For altitude acclimation or sleep monitoring, a Pulse Oxsensor uses light beams at your wrist to gauge how well your body is absorbing oxygen. Switched to glass-covered optical HR sensor (versus plastic with a coating), which increases durability Notably missing from that list is the new Stamina and Up Ahead features. Both of which I’d imagine could easily run just fine on Fenix 6 hardware, so it’s a shame to see those not being added. I suppose on the bright side, Garmin does seem to slowly be getting better about adding features to older watches. Baby steps…I guess. In the Box: For the first time, the Fenix 7S is the same price as the standard 47mm Fenix 7 – so there's no cost saving by opting for the smaller version. As expected, the Fenix 7’s optical heart-rate monitor lags behind the chest belt for short bursts of intense activity, and its performance for maximum heart rate isn’t quite as good, either, with a difference of 4.3% over those same runs. It’s certainly good enough for most workouts, however.

Overwhelming days did produce higher readings in Garmin Connect. We also saw big spikes in stress while ill – so it’s worth keeping an eye on. But, inversely, everyone’s 2-5% features are different. I use sports features every day that others never use, and vice versa. It’s fundamentally why they lead this category. And perhaps more importantly, over the last few years the software quality has increased substantially, largely through open firmware beta programs that go on for months. View how various settings and sensors impact your watch’s battery life, so you can make battery-extending changes on the fly. Enabling multiband on the Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar does make a difference to accuracy but it isn’t huge. Over the course of another 80.5km of running I saw the distances come 0.5% closer to what the Stryd pod was reporting, with the watch generally reporting longer distances. The thin stripe around the edge of the display can collect 100% of the sun’s rays. Well, technically it’s of course less than that, but in terms of simple relativity here, we’ll go with that being 100% from a Garmin spec standpoint. Meanwhile, the portion under the glass can only receive 7% – but the surface area of course is massive. Note that the 7% figure is down from a 10% claim on the Fenix 6, which Garmin explains is because Sapphire is normally less clear than regular glass, so by reducing the solar layer, it increases overall clarity (compared to keeping it at 10%). And of course, the under the glass portion (officially called Power Sapphire, now) is the entire display surface.These models are then further split into three further variants: standard, Solar and Sapphire Solar. Or at least the 7S and 7 are; the 7X is only available in Solar and Sapphire Solar. Sapphire denotes the fact that the watch comes with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass, while Solar indicates it’s able to harvest top-up energy from the sun, courtesy of a slim ring sandwiched between the bezel and the watch face. As for the standard variant, this comes with Corning Gorilla Glass DX and no solar charging. Calendar, weather, battery saver, control smartphone music, play and control watch music, find my phone, find my watch, VIRB camera remote, Garmin Pay, realtime settings sync with Garmin Connect, Battery Saver mode With a full complement of VO2 Max and performance analytics, Fenix 7S is still a natural home for runners. And with longevity the name of the game, it’s distance runners that will get the most value.

I haven’t had any skips or dropouts in either casual listening to music at my desk, or in workouts using the Beats Studio Buds. I’m not a huge listening to music while working out person though, but I find in general these days Garmin and others seem to have compatibility with headphones pretty well sorted out (compared to devices from a few years ago being some of the first generations to have wearable music support, and often had connectivity issues).

Increased the overall surface area of the solar panels on the watch by up to 54% (e.g. Fenix 7X vs Fenix 6X) That sensor does 24×7 monitoring of your heart rate, as well as workout heart rate, and even pulse oximetry (blood oxygen levels). The green light is for regular heart rate readings, whereas the red light is used for Pulse Ox.

Notably absent though is there’s no wrist-based running power like COROS and Polar have. If you want running power, you’ll need some sort of external sensor – either from a 3rd party (Stryd), or paired with Garmin’s HRM-RUN, HRM-TRI, HRM-PRO, or RD-Pod units – for Garmin’s own running power data field. Nothing has changed there. For this, you’ll need your bank to be supported by Garmin. That’s many of the big banks in the US, but beyond that it varies quite a bit. It’s hit or miss. A full list is here. View advanced training metrics that include running dynamics, heat- and altitude-adjusted VO2 max, trail running adjustment, recovery advisor and more.

Why is Garmin Fenix 7S Solar better than Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar?

And not only is the Fenix 7 rammed with training and sports capabilities, it’s also a highly impressive performer when it comes to general heart rate and GNSS accuracy. Speaking of structured workouts, each day the watch will offer up structured running or cycling workouts, as a suggested workout, based on your current training and recovery. It looks at your recent load and training focus areas, and figures out what the next logical workout should be to slightly increase your fitness. Then, it suggests that daily workout: Away from mapping, you can add GPX routes to the watch and follow waypoints, which is great for pre-planned adventures, and useful once the trails get faint. Smartwatch features

And then you can also see this in Garmin Connect Mobile afterwards, which is where you can spit out a PDF copy if you like:Use preloaded activity profiles for trail running, swimming, running, biking, hiking, rowing, skiing, golfing, surfing, indoor climbing and more. By default, virtually all sport profiles have touch disabled, and then you enable it on a per-profile basis. You can also tweak whether or not touch is enabled/disabled during your sleeping time periods, through a new Sleep Mode manager interface: While the thin rim around the Fenix 6 wasn’t as obvious, the much wider rim on the Fenix 7 is clearly visible. Though, I guess I’ve just gotten so used to the look that it doesn’t bother me any. Here’s that identified: One of the country’s largest urban forests goes by the uninspiring name Forest Park, and it stretches across the west side of Portland, Oregon, like a great, tree-covered blanket. It’s accessible by car, bike, or foot, but once you’re inside, the trails feel quiet and remote. It’s an urban legend that people live in the park undetected for years, like in an M. Knight Shyamalan film. Alerts (time, distance, heart rate goals), courses, Garmin cycle map, race an activity, manual bike lap.