Garmin's Fenix 8 is the ultimate adventure watch for dedicated outdoor enthusiasts and serious athletes

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When it comes to outdoor fitness trackers, the Garmin Fenix 8 smartwatch holds near-mythical status. After all, it's capable of doing pretty much everything short of buckling your ski boots. But considering its legendary reputation and $750 starting price, I've always had one question: Is the Garmin Fenix 8 actually worth the money?

The Fenix 8 is a beast of a multisport GPS watch, which is both a compliment and a caveat. It's designed for serious athletes and outdoor adventurers who need their gear to go beyond basic tracking. Yes, it logs your activities. But it also helps navigate, guide, and optimize them in real time. Ruggedly designed with an unmatched battery life (seriously, 28 days?!), and some of the most advanced GPS and sport-specific tools Garmin has ever packed into a wearable, it's hard to overstate just how capable this watch is.

After testing the Garmin Fenix 8 on and off for seven months while skiing, mountain biking, hiking, rafting, and living everyday life from my home in the Colorado mountains, I definitely see its allure. This is the best Garmin watch for power users who want something that can keep up with a big life outside and help recover better in between. But while I was impressed by it on many occasions, I was also sometimes frustrated by it.

For a small subset of people, this is the fitness watch to end all watches. But unless you're regularly venturing into the backcountry or balancing multiple high-output training goals, the Fenix 8 is probably more watch than you need. Less demanding runners and hikers will find more value from Garmin's cheaper Forerunner 965 or Vivoactive 6, but the Fenix 8 serves its purpose well as one of Garmin's most advanced offerings.

What I liked most

It has a ton of display and size options

The Fenix 8 comes in three sizes: 43mm, 47mm, and 51mm. You can also choose between different screen types and features, including a solar-charging MIP (Memory-in-Pixel) display, AMOLED display, MicroLED display, and a Pro model with LTE and satellite connectivity. I tested the 47mm solar model for this review. Typical street prices start at around $750 but can range up to $2,000, depending on the configuration you select.

People have very strong feelings on the MIP display (with its old-school aesthetic and better visibility in direct sun) versus AMOLED (which offers more vibrant colors in a more modern look) so it's really nice you can score the Fenix 8's fully-stacked capabilities with either technology (as well as MicroLED, which is the brightest — and most expensive — display yet).

That said, anyone with a smaller wrist will be frustrated that solar charging, LTE, and satellite connectivity are only available in the larger sizes.

Battery life is practically never-ending, especially in solar models

The Fenix 8 battery will last anywhere from 10 to 29 days on a single charge, depending on the size and model, excluding additional time from solar charging. The 47mm solar model I tested is rated for 139 hours in GPS expedition mode, 21 days in smartwatch mode, and 28 days with solar power. Meanwhile, the smaller non-solar 43mm Fenix 8 offers up to 10 days of battery life (28 hours in GPS mode), which is also respectable.

My experience: I pretty much never charged it. In fact, I would regularly put this watch in a drawer for a few weeks and then pull it out for a big hike or bike ride, only to find it still had enough juice to track my activity. What's more, with its solar charging capability, the battery life extends while you're outside by as much as seven days.

Map and navigation capabilities are unrivaled

The Fenix 8's on-wrist map app is a standout feature. You can swipe around the touchscreen and find new trails nearby (or far away), get routed directions, and then view terrain, trail forks, and real-time progress. The watch supports full-color topographic and trail maps — and unlike many rivals, the navigation tools aren't just basic turn-by-turn. I could actually see upcoming hills, view how long a climb would last, and get notified if I wandered off the route.

The watch's advanced mapping capabilities are incredibly helpful for anyone in the backcountry: Hunters, for example, could pre-download an area map, free track their hike out to their stand, save waypoints, and use TracBack to be guided back along an unnamed route. They could then save their route as a future navigable course.

The Fenix 8 utilizes multiple satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo) for fast and highly accurate tracking (particularly beneficial in dense terrain or remote areas), and SatIQ technology to automatically optimize your battery life. The Pro model will even let you send messages without your phone and use inReach satellite SOS in an emergency.

It can survive the elements

The Fenix 8 does more than simply look rugged: It has a 40-meter dive rating and leakproof metal buttons; a protective metal sensor guard to shield the barometer, microphone, and speaker from damage; and the option to add a scratch-resistant lens and titanium bezel so the watch can further hold up against a beating. Garmin even says it's tested to US military standards for thermal, shock, and water resistance.

It has helpful, unique features for practically every outdoor sport

Like every Garmin, the Fenix 8 is built to accurately track movement, output, and exertion for almost every kind of workout. But the Fenix 8 is an activity tracker on steroids.

For one, it's preloaded with 80 activity modes — you'd be hard pressed to find a sport it doesn't have a specific profile to support. (There's even one for tubing down a river.) Moreover, it's loaded with helpful training features.

For runners and cyclists, the watch offers Hill Score, which tracks your uphill strength and endurance over time, as well as ClimbPro, which provides real-time gradient, distance, and elevation data for upcoming climbs on your route, allowing you to wisely conserve your energy.

Skiers will appreciate that it not only comes preloaded with maps for over 2,000 ski resorts and specialized modes that auto-detect ascents and descents, but also tracks how your body is acclimating to hot or cold conditions — whether you're skiing at altitude or training in a heat wave.

And if you're hiking, hunting, or heading out on a multi-day backcountry adventure, it features storm alert capabilities that track and notify you of barometric pressure changes, alert you when you veer off course, and drop a breadcrumb trail so you can safely find your way back.

It's a fully loaded smartwatch, too

The Fenix 8 may be a highly capable adventure tracker, but it's also equipped with built-in microphone and speaker capabilities, allowing you to take calls, use voice commands, or leave voice memos directly from your wrist. While Garmin still doesn't compete with Apple or Samsung in terms of app ecosystem or assistant integrations, this is a big upgrade for anyone who doesn't want to choose between top-tier activity tracking and smartwatch basics.

On a watch with so many features and so many buttons, I found the ability to give voice commands particularly helpful when I'd forget where the compass lives or wanted to skip through scrolling every activity profile — I could just hold the top right button and say, "Start a bike ride" or "open the flashlight" or "start a timer for three minutes."

It still covers all your health, fitness, and recovery basics

The Fenix 8 includes all the core Garmin wellness features you'd expect, such as advanced sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, Body Battery energy levels, and stress tracking. It offers a personalized Morning Report to help plan your day and Garmin's Move Alerts to keep you from staying stationary too long at work.

As you'd expect at this price, the Fenix 8 also offers a lot of nice-to-have data: It tracks VO2 max, reports on your recovery status and Training Readiness to prevent burnout, can track your menstrual cycle and hydration, and even offers jet lag guidance.

For this model, Garmin has really thought of everything to help you optimize your fitness.

Yes, it has the flashlight

A small but important detail: The Fenix 8 is equipped with everyone's favorite Garmin feature — the built-in flashlight. It's easily accessible by holding the upper left button for the quick-access control wheel, and has four levels of brightness on white light, as well as a red light option.

In addition to being helpful in the garage or at camp at night, this is another small-but-mighty way the watch supports your safety outdoors — as anyone who has gotten caught on the trail after dark knows.

Where it falls short

There's a serious learning curve

When you use the Fenix 8 for the first time (or the second, or the 10th), it feels downright overwhelming. I tested four different Garmins for months before trying out the Fenix 8, and it still took me several days of digging through menus and settings, consulting online guides, and fiddling with the interface before I got the hang of how to use any features beyond the basics.

After my testing, I still feel like I've just scratched the surface of its full capabilities. Every new activity profile you use will bring more questions, and with five buttons, it's easy to forget which feature lives where. (Again, hallelujah for the Voice Command capability.)

Its robust features are definitely a huge selling point, but if you're not someone who lives and breathes a different adventure every weekend, not only does it feel like driving a Ferrari exclusively in a school zone, but it'll likely become more hassle than it's worth.

The interface can be laggy and a little confusing

For the most part, the Fenix 8 runs smoothly, but the solar-powered model's MIP display felt noticeably slower than the AMOLED screens on the Vivoactive 6 and Venu 3, or what I'm used to on smartphones. Often, I'd make a selection and wait an extra beat for the watch to respond, and sometimes had to tap multiple times before a command registered. The physical buttons were more reliable, but in 2025, touch feels more intuitive, which made the lag even more frustrating.

The button layout also lacks intuitiveness. With five buttons, it wasn't immediately clear which did what. Unlike most gadgets, where "select" is on the right and "back" on the left, the Fenix 8 places both of these on the right, with "select" on the top right and "back" on the bottom — so you really do have to get to know the watch. More confusing, the back button didn't always return me to the previous screen, and I often got turned around in the menus. On one hike, it took me four full minutes — stopped on the trail — to exit the topo map and find the training analytics just to check how long we'd been hiking.

It's hard to say whether these issues stemmed from software glitches, UX design missteps, or my own impatience with too many rapid commands. The Fenix 8 was notoriously glitchy when it was first released in August 2024, with reported issues such as random restarts. However, thanks to Garmin regularly rolling out firmware updates to address these quirks, it seems to be less buggy now. But I still found the experience to be low-key frustrating for such an expensive gadget.

It's heavy and a bit bulky

This is a rugged watch, and it certainly looks the part, which is a huge sell for a lot of Fenix 8 wearers who want to avoid the clean, modern lines of a sleek smartwatch.

But that aesthetic comes at a cost: 80g for the 47mm model I reviewed, to be exact. (Or, 60g for the 43mm face, 90g for the 51mm.) This watch is heavy. (For perspective, the Vivoactive 6 is 42mm and 36g, while even the 46mm Apple Watch Series 11 weighs in at 37.8g.)

Given the amount of technology and capabilities packed into this watch, the weight is understandable. And I didn't find this to interfere with my sleep or be a problem when I was actually out hiking, biking, and adventuring (although it is a bit cumbersome under long sleeves or tight ski jacket cuffs).

That said, I did find the size and weight to be obtrusive off-trail, like typing on a keyboard at work or chopping vegetables for dinner. The weight of the case would cause the watch to twist constantly, and the large size would hit my wrist bones in uncomfortable ways. I found myself taking this watch off for a wrist break regularly.

This is especially important to consider for endurance athletes — after hours of turning your wrist to check your pace and metrics, that 80 grams is going to feel very heavy.

It's expensive and overkill for most

Starting at around $750 and running north of $1,100 (up to $2,000 for the 51mm Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED, in fact), the Fenix 8 is one of the most expensive wearables you can buy. Multi-sport athletes, big backcountry adventurers, and people who simply like to have the most expensive gadgets can all find features here to justify this price.

But I'd say most people — even very active ones — don't need this many features and may, in fact, feel more bogged down by them than aided.

Should you buy the Garmin Fenix 8?

The Garmin Fenix 8 is a powerhouse of a multisport GPS watch. It can not only track your workouts and adventures, but also actively guide you through them safely, no matter the terrain. It's a top-tier training partner, a backcountry navigation tool, and a capable smartwatch all in one.

If you want the most advanced, feature-rich outdoor watch Garmin makes, the Fenix 8 is it. With unmatched battery life, built-in topo maps capable of getting you back to civilization, robust GPS and navigation tools, and sport-specific metrics for nearly every activity imaginable, the Fenix 8 is built for serious adventurers who need a watch they can truly count on when fun inevitably turns hairy.

But for everyone else? It's probably too much watch — and too much money — for what you'll realistically get out of it. The sheer number of features can feel overwhelming, and the hefty size and weight — especially in the solar models — may be too much.

If you're a runner, you'll likely be happier with anything in the more-affordable Garmin Forerunner line, and even triathletes will likely prefer the lighter and more comfortable Forerunner 965 by hour six. If you mostly train on marked trails or split time between sports in more developed areas, the Vivoactive 6 or Instinct 2X offer many of the same core benefits in a more wearable package.

The Garmin Fenix 8 is truly for high-output outdoor athletes who want full-color navigation when there's no service and the confidence that their gear won't let them down. Or it's for the athlete and adventurer who simply wants the most advanced Garmin available, regardless of the cost.