LTE on a Fenix?

I saw this question asked recently, and it got me thinking. Is this a useful feature? Would I pay an extra $50-100 for it (and what about the data plan cost)?

As for myself, I certainly wouldn't care to be Apple-Watching it and holding up the watch to my face as I go for a run. And I could care less about real-time syncs to Garmin Connect while my phone or wifi is out of range. And I definitely do not want to see ANY kind of battery life hit for having LTE...

...but...

One of the reasons I got a Fenix is so I don't have to carry my phone on runs for me, it does my GPS run tracking and plays my music, plus a lot more. But now I don't have an emergency contact system anymore, and as I'm running farther longer, I'm often thinking if my wife will have enough information to find me if I pass out or bite it or whatever. And if I start traveling again and run in a new location, I might end up having to take my phone for emergencies anyways.

So, what if the Fenix 7 had LTE? I don't need a speaker or a mic, I don't need it to take calls, I don't need to get my regular notifications, and I certainly don't need it to be always on. But it would be great if it was integrated into some of the safety features on the current Fenix line, like emailing/calling your emergency contact with GPS location if your watch stops moving during a workout or experiences a high impact (that would even be helpful if you lose your watch). You could also have a duress mode where you could constantly send GPS updates to a preset email or contact 911 for you if you activate it with a hotkey. Or you could send preset, one-off SMS/emails if you need. Fine, it can even be active for that Live Track feature if you want.

The point is, if the LTE feature is emergency-only or limited functionality, it doesn't need to be a battery hog, and it'd still be useful enough for me to pay a premium, and even a reasonable monthly fee when I know I'll need it. And it would free me completely from carrying a phone around, because I know if anything happens, I'll be able to get critical information to someone straight from my watch.

That little bit of peace of mind might even be enough for me to straight up upgrade from the F6.

Thoughts?

  • Last year I got hit by a car while cycling. Normally I carry my phone when on the bike, not so much while running, but I was rushing to get the ride in before a rainstorm and forgot it. While there were people around that called the accident in and emergency services were there quickly, since I didn’t have my phone with me I couldn’t inform my son until they were ready to release me from the emergency and I had to call him using the hospitals phone to get a ride home.

    My son is grown and, other than my dog, I live alone. If the F6 I was wearing at the time didn’t need to rely on a phone being connected to send an alert to him he would have know 5 hours earlier that something had happened instead of receiving a call from an unknown number at 9:30 at night.

    My watch didn’t get a scratch in that accident. While there’s no guarantee that my phone wouldn’t have been damaged when it got hit since it would’ve been in one of the pockets on the back of my jersey and it could’ve easily gone flying down the road after impact. Granted the watch could’ve also been damaged but as you said above… Belt and suspenders. If I have both the chances of one surviving a crash like that are better than having only one device and it being damaged.

    When I read DCR’s review I took a night to sleep on the idea and ordered the 945 LTE the next morning. Just the peace of mind is worth it for me.

  • Glad to hear you are alright:-) You can't put a price on piece of mind; there is something to be said for redundancy.

  • From what you are saying, I guess that you are a man. I am sure that your experience wouldn't be the same if you were a woman. Lucky you.

  • Absolutely needed.. it's a shame Garmin has this on the 945 for runners and not on the Fenix for multi-sport athletes. It would allow you to ride/hike w/o your phone and still be able to send an emergency message for a crash, a flat, or whatever..  With limited LTE through the IERCC it would not be a battery issue.

  • 1) For me, full-fledged LTE connectivity that I can use with my existing phone plan(not only the scaled-down emergency version that Garmin currently has),  is a must-have functionality to upgrade from Fenix 6x -I don't need more sensors, longer battery life, or an OLED display, these features are interesting but add limited value for my use cases(swimming, cycling around 100-200k, running around 30k). It would allow me to finally get rid of my phone on long runs/rides. yet still have a means of contacting(or being contacted by) my loved ones when I am running late.

    2) At the same time I would like to be able to turn off LTE capabilities to conserver energy, as well as set up profiles to select which numbers are allowed to reach out to me. I think the emergency situation usage discussed in other comments could just be one of the profile settings. Fenix users are a fairly tech-savvy group, so give us the option to decide how we use the feature, don't decide for us.

    3) I am not willing to pay an extra monthly fee to Garmin for their own plan and most certainly not the emergency version of it - sorry not happening and not the type of relationship I want with Garmin.

    4) A microphone on the watch is most certainly not a must-have, I expect that I would do most of my calls through my bluetooth headset. But it could be present as a fallback in case the battery in my headset runs out. 

    My requirements are based on being located in Europe where mobile coverage is decent almost anywhere unless I am hiking in the mountains far away from any town or city, and even there I can mostly get good coverage + I do not really need the current battery level available in Fenix for my runs and can go down 30% to have this feature active during an activity, as I am not planning to do any ultra runs/rides.

    Personally, I think Garmin should start to differentiate on a product level between a line that is aimed at consumers that fall into the ultra category, and the bulk of users that fall into a range around a marathon/200k ride but still need a watch that can be used on an everyday basis. 

  • in the uk i use a big provider, O2.

    in order to use LTE for apple watch i have to either buy an extra data plan from O2  OR buy the watch from them to use an existing data plan.

    I can't see O2 selling Garmin Fenix type watches.

  • YES 100%. I switched from Fenix til 945LTE just because of that. I want the tracking and the phoneless safety

  • Just did a quick search and found that you can get an Airtime plan at O2 UK(that is not tied to a purchased apple watch) for about 5 pounds:
    https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/How-much-is-it-to-have-an-Apple-Watch/td-p/1424224

    I currently reside in the Czech Republic and can get a local smart watch data plan from about 3-4 euros, with two of the big three providers. 

    Paying around 40 euros a year for the comfort of not having to carry my phone with me for most of the day, would be a no brainer.

  • I need the ability to make and receive calls(so that I can get rid of my phone for most of the day) - the limited LTE in the forerunner would not work for me.

    I want to unplug from all of the hassle/notifications/online messaging etc. but still be available and on call for my loved ones. I already use profiles on my iPhone to limit the amount of notifications that I receive at different times of the day, at that point the phone really just becomes a large brick that I need to carry around.

    I could even imagine that the watch could work together with my phone turning off power of the LTE chipset whenever it was connected to my phone over bluetooth, as well as allow me to turn the chipset on/off manually or based on the Garmin activity.  This would enable each user to prioritise what they want - LTE vs larger battery life based on what they are doing, potentially even adding in profiles, so that users can define if they want the limited LTE offered in the forerunner for safety and tracking or the full fledge version I described above.

    As a long time user of Garmin I would expect to get these features embedded into the Fenix at the current price point - I think Garmin is already charging way above the production value of the device and in my case I need a convincing reason to upgrade from a Fenix 6x. The Fenix 7 or Epix most certainly don't make a case.