Garmin Fenix 9 Series In-Depth Review: Worth the Upgrade?

The Fenix 9’s arrival brings an expected hardware and software bump over the previous model, but I’d argue it actually indicates a number of other interesting changes about how Garmin plans to iterate the Fenix line, not just now, but going forward as well. I’ll dive into all those later.

However, looking at the present, the Fenix 9 expands LTE & satellite connectivity to the solar models (as well as bringing it to the 43mm AMOLED model), and then increases the display brightness a bunch. Atop that, there’s a huge slate of sport-focused changes. This is notable, as neither the Fenix 8 nor the Fenix 8 Pro launched with actual new sport features (at least, depending on how you define scuba diving for the Fenix 8). Instead, both launched with notable hardware achievements (such as the speaker/mic/scuba bits in the Fenix 8, and satellite/LTE in the Fenix 8 Pro). It seems like Garmin has learned from all those criticisms and found a solid balance this time around in both camps.

In any case, both my wife and I have been putting an assortment of Fenix 9 units through their paces over the last little bit. Everything from the usual swim/bike/run, to gym sessions, sessions with the indoor rower for the new rowing features, and of course, some crazy long hiking to test out the new rucking features. Atop that, I’ve dug into the new SkiErg sport profile, spent some time free diving, and plenty more. It’s been busy around here!

Lastly, these are media loaners from Garmin. I’ve already ordered my own unit at the regular price (Fenix 9 Pro 47mm with the orange button), for long-term usage purposes. As always, I don’t accept advertising from any company I review, and no company sees my reviews before you do. So, if you found this review useful, consider becoming a DCR Supporter, which gets you an ad-free site, plus the behind-the-scenes video series between both myself and my wife on everything that happens in the DCR Sports Tech Cave/universe.

What’s New:

As with most new watches, the newness can be bucketed into two groups: Hardware and software. However, what’s unusual with the Fenix 9 is that this time around Garmin is actually pushing the new Fenix 9 software updates back to existing Fenix 8 series watches (as well as other newer models). More on that in a second.

First up, from a hardware standpoint, here’s what’s new:

– Pro models get a revamped flashlight, added green LED (also has existing white & red LEDs)
– Increased display size to the largest yet on a Garmin watch (1.5” for 51mm Pro model)
– Increased display sizes in certain other models
– Increased display brightness to 2,000 nits on the base model series
– Increased display brightness to 3,000 nits on the Pro model series
– Made Titanium case standard on all Pro models
– Made Sapphire glass standard on all Pro models
– Increased storage to 64GB on all Pro models
– DLC-coated versions got a $50 price increase over previous models
– Got rid of MicroLED option in the Fenix 9 series
– Thickness changes slightly between various size models (some thinner than before, some a bit thicker)
– Overall case size changes slightly in some models (a bit smaller case on the Solar models, but equally a bit thicker)
– Pricing otherwise remained the same from the Fenix 8 Pro series

From a display and case-size standpoint, here’s what you’re looking at:

Case thickness-wise, there are some slight differences as noted above; most are a wash, and of course there are many different models to look at, but here are some items of note:

– Fenix 9 Pro vs Fenix 8 Pro: The thickness here decreased on the Fenix 9 by 0.5mm to 13.3mm for the 47mm, making it the same thickness as the Fenix 8 non-Pro.
– Fenix 9 Pro SOLAR vs Fenix 8 Solar: Inversely, this one gained 0.5mm to 15.8mm

In terms of pricing, here’s how that looks:

– Fenix 9 Base: From $999 (43/47mm are $999, 51mm is $1,099)
– Fenix 9 Pro: From $1,099 (43/47 are $1,099, 51mm is $1,199)
– Fenix 9 Pro inReach: From $1,199 (43/47 are $1,199, 51mm is $1,299)

Atop all that, there are new QuickFit bands with ComfortFit straps (yes, the naming is confusing). Essentially, these are new nylon bands that have the QuickFit adapters for quickly swapping them, whereas the previous UltraFit straps didn’t have quick-release mechanisms. There’s a bunch of different colors as well, of course.

Next, we’ve got the software newness. As noted, almost everything here is going back to existing Fenix 8 models. I’ve got a full separate post on that here. Still, there’s a lot of new stuff here, especially in certain categories like indoor rowing, rucking, and the new Garmin Epic feature.

– Added new Garmin Epic feature, which groups multi-day events/adventures (both on-device, and on Garmin Connect)
– New Stamina zone concept (see below, both on-device and on Garmin Connect)
– Added New Stamina Endurance time concept
– Added New Stamina trending feature (on Garmin Connect)
– Added New Running & Cycling Stamina graphs/curves
– Added New Rucking/Pack-Weight calorie breakout for activities (in multiple sport profiles)
– Revamped algorithms around pack-weight, to more accurately cover calorie impacts
– Added New Rucking target calculator on-watch: Can tell you how far you need to go for a certain goal & pack weight
– Added ability to change pack-weight mid-activity
– Added Dedicated Rucking Reports (summarizing pack weight, calories, elevation, pace)
– Added Rucking Multisport mode option
– Added New on-device Rucking structured workouts with GoRuck
– Added New Ski Erg Profile (officially called ‘XC Ski Indoor’)
– Huge update/change for Indoor Rowing
– Added new heart rate zones for rowing, and max heart rate
– Added new power zones and power curves for running
– Added new indoor rowing FTP values/estimation
– Added new indoor rowing VO2Max values
– Added lactate threshold for rowing, and performance condition
– Added indoor rowing activity profile countdown timer (5-second timer, to let you get ready)
– Added support for indoor rowing to update Training Status (e.g., Productive, Unproductive, etc…)
– Added new Garmin Locate feature within Garmin Messenger app
– Added ability to see athlete heart rate, pace, distance, and elevation information in Garmin Messenger App
– Added inReach weather updates feature (get weather updates via satellite)
– Added Rolling GAP as a data field (both kilometer and mile)
– Added Rolling GAP as a structured workout target option
– Added new on-device watch face editor (AMOLED-only models)
– Added new ‘Field Tools’ feature, including ABC, measure height, reference point, and more

And then, here’s another set of new features that the Fenix 9 series gets, but the Fenix 8 series won’t get, largely due to hardware constraints (or, in the case of the GPS modes, so they don’t have to re-test all of the existing models’ official specs for new battery claims).

– Added new Dynamic Battery GPS modes, which basically simplify the naming of the satellite modes
– Mapping: New Perspective view (sorta a tilted map view)
– Mapping Performance: Smoother/faster zoom
– Mapping Performance: More responsive heading updates (orientation)
– Added new ArcheryX feature

Again, if you’ve got an existing Garmin Fenix 8 series watch, you’ll eventually get all of the features in the first list. The timelines on that remain fuzzy, but Garmin says it won’t be this year. Given this is almost certainly all the same codebase (like, literally, that’s how it works now and is explicitly why the Fenix 8 is getting these features), that seems like the company is purposefully holding those features back to drive Fenix 9 sales. I suppose that’s better than not doing it at all, but equally that’s a far cry from Apple’s approach, where in ~10 days the existing Apple Watch owners will get virtually everything announced for the new Apple Watches announced tomorrow. But hey, baby steps, I guess.

The Model Options:

When it comes to choosing a Fenix 9 series unit, you’ve basically got three choices to make, in roughly this order:

1) The Display Type: AMOLED or MIP (Solar)
2) The Size: 43mm, 47mm, and 51mm
3) The ‘Level’: Base, Pro, or Pro inReach

I’d argue that most people will want to choose the AMOLED base model (probably 47mm), while the main reason you’d want to choose the Pro inReach model would be for the built-in satellite messaging capability/built-in LTE capabilities. But keep in mind this isn’t like most LTE smartwatches that share your phone number. This is effectively a hidden Garmin phone number that mostly requires using the Garmin Messenger app to communicate. Garmin’s LTE functionality is really focused on LiveTrack (via LTE) type scenarios and brief in-sport messaging, rather than texting at the grocery store. Likewise, for satellite messaging, it’s not fast, so this is really about deep-woods-type scenarios (either status updates or emergencies).

Nonetheless, for the display side, you’ve got the new 3,000 nit AMOLED display on the Pro models, and 2,000 nit display on the base models.  The existing MIP-based display (with solar built-in). There are no MIP options without solar anymore in the Garmin Fenix lineup. The AMOLED display is more brilliant and clearer in resolution than the MIP-based option, but the MIP-based option has roughly double the battery life in real-world conditions.

I don’t buy into the argument that the MIP-based screen is easier to see in any conditions anymore. It simply isn’t.

I’ve tested both side-by-side at night, at sunrise, in full-blown Mediterranean midday sun, atop mountains, at sunset, and more. And there’s no scenario where the MIP-based is easier to see. People often point to sunny conditions as a MIP over AMOLED scenario, but that just isn’t the case; even in places like being on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea in summer, the AMOLED is easier to see than MIP, especially the moment it’s at an angle. But again, to each their own; you’ve got those choices/options. The underlying features are identical on both watches, save a few display-related features only available on AMOLED (namely color shift, and the new watchface picker).

Next, you’ve gotta choose the size. This one is fairly straightforward to be honest. While there have been slight shifts in sizing thickness from past Fenix watches, for the most part if you’ve already got a past Fenix watch you’ll be in the same ballpark with these new ones (though, Solar is notably chunkier than in the past).

In my case, I mostly prefer the 47mm size for my wrists, which are 17 cm (or ~6.5 inches), though honestly I’ve also been mostly wearing the 51mm Fenix 8 Pro unit over the past year. Still, it’s nice to shift back to the 47mm now.

As for my wife, her wrists are 14 cm (or ~5.5 inches), and she’s very much in the camp of the 43mm. In fact, it’s why she didn’t use a Fenix 8 Pro over the last year, because the Fenix 8 Pro wasn’t offered in a 43mm (only a 47mm/51mm), and it was just far too big for her wrists.

Finally, the last piece is deciding on which level: Base, Pro, or Pro inReach. All three have identical software features, except, of course, the added LTE/Satellite features on the Pro inReach.

Instead, the differences between Base & Pro (non-inReach) are about material finishes/updates (and a bigger storage size that you may or may not care about):

– Pro adds brighter 3,000 nit display (over 2,000 nit on Fenix 9 base)
– Pro adds faster internal processor
– Pro adds full titanium case (vs just the bezel)
– Pro offers a MIP/Solar display option
– Pro adds green flashlight
– Pro 51mm adds 1.5″ screen vs 51mm model is a 1.4″ screen on base

Then the next step up to Pro inReach gets you the satellite communications & LTE pieces:

– LTE Live two-way voice calls
– LTE LiveTrack (30-second sampling rate)
– LTE Voice Messaging
– LTE Text Messaging
– LTE Weather
– LTE & Satellite Emergency SOS
– LTE Location Check-Ins
– LTE Incident Detection & Assistance
– Satellite Messaging (basic texting)
– Satellite position/location check-ins
– Satellite Emergency SOS (via Garmin Response)
– Satellite updating of weather (new in the Fenix 9 Pro)

Got all that?

As I said above, I think the base model AMOLED covers most people. However, for my wife, both of us love having the LTE LiveTrack for her solo runs (especially at night). She hates running with a cell phone, so this solves that gap for her. She’ll virtually never use the inReach piece on the watch.

As for myself, I virtually always run/ride with a phone these days, so the LTE piece isn’t adding much. That said, I do often run/ride outside of cellular range (a mere 2-3 minute run from my doorstep has no cellular coverage into a national park). While my phone has satellite messaging, I love the idea of using my watch if I fall and need to summon assistance. I’m not going to take a dedicated inReach device with me for a random Tuesday 40-minute run.

However, at the same time, for any more ‘legit’ runs/rides deeper into the mountains, I’ll take an actual inReach device (rather than the watch one). I’ll explain in more detail why in the satellite messaging section, but in short, the technology on the watch inReach (Garmin’s specifically) is very different (and lesser) than the normal Garmin inReach devices. It’s slow, cumbersome, and finicky. Yes, it’ll get you out of a pickle in an emergency, but it’s pretty fiddly beyond that.

With that, let’s get into the basics.

The Daily Usage Basics:

In this section I’ll dive through all day-to-day usage bits of the Fenix 9 series, including things like the hardware basics, activity tracking, sleep tracking, ECG, notifications, and more. The sections that follow will cover the various sports features (and more). You can use the quick-access panel at the left to jump between sections.

First up, you’ve got buttons (and display). The Fenix 9 has both a touchscreen and buttons, allowing you to do any operation using either buttons or touch. There are only a handful of actions that require a button press (notably starting/ending an activity), but otherwise you can choose which you prefer. Use both, or disable touch entirely if you want. Or, disable it for certain sport profiles but not others. The world is your oyster here.

The Fenix 9 features Garmin’s standard 5-button layout that’s been used for nearly two decades. If you’re coming from other watches, it might take a bit to get used to. Then you quickly realize how efficient it is, especially for tough weather conditions, or just quick-access in the middle of an interval. The upper-right button is your start/stop/enter button; the lower-right is back/escape. And then on the left side you’ve got up/down, as well as long-press of the middle for settings and long-press of the upper-left for controls (or short press for flashlight).

Atop that, you can customize any button you want (e.g., long press, double press, etc…) to do any task you want.

Since I just mentioned that upper left button, now’s as good a time as any to mention the flashlight updates. The Fenix 9 Pro models get an additional green LED to the flashlight (alongside the white & red LEDs).

As with before, a double-tap of the upper left button opens the flashlight menu for quick enablement and changes. It’ll retain whatever setting you had used last:

For my wife, she won’t use another watch long-term unless it has a flashlight. While both of us are super sporty and enjoy after-dark athletic adventures (I mean…outside of course), the reality is most of the time the flashlight is just super handy to get around the house or hotel at night (such as helping a child), find something under a couch, or any other task you might grab your phone’s light for. Except this is always on your wrist.

Garmin says the new flashlight LEDs are just as bright as previous, and I’m mostly inclined to believe them. It is a ‘whiter-white’ than the previous slightly-yellow light. Though, the new LED somehow seems brighter than the old one. Either way, I approve for the Pro, though it’s not something that would drive me to get the Pro otherwise (since I’m not a huge green-flashlight person).

(At left, Fenix 8 Pro white flashlight at full brightness, at right, Fenix 9 Pro white flashlight at full brightness).

Moving away from the flashlight, let’s get back to the watch face. Below, one of the stock watch faces:

The Fenix 9 has a new watch face editor, along with a new grouping of watch faces together. This allows for easier selection and on-device editing of watch faces. Note that the Fenix 9 Solar doesn’t have the new watch face picker (likely due to the lower resolution of the display), but does allow for all the same watch face customization otherwise.

As with before, you can basically modify/tweak any data component (called a ‘complication’) on the watch face from the watch. Swap it out to whatever you want, change the color scheme, etc. And also, as before, you can download likely thousands of watch faces from the Garmin Connect IQ App Store (with most watch faces being free), or simply create your own (for example, with a photo of your kids, ice cream, etc.).

Sliding down from the watch face, you’ve got the widget glances. These are fully customizable, allowing you to pick which data bits you care about (and remove the ones you don’t), whether it’s daily activity stats, training stats, weather, or some other 3rd-party app.

Any given glance can be opened for a more detailed view of that topic. For example, here’s the steps one opened:

Or, the Jetlag Advisor, which is a feature that lets you put in your travel details (cities, departure/arrival times), and then it gives you advice on what you can do to minimize jet lag.

And of course, one of the things it’ll suggest is sleeping. Perhaps even taking a nap. But as far as sleeping goes, you’ll simply go to sleep when you want, and it’ll track all your details. During your sleep, there’s a dedicated sleep watch face. This ensures you don’t get blinded in the middle of the night by an AMOLED screen. Of course, this has been around a while, and it’s even on the MIP-based watches as well (though those won’t generally blind you).

You can customize when this turns on, and in the case of AMOLED, you can also automatically enable RedShift if you want (which makes everything red like a submarine movie).

Once you do wake up, one of the first things you’ll see is the Morning Report. This customizable report shows your sleep stats from last night, your training-related metrics (like Training Readiness), and upcoming scheduled workouts, as well as calendar entries. You can disable this if you want, but most Garmin users quickly find it one of their favorite features (and remember, you can tweak/customize what’s shown):

Note that the Fenix 9 series does have the smart alarms like the Fenix 8 did, allowing you to set up regular alarms, or alarms that will find the ‘optimum’ time to wake you up based on sleep phases/stages. For example, if you set an alarm for 8AM, it’ll find the best time between 7:30AM and 8AM to wake you up (that makes it hurt less). If it gets to 8AM and that optimum moment isn’t found, it’ll wake you up then.

In any case, back to your sleep stats, you’ll see those, of course, in that report, or just in the sleep widget, such as this:

From an accuracy standpoint, I haven’t had any abnormal wake-up/fall-asleep times with the Fenix 9, and as always, I sleep wonky hours. As noted in other reviews, I don’t do comparisons of sleep phases/stages, because the comparative technology to do so simply isn’t accurate (only about 80% accurate in a best-case scenario, so we’d never use that low of a bar for comparing heart rate sensor accuracy vs chest straps; thus I’m certainly not going to mislead you and do it here). But for the times I went to sleep and woke up, it’s been matching the slate of other devices I have within 5-10 minutes pretty well (Apple Watch Ultra, Fitbit Air/Google Pixel Watch 5, Whoop 5.0/MG, and Oura Ring 5).

The Fenix 9 also includes a bunch of sleep coaching and sleep consistency features that have been around a generation or two. Here are some photos of those below. In general, I find the Sleep Coach relatively useless since it always just tells me 7hr 40mins (the highest it’ll show), though I’ve got nothing against the sleep consistency feature.

Next, there’s the Health Status dashboard. This essentially streamlines the five core nightly stats that most of the industry has agreed upon, consolidated into a dashboard. They are: Heart Rate (sleep resting), HRV, Respiration Rate, Skin Temperature, Pulse Ox (SpO2).

When one of these stats gets out of alignment with your baseline (which is looking at your specific historical data), it’ll throw a notification to you. Sometimes these are normal variances, such as if you go to a hotel room that just simply has far colder/more powerful A/C, which drives your skin temperature lower. Others might be more concerning (like plummeting HRV values).

In fact, let’s talk about HRV now, which is Heart Rate Variability. This metric first takes a 19-day baseline to establish your normal values (each night). You’ll see your nightly data before then, just not the color-coded ranges yet. Once you have that, it’ll trend it over the previous 90 days of your historical data. Everyone is different here, so don’t look at my data and assume it’s somehow correct. My equally athletic wife has ranges about 20-30ms higher than me, and then inversely, my also very athletic friend DesFit has ranges about 10-15ms below mine. What matters is how your ranges trend.

Generally speaking for me (and most people), if you start getting sick, your HRV values will plummet roughly a day or so before you have actual noticeable symptoms. So when I’m about to get sick, my values will plummet from the 50’s to the low 30’s, which tells me trouble is brewing. Yet at the same time, there are many factors for HRV, including fatigue (such as jet lag), alcohol consumption, drug consumption (both ‘good’ and ‘bad’), and even really hard training days. Generally speaking, having about two glasses of wine within a few hours of bedtime will drop my HRV average down about 10ms for the night.

Yet as you can see above, there are all sorts of fun exceptions to the rule. You’ll see that crazy high spike a few days ago, that was for the 10hr/50km trek I did. In that case, that triggered a rare inverse HRV reaction, which actually spikes HRV as a body’s response. That’s incredibly rare for me (usually it just drops after heavy workout activity), but this was enough of a shock to the system to do the opposite. In any case, tracking HRV is full of fun stuff.

With that noted, all of the above stats, including steps/activity, sleep, floors, heart rate, and countless other metrics, are of course also visible in the Garmin Connect app (or Garmin Connect on the web/desktop).

Finally, rounding home here, I’ll note that the Fenix 9 series uses Garmin’s ELEVATE Gen5 optical heart rate sensor, which was introduced with the Fenix 7 Pro in 2023. That’s the latest optical HR sensor that Garmin has, and includes ECG support. You can see the sensor below:

ECG on Garmin devices is medically certified in a boatload of countries to detect Afib (atrial fibrillation) during a manual session. You’ll go through a few steps to enable the feature (namely ensuring you understand it doesn’t detect heart attacks), then you can do a manual ECG reading anytime you’d like. That’ll produce a result on the screen to detect Afib, and then atop that, produce a full PDF that you can send to a doctor. Again, this is a medically certified feature on the device.

However, while that is medically certified, Garmin doesn’t yet have any sort of passive Afib detection, like virtually all of their competitors have had for years (which just operates in the background). Equally, Garmin doesn’t have any official medically certified sleep apnea detection like Apple (instead, Garmin has ‘Sleep Disturbances’, which is basically a non-medically certified view of that concept). Further, Garmin doesn’t have anything in the blood pressure realm on the wrist (they have their Index BPM instead). But again, no other smartwatch or mainstream wearable company has any medically certified blood pressure features (and all the ones that aren’t medically certified are kinda sketchy AF in my testing).

Finally, last but not least, there are notifications. On a Garmin watch, these notifications will be controlled largely from your smartphone, and appear on the watch (inclusive of emoji/etc…). For iOS users, you won’t get any photos, nor the ability to respond (due to Apple restrictions). For Android users, you can both respond to messages as well as see photos. Note there is a WhatsApp Garmin Connect IQ watch app, allowing some limited responses as well (for both iOS and Android)

Note that the voice/speaker features haven’t changed since the Fenix 8 (except that the speaker simply got a bunch louder in the Fenix 8 Pro, and that carries into the Fenix 9 series). So if you want to dive into those pieces, check out my Fenix 8 Review Speaker/Voice/Mic section for all the details). And the same goes for the Garmin Pay & Music components, which haven’t changed in years either. You can use Garmin Pay (NFC) on your watch to pay for things, and download music from Spotify/Amazon Music/YouTube Music just like in the past, for offline listening away from your phone/connectivity. Again, I cover this previously here – it’s all identical on the Fenix 9 series.

Sports Usage:

It probably goes without saying that if you’re getting a Garmin Fenix device, you’re pretty likely to be using it within sporting activities. Though equally, these days that’s not always the case (some people just like the battery life). In any case, the Fenix 9 continues to carry the torch of being (by a massive margin) the most capable sport watch on the market. Factually put, nothing comes close in terms of features or depth of those functions. Of course, whether or not you’d ever use a fraction of the features is an entirely different question.

The Fenix 9 adds a bunch of new sports features around rowing, rucking, stamina, grade adjusted pace, and more. I’ve split out the rowing & rucking pieces into their own category below, but for the others, I’ll roll the new bits into this section. Keeping in mind, with likely 300-500 different sports features/functions/combinations on a Fenix series watch, it’s impossible to cover everything here. Most of it though hasn’t changed since the Fenix 8 series.

With that, the first thing you’ll do is choose your sports/activity mode. To do that you’ll tap the upper right button, and then choose the applicable sport mode. You can pin your favorites, or sift through the numerous buckets of activity types to find what you need.

From a sports standpoint, here’s the full list that’s on my watch as of this writing (though, Garmin usually adds at least a few new sport modes during the course of each year via their quarterly updates).

Run, Track Run, Treadmill, Virtual Run, Indoor Track, Walk Indoor, Trail Run, Ultra Run, Hike, Walk, Adventure Race, Bike, Road Bike, Bike Indoor, MTB, eBike, eMTB, Cyclocross, Gravel Bike, Bike Commute, Bike Tour, BMX, Strength, Rucking, Golf, Mountaineering, Bouldering, Fish, Hunt, Disc Golf, Horseback, Expedition, ArcheryX, Obstacle Racing, Inline Skating, Pool Swim, Open Water, Triathlon, Mixed Session, Swimrun, Cardio, Mobility, HIIT, Yoga, Pilates, Treadmill, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Row Indoor, XC Ski Indoor, Climb Indoor, Bouldering, Floor Climb, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Jump Rope, Cow Tipping, Scuba Dive, Apnea Dive, Snorkel, Ski, Snowboard, Backcountry Ski, Backcountry Snowboard, XC Classic Ski, XC Skate Ski, Snowshoe, Ice Skating, Snowmobile, SUP, Kayak, Row, Surf, Kiteboarding, Windsurf, Snorkel, Whitewater, Boat, Sail, Sail Race, Sail Expedition, Wakeboard, Wakesurf, Water Ski, Tube, Soccer/Football, American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Cricket, Lacrosse, Rugby, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey, Ultimate Disc, Gaming, Tennis, Pickleball, Padel, Racquetball, Squash, Badminton, Table Tennis, Platform Tennis, ATV, Snowmobile, Overland, Motocross, Motorcycle, Meditation, Breathwork, Jumpmaster, Track Me, Tempo Training (Golf)

For the purposes of simplicity, I’ll just choose the running profile. Once you select a given sport mode, if outside it’ll start to find GPS. If you’ve got external ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors (like a heart rate strap, or cycling power meter), it’ll go off and connect to those too during this time. And finally, it’ll lock heart rate using a higher power on the optical HR sensor. You can see the status of all this here:

Meanwhile, if you scroll down, you can add structured workouts, load a course/route, and change other settings for that sport (such as data page customization). When it comes to data pages, you’ve got effectively an unlimited number of custom data pages you can add, along with a slate of pre-canned ones (including various charts). Each custom page can have between 1 and 8 data fields on it (of your choosing). If you want to add the new rolling Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP) data fields, you’d do that in the data field page options.

For structured workouts, you can create those on-device (such as a simple structured interval workout), or you can download them from Garmin Connect (including from 3rd parties like TrainingPeaks and more). Whereas for courses, you can create those using Garmin Connect (free), or from 3rd parties like Strava Routes, Komoot Routes, or a gazillion others.

For the purposes of today, I’ll actually load in a route, so I can quickly show the new map perspective pieces. One thing I’d recommend enabling is ClimbPro (annoyingly, on each profile), which shows the status to the top of the climb, as well as even descents, if you want it.

Once you’ve got everything loaded that you want, you can simply press start to get going. At this point you’ll see all your configured data pages. That could be just a simple single data page, or a complex assortment that only a data geek could love. Here’s a slate of them from this run.

In there you can see the new rolling GAP data field. This will either be shown in rolling 1-mile GAP, or rolling 1-kilometer GAP, depending on how you have your watch configured. You can see I also created one showing my instant pace (with nifty chart), as well as my rolling GAP pace in the middle. I had set a lap GAP at the bottom, but for whatever reason it wasn’t showing up.

Next, to briefly touch on the mapping pieces. The main new piece here is the new perspective view. Here’s an example of that side-by-side with the regular view. The perspective view is on the left, the regular view is on the right. The difference can be subtle, depending on what’s around you.

Of course, one of the big things that Garmin talked about with the launch of the Fenix 9 is the faster map rendering pieces. This comes in a few different forms. First is the panning speeds (which they do by pre-loading tiles around you), and the second is route calculation speeds. And yes, things do seem faster side-by-side than the Fenix 8 Pro (you can see this in the video), though I wouldn’t describe either as a massive shift from a map panning/zooming/moving standpoint.

For route calculation, that does indeed seem faster. I did a 65KM trail run route side-by-side, loading it up, and it was definitely faster. Equally though, if you normally start a run with a course (as 99.9999% of you would) this actually doesn’t matter, since Garmin doesn’t pre-calculate routes. Instead, they just do it quietly behind the scenes. Instead, this actually only matters if you on-device create a new route and calculate it (which I’d bet only 1-2% of people ever do on a Fenix watch). You can see those differences quite visibly below:

Speed test: Create a running route to 55mi/99km away (actual course ended up being 82mi/132km):
Fenix 8 Pro: Never finished, after 90+ minutes
Fenix 9 Base: 19m 48s
Fenix 9 Pro: 11m 20s

Speed test: Load a pre-existing 40mi/65km route:
Fenix 8 Pro: 14 seconds
Fenix 9 Base: 8 seconds
Fenix 9 Pro: 8 seconds

Again, there’s exactly zero reasons you’d ever create a 55mi/99km running route on the device itself to a point far away, short of your plane crashing in the mountains of a location where your Garmin inReach service doesn’t work. Simply put, no runner would ever walk out their front door and say “Yes, I want to run 100KM without knowing where I’m going and I want zero input into the routes I take”. But, it does show the differences in the routing engine.

In any case, yes, the Fenix 9 is faster than before, but it’s also far slower than all of its competitors for moving around the map. But as anyone (including Garmin) will correctly point out, virtually all of Garmin’s competitors have static map images, which aren’t routable. Whereas Garmin’s maps are actually routable maps (allowing for on-device re-routing/etc…). Simply put, there are trade-offs to Garmin’s more detailed and fully routable maps. And as much fun as it is to pan/zoom around a map endlessly on YouTube, it’s just not something I do in real life in any of my silly-long navigation adventures. Every once in a while I might check something, and it might take an extra second or two…but…shrug?

In any case, as you’re navigating along, you’ll see your course displayed, as well as any waypoints you’ve created (shown on ‘Up Ahead’), which are super handy for longer treks.

When you approach a turn, it’ll let you know the distance and direction to the turn. And likewise, you’ll also see the distance to any other forks in the trail, just so you can be aware of them as you approach them (even if you aren’t taking it).

If you go off-course, it’ll notify you, though it won’t automatically re-route you (most people don’t actually want that in trail hiking/etc scenarios, whereas for cycling scenarios, you tend to want it). You can either sort yourself out, or trigger a re-route if you want.

Next, going back to some of the new non-navigation features, there’s the new Stamina updates. Garmin has had Stamina for a while now, which basically looks at your recent training fatigue and recovery, and then your overall fitness, and figures out how far/long you can go before you go kaput. With the Fenix 9 updates, it now also has new Stamina zones. You can see these on the watch itself at the bottom, those color-coded areas:

These correspond to new Stamina zones shown in Garmin Connect for running and cycling. Which, in turn, are mapped to what are essentially intensity levels. The curves are displayed above it, for both time and distance. And then in running for pace, and cycling for power.

And you can see these Stamina zones on your watch as well (under Widgets > Endurance Score > Stamina Zones / as well as Top Contributors):

All of this is within the Endurance Score & Stamina page, which now gets a breakout of your activities in the Endurance Score, and then you can do the historical curves as well. Mine interestingly don’t change too much year over year.

This is interesting stuff, though I do feel like it’s just a bit of yet one more zone to look at. We’ve got running power zones, running heart rate zones, lactate threshold values, grade-adjusted paces, and now stamina pace zones. Plus whatever other zones I’ve forgotten. There’s nothing wrong with more options, though it’s not something I’ll be leveraging on the regular. To each their own, though.

Now, once your workout is done, you’ll get a summary of your activity, which has plenty of information to dig into. And of course, you can see this all on Garmin Connect Mobile (or desktop) as well:

Which then is a good time to briefly look at the Training Status, Training Readiness, and other related pieces. None of these have changed in the Fenix 9, so we’ll quickly skim through them, but do so in a separate section to keep things tidy.

Training Readiness & Planning:

In this section, I’m going to dig into some of the training features. Again, these are all largely identical to the Fenix 8, with the exception that Training Status now supports rowing (more on that in the rowing section).

From a training standpoint, these features include:

– Race Planning/Calendaring
– Automatic coached workouts (for running and run/walk plans)
– Training Load (Training Status)
– Training Recovery
– Training Readiness
– Race Finish Time Prediction
– VO2Max Tracking

There are lots of other aspects that tie into these, but that’s the general gist of the core features.

To start, I’ll quickly cover race calendaring, noting that you do not need to put an event on your calendar for any of these features to work. You can simply not list anything at all, and the watch will automatically suggest running workouts for you to make you more fit; it’s just that those workouts won’t be tailored to a specific distance/event. Meaning, if you don’t tell it you’re running a marathon, it’s not going to suggest the weekly long runs that you’d associate with a marathon event.

To add an event, you can go to your Garmin Connect app and simply create an event, which can even search databases for the exact race (which is handy later as it pulls in the exact course/route, as well as weather conditions).

You can create multiple events, and prioritize events (e.g., A/B/C priority). These will then ultimately show up in your Race Calendar widget, which can predict your finish time (as of today). The Fenix 9 will then show what you’d do if you ran it today, versus the projection it has. Generally speaking, you’ll want a bit more variability in your running to get more accurate times here. In my case, I’ve been doing mostly trail running lately, which isn’t super good at helping Garmin figure out my road-running paces, because it doesn’t account for the technical aspect of terrain. Once I shift more towards road-running, these times tend to drop pretty quickly.

Now, regardless of what’s on your calendar (or not), Daily Suggested Workouts (DSW) will generate a workout daily to get you to that goal (or just to keep you fit). It does this based on looking at what it needs to do, while balancing your training readiness (e.g., sleep, other workouts, recovery times, etc…). In fact, it’ll even change in the middle of the day if you had exceptionally poor sleep, or went off and did some other high-intensity activity instead.

You’ll see these automatically when you open the Run app, and you can look ahead at your schedule as well:

But you can also change various settings related to it, such as specifying the day you do your long run, days you can’t run, and so on. You can also see these workouts going forward.

In general, I find the Garmin Daily Suggested workouts fairly conservative, which means they’ll err more on the side of avoiding injury than pushing you to the edge. They’ll still deliver very hard workouts, but they won’t ramp up mileage (or intensity) as hard as some coaches might.

Remember that Garmin’s coaching platform is just like any other coach and their coaching style, it has its preferences and quirks. I’ve had some coaches that are very aggressive in terms of ramping up mileage (because they know me as an athlete can typically handle that), and other coaches that are very conservative, preferring to avoid any injury at all (knowing that the most successful athlete is the one that gets to the start line).

In any case, one of the aspects that’s leaned heavily on here is Training Readiness, which looks at a few key metrics each day to figure out how ‘ready to train’ you are at any given minute in the day. This score shifts throughout the day, based on recovery time, whether you just finished a workout, and so on. Meaning, you might wake up with a Training Readiness score of 46, and it might slowly climb to 60 by early afternoon (because your recovery time from the previous workout has improved). However, once you complete that hard interval workout, it might drop down to 12, because now your literal “readiness to train” again is very low. So in my case today, this climbed from mid-40’s in the morning to mid-50’s, before I did a run that brought it back down to the low-30’s.

Training Readiness is based on the following factors:

– Sleep (last night)
– Recovery time (from last workout)
– HRV Status
– Acute Load (training load)
– Recent Sleep scores (over the past 7 days)
– Recent Stress (over the past 7 days)

The score is most heavily weighted based on recovery time and sleep, meaning if you go out and do a marathon, it’s going to show a low training readiness score, regardless of your acute load, HRV status, etc… That is, unless your effort was low-enough intensity that it didn’t make a dent because you do marathons every day or such. Again, it’s all based on what the norm is for you.

Garmin has had Training Readiness for a few years now, and generally speaking, I find it a very good indicator of how ready I am to train. Which doesn’t mean I always listen to it, but I’ll use it as one tool in my shed. If I wake up and it’s showing a score of ‘8’, and I feel rough, it’s probably time to do something easier. Whereas if I wake up and feel good and the score is 20 or 30, I’ll likely rally. Again, remember Garmin skews conservative when it comes to trying to keep you uninjured. This is a big piece of that.

One of the metrics that make up Training Readiness is Acute Load, which is perhaps the best overall metric for looking at your Training Load. This metric shows your historical load range over the past 30 days as the green range, and then the last 7 days trending line atop that. It’s super helpful for figuring out how things compare to your baseline:

With that, you can see your Load Ratio, which shows whether you’re trending up or down. Generally speaking, you want to keep your upwards increase in training load at upwards of 1.2ish (meaning, you’re doing 20% more in the last 7-days, than the average 7-day period over the last 30 days). For example below, you’ll notice Monday is still empty (I took these shots before my run). Once I did my 1-hour tempo run up a mountain, that added about 271 units of training load, bringing me to nearly 900 for the 7-day period. This in turn put my load ratio back in the ~1.2 range.

Which then carries into Training Status. Training Status is more like a true coach that just focuses on whether the ‘type’ of training you’re doing is going to make you faster. Meaning, is it a balanced diet of easy workouts, hard workouts, etc… It mostly ignores factors like sleep/stress (except it does account for HRV). Whereas Training Readiness is looking at all those factors together.

Training Status is going to give you scores like Productive, Unproductive, Maintaining, Peaking, and Recovery. Generally speaking, I’d say that with Training Status in the last few years (new devices in the past few years), it’s now pretty hard to get into an Unproductive status unless you deserve it.

In my case, I apparently deserve it these days. Initially, I had some wonky zones set back a few months ago, and then I thought I fixed that, and was good, and then it all fell apart again a few weeks ago. Though I managed to get one day of ‘Productive’, so, I took some photos. I’ve been Unproductive for weeks, then productive for one day, before landing back on ‘Maintaining’. Sigh.

In any case, generally speaking, for the last few years, I float between Productive or Maintaining most of the time, with occasional Peaking or Recovery if I’ve cut a lot of training load quickly (such as going on vacation, or tapering before a race).

Of course, one really important thing to understand about Training Status (and correspondingly the VO2Max predictions) is that it’s heavily reliant on a varied diet of running, meaning longer runs, shorter-high-intensity runs, tempo runs, etc… If you’re only running a steady-state moderate-intensity 30-minute run every other day, it’s going to struggle to be super accurate.

But I find that when I have that varied diet of training run types, it really does a good job at figuring out life and my VO2Max more accurately. And further, as a benefit, that’s generally speaking how you should be training anyway.

Garmin Epics:

Next up is the new Garmin Epics feature, which is kinda like an adventure showcase/journal combined into one. An Epic is designed to group multiple activities together, along with your other data (including sleep metrics, training load, etc…) into one cohesive story. An Epic does not require a new Garmin Fenix 9 watch, and even more, can be created using data from past Garmin adventures (even years ago). They can also include different types of activities in one Epic (e.g. hiking, swimming, running, cycling, etc…). Basically, an Epic is just a big bucket of things you want to group together.

There are essentially two parts to an Epic. The first is the piece you create on the Garmin Connect Mobile app, defining the dates and a route/course (if applicable). And then the second piece is on the watch, you can see a widget with your Epic details.

Starting off with the Garmin Connect Mobile bits, you’ll create the start/end points of the Epic. This can be up to 89 days (as a timespan), and you can load in a singular long route file. This is the only part that’s a little bit tricky, in that some people might have a long trek/route split into a bunch of smaller files/routes. Note that you don’t need a route for an Epic, it just calculates remaining distance/elevation/etc if you have it loaded.

Once all that’s done, you’ll go off and do your activity. One thing of note is that anytime you start an activity, it’ll actually show you the name of the Epic on that page, along with the Epic course details (which is handy). But otherwise, during a workout itself there’s no specific during-workout features, but rather, it’s post-workout.

Here, on the watch itself you’ll see a new Garmin Epic widget that shows you progress towards the course completion (if a course is loaded), as well as other summary stats about your totals over the course of the Epic duration (defined period). This includes things like sleep stats and training readiness stats.

I will say that I’ve had a bunch of weird bugs in this area around having non-course activities mixed in there (such as the swimming/etc…) that solidly confused it. None of these were deal-breakers, but there’s definitely some on-device bugs in this realm (like seen above with remaining distance/ascent time)

Instead, I think the cooler part is actually the on-app bits. Here you can add photos to a given activity, and then see those all grouped together into a single cohesive storyline (which can be shared/linked out). Here’s a quick gallery of my Tour de Mont Blanc one, as a much prettier example:

Overall, this is a cool feature. I’ll be interested to see if Garmin continues to evolve this feature (beyond expected minor bug fixes), or if it stays static. Garmin often has a history of creating these new features, and then never evolving them. Whereas this is a feature there’s tons of things they could do to evolve it, such as automatically pulling in the full Epic activity list of photos/stats and creating Instagram-friendly movies, etc…

New Rowing & Rucking Features:

Look, I get it, there’s virtually no similarities between Rowing and Rucking (except that most rational people find both of them painful to do). However, in this case they’re arguably the two marquee new sports features of the Fenix 9 series, and atop that, they both start with ‘R’. Thus, they get to share a section.

We’ll start off with rowing, and then get into rucking. In the case of rowing, as a reminder, here’s a quick list of the new features there:

– Added new heart rate zones for rowing, and max heart rate
– Added new power zones and power curves for running
– Added new indoor rowing FTP values/estimation
– Added new indoor rowing VO2Max values
– Added lactate threshold for rowing, and performance condition
– Added indoor rowing activity profile countdown timer (5-second timer, to let you get ready)
– Added support for indoor rowing to update Training Status (e.g. Productive, unproductive, etc…)

So, let’s dive into it. Previously, you could pair up a rowing to the indoor rowing profile, but you didn’t get any of the added metrics (e.g. FTP/VO2Max/Training Status Updates, etc…). Now, all that happens is that you pair up some sort of power meter device. If you have a Concept2 rower (with PM5), you’ll still pair it as an ANT+ FE-C rower, since that’ll also give distance and stroke information (which a straight power meter profile wouldn’t). But from a practical standpoint, the new metrics only require power and heart rate to calculate. So if your non-Concept2 rower only does power, you’re still good.

(Note: When pairing a Concept2 rower, in the settings menu there’s an option for ‘Always on’, which means anytime the display turns on, it starts broadcasting. If this is your rower, enable that to make your life faster/easier, than enabling it each time manually.)

Once you’ve got your rower paired up to your watch, then you’re ready to start rowing. There’s actually a new 5-second countdown timer that you can enable, so you can be ready to start rowing exactly when it counts down to zero. Otherwise, just start going.

Like in the past, the watch will display your power information, as well as stroke & distance information if that’s transmitted from your rower. In the case of the PM5, it was showing values within 1-second of the display’s values, so within the realm of ANT+ update frequencies. However, more notable here is the new rowing-specific power and heart rate zones. You can customize these within the user profile settings:

However, before you run off and do that, know that one of the other new features here is the fact that’ll do this for you. When you finish any workout that’s at least 15 minutes long at 70% of your max HR, it’ll update your VO2Max stats. Further, it’ll update your rowing FTP values, and finally, if applicable it’ll update your lactate threshold values. Here’s an example of that after my rowing on Saturday:

I did an initial ride nearly two weeks ago (about 25 minutes long, purely steady-state), and it immediately was able to identify a VO2Max and FTP value (w/kg estimate). Though, that was 36hrs after finishing the 50KM/10hr trek, so my legs were a little squishy. But since then I’ve been constantly traveling and unable to get back to the rower. But last night I did, and this time I mixed it up with a bunch of 60s interval efforts (60s on/off repeats). In this case, I got a notably higher VO2Max & FTP estimate. Which makes sense, just like in running and cycling, the more data you give it, the better.

As with cycling and running, the ‘default’ VO2Max stat you’ll see on the Training Status page is the one you spent the most recent time in. In my case, that’s running, so that’s what controls my VO2Max listed there (else it’d be a little rowing icon).

Now, I know you’re expecting Rucking next…but no. I’m going to briefly mention that Ski Erg is also a new sport profile. Except it’s not called that (for trademark reasons), it’s called ‘XC Ski Indoor’. This doesn’t update/change your rowing-specific stats. But it does support the ANT+ FE-C equipment profile, including power, distance and stroke rate.

So if you have a Concept2 Ski Erg, it’ll pair up exactly the same way as the rower, and send all those stats to it:

Ok, with that, off to the new Rucking features. As a quick reminder on those, here’s what’s new in this realm:

– Added New Rucking/Pack-Weight calorie breakout for activities (in multiple sport profiles)
– Revamped algorithms around pack-weight, to more accurately cover calorie impacts
– Added New Rucking target calculator on-watch: Can tell you how far you need to go for a certain goal & pack weight
– Added ability to change pack-weight mid-activity
– Added Dedicated Rucking Reports (summarizing pack weight, calories, elevation, pace)
– Added Rucking Multisport mode option
– Added New on-device Rucking structured workouts with GoRuck

In my case, I decided to induce all the pain by going out for a near-50KM hike with a ~30lbs/14kg pack for 10 hours in the 90*F/32*C sun. Oh, and 4,400ft/1,100m of elevation and off-road terrain in there too. Obviously, people ruck with far higher pack weights (myself included), but equally, most people don’t go 10hrs straight for nearly 50KM. In any case, I weighed up my pack before setting off:

From there, you’ll enter it within the pack weight option that you see when you open the Rucking profile. One annoyance is that at the moment, *only* the Rucking profile fully supports all the pack weight pieces. While other profiles (like hiking) do allow you to add a pack weight, that’s sorta ‘old-style’, and won’t do all the extra calorie breakouts and reporting pieces, or allow you to change it mid-ruck, like the Rucking profile supports. Hopefully they simply update the other profiles (e.g. Hiking) to match the official Rucking profile. Oh, and you can of course have pounds or kilograms. I mix and match to keep people on their toes.

The big change here in terms of mid-activity bits is that it allows you to update pack-weight during the activity itself, and it’ll actually track those changes later on. Once you’ve begun the trek, aside from updating pack-weight, there’s actually nothing else to see feature-wise.

So, here’s a pretty picture of me up in the mountains:

I will note that a bug exists that the ‘Active Calories’ showed zero calories the entire time I was in the activity. Garmin says it’ll be fixed in the next firmware update. Still, given the entire point of this whole rucking thing was to show accurate Active Calories, it’s these sorts of bugs that shouldn’t be slipping by.

In any case, you can adjust the pack weight at any time, which will be meaningful if you look at the calories from pack weight afterwards. Which, after 10 hours is exactly what I did, see those results. When you save the activity, you’ll see this new screen as part of the post-activity summary (as well as a new ‘Average Pack Weight’ field on the summary screen):

As seen above, it’s pretty self-explanatory, and shows the breakout between your base calories, and the added pack weight calories. In my case, I’d argue that number seems curiously low. My body weight is listed as 194lbs in the watch/Garmin Connect, and the pack weight was listed as 29lbs. As such, 15% of my body weight. However, to ‘only’ have an extra 600 calories after 10 hours in 90*F temps with all that elevation gain seems…underwhelming. In looking at various other opinions/academic studies online, with those temperature and altitude again, the expected % increase should have been substantially higher.

I asked Garmin about it, and here’s what they said:

“The pack-weight calculation is not based on the pack-to-body-weight ratio alone. The ratio is passed through a non-linear scaling curve, which means heavier packs have a disproportionately larger impact than lighter packs. Elevation, terrain, temperature, distance, and pace are already captured in the total calorie estimate, while the pack model estimates what portion of that energy is attributed to carrying the additional load”

Obviously, Garmin has their own science peoples within the FirstBeat teams, which are well regarded and often quite science-backed. Yet still, this doesn’t seem to pass my gut-check test.

In any case, back on the watch itself there’s a new Rucking target calculator. This allows you to enter ‘2 of 4 workout goals’, comprising of: Distance, Time, Pace, or Calories, and then it’ll automatically calculate the suffering required of the remaining two (you specify your pack weight aside from that):

So for example, I can say that I want to go for 70 minutes, with a pace of 10 mins/km, and and then with a specified pack weight of 29lbs, it’ll get me 7km and 454 calories:

Likewise, there’s also the ability to do rucking-specific workouts, along with a new partnership with GoRuck providing some of those workouts to do.

Finally, last but not least, you can now add Rucking to a multipart profile. Thus, if you wanted to ruck, then Bike, and then give-up on all that and just go for a swim, you can do such a thing. As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Diving & Underwater Usage:

Now,  I don’t have a dedicated section on diving within the Fenix 9 review, though the feature hasn’t really changed since it was introduced on the Fenix 8 two years ago (so check out that full section instead). The Fenix 9 continues to support diving down to 40m in depth, either in a scuba or apnea (free diving) scenario. Plus, it also supports snorkeling. I’ve used the Fenix 8 & Fenix 8 Pro many times for scuba adventures, and then more recently I used the Fenix 9 Pro for some free diving, below:

I’ll likely expand this section out in the coming weeks with more scuba experience/details, but again, everything is identical to the Fenix 8 in the scuba realm. The key difference between the Fenix series diving features and the Descent MK series diving features is the Descent MK series includes support for air integration (Garmin’s T1/T2 tank receivers), whereas the Fenix doesn’t (note that the Instinct-based Descent G series is more like the Fenix). Further, the Descent MK series supports deeper depths. There’s plenty of other differences (like support for underwater communications), but those are the biggies.

But for me, I just get tons of usage out of the depth gauge elements as both myself and my wife are constantly in the water here exploring. It’s just handy to know how deep we’ve gone, and have that automatically trigger as well (though, I wish I could set the trigger depth to slightly deeper to avoid it triggering every time I jump in the pool).

In any case, more to come there (scuba-wise).

LTE & inReach Usage (Pro inReach):

This section is only applicable to the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro inReach models, which are the models that contain extra hardware allowing for both LTE features as well as two-way satellite-messaging features. These features were introduced on the Fenix 8 Pro last year, but have been expanded very slightly now with both a weather over satellite feature, as well as a new ‘backup satellite’ (alternate) positioning feature in case you’re having troubles.

The features are divided into two sections, LTE and satellite. When it comes to LTE features, Garmin offers the following features over their LTE network, via LTE-M (which requires lower power as an ecosystem, including voice calling over LTE-M):

– LTE Live two-way voice calls
– LTE LiveTrack (30-second sampling rate)
– LTE Voice Messaging
– LTE Text Messaging
– LTE Weather
– LTE & Satellite Emergency SOS
– LTE Location Check-Ins
– LTE Incident Detection & Assistance

In addition, they also offer satellite text messaging, more on that in a second. Notably, the watches are cross-region compatible due to LTE-M. Meaning, you can use your European model in the US for LTE-M (and satellite), and vice-versa.

Next, for the satellite features, these are more focused on updating status and asking for emergency assistance. Unlike LTE which just works in the background, all of these features requires holding a watch out in front of you to maintain a specific orientation towards a satellite (this is the same with Apple, Google, and others).

– Satellite Messaging (basic texting)
– Satellite position/location check-ins
– Satellite Emergency SOS (via Garmin Response)
– Satellite updating of weather (new in the Fenix 9 Pro)

And then finally, when to comes to the launch of the Fenix 9, Garmin also added at the same time a few more things that are largely tied into the Garmin Messenger app. These aren’t actually dependent on the Fenix 9, but I figured I’d mention it here:

– Added new Garmin Locate feature within Garmin Messenger app
– Added ability to see athlete heart rate, pace, distance, elevation information in Garmin Messenger App

Ok, so with that covered, note that none of this LTE or inReach pieces are free long-term, despite all of their competitors offering the satellite pieces for free. Getting things set up requires setting up an account within Garmin’s inReach platform. This gives you 30 days free, after which it is $9.99/month for unlimited LTE stuffs, and emergency-only Satellite bits. Beyond that, there are additional fees for satellite check-ins/texts that I’ll cover below (or, a higher-priced plan).

From there, you’ll see a menu option on your watch that shows the different connectivity status options, in terms of how and when it leverages both LTE & satellite. Essentially, you can leave it on Auto, force it off/on, and any number of combinations within that.

By default, in ‘Auto’ mode, the unit will go into ‘Auto Standby’ which basically saves power unless it needs it for a specific LTE operation (e.g. LiveTrack, making a call, etc… if your phone isn’t nearby). The upside to this is that it saves a bunch (boatload) of battery. The downside is that if someone tries to make an inbound call to you, and you don’t have your phone, the call won’t come in.

One of the things I’ve learned over the past year is this is pretty handy if you actually don’t care about LTE connectivity, it’s best to just set it to ‘Satellite Only’, which means to essentially shut-off LTE on the watch entirely, and just use my phone connection. Since the Satellite messaging pieces requires a bunch of knowingly manual steps, it’s not something that can happen in terms background anyway.

In any case, for LTE, if enabled it’ll show you the signal strength when you start an outdoor activity at the top, or, you can always see it by long-holding the upper right controls menu button:

Looking at the most common use case for me and my wife, LTE LiveTrack, this will automatically send a link to my configured friends/family. You can do this within the Garmin Connect settings, including whether to send the course (I do), as well as if it just automatically triggers every time (I do that too). At the top you can see the 4 recipients that get (if I were to click-in, it’d show the names). And notice the toggles for ‘Show Course’ and ‘Auto Start’.

When it comes to a LiveTrack itself, there’s no difference between what you’d see from an LTE connection direct on the watch, and that using the phone. It’s all the same.

From the watch you can use both pre-canned messages (including ones you can customize), as well as the little keyboard.

When it comes to someone sending messages to you, the ‘easiest’ method is the Garmin Messenger app, because that’ll automatically include location information and other details about them (including the new Locate feature). However, technically speaking you as the watch user can send a message to any text message number, and then they can respond. It’s just that the phone number isn’t ‘yours’ (nor can it be your existing phone number).

Likewise, only voice messages can go to the Garmin Messenger app, and only voice calling can go to the Garmin Messenger app. In this case, you can just select the person from your contacts, and off you go:

I very rarely have used this over the last year with the Fenix 8 Pro, and did poke at it a bit with the Fenix 9 Pro. It works fine, but isn’t anything special either. Like most watch calling,the speaker/mic quality is blah at best for these sorts of scenarios. You can get a quick conversation done no problem, but you won’t want to tell your life story for hours.

Here you can see my wife calling my phone, via her watch (her phone isn’t with us). On my phone, the ‘Garmin Messenger’ app is what the call is coming through, similar to how a WhatsApp call would come through.

One handy part though is for voice messages, these will actually enumerate as text transcriptions. This is something Garmin has rolled out across all of their Messenger app-based units over the last year, and it’s super handy. So you can see me recording the message on my watch, and then her receiving it (all via LTE), and receiving both the actual audio, as well as the transcription.

Note also that if your child has a Garmin Bounce watch (which has LTE too), there’s zero integration between the Garmin Bounce side (including the Garmin Jr app), and these watches (or the Garmin Messenger ecosystem). They might as well be entirely separate companies at this point. That said, I’ve also not really had a scenario in the last year where I needed that integration, but again, it shows just how silo’d Garmin often is when it comes to many of their product teams.

In any case, as I said above, the main benefit for myself and my wife is the ability to get LTE LiveTracks during runs/rides, either because one of us isn’t running/riding with a phone, or perhaps the phone simply died during a long day of riding. The LiveTrack continues on.

Next up then, is the satellite messaging pieces. These remain mostly the same as last year, except now you can get weather updates via satellite, and there’s a new backup connection option.

With the Fenix 8 Pro and Fenix 9 Pro inReach series, the antenna now allows for on-demand connectivity to GEO satellites, which is very different than the much larger antenna form factor of a typical inReach device. This means that, unlike a typical inReach device, this will only send messages to the satellite when you position your arm in a specific orientation. That’s because it needs to point to an exact satellite, whereas a typical inReach device has a huge antenna to find the correct satellites in virtually every orientation. The traditional Garmin inReach Iridium devices use LEO satellites, about 66 of them, and much closer to earth. Whereas GEO is more limited in service areas: Covering a specific area of the earth, focused on a specific area of the earth, and thus, a specific coverage area.

Therefore, the coverage maps are essentially the Continental US/Canada (+ about 50 miles offshore) and the vast majority of Europe, where satellite services are provided by Garmin’s satellite umbrella partner, Skylo (different from their handheld inReach devices).

Next, when it comes to satellite features, by default, everything will run over LTE if that’s available first. You can force it to a satellite if you need to, but there’s really no point if LTE is there. Still, if you’re outside cellular range (or Bluetooth range to your phone), then when you go to send a text message from the watch, it’ll prompt you to go into satellite mode. This will first have you double-check the compass, which is then leveraged to point towards the right satellite location. Note this is a change from the Fenix 8 Pro series, where you’re going to *KEEP YOUR HAND/ARM OUT*, basically away from your body. If you hold it against your body, it’ll actually block the signal, since it’s effectively coming out of the bottom of the watch.

 

At which point, you’ll then get a further UI piece to refine connectivity towards that satellite. This piece seemed to take about 20-30 seconds to get a lock on the satellite.

After that’s done, it’ll send the message, which is pretty quick (5-10 seconds), and then confirms the message is sent. It’ll also receive any inbound messages.

Note that this uses the exact same user interface as the LTE messaging above. In fact, it’ll first try and send messages using your phone, then try using LTE, and finally failing that it’ll ask to do LTE. You can see the satellite icon indicating it was sent via satellite.

Now one thing that’s worthwhile noting is that on the Fenix 9 series, there’s actually a new ‘alternate’ way to send a message, in the event your unit is having troubles getting a satellite message out. This new method will pop-up after multiple failure attempts:

When you select the new ‘Alternate’ method, it’ll re-initialize a new system (it literally tells you this), and then asks you to remove the watch, turn it around, hold it by the straps, and face the back towards the sky.

From there, the sending process is the same, and sends within the same amount of time.

Lastly, as you’d expect, there’s the Garmin SOS features, leveraging Garmin’s Response Center, for emergencies. You can access that via the controls menu, which then gives you 10 seconds to cancel it, in case it accidentally does so. As with the other features, it’ll first try via LTE, then satellite.

Again, as someone who has been using the Fenix 8 Pro with satellite features over the last year, I’d argue if you plan to do a lot of satellite message sending, just get a Garmin inReach device (all you need is the inReach Mini 2, usually on sale at $249). The key reason being that with the Garmin watches, you have to specifically hold your arm out and wait each time you send a message (including location updates), which is a giant pain in the butt if you want frequent updates. Whereas if you just want to have someone automatically update your position, doing so with the Garmin inReach Mini devices clipped to a backpack is the way to go. It just does it every few minutes automatically, lasts forever, and just works. Also, is has a much more widely available satellite coverage range.

Finally, I will note that much has been made about the satellite types of the Garmin watches, in that if the satellite you need to talk to is blocked, it won’t be able to send the message. For example, if you were/are up against a cliff, and the single satellite it needs to talk to is in the direction of the cliff, it can’t send the message. And yes, that is indeed true (of both Garmin & Google watches, though not Apple Watches, which use a different satellite system more akin to that of the traditional Garmin inReach watches). That said, equally, I don’t think it’s a huge dealbreaker as a backup emergency option. I think I found only one place in the last year where I couldn’t send a message out via the watch due to obstruction, and simply moving back 10 meters solved it. Obviously, if I was in a spot I couldn’t move 10 meters back, then yes, that would be a problem.

Point is, while I do much prefer the satellite systems that Apple is using their watches over what Garmin is using, I don’t think it’s as big a deal as some might think. Instead, I’d argue just how slow and cumbersome getting a satellite message out on a Garmin watch is compared to how efficient it is for an Apple Watch, is probably more notable. But again, different things for different folks.

GPS Accuracy:

The Fenix 9 Series has a slightly modified GPS configuration, with new software-defined GPS modes (e.g. Max Accuracy). These modes are very similar to the past, except that now all modes have SatIQ enabled within them. Yet others are a bit more streamlined. For example, “UltraTrac” is gone (after nearly two decades), and replaced with the more logically named ‘Max Battery’. Previously UltraTrac would update once every few minutes (roughly), but many folks mistakenly thought it meant more like “UltraGood” accuracy, which in reality it was the opposite.

Anyways, despite initial confusing, the ‘Max Accuracy’ option does indeed force multi-band on the entire time. However, Garmin says that their SatIQ technology also tweaks additional parameters on that particular setting when environmental conditions require. They aren’t saying what those are, presumably for competitive reasons.

In any case, I’ve been testing this across multiple continents (North America & Europe), across a ton of different scenarios including openwater swimming, cycling, running, and in the mountains, cities, and more. In most cases I’ve been using two Fenix 9 units, though sometimes more and sometimes with my wife’s data as well.

Starting off with this part trail-run, part road-run (including with very tall mountains to the side of it), we can see at a high level everything looks good. In this case, I had set the older Fenix 8 Pro to forced Multiband, while I left the newer Fenix 9 Pro in a default configuration (with SatIQ).

If I look at one of the sections in the trees, you’ll see the tracks are basically identical:

And the same goes for along the twisty-turning shoreside path:

Next, let’s look at a run through some buildings. Nothing crazy tall yet, but more inline with what most people might stumble into on a daily basis. Some of these hotels are quite tall (10-15 stories), but most of them are in the 6-8 story range. Again, to set the scene, at a high level things look pretty clean across all of them:

Looking at an out-and-back pier section, there are some slight differences in getting from the boardwalk to the pier itself, but once on the pier all of the units are basically perfectly fine, within a meter or two.

Next, on this cornering here, if we wanted to nitpick, the Fenix 8 Pro is the most accurate, followed closely by the Fenix 9 Pro. The Pixel Watch 5 & Apple Watch Ultra 3 both cornered through some buildings.

This next section here goes *under* a pool (those blue things you see is the pool about 8 stories up). So basically, like going under a big bridge, except with people drinking fruity cocktails. Here the Fenix 8 Pro was again the most correct, with the others about 2-3 meters offset (opposite sides). Hardly much to complain about. And again, remember the Fenix 8 Pro here is in forced mulitband, whereas the Fenix 9 is in a default SatIQ configuration.

Lastly on this set, just for fun to point out how close these units are. In this case, the two Garmin Fenix units are *on* the sidewalk, whereas the Apple/Google units are about 1-2 meters off the sidewalk in the field. You’d never really care about this type of difference, but I figured I’d at least acknowledge it.

Next, continuing our tall building adventures, here’s me in downtown San Francisco with a slate of different units in different configurations, both Fenix 9 and Fenix 8 units. I’d run up and down these streets, which have buildings upwards of 60 stories high, and relatively narrow streets. At a high level, here’s the route, which includes some bits along the waterfront to get there, then the sweeps up and down the business district:

From a wear standpoint, here’s how they were worn/configured (obviously I hadn’t yet strapped in that solar unit). My logic here was I wanted to see the difference between the two Fenix 9 GPS configurations side-by-side on the same wrist, so that body-side wasn’t a factor.

(Above left to right: Apple Watch Ultra 3, Garmin Fenix 8 Pro in forced mulitband, Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar in default, Garmin Fenix 9 Pro AMOLED in Max Accuracy/forced multiband)

Along the waterfront, the units are pretty close, though the Apple Watch Ultra is consistently making small errors, such as the one below:

Diving into the sweeps up/down the downtown building sections, we’ve got first slate here. We can see the Apple Watch Ultra 3 makes some turning errors (cutting through buildings). The Fenix 9 Pro in Max accuracy makes one slight street-side error around Battery street. Though is otherwise pretty much identical to the other units. Overall, despite being directly next to massive buildings, this section doesn’t prove to be an issue.

Next, we’ve got another sweep. Again, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 struggles the most here overall, though, that same Fenix 9 Pro in Max Accuracy also makes a solid error cutting into some buildings by perhaps 10-20m in one of the turns that you see towards the bottom right.

Finally, there’s this little bit here, where you can see the two Fenix 9 units are a bit more center of street than sidewalk. I was indeed on the sidewalk here, where the Apple Watch Ultra 3 & Fenix 8 Pro placed me. But I suspect this is more tied to body position than anything (those units were on my left side, whereas the two center-street units were on my right side). While you might think the ones with more ‘air’ to work with would get better results, I’ve long-ago learned that multi-path errors in tough downtown environments can often show themselves in funky ways.

In any case, looking at those downtown scenarios, I’d argue that Garmin’s SatIQ in the default scenario does *exactly* what you want it to do (scale-up as needed), and there was literally zero downside to choosing the default battery-saving mode over the forced Max Accuracy mode. Obviously, there may be some place on earth where it matters, but in this incredibly difficult test, it simply didn’t matter.

Next, looking at a quick few spots on my 10-hour hike through the mountainous areas, there’s a few notable sections to poke at, with four different Fenix 9 units:

For example, as I approach this ridge line on both sides, you can see the units are fairly close together:

However, it’s the peak of this ridge I want to look closer at, with this large overhang towering out over me:

Here, we can see some slight deviations among the units, though, none more than about 2-3m (one unit on my right side, in green, and then one unit in a different spot on my left side in purple).

The remainder of the entire hike had plenty of quirky spots, but none others that were

Now let’s just quickly look at a road ride into the mountains, and then finish up with an openwater swim. Note in this case, I included not just the two Fenix 9 Pro units on my wrists (one on each wrist), but also the 43mm Fenix 9 Pro on my wife’s wrist. Given she was cycling within 2-3 meters of me at all times, it’s more than applicable enough to at least spot any wonky GPS errors. For slight track differences, just keep that in mind. Again, here’s the high-level map:

Then looking at the overall mountain sections, things look pretty much identical:

And then zooming in closer, you can see the tracks going up/down (this was an out and back) are identical on the watches. That’s nice, given the high-speeds here descending. You’ll notice there’s a single second (yes, one second) where a single data point on my wife’s 43mm unit is offset just beyond the road. I don’t know offhand what happened there (maybe she pumped the pause button a second or something, I don’t know), but otherwise the entire route all our watches are identical, and also matching the larger dedicated bike computer.

Note that if you want to look at another gravel ride into the mountains, you can find that here to look at, also with dual Garmin Fenix 9 Pro units (Solar & AMOLED)

Lastly, we’ve got an openwater swim. I had one watch per wrist, and both were in the same configuration (default satellite modes). Plus a watch on the swim buoy. As you can see, the right-wrist one oddly struggled for most of this swim. Whereas the left-wrist one was spot-on. I don;t really know why. About the only section the wrong-one got right was the long-straightaway. We had stopped shortly after each of the turns, which in GPS oddity situations will usually either fix it, or break it. In this case, it kinda just kept all wonky.

I’ll do more swimming over the next little while and see if I have any other failboats or not.

Overall though, setting aside the swimming pieces on one watch, I don’t really see any meaningful and/or consistent real-world difference between the new GPS modes and the old GPS modes/units. More critically, as with before, I don’t see much value/gain to selecting forced Max Accuracy (previously forced multiband) on a regular basis, unless you have a very specific/repeatable scenario that causes SatIQ to stumbled. Otherwise, you’re just burning extra battery for funsies.

Heart Rate Accuracy:

The Garmin Fenix 9 Pro has the same Gen5 optical HR sensor as the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, the Fenix 8 prior to that, and the Fenix 7 Pro prior to that. There’s nothing wrong with that, as it’s still one of the best optical HR sensors on the market in a watch in terms of accuracy (if not, the best). In this case, I’ve been putting it through its paces like normal, but since the case and weight are roughly the same, I’d expect it to perform roughly the same. And indeed, it does.

I’ll run through a few different scenarios to demonstrate that. First up on the easy side, we’ve got a relatively steady run I did for a bit under an hour:

As you can see, the Fenix 9 was perhaps a few seconds delayed in the first 30-60 seconds, and then from there out was basically the same as the chest strap and Apple Watch Ultra 3. Both the Apple Watch & Fenix 9 bobbled the heart rate very slightly (for a few BPM) at different points during the run for a few seconds, but nothing of any real consequence. So, all good here.

Just as a quickie, here’s another steady-run run, no issues. This time the Fenix 9 vs the Pixel Watch 5 (plus a chest strap to compare):

And another mostly steady-state but slightly higher intensity run. A few climbs tossed in there. Again, zero issues:

Next, we’ve got a rowing workout. Obviously, rowing can be challenging on wrist-based optical HR sensors due to how your wrist muscles tighten, causing optical HR sensor issues. Though, this was out in the sun on a hot day, so that makes things a bit easier. Note that the Whoop band was worn on the bicep here. Again, virtually perfect here save a couple seconds at the 13-minute marker.

Next, an outdoor road cycling ride into the mountains. This one is actually really impressive. Outdoor cycling tends to be one of teh most challenging things for optical HR sensors to get right. And so in this case, not only did one watch get it right, but both watches (I had a Solar on one wrist, and an AMOLED on the other). I kinda had assumed at least one of them would dork things up, but in reality, both were virtually spot-on. That ‘down’ period there about 2/3rds the way through was simply taking some photos at the top, followed by the descent back down the mountain.

Lastly, among the interesting workouts, we’ve got this 2hr gravel ride, including a solid climb and solid descent. Frankly, this surprised me as to how good it is. Again, to have two watches perform this well wrist-based on gravel is super impressive. Kudos.

Ultimately, while the Gen5 optical HR sensor is the same as the past, there’s also nothing bad about it when it comes to heart rate accuracy in a watch form factor. It continues to be one of the most accurate on the market, and certainly so when you consider it’s 1-second update frequency (even the newer Apple Watch Series 12/Ultra 4 only have 5-second update frequencies).

Across numerous runs (more than shown here), even more trainer rides, and plenty more workouts, I just didn’t see any issues here. Of course, as I noted in my Garmin Cirqa In-Depth Review, there’s a reality to the weather conditions largely being summer weather: Hot. That makes it far easier for optical HR sensors to get accuracy right, compared to colder weather. Again, especially for wrist-based optical HR sensors.

(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy portions were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, running power, GPS tracks, and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)

Battery Testing (Real World):

In this section, I just want to quickly outline the battery burn over a few different activities, as well as daily life.

For daily battery burn, I was mostly using the 47mm Fenix 9 Pro inReach model, with it usually set for ‘Auto’ as the LTE/Satellite configuration. This meant that it would essentially leverage my phone as needed for LTE connection, and then save battery otherwise. In this configuration, I was getting around 5ish days of battery life, but that’s inclusive of roughly 1-2 hrs of GPS workout time per day (some days more, some days less, but on average). This is in the ballpark of what I saw on a similar 47mm Fenix 8 Pro unit. I believe this is slightly short of the official Garmin claim in terms of smartwatch battery life, but that claim assumes 30 minutes of GPS time per day, rather than my reality of 4x that.

Next then, the more interesting ones, is GPS battery burn across various units/activities. In this case, I tried to make these as identical as possible. That included setting up identical settings/configurations/etc…

First, this gravel ride. Solar on one side, AMOLED on the other, both 47mm units. No LTE enabled on this one, nor any navigation. Just riding, power meter connected, and LiveTrack via the phone. This is using the default satellite configuration mode.

As you can see, the solar unit has nearly 3x the battery life in this scenario closer to sunset. On this ride, there were very few trees to block the sun, and equally, on the outbound direction, the unit was facing the sun.

Next, a road ride, mid-day. Here we can see substantially less battery life for the Solar unit, though, about the same ~40hr estimate for the AMOLED. This again shows how variable the solar benefit can be. Again, this is using the default satellite configuration mode. My wife wore her 43mm unit as well, though you can see in that configuration with her profile, it was burning far more battery than the next test with my settings.

Next, we’ve got a 10hr hike. This started before sunrise, and then finished later in the day. Placement was one per wrist, and one per hand. In theory, that might mean the hand-units (the 51mm and 43mm) might have needed to work slightly harder for optical HR, though I had them strapped in pretty tight, so I doubt it.

(The orange strap one is the 47mm AMOLED, the blueish/grey strap one on the upper hand is the 51mm AMOLED, then down below the smaller black strap is the 43mm AMOLED, and the lower left one is the 47mm SOLAR)

Given it was a one-way hike, the Solar unit was facing the sun almost the entire time, which would have significantly helped it. Equally though, there were trees and rocks and cliffs and such that blocked it. This is pretty real-world, assuming real world is a Mediterranean island with what is still summer sun. All units had an identical course loaded, and for the most part I was on general data fields, except when I needed to double-check the map briefly, or climbing with ClimbPro. All units were using optical HR.

Next, we’ve got about 6.5hrs out on the water, with a Solar vs AMOLED test. This was an out-and-back route, so roughly speaking it should be a wash in terms of solar time. You can see here that again, pretty consistently, the AMOLED floats at about 40hrs of battery life (estimate). The Solar was double that. There were no trees/mountains, or even clouds out here, though I did take occasional dips in the water.

Finally, here’s another fun 6.5hr activity out on the water, this time with the LTE configuration forced on the entire time. This meant that it was constantly trying to update my LiveTrack location via LTE (since I had LiveTrack enabled, and my phone connection disabled). Further complicating matters, is that a fair chunk of this area had no cellular location, thus, it probably was trying even harder at times. Anyways, here’s the result of that:

As you can see, forcing it into LTE definitely took a chunk out of the battery life there. I suspect the first/last portion being ‘flat’ was because I was mostly stopped then versus moving, and definitely 100% in LTE coverage then. It’s unclear to me which factor was more important.

As always, I could rabbit-hole for weeks/months on different battery tests/configurations. But in short, I think this gives you a rough idea of what to expect for different amounts. As always, solar will usually be more than AMOLED, though equally, all of these tests were done in super sunny weather where I live – with virtually no cloud cover. If you live/etc in a place with overcast skies, you’re simply not going to get anywhere near this much extra solar battery life. You will still benefit though from the battery gains of a MIP screen, though how much is kinda variable on a lot of factors.

Equally, one can remember that you could reduce the accuracy level slightly and get far more battery life out of the Fenix 9 AMOLED units too. Or, you could add a chest strap to gain battery life, etc… Meaning, there’s lots of other tradeoffs you could make if you don’t want MIPS/SOLAR, but want more battery life than shown here.

Software Stability & Bugs:

This section is dedicated to the issues and bugs I saw during my Fenix 9 series testing, including both bugs I saw as well as my wife saw. This includes all units/models I have in my possession. After the extremely rough buginess/stability of the recent Garmin Cirqa release, which has followed more than 18 months of generally less stable releases from Garmin, I was keen to see how things would handle on the Fenix 9.

Overall, this is an improvement over the Cirqa release, though, not without its bugs. Most of these bugs were not ‘mission critical’ (meaning, they didn’t block me from completing a workout, and didn’t cause full loss of an entire workout). Instead, they were just annoying. All of these are present on the current/final/production firmware. These are things like empty/incorrect data pages, unexplainable messages, high battery burn on one watch, and more. Examples include:

– Stress score missing on-device, saying it needs three consecutive days of data, despite being worn 24×7 for weeks
– Endurance Score sporadically missing on-device, saying it needs two weeks of data, and then showing up again half a day later. Rinse/repeat
– Numerous bugs/errors around Garmin Epic’s, and especially around not properly enumerating activity data from multiple workout types over a time span. It’s clear there wasn’t enough testing on this scenario (e.g. doing swim/bike/run activities as part of an Epic, but also having a course for some of it)
– Rucking activity not initially sending LiveTrack or course data during workouts (this appears to have been a one-time thing)
– Unable to sync/update maps via Mac on Garmin Express (even on MacOS26)
– Super high battery burn rates on my wife’s 43mm unit (two different units). However, when I reset the unit and put my profile on it, the battery burn seems normal. Meaning, this may be tied to some bug/issue on some setting within her profile, rather than mine or the watch.

Next, there’s the not-exactly-bug category that as of this past week, Apple released MacOS27, and with it has broken Garmin Express for Fenix 9 users. Oddly, this did actually work on MacOS27 during the summer.  The singular area that matters for 99% of users, if you have to download a new map region (e.g. going to North America from Europe). While you can do that over WiFi, it takes approximately forever/hours. The map update with the Fenix 9 specifically and Garmin Express are different than the Rosetta issue, however. As a side note, Garmin has recently splintered the map regions a bit into slightly smaller chunks, which makes the WiFi slightly more viable from a hotspot in a hotel room as I found out last week. Either way, Garmin says they’re going to update Garmin Express sometime before the end of the year, but that doesn’t really help people today – no matter the Mac-related issue they have.

Finally, I have had multiple crashes – both on my watch and my wife’s watch. In my case, it was during a trail run where it just randomly reset/crashed as I was running down a hill, for no obvious reason/interaction. I was able to resume the run/activity a few mins later, though lost the time in between when it crashed and when it resumed. In the case of my wife’s, it crashed while she was drinking a glass of wine. Twice, I think. In her case, the only thing she lost was her focus on the wine consumption. Fear not, though, given there’s no Wine Readiness Score, she wasn’t dependent on her Garmin watch to complete her adventure.

Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts:

The Fenix 9 feels in many ways like what the Fenix 8 Pro launch should have been: A cohesive story of all the models getting updates with satellite connectivity, new sport features, and plenty more. Which isn’t to say the Fenix 8 Pro launch was bad, but rather, it wasn’t a complete picture. The Fenix 9 solves that. And for the most part, it does so quite well and quite reliably. Setting aside the bugs I had above, all my activities have recorded without issue, navigation without issue, and other Fenix 9 Pro inReach features without issue. I genuinely appreciate that when my wife goes out for her late night long runs alone (without a phone), I’ve got tracking on her. Even if it’s just to drop-off some more snacks. Something that wasn’t possible in the Fenix 8 Pro series, because it didn’t have a small enough unit for a small female wrist.

If we look at the new features of the Fenix 9 series, I appreciate the sport focus here. The addition of a slate of rowing features, Ski Erg features, and other sports things is great. I’ve haphazardly done indoor rowing when the moment fits, but this actually has me a bit more excited to do more indoor rowing (and have been scouring Facebook Marketplace for a used unit). Perhaps that’s silly, or perhaps that’s no different than any other bit of motivation people have from smartwatches today (be it hitting step goals, closing rings, streaks, or the such). And for those actual rowers, this finally makes a Garmin device capable of truly tracking their training loads.

One of the most notable things about the Fenix 9 release isn’t the Fenix 9 itself. It’s Garmin’s decision, the first in some 15+ years, to actually bring software updates to a previous-generation watch (the Fenix 8 and Fenix 8 Pro are considered the same ‘generation’ from a Garmin standpoint, despite being a year apart). This is a massive shift in Garmin’s stance, and one I suspect is being driven by how their competitors approach software updates (including Apple, COROS, and others). However, just as notable is the fact that for the first time in the 14-year history of the Garmin Fenix series, the non-Pro and Pro models were announced at the same time. Historically speaking, those would flip-flop every year. That flip-flop led to ever-more-confused consumers thinking that the ‘Pro’ model was a higher-end model, when in reality it was simply the next year’s model. This shift remedies that, yet also maintains the new annual Fenix release cycle appended to UTMB, for the second year in a row (previously it floated at every 14-18 months).

Overall, I think this is a fairly solid launch for Garmin. They’ve maintained the ‘choice’ aspect of the Fenix lineup (e.g. display types, sizes, etc…), done so without increasing the prices over previous crazy-pants prices, and delivered on most of the features that people wanted coming out of the Fenix 8/Fenix 8 Pro series. All while concurrently delivering those software features back to the Fenix 8 owners. Hopefully this is the ‘new Garmin’ that we get to keep for a while.

With that, thanks for reading!