In a year when Garmin has refreshed almost its entire line-up with new watches, the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED stands out as the most eye-catching launch of all.
For one, it’s the world’s first MicroLED smartwatch, an innovation that will surely spread to other brands along with the rest of the Garmin watch line-up.
I’ve tested the Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED myself, along with almost every other Garmin launched this year, and nearly all of them have very bright and impressive AMOLED displays, so I wondered how much of an upgrade the MicroLED screen could really be.
Bright at all angles
When I spoke to Garmin’s display chief Ralph Polshak about the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED he described the display as "the Jumbotron from sports stadiums shrunken down onto your wrist."
It contains over 400,000 individual LEDs, and that creates an even clearer and brighter display than AMOLED watches, while also improving the visibility of the screen from all angles.
The latter is what struck me most during testing — when running with the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED and the Garmin Forerunner 970 (which has a very bright AMOLED display itself), my stats were clearer at an angle on the MicroLED watch.
When put side by side with the Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED, the extra clarity on the MicroLED watch stands out most with mostly black screens showing stats, but also on the colorful main watch face.
Another thing I noted about the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED’s display during testing is how bright the always-on version of the display is. When I’m not looking directly at the watch and it reduces the brightness, it’s still very clear and easy to read the display.
All of this is not to say it’s worth the sizable extra outlay it costs to get the MicroLED watch over an AMOLED Garmin, but having been skeptical that I’d notice much of a difference, it was very clear to me in testing that the new display is an upgrade.
Brilliance at a cost
To ensure it won the race to make the first MicroLED smartwatch, Garmin has had to make some compromises with the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED, and there are some notable drawbacks to the watch even compared to the standard Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED.
The main one is its size. The MicroLED watch only comes in Garmin’s largest 51mm size, and it’s thicker and heavier than any other watch in the Fenix line–up. It sticks out a long way from the wrist as a result, and it’s not the most comfortable watch to wear all the time, especially if you have skinny wrists like me.
Then there is the cost. Aside from the screen, you don't have any other feature upgrades with the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED compared with the AMOLED model of the watch, which is a lot cheaper and better value.
The battery life of the MicroLED watch is also shorter than the Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED, though it is on track to outlast the listed stat of four days of use with the screen always-on for me. MicroLED screens could prove to be more power efficient in time, but for now Garmin’s AMOLED models are ahead on this front.
These drawbacks and the excellence of the cheaper Garmin models available means that the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED remains a luxury pick for now, in my opinion, but having now witnessed it first hand, I’m more excited than ever to see the tech become a regular feature on smartwatches in the future.
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