I'm going to compare the new Garmin fenix 7s to the Garmin fenix 6s, so today I'm going to focus on the key similarities and differences between these two watches.
I have a Fenix 6S 7s solar edition in the color light sand rose gold and a garmin fenix 6s sapphire edition in the color black rose gold.
Price comparison of the Garmin Fenix 7S and Fenix 6S
The first difference I'm going to discuss today is the price, which can vary quite a bit between these watches depending on the model you get, whether it's the base model or not. the sapphire is the expert the solar system sapphire solar energy.
So the Garmin fenix 7s model I have here costs 1039 Canadian dollars or 799.99 US dollars, and the phoenix 6s sapphire model I have here costs 1159.99 Canadian dollars or 849.99 US dollars.
With the Fenix 6S series, it has been out since 2019 and as a result, we are seeing the benefit of it going on sale a lot of guys and I'm talking like hundreds of dollars off with this one being so new just released in you know january 2022, it has not yet gone on so that's just something to keep in mind.
Now I'm going to go over the major specs differences between these watches. They both have a 1.2 inch always-on display, a color display with 240 by 240 pixels, and 20 millimeter quick fit bands. Notifications for Garmin Pay on Smartphone Golf courses and ski maps
They have audio tones and vibrations for different alerts and prompts on the watch, as well as music storage with up to 2000 songs. They have bluetooth wi-fi gps. They both have animated workouts, galileo glonass.
They can track your basic metrics such as steps, calories burned, and distance traveled, and they both have pulse oximetry so you can monitor your blood oxygen saturation.
They can also both track a variety of activities and workouts, including open water swimming, yoga, walking, running, biking, and much more, and these aren't the only similarities.
I'm definitely running out of screen space here, but these are definitely some of the most important, in my opinion. Okay, guys, this is how they look on me, and I just put them on the same wrist here.
So you can see the difference, um, I have a seven-inch wrist, and I've gone ahead and put all the wrist sizes that both of these watches can fit on screen for you, and on both of them, I typically go up to the six hole from the bottom when I'm wearing them on my wrist.
This is how the Fenix 7s look on me alone, and this is how the Fenix 6s look on me alone. So, honestly, when you put them on, I don't notice much of a difference in weight or comfort, and I find them both to be quite comfortable to wear.
So they both have a 1.2 inch display. Another difference you can see is that there's a little tick here on the top and bottom of the bezel that we don't have here now coming over to the back to the heart rate sensor.
The Fenix 7s has the updated heart rate sensor the elevate 4 and it's definitely a bit more accurate when it comes to tracking your heart rate it tracks kind of fluctuations a bit faster also this one has a glass covering on the heart rate sensor this one's plastic.
So this should be a bit more durable over time, and you can see on the 6s here that there is a little guard for the button, which makes it a little bit harder to push, especially on the 6s Plus.
Starting with the Fenix 7s, it has an optional touchscreen that you can turn on or off, as well as full button operation capability, and it has a battery life of up to 11 days as a smart watch or up to 14 days with solar charging. It has 16 gigabytes of storage on the model I have, but if you get the sapphire solar, it has 32 gigabytes but is also more expensive.
Topographical maps are not pre-installed on this one and must be downloaded separately. It has updated widgets and graphs, faster operation, and a new sleep mode. a new heart rate sensor.
The garmin connect iq app real time stamina features currently have limited watch face options, and we have an option to get the garmin connect iq app directly on your watch.
I'll tell you that it's not as comprehensive and detailed as the one on your phone, but it's definitely useful for knowing quick little changes you need to make on your watch, and it has new button guards.
Now, moving on to the Fenix 6S, this is a button-only watch with no touchscreen. It has a battery life of up to nine days as a smartwatch or 10.5 days with the solar charging version, 32 gigabytes of storage, and thousands of pre-downloaded topographical maps, and it currently has hundreds of watch faces that are currently compatible with this watch on the garmin connect iq store app, so you can just keep scrolling scrolling scrolling until you find one that you like all right.
So those are the most significant differences I discovered between these watches; if you have any that I've missed, please leave them in the comments.
Now I'm going to show you the differences in the backlights, so I've turned on the lighting so we're in a dim lighting situation, and I've turned up the backlights to 100. I'm going to show you what they look like at 100 and at 30%.
Here are the differences we're seeing, guys. We can clearly see that the Garmin Fenix 7s has a purplish hue in the backlight, but it's a bit of a gamble whether you get more of a traditional black backlight or more of a purple or blue backlight.
Guys, it's a lot brighter in person than it appears on camera. Okay, so another noticeable difference between these watches is the speed. So with the Fenix 7s here, I've noticed a slight increase in speed.
First, I'm going to open up the control panel so you just kind of hold the top button up here the light button so one two three so we can definitely see that the Garmin Fenix 7s opened faster now I'm going to click the back button around the same time.
Now I'm going to click this button here, the start button, to open up our workouts one, two, three, so there's definitely a difference there, and then I'm going to click the down button on both watches to go to our widgets.
So one two three as you're scrolling through the watch or like up or down it's about the same so now I'm going to open up my alarm which is a hotkey I've set for my down button so one two three.
So, for example, you can definitely see that the Fenix 7s is a little bit faster. It's nothing crazy, but it's definitely noticeable. Both of these watches can have topographical maps, golf course maps, and scheme apps, but the 7s doesn't have pre-downloaded maps, which is extremely annoying.
With the Garmin Fenix 6s, we have 32 gigabytes of storage and thousands of pre-downloaded topographical maps, which is extremely useful whether you're looking to simply see what's around you or plan your gps walks and runs and hikes.
It's extremely useful to have these built-in maps here. Of course, I wanted maps on the Garmin Fenix 7s as well, so I went ahead and downloaded that, so I downloaded only the North American maps. So it's very inconvenient because it took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to download just the North American maps, and the resulting file was 9.1 gigabytes.
So we only have 16 gigabytes here, 9.1 gigabytes of which have been taken up by just downloading North American maps, so that doesn't leave you with much, so whether you're able to actually store 2000 songs after downloading some maps is something I'm not sure about, but I will tell you that.
I was downloading the North American maps, and I don't have much space to download any more maps. I tried to look into south American maps, European maps, and other such things, but I was only able to download maps for one area because there wasn't enough space on the watch.
So I love having thousands of pre-built maps on the Fenix 6s here because I don't have to worry about downloading them myself, and I don't have to worry about losing storage space because of downloading the maps, and things like that.
So, with both of these watches, you can download music from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer, as well as your own mp3 files from your computer if you have them on there. I went ahead and downloaded a Spotify playlist I have with a hundred songs on it on both of these watches, and it downloaded super fast on the Fenix 7s here.
So it only took 10 minutes to download those 100 songs from my Spotify playlist onto my watch here, which I actually like because it was super fast and it was a reliable connection with no issues, whereas for the Fenix 6s when I tried to download that same hundred song playlist, it took an hour.
It took about two and a half hours and numerous failed attempts to download those 100 songs. I'd get messages saying, "Um sync failed, please try again."
So I'm really happy that they fixed that process with the Fenix 7s all right, so there are definitely some differences when it comes to you know accuracy here with that new heart rate sensor. This one, the 7s, is unquestionably more accurate. I'll say it's not a huge difference; it's not like it's 50 percent more accurate in my experience; it's more like two to five percent more accurate.
It's better at picking up those quick changes if you're doing like hit workouts, and it's better at tracking like sleep stages when you're sleeping. I've got some workout data from my last workout on screen for you.
So you can see the differences here, and we're seeing very similar trends there, and that's just from me doing a 30 minute hit workout.
Battery life comparison of the Garmin Fenix 7S and Fenix 6S
The next distinction I'd like to highlight is the battery life. The Garmin Fenix 7s solar here has a quoted battery life of up to 11 days as a smartwatch and up to 14 days with daily solar charging.
So with my uses, which I have on screen for you, things like weekly gps walks and runs daily alarms timers and more, I have gotten eight to nine days of battery life with the Fenix 7s solar here.
Then I get nine to ten days of battery life with solar charging if I do it on a daily basis, but with the Fenix 6s sapphire here, I get seven to eight days on average. There is a slight difference here, but honestly, I think they're both great because you only have to charge them once a week or every other week.
So, honestly, I think both of them could fit into most people's lives, and I definitely like the extra battery life here, but this one isn't bad either. It has a great battery life here on the 6s, but if you already have a Garmin Fenix 6s pro or 6s sapphire and are thinking about upgrading to the 7s, I'm going to say no for the time being.
So that may be an unpopular answer, but I'm not you know someone who's just going to be like get the newest thing just because it's new no telling you the honest truth in my opinion my experience here yes with the Garmin Fenix 7s we're getting a touchscreen.
We're introducing you to a few new features on here, and it's a little faster, but it's essentially the same watch. The Fenix 6s is still a fantastic watch in 2022, in my opinion. Performance-wise, it's nearly identical; this is slightly more accurate, but nothing out of the ordinary.
We're still getting the same music storage, the same clarity of the watch faces, and there hasn't really been that much added to the Garmin Fenix 7s guys; I was expecting more, but we didn't get it.
Honestly if you have this watch i wouldn't even bother upgrading unless there's a feature on the Fenix 7s like maybe touchscreen that you really want but if you don't really need all that stuff i would definitely say keep your Garmin Fenix 6s
Maybe wait for the next one there might be a lot more differences there you know if we saw something like maybe voice assistant a built-in speaker better kind of pixel count on the watch face maybe even an amoled display. Then I'd say it's worth the upgrade, but not right now. But what do you guys think? Which watch do you think is better?
Why is the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar superior to the Garmin Fenix 6 Solar?
- Battery life is 8 days longer (22 days vs 14 days).
- There is a touch screen.
- NFC is available.
- It includes a temperature sensor.
- It has a smart alarm.
- Wireless charging is available.
- Voice commands are available.
- 6g less weight.
- 85g vs. 79g
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
The device has a speaker and microphone, allowing you to answer phone calls from your smartphone.
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
If you misplace your smartphone, the device has a feature that allows you to locate it.
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
The device alerts you to incoming calls on your smartphone and gives you additional control over the call, such as muting or rejecting it.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
If you get a notification such as a call or message, the device will vibrate on your wrist or make a noise to alert you.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
Through continuous heart rate monitoring, the device is able to detect an irregular heartbeat and alert the user.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
ECG stands for electrocardiogram and measures the electrical activity of the heartbeat, which is a more in-depth reading of heart health than blood pressure alone. Note: This feature may not be available in all markets.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
The device can wake you using vibration, so as not to disturb anyone else sleeping in the room.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
Vibrating alerts have a variety of uses, such as interval training.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
Fall detection is a feature that relies on accelerometers and other sensors to differentiate between regular movement and a fall. If the wearer falls, the device can perform functions such as sounding an alarm or displaying an alert.
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
If you receive a notification, such as a phone call or text message, the device will vibrate or make a noise to alert you.
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
The device detects irregular heartbeats and alerts the user via continuous heart rate monitoring.
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
ECG is an electrocardiogram that measures the electrical activity of the heartbeat and provides a more detailed reading of heart health than blood pressure alone. Please keep in mind that this feature may not be available in all markets.
Fenix 7 Solar Garmin
To avoid disturbing anyone else sleeping in the room, the device can wake you up with vibration.
Would you upgrade from the 6s to the Garmin Fenix 7s? Which one would you just prefer to have in general? And if there's anything else you want to know, leave a comment.
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