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A general conversation about the future of MIP for our watches..

7828711
over 1 year ago

Just got the 955 Solar.  Love it.  That said, I see Garmin has made great strides in the AMOLED offerings.  I would love to get ahold of their K1 annual reporting to see how they are affecting sales from a financial standpoint, but I am sure it's great for Garmin as many just want the pretty look on the screen (totally get that).   Personally, I was tempted by the Epix myself but living in Maimi, FL where I have bright, non-stop sun every day the MIP display is just amazing.  I love that it "feels" more like a regular watch vs a typical "smart watch" in that sense.  

Anyway, the question I have (which I know none of you can answer, lol) is do we think that Garmin will continue to offer MIP's in the future?  I saw one post on Reddit where someone thought that maybe phasing them out.  That would make me sad (and others I am sure).  But, I can't help but see a pattern in their product offerings that appear to support both types moving forward.:

The base, you have the 45 / 55 (which I am sure may be consolidated to just the 55 in the future).  This of course is MIP screen.

Then, I feel like the 245 will stop and the 255 is really that replacement (also MIP).   The 265 is the dedicated AMOLED version.

Same with the 955 / 955 Solar.  MIP, but the 965 AMOLED version.

Then with the Fenix.  You now have all MIP and all solar.    The AMOLED version would of course be the Epix line.

In fact, the only real place where I don't see an option anymore is on the Marq line.  Now all AMOLED.  Also the other lines like the Venue etc (II dont even pay attention to them, not my style) seem to be going all AMOLED.

What are your thoughts?  Again, this is not a knock against the AMOLED watches.  I am sure they are great, just truly wondering how Garmin will move forward.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to FlowState

    Yeah, price wise it's no so enduro replacement, but is there really room for Enduro anymore... Could be like, E means Economy and Enduro.. But we'll see next month. 

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to jmto
    jmto said:
    Yeah, price wise it's no so enduro replacement, but is there really room for Enduro anymore...

    Yeah for sure. By "discount model" I meant "discount Fenix 8". It's cheaper than the other Fenixes, but not necessarily cheap compared to current offerings.

    I mean Garmin adds features to its midrange models (FR2xx) every year, but it also jacks up the MSRP too.

    FR245 Music = $349 USD at release

    FR255 Music  = $399 at release

    FR55 = $199 at release

    FR265 (also has music) = $449 at release

    FR165 = $249

    FR165 Music = $299

    (FR245 Music's price is closer to FR165 Music than FR265, meaning today's "budget" Forerunner is comparable in price to yesterday's midrange Forerunner)

    Notice how there's no new Forerunner that's <= $200 now.

  • 0 3 months ago

    The AMOLED watch must also be woken up during training. If the sun is hot outside, it consumes more. If you also use the watch for navigation, it will consume even more. I understand that the product can be sold better in promotional pictures and presentation videos, but in everyday life, if you don't want to flash in front of colleagues or friends, then AMOLED cannot replace MIP.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Adam Fulop
    Adam Fulop said:
    The AMOLED watch must also be woken up during training

    As DCR likes to say, nbd bc that's how Apple Watch works and everyone loves Apple Watch. (but again, AW has better gesture detection than Garmin)

    Adam Fulop said:
    in everyday life, if you don't want to flash in front of colleagues or friends, then AMOLED cannot replace MIP.

    I agree but the general public won't.

    Imo another major factor is that anytime a new user will try out a watch in person, it will be indoors (at a running store, road race expo, or electronics store), where mip cannot compete with amoled.

    Garmin already tried and failed to convince people that MIP is better than AMOLED, arguing that MIP is optimized for outdoor usage, with no distracting brightness and colour. Now they did a 180 and they say that brightness and colour are the reasons you should buy AMOLED.

    As a marketing site connected to Garmin once said, people buy stuff for emotional reasons, and it went to list the reasons people might buy a Garmin. Some of them revolved around Garmin users convincing themselves that using a Garmin makes them a "real athlete" (compared to Apple watch users, for example), which is a sentiment I've seen on the forums many times.

    The new-ish emotional reason to buy a Garmin is bc it looks nicer than the old Garmins.

    I think for MIP to ever make a comeback, it first has to disappear almost completely, then become "retro cool" again in 10-20 years, like vinyl, cassette tapes, Casio watches or Y2K fashion.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to FlowState

    Competition and/or greed among the top brands has really been affecting the industry negatively, I think.  I do wonder if Garmin execs will ever look back and say, “Having 78 different models, and pushing new models every year… was actually not the best long term strategy for our brand.”

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to FlowState

    It is monochrome, sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP):
    https://www.garmin.com.sg/products/wearables/instinct-2x-whitestone/#specsTab

    Looks bright with good contrast under sunlight too. (in fact, seems better contrast on i2x, left vs 955 on the right) 

    Battery life is comparable with fenix 7x pro. In fact, last longer in smartphone mode but less in all-sat/multi band.. .likely because F7X has satIQ and i2X don't.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to marketuncle
    marketuncle said:
    It is monochrome, sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP):
    https://www.garmin.com.sg/products/wearables/instinct-2x-whitestone/#specsTab

    Interesting, my mistake. I guess the information in the Connect IQ SDK is wrong for the Instinct 2 family.

  • 0 3 months ago

    I don't know if anyone has already written this, another advantage of the MIP display is that it is perfectly readable with polarized glasses

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Miky
    Miky said:
    ... it is perfectly readable with polarized glasses ...

    It really has many advantages (AMOLED has only one: beautiful), so for me there is no question as to which one is better, but since I don't want to impose my opinion on anyone, in my correct opinion it would be to have AMOLED and MIP in parallel model as well. It would be easy to solve as many watches and models as Garmin runs at the same time. However, if only AMOLED remains, I will strongly consider leaving the brand.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Adam Fulop

    I wouldn't call the AMOLED advantage as "beautiful", but rather "clarity". I had Fenix 5+ non-sapphire earlier (which is said to be one of the clearer MIP displays). When I transitioned to Forerunner 965, I was blown away by how much easier it was to read maps (or any other screen with small detail). The better contrast makes it easier to distinguish details and colour (no more guessing whether the line on the map is a path or a stream...). This is true especially under tree foliage, where reflective MIP has poor readability if the screen is unevenly lit (at least my Fenix 5+ was).

    But the thing about polarized sunglasses is true (I just checked). Funny though, I've used my 965 for two summers with polarized glasses without realizing that the screen gets black if you try to look at the screen at 90 degree angle. Wink