Live Science Verdict
Not everyone ask a watch as high - end as the Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar , but if you run your life by your exercise routine and bang the idea of on - picket mapping , it ’s hard to beat .
prospicient electric battery life
honest world-wide data truth
From left to right, the 7S, 7 and 7X models.
push-down store of features and modes
Expensive
feel a little bulky for nightlong wear
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The Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar watch is the top manikin in the raw range from Garmin , offering contact - silver screen pick and solar - charging power . Other generational improvements admit extensive map financial support , long barrage liveliness and an improved heart charge per unit sensor . fundamentally , Garmin has taken all the good morsel of the Fenix 6 and improved them , but not made dramatic changes like total an ECG center rate lector or radically altering the feeling of the interface .
After spending about a month with the model , we ’re confident that it’sbest running watchmoney can purchase for some masses , and one of thebest fitness trackersavailable at present tense . This should surprise few who have used a Fenix watch before .
package : Garmin Connect and Garmin ExpressCompatibility : iOS and AndroidBattery life : Approx 18 daysMemory size:32 GBDisplay : 1.30 " diameter Sunlight - visible , transflective MIPGPS : YesWater underground : 10 ATMHeart charge per unit : YesSleep trailing : YesMusic downloads : Yes
Upgrading from an older in high spirits - end Garmin watch to the Fenix 7 should seem a smooth transition . And we think the Fenix 7 cultivate better as a passive 24/7 seaworthiness tracker than its predecessors .
There are just two notable issues here . The Garmin Fenix 7 comes in three sizes , and the larger two may be a piddling chunky and heavy for 24/7 wear . A unclouded Garmin like the Venu 2 may be a good fit for some , and has similarly strong sleep tracking .
The Fenix 7 series is also pricey . It pop at $ 699/£599 for the little 7S and fountainhead to well over $ 1000 for the top model . Have a think about whether you ’ll actually value some of the in high spirits - end features before buy , because a crushed - ending Garmin sentry may be just as in force for your want .
Price
The Garmin Fenix 7 price cast from £ 599 ( $ 814 ) to £ 1049 ( $ 1425 ) depend on the modelling you choose . Our version is the Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar , which be $ 899/£859 . Most of our observation in this review will apply to all version , but not all . Here ’s the full price listing :
Garmin Fenix 7S : $ 699/£599Garmin Fenix 7S Solar : $ 779/£689Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar : $ 899/£859Garmin Fenix 7 : $ 699/£599Garmin Fenix 7 Solar : $ 779/£689Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar : $ 899/£859Garmin Fenix 7X Solar : $ 899/£779Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar : $ 999/£1049
Design and display
Garmin makes three sizes of Fenix 7 : the 7S , the 7X , and the bog standard 7 . The Fenix 7S has a relatively tiny 42 mm sentinel nerve , while the Fenix 7X is the classic giant articulatio radiocarpea - hugger with a massive 51 mm human face . And the interpretation we ’re reviewing is the middle child , the Fenix 7 . While Garmin proffer cream gold and rise gold finish in the little Fenix 7S to buffer its appearance , a Fenix 7 series vigil is not the obvious choice if you want something kickshaw and retiring .
We ’ve wear out the Fenix 7 systematically for just over a month now . It ’s comfortable to wear all day , every 24-hour interval , but often we ’ve found ourselves taking it off in bed in a half - witting fog , in all likelihood because it ’s a small clunky . It in reality weighs 73 g , which is a lot more than the 38 gibibyte of the small Venu 2 or the 46 g Fitbit Sense .
Still set on a top - end Garmin ? You have another determination to make , as the company tender three variants ( standard , solar and sapphire solar ) across the three different size , so there ’s a grand total of nine dissimilar watches to take from .
The ' Sapphire Solar ' exemplar that we ’re test has ultra - rugged Sapphire show security rather than Gorilla Glass , and solar - charging blind technical school .
you’re able to see the main solar panel around the perimeter of the screen , which is a little scarlet striation . The display deoxyephedrine itself also sucks in energy from the sun , at a scummy pace .
How useful the solar - charging tech is depends largely on where you dwell . We try the Fenix 7 in Thailand for a twain of calendar week , then in London for a further few week . As you might opine , it proved much more effective in cheery Thailand . January in London ? It ’s somewhat useless there . Wherever you ’re using it though , you ’re likely to need to tear it on a steady schedule if you ’re using the GPS tracking .
The Fenix 7 series uses Garmin ’s staple screen tech . This is not a smartwatch - expressive style showing with bold color and searing brightness . It ’s a transflective screen door that becomes clear as the ambient light degree increase .
There ’s a digital scout - stylus front light to make the show visible in darker rooms . If the Garmin Fenix 7 will be your first runner ’s watch and you ’ve tried a smartwatch before , it will look tiresome . However , it ’s still an exceptionally upright case of display for fitness use .
You in effect get an “ always on ” silver screen with no sacrifice to electric battery life , and it looks wonderfully percipient when you go outside on a sunny twenty-four hours to tag a trial or hike . The Fenix 7 has a 1.3 - in screen of 260 x 260 pixel firmness . Sizes and solution surmount up and down just slightly between the Fenix 7S , 7 and 7X.
The back of the watch
This screen flair is what build the Fenix 7 seem just like its predecessor . However , when you begin using the thing you ’ll notice one of this generation ’s fully grown changes .
The Fenix 7 has a touchscreen , unlike all of the elder “ serious ” Garmin watches . Previous generations were release operated only , to avoid a whole serial of potential worry . The old - expressive style port would n’t go haywire when the screen was wet , and there was very small chance of you accidentally stopping or pausing a physical exercise mid - session .
Garmin annul the latter issue by incapacitate touch as before long as you get a workout , although you could switch it back on if you ’d much rather snarf your screen rather than using the buttons .
And like all top - last Garmins , the Fenix 7 is a watch you could wear almost anywhere . It has superb 10ATM water resistance , double that of most corking smartwatches .
Features
The handsome variety in the Fenix 7 is its espousal of the touch - head interface flair of the Venu 2 watch . picture up from the watch fount and you ’ll see a summary of all the Fenix 7 ’s lately recorded data . There are entries for your pump charge per unit , the daytime ’s sunrise / sunset times , your step , training status , sleep , body battery and more . These are telephone widget glances , and were introduce in the Garmin Fenix 6 .
Other standout features include sleep tracking and body battery . This watch ’s sleep tracking is very good , and this strength is as much down to the presentation of selective information as its truth . You get a small graphical record of your sleep stages through the Nox , the numbers on how long you slept and spent in each stage and a two - condemnation summary on how good your last night ’s eternal sleep was .
It ’s a great , digestible way of life to show sleep data from a series not always known for its user - friendliness . The only issue are that the Fenix 7 sometimes takes a small while to finalize its sleep report : get up ultra - early and it may show the wrong figure until later in the forenoon .
The Fenix 7 ’s eternal rest datum feed into Body Battery . This spits out a score of 100 based on how go down it thinks you are . utilisation and stress deplete this score , as does simply being awake . This is a made up Garmin metric , of course , based on the data it collates . But Body Battery is a good way to relay that you might not be getting enough sleep .
Unlike some of the lower - goal Garmin watches , the Fenix 7 has a big direction on stats like VO2 Max and your training position . These are useful vigil - based metrics to monitor when looking for progress in your world-wide seaworthiness .
All sentinel in this series also admit memory access to elaborated Garmin TopoMaps . You download these to the watch , roughly by continent , and they contain a huge amount of data . Europe is 10.8 GB , for illustration . These mathematical function can be used for on - watch turn - by - turn piloting , or just to help you out while on a rise . But navigating around them is nowhere near as smooth as , say , on anApple Watch 6 .
The Fenix 7 tries to contradict the need for a phone 99 % of the time , a concept that ’s ascertain in its music support . you’re able to transfer files directly to the sentry from a Mac or PC using a cable , or sneak up to Spotify , Deezer or Amazon Music and download racetrack from their libraries .
euphony can be a bit of a battery hog though . Garmin says the Fenix 7 lasts up to 10 hours when localisation get across with all defend orbiter organisation and act music . This figure rise to 57 hour when just tracking exercise using GPS , or up to three calendar week in the ticker ’s basic smartwatch mode . When testing , we found that the Fenix 7 lasted around two calendar week , if we were mostly using it to track 45 minute runs every other day .
On top of all this , you ’ll get wireless payments through Garmin Pay , entree to the Connect IQ app storage and support for additional sensors using ANT+ . For example , the watch can unite to and control a bright turbo flight simulator , or you may crochet up to an 60 minutes chest shoulder strap for even better pump rate reliability .
However , it ’s also important to note what Garmin has left out . You do n’t get ECG readings , as in an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 . There are no blood pressure recitation either .
Performance
SpO2 is one of the more wellness - be given stats that the Garmin Fenix 7 can record . This is your roue oxygenation . Garmin call in it Pulse Ox , a feature article that has been part of the Garmin roster since before SpO2 reading became trendy .
However , it ’s also the only Fenix 7 sensing element we ’ve had some matter with . It has recorded some readings at 90 % — abnormally gloomy — which were not repeat elsewhere . As ever , if you ’re worried about line oxygenation you should purchase a dedicated pulse oximeter rather than relying on a wearable . Our dodgy readingscouldhave been triggered by motion during transcription , or fag out the watch on a too - bony part of the wrist , but that it will mirthfully create these issue at all is not heavy .
The Fenix 7 ’s Pulse Ox feature uses red / infrared LED built into the optical heart charge per unit raiment to take these reading , but thankfully the watch ’s optic heart charge per unit results are much better . Its upshot track nearly with those of our benchmark chest HR shoulder strap , with typical disagreement of just a couple of M.M. , whose effect is close to nil over the course of a workout . Unlike some of the Garmin watches we used in 2020 and 2021 , the Fenix 7 does not report too - high readings at the start of a workout either .
The watch ’s GPS is reliable too . You will see some route polish in the map of your run , post - physical exercise , but it is consistent enough that in our run route we could time almost to the second when the Fenix 7 would attain each young km . It ’s quick to lock onto a GPS signal and we experienced no free fall - outs at all during examination .
The fondness rate sensor ’s resting readings are also largely reliable . They are free of the overshooting spikes that can happen when you get up from your work desk when wear out a watch that swear on flaky prognosticative algorithms .
The Fenix 7 has a different optical heart rate array to the Fenix 6 , one that looks just like that of the Garmin Venu 2 . It has more light - analyze detector , which lets the watch error - correct more in effect .
Verdict
Garmin ’s Fenix 7 is a marvellous fitness and running lookout man that has more features than most will ever get wind , and foresightful battery life . It adds hint financial support and plenty of technical tweaks to the Fenix 6 blueprint , without seeming to water down its appeal .
The chief affair to contend with is whether a Fenix 7 will be overkill for your needs . Its nucleotide fashion model is far from cheap , and solar - charge up Sapphire ones are a major investment . We also prefer some of Garmin ’s smaller watches for all - twenty-four hour period wear . This is something to consider if you worry as much about eternal sleep tracking as keeping a record of your 5 K run times .
If this isn’t for you
price and universal chunkiness are the two reasons to be put off a Garmin Fenix 7 . It ’s otherwise a stellar fittingness watch . Garmin has a few choice if either of these factors is a job .
TheGarmin Venu 2is thin , lighter and cheaper , and will still be just as effective for many of you . It does not have on - picket mathematical function , the battery spirit is short and its approach to data depth psychology is a little light .
Not bothered by the price but do n’t like the Fenix 7 design ? The Suunto 9 Peak might become . It is Suunto ’s top - end watch and made , in part , for hikers . However , its mathematical function bread and butter is far more limited than Garmin ’s . You produce route on your phone and a basic hint parentage is sent to the watch for reference work . It ’s quite a different suggestion to the full map datum available with a Fenix 7 .
If it ’s just the virtual but dull - expect screen that does n’t do it for you , consider the Garmin Epix . This was declare alongside the Fenix 7 , and is like to the stock Fenix but has a colorful Sapphire - protected OLED screen , but no solar charging .
Finally , if you ’re really looking for the gimcrack example useable , go for something like anAmazfit GTR 3 , which has in - built Global Positioning System and a seemly battery lifespan for its price .
