I finally bought a Garmin Fenix 6

Finally, I bought a Garmin Fenix 6 pro. 

My Garmin Fenix 6 pro with a custom watchface

Garmin is not a new platform for me as, over the years, I had the Vivoactive 3 and the Vivoactive 3 music. I tested and didn’t keep the Vivoactive 4 and the Venu 2.

• Vivoactive 3 was my favorite for its metal parts and the great readability of notifications.

• Vivoactive 3 Music was very good but all plastic and felt too cheap for the price.

• Vivoactive 4 was a huge disappointment. They changed the notification display to show white text on black background and the text was smaller. Given the limits of a reflective LCD, it was too often annoying and uneasy to get enough contrast to read comfortably.

• Venu 2 is certainly a very good watch but its short battery life with AOD was a no go for me. 3 days is better than any Wear OS or Apple watch with AOD, but it doesn’t work for me. I need a full week battery life.

My old Vivoactive 3 with a custom watchface

Then I found a huge sale for the Garmin Fenix 6 pro. Fenix 7 was about to be announced, hence the price drop. At around 800€, it was an expensive smartwatch. I don’t usually spend so much on this kind of device. But when it was sold at 550€ in december, I got interested and finally bought one.

Familly portrait

Why spend so much in a smartwatch when most models becomes quickly obsolete and will have a worn out battery after 2 years of almost daily charges ?

• 1/ Garmin watches usually doesn’t become obsolete quickly. My old 2017 Vivoactive 3 is actively maintained and get frequent updates.

• 2/ Even if these watches are essentially made of plastic, with some metal parts for some models, they are known for being very sturdy and reliable. They can work for years without any issue.

• 3/ They are, with some Pebble and the Fossil Hybrid HR, some Suunto and Coros, and some old Amazfit, the only smartwatches with a REFLECTIVE DISPLAY technology allowing for days or weeks of battery life with always on display. A Vivoactive 3 or 4 can run for a week on one charge, a Fenix 6 can make 2 weeks … like the Fossil Hybrid HR. Note Garmin does have models based on AMOLED screens … which doesn’t allow an as long lasting AOD.

• 4/ When you charge a watch once a week or twice a month … the battery doesn't wear out as fast as when you have to charge every day or every other day, giving you years of life expectancy.

• 5/ Of the long lasting watches, they are the only ones (with the dead Pebble) with an app store and ecosystem.

• 6/ The NOTIFICATIONS system is one of the most efficient and reliable and … easy to read. It even offers canned answers if you are using un Android phone. (On iOS, Apple refuses to give access to this function to third party watches).

• 7/ On the Fenix 6 as well as on the Venu 2 and some recent models, the widget system uses Quick Glance widgets that are amazingly usefull and convenient, showing 3 detailed notifications in one single screen, reducing the need to swipe for hours to reach the widget you actually want.

3 Quick Glance elements on one screen

After 2 monthes of constant daily use I can tell you how happy I am with my Fenix 6 pro.

This will certainly be the point of one of my next posts.