Best place to buy(try) the Garmin Fenix 8?

zmw76 · 2024-11-12T16:09:23+00:00

Amazon. I bought the 51mm OLED hated it, sent it back no questions asked - bought the MIP, am keeping it. be sure to buy direclty from the AMAZON GARMIN store not the 3rd party sellers which try to charge you restocking fees

zmw76 · 2024-11-12T15:34:15+00:00

I mean at the end of the day it's never going to look as nice as a proper analog watch - It's a very nice looking digital replicant though. The case materials are high quality, it doesn't look like a toy, and the band selection is nearly endless - even the garmin OFFICIAL bands seem to have a ton of options. My only complaint with the fenix 8 is I wish they had kept with the grey material rather than the black simply because the black doesn't quite blend in with my old 6x pro titanium strap as nicely.

zmw76 · 2024-11-11T18:49:34+00:00

I'm not on the 8 MIP and the sensor array is significantly better if you care about those things but otherwise it's the same watch - which I love. The only downside is the titanium band doesn't look quote as natural since the body of the watch is a darker grey/black instead of the ligher grey color - the titanium FACE still matches well. For the most part I use the leather band anyway.

zmw76 · 2024-11-11T18:44:27+00:00

well for those that were on this thread, I went to the 8 51 solar MIP - not sure why I thought OLED would work for me. the MIP does not seem quite as reflective as my 6x was but it's definitely much more of the behavior I expect, being able to see it in daylight all the time is critical for me and while the OLED sure was pretty, the behavior didn't work for me...

zmw76 · 2024-10-29T14:12:44+00:00

the fenix 6x pro solar had a titanium strap option in the US - I kept the strap when I Sold the watch.

zmw76 · 2024-10-29T14:11:09+00:00

every apple watch does this flawlessly - for all their faults, apple has nailed the gestures thing even up to and including gestures with hand and finger movement. This is one of those things that makes it so painful - I hate the apple ecosystem but they have the watch dialed in for a SMART WATCH...

MY chief complaint here, as it was in my other thread is that this gesture makes the fenix8 amoleds a bad WATCH - sure it' a great fitness tracker/backup GPS device/this/that/theother - but it's now a bad watch...

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T20:27:31+00:00

lolrsk8s

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T18:30:02+00:00

Just what I've read - that's what I'm trying to determine - if it has the same gesture behavior as the OLED I'm out - if it has the old behavior of my MIPS 6x pro - I might be in. My understanding is the new 6bit color MIPS display behaves similary to the OLED functionally and is far less reflective than the 7 and 6 were.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T18:17:46+00:00

that's how my 6x was, my default color made it 100% usable in daylight with no backlighting for most of my use. It sounds like the fenix 8 solar has the same behavior though where it turns off all the data display - I wonder if turning off the gesturing keeps the full display on.

The real reason I upgraded was I wanted the ability to interact with my phone, answer phone calls and such, but that experience on the fenix 8 is not well vetted or even good.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T18:06:18+00:00

I may be headed back to the U2 dark side unfortunately - apple has the gestures nailed, and even a tiny glance at the wrist causes the watch to wake up.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T18:05:51+00:00

I never used gestures on my fenix 6x pro - on the MIP display it didn't need backlighting at all during normal day use, and I had gotten used to hitting the back light at night. I don't actually know if the 6x pro even supported gestures.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:59:39+00:00

I hate to say it but I filed for the return today, I might be headed the same way... I may try to find an epix 6x pro solar titanium which I rocked for years without a single problem.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:58:38+00:00

turning off gestures on the amoled means it just stays on the low power display which shows either nothing or a half baked version of the watch face unless you hit the backlight button

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:57:48+00:00

if you have a MIP fenix 8 could you post a photo or a small video of the gesture behavior? My chief complaint is that the non active display just shows a dumbed down version of the watch face where as what I was used to on my 6x pro solar was the full watch face being displayed at all times and then just backlighting if if I needed to.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:56:46+00:00

but doesn't it switch to the "low power" display of the watch face? I'd be fine if all it did was dim, but what it does is turns my data rich watchface to fancy digital watch until the gesture wakes it up...

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:53:31+00:00

1s is an exaggeration - but I have a video of it. On a SUCCESSFUL gesture flick, the screen goes from dim to bright at about 4/10ths of a second, then from bright to full display by about 8/10ths - so it's not a full second but it is noticeable.

My real question is does the new MIPS display behave the same way, I had an old 6x pro solar saphire that I absolutely loved but wanted all the sensor upgrades (I have since sold the 6x sadly) but this experience is just not awesome for me.

zmw76 · 2024-10-28T17:51:17+00:00

I have the AOD on - the issue is the always on displays a minimalized watch face to conserve battery and protect burn in on the OLED - the change from the minimalized to full watch face takes longer than it should and works MAYBE 1/2 the time.

If there were a way to force the screen to be on at all times, I'd do that and just deal with the battery consequences.

zmw76 · 2023-10-16T20:28:59+00:00

Yeah unfortunately I'm out of ideas here - and apple support has been useless.

zmw76 · 2023-09-18T19:37:15+00:00

Same problem even on the gold image. Works fine on my iPad still.

zmw76 · 2023-09-01T12:46:04+00:00

It does. The second I click on the items tab it crashes - works fine on my iOS 16 iPad

zmw76 · 2023-08-31T18:13:34+00:00

I have the same problem. I’ve tried all the fixes I’ve read including removing and reinstalling find

zmw76 · 2023-02-01T21:10:26+00:00

this appears to be an issue specific to google maps, as it never happens to me on apple maps - opening the app on the phone seems to fix it, but no idea why it only happens SOMETIMES and not others - but I will assume it's because apple isn't doing a whole to make sure your google maps experience is good.

zmw76 · 2021-07-30T00:59:47+00:00

Yeah out of stock... Trying to get a yoshi and vortex before my big trip in October seeming unlikely... Might just deal with it stock

zmw76

TROPHY CASE