Garmin Fenix 6 Series Out Now, Brings the First Solar Smartwatch

We expected to see Garmin at IFA 2019 and, while the company is still one of the highlights of next week’s events, the cat’s out of the bag.

Check out the Garmin Fenix 6 series of smartwatches and the debut of the company’s first solar-powered smartwatch.

As that’s the highlight, let’s start with the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar.

This one is the biggest smartwatch from the lineup, featuring a 1.4-inch display that, according to the company, is 36 percent bigger than what the Fenix 5X had to offer.

Fitted with Solar Glass, the Fenix 6X Pro Solar gets three extra days of power alongside its default 21 days in smartwatch mode.

It’s an impressive battery life, considering the features packed in it.

Just like the other Garmin Fenix 6 series smartwatches, the Solar one offers “enhanced wrist-based heart rate3 for all-day stress tracking, underwater wrist-based heart rate for swimming and Pulse Ox4 blood oxygen saturation to support advanced sleep monitoring and altitude acclimation.”

The Garmin Fenix 6 lineup also comes with topographic maps, including ski maps for more tan 2,000 ski resorts and 41,000 golf courses, not to mention on-device storage for up to 2,000 songs.

For that last one, that means it has 32 GB on-board storage.

Those who want a smaller smartwatch should look towards the basic Garmin Fenix 6 that has an 1.3-inch display, or, for dainty wrists, towards the Garmin Fenix 6S with its 1.2-inch display.

In terms of customization, Garmin now offers new silicone colors and QuickFit nylon bands.

The company also introduced a new customizable Power Manager, which lets you tinker with the settings in order to extend battery life (which can go up to 80 days in battery-saving mode).

All of them also offer support for payments through Garmin Pay, which makes sense considering their price tag.

The Garmin Fenix 6 series starts off at $600 and goes up to a whopping $1,150 for the 6X Pro Solar.

Garmin also said that line will have Sapphire glass options, if the Gorilla Glass 3 coating isn’t enough for your workouts, so it will be interesting to see how much that will add to the 6X Pro Solar’s base price.

The Fenix 6 and FenixS Pro are already available and ready for delivery, while the solar-powered high-end model will start shipping in five to eight weeks.

That’s plenty of time for us to try it on at IFA Berlin and report back with our impressions, so keep close!