GarminGarmin fēnix® 8 – 51 mm, Solar, Sapphire, Premium Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Long-Lasting Battery Life, Dive-Rated, Built-in LED Flashlight, Carbon Gray DLC Titanium with Pebble Gray Band

We purchased this watch for our son's 24th birthday. He is not into materialistic goods in life, but does appreciate great technology. He has only had $5-30 cheap and often knock-off watches in his entire life and I wanted to get him a watch that he would use to the fullest. The watch is amazing with useful features and features that are most certainly overkills. Extremely low battery consumption, solar charging, health/exercise monitoring (almost like a helicopter parent), flashlight, GPS, and tons of other features seem to have already won him over. The reliability, waterproof built, and over-the-air updates will also be great for extended use. We hope that he might be inspired to perspire a bit more in his life toward a fitter and healthier physique and lifestyle (we are a disgrace to any outdoor activity through generations). I have been told that the watch can be useful if he/his group gets lost while hiking in remote areas. It is an extremely expensive watch (we could have bought ~40-50 knock-off 'smart' watches for this price) and he is still a bit uncomfortable to wear it. Otherwise, it is an awesome piece of technology.

By far the best sports watch I've ever owned. I migrated from a FENIX 6 Saphire that served me for 4 years and I don't regret it. I continued with the MIP option because it's more discreet and uses less battery. I wear it every day for indoor activities and on weekends for outdoor activities. The solar charging works very well, but to really have an effect you have to leave it in the sun a lot. On a day-to-day basis it doesn't make any difference, but perhaps on a longer walk, where you can put it in the sun to charge, on top of your backpack, it might make a difference. The changes are subtle, but they are noticeable on a daily basis, the screen settings via the app, the touchscreen working very well, are easy to adapt to. A friend once told me that it's easy to adapt to better quality, and it's true. I see a lot of people talk about the price, but unfortunately there's no such thing as good, beautiful and cheap. It's not cheap, but it's very beautiful and not just good, it's excellent. It's well worth buying.

I owned the Garmin Fenix 5s for 6 years until deciding to upgrade. I loved the Fenix but I wanted more capability as a smartwatch. The release of the Fenix 8 met all of my needs so I purchased it. I’ve been impressed so far and love the extra features. From the actual touch screen ability, built in speaker, and app integration it’s a huge upgrade over the older generation. I much prefer this to my wife’s Apple Watch due to the superior fitness and map features, not to mention the battery life is insane on the Fenix 8 Solar! I love not having to charge it for weeks at a time, even when using activity tracking regularly. This comes in handy during backcountry trips where I didn’t want to use a battery bank to have to charge my watch every other day. Over it’s a huge upgrade over past models and is a rugged watch filled with many features.

Absolutely incredible watch. The best fitness watch available and I couldn't be happier. The form factor of the watch is amazing, the battery life is fantastic, I love the new "spongier" buttons compared to the Fenix 7 series, and the software has been rock solid for me. Cannot recommend this watch enough.

One of the things they don’t really talk about in the description for this watch is that most of the features you’d expect from a smart watch synced to your phone won’t work unless you’re using an android. For example if you get a ring notification on your iPhone, the watch will tell you but you won’t be able to see the image or video. My Apple Watch shows it. I spoke to the folks at Garmin at Shot Show 2025 and they had no plans to fix this issue with Apple. I still love the watch but find myself switching back and forth with the Apple Watch depending on what I need.

The Garmin Fenix 8, Solar Sapphire is simply the best Fenix model by far. I've owned the 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 and in this model, Garmin seems to have perfected the ultimate fitness and adventure smart watch. Charging issues from previous models (cable not fitting properly) have been resolved and the Heart Rate measurement accuracy is better than ever. New in the 7 and 8 models, the LED light feature is a lifesaver, especially when your hands are too full to carry a flashlight. Admittedly there are so many incredible features on this watch, I may never get to use them all!

This is a very well made watch. A little pricey but worth it. It will do anything you need. I purchased it to help me with my sleeping problems and to monitor my stress and it works great.