Despite looking the same, it’s the hardware that makes up most of the changes that enable greater levels of performance – from a longer-lasting battery to a better heart rate monitor and a better GPS chip. The meaningful sports software features are the same as the Fenix 6 but with a few extra nuggets. You can pair/save multiple headphones/Bluetooth audio devices if you want, such as a pair of sporty headphones and then non-sporty ones. The music menu will automatically prompt you to do this, or you can always manage headphones in the sensors menu (the same place you’d manage heart rate straps). In terms of details offered, the maps between the Fenix 7 and Epix are technically identical. What’s not the same though is the visibility of features at different levels. Meaning, due to the better display of the Epix series, you’ll see more details at a higher zoom level because there are more pixels. Here’s a simple comparison of what you see over the same spot and exact same zoom level (200m), between a Fenix 7 and an Epix series watch:

Within the Connect IQ app store app, in addition to the 3rd party free watch faces, you can also create your own watch face, such as with photos or the like: New Garmin Elevate Gen 4 optical heart rate monitor – more accurate and more battery-friendly than before. SpO2? You got it. HRV? You got it. EKG/ECG? Hmmm not yet. And that’s the exact same way the FDA certifies blood oxygen medical-grade devices: Sitting still. If you swagger around, you’ll either not get good devices, or, Garmin these days won’t even give a reading. They (and others) have gotten smarter with just giving you a warning that there’s too much movement for a valid result. If you tap the up button you can add a course (or other routing, more on that later), structured training, or change the power profiles. I mean, frankly, you can change anything from this point. For example, you can see how many hours of GPS life you’ll get with your current settings, and then there’s some pre-canned options which show higher GPS levels if you realize you’ll need them. Or, you can go rogue and create your own battery profile:

Top Garmin Fenix 7 questions and answers

Battery life is ridiculously good to the point where you will be enabling every last feature just to try to prove Garmin’s claims wrong.

Before we move on to the test results, note that optical HR sensor accuracy is rather varied from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. Position and how the band is worn, are *the most important* pieces. A unit with an optical HR sensor should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts). You can wear it a tiny bit looser the rest of the day. The Garmin Connect app controls settings, syncs and displays the mountains of data and insights the watch collects, and enables ‘smart’ features such as message notifications and music control on your phone. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian It is an excellent follow-up to the Fenix 6 line that introduces meaningful upgrades, many of which are expected to flow down into Garmin’s numerous lines of less expensive, more focused products over the next year.

Smartwatch features: A familiar experience

So, here’s that data set, and at a high level, things look pretty similar. All Fenix 7/Epix/Vertix 2 units were set for multiband GPS, and the FR745 was set for GPS+GLONASS. All the units had no problems in the openness sections: All Systems + Multiband: This is the new dual-frequency option that everyone has been waiting for, which combines the All Systems option, and then makes it multi-band across both L1 and L5 satellites. As a result, this burns a boatload more battery, and in theory is the most accurate. Before we dive into sport usage, we’re going to briefly cover the flashlight. This is one of those features that’ll probably seem Inspector Gadget-ish at first, but in practice is actually surprisingly useful. I just wish it wasn’t limited to the Fenix 7X.