Garmin fēnix® 8 – 51 mm, AMOLED, Sapphire, Premium Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Long-Lasting Battery Life, Dive-Rated, Built-in LED Flashlight, Titanium with Spark Orange/Graphite Band

My husband ordered the Garmin Fenix, and he absolutely loves it! The first thing that stood out was the durability — the sapphire face is tough and scratch-resistant, which gives him peace of mind wearing it every day. The build feels solid and high quality, exactly what you’d expect from Garmin.The features are incredible. He uses the GPS often and says it’s very accurate, and the variety of health tracking options (heart rate, sleep, activity, etc.) make it a great all-around tool for fitness and daily life. The battery life is also impressive, lasting much longer than his previous smartwatch.Overall, this watch is worth every penny. Between the rugged durability, advanced features, and sleek design, it’s been one of his favorite purchases. If you’re considering investing in a smartwatch that can handle it all, this is the one to get!

The media could not be loaded. I had been an Apple Watch user for years and was honestly hesitant to make the switch, but after a month with my Garmin Fenix 8 (43mm), I can confidently say it has far exceeded my expectations. The size is perfect for my smaller wrist, and it feels lightweight and comfortable even during long workouts. The upgrade in functionality is remarkable—it truly feels like a whole new level of performance. I train daily, rotating between strength training, running, and cycling, and this watch makes tracking each activity seamless and highly accurate. The design is both sleek and durable, the display is crisp and easy to read even in bright sunlight, and the GPS connects almost instantly. What impressed me most, though, is the battery life - it easily lasts over a week, which is a complete game-changer compared to nightly charging. Practical, reliable, and packed with features, this watch genuinely supports an active lifestyle. For me, it’s not just a smartwatch it’s a true training partner. Worth every cent.

I’ve been a loyal Apple Watch user, having owned many models since the first Apple Watch. I’ve always liked the health and wellness features of the watch, as well as its interoperability with other Apple devices in my home ecosystem. Over time, I grew tired of constantly having to charge the watch on a daily basis - even the Apple Watch Ultra pretty much required daily charging even though they say you can go two days between charges. I also wanted something with a more robust build quality. I was gifted the Garmin Fenix 5 Sapphire a few years ago, and I loved the long battery life, solid build quality and health and wellness features of the watch, but I hated the MIP display, which looked faded in both indoor and outdoor light. I sold it on eBay, but the Garmin health and wellness features and the onboard maps stuck in my mind as being very useful.Enter the Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED. This watch is the ultimate tool watch! It’s built like a tank, the screen is larger than the Apple Watch Ultra, and the AMOLED display is beautiful. It has a very handy flashlight that I use almost daily when sleepily navigating to my attic at 5 am to work out without waking up the rest of the family. It also has a Strobe light for those dark, early morning runs. Garmin’s built-in health and wellness features are vastly superior to the Apple Watch. If you are a health metrics junkie like I am, this is the watch for you. The watch has onboard HRV and sleep tracking that I have found to be more precise than the Oura Ring 4, which I returned after getting the Fenix 8. Garmin features such as Training Readiness, HRV Status, Sleep Score, Body Battery, Recovery, and Training Status are all meaningful metrics that I rely upon daily, and the watch has even more health metrics and features, including Endurance Score, Hill Score, Stress, Heart Rate, ECG to detect irregular heart rhythms, Pulse Oximetry, and more. All of this can be viewed on the watch or viewed in expanded form in the free Garmin Connect smartphone app, which is the storehouse for all of your cumulative health and fitness data. You will also receive a weekly Fitness Report and Wellness report from Garmin Connect, which will alert you to any trends in your health data. Fantastic!In addition, the watch has loads of other useful features, including Garmin’s awesome built-in Maps; an excellent Golf app with distance to pin and ‘plays like’ distances factoring in slope, wind, and elevation; a Meditation app; Compass; Altimeter; Barometer; Weather app, etc. The Fenix 8 also has an onboard microphone for you to take phone calls while within range of your phone and dictate simple commands like setting timers, which I use often. There is also an onboard Phone Assistant app that allows you to connect to your smartphone’s assistant (e.g., Siri on youriPhone). Oh, and the battery life on the Fenix 8 is fantastic! I keep the watch charged between 20 to 80 percent to preserve battery health, and I get about 7 days per charge, working out about 1 hour per day with a heart rate monitor chest strap and with always-on display disabled and overnight pulse ox readings enabled. I charge to 100 percent before vacation to avoid bringing the charging cable with me.The only issue I noticed with the Fenix 8 out of the box was that the buttons felt a little mushy and were sometimes unresponsive to presses. This is due to a change Garmin made in the Fenix hardware in order to make the watch dive capable. I almost returned the watch thinking something was wrong with it, but the button issue is easily and fully resolved using the below Button Calibration procedure from Garmin:1. On a Windows computer, open a plain text editor like Notepad in Windows. Create a New file. Leave it empty, but save the file as KEY_CALIBRATION.BIN. For file type, designate as All files or *.*2. Plug your watch into a Windows PC or a Mac that has the ability to read MTP devices (a third-party program may be needed for your Mac to see the watch as a drive).3. Locate the drive for your watch on the computer, and open the drive.4. Place the KEY_CALIBRATION.BIN file in the Internal Storage of your watch. It should not be placed in a subfolder.5. Disconnect your watch from the computer.6. A button calibration screen will appear on the watch with five red checks on the screen next to each button. Press each button fully a couple of times. A green check will appear as each button is calibrated. After calibration is completed, all of the buttons should work just fine.With the Fenix 8, Garmin has brought more smartwatch functionality to its already awesome Fenix platform. I am really enjoying the Fenix 8, and I hope to have the watch for a long time. I sold my Apple Watch Ultra on eBay and have comfortably moved on to something much, much better. I can’t recommend the Fenix 8 highly enough. I’ll update this review if I run into any other issues.

I’ve been using the Garmin Fenix 8 for several weeks now, and it has truly exceeded my expectations. Right out of the box, the screen quality stands out — it’s bright, crisp, and incredibly easy to read in all lighting conditions, including direct sunlight. Whether I’m navigating maps, checking metrics mid-run, or reviewing data post-ride, the display never lets me down.Battery life is another standout feature. Even with GPS, continuous heart rate monitoring, and smart notifications enabled, I’m getting days — not hours — of use. For multi-day adventures or back-to-back workouts, this kind of reliability is a game-changer.The range and accuracy of the sensors are also impressive. GPS locks in quickly and tracks with precision. Heart rate, pulse ox, barometric altimeter, and temperature sensors all work seamlessly and consistently deliver accurate data that I can trust — essential for training and racing.Overall, the Fenix 8 is a rock-solid tool for anyone serious about fitness, adventure, or performance tracking. It’s rugged, smart, and loaded with features that justify every dollar. Highly recommend.