What was the reason for not including maps on Enduro?

I am exactly the kind of user who Garmin is targeting with Enduro. Initially I was very intrigued by Enduro, yet I think Garmin has made a mistake by not including maps. Training for ultrarunning involves very long runs in remote areas on trails where navigation is an essential part of experience.

Without maps, by relying only on turn-by-turn directions, navigation is much less reliable. Turn-by-turn directions simply don't work on trails because there are often trail junctions at odd angles that aren't detected as turns. At the same time the watch produces a lot of useless turn notifications at every sharp bend of trail where there are no actual turns. Maps are pretty much required to see the course relative to other terrain features - other trails, creeks, lakes, summits, etc.

So I wonder what was the rationale for excluding maps?

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GeorgeMakrypoulias over 3 years ago

You can read the product announcement post which states the reason

nmyeti over 3 years ago

powering the storage that is used for maps likely has significant battery cost and therefore does not fit with the product definition Garmin had in mind.

acousticbiker over 3 years ago

I'm not an ultrarunner but find the screen on the Fenix too small for its maps be very helpful anyway and use my phone for looking at maps while navigating. That way, battery life is also spread across a watch and a phone.

silentvoyager over 3 years ago in reply to acousticbiker

Yes, by default maps are difficult to read while running, but changing the map mode into high contrast mode and reducing the level of details to the minimum makes maps much more usable for running.

Personally, as a trail ultra runner, I find maps very helpful.

C.sco over 3 years ago in reply to silentvoyager

Same here, I find the maps hugely helpful, even while running. It's definitely too small and the controls are too clunky to pan around and closely examine it, and use it for serious navigation whilst running, but it's plenty good enough for seeing which direction I'll need to be going at the next trail intersection, or how far until I get to the next creek, or just to get a good idea of my overall progress.

Before I got a watch with maps, I got along just fine with my phone maps or no maps at all, but now that I've got a watch with maps and have become used to having them, I can't go back to buying one without them.

silentvoyager over 3 years ago in reply to GeorgeMakrypoulias

GeorgeMakrypoulias said:
You can read the product announcement post which states the reason

It doesn't. What is says is literally this:

Note: For extra battery life, the Enduro does not contain maps and maps cannot be added, no Wi-Fi or onboard music

What is the real reason? I get it that rendering the maps eats the battery and routing with the maps eats the battery too. But the battery life wouldn't be affected unless maps are actually used during an activity. Even on 6X Pro it is assumed that the map usage isn't included in the battery life estimates.

silentvoyager over 3 years ago in reply to nmyeti

nmyeti said:
powering the storage that is used for maps likely has significant battery cost

I don't buy that. For music and maps storage Garmin uses eMMC memory which requires little to no power for data retention. So basically it would only draw power when it was accessed. It is like a standard MMC card used in cameras and other devices but embedded.

JLinX over 3 years ago

As a trail runner I find maps are a must have feature not to get lost on the trails. I think Garmin made a huge mistake not including this feature. Coming from a 945 I was actually excited about the watch as it is lightweight but still looks high-grade until it was mentioned that it does not have maps included.

MikeDozer over 3 years ago

For me, as a trail runner, lack of maps is a deal breaker. I would rather recharge mid - run than have no maps on my wrists. I hope that enduro has compatibility with basecamp and you can manage your waypoints.

My speciulation why it has no maps (and wifi/music):

1) other motherboard design, so they could fit additional 100-200mah in larger battery (no memory chip, etc)

2) diffirent cpu, that is more power efficent but is to slow for work with large maps (guess we can check this by some connect iq benchmark apps?)

3) for sake of users that would complan that they cant get declared time on battery

4) mix of those reasons ;)

trux over 3 years ago in reply to silentvoyager

silentvoyager said:
I don't buy that. For music and maps storage Garmin uses eMMC memory which requires little to no power for data retention.

That's true, but since the Enduro has only 64MB of memory, it is apparent they did not include at all any bigger memory, saving so not only the circuitry around it, but also some space and weight. Removing all unnecesary circuitry certainly helps with the power consumption by simply completely eliminating the possbility to use it. The arguments of MikeDozer are valid too.

JLinX said:
As a trail runner I find maps are a must have feature not to get lost on the trails.

In that case, Enduro is not for you. There are still plenty of people for whom the model is a good alternative, and for whom the simple map-less navigation (like for example on Garmin Instinct) is more than sufficient.

To me it looks like a very interesting model filling the gap betwen Instinct Solar and Fenix 6, adding the VO₂max, TE, Running Dynamics, and CIQ functionality that is really quite limiting at Instinct, while keeping the weight and the consumption low.