Garmin fenix 7S Solar, Smaller sized adventure smartwatch, with Solar Charging Capabilities, Rugged outdoor watch with GPS, touchscreen, health and wellness features, slate gray with black band

I am very pleased with my new watch thus far. I had a Garmin Fenix 5X previously but it wore out after about 4 and a half years. I chose to get another Fenix since I was hoping the Fenix 7X would operate the same. Its a bit different but Im getting familiar with it. Its definitely a good idea to look at the manual. The touch screen feature is nice. Im also very pleased with the solar charging feature. I will now be able to go much longer without plugging this watch in. While far from cheap I consider this money well spent.

Lots of features. Great for working out; biking, running,treadmill.

Bought this to replace the Fenix 6X Sapphire that I purchased back in 2019. I wont go into all the various features of the watch but right up front I want to say that the battery life is a much greater than I had with my 6X. The touch screen is nice and the built in light has come in handy. I looked long and hard at the Garmin Epix Gen II with its AMOLED display but ultimately wanted the better battery life of the Fenix.

This absurdly priced watch has one of the dimmest screen I have ever seen. It is only reasonably visible in strong direct sunlight or in nearly pitch black situations. And even in the later case, you have to press the brightness button to get any semblence of readable text. The menu navigatgion is also a nightmare. No wonder all the reviewers crow about is the battery life becasue that is the single positive thing about this watch. I came here from the Samsung 3, which was a great smart watch but only pairs with Samsung phones. I have a Sony phone now, so I guess I will have to look elsewhere for a decend smart watch to pair it with.

Absolutely zero regrets with the F7x. Wanted to get a few activities completed and waited until I had to charge it before posting this review. Once I saw the Fenix 7x Sapphire was announced, immediately purchased on the same day. Waited only 2 days before selling the 6x Sapphire on an online auction site because the new one checked all the boxes and fit my wrist better. Started my Garmin wearable relationship with the Forerunner 405CX. That was touch enabled and challenging to use with sweat or rain. Stopped using it because it was clunky looking, very slow gps lock, and the battery life was abysmal. Went to the Fenix 3 HR in March 2016 which served me well. Then in September 2019, purchased on of the first 6x Sapphire which totally improved my life and fitness. So much that I shared my positive experience with friends and family that 5 of them purchased Fenix watches. One of them was an Apple Watch users tired of their battery always needing to be charged. Favorite new features: The biggest selling point for me of the F7x was the improved battery life. The F7x does not disappoint with battery… until I saw the Instinct 2 Solar specs. I pulled it out of the box on 1/26 at 80% charge and only charged it on 2/10 when it reached 20%. With it fully charged and all sensors on, it said 20-day battery life. Simply amazing. My F6x on a full charge said it would last 10 days but it worked out to be only 5. The big dip came when Sleep Score was introduced but it could have been the battery was on its way out. However, was bummed seeing with the Instinct 2 Solar, it is effectively unlimited battery using three hours of charging. More on the Instinct 2 below in “Asks” and “Shortcomings.” During my testing with the solar of the F7x, left it outside for an hour hoping it would be a 1 hour : 1% ratio of battery but that was not the case. Understood within Garmin documentation it says for the F7x not to rely on solar as primary charging. The other favorite feature is within Indoor Cycle, it can be set that the activity automatically broadcasts heart rate to my Peloton. Before it took quite a few clicks. I checked the F6x once it received the v20 update that included HIIT, but it still did not get the ability to set an activity to broadcast HR. To me, that should just be a software change. The other reason I purchased the F7x was for stamina score. It works well and I believe what it says. Tested it on a 5-mile treadmill stint that started at 79% and ended at Actual 7% / Potential 17%. Went out to dinner, had two beers, and then did a 4-mile treadmill run about 3 hours later. Wondered what it would read and it started at Actual 40% / Potential 40% and by the time I was done it was 0/0%. I was exhausted good to see that it measured the same. I have also noticed Sleep Score is calculated quicker. With the F6x, it would be a while since I have gotten out of bed that the score was calculated. With the F7x, if I awake but hanging out in bed, it knows the difference and calculates Sleep Score once I am awake. Tested the new heart rate sensor against my LifeFitness 9700 treadmill, Precor AMT 100, and a random LifeFitness commercial treadmill at the gym. All of them showed the same heart rate as the F7x. I have not tried my HRM-Pro with it yet. The GPS lock on the F7x is amazing. If I hit “Walk” inside the house and start the activity inside the house, it will pick up near instantly once I open the front door. Before with the F6x, it would take a few steps to lock out in the open. Out of the box, my F7x was on the 7.20 firmware. Earlier this week while sitting at my desk, I received a vibrate alert and the message onscreen said it was upgrading to new 7.24 firmware. It took only a few seconds and it rebooted the watch. This is a great improvement over the old models. With the F6x, it seemed to wait for charging cycles. Asks: Garmin must have read my F6x review on Amazon in 2019 because two of the issues I pointed out have been addressed. The 7x Sapphire is now offered in three colors including my requested black bezel. The second was the band that ships with the F7x is the exact replacement that is available without the notches. Combined with improved geometry of the F7x, the band fit exactly the same on the 7th hole with six holes showing. My ask of Garmin this time around is to have a power profile named “Instinct 2 Solar Smartwatch” that effectively turns the F7x into an Instinct 2 Solar with 28-day battery life / unlimited with solar even to the point of turning off color screen. Shortcomings of the F7x: Price is the first with it costing considerably more than the F6x. Part of that is it includes touchscreen and a feature I did not want or like on the 405CX. If I wanted touchscreen, would have just purchased an Apple Watch. Turned off touchscreen after pressing the face and seeing it turned on the watch light. The second price aspect is comparing the Instinct 2 versus the F7x since they are very similar other than looks. Do I regret buying the F7x at launch only to see the Instinct 2 Solar came out two weeks later at half price? No. It actually is going to make me use the features that the F7x has and the Instinct 2 Solar doesn’t. The only gap is battery / solar and I mentioned that in the above asks which could be addressed in a power profile. Odd things: My F7x is from the first batch. Sometimes the buttons are a bit squishy and it feels like there are sharp edges where the band attaches. Haven’t cut myself but on the F6x, that area is beveled and not sharp.

The physical design is nice, the functions seems excellent, but navigating the device is extremely unintuitive. I cant return it, as I didnt realize the seller also shipped the product, not Amazon (my mistake, I usually wont buy from sellers like Instadeals). Since I cant return it, Ill have to read the manual, which is unusual for a smartphone-connected device in 2022. It has a touchscreen and 5 buttons (too many, it defeats the whole purpose of a touchscreen!). A big display and a touchscreen should mean you dont have all these unlabeled buttons. Also, most infuriating is the display brightness by default is very low, which makes the display UNREADABLE. And its not remotely obvious how to increase the brightness. Because the watch has a lot of functions, the app is not simple, either. it took a while to find settings (I buy way more gadgets and electronic products than anyone I know). If Garmin can develop the software to provide all of these functions, they should be able to create a more intuitive UI.

Im a Fenix 5S+ user for more than 3 years. I briefly owned Fenix 6s and returned it because it doesnt support Asian languages. I ordered Fenix 7s sapphire solar next day its announced. Let me elaborate the differences among these generations. Part1. Fenix 7 vs Fenix 5 1. 7 has much longer battery life. Almost three weeks vs 5s one week. This is huge, but I think its mostly from better power management rather than solar charging. I wear it 7/24 and never take it off. I swim three days a week, one hour each time. I time my swim by the watch. For the 5, it often brushes off 10% of the battery by doing so. Now the 7 takes only 4% off the charge 2. 7 is 5.5 grams lighter than 5. See the pictures. This is huge. I can clearly feel the difference on the wrist. Dimensions are almost identical though. 3. 7 now reads respiration rate (breath per minute) and blood oxygen saturation (only manual check) other than heart rate 4. 7 includes all languages. As a contrast, you have to buy 5 or 6 in the country with your desired language. For example, a watch you buy in USA cant read anything written in Chinese. That was absurd. Im glad Garmin realized its 21st century now. 5. 7 comes with touch screen. Although I disable it most of the time. Only chance I feel like needing it is when I view maps. Touch screen does help to zoom in and out and move around. Viewing map on 5 is quite painful if not completely useless. Part2. Fenix 7 vs Fenix 6 To be honest, theres not much of difference between two generations other than 1. 7 has touch screen and 6 doesnt 2. 7 supports most languages and 6 doesnt 3. 7 has a bit more solar charging area than 6 So, if you dont need other language support and dont use map often, go ahead and grab a Fenix 6 instead. It would save you several hundred dollars, even more when its on sale. Part3. A couple of things I expected on 7 but didnt get it 1. wireless charging. Theres no reason to have plug-in charging nowadays. Data transfer isnt the reason. 2. Theres a rumor that band charging is coming with 7. Thatd be a giant step, but it isnt easy. 3. I wish screen contrast would be improved, at least as good as 5. I can feel the white isnt that white and all other colors are faint too except black. As a conclusion, its worth upgrading from Fenix 5, but not so much from 6. Did I mention I returned my first 7? It kept shutting down all sensors. Its usually triggered by starting swim activity. All the sudden, none of sensors would work until you restart the watch. It occurred 3 times out of three weeks. The replacement hasnt had that issue since a month ago.

Need some time to learn controls - expected. I prefer regular non sapphire glass (I own sapphire 6 version)- slightly better visibility inside and supposedly more shatterproof. Be realistic about sizing, I would love to have bigger display and bigger battery but unless you like 250/63 forget about X size.

Excellent watch easy functions long life battery

This watch is sleek, durable, and it does everything you could possibly want a watch to do. Its ultra customizable. The battery life is out of this world. At the time of writing this, I havent charged my watch for about 2 weeks and Im still at 40% battery left. I was really worried about how compatible it would be with an Iphone. I had an apple watch before, but this watch does nearly everything that my apple watch did as well as a tremendous amount more. I would recommend this watch to anyone, especially the solar version.