Among the Garmin sports watches, the technologically advanced Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar model, which uses a solar battery, deserves special attention. In addition to such an unusual function, the model is distinguished by the support of offline maps, a large screen and impressive capabilities for taking into account all kinds of activities.
Colors
You can choose from several watches with different cases: titanium, titanium gray, black and gray. Add a few more strap options here and get a lot of interesting combinations. I had a model with a titanium strap, if desired, it can be changed to silicone, it is also included in the kit. The straps are compatible with other Fenix models: for example, you can rearrange with Fenix 3 or 5.
The case is large, the presence of the letter “X” just indicates that this is the most massive watch in the Fenix family. I liked how the watch looks on the hand – here is a photo next to the Apple Watch 4 for size comparison:
The watch is big, but not heavy. Above and below, the polymeric material of the case is closed with metal plates. The watch was already tested before me, strong scratches on the inner surface surprised me – I have never seen anything like this before, maybe the watch passed some kind of especially sophisticated strength tests.
There are also scratches on the surface: I didn’t hit the watch specifically and did not scratch it with sharp objects, they came to me for a test in this form. Perhaps this is solved by polishing, but I have not tried.
Screen
The big clock has a large screen: with a diagonal of 1.4 inches, it has a resolution of 280 × 280 pixels and eight lines for text and data. Everything is perfectly visible under the sun, the icons are large and easy to read, and if necessary, you can turn on the backlight by pressing the button.
At the same time, I’ll say that this is not such a bright screen as in the recently tested Suunto 7 or the well-known Apple Watch. However, having lost in colors, we win in autonomy: the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar has been working for a very long time.
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The display closes with Corning Gorilla Glass DX, everything is fine with it: the data on the screen is clearly visible, no glare. There were no scratches on it either.
For complete happiness, perhaps touch control is not enough, but Garmin adheres to a button concept. It’s not that she was very sophisticated, but navigating the menu by pressing large, taut buttons is not always comfortable, but this is already a matter of habit.
Sensors
The capabilities of the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar are impressive: the Garmin Elevate heart rate monitor works both on land and in water, statistics and levels of blood oxygen saturation are kept. Of course, the clock will calculate the distance traveled during the day, steps, show sleep time and help you train if you run programs for different types of activities.
The amount of internal memory is 32 GB, it is used to download maps, applications, widgets or music. If you wish, you can connect headphones to the watch via Bluetooth and listen directly, but in this case, the watch runs out quickly.
Despite the built-in speaker, Garmin songs cannot play through it – the speaker is used for system alerts like an alarm clock. It is also impossible to answer calls with its help, you need to talk on the phone.
Power of the sun
Impressive autonomy was previously a strength of the Garmin watch, while the Fenix 6X Pro Solar also has everything in order. With the most active use with the player and GPS turned on, they will last about 13-15 hours. If you exclude music and leave GPS, we get almost three days of work. In the mixed cycle, when the clock measures the pulse, monitors activity, sends notifications, it turns out three weeks on one charge.
In a more gentle mode, when you train two to three times a week for two hours with GPS, charging is easily enough for a couple of weeks. It all depends on the types of activity, most of all they hit the battery using the built-in player and GPS, so everything is very individual. For example, you can use the “Expedition” mode: the watch every hour picks up GPS signals, but at the same time the energy is saved so severely that the watch will last 56 days.
As for the solar cell, thanks to it you can get an increase of 24 hours during normal use and up to 6 hours when using GPS. The battery is located above the dial, at first glance you will not understand that it is available here at all. If you look closely, you can see a thin black layer around the perimeter of the screen – this is one solar battery. Another transparent battery that closes the dial also collects the sun's rays.
Please note that at minus temperatures, solar charging does not work. And the requirements for sunlight are very high. According to the manufacturer, we get an increase in operating time, provided that Garmin is used for three hours on the street with illumination of 50,000 lux. Simply put, we are talking about situations where the sun shines brightly, and the clock is directly under it.
Some statistics: 5,000 lux – noon in January, 10,000–25,000 lux — a clear sunny day in the shade, 32,000–130,000 lux — light in direct sunlight.
I went with the clock in March, when the weather in Moscow is so-so and it doesn’t matter with the sun – there is no question of using solar energy to recharge the clock. Naturally, in the office under the lamps you can’t charge the clock.
It is not possible to charge the watch solely with the help of sunlight, from time to time it still needs to be connected with the supplied cable to the outlet. Nevertheless, you can increase the operating time in this way, and this is very cool.
Price
If you want to become the owner of such watches, prepare 62 700 rubles: they will be in black and with a black silicone strap. Then the flight of fantasy begins. The most expensive version of the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar with a titanium bracelet costs 103 590 rubles.
Impressions
Garmin has a very rich selection of sports watches for every taste and color. Modification with the Solar prefix is a specific thing for tech lovers or athletes who often visit sunny places and understand how to benefit from this feature. Otherwise, it’s more logical to look at other Garmin models of the Fenix 6 series.
In any case, the watch is very cool: chic indicators of working time, male brutal design, a lot of settings and many scenarios for training and walking.
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Chief editor of the blog – Erika J. Wells .
