I have been a supporter of everything Garmin for years. I own a dozen products from cycling computers and sensors, scales, monitors, watches, navigation handhelds, etc. My introduction to the ecosystem began in 2016 with a Fenix 5 that I wore until the lugs fell off (figuratively). As time went on, I came in and out of the ecosystem and in the past 3 years have been a daily user of Garmin products, from outdoor recreation to sports and fitness. My grievance comes with my latest upgrade from the Forerunner 955 Solar to the Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar. In my mind, these watches are the pinnacle of fitness wearables. I upgraded to the Fenix for the bigger screen of the 7X but primarily the durability increase from plastic bezel and gorilla glass to titanium bezel and sapphire glass. Again, I wear (work and sleep) in my watch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I have noticed that there are features that are missing in the $1200 Fenix that my $450 Forerunner was able to do. In my mind, despite Garmin's technical support, these watches are the same internally with only cosmetic differences in durability and size. That being said, I should have upgraded, not downgraded when I paid more for a watch of similar capabilities. I lost the Notifications glance, it's not buried in activities that is inconvenient to navigate to for a quick... glance.... And my most recent support ticket was to elucidate the cause behind the lack of Strength Workouts from Garmin Coach plans syncing to my watch. The information I received from Garmin was, "As of right now, supplemental strength training is not compatible with the fenix 7. That isn't to say it will not be introduced in the future, but I do not have any information regarding whether or not this feature will be introduced to the fenix 7." This made my heart sink as I realized that my investment in Garmin was broken here. I trust Garmin to bring me the best and most capable watch, feature packed, to every wearable that is equipped to handle it. This feels like purely a marketing tactic to promote the Fenix 8 at the moment. While I will not be straying from the Garmin ecosystem; until this is resolved, I feel like my trust and confidence in recommending ANY Garmin watch to someone looking to invest in the ecosystem has been broken. From someone who is intimately familiar with the Garmin lineup, these discrepancies were not evident in the product descriptions upon ordering and I feel betrayed. Garmin, it is your time to make this better and support those who love and support everything inscribed Garmin.
Thank you and I hope this is resolved in a timely manner.
-R
