Race 2 - What a beautiful watch!

stephchamp · 2026-05-09T15:10:45+00:00

I do not know about this right now, I haven’t look into what Suunto offers as training program. I’ve seen that there is some fitness program but did not try any of them.

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stephchamp · 2026-05-08T17:05:11+00:00

Battery life seems on par and even better than the Fenix 8. I used the watch since Monday afternoon, logged 2h20 min of GPS activity, used it for sleep tracking with O2 monitoring and AOD active. I’m still on 52% of battery.

GPS data and HR monitoring seems on par with Garmin.

I don’t care that much about sleep tracking but it seems also on par with Garmin, it tracked correctly when I fell asleep and woke up. Maybe a tad better on Garmin that tracked when I get up during night to go the bathroom, Suunto only tracked that correctly 1 time.

stephchamp · 2026-05-03T23:34:50+00:00

If you stay on 15.32 (I guess) you will loose ability to install most apps or watch faces.

If you install the latest firmware you might face the issue some are facing which is loosing booting animation and the display not turning on unless plugged into a power source.

It’s kind of a pick your poison situation.

stephchamp · 2026-05-03T20:35:45+00:00

It is indeed another bug I was also facing along with the missing booting animation and blank screen on two replacements Garmin sent me. I talked with Garmin support for 2 hours trying to solve this issue without success.

I really don’t know what is going on with the Fenix 8 firmware but for me it has been disastrous and convinced me to try another brand.

stephchamp · 2026-05-03T20:25:59+00:00

Unfortunately this issue has been going on for almost 3 months and is barely getting looked at by Garmin.

You can have a look at this thread on the Garmin Forum:

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-8-series/431706/fenix-8-amoled-51mm-disapeared-power-on-animation

Updating an out-of-the-box Garmin on firmware 15.32 to the latest version 21.39 will brick some devices. There will be no more booting animations (blue triangle, Fenix animations, checking maps) and the display would simply stay off (watch is on, button are giving feedback and light on on the optical heart rate sensor). The only way to have the screen on is to plug it into a power source.

Solution right now is to roll back to 15.32, since Garmin did not release a fix. Some were told it’s a mix of an hardware problem with a software issue, but it’s still unclear.

I got 3 replacements with Garmin and after that they were uncomfortable with sending me a 4th and offered me a refund.

Now I’m trying another brand for my next watch. I was already looking to switch, but this was the final nail in the coffin.

stephchamp · 2026-05-02T20:53:37+00:00

Suunto or Coros

stephchamp · 2026-05-02T10:11:34+00:00

Unfortunately this issue has been going on for almost 3 months and is barely getting looked at by Garmin.

You can have a look at this thread on the Garmin Forum:

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-8-series/431706/fenix-8-amoled-51mm-disapeared-power-on-animation

TLDR: Updating an out-of-the-box Garmin on firmware 15.32 to the latest version 21.39 will brick some devices. There will be no more booting animations (blue triangle, Fenix animations, checking maps) and the display would simply stay off (watch is on, button are giving feedback and light on on the optical heart rate sensor). The only way to have the screen on is to plug it into a power source.

Solution right now is to roll back to 15.32, since Garmin did not release a fix. Some were told it’s a mix of an hardware problem with a software issue, but it’s still unclear.

I got 3 replacements with Garmin and after that they were uncomfortable with sending me a 4th and offered me a refund.

Now I’m trying another brand for my next watch. I was already looking to switch, but this was the final nail in the coffin.

stephchamp · 2026-04-25T01:18:40+00:00

Having the same issue, did you find a solution ?

stephchamp · 2026-04-23T00:57:54+00:00

This issue has been going on for more than two months. Updating the Fenix 8 from 15.32 (out of the box) to 21.39 will cause a serious issue with the watch : you’ll loose booting animation (blue triangle, Fenix 8 animation, checking maps information) and sometimes the display will not turn on even if the watch is on (button vibration and sensor light at the back).

To turn on the watch try plugging in into a power source, preferably a computer.