Garmin Fenix 7 – 9 things you need to know

Tags: News | Garmin | Smart

31.1.2022 | 5 MIN | 2x comment

I have not had the honor yet to hold the Garmin Fenix 7 in my hands, but there is more and more information on the internet on it. So I've decided to sum up the key Fenix 7 characteristics and features in one article.

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1. LED fleshlight

You may find it stupid, but for me, it is one of the biggest hits in the Fenix 7. It can find its purpose in any day-to-day activity, and it can save a life too. To activate the three LEDs, go to shortcuts (by holding LIGHT for a while), or set the shortcut directly in the watch settings (for example, a double click of the LIGHT button). A flashlight on a phone no longer makes sense. Plus, you can rely on the flashlight during races and have it as secondary lighting just after the headlight.

Another great function is the cadence feature. Every other step, the diode lights white and every fourth step it lights red. So you can immediately feel a little safer on the curb.

Source: DC Rainmaker

2. The Elevate Gen 4 sensor

This sensor has already been introduced in the urban Garmin Venu 2, and we could not praise it enough as it made minimal deviations from the data collected by a chest strap. I am not saying the optics will completely push out chest straps, but now I will be way less angry when I forget mine at home.

Comparison of chest strap (red) and Phoenix 7 (orange). Source: DC Rainmaker

You can see in the graph that Fenix 7 measures really accurately. We have even received a small upgrade in the workmanship because before, the sensor was hidden behind see-through plastics, and now, it is covered by glass. Deviations often occurred when the sensor was very scratched and the glass could prevent so many scratches.

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3. Dual-band GPS reception

In short... What does a dual-band reception mean? The watch takes data from several satellites of the pre-set navigation system (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS). The higher the number of satellites, the better accuracy.

Dual-band reception (reception on two different frequencies) helps to further increase accuracy. The quality of the route drawing, distance calculation, tempo, etc. is then many times more accurate. In addition, the Fenix ​​7s is now able to receive signals from all navigation systems at once. So the watch can receive GPS signals, Galileo, and GLONASS, now from two satellites.

3 navigation systems + dual-band reception = a very accurate watch.

A recording by Radek Brunner from the 100-kilometer race in Pilsen. Black is Fenix ​​7, purple and green are two different Forerunnery 945. Source: Radek's blog

4. The Stamina feature

The Stamina feature can calculate, in real time, how long can you run for according to the efforts you made so far. So, if you are running a half marathon, reaching a heart rate of 165, and after 10 kilometers the watch announces that you can run another 2 kilometers with this effort, you know that something is wrong and you should slow down.

Stamina is at 96% and with the current effort, the runner can run for another 22 km or 1 hour and 45 minutes. Source: DC Rainmaker

Imagine Stamina is like your personal electric motor. You usually start wih a full tank (100%) and based on your effort (your consumption) stamina discharges. But beware! When slowing down/running downhill, the stamina can be recharged. Just like electric cars, they charge by braking.

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A similar feature can be found in the Coros brand, but it was only displayed after finishing the activiry, which is also nice, but it makes much more sense in real-time.

Source: DC Rainmaker

A smaller upgrade received the outcome prediction on different distances. Until now, there were times for 5k, 10k, half-marathon, and marathon. That stayed. But now we are also able to display the development chart. development chart. We can evaluate our training, if we are accelerating, slowing down. Simply, what is the trend of our training.

5. The Run / Walk / Stand Feature

I thing the name of this feature speaks for itself. After finishing the sports activity, you will get a graph of how much you run, walk, or stand. Simple, yet very useful feature, which helps you analyze your race.

Source: DC Rainmaker

6. The Up Ahead function

Beauty in simplicity. The Up Ahead feature is a great example of that. When creating a route, you can make any number of points, give them name, and send the route to your watch. After activating the navigation, you can see the distance from each point on the display. I can see the best use of this during races, where you can add key spots or refreshments. So when you move to the Up Ahead data field, you'll see how much distance you still have to cover before you get there.

7. Touch display

Touch display became the dominant of all Fenix 7 titles. Because it was a boom all of the sudden. The world's most favorite sport tester can be controlled by touch. But people are divided into two camps. One camp wished for the touch screen, the other vigorously refused it. I personally love the buttons, but I have to admit, Fenix 7 did need the touch screen already.

All comparable competing models already have a touch screen, and there are several functions in the watch that literally called for a touch. For example, navigating the map will be much easier. The same goes for widgets and graphs. And even scrolling the activity menu will be much faster.

This is my personal opinion, but most importantly, it will now create a little more creative space for application developers of Connect IQ. Until now, they have been limited by the button control in premium models.

8. Download apps and map updates directly on your wrist

Another big boom is that Garmin has made maps of the world available to users. Until now, you needed a computer to download or update it. Now, we can find the Map Manager directly in the watch, and when on Wi-Fi, we can manage it in the device. Another small thing that is very useful.

Source: DC Rainmaker

The Sapphire version has an advantage in this aspect, as it has 32 GB of memory (the non-sapphire version has 16 GB). For example, the map of Europe has more than 10 GB, so if you download some more maps, applications, screens, you may run out of memory.

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9. The ability to edit activity profiles and data fields in the phone

Garmin has always had one advantage over the competition – sports activity data fields can be edited directly in the watch. And Garmin also had one drawback – the data fields of sports activities could be edited ONLY in the watch. Now we can conveniently solve it over the phone. For example, if you find that you are missing a data field during a sports activity, the adjustment can be dealt with directly in the watch. But this does not happen often, and it is definitely faster and more convenient to do it with the phone.

Is there any other feature that you consider a key feature? Let us know in the comments. :)