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There's a newer model of this product. It's been replaced by the Garmin Enduro 2, you may want to check out that review instead.
Let’s just get this out of the way upfront: There’s precisely one reason – and ONLY one reason to buy the Garmin Enduro: You want really long battery life, and are OK with that at the expense of any other feature. Be it GPS battery life or daily watch use battery life, there’s no Garmin watch that goes as long as the Enduro. And Garmin is betting that you’ll pay extra for that feature over and above a normal base Garmin Fenix 6 unit.
Which isn’t to say the watch is bad – far from it. It’s even got new features that Garmin has formally introduced here (yes, they’re coming to existing watches, more on that in the next section). At first glance you might think this is merely another variant of the Fenix 6 series, and in many ways you’d be right. When the dust has settled this week – the Fenix 6 & Enduro watches will have virtually identical software.
But that hides what’s actually happening under the covers. The Enduro’s baseline battery claims start off at 80 hours of normal GPS-on time with solar enabled (and optical HR enabled too), but then soar up to 300 hours of GPS battery life in certain configurations. That kind of battery life wasn’t just Garmin stuffing a bigger battery into it. Rather, Garmin says the Enduro is a new underlying platform – one that enables them to boast what I suspect is the longest GPS battery life of any device out there.
Beyond the battery though, it adds in Rest Timers and proper trail running VO2 max metrics, both focused on trail and ultra runners. These metrics are also now available for Fenix 6 and FR945 users too, thus giving credence to Garmin sometimes offering features to ‘older’ watches. Plus there’s a lightly updated version of ClimbPro, which now tracks/displays descents, and can trigger alerts before the climb starts. But we’ll dive into all that in a second.
First note that I’ve had this watch for a while now, putting it through its paces in all manner of workouts and winter meanderings – long and short. But once I’m done with this loaner device for this review, I’ll box it up and send it back to Garmin. Just the way I roll. If you found this post useful, consider becoming a DCR Supporter which makes the site ad-free, while also getting access to a mostly weekly video series behind the scenes of the DCR Cave. And of course, it makes you awesome.
How Enduro Differs:
Now, I’m going to harp on the fact that this is feature-wise identical to a Fenix 6 base unit, except just with solar, a bigger battery, and a nylon strap. However, for those that haven’t yet updated their firmware to get these new features on your Fenix 6, the Enduro more visibly introduces these new software features:
– Climb Pro 2.0 Descents: This adds descents to ClimbPro for non-cycling activities. So you’ll now see the same per-climb data while going downhill too – Climb Pro 2.0 Alerts: You can now set up an alert banner to notify you at the start of the climb, or a configurable distance prior to it – Trail Run VO2Max: You’ll now get more accurate VO2Max estimates for trail running specifically, versus previously these would often underreport – Ultra Run Rest Timer: This allows you to track break durations at aide stations and see those in the analytics afterwards
And yes, the Fenix 6 & MARQ get those feature updates today in a firmware update (well, they were in public beta a few weeks ago too). Additionally, the Forerunner 945 & Forerunner 745 will also get all those updates. The Forerunner 245/245 Music will get the Trail Running VO2Max enhancements. The timing however on the Forerunner series is less clear, with Garmin saying likely more spring.
However, the real core difference of the Enduro is actually the battery life – clocking in at 70 hours of full GPS on-time without solar, and 80 hours if you’ve got some sunny solar time. Here’s the official battery stats from Garmin on this:
Smartwatch mode: Up to 50 days/65 days with solar* Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 130 days/1 year with solar* GPS Workout Mode (with optical HR): Up to 70 hours/80 hours with solar** Max Battery GPS Mode: Up to 200 hours/300 hours with solar** Expedition GPS Activity: Up to 65 days/95 days with solar* *Solar charging, assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux conditions
**Solar charging, assuming use in 50,000 lux conditions
As a reminder of where some other watches currently stand, here’s their official battery stats for normal GPS mode with 1-second recording modes (meaning, no reduction in recording or sampling rates):
Garmin Enduro with Solar GPS Workout Mode (with optical HR): 70/80 hours with solar Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar GPS Workout Mode (with optical HR): 60/66 hours with solar Suunto 9 Ultra Mode Profile: 25 hours COROS Vertix UltraMax GPS mode: 60 hours Polar Vantage V2 GPS Workout Mode: 40 hours Casio HBD-1000 GPS Workout Mode: 14 hours
But the real kicker is the max battery modes that every company offers. With all these companies, they basically reduce the GPS track points to a handful per minute (varies between brands). Some, like Suunto, then try and draw/update the GPS track using other internal sensors, and it usually works fairly well.
Garmin Enduro with Solar Max Battery Mode: 200 hours/300 hours with solar Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar Max Battery Mode: 120 hours/148 hours with solar Suunto 9 GPS Workout Mode: 120 hours COROS Vertix GPS Workout Mode: 150 hours Polar Vantage V2 Power Saving Mode: 100 hours Casio HBD-1000 Intermittent GPS Mode: 18 hours (for real, someone would ask if I didn’t list it in this table again)
As you can see – it’s a massive jump up. And that technically ignores Garmin’s ‘Expedition mode’, which gets you 65 days of GPS track points, or 95 days with Solar. In the event you’re very determined to cross the entirety of Africa by foot…without bringing along a portable battery pack. But don’t worry, we’ll discuss some of these battery claims down below in that battery section.
First though, you need to decide whether you want to sacrifice non-battery features for battery life. Remember, this isn’t a Fenix 6 Pro series watch, and as such, you lose all the following features:
– No Maps (nor Trendline/heatmap routing)
– No Music
– No WiFi sync
– No ClimbPro on the fly (since that requires maps), but you can do ClimbPro based on a course
– PacePro based on a round-trip course created on the watch itself (but otherwise PacePro works fine with downloaded courses, or ahead of time via the app)
And then you’ve finally gotta decide if you’ll want to buy into this price point. The Enduro is $799 for the base model, or $899 for the lighter titanium one. Both are identical features-wise. Just paying for a different shell. And both include the nylon band.
Got all that? Good, let’s get it unboxed.
Unboxing:
Now, I don’t have a final box. More specifically, the imagery on the boxes I have isn’t final. It’s missing the watch face itself. For many companies, getting the final boxes printed is literally the last thing they do (in case last second specs/features/etc change). So, we’ll just skip to what’s inside, which is indeed final, and now on final firmware too.
Inside the box you’ve got the watch, the standard Garmin charging cable everyone hates, and some paper manual stuff.
And then a closer look at that riveting cable you’ll want to replace. Though, on the bright side, you won’t have to use it anywhere near as often with the Enduro’s battery life.
Followed by the paper pile:
Now there’s actually two variants here. The black one is the more expensive version (and lighter), which is the DLC coated titanium bezel ($899), whereas the silver one is stainless steel ($799).
As you can see looking at the weights, they come in at 61g and 71g respectively. Unlike many of Garmin’s Fenix 6 series watches where you actually pay more for a heavier watch with a heavier/fancier band, here you’re paying more for a lighter unit.
Speaking of sizing, the Enduro watch is identical in sizing to the Fenix 6X Pro series units, best I can tell from both visual and measurement tool inspection it’s the exact same shell. Here it is side by side with the Fenix 6X Pro Solar Titanium and a Garmin FR945:
The weight of that watch is 83g. And of course, the 6X is Garmin’s biggest watch width and thickness wise. So the Enduro is definitely a larger watch, but yet, despite that, it doesn’t feel it, because the weight is so much less. The plastic FR945 comes in at 50g, so only about 11g less than the Enduro. Though, it’s a significantly smaller watch.
Now, here’s some side by side rolling pin comparison shots. Note that the angle to each watch is slightly different since they’re all spaced out – thus reflections will vary slightly based mostly on pure luck. In the real world, there’s no meaningful difference there on reflections specifically.
Left to right: Suunto 9, Polar Grit X, COROS Vertix, Garmin Enduro, Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar, Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar, Garmin FR945.
And again, the same set in the same order, this time showing the thickness. Note that technically speaking this is two rolling pins glued together, thus there’s about a 1mm bump up at the centerline below the Enduro, from the left pin to the right pin.
To demonstrate that the Enduro & Fenix 6X Pro Solar are identical, here’s the two laid flat on the table (Enduro left, Fenix 6X Pro Solar right):
And then those same two again, with the Enduro strap merely undone on one side, otherwise the design of the loop strap would of course sit under the watch in a photo.
Ok, with all that set, let’s dive into the watch itself.
The Basics:
If you want a complete user interface tour, simply whack the red play button above, and I talk through most of the Basics & Sports section in one go.
This first section is all about the non-sport aspects of the watch. Things like the user interface, daily activity, and sleep tracking, and all those related metrics. After this section we’ll dig into all the sport stuff, then hit up battery life and solar bits, before eventually moving on to GPS & heart rate accuracy. Point being, if you’re already very familiar with the Garmin watch realm, you can skip this section and head down to either the Sports & Battery/Solar sections. Though realistically everything new was probably already covered in the previous ‘How it differs’ section prior.
To begin, we’ve got the buttons to talk about. The Enduro watch has five buttons, and no touchscreen (just like the rest of the Garmin Fenix 6 series). Meanwhile, on the bottom, you’ll find the Garmin Elevate optical HR sensor, which is used for both 24×7 heart rate readings, but also workout HR readings. In addition, it records SpO2 information.
Once all set up, you’ll land on the watch face, listing Enduro at the top and the solar levels along the bottom. It’ll also show the current battery days remaining and altitude + sunset/sunrise time. But this is all completely changeable, to either other stock watch faces, or custom Connect IQ ones.
The exact specifics shown on the screen can also be customized, such as changing out the elevation for steps, or any other metric you want.
As you press down, you’ll land yourself in the glanceable widgets. This was introduced in the Fenix 6 series, and essentially consolidates the full-page widgets into 1/3rd sized ones. But you can still select a given widget to expand it to full-screen and then get more details. Widgets are effectively mini-apps, and cover a broad range of data from weather to steps, training status to sleep, and music control on your phone (since Enduro doesn’t have music on it). There’s dozens of stock widgets from Garmin, and you can re-order them as you see fit.
For example, we can select to highlight the sunset/sunrise widget, which then shows more data about sunrise/sunset times.
As I’ve said before – glanceable widgets are arguably one of my favorite Garmin features in the last few years. Or more specifically, most appreciated improvements. It’s a minor thing that to new Garmin users they’d never think twice about, but for long-time users, you’re like ‘Duh, that makes so much more sense!’.
In any case, here’s a smattering of data points from my widget roll. Right now it’s the middle of winter with freezing rain, so long-sleeves and indoors time are limiting my usage of the solar and thus that little graph, except when I specifically wear it on the outside of my coat.
Of course, these widgets are surfacing tons of underlying daily activity data. Some of that’s more common metrics – like steps or calories, whereas others can be more advanced, like respiration rate or PulseOx. Each of us value those metrics differently. And sometimes, you might be aiming to increase a given metric, while other times decrease it. For example – in the middle of a random day in winter, you may want to keep your step-count high. Whereas the day before starting a 50KM trail race, you’ll want to keep that step-count as low as possible.
Up until 2020, I think most of us had little use for respiration data in day to day training. And frankly, for the training side of life, that probably hasn’t changed much. However, since COVID-19 came onto the scene I’ve casually watched my respiration rate numbers. There’s plenty of data showing a relationship there for a big spike in respiration rate, though that certainly doesn’t mean you’ve got COVID. You can equally have some other terrible or non-terrible illness.
Similarly, I and many other athletes often track 24×7 HR as a good proxy for fatigue. When my resting HR spikes, that’s usually an indicator for me that I’m about to get sick (about 1-2 days out), or, that I’m simply over-trained and under-slept. Point being, you can track that data here too in widgets:
But all of this data is ultimately tracked in Garmin Connect and via Garmin Connect Mobile too (the smartphone app). For example, I can see my respiration rate and resting HR data. Or I can dive into the day by day metrics of these stats too – looking at how my heart rate ebbed and flowed throughout the day.
And then you can layer in aspects like stress or Body Battery. The Body Battery metric is similar to the old school Street Fighter game in terms of measuring how much energy it thinks you have. So in a theoretical perfect day, you wake up at 100%, and then over the course of the day aspects like stress, workouts, and activity decrease from that. Meanwhile, things like sitting on the couch watching a TV show can re-gain energy. Red Bull doesn’t appear to have any impact one way or the other. This is viewable on both the watch and app.
While not perfect, I find it a surprisingly good proxy. For example, if my night’s sleep is cut short, I won’t get to 100% ‘regeneration’. And a hard workout impacts it more than an easy workout. Same goes for a stressful day versus a relaxing day. Note that it does take a few weeks for these stats to stabilize, but once they do, most people over the last few years seem to find them a good approximation for things.
Next we’ve got sleep metrics. Now, the Enduro does include the newer Firstbeat driven advanced sleep metrics that were initially rolled out to the Fenix 6 last summer, and then got tangled up and stalled over the fall before they had planned to roll out to other Garmin watches. Garmin says they’ve largely untangled that situation (based on testing feedback from real users on the Fenix 6 rollout), and expect that to continue soonish to the previously planned watches, such as the FR945 and FR745.
In the meantime, Enduro starts off out of the gate with these metrics, which means you can check your sleep stats in the morning directly on the watch itself (versus other watches where you have to confer with the app).
It’s viewable both as a widget glance (above), but also a boatload more data once you tap to open it. Now, I can’t validate things like sleep phases, and frankly, I don’t tend to care too much about that. I’m mostly looking at the total sleep values, and in turn, what it thinks about the restoration aspects.
Remember the Enduro follows the Fenix 6 series updates, which means this new sleep section drives quite a bit more behind the scenes than just sleep stats. For example, the Daily Suggested workouts will be impacted if you get a poor night’s sleep – even up to the point of canceling your planned workout. These are the workouts it suggests for running and cycling, based on your recent intensity, and adding slightly more intensity and/or duration with structured workouts in what is essentially a never-ending build phase. But more on that later.
In addition, on the Enduro you can enable PulseOx, for SpO2 measurement. There’s two options here when enabled – one to only measure at sleep, and one to measure 24×7. Which in turn map to the two main purposes on how it’s used, one is around sleep (as potentially an indicator of sleep or health-related issues), and two in high altitude environments as an indicator that something is about to go horribly wrong. Two totally different use cases (note: medical folks and such also monitor blood oxygen levels too for other reasons). For the first one – sleep – you can track your PulseOx readings each night. It’s the red light that’ll light up on the back of the watch. This data is then plotted on the watch and on GCM.
I’d caution though that enabling PulseOx for sleep alone is basically halving your battery. Seriously. It’s a battery blowtorch. And in my testing, I don’t find it super accurate during sleep. I do however find it fairly accurate if you follow a set testing protocol of sitting and being still, in which case it measures just fine and identical to certified medical devices I have. So, my suggestion is that you use it if you have a specific purpose for it, but otherwise don’t destroy all that new battery life you got with a fancy red light.
Last but not least on the basic features we’ve got smartphone notifications. These are fairly basic compared to something like an Apple Watch, in that it just shows text and emoji, but not photos or the ability to respond (if on iOS). You can simply clear them or cancel them (or open them to get more info). The inability for iOS users to respond to them is a limitation of Apple’s, in not allowing 3rd party apps to respond to text messages specifically. They’ve kept that ability on iOS for Apple Watch, which does allow the watch to respond to texts. I don’t expect Apple to change that.
With all the day to day basics covered, let’s dive into the sports side.
Sports Usage:
To get started with a workout you’ll tap the upper right button, which accesses all the sport modes. There’s tons of them (all the same as on the Fenix 6 series), but notably for Enduro, there are two that you care about – Trail Run & Ultra Run. The Ultra Run is the new one, and is the only sport mode that supports the new rest timer. Whereas both Trail Run & Ultra Run support the VO2Max enhancements (more on that in a second).
Going back to the sport modes, there’s tons of them in there to choose from. Like, more sports that you never knew even existed. Here’s the full list as of this very moment:
After you’ve spent half your allotted workout time trying to decide which sport to do, you’ll select the sport and then it’ll show you the status of GPS & heart rate acquisition (via the optical HR sensor). If you’ve got any sensors paired, then it’ll connect to those at this point.
The Enduro supports all of the following both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart standardized sensor types:
Up top, you’ve got the current battery remaining based on that specific battery profile. So if that’s not enough battery for what you need to do, you can tweak the settings to get the battery life you need.
Once you’ve found GPS and heart rate, you can go ahead and start the workout and be brought to your data pages. Like past Garmin watches, you still (for now) have to configure these on the watch itself and not via a smartphone app. The configurability mirrors that of the Fenix 6 series, which means you can configure up to 8 data fields per page (or as little as one), and there’s no limit I know of as to how many data pages you can configure.
There’s also a pile of default pages too, some with charts or graphs like heart rates or zones, or breadcrumb trails if navigating a course.
In fact, if we want to use the ClimbPro features, we’ll need to load a course onto the watch. You can create courses on numerous platforms (Strava, Komoot, Garmin Connect itself, etc…). It’s these courses that allow the Enduro watch to generate the climbs, using the known elevation data in the course.
For example, here’s one of my favorite hiking/trail running routes down in Switzerland (basically the route of the upper portion of the Jungfrau Marathon in the Swiss Alps). Notably in that course, you can also see the climbs listed. So rather than someone simply saying ‘The top is another 2,500ft of climbing’, it divides it up into the actual ascents, as most mountain climbs tend to be a series of climbs with some small descents or flats along the way. But even more importantly, now with the new ClimbPro 2.0 you can see the descents too. Not big descents, since it’s mostly a one-way course up, but descents nonetheless:
Previously it’d only track ascents, now it tracks both, segmenting out your planned course.
Further, the next new feature in this realm is ClimbPro alerts. Basically you can now set one of two alerts, either an alert at the start of the climb, or an alert prior to the climb, at a configurable distance ahead of it – for example, .25 miles or .50 kilometers (configurable in whichever system you use).
Now fast forward to being out on the course, and you can see how ClimbPro enumerates on my actual trail run mid-way through the biggest climb in all of Amsterdam…in the rain:
It shows me my current vertical ascent rate, the duration of the climb remaining, the average gradient of the climb remaining, as well as ascent remaining. Oh, and the climb number. The same is also true while descending. Except, by then it was dark, and my photo is hideous. I’ll go out and take a prettier photo later today.
Now since you’ve got course enabled, you’ll also get turn notifications. These will show up as you approach a turn, chirping to let you know of the direction of the turn. Ultimately though, this is just a breadcrumb trail. There’s no underlying map here on this.
It will give you off-course warnings, which were in full effect on my run last night. For that run, I purposefully just plotted a semi-random route through the denser parts of the forest, with no particular regard for a logical direction of travel for 17km of trails. Then I made it my goal to follow this path per whatever directions the Enduro gave me…in the snow…also kinda dark.
And frankly, this is where I’m not really sold on Enduro as a watch. See, I know this area well – but I purposefully pretended not to know it, and instead only follow the breadcrumb trail directions. Except, without underlying maps like you have on a Fenix 6 Pro or Forerunner 945, you lose a lot of context at intersections on which way is which. On those watches I can see lakes/ponds/terrain features that make it really quick and easy to figure out which way you’re going. Heck, it’ll even re-route you while screwing up.
Of course, plenty of people have been navigating without map data for years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Given I’m certainly not going to be doing a 70-hour trail run anytime soon, I’ll happily take a lesser battery life unit with maps, and top it off if I really needed to. And ironically, having that layer of snow over the trails at dusk helped to solidify that thinking even more. But to each their own.
Moving along to other new features, there’s the new rest timers. The way this works is that it repurposes your lap button as a rest timer. The idea being you can track how much time you spend at aid stations or resting, without using the pause functionality. That’s because the rest timer still keeps GPS tracking running in the background – so if you forget to end the rest on the watch, your data is still all good.
When you hit that lap button in the Ultra Run mode, you’ll see this black screen (versus the previously white-background screens):
It simply shows your rest time for this stop. You can set exactly what the lap button does in Ultra Run mode to be:
1) Lap + rest timer start
2) Just rest timer start
3) Just lap
Since I prefer to have auto-laps, I’d go with #2 above, so it’s just controlling the rest timer. At the end of your run, you’ve got a new data tab on Garmin Connect, which shows you the rest information, both total and individual. And you can filter it however you see fit:
But again – it *never stops* the activity tracking/recording. It just simply makes markers in the file. That’s the core difference from hitting pause, and then realizing later on you forgot to start it.
Speaking of wrapping things up – once you’re done with the run, you’ll get your summary screen as normal (and tons more data accessible within the detail pages):
This allows you to dive into all your stats, including the updated VO2Max stat. Previous to this, your VO2Max on trail runs would generally be lower than it should be since it wouldn’t account for the aerobic impact of having to deal with poor terrain that slows you down (but still takes an aerobic/HR toll). Now – before we disregard the value of VO2Max, the thing to remember here is that this data is driving other calculations – most notably Training Status. So if the VO2Max values are low/incorrect, then it drives the other values lower too.
Before we talk training status, note that you can still toggle off the VO2Max recording for trail run and ultra run profiles if you want – it’s in the settings of those profiles. Also note, this won’t create a new ‘trail running’ VO2Max. Rather, it just feeds (now properly) into the general running VO2Max bucket.
I asked Garmin’s Herman Bonner (who is/was part of their Firstbeat team until Garmin acquired them, which is the team that does the algorithms) to explain a bit more on the nuanced differences here and what exactly has changed:
“At the most basic level, the analysis used to calculate VO2max compares how fast you are running compared to how hard your body works to maintain that pace. Given that we are using heart rate as the key input to determine your effort, it’s important to understand that there are times when your current HR accurately reflects your current speed and there are times when it does not.
So, there has always been a lot of filtering and prioritizing happening in the background to sort out things like uphill/downhill, stops/starts, intervals and naturally occurring changes in intensity, etc… all in pursuit of identifying when relationship between and internal and external workloads reflects your fitness level (VO2max) and when it doesn’t. For all the obvious reasons, trail running adds a substantial layer of complexity to this problem. Changes in elevation have been incorporated into the analysis for many years now and that remains the case for trail running-based VO2max – but only to the degree to which it has been previously used.
The new element in the mix here is how accelerometer data is being used. We are basically looking for and identifying patterns in how you are running to recognize when more energy than normal is being used to keep pace. In other words, it’s about attributing the fact that your body is working harder due to the ruggedness and changes of the trail instead of simply assuming you’re working harder than normal because of inadequate recovery or a drop in fitness. Without taking this perspective into account, your VO2 max would almost always be underestimated during trail runs. Getting a VO2max estimate from your trail runs is kind of neat but I think the ultimate value here is probably that it also means you are getting more data fed into things like Training Status. Perhaps it’s worth noting that there isn’t a separate “trail running VO2max analysis.” The developments that make estimating VO2 max during trail runs possible are baked into the normal VO2 max calculation, making the whole shebang more robust.
From a user perspective, there is a setting that still allows a user to disable Trail Run VO2max calculations in the Trail Run profile. A big benefit of the Trail Run profile in the past is that users could effectively use it to “screen out” trail runs so they wouldn’t affect their VO2max, Training Status, etc. If users still want to exercise caution with VO2max on trail runs (especially, say, if they are wearing a pack), they can use this setting to still “disqualify” a run from generating a VO2max so it doesn’t mess with their other features.”
Make sense? Good.
Now whether or not you get accurate numbers is an entirely different beast. In general, I find that when I do proper high-intensity workouts, my Garmin/Firstbeat numbers are where they should be from a tested standpoint. Versus, if I’m doing more mid-range/easy workouts, it’ll tend to underreport it. This isn’t terribly different than Polar, for example, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The other point to keep in mind is his mention that you can still toggle off the setting to remove a run from your VO2Max stats if you think it’ll dork with it. For example, his pack comment is a semi-subtle nod to some Fenix 6 testing I did two summers prior, where I was trail running/hiking up the side of the (steep) French alps with a gigantic backpack of camera & drone gear with tripods and all. Probably 25-30lbs of gear. As such, it was artificially increasing my intensity, which in turn also artificially decreases my VO2Max values.
Anyway, we’re well past tangent territory here. Moving along to Training Stats.
All this data gets fed into the Training Status functionality/widget, which shows the direction your fitness level and load levels are trending.
If we hit down (once past VO2Max) and you’ll see the 7-day load listed. This is color-coded by the type of load that you’ve gathered, as well as the total load values:
Tap down again and you’ve got your 4-week Load Focus. This basically consolidates all the training you’ve been doing into three specific buckets: Anaerobic, Aerobic High, and Aerobic Low, and then gives you specific target zones to be within (little pill boxes):
As you can see, I’ve filled up my ‘High Aerobic’ target. If I’m short in a given area, then it’ll tell me what to do. Or, in my case, since I’m somehow not short in any areas, it’ll tell me what my training has been doing lately in terms of benefit:
If I go down again, I’ll get Recovery Time until my next hard workout:
If I was somewhere with altitude or heat, I’d get either (or both) heat or altitude acclimation. The goal behind both altitude and heat acclimation metrics is to figure out whether or not you’re acclimated to a given temperature or altitude. Obviously, both can significantly impact performance.
Unfortunately, I’m neither hot nor high right now. But you can read my past Garmin Fenix 6 review for how those pieces work.
All of this information is also accessible within the Training Status pages on your Garmin Connect mobile app too – allowing you to dig in much deeper and further back:
All of this then feeds into the suggested workout pieces for cycling and running. This works by offering you a new workout each day. The goal here is essentially to provide a training load stimulus, but also not to overdo it. For example, if you get poor sleep, it’ll literally say to take a recovery day due to the poor sleep. If you’ve had too much intensity, it’ll offer a recovery workout. It’s reasonably impressive in my testing over the last 6-8 months in other Garmin devices they’ve first introduced it in.
Here you can see it offering me a structured workout for the bike, using my power meter. As you can see, this ain’t no slouch of a workout.
You can tap to get more information about the workout, and why specifically it’s recommending this one to you. Additionally, it’ll detail which areas it’s targeting.
Once you’ve selected the workout, it’ll iterate through like any other structured workout on the watch. Including the fact that afterward, on Garmin Connect, you’ll get to see the targets overlaid on your actual data, so you can see what the goal was versus your execution.
Oh, and circling back to my workout we started 87 paragraphs ago, once done it’ll save that to Garmin Connect, and then sync it off to various 3rd party sites (like Strava, TrainingPeaks, etc…). Or, you can just view it on Garmin Connect Mobile or the Garmin Connect site.
Finally, remember from before that the VO2Max updates for trail running will be accounted for in the Forerunner 245, 745, 945, Fenix 6, and MARQ series watches. With the rest timer and ClimbPro descent/alert updates coming to the FR745/945/MARQ/Fenix 6 units.
Solar & Battery:
There’s pretty much exactly one reason you’re buying the Garmin Enduro: The battery life.
Seriously, there’s no other reason to buy it except that. I mean, unless you *really* like that neon yellow inset trim color. But otherwise, you want to go long. And to its credit – it does deliver. Now first though, let’s talk the official specs from Garmin on Enduro:
Smartwatch mode: Up to 50 days/65 days with solar*
Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 130 days/1 year with solar*
GPS Workout Mode (with optical HR): Up to 70 hours/80 hours with solar**
Max Battery GPS Mode: Up to 200 hours/300 hours with solar**
Expedition GPS Activity: Up to 65 days/95 days with solar*
*Solar charging, assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux conditions
**Solar charging, assuming use in 50,000 lux conditions
For realz – it actually says 300 hours of GPS usage in the Max Battery mode, which is a blend of UltraTrac and other battery-saving measures like killing off the optical HR sensor and other accessories, among other things.
But focusing on the main GPS battery life claim, I was skeptical on this at first, namely because at first glance it looked basically like a slightly larger Fenix 6X to accommodate a bigger battery, and instead with a fabric strap. But in talking with Garmin, that’s not entirely 100% true. And in particular, they noted one important tidbit during our conversations, saying:
“The Enduro is built on a different platform and larger battery. Combined, these are the features that lead to a longer battery life.”
Which, explains why the battery burn rates I see are *so much* better than a typical Fenix 6, setting solar aside. Just wait till we get into the recorded burn rates – it’s crazy – even better than their seemingly conservative published specs.
But first, let’s do a quick refresher on Garmin’s solar technology, which they call Power Glass. There’s two components to it. To begin, you’ll notice a very thin 1mm wide strip just on the inside of the bezel. This thin strip has 100% photovoltaic levels, meaning, it’s receiving 100% of the sun’s goodness and turning that into solar power.
This thin edge is clearly visible in bright light, though you’d just assume it was a bezel design element. Inside without bright light, this strip almost disappears and blends into the bezel.
However, there’s a second solar panel you can’t see – despite being the entire display face. Under the display is another solar panel that has a 10% photovoltaic level. This panel is of course far larger than that of the thin bezel strip, but is also getting 10% of the sun’s rays, due to the display blocking much of it. Importantly though, both panels are fully under a single sheet of Gorilla Glass (specifically Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with DX Coating). Meaning, you won’t accidentally scratch the bezel solar panel any more than you’d normally scratch your watch face.
On the main watch face, you’ll notice there’s that little sun looking icon, along with a squiggly line. That’s showing the current and historical solar intensity level. Around the edge of the little sun are 10 pieces, each indicating 10% of full intensity. So below it’s at full intensity in the sun (versus above at 0% intensity).
Now all their stats are based on 50,000 lux sun conditions. So…. what’s 50,000 lux you ask? It’s a pretty sunny day, though, not living in the Sahara desert in summer kinda sunny. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
At this point, the goal for solar in the Enduro isn’t to fully power the watch forever. Instead the main aim is providing incremental power. How much incremental power will depend on how much sun you’ve got. Garmin’s sun assumption across all their watches is 3 hours per day of solar light at a pretty high intensity (full sun basically). That goes both ways though. If you’re mid-summer and spending the day at the beach (or work outside), then you’ll way overachieve here. Versus if it’s mid-winter and you’re indoors…then not so much.
Now in the case of the Instinct Solar released last summer, the panel is *FAR* larger, and thus you could actually quite likely pull off ‘forever power’ in the summer with limited GPS activities (easily with no GPS activities). But for the Enduro, the solar panel simply isn’t big enough to do that.
In any case, despite it having been a blizzard the last few weeks here, with downright miserable weather (and no ability to travel to nicer spots, I’ve got a few longer workouts in to get some really fascinating battery burn stats. Almost most of them involve little amounts of sun, since it was either busy snowing, or busy keeping the watch under my coat (to optically measure HR).
To start, let’s look at a 1hr 45min workout I did yesterday – ice skating on canals. In this workout I had full optical HR sensor enabled, and occasionally the unit had visibility to a bright sunny winter day, in between the crack of my jacket/gloves. Still, a battery burn rate here of 1.14% (equaling 87.7hrs) is well above spec.
By the way, these battery charts are with the DCR Analyzer. We plot battery life for devices that support writing it to the files, including Garmin, Wahoo, and Stages. That said, battery bun rates are an imperfect science. Companies do record these values into the .FIT file, and we read them. In general this doesn’t work well for activities under about 60-75 mins, as the batteries often need some time to stabilize exactly how much capacity they have. Thus why I’m largely sticking to the longer activities.
Next, we’ve got last night’s trail run. For this one I loaded a course onto the Enduro, and largely left the unit on the course/map data page (which constantly turns based on the compass direction – thus, it eats up more battery life). But, optical HR was enabled here, and GPS+GLONASS. So in this case, the battery burn rate is lower – at 1.89%/hour, equaling 52 hours.
Meanwhile, here’s a shorter workout, and you can see why it’s not quite as good to use as a reference point. That’s because the way the battery logging works, it only records the value when the value changes. So there’s nothing initially, and then it kicks in a few minutes later. In this case, it was a blend of between my coat and glove, so occasionally seeing sun, but mostly not. The burn rate here was 1.20%/hour, or spec’d for 83 hours.
Here’s another with similar positioning and duration – and also identical battery burn rates across both devices, with the Enduro again being 1.20%/hour for 83 hours.
Now, let’s dig into what’s really possible here. This was a 4hr 47min ride (seriously), where I had the Enduro using an HRM-PRO chest strap, while a FR745 was also using the same HRM-PRO chest strap. They were both configured identically otherwise, including both units having phone notifications via Bluetooth Smart enabled for the duration (and I get a lot of notifications). The FR745 was on my handlebars, so it was more exposed to the cold temps (26°F/-3°C), while the Enduro was under my coat. Both were configured with GPS+GLONASS (which burns more battery than GPS alone).
Yes, that’s for real – a 1.07% battery burn rate in that configuration – which would put it at 93 hours, but even then you could optimize that a bit more if you wanted to. For example, you could disable alerts, disable the backlight automatically turning on when I raised my wrist, switch to GPS only, and so on. And, to save you from doing the math – the FR745 is showing 14.4hrs, a bit lower than spec of 16, but again, in a non-optimized situation and exposed at cold temps, which hurts battery life.
So at this point, what’s clear here is that this is very much indeed a different platform. Garmin says that the GPS chipset is the same as the Fenix 6 series, but includes new enhancements in concert with the underlying platform shifts to achieve these battery burn rates. Given Garmin is a company that heavily re-utilizes their watch hardware across multiple watches and segments, one has to wonder if this is less a recycled Fenix 6, and in reality, more a sneak peek of what’s to come.
GPS & HR Accuracy:
There’s likely no topic that stirs as much discussion and passion as GPS or heart rate accuracy. A watch could fall apart and give you dire electrical shocks while doing so, but if it shows you on the wrong side of the road? Oh hell no, bring on the fury of the internet!
GPS accuracy can be looked at in a number of different ways, but I prefer to look at it using a number of devices in real-world scenarios across a vast number of activities. I use 2-6 other devices at once, trying to get a clear picture of how a given set of devices handles conditions on a certain day. Conditions include everything from tree/building cover to weather.
Over the years, I’ve continued to tweak my GPS testing methodology. For example, I don’t place two units next to each other on my wrists, as that can impact signal. If I do so, I’ll put a thin fabric spacer of about 1”/3cm between them (I didn’t do that on any of my Enduro activities however, all workouts only had a single device per wrist). But often I’ll simply carry other units by the straps, or attach them to the shoulder straps of my hydration backpack. Plus, wearing multiple watches on the same wrist is well known to impact optical HR accuracy.
Meanwhile, for HR accuracy testing I’m typically wearing a chest strap (either the Polar H10 or the Garmin HRM-PRO) as well as another optical HR sensor watch on the bicep (mostly a blend of the Polar OH1 Plus & Polar Verity Sense, as well as the Scosche Rhythm+ 2.0, with a few Mio Pod and Whoop 3.0 band sessions tossed in for fun). Note that the numbers you see in the upper right corner are *not* the averages, but rather just the exact point my mouse is sitting over. Note all this data is analyzed using the DCR Analyzer, details here.
First up we’ve got a bit of a city run. Don’t worry, we’ll get into the trails in a second – but in general, cities are more challenging for GPS accuracy than all but the most rugged of trails. Here it is compared against a COROS Vertix, Polar Grit X, and a Garmin FR745. That data set is here:
As you can see, from a high level, they look virtually identical. However, let’s dig into the park areas a bit more first. And it’s here we see the first slight bit of offset from the Enduro, somewhat interestingly matching the iPhone GPS track.
Though it does seem to recover a short bit later, being all within a cluster:
And once we hit some of the tighter canals, it’s essentially a wash:
The same is true later in the run too:
And it correctly handles loss of GPS and recovery signal when it goes under the gigantic museum building too (whereas the iPhone interestingly did not):
The rest of that run was boringly fine – with all the units basically a wash. And in fact, the same is largely true for the optical HR on this mostly steady-state run. There’s two little moments where it’s imperfect, but otherwise it was the same as the chest straps and other optical HR sensors. While the Polar Grit X did perform worse on this particular run – you can see the larger dip there around the mid-point.
So let’s increase the complexity here. Let’s do an interval workout…in the cold, with wrists mostly exposed. So the worst possible situation for optical HR. Here on my left wrist I had the Enduro, while on my right wrist I had the COROS Vertix. I also had a chest strap and some other optical HR sensors. And you can see for the warm-up, build, and then 800’s, the Enduro (and Vertix) are both essentially flawless. Spot on!
Whereas I then do 200m sprints, and that’s where the Enduro (in red) struggled a little bit on the first one, and then a lot-bit on the 4th one. The COROS Vertix (in brown) struggled on all the ones except the first.
And then from a GPS track standpoint, I used the newer track running mode. This was the first time this unit had been to this track, so I did two loops first, to get it to recognize the track. Whereas the FR745 has been here many times, as has the COROS Vertix. You can see the COROS Vertix still incorrectly recognized this track, whereas the Garmin Enduro was very very close, but realistically probably needs one more session to nail it. The FR745 knew and loved this track, and was perfect (the more times it does the track, the better it gets).
Speaking of circles. Here’s another interval workout – this time around a stadium. The track was filled with snow, so I made a make-shift track around the entire stadium, which is super challenging from GPS since I’m running alongside a gigantic building. Yet both the Enduro and FR745 seemed to nail it. The Apple Watch SE using my iPhone’s GPS really struggled.
Next, let’s dive into an 18km trail run from last night. This is compared against a COROS Vertix, a Polar Grit X, and an FR945 – as well as a Polar Verity Sense optical sensor and a HRM-PRO chest strap. Here’s that data set:
So at a high level, things look sorta close – but we see some colors dipping. But let’s zoom into some of the deeper forest sections here. And you can see, nobody is really that hot here. Literally from one section to the next each of the four watches took turns meandering off the trail. Not significant amounts, but maybe 5-8 meters offset. The weather was dense fog with rain, so perhaps that contributed.
In fact, it was almost as if the watches needed to stabilize a bit. As the run went on, the accuracy notably improved, to the point where all units were basically identical and properly on the trail:
There’s no meaningful differences here, and all units are on-point:
In this section here I doubled back up a skinny trail, and the Grit X was having none of that, but all the other units basically plotted within a meter or two of where I went:
Switching back to the heart rate plot here – we do see a few solid variances, namely out of the gate – it’s like it didn’t quite get the HR lock it wanted to for some reason. There were two points later on. It’s plausible in those two later points I was filming (as I filmed a lot during this run), which would impact the optical HR. Given the optical HR has been fine for all my much harder runs, I’m going to guess those later spikes were due to that. Though, the first spike isn’t good (but goes away shortly).
And lastly, we’ve got a gigantic circle around the countryside with some occasional tree-cover while riding in heavy snow – and this too is basically perfect, compared against the COROS Vertix and FR745:
From a GPS accuracy standpoint, this is super boring as all three units are perfect the entire five hours. Which honestly isn’t surprising.
Overall, the accuracy seems mostly good. Though, there does seem to be a few cases where early-run GPS signal isn’t as strong or well locked at mid to later on. Though, to be fair, I saw that across a number of units on those runs – so it wasn’t just limited to the Enduro.
Ultimately, I don’t think the GPS accuracy is any different than what I’m seeing on any of the other units (good or bad) in this category, be it from COROS, Suunto, Polar, or Wahoo. After all, they’re all using the exact same GPS chipset. So it’s really down to any individual customizations/tweaks from a given manufacturer.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy portions were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Product Comparison Tool:
I’ve added the Garmin Enduro into the product comparison tool. For the chart below I’ve compared it against the Garmin Fenix 6 Solar, the Polar Vantage V2, and the COROS Vertix. I wanted to add in the Suunto 9, but it got a bit busy (and it’s a year older than everything else). Of course, you can make your own charts here in the product comparison calculator.
And again, don’t forget you can make your own product comparison charts here with all the products in the database.
Summary:
One has to look at the Garmin Enduro from two perspectives. The first is from the obvious battery-life perspective. Best I know, there’s no other GPS sports watch out there that gets anywhere near these numbers for GPS-on time, either in a full configuration or a reduced tracking configuration (not from COROS, Casio, Suunto, or Polar, or anyone else). And certainly not in the ultra-low battery modes – 300 hours is insane. That is a significant jump for GPS battery life in the marketplace. Of course, most people will probably never use that. But this does at least reduce how often you have to charge it even if you aren’t doing an ultra. Plus, it gives you more padding for when you do forget to charge.
In fact, for perspective, I’ve literally never re-charged the Enduro since starting this review cycle last month. I briefly connected it for a few seconds to grab some files off it once, but otherwise it’s just chugging away. Granted, being in the middle of a lot of snow I’ve got slightly less GPS outside time than normal, but not substantially so. Averaging 8-10hrs/week outside with GPS activities, since I’ve also been recording various bike commutes too.
But all that’s somewhat besides my main point – which is the same point I started off this post with: If you don’t care about battery life, then likely Enduro makes little sense for you. You’re paying more for less features than a Fenix 6 Pro. The nylon strap is very nice, but, you can get plenty of those today from 3rd party resellers, or soon even Garmin themselves – since the Enduro strap is the same size as the Fenix 6X strap.
The good news is that this battery life doesn’t appear to have come at the expense of either GPS or heart rate accuracy, as those remain mostly quite good in my testing and in-line with the other units I was testing (though, also including their collective ability to struggle on one run early-on), and while I did see a couple of HR oddities on one run, I mostly didn’t see those on repeated interval workouts.
Still, setting aside the battery life on Enduro specifically – I think what’s the most interesting thing to me is the tweaked underlying platform. This seems to represent the first major jump for Garmin in that realm since the MARQ/FR945/Fenix 6 sweep kicked off that generation of devices two years ago this March. And to me – whatever’s inside probably signals the start of the next generation of devices, all of which would be up for refresh this year following a typical Garmin refresh cycle. Whether or not that happens given COVID, who knows. But, if Enduro’s battery life is a hint at what’s to come – it may indeed be an interesting year for watches.
With that – thanks for reading!
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Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
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And finally, here’s a handy list of accessories that work well with this unit (and some that I showed in the review). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors, you can use just about anything though.
This wifi-connected scale will track your weight and related metrics both on the scale display and in Garmin Connect (plus 3rd party apps like TrainingPeaks). It'll also then sync your weight to your watch/bike computer, to ensure accurate calorie data.
This is a dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart cycling cadence sensor that you strap to your crank arm, but also does dual Bluetooth Smart, so you can pair it both to Zwift and another Bluetooth Smart app at once if you want.
Seriously, this will change your life. $9 for a two-pack of these puck Garmin chargers that stay put and stay connected. One for the office, one for your bedside, another for your bag, and one for your dog's house. Just in case.
These are one of my favorite power meters, due to both cost and accuracy. These have mostly become my defacto gravel pedals, and also get used on a lot of other comparison testing.
The Garmin Rally series is effectively 3 power meters in one, for three pedal types. I use these often in accuracy testing. While they're a bit more expensive than the Favero pedals, they offer the ability to swap pedal types easily.
The HRM-PRO Plus is Garmin's top-end chest strap. It transmits dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, but also transmits Running Dynamics & Running Pace/Distance metrics, stores HR data during a swim, and can be used without a watch for other sports. Also, it can transmit XC Skiing Dynamics as well.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Shed Talkin' video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
I don’t know, I show them in this review if you were to read it. But…given your comment was posted less than 120 seconds after the review was published, it seems unlikely you read through it yet. ;)
Per the October developer conference, devices with CIQ 3 won’t get CIQ 4, and the only devices with CIQ will be devices that start with CIQ 4.
The videos from the conference are online in the Garmin developer forum.
Jim, your sure about that? I heard them hint that only devices in 2021 would get 4. But I didn’t ever hear them say that nothing that gets 3.X will ever get 4. Can you share a specific video and timestamp? I’ve watched a lot of those videos and like I said, never heard that.
Ok, circling back on the CIQ4/Enduro question, I got an answer today. Or more specifically, I managed to unlock the rare “no answer” achievement: “We can’t address that question right now, but if anything changes, we’ll let you know.”
Coming up! Had to cut a few things out to make the deadline, but you’ll see the feature comparison charts here in a moment, and a few more comparison pictures.
The body of the Enduro has a weight of 52 gramms, the body of a F6xPS has (only) 54 gramms. So, with the lighter Enduro strap attached, almost the same weight, correct?
ClimpPro with descents and ClimpPro alerts have been added already to the F6 series via beta update.
No maps, no music. Ok, a better solar charging hardware/sw as the normal Fenix 6 solar models.
Yup, I noted that these features were already in beta. And, as noted, everyone else gets the features too. So really just a case of how much ones values battery life.
Yes, I’ve checked with 15.20 beta, all the features are here (climbpro descents, lap rest, Ultra trail mode)… But it seems they are not at all described in the release note (link to www8.garmin.com). Actually I discovered this features after reading this review !!
Do you confirm ? Will Garmin document (or identify) this features ?
I checked on the 22mm, and the answer: “No formal plans to make them in other sizes just yet! As you know, we like to introduce out new things/features and see how they’re perceived before rolling it out across the board.”
Hello,
regarding the armband, is it magnetic, or does it close with velcro?
Does it stay secure? What about when swimming, or having the watch while riding MTB…?
So far the strap is the highlight for me (that strap on my Fenix 3 would be coool)
I haven’t had it fall off yet, in any situations. I haven’t been swimming – since the water was frozen lately, and the pools all closed due to a combination of COVID and the winter conditions.
“The new element in the mix here is how accelerometer data is being used. We are basically looking for and identifying patterns in how you are running to recognize when more energy than normal is being used to keep pace. ”
Does it use only the watch’s internal accelerometer or would it also feed in data from a compatible HR strap (e.g. HRM-Run, Tri, Pro) and further increase the accuracy of the estimation?
Any idea which Bluetooth version this has? The F5+ and F6 with 4.1 seem to struggle with Bluetooth 5 truly wireless headphones. Can’t see this detail listed on their specs page but hoping they have updated it
To be fair I’m only assuming that F6 is the same issue based on forum posts, but the symptoms are identical.
Do your Aftershokz do simultaneous transmission to each ear? There’s a very clear pattern of problems and some very clear demonstrations of the issue such as using a single bud. It only starts to be an issue when an activity is started but it’s pretty consistent
Doh! That’ll teach me :) I skimmed the article based on the only if you need a bigger battery, basically a F6 and missed the bit about no music! Sorry Ray, I promise to read it all in future…
I’m not sure where the improvements come from exactly on the GPS side. When I asked yesterday, they said (in addition to the other underling platform quote):
“It is the same GPS chipset as the Fenix 6 series. However, there have been platform optimizations for longer Max Battery mode battery life.”
I’m not seeing any difference in speed anywhere (positive or negative), but I don’t know where exactly the optimizations are stemming from. You figure that it’s basically been two years since the MARQ/FR945/Fenix 6 components, and those would have been in the pipeline for a number of months prior. So a lot of tech moves on in that timeframe from a battery optimization standpoint.
The specs suggest that the board must draw significantly less peak power and maybe half the idle power when under low demand. My suspicion is manufacturing process improvements for the main ARM CPU making it a smaller feature size and thus more energy efficient.
Maybe a BIG-little core dual core arrangement? I think the current Kinetis K28F system on a chip is a single core.
I also suspected maybe 20% more milliamp-hour battery capacity.
I’m assuming the solar glass generates the same power as before, so for example, 10 extra hours vs 6 attributed to the solar glass during normal “GPS activity” means the “GPS activity” draws ballpark half the power.
Is it actually thicker? It looks like it’s exactly a fenix 6X pro solar case. This seems like a new generation platform.
Another good review, as a Fenix 6 Pro owner I’m delighted that Garmin continue to distribute updates across their platforms, this is the main reason to moved away from Polar after many years of loyal custom (that and the terrible Vantage V battery life in GPS mode).
To be brutally honest, a lot of the features cut out are ones which I do not give two hoots about. I actually wish they’d sell a watch without pay, music etc, at a cheaper price as I don’t want to pay for them. At the price they are charging though it’s a very tough sell indeed, even to someone who doesn’t care about those features being lost.
Yes it could be, been seriously considering an Instinct Solar, the only catch is that it doesn’t allow you to connect external sensors (Stryd for example).
Agreed, the instinct solar seems really great they just miss a few pieces that I would like. External sensors, not a fan of the small screen, etc. A 945 solar or a 235 solar with enduro life would be great.
The screen is not that small.. I love my Instinct Solar.
I don’t need all those extra’s, but the instinct solar is not perfect either…
-Gps connection is great, but sometimes it takes a while to find it
-I don’t mind the navigation with breadcrumbles, but I would love a instinct solar with great map!
Does garmin ever state how long they will support a device. Worried that the fenix 6 will become un-supported soon like my buddies 5x.
I also wonder about garmin’s release cycle, it seems like all watches are so good now that people will not abandon ship for the next model. Eg. The 235 is still going very strong, maybe considered the best gps watch ever. Would love to see your list! What could a 955 realistically have that sets it apart from the 945
My Garmin 2014 Garmin 920 got a minor update not so long ago.
The biggest area of redundancy as I see it is CIQ. Currently they are CIQ3, with talk of moving to CIQ4.
Which watches will be upgraded to CIQ4 I wonder.
Kind of depends what you mean by “support”. If mean will it still work with say Garmin Connect and generally do what it did what you first got it then, it seems, pretty much forever. If by “support” will it get new features that you did not know might be available when you got it then clearly a different story. I think, in many cases, the older hardware cannot take some new features and/or much, if any, more codebase. That’s aside from the obvious commercial questions companies need to wrestle with to strike the right balance between giving good customers a good deal and having no real reason to buy their latest products.
I agree. It’s a major omission to me. The watch is all about adventures for long durations. When I was a boy that would mean a paper map and compass at least. But Garmin don’t agree.
Maybe the weight would be too high with 32 GB of memory and maps :)
Who really need maps for trail running, if you are running in an unknown enviorement? (j/k).
I doubt this particular model is intended as a one-watch-does-all offering. Map navigation is not missing, it isn’t one of the intended purposes of the device.
People that want to go on an extended adventure will need to include ~10 oz worth of Topo mapping capability in paper or in the form of another device. Not a big ask, and I suspect most already were carrying reasonable self-rescue supplies.
Exactly. I bought my Garmin Epix, years ago now, exactly because lost on a mountainside in the rain with a waterlogged mobile phone I needed those maps to get back to civilization again. How can they sell a premium watch for folks that run in the wilderness without maps? What were they thinking? My Epix is at the end of its life now, and I need a replacement.
Nothing current does. There was a single photo that apparently some media organizations (or just one I think) had/used, but I didn’t see that in the press pack. So clearly just an error
Either way, it really doesn’t have maps on the watch, and simply has no storage for it anyway at only 64MB.
what is the real benefit for you if you compare a Fenix 6xPS with the Enduro?
Only the better solar hardware/sw for better battery consumption? Almost all features are already available for the F6xPS (and other devices). The weight? If you spend 50€/$ for the new ultra leight nylon strap, you have almost the same weigh. If you take a look at all the missing parts (maps/music/wifi…), why should one buy the Enduro except longer battery life?
None. That’s the point I tried to make many times in this post.
Now, if that changes long term and we find out the Enduro is really sorta a next gen device, then it might differ. In the same way when MARQ came out, we didn’t know until many months later it would mirror all the features of the Fenix 6/FR945 series, whereas the then top-dog Fenix 5 Plus had reached end of the status).
But I’m less convinced that’s the case here. I think this is just mostly Garmin looking at an easy target from a dev standpoint, and doing what they always do: Build slightly different variations that attract a potential niche, and then grow it from there. Or just roll the tech to other watches they’d have done anyway.
Yeah, I don’t really understand the pricing either, but I think at this point it’s fair to say Garmin does. And, given their earnings and market dominance, they seem to have that part (mostly) figured out.
They falter now and again – for example the Venu/Vivoactive 4 pricing at launch wasn’t really ideal, and we saw them adjust. But for the most part, it’s pretty rare.
Ultimately, for people that want it, they’ll buy it. Else, they’ll buy something else.
Really can’t understand why they removed maps for that price…. I was almost ready to pay right here 700$ to upgrade my 945…. Without maps – it’s no go :-(
Except from a reduces change your watch is out of power when you want to go out for a long run/bike there is an other important issue with batterylife: batterydegeneration.
The battery will degenerate over time (my forerunner 935 is down from 20+ gps hours to about 10 in 4 years time)
If you start with a huge battery life, you end up with a decent battery life after many years of use.
Second, batterylife is degenerated by charge cycles. A huge battery life means less charge cycles means less battery degeratetion.
I have to say none of my smartwatches have done this so far and I’ve had lots and charged them all regularly. My 935 is as good as when I bought it and my Fenix 5 still surprises me how long it lasts. Polar and Suunto similar results. Have you contacted Garmin? It could be that you have a defective unit.
Same here. I purchased the 935 shortly after it was released and never take it off. In December I did an 18 hour run and finished with plenty of battery life left. I normally turn the heart rate monitor and activity tracking off for these very long runs, and have GPS set to just GPS rather than GPS+GLONASS. It’s still a fantastic watch!
My replacement (for optical sensor cracking) 935 has been going strong for the last 1.5 years. I am somewhat tempted by the Enduro for the extra battery life, new features and bigger screen. OTOH, I definitely use course navigation from time to time, so would probably get some benefit from maps.
One thing I wonder: what about barometric altimeter? I assume there is any, right? If so, was it level during runs without to much ups and downs? The results of my Instinct are really disappointing in that regard…
Yes, it has a baro altimeter. You can look at the data in all the comparison sets if you want – but, it at most fluxtuates 1-2m across the entire activity (save the few I went over bridges or such). Around these parts, there’s not much room for hills. And normally I’d zip down to the Alps to do more testing.
I had considered going to the south of the Netherlands, where there are a couple hills, but the recent snowstorm totally killed the viability of that.
1-2m on flat runs sounds awesome. Last cross-country skiing I started about +8m and ended at -111m, according to my Instinct. The activity ended at the same spot and was slightly more than 5km…
That was probably the result of a weather change (pressure) during the workout. Usually the watches are good at picking up if the barometric difference is the result of an altitude or weather change, but now and then you get stuff like that. Not sure about the Instinct, but on a Fenix you can change the priority of the barometer (auto/altitude/weather). If for example you live in a mostly flat place, it makes sense to give priority to weather changes.
The behavior of the barometer is a known one for instinct users and I have yet to see a plausible height-profile on various hikes, cross-country-ski or bike trips. Nice to know the Fenix 6 has that functionality. Does the Enduro has that function as well? The manual doesn’t seem to be online yet…
Does the rest timer have to be started as well as stopped? It looks like in your description layout, all options were in relation to a ‘start’ but I assume the button has to be pressed again to end the rest period.
Also, for those that use lap pace, lap hr, etc. What does the rest timer do to the laps? If I have autolap set for every mile, but the rest time occurs within the mile, will the rest period be ignored in those lap calculations?
From using it in the F6 beta, yes it must be both started and stopped, and no the time won’t be ignored in lap calculations, and nor will any distance you move during the rest.
During the rest phase, time and distance keep accumulating, so your lap time will go on increasing.
The advantage of using the lap key for lap and rest would be separating out the aid station time completely, letting you see just how much distance you accumulated faffing there as you move on, and keeping the lap paces representing your moving pace, at the expense of irregular lengths and occasional unintended laps if your focus drifts as much as mine does on longer races.
Thanks for a great review again :-).
I can live without wifi and I can live without music on the watch. The big showstopper for are that there are no maps. Use that all the time. Is it possible to download maps on the device. For instance topographic maps over Norway (cost a fortune at Garmin) but just wondered.
Havent they never thought about mounting a Solar Cell at the upper (and lower) fixing side of the band (not on top). Think this would also be safe enough because its behind the strap fixing, and when the display gets (in)direct light, also this part gets (in)direct light, but the potential surface for sunrays is much bigger.
I think maybe I am oddball in this sector. I have a 935 that I use for some runs, maybe 1 to 2 per week but mostly bought it as a step/sleep tracker with great standby battery life. I primarily bike and thus use my 1030 plus.
I would love to see a 645/945 with the enduro battery life platform. I guess I would even love a 235 with the enduro battery life.
I want a step/sleep tracker with really long standby batter life that I can use as a 1030 plus back up when traveling and track a few runs.
Sure wish they’d develop a product that would drop the onboard HRM to save both space/size as well as battery life. Any serious athlete that I know of uses an external HRM anyway.
Ray has indicated elsewhere he doesn’t think that’s an avenue they’ll pursue either.
They’re trying to get us to wear these devices 24/7, so in that sense having oHR makes sense. But, I would rather wear a separate device (like an Oura ring) than a watch anyway myself.
For Garmin that probably doesn’t make sense, as all their calculations for training load, body battery, stress and advanced training and recovery metrics from FirstBeat that differentiate their higher end products all require as an entry input 24 x 7 heart rate. That might be a good product for Coros, though, I would think.
Good point, but with TrueUp it’s possible to leverage another device for all the non-activity HR metrics (I currently wear a Vivosmart for that reason – but I’d rather it were smaller, like a ring).
I guess the hope is that oHR becomes smaller and less obtrusive to the design and battery life.
Totally agree! I wish they would have made a complete sports-only-watch and smashed out everything of the non-sport overhead! All firstbeat-metrics that are based on training are enough to plan and look at progress. The hrv-stress-test gives the insight for readiness on top. So no need for steps, breath, stress and the rest of the fitness tracker crap. That pure sports-watch would be my favorite device for a price of max. 500 $!!!
My feeling is there are ALOT of us with this same mindset. I’d even take a non-OHR device that’s slimmer and gets better battery life for say even a $50 discount off their normal price.
Unfortunately I don’t think taking out the OHR would lead to that kind of price reduction, it wouldn’t be worth it to them to have 2 avenues in their production stream for example.
But if a true successor to the 920xt came out, purely focused on sports, I’d be all over it and I think alot of others would be too.
In relation to that, is it a mistake that the watch can connect to bluetooth headphones to the watch if it cannot play music? Or is there some other use of headphones on the watch?
Headphones is the very first item you have listed in the box following: “The Enduro supports all of the following both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart standardized sensor types:”
And the OS, I suspect. The Apple Watch is running almost the same OS as on the iPhone (on a very similar chip). That is why adding apps to the Watch is so much simpler. For Garmin, Connect IQ is more of an add on.
Impressive figures! The benefits of longer battery life aren’t limited for extremely long outdoor sessions, but are also available to the “average” user – it simply means less times you have to charge the watch – and I like it. Battery life is already a huge advantage for Garmin over Apple/Samsung watches, which you have to charge basically daily…
totally agree. I wouldn’t buy this because of that yellow ring alone. Not sure who at Garmin thought that was a good idea. I want my watch to be invisible on my arm not stand out.
Even further, the area occupied by the yellow ring seems like missed opportunity for a bigger PV panel (extending from current PV panel all the way to the metal bezel)
acousticbiker said: “Even further, the area occupied by the yellow ring seems like missed opportunity for a bigger PV panel (extending from current PV panel all the way to the metal bezel)”
I’m guessing it’s a supply chain efficiency consideration in that they have the same PV rings they use for the 6X they need to use up and that hopefully a bigger one will be included in the F7.
On a separate but related note, I hope we see solar integrated into the next round of Edge updates given the much larger surface area never under a sleeve.
While I know this is not a hiking site (of course, many runners also use poles), Garmin watches have a major problem accurately counting steps while using trekking poles (currently using the Instinct but the Fenix and others all suffer from this).
Do you happen to know if this product accurately counts steps while using trekking poles? I plan to hike major trails such as the PCT and Colorado Trail and will use poles for those adventures often and want correct step data.
Thanks, Niklas. I did not but on numerous Garmin forums, folks have and did not get the same result.
Not getting correct steps when hiking between five to 12 hours a day can be pretty frustrating. Never a problem if you are not using trekking poles (easy terrain) but a major bummer when you’re going vast distances with poles. The only solution is to put the device in your pocket (which many thru-hikers have not pockets wearing runner’s shorts).
I would remove the HR and add maps. I do understand the trend of SpO and getting all those metrics but for ultra trail I don’t see the benefit of having an optical HR on the wrist.
Having started with Fenix 2 and had F3, skipped F3HR, F5X, F5Xplus and currently with Fenix 6X I cannot see any reason for getting the Enduro. Maybe a Enduro Plus with Maps and without HR, bringing back the charging cradle to allow charging on the go. If one disables the unnecessary gismos for ultra run or ultra trail the battery duration is pretty good on the F6X.
I think all of the people who are voting for the removal of optical HR on the wrist are forgetting the value of heart rate and even more importantly heart rate variability to the rest and recovery metrics.
Probably nobody is forgetting that. They may be like me. I don’t care about “rest and recovery metrics”, and ignore whatever my devices say. Like me, they may not wear their Garmin watch all the time; I have an Apple Watch 5 for daily wear. In my specific case, I want a watch for cross country skiing. I use a Fenix 5+ currently, which works great, but since I wear it on the outside of my clothing so I can see it the HR hardware in the watch does me no good at all (I get HR from either a chest belt or a Rhythm24). But since the HR detector seems to be a cheap part of the watch, Garmin will probably never make a Fenix without it. Leaving it out in a separate line probably costs them more than leaving it in all of their watches.
Ron, if you are really care for HR then just use a belt HR, it is the accurate, OHR are not the gold standard, and depending on a lot of conditions 10bpm off the real HR.
I have no interest at all in this watch, yet I still watched the video and read the review…. I’m sure this makes me some sort of sad DCRainMaker Junkie
+ Is it fair to assume this means a Fenix 7 release is not imminent (and more likely in the fall, 2 years from the F6 release)?
+ No native running power (of which ‘winds were blowing’ a while back) – fair to say this might be pushed to the F7?
+ The Garmin website description says this about Backcountry Skiing – does this mean no more manually indicating ‘climbing’ or ‘descending’?
Stay informed when you’re in the snow. This preloaded profile can distinguish between skiing and climbing. It automatically shows metrics specific to either ascent or descent.
+ You included these features as ones Enduro users would lose out on compared to the F6 but PacePro and ClimbPro are not available on the fly (without a course) on the F6 either, right?
No PacePro on the fly (since that requires maps), but you can do PacePro based on a course
No ClimbPro on the fly (since that requires maps), but you can do ClimbPro based on a course
Sticking to my 935 (still an excellent watch) waiting for a Garmin watch with maps AND native running power support (including using external devices like Stryd – don’t say this is a crazy request, since this has been the situation for cycling power meters for ages now)…
One) I think the chief in-Garmin competition, specially considering features, is Instinct Solar, not the Garmin 6.
2) The Music and WiFi Sync eat battery like kids eats candies, so I think they have no place on a battery saving watch.
c) My problem with UltraTrac (the battery saving on other Garmin watches) is that it gives you awful GPS plots… It looks like a kangaroo, jumping over the path instead of following it.
Do you feel that the boost in battery life (at the expense of the Maps, Music , WiFi sync, PacePro and Climbpro warrants the pricetag? The price tag creates(?) this assumption that battery life the most important feature overall for a smartwatch, do you believe this to actually be the case ?
Why would they create this other than a proof of concept? I don’t get who would use this outside the military or some guy who lives in the middle of no where Alaska with few power sources?
This almost assuredly aimed at the Coros fanatics, who (for unexplained reasons) ONLY value battery life, and not any other features whatsoever. Don’t get me started on the fact that most of the Coros Cult members are there because they get free stuff if they shout at others that Coros changed their lives. Use my code for a FREE band omg.
I could see this being useful for a serious ultra runner or triathlete who is looking for fewer charges on their watch and more general up-time. It also serves as a way to get all these new features in front of eyeballs. I won’t necessarily click on an ad about the new climbpro features but I will read about it here.
Will the rest timer be coming to other types of running than “ultra run”? As I understand it, this feature would be perfect for doing interval training without pre-programming the training session (for example the number of intervals).
“ And yes, the Fenix 6 & MARQ get those feature updates today in a firmware update (well, they were in public beta a few weeks ago too), as will the Forerunner 945 & Forerunner 745.”
How do I read this sentence?
1) Today the F6, MARQ, FR945, and FR745 will get Trail Run VO2Max.
2) Today the F6 and MARQ will get Trail Run VO2Max. FR745/945 will get them at some point in the future.
The F6 and Marq have a beta that’s available with those features.
The 245/745/945 will get them at some point in the future. Might be a long wait, as these devices are also waiting for the sleep update that was promised in November 2020.
Maps consume lots of power. When I want long battery life – I usually disable the map layers on Fenix 6x pro so that I just have a breadcrumb trail. I suspect that is how they are prolonging the battery life. I disable pretty most of the junk – like HRM, pulse ox wifi, BT etc. I actually like that Fenix 6x pro allows one to disable pretty much everything compared to say a Coros Vertix which doesn’t (can’t disable HRM during non-activity mode or BT etc). So, it seems like Enduro has achieved higher battery life by just hard disable of certain features which can be done on Fenix 6x anyways. My point is you can get the same battery life with Fenix 6x pro or solar by going into the max battery mode during activity mode. Perhaps there is a bigger battery which helps as well. But with Fenix 6x pro I can get almost 66 to 80 hours if I look at breadcrumb trail every 0.25 miles or so in max battery mode during activity mode.
Yes maps consume a lot of power and the heuristic I use is to not display the map unless I’m actively in need of navigation.
But I don’t think that is the story here. Garmin entirely disregards map and navigation in their burn rate estimates. The enduro incidentally has the non-pro feature set but also at baseline consumes a lot less power.
Ray is spelling this out in the video. The Enduro has different platform (processor) and a larger battery, that is how it gets much longer battery life. I would assume there will eventually be a fenix7 with that hardware. Put I am perfectly happy with the current fenix 6X to be honnest.
If the underlying platform changed can you run one of the connect iq benchmark apps on it to see if you performance changed? Does the amount of memory the different app types have access to have different values from other watches?
Hey Ray. You have an error in your review regarding the case materials. I know you’re more focused on the tech vs. the materials/design, but it’s important to get those correct as well for people looking for a nicer all-metal watch.
The Enduro watch cases are not stainless or titanium. Per the Garmin specs, the CASE MATERIAL is “fiber-reinforced polymer with metal rear cover”. The BEZEL MATERIALS are stainless steel or Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coated titanium.
If someone wants a Garmin watch with a metal case, the Marq watched (and Chronos before it) are the only options.
True…I am using it with my Cncept2 indoor rower (with the PM5). Works like a charm with the Garmin indoor rowing app. All necessary data are exchanged.
Hi Ray! Thanks for a nice review. In your comparision chart, you say tyst Fenix 6 pro has not trainer support, bit I think thats is wrong now a days… link to dcrainmaker.com
Great review. Could you ad weight in the comparisson list/tool. It’s a key factor in comfort and a major point of considering in selecting a watch you want to wear 24/7.
I think it specifically needs to be a Trail Run activity. But I wonder if one can use Trail Run and then just walk uphill or do a stair climb and still get VO2max estimations.
This is mentioned in the review, in the section quoting Herman from Firstbeat/Garmin. The calculation is the same for any run type, it’s just a lot more sophisticated than it used to be to pick up on surface variations from the accelerometers.
(…) note that you can still toggle off the VO2Max recording for trail run and ultra run profiles if you want – it’s in the settings of those profiles.”
I’m assuming the VO2Max algorithm changes are only in the Train Run and Ultra Run profiles.
To get VO2 Max estimates you need GPS so unless your uphill was outside can’t see that it would work. Also believe you need to “run” for a reasonable amount of time (min 10 mins I think) and have a vaguely high enough HR. I doubt walking would get your HR high enough to be a reasonable measure.
If you are using a footpod (Stryd for example) you can get away with doing this kind of activity indoors, as long as you use pace/distance from the sensor and don’t select indoor profile (Select Cycling instead of Indoor Cycling for example). I’ve fooled Garmin system by doing this, because if it thinks it’s you’re inside then it wouldn’t calculate VO2Max.
I’m assuming the VO2Max algorithm changes are only in the Train Run and Ultra Run profiles
No need to assume anything. The part of the review I pointed you to above – the paragraphs directly below what you’ve quoted there – explicitly says Perhaps it’s worth noting that there isn’t a separate “trail running VO2max analysis.” The developments that make estimating VO2 max during trail runs possible are baked into the normal VO2 max calculation
and there is a setting that still allows a user to disable Trail Run VO2max calculations in the Trail Run profile. A big benefit of the Trail Run profile in the past is that users could effectively use it to “screen out” trail runs so they wouldn’t affect their VO2max, Training Status, etc. If users still want to exercise caution with VO2max on trail runs (especially, say, if they are wearing a pack), they can use this setting
Someday – you seem like the guy – you should investigate the well known issue with optical heart rate sensors on people with full sleeve tattoos. I have full sleeves and chest on both arms and I’ve never seen an optical heart rate sensor that can read through tattoos reliably.
KG- That is great point actually. I had same issue full selves and Chest . I have found that the Marq is as accurate [+ or – 1% to + or – 2% margin for error] .
My resting heart rate is verifiable at 49 per minute. The Marq has it consistently at 48-51.
I think that is pretty accurate for a wrist device… Curious if there is bio engineers that could shed light on margin for error?
I have been using Garmin since Forerunner101, I currently wear Marq Athlete [2019]
The battery life is amazing but as you said almost nobody needs that type of battery life.
My biggest complaint is continued over appearance of garmin watches. They area all our morphing into Casio Plastic Ville.
I love and wear the Marq because it is steel case and you can wear into a board room, You cannot wear a plastic into business setting.
I want Garmin to start using Steel cases on future Fenix’s because I want a bigger watch in the 51mm range…
I have no urgent need for a new device, I have one that does the job but is ageing and given this “I think what’s the most interesting thing to me is the tweaked underlying platform” would you recommend hanging on and seeing if anything else is announced in the next few months?
Good point, didn’t talk a lot about it. I like it, but oddly, find it somewhat cumbersome to get on and off my wrist, which is admittedly more of a me problem than not.
That’s because typically undoing one strap won’t usually be enough to easily slide it over my wrist without a bit of finaglying, so I have to undo both, and then try and not have the straps slide out. It’s plausible with much more time it’ll loosen up a bit.
That said, I do like it, just not 100% sold on it yet as my long term preference. Ultimately though, I just like how light the watch is.
Definitely not stretchy. At least, not my definition of stretchy. I wouldn’t say I’m a nylon band expert. I can talk all day about silicone straps in watches, but I’ve only used half a dozen or so nylon ones.
The ends don’t instantly go through the bars, but they don’t have a full catch either. Instead, the little Garmin tag kinda catches, and you have to needle it out to fully remove the strap. Takes like 1-2 seconds, but it’s enough that it won’t just fall-off per se.
There’s just so much “watch” isn’t there? But it’s still the same boring looking Fenix repackaged. Garmin make awesome gear, but they needed to make this beast something special and disappointingly (for me anyway) it’s a fail. The Polar GritX/Coros Apex Pro mightn’t stack up but at least they look special (imho) Plus Garmin over here in Australia have got outlandishly expensive compared to other brands such as Polar, Suunto and Coros. A great watch for sure, but I’ll never buy it. Sometimes less is more. As far as Garmin goes (I have Garmin, Polar and Coros), I’ll hang with my Instinct cause it just looks badass and is feature packed for a great price. Great review by the way too!
I need a new watch for a multi-day ultra this summer. I currently have the 910xt. Is it worth waiting for the 955 (any idea of a release date?) or get this watch now because of the battery life? Any chance the Enduro would later be updated to include Maps?
Did you notice any performance differences (faster route creation or re-routing, snappier interface) that would indicate an updated processor is part of the new platform?
100% sure it can’t. I looked in the PR share (the same share that Road.cc got), and I don’t see that image in there. I also don’t see it in the copy of PR stuffs I downloaded over the weekend. My guess is it was in there when it was first sent out a few weeks ago – but I rarely bother looking at the PR images, and certainly didn’t then.
Either way, my guess was that someone in graphics just thought it was another Fenix. But yeah, there’s zero storage in there for maps. So just a photoshop fail.
Seems to me like this is just another step by Garmin in building the foundation of a next gen watch. That foundation needs to support coming battery intensive features like a fancier screen, dual band GPS, and LTE. So, first they introduce solar to expand battery a year or so ago, now they make updates to the underlying platform to further extend the battery. Both of these advancements will be needed to maintain good/great battery life once the futures features (dual band GPS, fancy display, LTE) become a reality.
I think you have nailed it with this observation. For me, this is likely to be an important building block for the watch I will wait for. I don’t need a battery to last that long between charges but I would like greater fitness and training information and insights. This lays the foundation for that watch.
Garmin what’s with the silly colour accents? Total deal breaker. In my eyes the best looking garmin watch is the marq adventurer but that’s an insane price for what ultimately is throwaway technology. The next best looking watch is the first avenger watch, I can live with the branding at 12 as all my “desk divers” have a pip at 12, the problem with that watch is a lack of metrics. Please make a great looking watch that I can wear 24/7 with all the running metrics, that I can wear whilst in a suit or jeans between the £1599 and £349 price points. And I may come back into the ecosystem. As it is I sold all my Garmin gear, grabbed a coros pace 2 which I wear for workouts and then wear one of my automatic/haq watches the rest of the time. In wrapping up try and get something that doesn’t look quirky for less than £800 but being as I’m only a runner £500 would be preferable.
As noted in their forums post 10 hours ago, the production roll-out has begun. It can take a number of days (usually 5) for them to reach 100% of watches (they stagger it on purpose).
It’s super interesting that it’s the same version number as Fenix/MARQ line – implying maybe the “platform” changes aren’t as big as Garmin has described. Also good news from a beta firmware perspective (whereas FR945 is on entirely different version numbers).
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How much does Garmin pay to hide bugs? :)))
I don’t know, I show them in this review if you were to read it. But…given your comment was posted less than 120 seconds after the review was published, it seems unlikely you read through it yet. ;)
I have already tested in beta Fenix 6
Ok!
Do you know if this or other existing Garmin watches be CIQ4 compliant?
Good question, I’ll ask.
Per the October developer conference, devices with CIQ 3 won’t get CIQ 4, and the only devices with CIQ will be devices that start with CIQ 4.
The videos from the conference are online in the Garmin developer forum.
Jim, your sure about that? I heard them hint that only devices in 2021 would get 4. But I didn’t ever hear them say that nothing that gets 3.X will ever get 4. Can you share a specific video and timestamp? I’ve watched a lot of those videos and like I said, never heard that.
Ok, circling back on the CIQ4/Enduro question, I got an answer today. Or more specifically, I managed to unlock the rare “no answer” achievement: “We can’t address that question right now, but if anything changes, we’ll let you know.”
Many thanks for getting back with their reply. Even if it’s not a meaningful reply from Garmin.
So I guess as ever, if you make a purchase today you buy it for the features it has today, not what it might have tomorrow.
It seems we got an answer
link to twitter.com
It seems we got an answer, on Twitter
Rolling pin for scale?
Coming up! Had to cut a few things out to make the deadline, but you’ll see the feature comparison charts here in a moment, and a few more comparison pictures.
Or more… thickness difference
The body of the Enduro has a weight of 52 gramms, the body of a F6xPS has (only) 54 gramms. So, with the lighter Enduro strap attached, almost the same weight, correct?
ClimpPro with descents and ClimpPro alerts have been added already to the F6 series via beta update.
No maps, no music. Ok, a better solar charging hardware/sw as the normal Fenix 6 solar models.
But people decide, what they will buy…
Yup, I noted that these features were already in beta. And, as noted, everyone else gets the features too. So really just a case of how much ones values battery life.
Btw- not the new Sony multi gnss chip for L1+L5 signal?
Thanks.
If you have a F6xPS in your drawer, can you put the Enduro ultrag light strap on it and and can you weigh that, please?
A Fenix 6X is compatible, and in fact you can already buy the new Nylon straps for it on Garmin’s site….for $50: link to buy.garmin.com
Yes, I’ve checked with 15.20 beta, all the features are here (climbpro descents, lap rest, Ultra trail mode)… But it seems they are not at all described in the release note (link to www8.garmin.com). Actually I discovered this features after reading this review !!
Do you confirm ? Will Garmin document (or identify) this features ?
Any idea if Garmin plans to make the Nylon straps in 22mm?
Ray – any idea if these features are coming to the Fenix-based devices like the Descent Mk2?
I checked on the 22mm, and the answer: “No formal plans to make them in other sizes just yet! As you know, we like to introduce out new things/features and see how they’re perceived before rolling it out across the board.”
I sure hope they make a 22mm version of this strap.
Hello,
regarding the armband, is it magnetic, or does it close with velcro?
Does it stay secure? What about when swimming, or having the watch while riding MTB…?
So far the strap is the highlight for me (that strap on my Fenix 3 would be coool)
Just velcro.
I haven’t had it fall off yet, in any situations. I haven’t been swimming – since the water was frozen lately, and the pools all closed due to a combination of COVID and the winter conditions.
Ray – any more insight into the “underlying platform” change? Does this imply CPU/GPS chipset as well?
I asked about GPS, and Garmin explicitly confirmed it’s the same GPS chipset as the Fenix 6.
“The new element in the mix here is how accelerometer data is being used. We are basically looking for and identifying patterns in how you are running to recognize when more energy than normal is being used to keep pace. ”
Does it use only the watch’s internal accelerometer or would it also feed in data from a compatible HR strap (e.g. HRM-Run, Tri, Pro) and further increase the accuracy of the estimation?
Awww I was hoping for a F6+ or F7!
Any idea which Bluetooth version this has? The F5+ and F6 with 4.1 seem to struggle with Bluetooth 5 truly wireless headphones. Can’t see this detail listed on their specs page but hoping they have updated it
Odd… I regularly use my Aftershokz Openmove headphones with my F6, and it’s been 100%
To be fair I’m only assuming that F6 is the same issue based on forum posts, but the symptoms are identical.
Do your Aftershokz do simultaneous transmission to each ear? There’s a very clear pattern of problems and some very clear demonstrations of the issue such as using a single bud. It only starts to be an issue when an activity is started but it’s pretty consistent
Never mind, I looked them up and they aren’t true wireless buds so I wouldn’t expect them to have the issue.
Doh! That’ll teach me :) I skimmed the article based on the only if you need a bigger battery, basically a F6 and missed the bit about no music! Sorry Ray, I promise to read it all in future…
thanks Ray
we’ve been speculating on where this battery life comes from.
I guess new battery tech is one option but the likelihood of it coming from extra available space inside the shell in UNlikely.
so it probably comes from better-performing components?
we (+@BR) assumed a better board or CPU as the best candidates.
do you have any thoughts or intel on that?
without a new generation of ELEVATE nor the latest Sony multi-frequency GNSS chip do you think it’s too much of a push to call this a Fenix 6.5?
I’m not sure where the improvements come from exactly on the GPS side. When I asked yesterday, they said (in addition to the other underling platform quote):
“It is the same GPS chipset as the Fenix 6 series. However, there have been platform optimizations for longer Max Battery mode battery life.”
I’m not seeing any difference in speed anywhere (positive or negative), but I don’t know where exactly the optimizations are stemming from. You figure that it’s basically been two years since the MARQ/FR945/Fenix 6 components, and those would have been in the pipeline for a number of months prior. So a lot of tech moves on in that timeframe from a battery optimization standpoint.
Garmin talks specifically about “an ultra-efficient processor”. So maybe that’s the platform change they’ve done here, a CPU update
Does it feel slower compared to Fenix 6? Maybe it doesn’t support maps / music also due to a slower processor?
The specs suggest that the board must draw significantly less peak power and maybe half the idle power when under low demand. My suspicion is manufacturing process improvements for the main ARM CPU making it a smaller feature size and thus more energy efficient.
Maybe a BIG-little core dual core arrangement? I think the current Kinetis K28F system on a chip is a single core.
I also suspected maybe 20% more milliamp-hour battery capacity.
I’m assuming the solar glass generates the same power as before, so for example, 10 extra hours vs 6 attributed to the solar glass during normal “GPS activity” means the “GPS activity” draws ballpark half the power.
Is it actually thicker? It looks like it’s exactly a fenix 6X pro solar case. This seems like a new generation platform.
Another good review, as a Fenix 6 Pro owner I’m delighted that Garmin continue to distribute updates across their platforms, this is the main reason to moved away from Polar after many years of loyal custom (that and the terrible Vantage V battery life in GPS mode).
Garmin thought that everyone would now use Trail Run and Ultra Run for regular running. :D
To be brutally honest, a lot of the features cut out are ones which I do not give two hoots about. I actually wish they’d sell a watch without pay, music etc, at a cheaper price as I don’t want to pay for them. At the price they are charging though it’s a very tough sell indeed, even to someone who doesn’t care about those features being lost.
Does the Instinct cover that base?
Yes it could be, been seriously considering an Instinct Solar, the only catch is that it doesn’t allow you to connect external sensors (Stryd for example).
Agreed, the instinct solar seems really great they just miss a few pieces that I would like. External sensors, not a fan of the small screen, etc. A 945 solar or a 235 solar with enduro life would be great.
The screen is not that small.. I love my Instinct Solar.
I don’t need all those extra’s, but the instinct solar is not perfect either…
-Gps connection is great, but sometimes it takes a while to find it
-I don’t mind the navigation with breadcrumbles, but I would love a instinct solar with great map!
So… You should go for it ;)
I thought the Instinct could connect to sensors. I have mine paired with my inReach, for example. ANT+ and BT I thought?
I gather the Instinct can connect to some sensors, but does not have CIQ, which is needed for Stryd footpod – or at least to get the most out of it.
“Nacho Cheese Machines (Blue Cheese Smart)” is an interesting thing to connect to, huh? :D
I wondered how long it’d take for someone to find it.
Does garmin ever state how long they will support a device. Worried that the fenix 6 will become un-supported soon like my buddies 5x.
I also wonder about garmin’s release cycle, it seems like all watches are so good now that people will not abandon ship for the next model. Eg. The 235 is still going very strong, maybe considered the best gps watch ever. Would love to see your list! What could a 955 realistically have that sets it apart from the 945
My Garmin 2014 Garmin 920 got a minor update not so long ago.
The biggest area of redundancy as I see it is CIQ. Currently they are CIQ3, with talk of moving to CIQ4.
Which watches will be upgraded to CIQ4 I wonder.
Kind of depends what you mean by “support”. If mean will it still work with say Garmin Connect and generally do what it did what you first got it then, it seems, pretty much forever. If by “support” will it get new features that you did not know might be available when you got it then clearly a different story. I think, in many cases, the older hardware cannot take some new features and/or much, if any, more codebase. That’s aside from the obvious commercial questions companies need to wrestle with to strike the right balance between giving good customers a good deal and having no real reason to buy their latest products.
I almost stopped at “no maps”… read the rest just for fun though. But for me this is a deal killer.
I agree. It’s a major omission to me. The watch is all about adventures for long durations. When I was a boy that would mean a paper map and compass at least. But Garmin don’t agree.
Maybe the weight would be too high with 32 GB of memory and maps :)
Who really need maps for trail running, if you are running in an unknown enviorement? (j/k).
I doubt this particular model is intended as a one-watch-does-all offering. Map navigation is not missing, it isn’t one of the intended purposes of the device.
People that want to go on an extended adventure will need to include ~10 oz worth of Topo mapping capability in paper or in the form of another device. Not a big ask, and I suspect most already were carrying reasonable self-rescue supplies.
If it has all the hardware, it should certainly be an option. And it costs $900.
Maps is a huge loss….
Who’s using a watch like this?
People who are on trails/mountains/ultras etc….
They need the maps the most!
Exactly. I bought my Garmin Epix, years ago now, exactly because lost on a mountainside in the rain with a waterlogged mobile phone I needed those maps to get back to civilization again. How can they sell a premium watch for folks that run in the wilderness without maps? What were they thinking? My Epix is at the end of its life now, and I need a replacement.
It still has route navigation, that’s what ultras are using.
The marketing photos of the Enduro show maps on the watch.
Nothing current does. There was a single photo that apparently some media organizations (or just one I think) had/used, but I didn’t see that in the press pack. So clearly just an error
Either way, it really doesn’t have maps on the watch, and simply has no storage for it anyway at only 64MB.
Hi Ray,
what is the real benefit for you if you compare a Fenix 6xPS with the Enduro?
Only the better solar hardware/sw for better battery consumption? Almost all features are already available for the F6xPS (and other devices). The weight? If you spend 50€/$ for the new ultra leight nylon strap, you have almost the same weigh. If you take a look at all the missing parts (maps/music/wifi…), why should one buy the Enduro except longer battery life?
None. That’s the point I tried to make many times in this post.
Now, if that changes long term and we find out the Enduro is really sorta a next gen device, then it might differ. In the same way when MARQ came out, we didn’t know until many months later it would mirror all the features of the Fenix 6/FR945 series, whereas the then top-dog Fenix 5 Plus had reached end of the status).
But I’m less convinced that’s the case here. I think this is just mostly Garmin looking at an easy target from a dev standpoint, and doing what they always do: Build slightly different variations that attract a potential niche, and then grow it from there. Or just roll the tech to other watches they’d have done anyway.
For a pricing from 499/599$/€, ok, but..
Yeah, I don’t really understand the pricing either, but I think at this point it’s fair to say Garmin does. And, given their earnings and market dominance, they seem to have that part (mostly) figured out.
They falter now and again – for example the Venu/Vivoactive 4 pricing at launch wasn’t really ideal, and we saw them adjust. But for the most part, it’s pretty rare.
Ultimately, for people that want it, they’ll buy it. Else, they’ll buy something else.
Really can’t understand why they removed maps for that price…. I was almost ready to pay right here 700$ to upgrade my 945…. Without maps – it’s no go :-(
Except from a reduces change your watch is out of power when you want to go out for a long run/bike there is an other important issue with batterylife: batterydegeneration.
The battery will degenerate over time (my forerunner 935 is down from 20+ gps hours to about 10 in 4 years time)
If you start with a huge battery life, you end up with a decent battery life after many years of use.
Second, batterylife is degenerated by charge cycles. A huge battery life means less charge cycles means less battery degeratetion.
I have to say none of my smartwatches have done this so far and I’ve had lots and charged them all regularly. My 935 is as good as when I bought it and my Fenix 5 still surprises me how long it lasts. Polar and Suunto similar results. Have you contacted Garmin? It could be that you have a defective unit.
Same here. I purchased the 935 shortly after it was released and never take it off. In December I did an 18 hour run and finished with plenty of battery life left. I normally turn the heart rate monitor and activity tracking off for these very long runs, and have GPS set to just GPS rather than GPS+GLONASS. It’s still a fantastic watch!
My replacement (for optical sensor cracking) 935 has been going strong for the last 1.5 years. I am somewhat tempted by the Enduro for the extra battery life, new features and bigger screen. OTOH, I definitely use course navigation from time to time, so would probably get some benefit from maps.
Hello, excellent review, as always!
One thing I wonder: what about barometric altimeter? I assume there is any, right? If so, was it level during runs without to much ups and downs? The results of my Instinct are really disappointing in that regard…
Yes, it has a baro altimeter. You can look at the data in all the comparison sets if you want – but, it at most fluxtuates 1-2m across the entire activity (save the few I went over bridges or such). Around these parts, there’s not much room for hills. And normally I’d zip down to the Alps to do more testing.
I had considered going to the south of the Netherlands, where there are a couple hills, but the recent snowstorm totally killed the viability of that.
1-2m on flat runs sounds awesome. Last cross-country skiing I started about +8m and ended at -111m, according to my Instinct. The activity ended at the same spot and was slightly more than 5km…
That was probably the result of a weather change (pressure) during the workout. Usually the watches are good at picking up if the barometric difference is the result of an altitude or weather change, but now and then you get stuff like that. Not sure about the Instinct, but on a Fenix you can change the priority of the barometer (auto/altitude/weather). If for example you live in a mostly flat place, it makes sense to give priority to weather changes.
The behavior of the barometer is a known one for instinct users and I have yet to see a plausible height-profile on various hikes, cross-country-ski or bike trips. Nice to know the Fenix 6 has that functionality. Does the Enduro has that function as well? The manual doesn’t seem to be online yet…
Does the rest timer have to be started as well as stopped? It looks like in your description layout, all options were in relation to a ‘start’ but I assume the button has to be pressed again to end the rest period.
Also, for those that use lap pace, lap hr, etc. What does the rest timer do to the laps? If I have autolap set for every mile, but the rest time occurs within the mile, will the rest period be ignored in those lap calculations?
From using it in the F6 beta, yes it must be both started and stopped, and no the time won’t be ignored in lap calculations, and nor will any distance you move during the rest.
During the rest phase, time and distance keep accumulating, so your lap time will go on increasing.
The advantage of using the lap key for lap and rest would be separating out the aid station time completely, letting you see just how much distance you accumulated faffing there as you move on, and keeping the lap paces representing your moving pace, at the expense of irregular lengths and occasional unintended laps if your focus drifts as much as mine does on longer races.
I see, thanks.
Tought they were going to add wrist-based power and also support for native run power :(
Hi Ray,
you have swapped in battery duration modes description of Coros Ultramax and Std.GPS Workout mode.
Cheers
Mike
Thanks for a great review again :-).
I can live without wifi and I can live without music on the watch. The big showstopper for are that there are no maps. Use that all the time. Is it possible to download maps on the device. For instance topographic maps over Norway (cost a fortune at Garmin) but just wondered.
Havent they never thought about mounting a Solar Cell at the upper (and lower) fixing side of the band (not on top). Think this would also be safe enough because its behind the strap fixing, and when the display gets (in)direct light, also this part gets (in)direct light, but the potential surface for sunrays is much bigger.
I think maybe I am oddball in this sector. I have a 935 that I use for some runs, maybe 1 to 2 per week but mostly bought it as a step/sleep tracker with great standby battery life. I primarily bike and thus use my 1030 plus.
I would love to see a 645/945 with the enduro battery life platform. I guess I would even love a 235 with the enduro battery life.
I want a step/sleep tracker with really long standby batter life that I can use as a 1030 plus back up when traveling and track a few runs.
Sure wish they’d develop a product that would drop the onboard HRM to save both space/size as well as battery life. Any serious athlete that I know of uses an external HRM anyway.
I entirely agree.
I guess their customer research has come to a differebt conclusion though. Shame.
The 920 was the last of the great non-hrm watches.
Ray has indicated elsewhere he doesn’t think that’s an avenue they’ll pursue either.
They’re trying to get us to wear these devices 24/7, so in that sense having oHR makes sense. But, I would rather wear a separate device (like an Oura ring) than a watch anyway myself.
For Garmin that probably doesn’t make sense, as all their calculations for training load, body battery, stress and advanced training and recovery metrics from FirstBeat that differentiate their higher end products all require as an entry input 24 x 7 heart rate. That might be a good product for Coros, though, I would think.
Good point, but with TrueUp it’s possible to leverage another device for all the non-activity HR metrics (I currently wear a Vivosmart for that reason – but I’d rather it were smaller, like a ring).
I guess the hope is that oHR becomes smaller and less obtrusive to the design and battery life.
Totally agree! I wish they would have made a complete sports-only-watch and smashed out everything of the non-sport overhead! All firstbeat-metrics that are based on training are enough to plan and look at progress. The hrv-stress-test gives the insight for readiness on top. So no need for steps, breath, stress and the rest of the fitness tracker crap. That pure sports-watch would be my favorite device for a price of max. 500 $!!!
My feeling is there are ALOT of us with this same mindset. I’d even take a non-OHR device that’s slimmer and gets better battery life for say even a $50 discount off their normal price.
Unfortunately I don’t think taking out the OHR would lead to that kind of price reduction, it wouldn’t be worth it to them to have 2 avenues in their production stream for example.
But if a true successor to the 920xt came out, purely focused on sports, I’d be all over it and I think alot of others would be too.
Hi DC – awesome review.
But I think there is a mistake – music is supposed to be on the watch as mentioned on Garmin’s website. Could you clarify this?
Thanks and sporty regards,
Paul
Just music control, not music onboard.
In relation to that, is it a mistake that the watch can connect to bluetooth headphones to the watch if it cannot play music? Or is there some other use of headphones on the watch?
Where do you see in Garmin’s website that? There’s no method to pair it on the watch.
Headphones is the very first item you have listed in the box following: “The Enduro supports all of the following both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart standardized sensor types:”
Ahh, gotchya. Thanks. Fixed!
With only 64MB memory on board , the music part gets thrown out pretty fast
Excellent reviews!
So what does Garmin do differently than Apple to have their batteries last magnitudes longer?
It’s all about the screen. Mostly.
And the OS, I suspect. The Apple Watch is running almost the same OS as on the iPhone (on a very similar chip). That is why adding apps to the Watch is so much simpler. For Garmin, Connect IQ is more of an add on.
Impressive figures! The benefits of longer battery life aren’t limited for extremely long outdoor sessions, but are also available to the “average” user – it simply means less times you have to charge the watch – and I like it. Battery life is already a huge advantage for Garmin over Apple/Samsung watches, which you have to charge basically daily…
The UltraFit-Nylon strap is nice. Will there be a 22mm version.
Do i read your reviews?
Well…there is this gem hidden in plain sight!
“Nacho Cheese Machines (Blue Cheese Smart),”
Perfect!
Just wondering, how/where do you get the information from, that the beta, containing the new features for the F6, will be released to production? :)
I asked Garmin.
Makes sense, thanks for the feedback! :) Looking forward to install it on my F6X.
I don’t get the yellow ring. People that love it will love it. But I believe the number of no-love-for-you-yellows is bigger.
totally agree. I wouldn’t buy this because of that yellow ring alone. Not sure who at Garmin thought that was a good idea. I want my watch to be invisible on my arm not stand out.
I agree there too – I didn’t like it on the MARQ, and it’s less than optimal here too.
Even further, the area occupied by the yellow ring seems like missed opportunity for a bigger PV panel (extending from current PV panel all the way to the metal bezel)
Exactly!!! And it would actually look better.
acousticbiker said: “Even further, the area occupied by the yellow ring seems like missed opportunity for a bigger PV panel (extending from current PV panel all the way to the metal bezel)”
I’m guessing it’s a supply chain efficiency consideration in that they have the same PV rings they use for the 6X they need to use up and that hopefully a bigger one will be included in the F7.
On a separate but related note, I hope we see solar integrated into the next round of Edge updates given the much larger surface area never under a sleeve.
+1 on this one. It looks terrible
Hi –
Thank you for this info.
While I know this is not a hiking site (of course, many runners also use poles), Garmin watches have a major problem accurately counting steps while using trekking poles (currently using the Instinct but the Fenix and others all suffer from this).
Do you happen to know if this product accurately counts steps while using trekking poles? I plan to hike major trails such as the PCT and Colorado Trail and will use poles for those adventures often and want correct step data.
Thanks again.
Ever tried a foot pod?
Thanks, Niklas. I did not but on numerous Garmin forums, folks have and did not get the same result.
Not getting correct steps when hiking between five to 12 hours a day can be pretty frustrating. Never a problem if you are not using trekking poles (easy terrain) but a major bummer when you’re going vast distances with poles. The only solution is to put the device in your pocket (which many thru-hikers have not pockets wearing runner’s shorts).
There also some chest straps, like HRM TRI, HRM RUN and HRM PRO, that should give you steps.
Hi Niklas, but how do you setup the Garmin to get steps from the heart rate monitor instead of from the watch it self?
off topic, but youre the gold standard of reviews!
thanks
I would remove the HR and add maps. I do understand the trend of SpO and getting all those metrics but for ultra trail I don’t see the benefit of having an optical HR on the wrist.
Having started with Fenix 2 and had F3, skipped F3HR, F5X, F5Xplus and currently with Fenix 6X I cannot see any reason for getting the Enduro. Maybe a Enduro Plus with Maps and without HR, bringing back the charging cradle to allow charging on the go. If one disables the unnecessary gismos for ultra run or ultra trail the battery duration is pretty good on the F6X.
I think all of the people who are voting for the removal of optical HR on the wrist are forgetting the value of heart rate and even more importantly heart rate variability to the rest and recovery metrics.
Probably nobody is forgetting that. They may be like me. I don’t care about “rest and recovery metrics”, and ignore whatever my devices say. Like me, they may not wear their Garmin watch all the time; I have an Apple Watch 5 for daily wear. In my specific case, I want a watch for cross country skiing. I use a Fenix 5+ currently, which works great, but since I wear it on the outside of my clothing so I can see it the HR hardware in the watch does me no good at all (I get HR from either a chest belt or a Rhythm24). But since the HR detector seems to be a cheap part of the watch, Garmin will probably never make a Fenix without it. Leaving it out in a separate line probably costs them more than leaving it in all of their watches.
During the activity a HRM will use its own battery. After the activity another device with OHR will cover 24H HR tracking.
Not everyone has two Garmin devices, but some do.
Not only that but it would make the device thinner and presumably lighter. Look at the original Vivoactive, that device was amazingly small and light.
Ron, if you are really care for HR then just use a belt HR, it is the accurate, OHR are not the gold standard, and depending on a lot of conditions 10bpm off the real HR.
Ray – do you know if the new features (esp. trail run vo2 max) are coming to the Descent MK2? Thanks!
I have no interest at all in this watch, yet I still watched the video and read the review…. I’m sure this makes me some sort of sad DCRainMaker Junkie
Thanks as always, Ray! A few questions:
+ Is it fair to assume this means a Fenix 7 release is not imminent (and more likely in the fall, 2 years from the F6 release)?
+ No native running power (of which ‘winds were blowing’ a while back) – fair to say this might be pushed to the F7?
+ The Garmin website description says this about Backcountry Skiing – does this mean no more manually indicating ‘climbing’ or ‘descending’?
Stay informed when you’re in the snow. This preloaded profile can distinguish between skiing and climbing. It automatically shows metrics specific to either ascent or descent.
+ You included these features as ones Enduro users would lose out on compared to the F6 but PacePro and ClimbPro are not available on the fly (without a course) on the F6 either, right?
No PacePro on the fly (since that requires maps), but you can do PacePro based on a course
No ClimbPro on the fly (since that requires maps), but you can do ClimbPro based on a course
These are good question. Did you get answers ?
Sticking to my 935 (still an excellent watch) waiting for a Garmin watch with maps AND native running power support (including using external devices like Stryd – don’t say this is a crazy request, since this has been the situation for cycling power meters for ages now)…
Running power is still in very beta version, Stryd had already said that they their power running is not real power.
One) I think the chief in-Garmin competition, specially considering features, is Instinct Solar, not the Garmin 6.
2) The Music and WiFi Sync eat battery like kids eats candies, so I think they have no place on a battery saving watch.
c) My problem with UltraTrac (the battery saving on other Garmin watches) is that it gives you awful GPS plots… It looks like a kangaroo, jumping over the path instead of following it.
“Unfortunately, I’m neither hot nor high right now.” ?
Do you feel that the boost in battery life (at the expense of the Maps, Music , WiFi sync, PacePro and Climbpro warrants the pricetag? The price tag creates(?) this assumption that battery life the most important feature overall for a smartwatch, do you believe this to actually be the case ?
Why would they create this other than a proof of concept? I don’t get who would use this outside the military or some guy who lives in the middle of no where Alaska with few power sources?
They are aiming at the people you said, but also for those who wants to go someday to Nowhere Alaska
This almost assuredly aimed at the Coros fanatics, who (for unexplained reasons) ONLY value battery life, and not any other features whatsoever. Don’t get me started on the fact that most of the Coros Cult members are there because they get free stuff if they shout at others that Coros changed their lives. Use my code for a FREE band omg.
I could see this being useful for a serious ultra runner or triathlete who is looking for fewer charges on their watch and more general up-time. It also serves as a way to get all these new features in front of eyeballs. I won’t necessarily click on an ad about the new climbpro features but I will read about it here.
Hi,
Great review!
Will the rest timer be coming to other types of running than “ultra run”? As I understand it, this feature would be perfect for doing interval training without pre-programming the training session (for example the number of intervals).
Best,
Martin
“ And yes, the Fenix 6 & MARQ get those feature updates today in a firmware update (well, they were in public beta a few weeks ago too), as will the Forerunner 945 & Forerunner 745.”
How do I read this sentence?
1) Today the F6, MARQ, FR945, and FR745 will get Trail Run VO2Max.
2) Today the F6 and MARQ will get Trail Run VO2Max. FR745/945 will get them at some point in the future.
The F6 and Marq have a beta that’s available with those features.
The 245/745/945 will get them at some point in the future. Might be a long wait, as these devices are also waiting for the sleep update that was promised in November 2020.
Maps consume lots of power. When I want long battery life – I usually disable the map layers on Fenix 6x pro so that I just have a breadcrumb trail. I suspect that is how they are prolonging the battery life. I disable pretty most of the junk – like HRM, pulse ox wifi, BT etc. I actually like that Fenix 6x pro allows one to disable pretty much everything compared to say a Coros Vertix which doesn’t (can’t disable HRM during non-activity mode or BT etc). So, it seems like Enduro has achieved higher battery life by just hard disable of certain features which can be done on Fenix 6x anyways. My point is you can get the same battery life with Fenix 6x pro or solar by going into the max battery mode during activity mode. Perhaps there is a bigger battery which helps as well. But with Fenix 6x pro I can get almost 66 to 80 hours if I look at breadcrumb trail every 0.25 miles or so in max battery mode during activity mode.
Yes maps consume a lot of power and the heuristic I use is to not display the map unless I’m actively in need of navigation.
But I don’t think that is the story here. Garmin entirely disregards map and navigation in their burn rate estimates. The enduro incidentally has the non-pro feature set but also at baseline consumes a lot less power.
Ray is spelling this out in the video. The Enduro has different platform (processor) and a larger battery, that is how it gets much longer battery life. I would assume there will eventually be a fenix7 with that hardware. Put I am perfectly happy with the current fenix 6X to be honnest.
If the underlying platform changed can you run one of the connect iq benchmark apps on it to see if you performance changed? Does the amount of memory the different app types have access to have different values from other watches?
Hey Ray. You have an error in your review regarding the case materials. I know you’re more focused on the tech vs. the materials/design, but it’s important to get those correct as well for people looking for a nicer all-metal watch.
The Enduro watch cases are not stainless or titanium. Per the Garmin specs, the CASE MATERIAL is “fiber-reinforced polymer with metal rear cover”. The BEZEL MATERIALS are stainless steel or Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coated titanium.
If someone wants a Garmin watch with a metal case, the Marq watched (and Chronos before it) are the only options.
Thanks – tweaked to bezel vs case!
Hi Ray,
The Felix pro (solar) have ANT+ TRAINER CONTROL (FE-C) capability
I’m using mine very often
Thanks – yup, database now updated (and thus ,the tables). Thanks!
True…I am using it with my Cncept2 indoor rower (with the PM5). Works like a charm with the Garmin indoor rowing app. All necessary data are exchanged.
Hi Ray! Thanks for a nice review. In your comparision chart, you say tyst Fenix 6 pro has not trainer support, bit I think thats is wrong now a days… link to dcrainmaker.com
Thanks – yup indeed, database now updated (and thus, the tables). Thanks!
One thing I just don’t understand. Why dobbel the storage of it can’t have maps or music? Possible add on for the future?
Enduro has 64 MEGAbytes vs F6X 32 GIGAbytes. This swap likely allowed for the reportedly larger battery (and thus no music or maps).
Wish the new features also Come to the 935, but apparently only in the 945. Or am I missing something ?
Blue Cheese Smart, eh? Do you get one of those at Sharper Image?
Hi Ray,
Great review. Could you ad weight in the comparisson list/tool. It’s a key factor in comfort and a major point of considering in selecting a watch you want to wear 24/7.
Thanks.
To take advantage of Trail Run VO2Max, is it necessary to use the “trail run” activity or is it ok to just use “Run” for everything?
I think it specifically needs to be a Trail Run activity. But I wonder if one can use Trail Run and then just walk uphill or do a stair climb and still get VO2max estimations.
This is mentioned in the review, in the section quoting Herman from Firstbeat/Garmin. The calculation is the same for any run type, it’s just a lot more sophisticated than it used to be to pick up on surface variations from the accelerometers.
(…) note that you can still toggle off the VO2Max recording for trail run and ultra run profiles if you want – it’s in the settings of those profiles.”
I’m assuming the VO2Max algorithm changes are only in the Train Run and Ultra Run profiles.
They’re in all profiles. Only those two profiles disable the VO2Max aspects entirely.
Cool, thanks for the clarification.
To get VO2 Max estimates you need GPS so unless your uphill was outside can’t see that it would work. Also believe you need to “run” for a reasonable amount of time (min 10 mins I think) and have a vaguely high enough HR. I doubt walking would get your HR high enough to be a reasonable measure.
If you are using a footpod (Stryd for example) you can get away with doing this kind of activity indoors, as long as you use pace/distance from the sensor and don’t select indoor profile (Select Cycling instead of Indoor Cycling for example). I’ve fooled Garmin system by doing this, because if it thinks it’s you’re inside then it wouldn’t calculate VO2Max.
I’m assuming the VO2Max algorithm changes are only in the Train Run and Ultra Run profiles
No need to assume anything. The part of the review I pointed you to above – the paragraphs directly below what you’ve quoted there – explicitly says
Perhaps it’s worth noting that there isn’t a separate “trail running VO2max analysis.” The developments that make estimating VO2 max during trail runs possible are baked into the normal VO2 max calculation
and
there is a setting that still allows a user to disable Trail Run VO2max calculations in the Trail Run profile. A big benefit of the Trail Run profile in the past is that users could effectively use it to “screen out” trail runs so they wouldn’t affect their VO2max, Training Status, etc. If users still want to exercise caution with VO2max on trail runs (especially, say, if they are wearing a pack), they can use this setting
Someday – you seem like the guy – you should investigate the well known issue with optical heart rate sensors on people with full sleeve tattoos. I have full sleeves and chest on both arms and I’ve never seen an optical heart rate sensor that can read through tattoos reliably.
Which sensors have you tried?
KG- That is great point actually. I had same issue full selves and Chest . I have found that the Marq is as accurate [+ or – 1% to + or – 2% margin for error] .
My resting heart rate is verifiable at 49 per minute. The Marq has it consistently at 48-51.
I think that is pretty accurate for a wrist device… Curious if there is bio engineers that could shed light on margin for error?
I have been using Garmin since Forerunner101, I currently wear Marq Athlete [2019]
The battery life is amazing but as you said almost nobody needs that type of battery life.
My biggest complaint is continued over appearance of garmin watches. They area all our morphing into Casio Plastic Ville.
I love and wear the Marq because it is steel case and you can wear into a board room, You cannot wear a plastic into business setting.
I want Garmin to start using Steel cases on future Fenix’s because I want a bigger watch in the 51mm range…
I know wish full thinking and Plastic is cheaper…
Nazarene Runner [ Former US Track Team Member]
“I love and wear the Marq because it is steel case and you can wear into a board room, You cannot wear a plastic into business setting.”
Depends on the business.
Ha Ha – Correct in “Millennial Corporations” yes but In a traditional companies no!.
You have stated that you don’t like the G Shock look you don’t think they like similar ?
I think all the new garmin Fenix’s , and this version are ugly and similar to G Shock .
I work for a bank and half our senior staff have plastic garmins on their wrists. We are very much a ‘traditional’ company…
I have no urgent need for a new device, I have one that does the job but is ageing and given this “I think what’s the most interesting thing to me is the tweaked underlying platform” would you recommend hanging on and seeing if anything else is announced in the next few months?
How do you find the new strap?
Good point, didn’t talk a lot about it. I like it, but oddly, find it somewhat cumbersome to get on and off my wrist, which is admittedly more of a me problem than not.
That’s because typically undoing one strap won’t usually be enough to easily slide it over my wrist without a bit of finaglying, so I have to undo both, and then try and not have the straps slide out. It’s plausible with much more time it’ll loosen up a bit.
That said, I do like it, just not 100% sold on it yet as my long term preference. Ultimately though, I just like how light the watch is.
So I’m guessing it’s not very stretchy? When it’s undone, do the ends just go through where the spring bars are, or does it catch them?
I’ve got a Feniciërs 6X Sapphire but the silicone straps irritate my wrist so I use a Nick Mankey band at the moment.
Definitely not stretchy. At least, not my definition of stretchy. I wouldn’t say I’m a nylon band expert. I can talk all day about silicone straps in watches, but I’ve only used half a dozen or so nylon ones.
The ends don’t instantly go through the bars, but they don’t have a full catch either. Instead, the little Garmin tag kinda catches, and you have to needle it out to fully remove the strap. Takes like 1-2 seconds, but it’s enough that it won’t just fall-off per se.
There’s just so much “watch” isn’t there? But it’s still the same boring looking Fenix repackaged. Garmin make awesome gear, but they needed to make this beast something special and disappointingly (for me anyway) it’s a fail. The Polar GritX/Coros Apex Pro mightn’t stack up but at least they look special (imho) Plus Garmin over here in Australia have got outlandishly expensive compared to other brands such as Polar, Suunto and Coros. A great watch for sure, but I’ll never buy it. Sometimes less is more. As far as Garmin goes (I have Garmin, Polar and Coros), I’ll hang with my Instinct cause it just looks badass and is feature packed for a great price. Great review by the way too!
I need a new watch for a multi-day ultra this summer. I currently have the 910xt. Is it worth waiting for the 955 (any idea of a release date?) or get this watch now because of the battery life? Any chance the Enduro would later be updated to include Maps?
Did you notice any performance differences (faster route creation or re-routing, snappier interface) that would indicate an updated processor is part of the new platform?
No performance changes at all. Seemed basically the same to me.
Some of the marketing shots from Garmin show the Enduro displaying topographic maps. See for example: link to road.cc
Are we sure it can’t do maps?
I noticed the same thing
100% sure it can’t. I looked in the PR share (the same share that Road.cc got), and I don’t see that image in there. I also don’t see it in the copy of PR stuffs I downloaded over the weekend. My guess is it was in there when it was first sent out a few weeks ago – but I rarely bother looking at the PR images, and certainly didn’t then.
Either way, my guess was that someone in graphics just thought it was another Fenix. But yeah, there’s zero storage in there for maps. So just a photoshop fail.
So, an ultra/endurance watch with no maps…? Honestly, as an ultra runner, I don’t get it.
I’ll keep my 6X.
Seems to me like this is just another step by Garmin in building the foundation of a next gen watch. That foundation needs to support coming battery intensive features like a fancier screen, dual band GPS, and LTE. So, first they introduce solar to expand battery a year or so ago, now they make updates to the underlying platform to further extend the battery. Both of these advancements will be needed to maintain good/great battery life once the futures features (dual band GPS, fancy display, LTE) become a reality.
I think you have nailed it with this observation. For me, this is likely to be an important building block for the watch I will wait for. I don’t need a battery to last that long between charges but I would like greater fitness and training information and insights. This lays the foundation for that watch.
Typo – ” XC Classic Ski, XS Skate Ski, ” should be ” XC Classic Ski, XC Skate Ski, “
Nice catch!
A Fenix 6 watch for ultrarunners without maps? That’s ridiculous. Fail!
Thanks for the great review.
Garmin what’s with the silly colour accents? Total deal breaker. In my eyes the best looking garmin watch is the marq adventurer but that’s an insane price for what ultimately is throwaway technology. The next best looking watch is the first avenger watch, I can live with the branding at 12 as all my “desk divers” have a pip at 12, the problem with that watch is a lack of metrics. Please make a great looking watch that I can wear 24/7 with all the running metrics, that I can wear whilst in a suit or jeans between the £1599 and £349 price points. And I may come back into the ecosystem. As it is I sold all my Garmin gear, grabbed a coros pace 2 which I wear for workouts and then wear one of my automatic/haq watches the rest of the time. In wrapping up try and get something that doesn’t look quirky for less than £800 but being as I’m only a runner £500 would be preferable.
Hi. I’m not seeing the update yet.
Is this a beta update or official update.
The latest official version is 13.10
beta is 15.20
As noted in their forums post 10 hours ago, the production roll-out has begun. It can take a number of days (usually 5) for them to reach 100% of watches (they stagger it on purpose).
https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/254729/software-15-20-gps-5-00—rollout
That beta (15.20) is the release candidate version that’s going to be rolled out as production, so you can grab that now instead if you want: https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/254310/fenix-6-series—15-20-public-release-candidate
Thank you.
It’s super interesting that it’s the same version number as Fenix/MARQ line – implying maybe the “platform” changes aren’t as big as Garmin has described. Also good news from a beta firmware perspective (whereas FR945 is on entirely different version numbers).
For a watch targeting among others trail runners, it is kind of strange that there’s no maps.