Sapphire vs Gorilla Glass - contrast/brightness/reflections

Hi guys,

anyone has seen Fenix 6 with Sapphire and Gorilla Glass next to each other? It is clear that sapphire is more scratch resistant but some people claim that sapphire is darker. I compared my old Fenix 3 sapphire with FR 645 and Fenix 5 with normal glass and I have to say that while there is slight difference under certain angles and lower light ... I would not call this significant at all. Most angles the two screens are near identical. Reflections seems kind of same as well. Anyone has pictures? Is Gorilla glass better from this point of view than the normal mineral glass on previous Garmin watches?

Thanks!

Top Replies

scotthunter2 over 5 years ago +25 suggested

Decide for yourself. Fenix 6S Pro (left), Fenix 6S Sapphire (right). Both at 80% brightness.
gaijin over 5 years ago in reply to zdj +10

zdj said:
Can't say much about visibility, but sapphire is the second hardest material (after diamond) and the fact that it’s very hard to scratch means that it’s much less likely to break than Gorilla…
ImDisaster over 5 years ago in reply to scotthunter2 +8 suggested

Glass definitely has better contrast and less reflections than sapphire. Black looks blacker. White looks whiter. I had a 5X Plus with sapphire and replaced it with a 6X Pro without. I much prefer the…

All Replies

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Volker

It can be returned for any reason.

0 DaveDillon over 5 years ago

Just posted a video comparing the Sapphire Fenix 6 to the Pro. You can find it here.

https://youtu.be/J8XZ_lsGGtI

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Like other companies, Garmin is making their products in different parts of the world, unluckily they don’t have quality control like apple hence, we are getting different quality for same price!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

F6X sapphire, it is not blue background, it is suppose to be black!

Its a slap on the face of Garmin fans!

i think, Garmin quality has been degraded, what else to say.

lets see what Garmin has to say on this regards

0 gaijin over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

My fenix 6X Pro 100% backlight:

Same watch 10% backlight:

To the naked eye these two shots look more dark grey than blue, but your point is taken - they are bluish, not deep black.

Same watch at 10% backlight (which is the level I leave mine set at) with the main watch face:

In my opinion, the legibility is not hindered in any way. Certainly, in daylight with no backlight - arguably the most critical environment for a sports watch - legibility is excellent:

So, what does this complaint about backlight boil down to? It appears to be the color temperature of the LED used to provide the illumination. Not the LCD display itself. I'm still not convinced this is a quality issue - the backlight certainly "works," but with some variability in color temperature across models/batches.

Of course, if this is a "deal breaker" for anyone, then by all means return your watch and try something else. But it is hard for me to accept that this color variability, which affects the functionality of the watch not one whit, is grounds for this amount of apparent outrage.

YMMV

HTH

0 Pseudo-fed over 5 years ago in reply to scotthunter2

My 6X sapphire has the red mark at 2:00....

0 Ian over 5 years ago in reply to gaijin

gaijin said:
But it is hard for me to accept that this color variability, which affects the functionality of the watch not one whit, is grounds for this amount of apparent outrage.

It's not, and yet with all the "I demand an answer personally" and "Garmin is the worst company ever" teeth gnashing and chest thumping going on around here lately, I could forgive someone for briefly thinking that there is a real issue.

0 Jabimus over 5 years ago in reply to Volker

I have a glass screen protector on my pro solar and it looks great and the solar charging functions equally well. Even if it caused a small decrease in solar charging efficiency, which I don't think that it does, it is insignificant. If you are driving in your car, the sunlight is passing through a window and that is blocking some of the potential solar energy, but it doesn't matter. I would rather lose a fraction of solar charging ability and maintain a perfectly unscratched screen by using a screen protector.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to gaijin

Yes, it is a deal breaker for those people who pay by their hard earned money and happens to know they got the cheap quality and heart breaking when the retailer doesn’t take back or exchange.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to gaijin

You'd be singing a different tune if this was a smartphone or practically any other device. If Apple released half the iPhone Pros 11 with a blue temperature LED display people would be in a uproar. Why? Because their fancy marketing materials sets different expectations.

Take one look at Garmin's marketing materials (specifically the video on the Fenix page) and tell me what kind of expectations they are setting of the screen. How many sexy shots of blue tinted devices do you see?