Garmin Fenix 7 Solar review – a pricey Swiss army knife of fitness smartwatches

• The Garmin Fenix 7 Solar is the first in this range to come with a touch display.
• The Fenix 7 Solar can last over a month of adventures, and even with every feature enabled, it promises to last nearly 20 days.
• But beyond this, the Fenix 7 Solar comes with a plethora of fitness features and learns from your body’s current status to make recommendations.
• Read our Garmin Fenix 7 Solar review if you are in the market for a fitness smartwatch.

Garmin smartwatches are known for their fitness features, offering you a plethora of fitness options. The Fenix 7 Solar is the latest in this line, aimed squarely at fitness enthusiasts who want to extract the last bit of juice out of their fitness routines and measure it up using their fitness devices.

Whether you want to run marathons or become the next iron man, the Fenix 7 Solar promises to offer everything you might need to achieve that next level of fitness.

I used the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar for a few weeks, and here’s my full review.

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar price in India

The Garmin Fenix 7 Solar price in India is ₹82,990 and it comes in a single colour option – slate gray with a black band.

It is available for purchase from Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Cliq and Garmin’s offline retail partners across the country.

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar design and display

The Garmin Fenix 7 Solar is a chunky, rugged smartwatch and it really doesn’t try to hide any of this. It weighs 79 grams and is 14.5mm thick – this is something that most other smartwatches would not be proud of.

But given its rugged nature, the Fenix 7 Solar can pass it off while other smartwatches geared as lifestyle accessories cannot. The screws are visible and a part of the whole rugged feel, the dial feels premium despite its weight, and the band feels comfortable and sturdy.

The Fenix 7 Solar sports a 1.3-inch display with Garmin’s staple transflective memory-in-pixel technology, allowing it to last much longer than OLED and LCD displays. It has a solar panel over the display, giving it a reddish tint. Unsurprisingly, it works best in areas with lots of sunlight, extending its battery life.

This display tech allows the Fenix 7 Solar to last much longer than other smartwatches, even with the enabled always-on display feature.

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar features

There’s a lot to unpack with the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar. It is a smartwatch dedicated to fitness and promises to be your companion on month-long adventures without running out of juice.

You might get tired at the end of the adventure, but the Fenix 7 Solar promises to run for nearly six months on a single wire charge – it harvests the power of sun and uses solar charging technology to keep its cells juiced up.

But as a pure smartwatch, the Fenix 7 Solar is rated to last 18 days on a single charge and up to 22 days with solar charging for at least 3 hours a day. As someone who has used smartwatches that last a day, this was a surreal experience.

Coming to other features, the Fenix 7 Solar is loaded with a wide range of sensors and tracking features. It comes with a heart rate sensor, a pulse oximeter, a body battery energy monitor, a sleep tracker, GPS, an altimeter, a compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer, and more. For the asking price, Garmin has gone all-in and loaded the Fenix 7 Solar with as many features as you can imagine and then some.

The Fenix 7 Solar also has 16GB storage and has 10 ATM water rating, meaning it can withstand pressure equivalent to a depth of 100 meters. For the first time, it has a 1.3-inch display and comes with touch support.

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar fitness features and performance

During my testing, I compared the Fenix 7 Solar to other smartwatches and a certified pulse oximeter to understand if there was any variation in the numbers. Unsurprisingly, the numbers were accurate and that is a baseline expectation from a smartwatch that costs as much as the Fenix.

Coming to the fitness features, the Fenix 7 Solar offers a wide range of options. It does the basics like counting steps, calories burned, distance travelled, and even floors climbed, to a lot more complex things like body battery monitoring, real time stamina, workout suggestions and planning, and a whole lot more.

If that sounds overwhelming, you can take it slow and not go all-in on Day 1, as the Fenix 7 Solar can help you set realistic goals and slowly work your way forward.

I used the Fenix 7 Solar for monitoring activities like running, cycling, intensity training and monitoring my body energy. The watch also monitors your vitals and tells you how long your breaks need to be for you to recover fully.

You can also subscribe to a coaching plan if you need professional guidance beyond what the Fenix 7 Solar already offers. For most users, the watch is smart enough and loaded with plenty of features and suggestions to keep you in good shape.

Verdict

The Garmin Fenix 7 Solar is the Swiss army knife of fitness smartwatches. It is loaded with fitness features that should serve the needs of almost all average users, but fitness enthusiasts are the ones who will be able to extract the most from this smartwatch.

It is rugged and makes absolutely no qualms about it – almost antithetical to mainstream smartwatches from Apple and Samsung. With the Fenix 7 Solar, it clearly functions over everything else.

Given its price, however, it is clear that the Fenix 7 Solar caters to the fitness enthusiasts, who won’t be disappointed given what’s on offer.

If you still want a Garmin smartwatch at a more affordable price point, the Venu 2 Plus is an option worth considering.

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