The Garmin Fenix 7 is a superb sports activities watch, with only one pervasive drawback. It prices quite a bit. Greater than the Apple Watch Collection 8, and really greater than the Apple Watch Extremely in the event you purchase the model with a Sapphire display and titanium physique.
It’s one of many finest health trackers, however is it truly value shopping for for most folk?
There’s some excellent news. Garmin Fenix watches, and the finest Garmin watches (opens in new tab) typically, do are likely to get vital price-drops in gross sales. They’re recurrently the celebrities of Prime Day and Black Friday offers round-ups, at the very least for these of us who care about this space of tech.
There’s a sound argument to be made {that a} Fenix 7 is health tracker overkill for lots of people. Nevertheless, that’s much less of a difficulty in the event you discover it beneath its authentic value. We’re going to check out precisely what constitutes a Fenix 7 “deal” in 2022 and past, and what this watch provides over a few of the cheaper Garmins, and different rivals.
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Do you have to purchase the Garmin Fenix 7?
The sort of one who ought to contemplate a Garmin Fenix 7 is a severe runner, anybody who has a stacked exercise routine that must be balanced rigorously, or a hiker who needs to navigate utilizing a watch fairly than their telephone or a paper map.
The Fenix 7 is one in all Garmin’s dearer watches. It has a luxury-level value, significantly in its higher-end variants, however that is nonetheless virtually completely a watch of options and practicality.
For instance, the pricier variations add photo voltaic charging, a more durable Sapphire display, lighter Titanium casing and improve the casing measurement for longer battery life. Not one of the additional expense has to do with bragging rights or model.
It’s one motive we like this watch a lot. It’s full of stuff and virtually none of it’s fluff.
Garmin Fenix 7 options
A number of key options set the Fenix 7 other than lower-end fashions within the Garmin line-up. First, the back and front of the casing are steel fairly than plastic/polymer. These are both chrome steel or titanium relying on the mannequin you decide.
You get 16GB or 32GB of storage. This can be utilized for music or, the true draw, to carry continents’ value of map knowledge. Most cheaper Garmin watches solely allow you to navigate by GPS coordinates, or a “breadcrumb path” of the route you’ve already taken. Right here you’ll be able to see full map topography, and generate routes on the fly. Highly effective stuff.
This watch additionally has Garmin’s extra hardcore stats, like Coaching Load, urged restoration occasions and Coaching Standing. These are super-useful in case your exercise routine is pretty intense, the type which will threat overtraining.
For those who don’t care in regards to the high-end shell supplies, you may get comparable options for much less cash within the Forerunner 955 (opens in new tab). And in the event you gained’t use the downloadable maps characteristic, take a look at the Forerunner 255 (opens in new tab).
Whereas we love the thought of being a “Fenix 7 grade” athlete, once you truly need to open your pockets the extra modest Forerunner 255 begins to make numerous sense. We additionally discover these much less initially impressive-looking plastic watches extra snug than the Fenix 7. They’re quite a bit lighter.
All these watches share a number of options that make them extra interesting than, say, an Apple Watch Collection 7 (opens in new tab) for a lot of of us.
They use memory-in-pixel transflective screens that get clearer in shiny daylight. That is the polar reverse of the OLED screens of the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, which need to ramp up their depth to compete with daylight. It’s why Apple made the Watch Extremely to achieve 2000 nits of brightness, round 9 occasions brighter than some laptop computer screens.
That naturally makes use of numerous battery, however the Fenix 7 doesn’t want to make use of further battery energy outdoor until you’re additionally monitoring your actions with GPS.
A Fenix 7 lasts between 11 days and 37 days of normal use, not the someday you get from an Apple Watch Collection 7. It makes carrying this factor a blissful breeze, hardly ever demanding a cost — and there’s no stamina tax simply from monitoring an hour-long run outdoor.
That is additionally the first motive to get a Fenix 7 over a Garmin Epix 2 (opens in new tab), which can be a wonderful health tracker. That watch’s OLED display lets it final round six days in its “at all times on” mode. The Fenix 7’s display shows the watch face all day by default.
Garmin Fenix 7 value
Right here’s the thorny half, and the hopeful half. Probably the most reasonably priced Fenix 7 prices $699/£599, as per the launch value.
This will get you the 42mm Fenix 7S or the 47mm Fenix 7. The 2 watches are very comparable, the Fenix 7S merely made to swimsuit smaller wrists.
You’ll pay $799 for the Photo voltaic Fenix 7/7S, which has a photo voltaic charging factor in and across the show. And $899 for Sapphire Photo voltaic fashions. These have more durable show glass and, simply as essential, Titanium casing plates. Titanium reduces the watch’s weight, making it extra snug to put on all day lengthy.
Typical on-line reductions would possibly see you save as much as 10% off the unique value. Nevertheless, we might be able to enter the golden period of Fenix 7 reductions.
We simply need to look again to the Fenix 6 to know why. Again in 2020, just a little below a 12 months after the Fenix 6 collection launched, we noticed reductions of as much as 33% off the collection. And in 2021 we noticed reductions of as much as 49% throughout large sale occasions like Prime Day and Black Friday.
These have been for various fashions, as you are likely to get the next proportion low cost off the dearer watches.
Nevertheless, if we have been to hope for the same discount off the Garmin Fenix 7 throughout this 12 months’s sale occasions, it might imply a typical collection Fenix 7 for round $468/£401.
For those who see the Fenix 7 collection watches something near that value, you realize you’ve discovered a scorching deal.
Garmin Fenix 7 launch date
The Garmin Fenix 7 household was introduced in January 2022. And in contrast to another areas of tech, and different wearable collection, this one doesn’t get up to date yearly.
Garmin’s Fenix 6 arrived roughly 29 months earlier, in 2019. The Fenix 5 got here round 31 months earlier than that, in 2017. By this sample, we’re solely due the Fenix 8 in August 2024.
This needs to be reassuring. Whereas the Fenix 7 has been out for a short while now, it’s a great distance from being old-fashioned. And we count on it to nonetheless really feel completely good to make use of years after the Fenix 8 arrives.