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?

  • I feel the map thing is absolutely a miscalculation.

    I think only Garmin can tell whether it was a miscalculation or not, based on their sale numbers. If it does not sell well, they will lower the price, and/or propose a diffferent model. Nobody is forcing you to buy it, if you need maps.

  • create a trim down version of Fenix 6 by simply drop the unnecessary peripherals and add bigger battery on it 

    Isn't that what the Enduro is?

  • They perhaps forgot they are a navigation company from day 1.

    How many watch models does Garmin have, and how many of them have maps? You make it sound like this is the first watch they’ve ever made that didn’t include maps when in fact only a few of them do.

    Even in the Fenix range there’s the non-Pro models that don’t have maps. Since there’s never been a non-Pro F6X maybe they should’ve just called the Enduro the Fenix 6X Solar if they didn’t want people freaking out about the lack of maps. But there’s a new platform underlying this device and is probably laying the groundwork for upcoming models.

  • Isn't that what the Enduro is?

    Yes, this is the non-Pro F6X that was never released.

  • That was one of my point. Enduro is NOT the trim down version of Fenix 6X. The platform was reportedly updated completely. I think in a few month you will see the tear down report to confirm it. At this price you can imagine a feature complete version of Fenix 7 (music, map, wifi) based on this platform goes up $200~$300 further, which will top the price where high end Fenix 6X is. I suspect Enduro is actually the trim down version of Fenix 7 so they can understand the pricing strategy and/or buy more time solving the remaining problem on the added features for Fenix 7

    It purely doesn't make sense to start a new platform years after Fenix 6 just for a super small users group.

  • You have to be aware that this watch is priced at Fenix Pro range, not other $300~$400 cheaper watch. So it is my opinion that you should only find its position within Fenix Pro family, which makes the lack of maps not acceptable. The battery is absolutely not a reason as I can think of 3~4 ways to mitigate the impact to MINIMAL.

    Given the fact that this feature was taken out in the last minute I think they are not confident on the price if they included. (Who will pay this for $1000+??? To be frank I will but I doubt that price with a trimmed down feature set would be acceptable for public) Not having the map is a big dealbreaker, as you already see a lot of comment earlier, including myself. I will definitely be waiting for Fenix 7 instead, despite that I found wifi and music are ridiculously useless for me

  • How many watch models does Garmin have, and how many of them have maps?

    Yes, but other watch models aren't targeted at ultra-runners, and this one specifically is. Most ultra-runners I know do very long runs on trails in wilderness where having maps has a lot of sense. This is the main differentiator of Garmin as an ultra-running watch brand over other brands. 

  • Deluso! senza mappe devi cambiare il tuo modo di fare outdoor... boh, possiedo un 5x plus e, comprando l'enduro davo per scontato il fatto che la mappa on-line sull'orologio ci fosse... Mi sa che passerò al 6x solar. Grande delusione!

  • ultra-runners I know do very long runs on trails in wilderness where having maps has a lot of sense

    In which case they'd buy a watch with maps and accept the battery hit. There are others for whom battery life is more important than maps on a watch. They will be the target market for Garmin's Enduro.

    Product marketing is never cut-and-dried. There are always edge cases.

  • But this watch was specifically targeted to trail ultra-runners. Garmin had ultra-runner running on trails in advertisement video. Garmin introduced Ultra activity profile with this watch. Garmin introduced Trail running VO2max, and some other improvements specifically targeted at trail runners with this watch.

    Based on my experience using Garmin watches, Garmin just doesn't really get trail running as a sport. Garmin's products are targeted either at road runners and triathletes or at hikers and backpackers, but trail running had is own subtleties which many Garmin features don't work well for. I could give a number of examples.

    I should add that Enduro could definitely be useful without maps when running on trails, but to make that work Garmin should significantly redo turn-by-turn directions feature. It is possible to follow a course in wilderness and not get lost if turn-by-turn directions are good and actually useful. But turn-by-turn directions generated by Garmin Connect in its current implementation are worse than useless - they are often misleading in trail running context. GC generates directions based on course shape alone, which results in insane amount of directions for every zigzag and every bend of a trail, but at the same time it manages to completely miss any actual turns that aren't at a sharp angle. For example if there is an Y shaped fork, there wouldn't be a turn direction to tell you which of the two trails to take. That is the main reason why maps are needed on device - to have an additional context for following a course.