Garmin fenix 6 lineup

Garmin has released the new Fenix 6 – a family of new outdoor / sports watches that comprise the standard, pro and sapphire edition. On top of that the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar features Power Glass – a translucent solar panel that adds to the battery life.

Fenix 6 - A whole bunch of different models

The Fenix 6 product family comprises four different models: Standard, Sapphire, Pro and Pro Solar. What seems confusing at first, allows for people buying the Fenix 6 that matches their requirements best.

Garmin Fenix 6S

Following the Fenix 5 / 5 Plus naming scheme, the Fenix 6S will be the smallest device, which is suited for slimmer wrists. The screen size hasn’t changed, neither has the resolution. The Fenix 6S has a 1.2-inch display with a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels.

Garmin Fenix 6

The standard model is represented by Fenix 6. As you can see below there are four different models, that mainly differ in the materials used and features offered. The display has been increased to 1.3 inches, as has the resolution to 260 x 260 pixels.

Garmin Fenix 6X

The Fenix 6X is missing the standard model and comprises the 6X Pro, 6X Sapphire, 6X Pro Solar, and 6X Pro Solar Titanium. There has been much speculation about what term “Solar” really is about. The Fenix 6X Pro Solar is using a technology named Power Glass™ to recharge the battery while the watch is being used. The table below shows how Power Glass affects battery life.

The display now features 1.4 inches and a resolution of 280 x 280 pixels. This means that the display has been increased by 36% compared to the Fenix 5.

Differences between standard, pro and sapphire edition

Given this new Pro edition, everybody wants to know the exact differences. Let’s start with the easiest part. One difference between a standard watch and a sapphire watch is the material the watch glass is made of. The standard watches take benefit from tempered Gorilla Glass, while the Sapphire watches features scratch-resistant sapphire glass. In addition to materials, there are differences concerning the features:

	Standard	Pro	Sapphire	Pro Solar
Maps (basic)
Maps (skiing)
Maps (golf)
Internal storage	64 MB	32 GB	32 GB	32 GB
Music player
Deezer / Spotify
Wi-Fi
Garmin Pay
Watch glass	Gorilla Glass	Gorilla Glass	Sapphire Glass	Power Glass

Essentially the standard edition is supposed to be the budget friendly version of the Fenix 6 maintaining all the essential and important features. The Pro edition has the complete list of features, while the Sapphire edition has the full set of features as well but additionally sports premium materials.

Battery Life

The added values in the Fenix 6X Pro Solar column refer to the extended battery life that results from using Power Glass. And to be honest, these values are outstanding.

New and noteworthy features

Taken into account that each Fenix generation was the most complex and feature-rich at the time being released, the Fenix 6 will be no different. We expect the Fenix 6 to have all the features of Garmin wearables that hit the shelves between the last Fenix release and today. Let’s start with the more advanced features, some of them being exclusive to the Fenix 6:

PacePro – Grade-adjusted pace guidance

PacePro is one of the Fenix 6’s more innovative features, though it resembles to what ambitious runners already are familiar with: pace bands. In their simplest form pace bands are small pieces of paper that list split times, allowing for running a course at a steady pace. Garmin enhances this concept not only by providing the data electronically on the watch, but by taking elevation and your desired pacing strategy and uphill effort into account.

Revised ELEVATE sensor

The Fenix 6 is getting the latest edition of ELEVATE, that allows for tracking your heart rate with an optical sensor that is placed on the backside of the Fenix 6. The revised version track your pulse underwater, something that has been introduced lately to the Forerunner 945 and that has not been working with the previous Fenix generation.

Respiration Rate

The respiration rate has been introduced with the Garmin Forerunner 945 and is one of Firstbeat’s latest addons. Garmin is offering this feature as a data field, so that the information is accessible during activities only. From a leaked screen of the Garmin vivoactive 4 it seems as if Garmin has added the metric to the health stats widget. The same widget that shows your daily steps, burned calories, stress level and body resources.

Battery / Power modes

More than a year ago, the Suunto 9 introduced power or battery modes, that allow for switching off certain features to extend the battery life.

Incident Detection

The incident detection has been introduced with the Forerunner 945, 245 and 45 and the Fenix 6 will feature the same. Incident detection will recognise heavy stumbling or falls and can inform a list of people about the incident. As the Fenix 6 will not have LTE, this feature requires a paired smartphone with internet access.

Pre-installed maps

The Fenix 6 will have preloaded maps (limited to Pro and Sapphire models only). The TOPO map comprises Europe, while the ski maps offer 2000+ resorts world-wide. Additionally you will find 40,000+ golf courses pre-installed on the Fenix 6.

• Round-trip courses
• ClimbPro
• Trendline Popularity Routing
• Ultra-low GPS mode (field tour mode – expedition)
• Stress monitoring
• SpO2 monitoring
• Body battery
• Music storage
• Offline playlists (Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music)
• Garmin Pay
• Connect IQ 3
• Activity Tracking / GPS / GLONASS / Galileo