We Review the Brand-New Garmin Fenix 8

Smartwatch fans have been waiting for the Garmin Fenix 8 for quite a while. Garmin debuted the first version of their Fenix 7 line back in January of 2022, introducing a touchscreen, a built-in flashlight (in the 7X version), and upgraded onboard heart-rate sensors to the outdoor-focused model, among a few other things. At the same exact time, Garmin launched the second generation of the Epix, a very similar smartwatch to the Fenix that also had an AMOLED touchscreen, and of course, slightly less battery life.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because last week Garmin finally released their big update to their flagship outdoor line with the Fenix 8, and it’s notable because this update is offered in either a bright-and-shiny, full-color AMOLED or a non-AMOLED version (with corresponding monster battery life). Where is the new Epix? Well, I could be proven wrong in the next few months, but my guess is that it has just arrived, under a new nom de plume. Regardless of whether a new Epix appears or not, Garmin’s Fenix 8 has a lot to talk about—more than just the AMOLED screen. Let’s dig in.

Garmin Fenix 8 Review: The Basics

If the Garmin Fenix line is new to you, think of it as the burly, overbuilt, everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink version of the triathlete-favorite Forerunner 9xx line. It’s big and beefy; it (typically) has more than enough battery; it has more activities, features, and physiological functions than you’ll ever need.

To put a more fine point on it, with the Garmin Fenix 8 (and actually the Fenix 7 as well) you’ll get the best of: pool swimming, open-water swimming, cycling, running (with built-in power), triathlon (with an awesome auto transition function), multisport/brick, and any activity mode you could ever want (or create). You also get a crazy amount of bio feedback including advanced sleep tracking, heart rate variability (HRV) monitoring (with excellent built-in sensors), training readiness, training status, recovery time, pulse ox tracking, body battery, stress tracking, and way more.

The recent Fenix line also boasts run race pace guidance/prediction, strength training workouts, built-in offline mapping with top-of-the-line multiband GPS, and third-party apps (like Strava, Stryd, and more), along with lifestyle “stuff” like built-in music storage (and offline Spotify music). And just about everything in the last two paragraphs are things that have existed since the Fenix 7!

So what’s new? First off, all of the watches in the Fenix 8 line now boast a built-in flashlight—something you only got in the “X” or Pro editions of the Fenix 7 previously. And while that may seem like a silly little novelty, for anyone who gets up early/stays up late to train, or (more importantly) has been to an early morning, pre-dusk transition area, this smartphone-level bright LED light is almost literally a lifesaver. I can’t overstate how helpful the built-in LED is for triathletes, ultra-endurance athletes, or backpackers.

Second, the new Garmin Fenix 8 line has two flavors—AMOLED and non-AMOLED/solar—and three sizes—43mm (AMOLED only), 47mm, and 51mm. The AMOLED versions are have a very nice 454 x 454-pixel, touchscreen and a range from 10 days of battery life in the 43mm size, to an advertised 29 days in the 51mm size (though in real life this varies wildly, which we’ll get to later). The solar versions have a non-AMOLED 260 x 260 color screen and are the same price as the AMOLED ones, but nearly double the battery life in most use cases.

But the biggest update on the Fenix 8 line (in my opinion) is the addition of a built-in speaker and microphone—something we haven’t seen on an endurance sports-focused smartwatch, well, ever, with the exception of the Apple Watch Ultra line. This allows the Fenix 8 to make and take calls from a connected smartphone (but unlike Apple Watch Ultras, there is no version with built-in cellular), but it also allows users to make offline voice commands (complete list here). A brief list of the things you can “ask” your Fenix 8 to do include:

• Find my phone
• Turn on/off functions like Do Not Disturb, airplane mode, and the touchscreen
• Use music functions
• Save a location
• Start an activity (like a run or ride)
• Start a stopwatch/timer/alarm

While it’s no Siri (sorry Garmin), it’s still a pretty valuable tool for those of us who need to keep our eyes on the road and hands as free as possible. More on how it works below.

Finally, the Fenix 8 has updated its case, ever so slightly, by beefing up its sensor and button protection, which may seem like a minor tweak, but for anyone thinking about plunking down $1,000+ on a new smartwatch, and who swims regularly in sandy salt water, it’s not exactly a trivial update. There are also some other outdoor/dive-related updates that we won’t get into here.

Garmin Fenix 8 Review: What We Liked

Because around 90% of the Fenix 8 is a continuation of the already-excellent (and nearly complete) Fenix 7 line, I won’t get too far into the great features that already existed, but I will continue to highlight what sets the Fenix line apart from other smartwatches in this price range—watches like the Coros Vertix 2, the Suunto Vertical, the Polar Grit X2 Pro, Garmin’s own Forerunner 965, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Though to be fair to those watches, all of the versions of the Fenix 8 are quite a bit more expensive—like 20-50% more expensive—than anything on that list. A $1,000 entry point is no joke, but we’ll quantify that below.

With that in mind, I do like the AMOLED touchscreen, if nothing else because it makes offline mapping navigation not only easier, but more robust. The higher resolution and wider palette of colors allow for more detail and a wider array of map layers. In the list of premium smartwatches above, only the Grit X2 Pro, the Forerunner 965, and the Ultra 2 have AMOLED touchscreens. And while I didn’t get a chance to test the non-AMOLED versions of the Fenix 8, the vastly increased battery could outweigh the AMOLED screen if navigation isn’t a priority.

More than the AMOLED screen, I’m still a huge fan of the built-in LED flashlight—something I’m still shocked other brands haven’t copied yet. While it’s nowhere near as bright as a headlamp or actual handheld flashlight, it’s as bright, if not brighter than a smartphone light, and because it’s attached to your wrist, it’s much easier to use—both for seeing and being seen.

I’m also a pretty big fan of the offline voice commands. As someone who would wear a smartwatch like this 24/7—not just to the gym or while training—I appreciate that many of the everyday functions, like stopwatches, timers, alarms, and music controls, don’t require messy shortcut button combinations or scrolling through endless menus. Garmin has always been at the forefront of customization and functionality, but not so much in terms of navigating their menus—loads of options also means loads of stuff to scroll through, and the voice commands help cut through it all quickly.

In my testing, I found both the mic and speaker to be “close enough” to the on-wrist gold standard that’s found on Apple’s incredible Ultra 2 speaker and mic array when it comes to phone calls. While the Fenix 8’s mic doesn’t perform nearly as well as the Ultra 2 in windy conditions (something that Apple has spent considerable time and resources perfecting), it was still pretty impressive for a first try.

Finally, I do appreciate the fact that the Fenix 8 line is available in three very distinct sizes, without affecting which features are included on the watch. While I’ll talk about battery life—particularly in the smaller-size AMOLED version—below, it’s nice to know that you’re not forced to buy a smartwatch with an enormous case to enjoy all of the benefits of the latest tech. Scrawny-wristed triathletes everywhere thank you, Garmin.

Garmin Fenix 8 Review: What Could Have Been Better

As with any watch that has been improved by (many) iterations over the course of many years, it’s tough to find any big, objective issues with something like the Garmin Fenix 8. Especially when it comes to Garmin—well-known for their exhaustive function/feature list and ability to literally customize every aspect of the smartwatch—you won’t find anything missing or poorly executed per se. Typically, as is the case here, we have to be most critical of Garmin’s pricing structure, when compared to other endurance-focused smartwatches.

Here, we have to be objective about which smartwatches the Fenix 8 is truly competitive with. If we’re talking about the AMOLED version, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is at the top of the list (especially when we’re talking about smartwatches with mic/speaker capabilities). Though woefully outgunned in battery life and endurance-specific features, the Ultra 2 will still clobber the Fenix 8 when it comes to lifestyle functions, though not as much as it used to.

If you’re not an Apple acolyte, however (in other words, you don’t use an iPhone), then the Ultra 2’s lifestyle functions are literally irrelevant to you. Here, the Fenix 8 is still between 25-50% more expensive than the $800 Ultra 2. Arguably, the Fenix 8 line’s training/workout/racing/physio features are probably worth that much, so it’s probably too close to call between the two.

However, if you don’t care about mic/speaker capabilities, and you want an AMOLED touchscreen, there are far, far cheaper options out there with similar features/functions and much better battery life. Suunto’s very impressive Race comes to mind at only $450 to start. Even at the lighter and more-memory $550 titanium version of the Race, you’re looking at an 80-120% price increase from the Suunto to the Fenix 8 line. And (and this is a big and), the battery life on the Suunto Race is substantially better than the AMOLED Fenix 8 in our real-world tri training testing.

So battery wise, the Fenix 8 AMOLED line is much better than its Apples-to-Apples competitor (pun intended), the Ultra 2 and on par—or slightly better than—some others, like Polar’s Grit X2 Pro.

Now where the pricing criticisms really get going is when you look at the non-AMOLED Fenix 8 versions. Oddly priced the exact same as the watches with AMOLED touchscreen hardware, it’s tough to see a world where people are spending nearly 100% more than another non-AMOLED “expedition-level” smartwatch like the Coros Vertix 2 or Suunto’s Vertical. Sure, you’re getting a few extra features and functions—and most notably that voice command/mic/speaker combo—but is that worth over $400? I’m not sure.

Conclusions

New Garmin reviews are typically really fun for me because I know they won’t necessarily screw anything up, and their new features are typically pretty novel (see: the built-in flashlight, once again). But there are always a lot of “if this then that” logic decisions that you have to make when it comes to the features versus price, as Garmin like’s to price things very “optimistically” on their end.

While I can’t overstate how much better the battery life and training/workout/racing features on the AMOLED Fenix 8 line are than the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it’s also not like they’re the same price. You’re still paying a not-cheap premium to get that extra battery and those additional functions. Almost enough to warrant buying the Ultra 2 for everyday use and something like a Coros Pace 3 for your workouts for the same price as one Fenix 8.

Here again, the Suunto Race disrupts the cost matrix with a fully offline-map-loaded AMOLED touchscreen smartwatch that can beat the Fenix 8’s battery life in most all situations. That’s even ignoring the AMOLED-equipped Garmin Forerunner 965 with comparable (or better) battery life at $600 (though now on sale for $500).

Of course here you also have to ask yourself: “How much does an AMOLED screen really matter to me?” In my experience, it’s neat, but also only really functionally helpful when it comes to navigation and mapping. So if you’re not using mapping often, I’d probably choose the non-AMOLED Fenix 8 because I’d want more battery—as a triathlete wearing the watch 24/7 and training once or twice per day.

Sadly, from there, the decision matrix becomes a steep proposition when you look at that $1,000+ price tag for a watch with awesome battery life, lots of functions, a flashlight (lest you forget), and a mic/speaker system. At that price, the opportunity cost becomes tough and crowded. If, for instance, you can see yourself living without the mic/speaker, you’re now looking at some serious competition from Garmin’s own Fenix 7 series (of which, many have flashlights), among others.

There’s a lot to untangle with this new release, but at the end of the day Garmin has predictably put out another great line of entirely complete smartwatches for triathletes. If money was no object, either the AMOLED or non-AMOLED Fenix 8s are easy slam dunks when it comes to triathletes and endurance athletes, as there’s nothing out there that has All That Stuff.

Competitive Comparison: Garmin Fenix 8 vs. Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs. Garmin Forerunner 965 vs. Suunto Race vs. Garmin Fenix 7 Pro vs. Coros Vertix 2 vs. Suunto Vertical vs. Polar Grit X2 Pro