Garmin fēnix® 6X - Pro Solar Edition

My Initial Review

After 3.5 years of happily using and abusing my Garmin fēnix 3 HR I was getting frustrated with the fact the battery life was slowly dissipating over time. Not because the product was failing but because it was slowly coming to the end of its life from use. I have been very happy with my purchase and now that I am doing longer and longer ultras the charging on the go has become a bit annoying. The past few 100 km races I've done, I have had to take my charger/battery with me to recharge the watch near the end of the race to ensure I would get past the 9 hour mark before my watch died on me.

This prompted me to search around and research for a new watch and replacement/upgrade to my current fēnix 3 HR. Anyone who follows this blog probably is aware there is essentially 3 main basic choices for ultra watches out there: Garmin, Suunto, and Coros (newer one on the scene). I did my research and reading, as well watched a bunch of YouTube gadget performance videos and reviews. In the end I decided to stick with Garmin as they are the leader in a lot of the technology and software behind the watch and the algorithms.

Price point: Garmin maybe a little more expensive compared to the others for comparison, but again with my research  thought it is worth it. Plus if I get at least the same amount as my current watch in terms of lifetime and use the price over 3 years (& longer) works out to less than a dollar a day. I am a person who tracks everything in terms of data, and thus I wear my watch all day every tracking HR, steps, sleep, etc...

• My fēnix 3 HR is still working fine and is great for everyday use. I continue to use it for now and will do so for training runs and to supplement my new watch as a backup. But since I have gotten 3.5 years (thus far) of use I think this purchase was well worth it for me as an ultrarunner and tracking all my stats.

Garmin community: Another reason not to switch brands is the fact that I have been using Garmin Connect ever since I got my fēnix 3 HR. I have enjoyed the platform for analyzing my data and trends. Garmin is well reviewed and far superior to the Suunto & Coros apps in this sense.

Garmin fēnix® 6X Pro Solar Features: So far I have limited use, but these are some of the amazing features I have found to be a huge upgrade for me (coming from the Fenix 3 HR). I am sure there are many more I am unaware of and some I have not yet tried out, but I am just highlighting a couple below.

Garmin features as listed on box | Garmin main display (as per out of box)

• Charging: 
• (+) able to charge on the go, simple plug in. The display remains the readable with a simple battery % showing at the top indicating the charging progress. A nice upgrade from the fēnix 3 HR since that one would display charging status only when plugged in (although you could adjust the settings but was not as user friendly). 
• (+) The Solar charging seems to work great from my limited use thus far. It is said to add 6 hours onto the 60 hours. The solar ring within the watch picks up sunlight with very limited exposure (i.e. in overcast conditions) as I noticed this during my Franklins 200 race.

• Battery Life:  was listed as 60 hours for continuous activity. Obtaining my watch just before Franklins 200 and the fact my stretch goal time of 60 hrs was in sight this was the perfect opportunity to test out the battery life. 
• I did not change any settings out of the box.
• I tried to drain the watch as much as I could the 1.5 days prior to the start of the race. It went from 90% out of the box down to like 82% (i think it was) after a couple small activities and me playing around setting up all my display screens for my running app widgets.
• I charged the watch fully the night prior to the race and unplugged it at 100% about 1.5 hours prior to race time. 
• I started the race and watched my battery % closely for the first little bit and everything was working so I stopped paying attention to it knowing I would have at least 2 days of good tracking.
• After the 1st day I started paying attention closer to the % to see how it was tracking. At 30 hours into my run I noted I was at 49%, which is basically right on the acclaimed 60 hour activity recording time.
• Note: the entire first day was snowy, cloudy, and foggy, so essentially 0 hours of sun to provide solar charging boost).
• I continued and then check point I recall noting was at 39 hours into my race  (~2/3 of 60 hours) and the battery was at 33%. Again this is basically right on the mark.
• Note: I noticed some boosts in the Solar charging during the day hours here, but overall I did not see a jump in % (noticeably). Overall Garmin claims +6 hrs over 60 hr time frame (+10%), so maybe it was just too small to notice at this point.
• This point in my race, at this 39 hours mark, I was at the aid/sleep station and taking a 90 minute break. I decided to charge the watch here. The reason I did this was that I was happy with the battery % tracking (as per Garmin claims), and that I did not want to worry about watching it tick down the last few % before charging as I was nearing 60 hours into the race. Obviously at this point I was tired and did not know where my mind would be in 20 more hours of continuous sleep-deprived state.
• I finished my race in 63hr 32min just over my goal of 60 hours. I am confident the watch would have been very close to recording everything without charge till that last few hours (based on my points noted above).
• Note: there is many options and power saving features to manipulate and play with inn order to maximize and customize the battery during activities. I did not change anything for this particular run as mentioned, but moving forward I have confidence I can make y new watch work for a 70 hr 200 mile effort - which is exactly why I purchased and went with another Garmin.
• Note: I can't recall exactly what % I finished the event at, but I went 5 more days that included 3-4 activity recordings in there before I had to recharge the watch again. Amazing, thanks Garmin.

• Watch Backlight: this is such a cool feature! When running at night (low light conditions) as soon as you rotate your wrist to view your watch face, the backlight automatically comes on for 5 seconds to view your watch screen. I'm sure there is a setting to adjust/change this, but it is really cool and useful feature. Comparison, my fēnix 3 HR you would have to manually press the "light" button, which you can still do with with the fēnix 6X but the auto feature is great for a quick glance. Love it!
• Display: Garmin now offers up to 8 sections in their data screens for the activities and allows for all sorts of customization and personal preference here. Huge upgrade (and eliminates me from going and downloading 3rd party created watch faces).
• Maps: Garmin added in these topo maps that are maintained via software updates and come pre-loaded onto the watch itself. I was used to my Fenix 3 which was basically a breadcrumb trail on an empty canvas. The Garmin fēnix 6X has these amazingly details and beautiful maps on there, that made me feel like I could go run anywhere and never get lost if I had my watch one. The trails were labelled, the State Park was colored, the trails were all on there and some that I didn't even expect. Such a cool feature! I can't wait to try this out more in areas that are new exploration to me.

  

  (Top L) display of multiple stats during run activity. I have customized to 6 pictured here.
  (Top R) The amazing and beautiful maps feature which I absolutely love!
  (Bottom L) Summary screen after an activity. It auto cycles through 4 screens post saving for your viewing pleasure.
  (Bottom R) the main Garmin display out of the box and the 100% battery showing in terms of 21 days. 

This is my short review. Please reach out if you have more questions. I am a very brand loyal person once I find something I love and well Garmin has proven that to me. I am not affiliated with them at all, I just love their product for the reasons listed above. I do not have any direct experience with wearing a Suunto nor a Coros watch so my opinions are bias in that sense. Please take my review with that in mind.

Thank you to Austin Trail Running Company (Pam) for assistance in ordering and getting my new Garmin fēnix® 6X Pro Solar. They are supporters of Team TROT and one of the reasons I went through their store for this purchase. Pam was able to help me get this order in very last minute for me to be able to have my watch in person prior to The Franklins 200, which was a driving force in my decision for the upgrade. Thank you Pam!

My new watch purchased through Austin Trail Running Company | 2020-02-03

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