Moreover, Garmin is also working on advanced fitness tracking tools, such as a heart rate monitor that detects irregularities – similar to the features found on the Apple Watch. And its Morning Report is fantastic in helping you track sleep quality and the Training Readiness metric can help you plan recovery times. ZDNET has reviewed six of the most popular Garmin watches and selected our choice for best. These watches were evaluated by display, functions, interface, battery life, durability, and price. Although the Fenix 7X – Solar Edition came out as the best overall in our review, each of these watches has something to offer for the right wearer. What’s best for one person may differ for another. With that in mind, each runner-up has been designated what it’s best at or for. Also: The best smartwatches The Garmin Fenix 7X Solar offers the latest in Garmin GPS watch technology, although it isn’t the most expensive of the Garmin series. This watch packs just about everything Garmin wearables have to offer, all into one smartwatch. The Fenix 7X includes a broader array of supported sports than any other series of Garmin, including in its repertoire skiing, climbing, mountain biking, and surfing. These are on top of support for the more traditional sports and exercises, such as running and biking. Also: The 12 best sports watches Solar charging features add a layer of suave functionality to the already robust lineup within this sporty smartwatch. The Fenix 7X Solar Edition allows for some solar charging while out and about, making this watch last longer for those who prefer to do their sports and exercise in the great outdoors. The Fenix also includes the whole suite of health-monitoring features for which Garmin has become known. For those looking for a sport and health-focused GPS smartwatch, the Fenix 7X Solar Edition is hard to beat. It was selected as “best overall” because it has most of the features that the other Garmin watches include, while also offering more supported activities. The array of features and incorporated sports functionalities make this a difficult wearable to resist. The solar charging capabilities help to push it that extra mile, making it an easy choice as our top pick. Review: Garmin Fenix 7X Solar This sleek GPS watch is oriented more towards health and fitness than traditional smartwatch features. While this is generally true for most Garmin GPS watches, it’s a more pronounced reality with the Vivoactive 4. Still, that doesn’t mean this isn’t a smartwatch, only that it is a highly specialized one. This watch can pair with smartphones and uses multiple smartphone apps to achieve many functions beyond its primary health and fitness purpose. The Vivoactive 4 specializes in sports, exercise, and health monitoring. The watch and bands are built for durability and exposure to the outdoors. On top of numerous other health metrics, this watch has both respiration and pulse oximeter tracking. I selected the Vivoactive 4 for “best value overall” due to its extensive sport and health features, long battery life, and relatively low price point. While $350 may still be expensive, it’s a fairly middle-range for the smartwatch industry and low for Garmin. Review: Garmin Vivoactive 4 watch Garmin’s Vivomove line is notorious for blending the natural mechanics of a traditional analog watch with its latest digital features. This makes models like the Vivomove Trend ideal for users who prefer a subtle and timeless smartwatch design. ZDNET tested the latest Vivomove Trend and found it to strike a good balance of in-app health and fitness features, battery life, and charging tech. Speaking of which, the Trend is the first Garmin watch in general to support wireless charging. That means you can plop the wearable on any Qi-enabled charging pad and it’ll power up nicely. (There’s also a wired option included in the box if that’s more of your cup of tea.) Also: Garmin’s Vivomove Trend fixes my biggest issue with its smartwatches With a hybrid design, the Vivomove Trend’s motorized hands will adaptively rotate around the watch face as you interact with it, from swiping through fitness metrics to changing sound and vibration settings to starting a workout. Auto workout detection is still a thing, as is Garmin Pay and the slew of data that the companion app provides for any other model, so you won’t miss out on every Garmin feature by going with more style here. ZDNET’s June Wan, who contributed to this article, put it best when talking about this hybrid option, “In ways, I appreciated the focus on digital well-being here, with the lack of bright, distracting, and colorful screen animations, alongside my daily health metrics.” Garmin included more traditional smartwatch features in the Venu 2 Plus than in most other Garmin watch series. This smartwatch can pair with your smartphone, which by itself isn’t unique even for a Garmin. What sets this watch apart from other Garmins is that it allows for wireless calls and text messages when paired with a smartphone. While not uncommon for the smartwatch industry as a whole, it is a newer function on Garmin watches. The Venu 2 Plus also includes a broad array of health monitoring technology and sports-based apps and hardware. Also: The 6 best fitness apps Its features make the Venu 2 Plus uniquely suited to people who combine their sports and exercise with work, writing, or digital socializing. Wireless notifications on the watch screen from your smartphone are also supported, as is using the voiceless assistant from your phone. With this technology, you can observe important health metrics while exercising and dictate a reminder or memo through your watch at the same time. We chose the Venu 2 Plus as the “best for business-focused athletes” due to its combination of sport, health, and clerical functions. While its cost is higher than some alternatives, the host of features can more than balance this out. That holds especially true for people who want a top-of-the-line fitness-focused smartwatch that will still allow them to keep track of work. Review: Garmin Venu 2 Plus Garmin designed the Forerunner 745 with triathlete workouts and competitions in mind. This watch has a remarkable lineup of features specifically geared towards this exercise style. And while it doesn’t support onboard map features, the Forerunner 745 does utilize multiple GPS protocols for higher accuracy and greater spread of usable terrain. The Forerunner 745 has an extensive list of measurement tools and systems, including intensity minutes, running dynamics, heart rate, cycling power, training status, training load, performance condition, race predictor, V02 Max, recovery time, and training effect. This watch is the lightest Garmin model, with the sleekest form factor, to include all these features. While the cost puts this Garmin into the upper-middle range of smartwatches, it offers the greatest array of triathlon-focused features in the slightest form of any Garmin watch. On top of its other Garmin features, its heavy focus on bicycling, running, and swimming are why we chose the Forerunner 745 as the “best for triathletes.” Review: Garmin Forerunner 745 Not every Garmin GPS watch is built with the intense athlete in mind. The instinct 2: Solar Edition can fill that role, yet it’s designed to have outdoor adventures and hobbies as its specialty. This watch includes many of the health monitoring features for which Garmin watches are known while also supporting a host of functions to help track your specific outdoor hobbies. With solar charging built-in, the Solar Edition of the Instinct 2 has the potential to run near-limitless on outdoor adventures without needing to stop back by cavillation. Although power banks are a common resource for modern hikers and explorers, having a GPS smartwatch that essentially charges itself is a boon that can’t be understated. The Instinct 2: Solar Edition was selected as “best for outdoor adventures” due to its solar charging capabilities, health monitoring tools, and hobby tracking features. With a middle-range price point, this watch could appeal to many outdoor enthusiasts who might not care for the more extensive exercise focus in other Garmin watches. Review: Instinct 2: Solar Edition Garmin reveals what they consider their most popular series of GPS watches. From the five series listed as most popular, we selected what we thought to be the best based on the criteria mentioned above. The selected watches skew heavily towards Garmin’s newer products because newer models have a trend of including new and improved features. Once our top pick from each series was determined, they were then compared to each other and reviewed within this guide using the same criteria as above. Each of the five was selected as superlative in some role or for some audiences. For instance, the Fenix 7X is the “best overall,” and the Forerunner 745 is the “best for triathletes. These rankings are the opinion of the reviewer in the context of the review, based upon the above-stated criteria. You can request a repair through the Garmin website and mail them your GPS watch for repair. There are also third-party repair businesses that may work on Garmin GPS watches. Here are some alternatives, from the most affordable Garmin GPS watch to one of the most stylish to the most expensive:
