Venu X1

It wouldn't be anywhere near as thin.

Doesn't matter guarantee it'll still be thinner than current models, but main thing is screen real estate for diving and maps

I don't like the square format. I'm pretty happy with the design of the mk3. The only benefit I see for myself is for map views. Though if I need a broader overview of the area I usually take the phone and komoot.

Youre missing the point, 

Descent mk3i 51mm

51x51x16.4mm 

1.4" screen size or 35.6mm diameter

Venu X1

41x46x7.9

2"screen size or 51.2mm diagonal

No contest, smaller size but substantially bigger screen, plenty of room to increase battery size but still be thinner than 51mm mk3i

If it was 51x51mm square instead of circle screen size would be 72.1mm diagonal or 4 inches!      

Bear in mind the 1.4inch on mk3i is deliberately smaller than it can accomodate due to battery life needs, its same size as fenix 8 47mm, so not an entirely fair comparison.  If it truly matched its 51mm diameter the screen would be 2".  The point is a smaller watch is giving you a larger size screen due to change in shape.

I think garmin should consolidate the myriad similar watches into less watch lines and offer 3 sizes in round or square formats and let people choose for themselves

jmto said:

If you want bigger screen, get the X50i.

This doesn’t make much sense.

If that would have worked for him, why would he be asking about a X1?

The X50i is

• Much more expensive.
• Can’t really be used as a watch. 

Each to their own, personally I've never understood the round format on a digital watch, its just aesthetics but it makes no sense to crowd out the data like that, especially for a professional dive computer, a serious piece of kit

7000518 said:

Doesn't matter guarantee it'll still be thinner than current models, but main thing is screen real estate for diving and maps

Having no sort of protective bezel means might not be so good for diving.

Adding a bezel would make it too big.

The Mk3 sort of looks like a classic dive watch (and there’s still somewhat of a market for those). The X1 looks a bit too delicate.

The Mk3 screen seems good enough for diving.

7000518 said:

Each to their own, personally I've never understood the round format on a digital watch, its just aesthetics but it makes no sense to crowd out the data like that, especially for a professional dive computer, a serious piece of kit

It appears round watches are overwhelmingly preferred over rectangular ones. As far as I know, the Apple Watch is the only really successful rectangular watch. 

Garmin has many more round watches than rectangular ones. Garmin is a big company with lots of experience. They’ve replaced some rectangular models with round ones.

The X1 appears to be “inspired” by the Apple Watch. Maybe, Garmin is using it to see if the rectangular format will be sufficiently popular now.

We don’t know if the market for Garmin watches is big enough for multiple models (the Mk3 and X1). Or if a dive version of the X1 would be popular enough (I suspect it might not be).

Maybe you should made the point. After reading your comment, I'm not still sure what is your point here. Like statement "smaller size but substantially bigger screen", what are you measuring here? Other than you either wanting a square display or bigger display by area.

51mm screen is 35.4mm, so it's 984 mm^2. Internet says X1 screen is 41x46mm so 1885 mm^2. So X1 screen is bigger by area (ant with all other measurements also) and you seems to want bigger, the X50i screen is hugely bigger than any of those.

F8 made the two smaller screen size 0.1" bigger, but Descent is based on the Fenix 7 Pro, which all the smaller sizes had 0.1" smaller screen. F8 51mm does not have bigger screen unfortunately. Comparison to that is something that can be done with next series of Descent, they will most likely get the 0.1" bump for smaller sizes, one would hope also for 51mm, but we'll see.

I agree on Garmin consolidating, but that's totally pointless here. And kind of pretty counter argument if you are now wanting them to make more SKUs and have square watch like dive computer... 

7000518 said:

I've never understood the round format on a digital watch,

Ok, so your point is this. You just want square and its your personal preference. Still X50i isn't round, and especially for professional dive computer, a serious piece of kit, the X50i seems to fit what you talk.

If it's too big, maybe then you don't want serious piece of kit, but some fancy nice thing.