The Garmin Fenix 7 is one of the best Garmin watches on the market. It’s a top-of-the-range watch, built for adventure with great durability, a touchscreen and new training tools. The watch comes in three different sizes, the smallest of which is the Fenix 7S, designed for smaller wrists with a 42mm face. The best part, it just dropped in the Black Friday sale.
I’ve run hundreds of miles with my Fenix 7S, and I love the fact the smaller bezel fits well on my wrist and is comfortable to wear 24/7. If you’ve been waiting for the Black Friday Garmin deals to drop, I’ve got good news — the Fenix 7S Solar is discounted to $499 from $699 on Amazon right now.
When comparing the Garmin Fenix 7 to other running watches, one area where Garmin excels is in the battery life, and this is partly down to the range’s solar capabilities. Solar charging was first introduced on the Garmin Fenix 6 series, and has been added to the Garmin Instinct and Enduro series’. The solar charging elements of the watches include a thin rim, which surrounds the inside edge of the display, and a layer below the glass.
Garmin says in normal GPS mode, the Fenix 7S has up to 37 hours of battery life, which is extended to 46 hours with solar. If you don’t want to be charging your tech every couple of days, the Fenix 7 is a good choice for you — I have traveled to marathons for a weekend, and not had to worry about packing my charger.
Arguably, the most important element of any sports watch is its ability to track your heart rate, sleep, stress, and sporting activities. Starting with heart rate, the Garmin Fenix 7 has Garmin’s Elevate V4 sensor, which we first saw in the Garmin Venu 2, but is now available in several other watches in the line.
The sensor monitors heart rate, as well as blood oxygen levels. The sensor on the back flashes green when it’s measuring heart rate, and red when it’s measuring blood oxygen (also known as pulse oximetry or Pulse Ox). The Fenix 7 series also has Garmin’s Health Snapshot, which can be added in the activity menu, and takes five core metrics in two minutes, and other advanced training metrics.
At $499, this is an excellent price for a top-of-the-line watch. If you’re looking to find out more, check out our Garmin Fenix 7 review here, as well as our Garmin Fenix 7 vs Apple Watch Ultra face-off.
