Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar | Preview/First Impressions

[@Seahawks1976]

Hey man great video! I have the 7x with the flashlight and love it!

[@Seahawks1976]

Would love to see a second video too!

[@dnice362]

A big reason I’m thinking of buying this is also because it’s lighter than the normal sapphire and standard 7 but the price is heavy

[@tun6006]

Heavy is an understatement. It's about $1000 after taxes lol.

[@TonyRueb]

Hello there from your neighbor to the south (Minnesota) thinking about getting this watch. I'm pretty much set on the same model you got. Btw, you won my sub for the save the boundary waters shirt. I hope the someday make it up to the quetico.

[@TechnicallyRugged]

Ha! That's one of my favorite shirts. Canoe country is my special place. I want to visit Quetico as well but have been itching to explore many areas of the BWCA before I venture into "dig a hole" country. lol. I've gotten spoiled! Thanks so much for watching and commenting, and I hope you stay warm and safe with this upcoming blizzard!!

[@Mdogbrown]

How’s the Watch going? Do you still have it? I’m contemplating on getting either the fenix 7 standard or sapphire Solar. Not sure if the Solar is worth it in my case. I’m concerned about the dim screen but if you enable gesture, I don’t think it would be a problem. I found a gray new one for $650. Almost ready to pull the trigger. Great video.

[@TechnicallyRugged]

It's still rockin! It has developed a slight patina along the rim, just on the extreme edges of the circumference, likely from rubbing on shirts and whatnot. I think it looks appropriately worn, without looking beat up. I don't take care not to bang it into stuff, and have occasionally, but usually it's the other thing that gets scratched/dinged, as this chunk of metal is somewhat unforgiving in that way, lol. I would not worry about the brightness of the screen. In full sunlight, the e-ink display lights up so bright you would think the backlight is on 300%. The only time it can be difficult is if you're not in pure sunlight, but it's bright outside, and you're viewing the watch at an angle. I'm still only running 40% brightness with a 4 second backlight timeout and getting 10-14 days of battery life if I'm just sitting around home and not being active (shame on me!). On my canoe trips where I'm logging 2-7 hours of GPS paddling and hiking each day, with a good amount of solar (100-250k lux hours), I can squeeze 6-7 days out of it. I could probably get more if I used a stock watchface, but I think that's not bad for that much activity tracking. I hope this helps!!

[@kenguie]

Hi! I just got my Fenix7 SS and I'm charging it up to 100% right now. I was wondering, as it is pretty expensive, have you put a screen protector on it as some ppl do? If not, any scratches yet? I've seen videos on the sapphire glass but I'm not sure how it handles real life. Any tips or gotchas since it's been 8 months for you? Thanks! Hope you're still enjoying it!

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I have not put a screen protector on mine and the screen is still flawless. Now, the ring around the screen is slowly building a patina, and that's going to happen no matter what. Tips... disable the pulse oximeter, reduce screen brightness to ~50%, and lower the screen timeout to 5-10sec. I usually get 10-14 days of battery life out of mine depending on how light my use is. On my canoe trips where I'm logging 2-7 hours of GPS paddling and hiking each day, with a good amount of solar (100-250k lux hours), I can squeeze 6-7 days out of it. I could probably get more if I used a stock watchface, but I like Data Lover too much!

[@carl_weatherzzz7386]

@@TechnicallyRugged This is my experience too, in regards to the battery life. Just around ten days between charges. But I use mine for activities nearly every day.

[@alessandrobindi]

Very interesting your video, bravo! Can you tell me where I can find that watch face. Thank you

[@TechnicallyRugged]

Thank you! You can find it in the Garmin ConnectIQ app with the name "Data Lover".

[@alessandrobindi]

@@TechnicallyRugged Thank you very much!

[@sivagangaisabarisuppiah]

Enduro 2 vs this,,, which one u recommend....

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I can't say, honestly... I'm not really versed on what the Enduro has that the Fenix doesn't. Sorry!!

[@sivagangaisabarisuppiah]

@@TechnicallyRugged K,,, that's fine thnx,,, may be i can go with fenix 7 sapphire solar.... Let c

[@saeednaghdi]

knowledge is power :D , thanks for video , i have two question if you can help , i plug my Fenix 7 to computer usb but i can't see device drive in my pc, ( windows ) i did many restart and resetting but still nothing , and second question , 100% fully charged and default setting i see 18 days battery reminds, is it normal ?

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I'm not sure about the first question, but your second one is normal. It depends what features you have enabled, what your screen brightness and timeout are, and so on. The 18 days is a theoretical max but you likely won't hit that. I've seen even higher if I turn almost everything off.

[@saeednaghdi]

@@TechnicallyRugged thanks for reply

[@andy1209na]

How do adjust the brightness setting? thanks in advance.

[@TechnicallyRugged]

You probably found it by now, but it's in the system settings which you can access with a long press of the left middle button, then scrolling down to the gear icon, and then going down to System > Backlight.

[@ImPewPew4]

DOES YOUR map lag a bit and takes a bit of time to load?

[@TechnicallyRugged]

There is a bit of a delay when moving the map around, but it's not as bad as my GPSMAP 66i which can sometimes take 2-3 seconds to load more map tiles.

[@marsvaldez6216]

What is the size of the case?

[@TechnicallyRugged]

The Fenix 7 has a 47mm case: support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=gUvL27iKJr6Z2XsaZWQiW7

[@atleastthreecharswide]

What's your wrist circumference?

[@TechnicallyRugged]

Unfortunately I don’t have a tape measure at the moment (see my last video) so I don’t know the circumference. Sorry!!

[@TechnicallyRugged]

UPDATE: I had to use a piece of paper and mark it with a pen and then measure with a ruler, since I don't have a soft tape measure right now, but it looks like it's about 7.125 inches which is 181mm.

[@jimbo5603]

For most normal people the 7S is the best size. A lot of men seem to want to buy into the "rugged" marketing pushing absolutely massive watches but they look ridiculous unless your wrist is 18.5cm+.

[@sujinlaongsri9587]

Cabon gray or black

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I’ve got the black! I wanted the gray so scratches wouldn’t show up as easily, but I really do like the black.

[@doctorkj5640]

Watch review video with the reviewer’s face in the frame 99% of the time. Unprofessional.

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I'm sorry - I tried to be intentional about it _not_ being a review, but just a few bits about the one I got, what I intend to use it for, and how I have it set up. It's very much not a walkthrough of how to use every feature. What would you have preferred to see?

[@ArduousPun]

It's imperative that he shows his face the entire time? Take your negativity elsewhere. Great review, man!