see what gas
3:49
mixture it thinks I'm breathing. These
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things I need to be able to see really,
3:53
really quickly. During this sense,
3:56
slightly changed but but relatively
3:58
similar. I still want TTS. I want to
4:00
know what my first stop depth is or my
4:03
next stop depth, my current stop depth.
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I want to know how long I'm going to be
4:07
there.
4:08
And I want to know how long I've been
4:10
underwater and I want to see the gas
4:12
mixture and set point same as I do on
4:15
the bottom.
4:16
So I think the test for all of these
4:18
dive computer manufacturers isn't in how
4:21
much information you can put on that
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screen. It's how do you present the
4:26
information that I want at a particular
4:29
point in the dive.
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That challenge is not specific for
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Garmin, it's for all of them. And it's
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something I'm kind of going to be
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talking about, I think, with all the
4:38
larger screen computers in this series.
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I think, on the whole, Garmin does a
4:44
really good job of presenting that
4:46
information.
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But the crucial thing it offers is the
4:50
ability to customize screens. So,
4:55
having dived with it a bit, I realized
4:58
that I wasn't or there wasn't a screen
5:00
that really presented me with the
5:02
information that I wanted.
5:04
So, I went into the customization
5:06
function. I changed that and I came up
5:09
with the screen that you're seeing here,
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which, as far as I was concerned,
5:13
presented everything that I wanted.
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And that's one of those things that I
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think
5:19
puts Garmin in a slightly separate
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category from some of the other dive
5:22
computers.
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I really liked it.
5:26
It's very, very customizable. I think
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this is one of those things that once
5:30
people realize it exists, will get used
5:32
a lot.
5:34
It also, I think, does a really good job
5:36
of having menus that you can go through
5:40
relatively quickly.
5:42
Because
5:43
there's some stuff that you're going to
5:44
need to be able to find and there's some
5:46
stuff that you're going to need to be
5:47
able to do
5:49
relatively quickly.
5:51
Inevitably, there's going to be a
5:52
learning curve because you're used to
5:54
doing it one way, you think it should
5:57
behave in it in in one way and it does
5:59
it in a different way. I did find though
6:03
that I can quickly change the set point,
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I can edit it to 1.5 or or whatever I
6:08
want. I can switch gases, I can bail
6:12
out, I can find details of the
6:15
decompression information.
6:17
I found the Garmin pretty good at that
6:19
and pretty intuitive.
6:21
My buddy will
6:23
also use the Garmin. He found it the
6:25
same. I even gave it to my wife who was
6:28
diving it in
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single cylinder air mode and she got on
6:33
with it as well. So, you know, a few few
6:35
people have used it. The feedback is all
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pretty good.
6:39
Preparing for the dive is also
6:41
straightforward. You can configure
6:43
everything that you need, diluent,
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bailout gases, gradient factors, set
6:48
points, etc.
6:51
You can also configure automatic set
6:53
point switching at predetermined depths.
6:56
And that's particularly relevant because
6:58
one of those changes explains the TTS
7:01
difference I mentioned earlier. As you
7:03
would expect, I mirrored the what I was
7:06
doing on the rebreather on the on the
7:08
the Garmin and also on the other dive
7:10
computers I was carrying. So, my
7:12
Shearwater came with me on every dive I
7:14
did with every computer. I had the same
7:17
settings on the Shearwater as I did on
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the Garmin or whatever other computer I
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was testing.
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And that way, if
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two of the computers do disagree, I can
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compare like with like.
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Now, once I'm underwater, the large
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screen really earned its keep.
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You've got that important information
7:39
easily to hand and then there's other
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data available on other screens. The
7:44
buttons allow you to move between the
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screens, between the menus,
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and that's really useful because when
7:51
you're busy underwater,
7:53
you want to be able to access that
7:56
information really
7:58
easily. You need it to be clearly
8:00
presented.
8:02
And the other stuff you want to be able
8:03
to access,
8:05
but but you know, by one or two quick
8:07
button presses. You don't want to have
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to fight through a a difficult menu
8:11
system to get it.
8:13
And I think the X50i does a really good
8:16
job of making that important information
8:18
obvious.
8:20
And one of the things I particularly
8:21
like is the countdown that you get
8:23
through each decompression stop.
8:26
You don't get that on every computer,
8:28
but on a a long CCR dive, it's I think
8:31
useful to be able to glance at the
8:32
screen and immediately see how much of
8:35
the stop remains.
8:37
I also like the dynamic depth chart,
8:40
which gives you a graphical view of your
8:43
actual profile together with the
8:46
projected ascents,
8:47
uh the decompression stops, uh that kind
8:50
of stuff.
8:51
It's a I guess it's a nice to have, but
8:53
it is great to have that visual picture
8:57
of where you are and what the computer
9:00
expects you to do next. I think
9:02
something that I particularly like are
9:04
the vibration alarms, but I also know
9:07
that they polarize opinion.
9:09
Personally, they do it for me.
9:11
Um I don't have to rely on seeing an
9:14
alert. The computer physically gets my
9:18
attention when it wants me to have a
9:20
look at something. What did surprise me,
9:22
though, was the time to surface issue.
9:25
It soon became obvious that the Garmin
9:27
was telling a different TTS story to my
9:30
Perdix and the Shearwater HUD that I
9:33
dived with on the same on the same
9:35
dives.
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And that was a huge surprise because
9:39
throughout all these tests, I've
9:41
generally found different computers to
9:44
produce very similar decompression
9:47
profiles when they're configured the
9:48
same. They all generally use the
9:50
Bühlmann ZH-L16C
9:52
algorithm. So, if you've got the same
9:54
gradient factors, you've got the same
9:56
gases, you tell it you're in the sea,
9:58
you're going to get, you know, very
10:00
similar TTS.
10:02
Why was the Garmin predicting something
10:04
that was significantly longer?
10:06
To give you an example, on a 70 m dive
10:10
with a 30-ish minute bottom time,
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the Garmin was showing a TTS of around
10:15
30 minutes longer than my other
10:17
computers.
10:19
But as I ascended, that gap started
10:21
closing.
10:23
And by the final stages of
10:24
decompression, the TTS was falling
10:28
faster than actual elapsed time, which
10:31
which is bizarre if you think about it.
10:33
And in the end, it only cleared about 2
10:36
to 3 minutes later than my other
10:38
computers.
10:39
On a dive involving 2 hours of
10:41
decompression, that's entirely
10:42
reasonable. But the interesting question
10:45
is why was the Garmin telling me it
10:49
wanted more decompression than it
10:51
actually did require? The reason why it
10:54
predicted so much earlier in the ascent
10:57
uh
10:58
was one that I put to Garmin. I created
11:01
a video showing what I'd seen.
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I shared it with Garmin. I sent them my
11:05
logs.
11:07
Their engineers were able to reproduce
11:09
exactly what I'd been seeing underwater.
11:13
And they were able to give me an
11:14
explanation, which was was fascinating.
11:17
I had the X50i programmed to
11:19
automatically switch from my high set
11:22
points to the low set point at 3 m,
11:25
which is also the depth of the last
11:28
stop. So, when the Garmin was
11:29
calculating TTS,
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it looked ahead through the schedule and
11:34
treated that switch as taking effect
11:37
when I arrived at 3 m rather than when I
11:41
left 3 m. It assumed that my final stop
11:44
would be carried out at my low set point
11:47
of 0.7 bar. I normally complete my final
11:50
decompression slightly deeper than 3 m,
11:53
so remain at 1.3 or
11:56
whatever I've got throughout the stop.
11:59
The The Garmin was therefore predicting
12:02
TTS assuming I'd be doing really rubbish
12:05
decompression at 0.7 bar when I was
12:09
going to be at 1.3. And that's the way
12:12
that other computers treat it. That
12:14
explained why the Garmin subsequently
12:17
caught up.
12:18
What I was able to do is test Garmin's
12:21
explanation. This time I moved the
12:24
automatic low set point change from 3 m
12:27
to 2 m, so the Garmin behaved perfectly.
12:31
Its TTS stayed closely aligned with my
12:34
other computers, which is brilliant. And
12:37
they've also told me that they're going
12:38
to amend the software in a later
12:41
firmware, so the automatic set point
12:43
change is treated once you leave the
12:46
program depth that rather than when you
12:49
arrive at it.
12:50
And that should make its behavior
12:52
consistent with all the other computers
12:55
I've been using.
12:56
So for me that was one of the most
12:58
interesting finds from the whole set of
13:00
dives I did with the the Garmin. And I
13:03
was particularly impressed with
13:05
the Garmin engineers, the Garmin team
13:09
who got back to me really quickly,
13:13
fessed up that it was it was their
13:15
issue, and have given me that that route
13:17
ahead in order to fix it. So, you know,
13:20
big big thumbs up to Garmin. One of the
13:22
other things I particularly like is the
13:24
ability to customize the button
13:27
shortcuts.
13:28
You can assign functions to individual
13:31
buttons and combinations of buttons,
13:34
allowing you to configure the computer
13:36
around the things that you actually
13:38
need.
13:39
For me, that's a genuinely useful
13:41
capability.
13:43
If I bail out onto open circuit,
13:46
I want to get to the breathing gas menu
13:49
really quickly.
13:50
I want to be able to select the
13:52
appropriate bailout gas and have the
13:54
computer to recalculate my
13:56
decompression.
13:57
I don't want to have to work through
13:59
layers of menus. If it was a real
14:01
bailout, I'd already be dealing with a
14:04
load of other things, buoyancy, bailout
14:06
cylinders, my team, calling for gas,
14:09
whatever the issue was.
14:11
The last thing I want to do is to be
14:13
spending a load of time with my dive
14:15
computer. So, the ability to configure
14:18
those buttons in advance makes a a lot
14:22
of sense. As I already explained, I use
14:25
the X50i as a standalone CCR computer.
14:29
What that means is that I haven't tested
14:31
it really as an open circuit dive
14:34
computer. I haven't tested it as a open
14:37
circuit trimix computer. I also haven't
14:40
really had the opportunity to use much
14:42
of the wider Garmin ecosystem.
14:45
So, if we look at that, the the obvious
14:47
place to start is probably the T2
14:49
transmitters.
14:51
Um they provide air integration or gas
14:54
integration to the X50i, which is a a
14:57
capability that many open circuit divers
14:59
really value, and I understand why that
15:02
is.
15:03
What I would say is that I haven't had
15:07
this myself, but I've seen reports of
15:09
failures involving the small O-rings
15:12
used uh
15:14
with the transmitter.
15:15
Garmin says that it's probably due to
15:19
incorrect installation damaging the
15:21
O-ring.
15:22
As I say, I've not tested that, but my
15:24
good friend Henry Castellanos, he's had
15:27
these issues. He's a bit skeptical about
15:30
that. One of the things that is really
15:33
clear is the maximum oxygen content of
15:37
40% for the T2. So, it's not supplied
15:40
oxygen clean. For a technical um dive
15:43
computer, that's something that
15:45
surprised me. But, once again, it it's
15:47
not something that's unique to uh
15:50
Garmin. It does, however, mean that you
15:53
shouldn't use the T2 on richer
15:55
decompression gases or oxygen cylinders.
15:58
For me, I think that's a missed
16:00
opportunity there. And I think because I
16:02
think people who buy those um air
16:05
integration things, particularly people
16:07
doing uh technical diving, accelerated
16:10
deco, they they want to have that higher
16:13
percentage oxygen um functionality.
16:16
Moving on, another thing that I haven't
16:18
really used is uh the uh the mapping.
16:22
But, the Garmin does provide uh
16:25
bathymetric contours. It's got a load of
16:27
dive sites on there. It's got GPS
16:30
navigation to saved GPS locations,
16:34
obviously only if you're on the surface.
16:36
And this is something uh very few other
16:39
dive computers offer, but clearly with
16:41
Garmin's background, their ecosystem,
16:43
it's something that they are focused on.
16:47
And I can see it being genuinely useful
16:49
for shore diving, uh maybe for reefs,
16:52
maybe for established sites, and and
16:55
also useful for your log as well. But,
16:57
for me,
16:59
my diving where I'm miles offshore, it's
17:02
it's not something that's going to be
17:03
particularly useful. Those sites aren't
17:05
going to be on the the the Garmin app.
17:08
Um we find them using other facilities,
17:11
um you know, sonar,
17:13
other GPS capabilities, etc.
17:16
I guess it's it's maybe interesting to
17:18
know where you started and finished.
17:21
Particularly, I guess if the skipper is
17:23
is keeping that information to
17:24
themselves. Another capability that the
17:27
Garmin offers is communication.
17:30
And once again, that's something very
17:32
few competitors can match.
17:34
I haven't tested it because I don't have
17:37
anybody else with a Garmin computer.
17:39
But you can use um the sub-wave sub-wave
17:43
capability to show uh information from
17:46
other divers. You can also use it to
17:48
send uh preset messages between you
17:51
underwater.
17:53
You can also send them potentially to
17:54
the surface if you've got the uh S1 boy,
17:58
which also provides diver tracking and
18:02
communication with a surface team. So So
18:04
in certain circumstances, I can see that
18:06
being a particularly important piece of
18:10
functionality.
18:11
Not something that I personally uh use.
18:16
Something I did use was uh the Garmin
18:18
app. Obviously, almost all of these
18:20
computers offer that now.
18:23
And it does work really well for syncing
18:26
your dives, for logging your dives,
18:28
reviewing your dives.
18:31
And I think it's almost something that
18:33
we expect. Every We all live on our
18:35
phones these days. So having our dive
18:37
computer speak to our phone is something
18:39
that we all want. It does work really
18:42
well.
18:43
>> [laughter]
18:43
>> There's a kind of a a system on there
18:45
that kind of gives you little badges as
18:48
well. Uh I was particularly pleased to
18:50
receive my uh beginner diver badge,
18:53
which uh I think is quite an
18:55
achievement. I'm sure you will all agree
18:57
on that.
18:59
You can also feed your other Garmin
19:00
devices into the app. They all use the
19:02
same ecosystem. So if you're part of
19:05
that with your watch or whatever else
19:07
you've got, then your X50i becomes
19:11
something that's part of a much wider
19:13
system. As I say, there's a lot of this
19:16
that that isn't of particular interest
19:18
to me, but there is no denying that
19:21
Garmin offers functionality very few
19:24
competitors match. So, what do I
19:26
particularly like? Well, the first thing
19:28
is the screen.
19:30
It's big and bright. And particularly if
19:34
you got old eyes like mine, that's
19:36
really important.
19:37
I also like the four-button interface
19:41
and the configurable shortcuts as well.
19:45
Deco display is excellent.
19:48
I love the stop countdown. I love the
19:51
vibration alerts.
19:54
And I'm super impressed by just how much
19:57
capability Garmin has managed to build
20:00
into one computer.
20:02
There isn't actually much I disliked,
20:05
but I think there's probably a few
20:06
things worth mentioning.
20:08
Battery life, I guess, is one.
20:11
Garmin quote about 16 hours in dive mode
20:15
at medium brightness and 13 hours at
20:18
high brightness.
20:20
That's maybe enough for three, possibly
20:23
four substantial dives.
20:26
I think that's that's plenty, but I do
20:28
know that there are people out there who
20:30
would like more.
20:31
The battery's rechargeable, so for me,
20:35
charging simply becomes part of your
20:37
deep pre-dive preparation.
20:40
There's a whole load of stuff you need
20:41
to charge, uh cameras, lights, scooters,
20:45
rebreathers, all that sort of stuff. So,
20:47
you you just build it into your pre-dive
20:49
preparation.
20:50
Something that the Garmin doesn't offer
20:53
is direct PO2 integration.
20:57
It can't take it from a pod or from
21:01
oxygen sensors in in the rebreather.
21:04
Now, once again, that's true of almost
21:07
all the stand alone dive computers, but
21:09
there are a few OSTC 5, Halcyon Symbios,
21:14
uh
21:15
some of the Petrel 3 versions, they can
21:17
all integrate live PO2 data.
21:22
That means the computer knows what PO2
21:25
you're actually breathing and offers
21:28
some extra redundancy if you've only got
21:30
a single handset. It's it's a really
21:33
useful capability. Not something I use,
21:36
but I know there are people out there
21:38
who would uh be really interested in
21:40
that and who do use it through things
21:42
like nerds and Petrels as I've talked
21:45
about. Let's come on to cost. The X50i
21:49
sits
21:50
firmly in the premium end of the of the
21:53
market. It's broadly the same as the
21:56
latest Perdix 3.
21:58
But what you have to say is you are
22:00
getting a lot more functionality.
22:03
Not that I'm using very much of it, but
22:05
there are people out there who will want
22:07
that functionality and and therefore,
22:10
you know, will be happy to pay that that
22:12
premium for it. Would I trust the Garmin
22:15
X50i as my stand alone secondary CCR
22:18
decompression computer?
22:20
Absolutely.
22:21
I've got no hesitation at all at
22:25
taking my Perdix off, putting the Garmin
22:27
on, and using it
22:29
as my primary stand alone computer.
22:32
It does all the things I care about
22:35
extremely well. It's got a brilliant
22:36
super screen.
22:38
The decompression information is clear,
22:40
vibration alerts, stop countdown, easy
22:43
to bail out, configurable buttons.
22:46
All of those things are absolutely
22:49
brilliant. Initially, the TTS
22:52
discrepancy concerned me, but that is
22:55
now completely resolved. And in fact,
22:58
I'm particularly impressed by Garmin
23:00
with their explanation and the feedback
23:03
they gave me and the fact they're going
23:05
to update it anyway.
23:07
Maybe in an ideal world, there would be
23:09
the option for live PO2 integration,
23:12
particularly at this price, but it does
23:15
give you features that the competition
23:17
simply don't have.
23:19
Stuff like mapping, communication, the
23:22
wider Garmin ecosystem. Compared to the
23:25
Perdix 2, you've got simplicity,
23:28
familiarity on one side, you've got that
23:32
much bigger screen, the additional
23:34
functionality on the other. It is a
23:37
super capable CCR standalone computer in
23:41
its own right.
23:42
One that I'd very happily use. And I
23:47
guess if that's the
23:48
single message you take away, I think
23:50
that's a really good one to have.
23:53
The question now, of course, is how does
23:55
it compare to those other computers?
23:57
I will be doing more videos on those.
24:00
You'll be able to have a look at them
24:02
and as always with all my videos, I'd
24:04
appreciate your feedback. If you think
24:07
there's something I've missed on this,
24:08
if you think there's something I should
24:09
have emphasized more, if you've got one
24:11
of these, then then please give me a
24:13
feedback. I'd love to hear it in the
24:15
comments section.
24:17
But for now,
24:18
Dom Robinson, deep wreck diver,
24:21
there's another dive out there waiting
24:22
for me. Hopefully, you'll enjoy some
24:24
more of my videos and I'll look forward
24:26
to seeing you on the next one.

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