Babe, wake up. Garmin is back. This time with the “toughest watch we’ve built to date,” taking the form of the flagship $1,000 Garmin Fenix 8 supposedly designed to rival Apple and Samsung’s similarly-priced ‘Ultra’ range of smartwatches, but with that Garmin twist. Next to it stands the Garmin Enduro 3, carrying with it a range of upgrades to hopefully help you forget the R22,500 starting price.
Rising from the ashes
Kitted out with your choice of an AMOLED or a solar charging display, an internal speaker and mic duo, epic diving capabilities, and more than enough battery life to run rings around Apple and Samsung’s efforts, Garmin should have no trouble keeping the Fenix 8 flying off shelves. That’s of course assuming it’s targeting South Africa’s visually impaired. That would keep the R25,000 starting price a secret until the credit card’s been tapped.
“For years, the Fenix line has been celebrated for its premium features, materials and design. And now, we’re thrilled to introduce our most capable Fenix yet. This latest lineup not only adds new design details, sport-specific training enhancements and convenient communication tools, it also allows users to choose between a beautiful AMOLED display or solar charging for extra-long battery life. If you’re looking for a sophisticated smartwatch that can hold you accountable and help you reach your health and wellness goals, look no further than Fenix 8.” —Dan Bartel, Garmin VP of Global Consumer Sales
The Garmin Fenix 8 comes in three sizes – 43mm, 47mm, and 51mm – and your choice of AMOLED or an always-on memory-in-pixel (MIP) display to stretch that battery life to its fullest. For example, the 51mm AMOLED model (R29,000) will hit 29 days in smartwatch mode, while its MIP counterpart will make light work of 48 days at the same price.
Garmin reckons the Fenix 8 will more than manage a trip under the sea, going at least 40 metres deep before it’ll whine about it. If your sporty hobbies err more on the side of ‘sane’ the Fenix can also help there, offering “advanced” strength training and the usual massive array of preloaded activity trackers. Expect improved mapping with “dynamic round-trip routing” and a built-in flashlight we last saw on the Epix Pro, too.
Just about every smartwatch nowadays can make and take phone calls, and the Fenix 8 is no exception. But we’re more interested in the watch’s ability to obey commands from its owner, such as “set a timer for 5 minutes,” or “save waypoint” – all of which can be summoned without requiring a phone to be nearby.
There’s no exact release date attached to the Fenix 8 at the time of writing, though Garmin South Africa’s website mentions that “estimated availability is 5-8 weeks.”
Winning the Enduro race
Up next is the R22,500 Garmin Enduro 3, more of a fitness tracker than a top-of-the-line smartwatch, shedding off 7g of weight from the now two-year-old Enduro 2. Despite the difference, it still arrives with many of those features we mentioned on the Fenix 8 for a few bucks less. Those include dynamic round-trip routing, preloaded TopoActive Maps, enhanced strength training programs, and a built-in flashlight.
The Enduro 3 trumps the Fenix 8 in one key area: battery life. It offers an impressive 90 days of juice in smartwatch mode and a jaw-dropping 320 days when stuck in GPS mode. It’ll pull off the feat with the help of its MIP display and single serving size (51mm), allowing Garmin to squeeze in the largest battery possible under the hood.
To prove itself as more of a fitness tracker than an Ultra-touting piece of smartwatchery, Garmin nixed the diving capabilities and knocked out the microphone and speaker setup. You’ll need to wait before the titanium-coated Enduro 3 hits your wrist. Garmin South Africa’s website once again advises customers to wait 5-8 weeks for their pre-orders to kick in.