Garmin’s super-expensive Fenix 8 Pro series includes the ‘brightest smartwatch ever made’

While the entire mobile tech world is waiting for the second-largest smartwatch vendor to try to regain its industry supremacy with (at least) two new highly anticipated models, Garmin is getting ready to release a pair of innovative wearable devices of its own that make the Apple Watch Ultra 3 seem affordable.

inReach technology for game-changing satellite and cellular connectivity

That’s obviously far from ideal, but it’s also definitely better than no cellular capabilities, which is what most other existing Garmin watches offer. In addition to voice calls, the Fenix 8 Pro series can do 30-second voice messages too, as well as allow your friends and family to keep an eye on your most remote adventures with LiveTrack location sharing and location check-ins.

The cellular connectivity is made possible by Garmin’s proprietary inReach tech, which is present on a smartwatch (or two) for the first time here, also enabling unrivaled satellite functionality for text messaging and location check-ins where an LTE or other cellular signal is not accessible.

Stellar battery life, optional MicroLED, and all the health tools you could ever need

That almost never happens, mind you, and it’s happening here because the key selling points are very obviously the satellite and cellular connectivity, as well as the cutting-edge MicroLED display of the costly $2,000 model.

Is it worth spending two grand on a technology that boosts the screen’s brightness to as much as 4,500 nits, making this the “brightest smartwatch” in the world today? That’s naturally for you to decide (after September 8), but before making up your mind, you should definitely consider that the MicroLED touchscreen reduces the “regular” Fenix 8 Pro’s battery life from 27 days to only 10.

Of course, both those numbers are guaranteed to absolutely crush the battery endurance rating of the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Series 11, but if you ask me, you should think long and hard before rejecting the $1,200 model on account of its less-than-stellar brightness.

That’s because the non-MicroLED-equipped Garmin Fenix 8 Pro comes with a pretty high-quality AMOLED panel of its own in addition to an undoubtedly huge battery, as well as the exact same ECG, sleep coach, endurance score, hill score, daily suggested workouts, pre-loaded TopoActive Maps, and all other wellness, safety, and tracking features as its fancier and much more expensive brother.

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