Introduction: Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar
I have been testing out the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar watch for the past few months, and have grown to appreciate the huge stack of features that come along with this highly intuitive smartwatch. This watch will take your daily watch and elevate it to the next level.
Garmin is a world-renowned company known for its innovative technology in smartwatches catered to athletes of any skill level.
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar watch is the latest innovation in the top-end Fenix series, introducing a self-charging solar feature.
But does it work as well as you’d expect?
| Pros | Cons |
| Great Battery Life + additional solar charging | Significant Investment |
| Top-of-the-line workout and stat tracking | Slides if you’re really sweaty |
| Workout animations and a plethora of recommendations | Several “hidden” features |
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Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar – The Details of the Watch
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar comes in three different sizes (42mm, 47mm, and 51mm) and an array of seven different colorways.
It also has a solar ring on the interior of the watch face to allow for solar charging.
There are options of a titanium or silicone strap. The strap also affects the weight of the watch, the titanium strap sits around 82g, and the silicon strap is around 54g.
The watch comes with 32GB of memory for your audio, whether it’s songs, podcasts, or audiobooks.
Related Article: Best Garmin Watches For Runners
Waterproofing: the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar is waterproof up to 330ft (100m) underwater!
Compared to most other smartwatches, this doubles the depth that the watch will stay protected underwater. On top of that, there’s no need for a ‘expel water’ sequence once you’re finished your swim.
Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar – Price
The watch is top-of-the-line in many ways, and that is reflected in the price point.
Even so, several features are optional and can adjust the price you pay at checkout, including many of the options listed above.
Obviously, when choosing the right watch for you, it can be quite a loss if you spend hundreds of dollars to be unhappy with your choice. After putting it through it’s paces, I fully believe the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar is worth the splurge if you’re in the market for a full-featured GPS watch.
You can take this watch anywhere, track practically anything, this watch is versatile to a fault.
Although if you only do the same routine day after day and if you do not cross-train, you may be missing out on many of the highly intelligent features this watch has to offer.
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Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar : The Long Battery Life
This Garmin features a standard nine-day battery life before the additional day and a half with solar charging.
However, that is running on full power; if you were to keep your watch on the battery-saving mode, you could have a base battery life of up to 34 days and up to 59 days with solar charging.
The longer you use GPS, music, and other high usage features, the watch will drain in battery much quicker but will still give you several hours to several days of battery.
Does The Solar Charging Feature Work?
The key innovation in this particular model is of course the solar band, which Garmin claims can increase battery life by around 25%, depending on the mode you’re using.
But how does it work out in reality?
It’s hard to prove exactly how much the solar feature extends battery life, but in my experience, if I am walking or running in direct sunlight, I can see the solar charge fill up, and I see my battery life status increase as well!
That’s a pretty neat feature!
Garmin: Extra Apps and Features
The watch has many features that make it unique to other smartwatches on the market.
It features a plethora of sports apps with preloaded activity profiles. In addition, it adjusts to know how to track each sport, with an additional space to include any other activity you could participate in.
With the help of the Garmin Connect app, you can choose workout animations that will demonstrate the move you should be completing on your watch screen.
This feature is compatible with Yoga, Pilates, Cardio, and Strength workouts.
Perhaps the best feature is the brand new, first-of-its-kind, PacePro feature to help you stay on pace with guidance adjustments while you run and get race ready!
There are several other features like Recovery Time, Women’s Health Tracker, Body Battery, Energy Monitor, Hydration Tracking, and so many other features to elevate your fitness routine – it’s almost overwhelming!
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Road Testing The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time using my Garmin.
It has definitely been an upgrade in understanding more about what my body is capable of with the statistics that identify the rest and strain on my body.
Guiding My Training
The watch will send me recommended workouts I should complete based on my previous activities.
The GPS feature is also great and can lead you to the beginning of a workout, even in an area with no cellular cover. (I was lucky enough to use this feature while hiking and be redirected to my starting position).
As for use outside of working out, it has been nice still to receive texts and other notifications on my watch.
Of course, I cannot respond from the watch, but it is nice to be still aware of what is showing up on my phone.
Watch Fit and Usability
I have small wrists, but my watch has never seemed too large.
I have the 42mm watch face, but there have never been any issues. The biggest issue I have had with the watch’s size comes when I am towards the end of my workouts and am drenched in sweat.
At this point, the watch slowly starts sliding around. It is possible that the Heart Rate tracker may have difficulty being accurate when there is enough sweat between my wrist and the watch.
Drowning In Features
While I really enjoy using this watch, it, of course, has its downsides. The first few times I used the watch, I was mistracking my workouts and had no clue about many of the features.
I even accidentally put the watch into battery-saving mode and could not figure out how to change it back!.
Luckily, Google has just about everything at your fingertips, but the watch has many hidden features that could go completely unnoticed if someone was not aware the option was even there in the first place.
Coming from using my Apple Watch 3 for several years, the Garmin felt almost clunky when I first began to use it. I was having to unlearn and relearn all new technology.
The instruction manual that comes with the watch hardly scrapes the surface when discussing all of the features the watch has to offer.
This Garmin is not for someone who does not like research, because it is quite the learning experience.
At times, it’s not intuitive to a Garmin newbie: even something as small as needing to click the select button, not once, but twice before your watch actually starts tracking your workout.
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The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar: Worth The Money?
While the watch is quite an investment, the pros far outweigh the cons.
This smartwatch is far ahead of many other watches by including new technology, elevated features, and pushing the limit of working out statistics and metrics to track.
The downside: even though this watch has been a great addition to my fitness routine, it is important to figure out what will work for you.
Personally, I love this watch, but unlike something like the Coros APEX, it may have too many features, require too much research, or may not look as aesthetically pleasing to someone else.
It’s one primarily for the gearheads, for the runner who loves to track every single metric – and may seem slightly overwhelming for the rest of us. At least initially.
If you want the ultimate outdoor and adventure smartwatch, you can rest easy in knowing the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro S is right for you.
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You mentioned you went from Apple Watch to Garmin. I am someone who is thinking about the same transition. Did you miss any of the Apple Watch features when wearing the Fenix watch?
Hello Pavel! The hardest transition for me was going from a touch screen watch to a watch that solely relied on five multi-purpose buttons. That adjustment definitely took some time getting used to. The other thing that took some time getting used to, was my ability to text and call from my watch. I am still able to get the notifications on my Garmin, but not respond. I thought I would still use my Apple Watch some because of this, but I haven’t used it since!