Garmin Enduro 4 review: monster MIP battery life makes this a value alternative to the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro

Memory-in-pixel displays are becoming rarer on the best Garmin watches, but those who prefer them are still well served by the Enduro line. If battery life is your primary concern, the Enduro 4 delivers in spades.

It lasted me 16+ days on a charge, around 50% longer than even the best sports watches with AMOLED displays for battery life, like the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro or Suunto Vertical 2.

Garmin hasn’t held back on features either, with the Enduro 4 getting most of the same key sports tracking tools as the Fenix 9 Pro, in a lighter case and at a lower price.

It’s an attractive package, but the elephant in the room is that the Enduro 3 is also getting nearly all the same new features as the Enduro 4 through software updates, has a similar design and the same incredible battery life, and undercuts the new watch in sales.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Price and availability

The Garmin Enduro 4 launched in October 2026 and costs $899 in the U.S. and £799 in the U.K. It’s the same launch price in the U.S. as the Enduro 3, but the latter is now available for £699/$799.

It’s a cheaper alternative to the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar, which is the MIP option of the Fenix line-up and starts at $1,099.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Design and display

The Garmin Enduro 4 is a large but lightweight watch that uses Garmin’s familiar five-button setup. It has a 51mm case and is thick, but being mostly made from plastic means it’s significantly lighter than the 51mm watch in the Fenix 9 line-up.

It has a titanium bezel and a sapphire crystal screen with solar panels to boost the impressive battery life even further in sunny conditions.

The memory-in-pixel display is clear enough to read in all conditions, though I do think the Enduro 4 is less bright and readable than Garmin’s AMOLED watches when indoors or under tree cover.

There are some hardware changes and improvements from the Enduro 3. The Enduro 4 has a silver bezel with fewer yellow highlights, and under the hood it has more RAM, a faster processor for maps, and double the storage (64GB vs. 32GB on the Enduro 3).

The new watch also comes with Garmin’s new ComfortFit band, which I like a lot more than the UltraFit band that ships with the Enduro 3, though you can also buy the ComfortFit band separately.

On the top of the watch is a built-in flashlight with four brightness levels and a red mode, and on its underside is Garmin’s Elevate Gen 5 heart rate sensor, which is the same sensor as the Fenix 9 series and Enduro 3.

While it’s not a diveproof watch like the Fenix 9, the Enduro 4 has a 10 ATM rating and is waterproof. It also lacks the mic and speaker you do get on the Fenix.

Despite its size, I found the Enduro 4 comfortable to wear 24/7 throughout testing. It’s not as attractive as the all-titanium Fenix 9 Pro, but the Enduro 4 is still a good-looking watch to wear outside your training.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Sports tracking and training analysis

Unless you’re desperate to go diving, the Enduro 4 has all the customizable sports modes you could ever need to track your workouts, including the improved rucking and rowing modes introduced on the Fenix 9.

Runners, cyclists, swimmers and triathletes get the most detail in their sports modes, including an improved stamina feature that aims to provide guidance on how much energy you have left in endurance activities and how best to pace them.

The Enduro 4 feeds all the data you track during workouts into an extensive suite of training analysis tools.

It has all the top-of-the-range features you get on the Garmin Forerunner 970 and Fenix 9, including running economy estimates (when paired with the Garmin HRM 600 chest strap) and ratings for overall endurance and hill-running ability.

Garmin offers greater depth of training analysis than any other brand I’ve tested, and while you might not want or need all this data, it’s there if you do, while a simple stat like overall training readiness provides a one-stop shop for those who want info at a glance.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: GPS and heart rate accuracy

I tested the GPS accuracy of the Enduro 4 by looking at its tracks after runs and comparing them with other watches that have proved reliably accurate on this front over time, like the Fenix 9 Pro and Coros Pace 4 Pro.

Garmin’s multi-band GPS accuracy is as good as it gets in my experience, and the Enduro 4 was reliably excellent throughout my testing, with consistent pacing and accurate GPS tracks when running in suburbs, city centers and under tree cover.

The heart rate accuracy was also good. I compared the Enduro 4’s readings with a chest strap in each workout, and it almost always closely aligned with the strap.

During interval workouts, the Enduro 4’s optical heart rate sensor would lag a little behind the chest strap, and I did spot the occasional error at the start of runs on cold days, but I’d say the overall accuracy was very good. If you want more reliable results, I’d say you’d need a chest strap.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Battery life

Battery life is a key selling point of the Enduro 4, and it didn't disappoint on this front in my testing.

The listed stats have the watch lasting 30 days in watch mode, or up to 90 days in sufficiently sunny conditions, and offering 60 hours of GPS in its most accurate mode (90 hours with solar).

If you use battery saver mode, the watch can last indefinitely in sunny conditions, and if you slum it and use regular GPS tracking (which is still pretty accurate), you can track activities for 120 hours (320 hours with solar).

On my first charge, the watch lasted me 16 days, and it’s tracking to go longer on my second charge; numbers that outperform the longest-lasting AMOLED watches comfortably, and the Enduro 4 also offers better battery life than the MIP Fenix 9 Pro Solar.

The only watches that rival the Enduro 4’s battery life are other MIP options like the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar, Coros Vertix 2S and the Enduro 3, which matches the newer watch on this front.

It’s also worth noting I was testing the Enduro 4 in cloudy conditions almost all the time, and got barely any extra juice out of the solar panels, so if you live in a sunnier climate and spend a lot of time outdoors, you can expect even better battery life.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Maps and navigation

Many of the exclusive updates on the Enduro 4 compared with the Enduro 3 relate to its mapping features. On the hardware side, you have a faster processor and more RAM, so maps should load more quickly when zooming and panning.

Then, when using the maps, you can use a new perspective view, which I prefer to the top-down view of your location on the Enduro 3, though it’s hardly a life-changing update.

The speed boost is welcome, and it’s noticeable when panning around maps on the watches side-by-side, but again, this wasn’t something I found a major problem on the Enduro 3 when I tested.

These minor upgrades build on Garmin’s best-in-class navigation features, with clear, detailed routable maps you can use to create routes on the fly, or to follow routes sent from the Garmin Connect app.

I find Garmin’s maps clearer to use on the brand’s AMOLED watches, especially in cloudy conditions, but it was still easy to follow routes and use the maps on the Enduro 4.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Smart features

The Enduro 4 doesn't offer the LTE and satellite connectivity you get on the Fenix 9, or a mic and speaker you can use for voice commands, but it does have Garmin’s other smart features.

These include music storage, the ability to link up with streaming services like Spotify, NFC payments through Garmin Pay, and access to the Connect IQ app store, which is modest in comparison to the App Store or Google Play but contains some useful apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields.

As sports watches go, it’s pretty smart, but it doesn’t have an AMOLED display and if this is a priority for you, then looking at a true smartwatch like the Apple Watch Ultra 4 might be worthwhile, or at least the Fenix 9 Pro and its extra connectivity.

Garmin Enduro 4 review: Specs

Should you buy the Garmin Enduro 4?

The Garmin Enduro 4 is a reliable, long-lasting adventure watch that’s one of the best options on the market right now if you prefer a MIP display.

It’s more affordable than the Fenix 9 Pro Solar, as well as being lighter and having longer battery life, though you do lose some potentially useful features like the extra connectivity on the Fenix.

The Garmin Enduro 3 offers fierce competition, though. The Enduro 4 isn’t a major update and if you have an older Enduro model and are considering upgrading, I think opting for the cheaper Enduro 3 on sale is a better buy, even if this does run the risk of missing out on some future software updates that only come to the Enduro 4.

If you’re not firmly set on a MIP watch, then I prefer AMOLED devices myself, and it felt like a downgrade to use the Enduro 4 after testing the Fenix 9 Pro and Coros Pace 4 Pro and their brighter displays. The battery life gap between AMOLED and MIP is closing fast, too.

However, I’m pleased to see Garmin maintaining the remaining MIP options within its line-up, because not everyone wants another dazzling AMOLED display in their life, in which case the Enduro 4 is certainly a top option.

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