10 years separate us from the official release of the first fēnix watch. The iconic sports connected watch
arrives today in its seventh generation, bringing with it many features.
Among the novelties, we note the appearance of a touch screen as well as the support of dual-band GPS.
A fēnix 7 more beautiful than ever
The fēnix range is certainly the best known of the American brand. It must be said that the connected watches that are part of it are always at the forefront of technology, taking advantage of many features as well as a robust design. The new fēnix 7, however, goes further than its predecessors.
The design of the beauty has thus been reworked: the bezel has been revised to be more sober, the lugs are more elongated and the main button is better protected with a wider frame. The 7 and 7X Sapphire Solar models benefit from a sapphire screen, a first in the field. Indeed, solar charging technology has until now been incompatible with sapphire-reinforced screens.
Still for the screen part, we now benefit from a touch screen. Garmin thus promises easier navigation in the interface, especially for the mapping part. All fēnix 7 benefit from this novelty, regardless of their case size: 42, 47 or 51 mm. The typology of the range therefore remains similar to what we knew before. Depending on your needs, you can opt for the fēnix 7s, the fēnix 7 or the fēnix 7X, with or without solar charging and/or sapphire screen. You are spoiled for choice!
The sportiest connected watch
In addition to the appearance of the touch screen, the fēnix 7 has a good range of less visible hardware and software innovations. The American connected watch is thus equipped with the famous dual-band GPS system, launched on the market with the Coros Vertix 2 and resumed shortly after on the Huawei Watch GT 3. This system is supposed to ensure better accuracy, especially in difficult environments. such as forests or large cities lined with buildings likely to disturb the signal.
On the sports side, the fēnix 7 range takes up the sports profiles of the older generations. It is therefore no less than a hundred sports that you can follow closely on your wrist. The watch is also able to display animations for training programs and learn from your habits to offer you daily training adapted to your abilities.
We still note the arrival of new modes: Stamina and Visual Race Predictor. The first tells you if you will have enough stamina to finish your current running session. The second allows you to predict your performance based on your body data. Of course, the other functions released in previous years remain available on all fēnix 7. We find in bulk the sleep score, the recovery time, the training load, the Body Battery score or the Garmin Coach programs . It is difficult to do more complete!
A watch dedicated to adventurers, but not only!
The fēnix 7 would not be complete without a good navigation part. Here too Garmin hits hard. In addition to the possibility of navigating more easily on the cartography with the touch screen, the beauty now includes global cartography including base maps dedicated to skiing. It will therefore no longer be necessary to make difficult manipulations to benefit from cards other than those of Europe, as was the case with the old fēnix.
You still have to keep in mind that only fēnix 7X Solar Sapphire watches benefit from global mapping and dual-band GPS. Less expensive models are unfortunately more limited on these points.
In any case, you will be able to take advantage of the new Up Ahead functions which displays on a single screen all the functions useful for outdoor outings: POIs, indication of the next turn, location of aid stations… Garmin makes sure to give you a maximum information without having to browse for hours within the interface. A good point when you know how difficult fēnix can be to handle!
The icing on the cake for fēnix 7X users: this model is equipped with an LED that can act as a flashlight or a warning light. When the function is activated, the sports watch makes the LED flash red and white so that you can be seen more easily during night outings.
Nice everyday utility functions
All this is already very exciting. But the fēnix 7 wouldn’t be complete without a few utility features. Wi-Fi connectivity is included to download apps and watch faces from the Connect IQ store. Compatible models can also store music in memory from several sources such as Deezer, Spotify or Amazon Music. Contactless payment is still present thanks to Garmin Pay. In short, the fēnix 7 is almost as complete as most Wear OS watches!
Unlike utility smartwatches, Garmin’s new watch has impressive battery life. The manufacturer thus announces up to five weeks of use for the Solar models and up to 135 hours in sport mode with GPS. Despite this, the Coros Vertix 2 remains more enduring but it must be taken into account that it is less well equipped, especially in terms of utility functions.
Price and availability
You can well imagine that such a deployment of technology comes at a high cost. The fēnix range remains one of the most expensive from Garmin. The prices thus range from €699 to €1199 depending on the size of the box and the presence or absence of solar charging.
The fēnix 7S, fēnix 7 and fēnix 7X sports watches are already on sale on the official Garmin website. Count one to two weeks before shipping, the pandemic not facilitating fast shipments.
Source: Garmin press conference
1