Hasn’t Garmin had HRV Stress test which requires a ECG chest strap and there is an option to log HRV. Presumably you then analyze those logs with Kubios or something. I don’t think Garmin does anything with that. Every time a new Fenix watch is released Garmin doesn't just launch a couple of different sizes and call it a day, it creates a mini range of products with different features, sizes, colours and materials. There's no change to that approach here. Remember also that you can change the map sets shown. Within the TopoActive map, there are different map layers, including high contrast ones, night ones, even popularity routing (heatmap) ones. I find I tend to prefer the popularity one the most, but the one titled ‘System’ is the default. It doesn’t work as well with the connected smarts of your phone but it’s a sports tool first and foremost. So interested to know about GPS improvements on F7. Any additional info on the changes? If no significant improvements, then at the price, I really can’t see the point in buying.

Numerous aesthetic changes are made to the watch interface and, surprise! they’re generally pretty good. I don’t trust the wrist HR sensor for workouts. I have had too many occasions of total nonsensical readings for minute at a time. I use an H10 for every workout. Must Read: Lumen Review – the Fat & Carb Metabolism Burn Monitor links to your Fenix Garmin Fēnix 7 – What’s New? I think in general, as much as it pains most of us endurance athletes to admit this, Garmin is usually right here. When it says I’m short in a given category, the reality is that if a coach had laid out the plan, it’d have been more balanced than my ad-hoc workouts. The standard Garmin Epix is more expensive than the standard Fenix 7, but different versions of both watches carry different price tags. Sapphire crystal and solar charging add to the price, as do premium materials like titanium and leather.

For once, a touchscreen is added that boosts general usability rather than hindering your sports performance where others become responsive in the wet. But you still won’t miss the 5-buttons if that’s what you prefer. In the case of the microphone/speaker, Garmin says that the higher waterproofing standard of the Fenix series (100 meters) versus the Venu 2 series (50 meters), makes this challenging at this time. On the LTE front, I asked Garmin why there was no LTE option given it’s been a while since they launched the theoretically inferior FR945. It was the singular item they provided a ‘no comment’ on, out of the arguably 50-70 questions/details I’ve asked over the past two months.

Now as I mentioned, there’s the new Health Snapshot feature. Well, new to the Fenix 7 series that is. This was introduced on the Venu 2 last year, and it takes five core metrics and distills them down into a single 2-minute measurement period. All you need to do is sit down and relax. However, you’ve also got two additional data fields you can add: Distance and Time till empty. These two fields look at your current intensity and then figure out when you’re going to collapse. You’ll see a few minutes into my casual warm-up, it projects that at that pace, I can do 22KM or 1 hour and 45 minutes. Both short and long term are currently equal, cause things haven’t got crazy yet. Added flashlight to Fenix 7X model, which includes SOS mode, strobe mode, and running white/red modeAs you can see, it’s quite significant – again, assuming you have the solar power. But this is only showing that 3 hours. So imagine you’re hiking in the summer across a mountain range. In that case, you’ll likely have both far more than 3 hours a day in the sun, and depending on the weather, you’ll also have way more than 50K lux conditions. Garmin says that in none of these scenarios are they claiming ‘forever power’, but the reality is, if you turn off certain features, then you can basically get there with even just a few more hours of summer sun conditions. Inversely, if you’re hammering offline music + multiband GPS in a winter snowstorm with the optical HR sensor enabled doing PulseOx 24×7, then solar isn’t gonna net you much. The Flashlight (7X Only): The one downside here is that ostensibly the main reason you’d do a Health Snapshot on a regular basis is consistency in timing of the readings. Meaning, everything except for HRV is automatically captured 24×7 anyway, and plotted 24×7 up to monthly and more if you like (assuming you’ve enabled SpO2). However, HRV is not. And arguably the ability to trend just these Health Snapshot readings by themselves, would be pretty useful. Unfortunately, there’s no way to do that currently. You can only look at a single reading at a time.

Per-Sport/Activity Profile: This allows you to increase (or decrease) GPS accuracy on a given sport, likely in exchange for battery life. The Fenix 7 Series follows that of the Venu 2 Plus two weeks ago, which allows you to long-press on any data in the watch face and be brought straight to that widget for deeper data. For example, if you long-press on the steps, it’ll bring you to the steps widget. I demonstrate this within the user interface video above.

GPS is frankly an astonishing technology if you stop and think about it. I think expectations are a little warped. Each point is accurate to around 3-5m. The survey maps also may not be perfectly accurately registered either. Now that’s the basic flashlight mode. However, in all sport profiles you can then assign a specific always-on or blinking pattern instead, which can be configured to be either always-on in the sport mode, or only after sunset: I like large watches rough looking. There was rumours that the fenix would have voice/siri support – that would close the smartwatch gap to apple watch quite a bit. The second part I really miss is screen – I would sacrifice battery for amoled quality Now again, I’ve also gone years without this functionality, but it seems time to at least have the option for arrows. After all, Garmin has approximately 9,238 other routing-related options. In any event, that largely self-owned failure aside, I’ve had no issues with navigation across a wide variety of hikes, runs, and bikes over the last 6-7 weeks.