The latest generation of Garmin’s premium outdoor watch line – the Fenix 8 – has landed, once again promising to be the perfect companion for hikes, trail runs, ultra runs, and everything in between.
While we get busy testing different editions and the Enduro 3 ahead of their in-depth reviews, we spoke to Jon Hosler, Garmin’s Lead Product Manager, who picked out the new features he thinks Fenix fans should look forward to trying out.
In no particular order, below are eight not-so-obvious upgrades coming to the Fenix 8 (and Enduro 3) – with full details from Garmin on how they’ll enhance the experience.
- Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 review
- Garmin Fenix 8 vs. Fenix 7
1. The new solar charging technology
For both the Fenix 8 and the Enduro 3, Garmin is introducing a new and improved version of its solar charging technology.
It’s also meant that Garmin has been able to play around with the design to improve the experience of what it’s like to glance down at the case hosting it.
“We’ve made the bezel a lot thinner and we’ve made the surface area of the solar panel bigger, which means it can capture more sunlight energy and harvests the sun’s energy better,” Hosler told Wareable.
“The technology no longer goes inside the front of the display, so that actually makes it easier to see. That does mean you won’t harvest energy from the display, but we thought the trade-off was worth it.
“It’s also a much blacker solar panel than before, and not as maroon-looking as before. It doesn’t shimmer quite as much in the light. So it just looks better.”
Geo-tagged voice notes
The Fenix 8 isn’t the first Garmin watch to include a speaker or microphone, and Hosler tells us that Garmin was hesitant to include it because it didn’t want to impact the durability of the Fenix.
It felt like the time was right now because it had features that worked beyond letting you take calls over Bluetooth or talk to your phone’s smart assistant.
Along with new phone-free voice commands that will let you, for example, take the shortcut to activity tracking or viewing data tracking, you can now also record geotagged voice notes.
These new geo-tagged voice notes let you capture your GPS location and will let you listen to the watch itself or download them as files on your computer”, Hosler explains.
Short-term, that’s the best way to listen to them, but Hosler acknowledges that storing them in your Garmin Connect Activity Summary would be a natural place for them, so maybe that’s to come in the near future.
Making maps more glanceable
The software experience across the new Fenix and Enduro should be the same, whether you opt for a MIP or AMOLED display version, but that software has been overhauled.
Menu structure is all changed, with apps and activity tracking modes closer together, and navigating to data screens during tracking or controlling music control will all be done differently.
Mapping sees big improvements by simply making using maps a more glanceable experience, too. There are changes to how to toggle different map layers, or reorder them and fine-tune what you want to see.
“One of the biggest complaints that we’ve gotten for years about the navigation experience is that when you decide you’re going to navigate somewhere, that data page loop gets filled up with a lot of pages,” Hosler says.
“So, when you’re navigating somewhere within the menu, you see this little box. You can go into that, and that’s where all your navigation screens are.
“So it’s like two separate loops. you can still add those data pages into the loop, so it’s still user-customizable, and you can still have the same experience you had before, but it just allows you to access these pages you might not need as often.”
Temporary Touch
A new temporary touch feature is unlocked with the latest models, making the display much more functional in locked scenarios. While previously Fenix owners had the option to have the touch feature locked or unlocked during workouts, the best of both is now available.
Temporary touch allows users to have, for example, the map screen locked so you don’t accidentally use it, but still accessible with a finger slide and unlock. After a bit of time, the unlocked, touch-enabled display will then return to being locked – just like you have with your smartphone.
Improved strength training and workout modes
Logging of strength training activities is one of the top uploaded activities on Connect, and the new strength training plans (living inside Garmin Coach) are a big play for Garmin with its latest watches.
While not adaptable in the same way as Garmin’s running plans, you’ll be able to input your benchmarks on what you can lift and Garmin will build you a four to six-week plan to get you stronger. You can reset those benchmarks if you want to do the plans again, too.
These strength plans are also joined by sports-focused workouts, discoverable in the training section of the Garmin Connect app that aims to line up workouts based on your favored activity.
So if you’re consistently logging trail running workouts, you’ll be suggested great workouts for trail runners. Hosler says Garmin is going to merge strength workouts with running workouts, so improvements to the support are already in the works.
Dynamic round-trip routing
Garmin is adding dynamic round-trip routing, which builds on the existing round-trip routing. So, if you deviate off the course that’s been created for you, it will automatically create a new route. If there’s a road with construction that you weren’t aware of and you change direction, it’ll offer another route back.
While this is good news for prospective Fenix 8 and Enduro 3 users, it’s not so good for previous Fenix owners. The new routing and mapping features won’t be rolled back to older watches, according to Hosler, as these features are built on its new platform and code base.
A brighter flashlight
Garmin initially introduced its flashlight feature to the Fenix 6X Pro, and across the whole range of case sizes in the 2023 Fenix 7 Pro series.
As expected, it’s sticking around for the new Fenix 8 and Enduro 3, but some helpful tweaks have been made.
Garmin has slightly changed the lens to make it a little bit clearer, and it also has less tinting, so it’s a little brighter. All the same lighting modes as the previous version will be available, but, in case you were hoping for it, just note the feature isn’t available on the Fenix E.
Fixing GPS for open water swims
Garmin is also seeking to make its already impressive GPS technology even better, improving sampling and stability 0n occasions when GPS data can be problematic. So, activities like open water swimming, as Hosler explains.
“Everything you see with GPS tracking happens in real-time. It gets saved and everything you look at afterwards is stuff that happened in real time. We will detect if the GPS environment is pretty bad, such as running through a downtown area with bad building coverage or being near a canyon where GPS signals are bouncing all over the place.
“We’ll take that information, flag those activities, and start saving more GPS data than a normal FIT file. We’ll look ahead and behind all the different data points and try to smooth them out and get a better feel of the tracking.”
It’s a feature you’ll be able to turn off, and, as Hosler says, will only jump into action when Garmin decides it’s necessary.
It will also take longer to save than a regular workout because more data is being looked at and maxes out at 12 hours. So, while it may not be the best option for tracking an ultra-endurance event, we’re keen to test this one out in a densely populated city marathon against the older technology to see the difference.
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