Garmin fenix 6S Pro, Ultimate Multisport GPS Watch, Smaller-Sized, Features Mapping, Music, Grade-Adjusted Pace Monitoring and Pulse Ox Sensors, Black with Black Band

Product Information

When I called Garmin and went through all of your basics customers service, restart, login – log out – reload the app etc… After all these time, finally the customer service person admitted that they were having problems with the software. I decided to return the watch (which was supposed to be replacing my Forerunner 920xt). I’ve been wearing my Fenix for over 2 months now, and it’s been great for daily use. The slim size means it doesn’t get caught on things or feel bulky on my wrist, and the white and rose gold color scheme goes with just about everything.

This basically means that the standard Fenix 7 is more or less comparable in functionality to the older Fenix 6 Pro models - leaving the standard Fenix 6 as slightly less well equipped. Garmin’s new Fenix 6S Pro may be the smallest model in the Fenix series, but don’t let that dissuade you. It is as rugged and almost as full-featured as its big brother, the Fenix 6X Pro. The 6S Pro has a compact design, refined interface, and useful new features that make it attractive to folks looking for a fitness watch with a strong outdoor focus. Is there a better alternative?Next, as noted, I use just my daily training routes. Using a single route over and over again isn’t really indicative of real-world conditions, it’s just indicative of one trail. The workouts you see here are just my normal daily workouts. Along with the time, it'll let you view metrics like elevation (if your watch supports it) battery status and there's a little graphic equalizer that lets you know the music is playing.

Garmin's more niche watches, like ones from the Approach, Marq, Enduro and Descent lines, are almost always supported by developers, too.I’m not exactly a climber, however, DesFit did get the chance to try this part out – so if that’s your cup of tea, hit up his video on it. When it comes to much older watches, they use GPS chipsets which are far more power hungry. Sometimes that results in better GPS accuracy (though, not as much as people think they do, as I’ve also recently shown). But it mostly just means battery life is really poor. Jogging Master is an official watch face made by Garmin that offers a nice-looking analog option where you can still show off your stats. Of course, that’s likely not long enough – especially when balanced out by notifications coming in (but no GPS on). Certainly you can get a small increase in battery life from a number of hours outside as Garmin indicates. People have seen it. But my point here is expect it to be somewhat minimal. The goal of the solar here isn’t to fully power the watch, under GPS or otherwise. Instead, it’s to provide incremental battery life (more on my testing on this in a second). Garmin notes this in their super-detailed battery life chart. Note specifically the assumption of 3 hours per day of solar light at a pretty high intensity (full sun basically). That goes both ways though. If you’re mid-summer and spending the day at the beach (or work outside), then you’ll way overachieve here. Versus if it’s mid-winter and you’re indoors…then not so much.

With its glass face, I was worried the Fenix would be more like a delicate new iPhone than my old plastic-and-silicone Forerunner. But after 2 months of drops, scrapes, and bangs, I’m happy to report it remains scratch-free. Connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and you’ll be all set to listen to music during your activity without having to bring your phone along. Added Bouldering activity profile (indoors): Similar to the Indoor climb profile, but for Bouldering.

Battery Life

Oh –and just in case you missed it above: Yes, all those new software features are coming to the Fenix 6 series in the next firmware update. Speaking of the other Fenix 6 units, here’s a family photo of the Fenix 6S Pro Solar (left), Fenix 6 Pro Solar (middle), and Fenix 6X Pro Solar (right). You’re seeing some slight reflections off the ceiling skylight thingy. There’s no lights turned on in the studio for this photo, and the photo isn’t edited in any way. Straight off the camera card. For the first couple kilometers, all the units were basically identical. Again, there’s basically nothing out here to obstruct the GPS view: The first thing you notice about the Fenix 6 series is its small bezel and brilliant sunlight-readable display that is up to 36% larger than previous Fenix models. Though it has a bigger screen, the Fenix 6 is 10 to 15% slimmer than the existing Fenix 5 series. With a choice of either a silicone band or a new nylon band, the 6 series has a comfortable fit that'll make you forget you are wearing a rugged, multisport, adventure watch. There are three sub-dials you can customize including the color and we found it's a good way to keep tabs on battery life status and daily step counts. So, if you can't stomach the price of Garmin's ultrarunner-friendly Enduro, you can still get one of its best faces.

Next, we’ve got a more city-focused run, including going through some buildings. For this one I had with me an Instinct Solar, Casio GBD-1000, Polar Grit X, Fenix 6 Pro Solar, and Forerunner 935. Here’s that data set: On the left, you'll get the time and date. All in all, it's a nice alternative to the way other faces on the Connect IQ Store deal with all of those metrics. There's also a more simplified version available, too, letting you ditch those additional stats to show off time, date, and heart rate only if things get a bit too busy for you.The buttons also sit nearly flush with the casing, and I didn’t have issues with them digging into my wrist. It’s a nice change from previous Fenix models, where the oversized buttons were quite literally painful. Despite having smaller buttons, they are still easy to locate them without needing to look at the watch. Pacing Like a Pro