3/4 Baked product launch. Garmin has a new UI and presumably and new OS beneath the surface of the UI since it seems as though this refresh will not be completely trickling down to the older fenix and epix models. Yet the youtube music that took so long to get on the fenix 7 is not present on this watch, the turn by turn navigation bug from the fenix 7 where there is no turn by turn notification at all unless you activate voice alerts and on the fenix 7 that meant your phone or earbuds spoke the directions to you instead of just chirped and on this watch the watch itself will talk to you. The labarythine amount of menus and submenus, many are totally redundant and superfluous, that Garmin is famous for only gets worse on this watch. I loaded up a 20 mile course to ... More3/4 Baked product launch. Garmin has a new UI and presumably and new OS beneath the surface of the UI since it seems as though this refresh will not be completely trickling down to the older fenix and epix models. Yet the youtube music that took so long to get on the fenix 7 is not present on this watch, the turn by turn navigation bug from the fenix 7 where there is no turn by turn notification at all unless you activate voice alerts and on the fenix 7 that meant your phone or earbuds spoke the directions to you instead of just chirped and on this watch the watch itself will talk to you. The labarythine amount of menus and submenus, many are totally redundant and superfluous, that Garmin is famous for only gets worse on this watch. I loaded up a 20 mile course to take me into the mountains around Tucson via Sabino Canyon, had a pacepro plan, and turn by turn enabled, and only the pacepro alerts came through, no turn by turn. Accessing the navigation menu is now so involved I have to stop to try to figure it out. Nothing is simple or intuitive, nothing is only one or two button presses or swipes away. Garmin Jumped the shark with this one. The AMOLED display that reviewrs seem to be raving about as being as good as MIP in bright sunlight was again too hard to read in the bright Tucson sun and I had to stop my run and adjust my body to be able to see where I was going on the map page. The map page itself is laggy and takes too long to adjust to the direction you are headed in. For a watch that costs upwards of $1100 bucks, it feels like this was rushed out to launch before the big UTMB race. On the plus side the build quality feels like 3 steps up from the Fenix 7. The metrics garmin has and their accuracy are fantastic. The app, both phone and online are top notch. The features are beyond what any competitor offers, but its just too much. too many menus, too much faffing about when Im just trying to run and dont want to have to spend a week dialing in settings and the exact number of data pages I want for each of my activities. The UI is no where near intuitive. Just not for me. Im going back to my Suunto Vertical

I've been excited for this watch to come out as I wanted to upgrade from my Epix 2 with a bigger screen, not to mention any other goodies Garmin has cooked up. I love the size, screen, and UI of this watch but it has some major flaws, to the point that I'm thinking about returning it.1. The watch faces. There are only a few stock options and none are very appealing. The bigger problem with them though is the data field fonts are VERY small and hard to read even with full back lighting and there is no way to adjust the size. They are much smaller than what is shown in Garmin's website pictures. Which brings me to problem 2.2. Backlighting. This screen dims way down when ambient light is lacking. I guess this is how they went from 6 to 7 days of always on battery ... MoreI've been excited for this watch to come out as I wanted to upgrade from my Epix 2 with a bigger screen, not to mention any other goodies Garmin has cooked up. I love the size, screen, and UI of this watch but it has some major flaws, to the point that I'm thinking about returning it.1. The watch faces. There are only a few stock options and none are very appealing. The bigger problem with them though is the data field fonts are VERY small and hard to read even with full back lighting and there is no way to adjust the size. They are much smaller than what is shown in Garmin's website pictures. Which brings me to problem 2.2. Backlighting. This screen dims way down when ambient light is lacking. I guess this is how they went from 6 to 7 days of always on battery life. This would be fine if the wrist gesture brought the watch back up to full brightness, but it does not, so when it is dark out, the watch is pretty much unreadable except for the time.3. The last problem also has to do with readability. I like my watches to run with the always on display so that I can glance down, say while driving, and read the time, without having to bring my wrist up to see the watch. I could easily do this with my Epix, but when the Fenix is at any kind of angle, with all of the stock watch faces, this watch is not readable.Note that these problems don't seem to be an issue when doing an activity, just with normal usage. But to pay this much for a watch I can't read 1/3 of the time???I'm struggling here.

Upgraded from my Fenix 6X. This is my 5th Garmin watch. Love the watch and have not experienced any of the issues noted in other reviews. Quickly connected to my iPhone and Garmin account.Initially could not download any third party watch faces but after updating the firmware have downloaded several. I do agree that the stock Garmin watch faces are a bit small font and hard to read but with the large selection of third party faces easy to change. I’m currently sporting the EASY Round watch face.The Amoled display is super sharp compared to my 6X MIPS display. Although when in the direct sun the MIPS display is better to read as you would expect. I keep mine in always on during non-sleep hours and have it redshift during sleep hours. When it dims it is a little ... MoreUpgraded from my Fenix 6X. This is my 5th Garmin watch. Love the watch and have not experienced any of the issues noted in other reviews. Quickly connected to my iPhone and Garmin account.Initially could not download any third party watch faces but after updating the firmware have downloaded several. I do agree that the stock Garmin watch faces are a bit small font and hard to read but with the large selection of third party faces easy to change. I’m currently sporting the EASY Round watch face.The Amoled display is super sharp compared to my 6X MIPS display. Although when in the direct sun the MIPS display is better to read as you would expect. I keep mine in always on during non-sleep hours and have it redshift during sleep hours. When it dims it is a little dimmer than would like but still perfectly readable except when in direct sun.I’ve had it for two weeks now and do a couple workout/runs a week. With my first full charge using always on display and four 45 minute workouts still had 38% batter remaining after 8 days. Very happy with battery life.I’ve noticed that GPS tracking is more accurate than my Fenix 6X. On both the 6X and this 8 I have GPS set to use all available sat systems. I usually run on a biking/running trail that is mostly tree covered. Looking at my course maps after a run this watch tracks much more accurate to the trail vs the 6X. The 6X shown course i ran often would deviate off the actual course due to the tree covered. This watch tracks much closer to the actual course with no jagged deviations off the trail path.While I knew this watch had a flashlight built in I didn’t realize how handy this is until we lost power for 30 hours caused by remnants of hurricane helene. Dang it is a bright flash lite. And the ability to adjust brightness and use red light at night is great.I had considered switching to an Apple Ultra 2 as so many people I know are sporting them. And I am all Apple with phones and computers. But love the Garmin system for health and exercise tracking, and very happy with my choice to buy this watch. It’s an expensive watch, but worth it to me. For those who say it’s too expensive don’t buy it. Get a forerunner or something less costly.