Help me to choose, garmin 955 vs fenix 7s

damn it! do u think are such terrible screens those of sapphire models? Finally I bought a fenix 7s sapphire titanium brand new for a very good price and screens as I have seen are quite reflective in comparison to gorilla glass

luckily as my main sport use will be indoor won't notice that so much, if not I will sell it asap and buy normal version

I didn't have opportunity to proper compare sapphire glass vs gorilla. But ppl complain a lot about it being darker. 

But I made plenty comparison between solar vs normal. I believe the bigger problem is the solar part. 

When I bought the 955 I got both solar and regular. After a lot of side to side comparing I decided to keep the regular and return the solar. 

Now after 3 months of frustration with the 955 software I had an opportunity to buy a cheap new 47mm F7 solar (non sapphire). After 2 days I'm already willing to sell it due to the bad screen. 

Solar layer makes screen reflective and less visible in most angles, both indoor and outdoor.

Solar LCD is messed with small red dots between pixels. 

Solar background has less contrast, making the black background more redish.

Indoor with backlight on the F7 solar screen is also worse than 955 standard. It is uglier and less contrast and worse black. Don't know if it is due to solar or just better screen in the 955.

Not sure if this is down to device variability or perhaps eyesight, but my 955 solar doesn't have these issues for me.  I have a black background and green, whites and yellow coloured fonts and it is very clear and legible for me, in all lighting conditions.  No complaints with the solar version screen from me.

I do question how much charge it actually contributes to running time though.  Marginal I would say in my circumstances.  Might be better if I worked all day outdoors in a field but that's not my use case.

I did some videos. See what you think. 

https://youtu.be/b7i8tZdU9Dw

https://youtu.be/s-662mvRyFM

https://youtu.be/1ud3jokg7Co

Now I'm doing some comparing between 955 standard vs F7 solar. Might post it in the next few days.

GlenW said:

Not sure if this is down to device variability or perhaps eyesight, but my 955 solar doesn't have these issues for me

Did you do the comparison or did you only look at your own watch? It is quite possible your watch is clear and readable enough while the non solar watch is more clear and better readable.

The question is, do you need better than good enough. Your answer is, no, not really. (Which is a good answer in my opinion)

As for usability of solar power. Well, there are a lot of gimmicky features on garmin watches where you can question the usability, but garmin marking is a powerful department at garmin who doesn’t ask the usability question. They only demand more and more features, because that’s what sells watches. 

New video comparing FR955 screen to F7 solar screen side by side.

https://youtu.be/2kDrvpweYOI

Reflective difference:

From the angle below there is no reflex problem.
But can still see the difference in the black background being more red toned in the solar.

With a zoomed photo is possible to see the tiny dots amongst pixels in the solar MIP screen. This is not the case in the regular screen.

I believe Garmin included these seems to be small solar light absorbing cell in the middle of the pixels to be able to say the new generation has more solar capacity than previous one. But this was at the cost of screen sharpness in already very low resolution screen. Complete nonsense!