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Wading into the Fenix 8 waters...

derek87
2 months ago

hi all, 

I just took delivery on a Fenix 8 (47mm AMOLED) after 15 years of Forerunner ownership (210, 935, 945LTE, 955). I was sitting and waiting on the 975 for the past few months with my primary "upgrade wants" being the Elevate5 sensor and a flashlight. perhaps, foolishly, I got impatient and decided to jump on a 20% discount and give myself 30 days to see if I would like the jump into the Fenix lineup. I still think it's overpriced with a 20% discount, but crazy as it sounds wanted that flashlight _now_ as I struggle each night walk the dog and pick up her poo holding my phone, leash and poop bag. I also recognized that there is not guarantee that they would bring a torch to the 975 as they may view that as a feature not relevant to the "Fitness"/runner market.

anyway, I was a little surprised to see it come shipped with FW10 which didn't even allow me to install my favorite watch face (Big Easy) so I am currently in the waiting game of letting it do the update to the latest FW13. I am hoping it will finish soon and I can start doing some tests with it as I hope to give it a thorough workout in the next few weeks to make sure it's the watch for me, before I would have to send it back and resume my wait for a 975 and what it would be equipped with.

immediately, and not surprisingly, I am struck by the brightness of the AMOLED even at 1/3 brightness in comparison to my 955 which is itself visible but very subtly in my indoor lit home office. I think AMOLED will take some getting used to. I'm sure some of you would say I should have gone for the Fenix 8 Solar. I decided for the AMOLED for 3 reasons: 1. the thickness of the 8 Solar, 2. the weight, 3. the smaller 1.3" screen.

so, with that long winded intro aside, I'd love to hear from the more longtime owners about things I should be on the lookout for (bugs/issues/etc).

also specifically:

1. can people comment on this autodimming problem in dark environments issue. what kind of settings make this worse or help it?

2. any suggested settings to maximize battery life with AOD (I will consider the gesture mode in the future, but having been used to a MIPS viewable at a glance, I think I would be hard pressed to get to used to a blank screen from the get go.

3. anyone out there find a good tempered glass screen protector that fits well? I am on the fence about adding a layer of protection over the sapphire screen of the model I purchased, but I have long used glass protectors on my previous gorilla glass forerunners.

thanks in advance for any advice and experiences you can share.

Top Replies

  • 1 month ago +1 verified

    Hello

    I can answer these questions. 

    1. The watch does auto dim in low ambient light. This is by design. You will find is the watch is in Red shift or Sleep mode, this dimming will become more severe…
  • 1 month ago in reply to derek87 +1
    derek87 said:
    this is a good tip. thanks! i just hope the sapphire is as durable as it is claimed/reported to be.

    You shouldn't be disappointed.  I've had sapphire since my f6 Pro up through the f8.…

All Replies

  • +1 1 month ago

    Hello

    I can answer these questions. 

    1. The watch does auto dim in low ambient light. This is by design. You will find is the watch is in Red shift or Sleep mode, this dimming will become more severe. The recommendation is to have you brightness increases in low. There is not a way to prevent the auto dimming, but this may allow the screen to be more easily readable. 
      1. If you have this brightness increased, and are finding this is still becoming too dim to be readable, I would love to collect some specifics to report this to our engineers. For this, please feel free to reach out to me via Private message. 
    2. For battery life, here are our recommendations: 
      1. Why is My fēnix 8 Series Watch Battery Draining Quickly?
      2. Battery Drain After Loading a Connect IQ App
    3. It is not recommended to add a screen protector to the watch face. In fact use of one can void the watch warranty. This is because the adhesive used by these screen protectors can damage the surface coating applied to the watch, if this is ever removed. 
  • 0 1 month ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

    thanks for the post and reply. i think you sort of missed the intent of my post, but i can now follow up:

    1. for _my eyes_, the autodimming on 13.35 is just about perfect. i, however, believe everyone's eyes are different. my friend saw my watch the other night in the dark (outside) and he couldn't read it. (he's younger than me too). Garmin should really have a few settings available for the users on this one. i'm worried in seeing on the beta forums that some people now think the screen doesn't dim enough under firmware v15.

    2. thanks for the tips. i'm very aware of these. so far, i've seen a pretty wide range of battery usage with AOD even with the stock watch faces. i'm planning to collect data and report it here after i have enough.

    3. this is a good tip. thanks! i just hope the sapphire is as durable as it is claimed/reported to be.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to derek87
    derek87 said:
    this is a good tip. thanks! i just hope the sapphire is as durable as it is claimed/reported to be.

    You shouldn't be disappointed.  I've had sapphire since my f6 Pro up through the f8.  All of them look/looked brand new even after heavy use.  My 945 LTE shows the scars of use with many micro-scratches.