My old watch 4 classic watch would have drained to 0% right about now from a sunday evening charge. Everything off, just button to wake and notification wake on.
My new fenix just cracked 90% this morning. 10% in 2 and a half cloudy days. And the visibility is beyond amazing outside at work. Well done Garmin and thanks to everyone that made me take the leap away from amoled
This is not a rant to other developers or blast their work, so no drama needed from devs who sell their work to Garmin users. Keep calm and good luck.
If your Garmin watch has been hit with random freezes, reboots, or critical resets, especially when you open maps or start a heavy activity, you are probably blaming a Garmin firmware bug.
You might be looking at the wrong culprit. The issue is very likely that bloated, massive paid third party watch face you have running in the background.
I develop custom watch faces for Garmin hardware, and I want to explain exactly why these heavy apps are choking your watch.
The Trade-off:
Battery Life vs. Processing Power
We need to understand that Garmin watches use low power processors for a specific reason. A weaker CPU is the exact price we pay for that incredible multi week battery life. These chips are built for efficiency, not heavy lifting. They do not have massive amounts of system memory or processing pipelines to throw around.
What Happens Under the Hood:
I observe people paying money for watch faces, and a lot of them, despite those apps having incredibly huge storage footprints. Many paid developers pack their projects with massive custom fonts, unoptimized background graphics, and relentless tracking code.
When a watch face uses up that much storage, it causes massive background overhead. The processor has to work constantly just to manage that data.
When you leave that heavy watch face to do something intensive, like rendering a heavy topographic map with thousands of lines and data points, the low power processor gets completely overwhelmed. The system gridlocks. When the operating system detects that a process is stuck and cannot respond in time, it triggers a watchdog restart to protect itself. That is exactly why your watch reboots.
How to Fix It
If you are sick of the reboots, stop spending money on poorly optimized apps just because they look flashy.
Test it yourself:
Do yourself and the community a favor: look at the storage space of a watch face before you install it. If the storage is huge, walk away. Instead, try to find good developers who actually know how to code for efficiency, and support them.
The moment you clear out the bloated background apps and feed the watch clean map data, the traffic jam disappears and your watch will finally stabilize. Keep your footprint light, choose quality and I wish everyone a good day.
I used a Fenix 5 for a few years, and now I’m on Epix Pro AMOLED.
After switching to AMOLED, I wanted a clean watch face that uses the black screen well, so I made a Nothing-inspired one.
It has a minimal black design, dot-style elements, red accent, weather, and custom data fields.
I think it looks best on bigger AMOLED screens, so Fenix 8 AMOLED 51mm / Epix Pro 51mm should be the best fit.
In the last few days I got some nice feedback from Reddit and already added fixes: 12h time, larger complications, more supported models, and bug fixes
Still improving it, so feedback from Fenix / Epix users is very welcome.
Connect IQ: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/d2feae7c-03a2-424f-aadb-ac71a5e5a8ea
General opinion.
I have a question. Currently own a galaxy watch 8 classic. All I do is run but I also like cool sh*t. I know that we are getting close to new releases. I just ordered the fenix pro 8 51mm. Should I have just waited? I'm tired of getting robbed by gps issues with strava and samsung, they are truly at war. I use run with hal for marathon training. I love to use led flash lights for no reason at all. I have the oakley meta vanguard and it seems like a garmin is the way to go. I'm a big spotify head as well. Did I make the right choice?
My Fenix 6 Pro unfortunately broke after 5 years due to water damage. Garmin gave me a 45% discount on the Fenix 8 Solar. I would have preferred to keep the 6 Pro, and despite the discount I’m still upset with Garmin, because I only used the Fenix 6 Pro while showering and I don’t understand how a watch rated water-resistant to 100 meters can suffer water damage from that. The inside of the watch was completely wet and moldy, and the buttons were never pressed while showering.
7x pro sapphire solar titanium
Hey Guys,
I’m in the market for a new watch. I’ve been eyeing the Garmin Fenix 8 for the last year, and noticed they are currently on sale. I’ve done my research, with the main focus being on the Garmin Fenix 8 vs Apple Watch Ultras. I have an iPhone if that matters.
I hunt and spend a lot of time outdoors, so the GPS and mapping are big features for me. Can I pin locations at specific points during my hunt? Can I make notes from the watch/app? I’m interested in sleep and step tracking, and the health features are very intriguing to me. I’m not an avid gym goer, and I don’t dive. I walk my dog quite a bit. Battery life is a plus for me, I have enough things to charge as it is.
I love the look of the AMOLED display, and prefer the look of the watch overall compared to the Apple Watch. Budget is not an issue. So here are a few questions I have:
- Am I wasting my money with the Fenix 8? Is there another Garmin Watch more suitable for what I need?
- In your experiences, has the watch led you to live a healthier lifestyle?
- I notice the Fenix 8 pro is also on sale, is the extra $168.48 worth the jump to the pro at current sale prices?
- Would an Apple Watch be better for me?
I’d appreciate any feedback. Cheers all and Happy Wednesday!
Schwanke zwischen einer 42mm/43mm und der Standard 47mm, würde sie nur gerne im Alltag tragen und nicht nur zum Sport anziehen, daher die Frage, welche Größe würdet ihr eher nehmen bei einem handgelenksumfang von so 15/16cm
Danke schonmal für die Hilfe
Hello all,
Wanted to get some feedback / suggestions on which watch would be a better option?
Fenix 8 Pro is a newer version, I won’t use the LTE capability at least initially maybe in the future if it’s developed more.
The tactix 8 is very cool looking watch which I don’t use the tactical features either.
I see the fenix 8 pro might have a better screen and speaker, but the Tactix is probably a better option for the next couple years in case i decide to sell it.
Which one would you pick?
Thanks!
Im new to garmin watches (and smart watches in general) but I hike a lot and want a garmin watch for maps and hike tracking (nothing too in depth though the data is nice).
I can either get a brand new 7x pro for $800 AUD or a second hand 5s plus for $230 AUD. Since I'm someone who doesn't really like wearing watches and jewellery, Im not sure ill use it all the time. But I know the GPS is far superior on the newer models (and brand new vs second hand).
The 7X pro is the only one semi-affordable brand new right now and its enormous, while i have tiny wrists.
Is a 5s plus decent enough in 2026 to be a good hiking companion? Or bite the bullet and get the 7X pro while its half price and get the peace of mind of having it brand new with better GPS?
(I live in a fairly rural area and marketplace options are very limited, the updates GPS would probably be very useful as I hike in very tree covered areas, and very remote)
Hi there!
I've recently purchased a second hand Fenix 8 Solar (10 moths old, 630€), and have sell my Apple Watch Ultra 3, and that is a good TLDR 😄
I'm a huge Apple fan with a lot of Apple devices, from Apple TVs, Macs, iPhones and until recently Apple Watches.
My first impression was that the Apple Watch is clearly much more of a smartwatch than the Fenix. The UI smoothness, menus, setup experience, notifications, replying to messages, answering calls, changing watchfaces depending on context/location, BMW digital key integration, leaving the iPhone at home while still being 100% reachable during runs… Apple is definitely ahead there.
The display difference was also immediately noticeable, although that’s expected since I went with the Fenix 8 Solar rather than the AMOLED version. The Apple Watch obviously feels much more modern and vibrant indoors, while the Garmin has more of a functional/outdoor “tool watch” feel to it.
And to be fair, I actually used many of those smartwatch features regularly. But at the same time, I always felt the fitness side of the Apple Watch was somewhat fragmented. I used Bevel for recovery/readiness style metrics and WorkOutDoors for better workout layouts and screens, but in the end it still felt like I was building a fitness ecosystem on top of a smartwatch, instead of having a watch designed around fitness from the ground up.
Deep down, I realized I actually wanted the opposite: a fitness watch that also happens to have some smart features.
I’ve also always loved the Fenix look and overall philosophy. The round rugged design, the outdoor/tool-watch vibe, and the fact that everything feels centered around training, recovery, battery life and health. Surprisingly, I don’t miss the smartwatch features as much as I expected. Most of the time my iPhone is just a pocket away anyway.
I’ll definitely miss things like BMW digital key integration, richer notifications, easier replies and LTE independence during runs — but honestly, not enough to go back.
So here I am, a new and motivated Garmin user!
This 5X is 9 years old, i've dragged it over granite rock faces, climbing hardware, gravel when falling off mountain bikes, banged it off brick wall corners and door handles, bashed it against metal machinery and sharp tool steel at work, etc etc. It's had a hard life, and I have not been gentle with it.
And just look at it, you'd think that thing had never been outside. Sure the metal bezel has some tells of its life, but that sapphire glass? Literally 100% scratch and mark free.
If you're torn between sapphire and non-sapphire editions, I think the sapphire glass is/was well worth the extra cost.
I am extremely impressed with the hardness and toughness of this watch.
Hey everyone,
After rocking the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for a while, I finally decided to take the plunge and made the switch to the Fenix 8.
Don't get me wrong, the AWU2 is a great smartwatch, but as my training volume started to pick up, I found myself needing a serious training tool rather than just a shiny screen on my wrist.
I was done with the daily charging anxiety and ready for those deep, unfiltered performance metrics.
Glad to finally be part of the Garmin club! Any hidden tips or must-have data fields for a newcomer? 🏃♂️
Haven’t updated it yet since it got it last week. Don’t want it to turn into a brick.
I've always been one to have back background and white info even for MIP displays...but recently I'm appreciating the simplicity and legibility of using a white background with black info on my fenix 7 pro solar...has anyone else shifted onto this? ☺️ How have you found the experience in doing so?
So about 8 weeks ago my Fenix 8 Pro got stuck in a boot loop and Garmin very quickly sent out a replacement.
Well, it's not a boot loop this time but I woke up this morning to find my watch was bricked. Plugged in a charger, no lightning bolt, no blue triangle, just a dead and black screen. Tried multiple outlets, multiple cables, I tried my laptop and my car to charge it.
It's so bloody frustrating that in the space of 4 months I've had two catastrophic failures on a device that cost £1200.
I mean I'm getting a new one sent out, but I'm just so fed up and feel like I will be replacing it again in 2 months time. My Fenix 7x never broke down on me.