Garmin fēnix

Garmin surprises me nowadays. One would think they'd be doomed facing Google Maps and Apple Watch. It seems though they are doing pretty well, exceeding expectations in many areas - such as smart watches. The fēnix 3, also known as the Tactix, Quatix or D2 Bravo is a very successful smart watch platform. All watches share the same hardware (with some options such as the wrist - based heart rate monitor, sapphire glass or titanium shell) and have a number of accessory options (mainly wrist bands). They start at $500 for a model without the heart rate monitor and can go as high as $900 for the aviation - oriented titanium version.

The watch does what usually a smart watch is expected to do: has downloadable apps, customizable screens, can control a music player, display variety of notifications etc. And has a very good companion software app.

But there are several features that make the fēnix platform stand out from the crowd:

1. Reflective color, always-on display. This has been Garmin's forte for years and stills stands out.  A smart watch that is always on, is not something you meet very often. The display is perfect outdoor, especially in full sunlight and has a backlight option for night use.
   
2. Battery life. This is something unheard of in the world of sophisticated smart watches. During the first two days after unpacked, it consumed only 17% of battery charge. All the time connected to my phone and popping up notifications, and with the display on of course. On a 3rd day I went for a pretty long mountain hike, enabling all possible options like GPS, GLONASS, compass, heart rate monitor, barometric altimeter etc and by the end of the day it went down to about 30%. Throughout the trip it collected an amazing wealth of data, including a precise GPS log file that can be used to geotag photos. And still had juice for about three normal "office" days.
   
3. Ruggedness. Waterproof to 10 ATM, with sapphire glass, it is built like a tank (and surprisingly weighs a lot less, not being any issue on a wrist, even during sleep).

fēnix can connect to variety of wireless accessories, but many will appreciate the built-in heart rate monitor, which does very good job, eliminating any bulk of any chest-mounted add-ons.

It seems like Garmin has mastered navigating it's way between the Godzilla and the Gigan. It is good example where a well executed niche strategy plays really well. Probably loading Android on this thing would ruin battery life and Apple would strip it from the other two most outstanding features. 

Good job Garmin and keeping my fingers crossed for your continued execution!