Finally, there’s the new surfing profile data metrics with Surfline integration. You may have seen the surfing metrics added as part of the more recent Garmin Fenix 6 betas, in fact, they were actually looking for people to beta test it (which, by the looks of it was pretty limited in finding people). With its glass face, I was worried the Fenix would be more like a delicate new iPhone than my old plastic-and-silicone Forerunner. But after 2 months of drops, scrapes, and bangs, I’m happy to report it remains scratch-free. If you are a runner, hiker, or rider looking to go out on multi-day adventure, battery life matters. The battery life on the Garmin Fenix 7 is far superior to that on the Fenix 6, which was already pretty impressive.

Along with showing off current weather, you also have additional fields for battery status, real-time heart rate, step counts, floors climbed, and environmental data like humidity and weather conditions. Knowing how far and how steep you have to push is critical, especially if you are reaching the limit of your endurance. I try not to look at it unless I absolutely need to as as it a constant reminder of how much further you have to toil to reach the top. Love it or hate it, Climb Pro works as advertised and is one the many extra features that sets the 6S Pro apart from its competition. Health and wellness for the win Otherwise, you can simply test on demand. I tried this feature a few times, comparing with a finger oximeter, and found that I got similar readings. Sleep

According to Garmin, the stress level is calculated based on your heart rate variability in a given day. I was a little skeptical at first, but looking through the data changed my mind. I found that on days that had felt particularly harried, my stress score was higher. And on days that felt pretty low-key, I ended up with a low stress score. However, with the Fenix 6/6S/6X Pro Solar editions specifically, it’s hard to really see the benefit of solar in day to day situations. Sure, on bright sunny summer days with 8-10 hours of strong sunlight outdoor time you’ll definitely see a benefit. But, for the rest of the year, you probably won’t benefit much. And that’s somewhat to do with the fact that the Garmin Fenix series mostly tries to hide the solar panel. Compare that to the new Instinct Solar which uses vastly more solar panel within the display to get nearly a 30% bump in GPS on-time, and an ‘Unlimited Power’ type mode in a battery-saving watch mode. I’d really like to see Garmin push the boundaries a bit more with the Fenix series. Next, as noted, I use just my daily training routes. Using a single route over and over again isn’t really indicative of real-world conditions, it’s just indicative of one trail. The workouts you see here are just my normal daily workouts. Compare this with something like the Casio GBD-H1000 GPS, which can easily power up from dead to not dead using just solar panel in a relatively short amount of time (couple hours at most), and actually get sustainable solar power from the panels. Not enough to last forever doing GPS activities, but certainly plenty to meaningfully help when hanging outside on a sunny day not recording.

Garmin’s new Fenix 6S Pro may be the smallest model in the Fenix series, but don’t let that dissuade you. It is as rugged and almost as full-featured as its big brother, the Fenix 6X Pro. The 6S Pro has a compact design, refined interface, and useful new features that make it attractive to folks looking for a fitness watch with a strong outdoor focus. Is there a better alternative?While I could see this feature being useful if you were trying to work on more even splits, I actually found it kind of annoying when I tested it out. I usually base my runs off of a distance goal rather than time goal, and I don’t pay a ton of attention to my speed, so it was kind of obnoxious to have the watch alert me every time I was going faster or slower than it wanted me to.

Meanwhile, for a portion of my hike when it was raining I was getting anywhere between 20-50% solar intensity levels, depending on the specific cloud passing by. Point is, it’s not as drastic as you’d think. As for your treadmill – actually, that’s easily explained. When you ran around your garden, you’re basically telling your Fenix to use that (bad) GPS data to calibrate the accelerometer for running on a treadmill. As such, it’s going to be pretty horrific. It's worth noting that the Fenix 6 Pro and Fenix 7 Solar Sapphire models have 32GB storage, with the standard Fenix 7 and 7 Solar offering 16GB. For the more basic standard Fenix 6, there's only 64MB of storage.Still – if you want the solar tech in a 6 or 6S form factor – it’s here now, and ready to roll. And, for everyone else that already has a Fenix 6 series, then you’ll benefit from all the new surf/sleep/climbing/bouldering features. So, seems to be win-win for now.

In any event, zooming into the park portion first (which is mostly under tree cover this time of year), you’ll see that the Instinct Solar and Grit X were probably closest to the path on the southern side (but was a bit more wobbly on the northern side straightaway). The Fenix 6 Pro Solar was pretty darn smooth on both sides. The Casio seemed a bit drunk on the turns, but was mostly fine for the straightaways. So, with the Fenix integration that’s all supposed to work in the same manner. However, there’s no Surfline cameras anywhere near me (or even remotely near me). The nearest appears to be on the other side of the English channel. But…at least it looks pretty there: In the watch face settings, which you can find in Connect IQ, you can tinker with the colors to mix things up. We think the default option is the most eye-catching though.

Battery Life

The face of the Fenix 6s Pro isn’t a touch screen. Instead, you use the five side buttons to navigate through every command.