Garmin Enduro

The Garmin Enduro is a sports focused smartwatch released in February 2021. The Enduro is essentially a Fenix 6 smartwatch with exceptional battery life (50 days in Smartwatch mode and 70 hours in GPS mode). The main target market is ultra and trail runners who would be big fans of the great battery life. However, the lack of maps is a huge omission on the Enduro given the target market.

Unfortunately Garmin does not disclose the chipset used for the Enduro. We know the Fenix 6 uses the NXP Kinetis MK28FN2M0ACAU15 processor but Garmin may have changed this to provide extra battery life. The Garmin Enduro has reasonable responsiveness which is on par with other Fenix 6 smartwatches. That being said, the user interface looks rather dated.

This watch is using Garmin OS, the proprietary operating system for Garmin smartwatches. While there are some available apps, the number is minimal and you do not have access to a large 3rd party app store such as the Google Play Store. This is a significant disadvantage and is common drawback for any smartwatch using a proprietary operating system.

Design

The Garmin Enduro has a circular watch face design and while not unattractive is, it won’t win any design competitions. The $800 base model comes with a stainless steel case while the more expensive $900 premium model comes with a titanium case.  The base model is light gray while the titanium model is darker gray. We prefer the look of the titanium model.

This smartwatch is on the larger size at 51 x 51 x 14.9 mm and weighs 72g for the stainless steel version, while the titanium version weighs 52g. The 14.9 mm thickness is on the larger size and could be uncomfortable for some to wear while sleeping.

The Enduro comes with a 26mm nylon interchangeable strap. As can be expected due to the size of the watch, this strap size is quite wide. Strap quality appears to be decent as well. While not the most luxurious given the $800 price tag, the strap is quite comfortable.

Unlike most smartwatches that have a touchscreen, you can only interact with the watch using the 5 physical buttons. This is the same as other watches in the Fenix family. If you are used to a touchscreen smartwatch, navigating using the 5 buttons will take some time to get used to it.

The Enduro has a 10ATM water resistance rating which allows for swimming and showers. Unlike many smartwatches that exaggerate their water resistance, the Garmin Enduro works well in most water activities but note it is not designed for diving.

Screen

The screen of the Enduro could be considered a disappointment depending on your priorities. The 1.4″ transflective screen comes with 280 x 280 pixels and is easily readable outdoors. This is a low power screen which allows for extended battery life. Unfortunately the screen colors and resolution are poor. While it gets the job done, the interface is not slick at all and looks dated.

The Garmin Enduro uses Power Glass, which converts sunlight into battery power. This adds an extra boost to battery life on sunny days. Like the other Fenix 6 watches, the Enduro has a rugged design and has excellent build quality. A strong positive, hence we expect this watch to be quite durable.

The watch has an always on screen option and also allows for custom watchfaces. Nice features considering Garmin cut back on some other typical smartwatch features.

Battery

While Garmin does not disclose the battery size of the Enduro, it is bigger than the 420 mAh battery that comes with the Fenix 6. Garmin claims that typical usage battery life is 50 days (65 days with Solar), watch mode battery life is 130 days (1 year with Solar) and GPS mode battery life is 8 days (12 days with Solar). Real world battery life matches this claim and is incredible when compared to other smartwatches.

Connectivity Features

From a connectivity perspective, the Enduro has limited functionality when compared to full featured smartwatches. The watch can only receive notifications and there is no ability to respond to notifications from the watch. Since there is no touchscreen, it would be very difficult to respond to notifications.

There are also a number of other features missing that you would normally find on a smartwatch:

• Does not support maps
• Does not have a speaker or microphone
• Does not have memory for music storage
• Cannot answer or place calls via Bluetooth
• Does not have a camera
• Does not have WiFi
• Does not have cellular connectivity

While we understand that the Garmin Enduro is positioned as an outdoors watch, at this pricepoint maps should have at least been included.

On the positive side, it does come with built-in GPS. GPS connectivity is fast and accuracy is pretty good. Performs similar to most other watches in the Fenix 6 family.

Finally, Near Field Communication (NFC) is supported and you can use this smartwatch to make payments using Garmin Pay. While this is a nice feature it only works with certain banks and cards. While coverage is good in the US, it is not that good in other countries. Check the list of banks on the Garmin site to confirm your bank is covered.

Health and Fitness Features

The Garmin Enduro comes with 7 sensors: Accelerometer, Altimeter, Compass, Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), Pulse Oximeter (SpO2), Temperature. These cover quite a bit of fitness functions and even some health areas. These sensors allow you to track the following 12 metrics: Blood Oxygen Level, Calories, Distance, Fitness Level, Heart Rate, Incidental Fall, Menstrual Cycle, Sleep, Steps, Stress, Swimming, VO2 Max.

Also included are 51 different sports modes. The Garmin Enduro excels in monitoring for a wide variety of outdoor sports. Heart rate accuracy is quite good considering it is wrist based and performs much better than many other smartwatches in this area. Sleep tracking and blood oxygen level tracking work well also.

Garmin Connect App

The Garmin Enduro uses the Garmin Connect app, which is very good particularly for fitness and sports tracking. The app is not cluttered, easy to navigate and works quite well. You can see how the Garmin Connect app ranks on our Smartwatch Apps Page.

Known Issues

As this watch has just recently been released, there are no common known issues.

Verdict

The Garmin Enduro is essentially a rebadged Fenix 6 with incredible battery life. Great choice for ultrarunners who don’t need maps. For others price is too high for limited smartwatch features.

Specifications

Published: February 19, 2021