Garmin hasn’t had a big launch recently, hopefully we will get the Fenix 7 at some point later in the year. In the meantime, they have launched the Garmin Enduro.
The is an appealing but somewhat niche watch. The main issue it has is the high price tag of £699.99 putting it £170 high than the base model Fenix 6, £100 more than the Fenix 6 Pro and £50 more than the Fenix 6X Pro. That’s the RRP prices too, you can currently buy the Fenix 6X Pro for just £514 and the 6 Pro for £479.00.
The more recent Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar is a bit more expensive at £739
So what is so special about the Garmin Enduro?
Battery Life
As the name suggests, the endurance-focused sports watch has an incredible battery life. This is pretty much the only reason to buy the watch, and if I didn’t already have a Fenix 6 Pro, it could possibly win me over.
The official specs state:
- Smartwatch: Up to 50 days/65 days with solar
- Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 130 days/1 year with solar
- GPS: 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
In comparison, the best battery the Fenix 6 lineup has is the 6X Solar with:
- Smartwatch: up to 21 days +3 days
- GPS: up to 60 hours +6 hours
- GPS and music: up to 15 hours +1 hour
- Max battery GPS mode: up to 120 hours +28 hours
- Expedition GPS mode: up to 46 days +10 days
- Battery saver watch mode: up to 80 days +40 days
So standard GPS 16.7% and the smartwatch mode increase by a mind-boggling 138%
The Solar models are quite expensive though, so what about a more mainstream Fenix 6 Pro, which I personally have. That has:
- Smartwatch: up to 14 days
- GPS: up to 36 hours
- GPS and music: up to 10 hours
- Max battery GPS mode: up to 72 hours
- Expedition GPS mode: up to 28 days
- Battery saver watch mode: up to 48 days
So 3.5 times the battery life for regular smartwatch use and a 66% increase in the GPS.
Physical Size & Display
While this is certainly not a small watch, they haven’t achieved this battery life by increasing the dimensions and shoving a massive battery in there. The Enduro has the same dimensions as the 6X at 51 x 51 x 14.9 mm and weighs less too. The titanium model is 58g vs 82g of the 6X. The steel model is also lighter than both the steel and titanium Fenix 6 (83g/72g).
Nor have they limited the display it is the same 1.4 inch 280 x 280 pixels as the Fenix 6X.
Identical to the Fenix 6 (none pro model) features – No maps, music or WiFi
They needed to save the battery some how, and they have done this by cutting back some power-hungry features. This makes the Enduro identical feature-wise to the none Pro Fenix 6.
Some of the features that are already on Enduro are only in the Beta version for the Fenix 6, but they should be out soon.
There is:
- No Maps
- Music
- WiFi
- NFC/Payments
- PacePro or ClimbPro on the fly
They have also stripped the storage because you don’t have maps or music. So now it is just 64MB vs 32GB.
You now get a nylon strap vs rubber, I guess this saves some weight, it does look quite good though.
Overall
How they have achieved such a large difference in battery life seems unclear. Less features will certainly help, and optimisations since the initial hardware launched on the F6 will all help, but the jump in battery performance is quite significant.
Most people can forget about this watch. The Fenix 6 Pro models offer superior features for less money. The prospect of only having to charge my watch once a month is very tempting, though and this does give the watch some mass-market appeal.
Endurance athletes will need no convincing either way. The incredible battery life will sell itself if you do events or train enough to justify the cost.
Posted by Mighty Gadget Blog: UK Technology News and Reviews
