Garmin Fenix 8 Professional overview: built-in LTE and satellite tv for pc for phone-free messaging | Garmin

[ad_1] The newest replace to Garmin’s class-leading Fenix journey watch provides one thing that might save your life: phone-free communications and emergency messaging on 4G or through satellite tv for pc.

The Guardian’s journalism is impartial. We'll earn a fee if you happen to purchase one thing via an affiliate hyperlink. Be taught extra.

The Fenix 8 Professional takes the already unbelievable Fenix 8 and provides within the new mobile tech, plus the choice of a cutting-edge microLED display screen in a particular version of the watch. It's Garmin’s prime mannequin and designed to be the one device it's essential to more-or-less go wherever and monitor something.

That makes it a particularly expensive proposition beginning at £1,030 (€1,200, $1,200, A$2,300) for the 47mm OLED model and stretching to a colossal £1,730 (€2,000/$2,000/A$3,399) for the 51mm model with microLED show – virtually twice the value of the common Fenix 8.

You do get a whole lot of watch on your cash with best-in-class exercise, exercise and journey monitoring. The complete offline maps of the globe can mechanically information you again on to the path if you happen to get misplaced and not using a cellphone, and look nice on the massive, sharp and super-bright touchscreen.

The Fenix 8 Professional is thicker and heavier than the usual Fenix 8 by 2.2mm and 4g respectively, and fairly chunky on the wrist. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The Fenix 8 Professional solely is available in 47mm or 51mm case sizes, not the smaller 43mm model Garmin affords in different fashions, so it's a huge watch for giant wrists. However the 47mm OLED model as examined does have an additional day of smartwatch-use battery life even with the display screen on on a regular basis, lasting a strong eight to 9 days between prices.

Cellphone-free messaging, calls and reside monitoring Garmin has its personal inReach LTE (4G) and satellite tv for pc subscription service as a substitute of counting on a watch plan linked to your cellphone supplier, like different smartwatches. However not like Apple or Google’s satellite-capable gadgets, emergency SOS messaging isn't included without spending a dime.

As an alternative, plans begin at £7.99 or equal a month, which offers limitless LTE textual content and voice messaging, calls and LiveTrack location sharing – so your mates or family members can regulate you whereas out operating, biking or related – plus emergency satellite tv for pc SOS messaging.

The setup and activation of the inReach subscription is a reasonably long-winded affair, however solely must be executed as soon as. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Examine-ins and texts over satellite tv for pc are then charged on prime, with costlier plans together with varied allowances of satellite tv for pc use, climbing to a £50 a month limitless plan. The watch comes with a 30-day free trial so you'll be able to check out the service.

After you have acquired it arrange, you merely head out the door with out your cellphone and the watch will hook up with LTE. You can't use it for streaming music or related, however you may make and take calls, ship texts and usually keep up a correspondence with your loved ones and pals.

Listed here are what messages seem like on the watch and the recipient’s Garmin Messenger app, together with texts, reactions, voice messages and transcriptions. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian If you textual content somebody, Garmin sends them an SMS from a random cellphone quantity, which they will reply to again to your watch. In the event that they set up the Garmin Messenger app, you'll be able to then message backwards and forwards through textual content or voice messages, and make voice calls. Your recipient doesn't want a Garmin account to make use of the Messenger app, only a cellphone quantity is adequate to register for texts.

Messaging on the watch works high-quality however typing out texts on the tiny on-screen keyboard is gradual. It has a set of customisable canned responses you'll be able to ship to hurry issues up. Voice messages and calls work OK, although as with most smartwatches, you’re not going to need to use it for prolonged conversations as the standard isn't unbelievable.

LiveTrack is essentially the most helpful characteristic. You may configure it to mechanically ship a hyperlink to chosen contacts each time you begin an exercise, to allow them to comply with your actual time location on a map. It’s nice for following race progress, but it surely principally serves as a device for somebody you belief to know your whereabouts in case one thing occurs. It has usually labored nicely, although the actual location has typically lagged when transferring out and in of excellent LTE sign.

Sending satellite tv for pc messages requires that you simply level your watch in the best path and face it to an unobstructed view of the sky. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian All of those options can be found on different Garmin watches if you happen to carry your cellphone with you, however within the locations the place LTE doesn't attain, the satellite tv for pc kicks in on the Fenix 8 Professional to ship texts, location check-ins and emergency SOS.

A information exhibits you easy methods to discover the road of sight to the satellite tv for pc, which then sends and receives messages inside about 10 to 30 seconds. It was surprisingly straightforward to make use of and might be an important lifeline, although you will need to observe that satellite tv for pc protection is restricted to the US mainland, most of Canada, and most of Europe aside from components of Scandinavia above 65 levels north.

Sustainability The watch is mostly repairable with choices out there through the assist web site. The battery is rated to keep up at the least 90% of its authentic capability after two years of weekly charging. The watch doesn't include any recycled supplies. Garmin affords recycling schemes on new purchases.

Value The Fenix 8 Professional prices from £1,029.99 (€1,199.99/$1,199.99/A$2,299). The elective Garmin inReach subscription plans price begins from £7.99 (€9.99/$7.99/A$13.50).

Verdict The Fenix 8 Professional takes a unbelievable journey watch within the common Fenix 8 and provides LTE for messaging, calls and LiveTrack – plus satellite tv for pc messaging, check-in and emergency SOS for while you’re out of sign.

The result's an much more spectacular journey device for people who need to be phone-free. If you wish to have somebody regulate you remotely whereas operating out at night time or in the course of nowhere, the Garmin does so while not having the rest.

It's fairly liberating to be exterior and not using a cellphone, however that functionality comes at fairly a price, each by way of the colossal value of the watch and the month-to-month subscription of the inReach plan to offer the service. At the very least it isn’t dependent in your cellphone supplier so works with any model of smartphone and community.

The Fenix 8 Professional is a killer gadget for somebody who hates being weighed down by their cellphone when operating, biking or mountaineering, however nonetheless desires to be trackable and contactable. For everybody else, it's some huge cash when the superb Fenix 8 already exists.

Execs: LTE and satellite tv for pc messaging, super-bright OLED display screen, tracks every little thing with best-in-class GPS, built-in torch, cellphone and offline voice management, 8+ day battery life, Garmin Pay, full offline mapping and routes, offline Spotify, 100-metre water resistance and 40-metre diving, buttons and contact.

Cons: extraordinarily costly, LTE and satellite tv for pc options want month-to-month subscription, restricted Garmin Pay financial institution assist, voice options are gradual, restricted smartwatch options in contrast with Apple/Google/Samsung watches.