Garmin has officially announced the introduction of its fēnix® 8 Pro series.
According to certain reports, these premium GPS smartwatches arrive on the scene featuring inReach® technology for satellite and cellular connectivity – marking a major industry first. Anyway, having the given technology makes it possible for athletes and adventurers to leave their phone behind and still stay in touch. More on that would reveal how fēnix 8 Pro – MicroLED brings to the fore a first-of-its-kind, high-resolution MicroLED display for superior readability.
Talk about the whole value proposition on an even deeper level, we begin from the promise of satellite connectivity which, stemming from inReach technology, allow explorers to exchange messages and send location check-ins.
Markedly enough, one can send and receive text messages with those using the Garmin Messenger™ app on their smartphone or compatible Garmin smartwatch.
Next up, there is the prospect of cellular connectivity that sets up nicely to let users make phone calls, send voice messages, share LiveTrack links, and view weather forecasts when connected to the LTE network.
Users can, as a result, initiate voice calls from the watch with other fēnix 8 Pro users or those using the Garmin Messenger app on their smartphone. They can further check in with family and friends by exchanging 30-second voice messages.
On the other hand, recipients can listen to the messages or read the transcriptions on their watch or in the Garmin Messenger app.
Moving on to the LiveTrack feature, it ensures that your friends and family can follow the adventures with LiveTrack location sharing and location check-ins on their smartphone. Not just that, users can also alert their friends and family when a LiveTrack session has started, in case they want to follow along or reach out during an activity.
As for weather forecasting capabilities, they effectively allow you to access current weather conditions and multiday forecasts to stay prepared for what’s ahead.
The stated lineup of smartwatches also come decked up with SOS functionality. You see, once an SOS is triggered, fēnix 8 Pro will send a message over satellite or cellular connectivity to the Garmin Response℠ center, where a dedicated team of skilled emergency response coordinators is ready around the clock.
From there, Garmin Response members will spring into action by communicating with the user, their listed emergency contacts, search and rescue organizations, as well as other available local resources. They will also provide updates to users and emergency contacts on the response effort, including confirmation when help is on the way, and remain available as the incident is being resolved.
Making this feature all the more important would be Garmin Response teams’ nearly two decades of experience, a timeline during which it has supported more than 17,000 inReach incident responses in more than 150 countries on all seven continents.
We briefly touched upon the smartwatches’ MicroLED display, but what we haven’t touched upon yet is that the stated display features over 400,000 individual LEDs that deliver up to 4,500 nits, propping it up as the brightest smartwatch ever.
Beyond that, fēnix 8 Pro is also loaded with Garmin’s full suite of performance, navigation, health and wellness, and connected features, including endurance score, hill score, daily suggested workouts, preloaded TopoActive Maps, dynamic round-trip routing, the Garmin ECG App, sleep coach, Garmin Pay™, safety, tracking features and more.
Among other things, it ought to be acknowledged that fēnix 8 Pro – AMOLED comes in 47mm and 51mm sizes, gets up to 27 days of battery life in smartwatch mode4, and can be availed with a starting price tag of $1,199.99. fēnix 8 Pro – MicroLED, on its part, comes bearing a 51mm size, gets up to 10 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, and can be availed at the same price tag of $1,999.99.
“This new lineup is full of breakthrough innovations, bringing life-changing inReach technology to the wrist to help keep athletes and adventurers in touch with their family and friends and introducing the first-ever ultra-bright MicroLED display to a smartwatch so users can see their maps, stats, health and wellness metrics and more like never before,” said Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.
