Once in there you can simply toggle between the different maps. This is also where you’ll find the new ski resort map functionality as well as popularity routing overlays. Garmin’s new Fenix 6S Pro may be the smallest model in the Fenix series, but don’t let that dissuade you. It is as rugged and almost as full-featured as its big brother, the Fenix 6X Pro. The 6S Pro has a compact design, refined interface, and useful new features that make it attractive to folks looking for a fitness watch with a strong outdoor focus. Is there a better alternative? Where Garmin focused on adding smart features with the Fenix 5 Plus, it’s all about sports performance with the Fenix 6. There are three new features I’m especially enamoured by – one small, one that’s new to the Fenix but has already been seen on other Garmin devices, and one new biggie.

Oh, you wanted a picture on the Fenix 6 series? Unfortunately, the feature isn’t done yet, and is expected for release sometime here soonish. Until then, you’ll get the single-tone coloring. Which is still super helpful: The Stress Score and Body Battery have also proved useful in assessing readiness for training – and in some quite hectic periods of training sessions have proved fairly accurate in highlighting fatigue. Once you’ve wrapped up and saved an activity you’ll get the new style end screen that mirrors the MARQ/FR945. This includes a course map profile, along with key stats. As you press the top right button you’ll iterate through some of the overriding training load metrics.

The Fenix 6 Pro can help you train harder and race smarter, and has useful smart features to back up its sports tracking

Again, outdoor cycling continues to be one of the hardest things for wrist-based optical HR sensors to get right. And in this case, things aren’t horrific. Yet, there are still some bobbles, like later towards the end of the ride when the Fenix 6X Solar does some odd spikes:

If you’re focused on data – or you’re doing HIIT and want accurate HR results – use a chest strap. The Fenix 6S is compatible with ANT+ sensors.

Need a map update?

Essentially it’s as if Garmin is refreshing the base Fenix 5 lineup with the base Fenix 6 lineup, while the Fenix 5 Plus becomes the Fenix 6 Pro series. Roughly.

There’s an itty tiny bit at the first turn where it cuts by perhaps a couple meters – but that’s it. Note that I did not stop at any point during this swim, I kept moving the entire time. The buttons also sit nearly flush with the casing, and I didn’t have issues with them digging into my wrist. It’s a nice change from previous Fenix models, where the oversized buttons were quite literally painful. Despite having smaller buttons, they are still easy to locate them without needing to look at the watch. Pacing Like a Pro On the plus side, this means that if your GPS accuracy goes to crap (such as with a tunnel, or just life in general), then it doesn’t impact PacePro. That’s really really cool, and is considerably different than something like Virtual Partner or any other pacing functionality. On the downside though, if there’s a difference between the route/course you created in Garmin Connect (or wherever) and the course that you’re running – then you’re up crap-creek. That could happen if either there’s a change on race day due to some road scenario, or if the route you created on GC has unnoticed anomalies in it. Garmin says they’re bringing this to other devices in the future, but hasn’t specified which existing devices will get it (likely the Forerunner 945, MARQ, and perhaps Forerunner 245). Maps, Navigation, and ClimbPro:Another metric in that same category is 24×7 heart rate. This is automatically enabled and monitoring every second, all part of recording and ultimately plotting your data. You can have certain watch faces display your HR constantly as well. If you tap into the heart rate widget you’ll get a graph of the last 4 hours – and then again down to the resting HR for the last 7 days. Adds new ultra-low battery mode: Gets up to 80 days of battery life, but super basic watch functionality only

Ultimately, the performance I see on both the Fenix 6X Solar and 6 is pretty much the same as what I saw on the MARQ series before it – mostly OK in many scenarios, but still some gaps in certain scenarios. It’s not usually as easy as saying that it’ll fail in intervals or high intensity, as I’ve had plenty of cases where it works just fine there. Sometimes it’s just a case of some unknown quirk that gets things distracted. Product Comparison Tool: Your watch should come partially charged so you can get going immediately. If you want to charge it fully, it’ll take about 3 hours. Adds solar charging to Fenix 6 Pro Solar: Termed “Power Glass”, this will increase battery life on sunnier days It's also worth bearing in mind that many retailers are now offering Fenix 6 watches at a substantial discount, so if price is your biggest concern then this might be your best option.

Maps for New Regions

One of the common complaints that I see about Garmin Connect/Garmin Connect Mobile is that it’s not ‘deep enough’. Honestly, I don’t think that’s valid anymore. Nobody offers as much detail into your metrics as Garmin. Polar and Suunto don’t even come close anymore. However, what Polar tends to do better than Garmin is make these metrics more clear on the main dashboards. Whereas within Garmin you legit need to spend some time figuring out where everything is within Garmin Connect Mobile to make sense of it all. Suunto, of course, is shutting down Movescount next year in favor of their more basic ‘Suunto’ platform, so they need not apply anymore here when it comes to advanced metrics via app/web. It’s organized by sport type. So running vs cycling, etc… But it’s also not quite that simple either. See, it’s also displayed on the nuance of hiking versus running. I see that as a bit of a challenge, and it was super obvious in the area around Chamonix. When I used the ‘hiking’ data sets, almost nothing was visible. Whereas when I used running, there was tons of data. This is likely because most Garmin users would just default to using run no matter what for such activities. The other challenge is that the zoom levels make the feature semi-useless. I can’t zoom more than 0.5mi out (on scale). So basically I can see where people are running down to the end of the street, but not beyond that. I can’t really get the full picture. But the real magic happens down below. That’s where you can dork with two levers. The first one adjusts whether you want to positive or negative split the course (meaning, get faster over the course, or fade over the course). And the second one adjusts how hard you run the hills. As you adjust those sliders, you’ll see that both the split targets down below change, as well as the split targets over the elevation up above: This is some of our favorite data, and a huge reason to invest in the Fenix 6. As runners, we’re addicted to the Training Effect and Training Status data, which is a great way to evaluate sessions.