The Garmin Fenix 8 is out in the wild. I have one on-wrist right now, and can confirm it’s a great-looking watch. In fact, it’s already shaping up to be one of the best Garmin watches to date, with a 40-meter dive capability (and scuba mode to go with it), LED torch, speaker and microphone for smart functionalities, and up to 48 days of battery life.
You have a choice of three size options – 43mm, 47mm and 51mm models are available – but you also get another choice when purchasing. You can go for a duller memory-in-pixel display with solar-charging capabilities, like the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar models, or a bright AMOLED screen like the old Epix line, the tradeoff being less battery life.
The Garmin Epix watches were essentially the Garmin Fenix 7 line with an improved, brighter AMOLED screen. The Garmin Epix Pro, the latest and greatest iteration of the Epix line, was my personal favorite watch from Garmin: it had a great screen, it was equipped with an LED torch (the same one on the Fenix 8), it boasted solid battery life, and had loads of advanced running features. However, with the release of the AMOLED Fenix 8 line, it appears the Epix name is all but dead.
In an exclusive interview, I spoke to Garmin Fenix 8 product manager Jon Hosler, who revealed that yes, the Epix line is indeed toast – for now.
“Fenix is one brand, and I'm very excited about this,” said Hosler. “Both of these products support this customer base perfectly, they're just a different display technology. So we've got solar, we've got AMOLED all into one family.”
“So is the Epix dead for now? It is, yes, that's the idea of this. It's kind of going all-in on the Fenix brand.
“We've heard very clearly from customers that they love the Fenix. It has resonated…So having both of these product lines become one and just become the next Fenix, solidifies that that brand is going to be around for a while.”
It’s a smart decision: I’ve long thought that Garmin’s naming conventions are pretty inscrutable. Fenix, Forerunner, Epix, Enduro, Lily, Quatix, Vivoactive, Vivomove, Vivosmart… the list goes on. Trimming that list down by consolidating some of the (very similar) watches into a single line makes a lot of sense.
Depth Perception
Hosler also goes into detail on a few of the watch’s features, notably the new dive functionality that makes the Fenix 8 very reminiscent of the Apple Watch Ultra. I asked him if it was just another workout profile, or a fully functioning dive computer.
“It's absolutely a dive computer: we do scuba diving and apnea diving [freediving] down to 40 meters. At 40 meters, it’ll actually go a little deeper: We'll give you a number for a few more meters, but we're going to start really annoying you and telling you to go up.
“We just wanted to make sure that we wanted to make sure the watch could go a little deeper. If you happen to accidentally go slightly below, we can still update all of our algorithms and still account for that when you get to the surface, to still have relevant surface interval time and things like that.
“Some of our competitors have this disclaimer on some of their side that says, water resistance is not a permanent condition and can diminish over time, and that's not something that we want to claim. We have leakproof buttons, and it's our dive specific buttons that are inductive and actually don't have a hole in the case wall. We have a lot of great dive functionality, and not as much as our Descent line for technical divers.”
The Garmin Fenix 8 line is available to pre-order now on the Garmin website, starting at $999.99 / £869.99 / AU$1,699.
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