Garmin Fenix 8 smartwatch review: Expensive but not overpriced

There’s very little that smartwatches can’t do nowadays. It doesn’t matter if you’re a busy, working professional and a five-sport athlete or a parent and a casual scuba diver on the weekends — a good smartwatch can keep up with it all, and a great smartwatch won’t even need a recharge in between activities.

Here at Android Police, we’ve tested a lot of good and great smartwatches. Some are better if you have a certain smartphone, some are better suited for certain wrist sizes than others, and some are good buys when shopping on a budget. If you’re looking for the best of the best, though, you’ve found it with Garmin’s new Fenix 8, a smartwatch that’s gorgeous, functional, and versatile enough to breeze through all the challenges you throw its way.

Price, availability, and specs

Garmin’s newest Fenix watch is available in several configurations. The cheapest option costs $1,000, and the 51mm solar version raises the price to $1,200.

While Garmin’s website is a great place to look for the Fenix 8, you can also find it on Amazon and may have luck in local places where Garmin watches are sold, such as REI and Scheels.

What’s good about the Garmin Fenix 8?

Garmin battery life continues to reign supreme

Even when a smartwatch can take calls, track sleep, log fitness stats, or stream a podcast episode, the abilities mean little if the watch’s battery can’t make it through the day. The Fenix 8 is another entry in a long list of outstanding battery performers from Garmin; averaging about one hour of fitness tracked per day, I only had to charge the watch about once every 10 days. The more you demand, the greater the impact on battery life. Still, even after I turned on AOD, the battery still lasted for four days.

I tested the smallest case size offered in the Fenix 8 line, and as a woman with average-sized wrists, I was really pleased with the 43mm watch’s footprint. Its size and heft are noticeable, especially if you’re used to smaller watches, but it doesn’t feel as bulky as other watches.

I’m used to using lighter-weight smartwatches. After testing the Lily 2, a Garmin watch weighing less than 30 grams, everything I wore afterward felt like strapping a brick to my wrist.

I compared the Fenix 8’s weight to some other smartwatches I had accessible (straps included). The Fenix 8 isn’t a lightweight smartwatch, even at the smallest case size of 41mm, but it’s marginally lighter than other rugged watches. In any case, it didn’t take long to get used to the weight.

In terms of health and fitness, Garmin isn’t fixing what isn’t broken. If you’re a Garmin smartwatch veteran, the brand’s exercise and wellness vocab — Training Readiness, Body Battery — will already be familiar. The Fenix 8 offers everything you need to track your health and workouts, plus a little extra. Its workout library is massive, and I’ve always liked how Garmin presents its exercise and fitness insights, offering metrics indicating workout recovery and eligibility, as well as your body’s likely energy levels given sleep quality, stress, and other factors.

GPS accuracy is one strength I consistently see in Garmin watches, and the Fenix 8 falls in line. I wore the Fenix 8 along with the Polar Grit X2 Pro, the Apple Watch Series 6, and the Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas on my daily walk, and while all watches did fine in pedometer accuracy and mapping the overall route, the Fenix 8 deviated from the path the least, despite regular interruptions from trees and buildings.

It’s not just about fitness; overall health is important, too. The Fenix 8’s extensive list of sensors track your wellness as a whole and watch for incidents like falls or atrial fibrillation. AFib, and other heart monitoring details, can be viewed in the Garmin ECG app, one of the many apps you should download to make the most of this device.

I’ll admit, living in the upper Midwest, I am no diver and the Fenix 8’s new capabilities related to underwater recreation are wasted on me. They won’t go without mention, though. While it shares the same 10 ATM water resistance rating as the older Fenix 7, the newest series member goes further by adding full waterproofing to its buttons, as well as several features including pressure gauges, safe ascension support, dive planning, and more. The Fenix 8’s dive computer works at depths up to 40 meters.

What’s bad about the Garmin Fenix 8?

Watches over $500 are a hard sell for average users

Regarding functions, battery, hardware, and user interface, I have absolutely no notes on Garmin’s latest watch. However, seeing another new Garmin release without cellular connectivity disappointed me. It would be way easier to recommend any high-end smartwatch, including the Fenix 8, if LTE connectivity were more prevalent.

Garmin’s interest in LTE-enabled watches has been sporadic. The seemingly discontinued Forerunner 945 offered LTE capabilities, and the only watch in the current rotation with LTE capabilities is the Bounce, Garmin’s watch for children. If it offered cellular data, I don’t think the Fenix 8 would ever leave my wrist.

Should you buy it?

Great never-settle-for-less users

I’m a firm believer that there’s a Garmin watch for everyone. The brand is a pack leader in battery life and advanced fitness features. However, I try to do my due diligence with any premium-priced smartwatch and question who it’s for and what value it gives compared to watches costing half or a third as much.

After personally using at least five Garmin watch models, my all-around pick is still the Venu 3. But choosing the Venu 3 over the Fenix 8 is like choosing a Corolla over a Range Rover; you do it because you’re a commuting city-dweller, and you know that at least a third of the higher-end machine’s horsepower will go to waste. So, if you have extra money to spend on those features, the Fenix 8 is the watch for you.

From afar, the Fenix 8 doesn’t look to be as starkly superior to Garmin’s more affordable offerings as it should, given the price. But upon a closer look, while watches like the new Enduro 3 fly close to the Fenix 8, they still don’t quite reach the same altitude — you do get what you pay for, but it’s more of a question if that’s what you actually need. And $1000-$1200 is a lot to spend if you don’t utilize all those features.