Garmin's New Smartwatches Expect You'll Pay More For AMOLED And Longer Battery Life
Today Garmin announced the newest addition to its line of GPS-ready smartwatches, the epix Pro Series. The AMOLED-screen watches are aimed at a more active smartwatch user who is of the mountain climbing, marathon running persuasion, in a similar vein as the Apple Watch Ultra.
According to Garmin, the watch is "built for 24/7 wear" meaning that it's designed to stand up to a fair amount of abuse. For the epix Pro, Garmin added a built-in flashlight, preloaded activities like soccer and horseback riding, and several dozen more. Plus, it has a Red Shift mode that changes the screen to a red tint so it doesn't hurt your eyes when looking at the screen in low light.
Plus, the GPS features allow you to navigate to your heart's content and the watch even features weather radar. A fairly staggering 31 days of possible battery life is the icing on the cake. However, like the Apple Watch Ultra, the epix Pro is not at all cheap.
Not for the casual wearer
According to a press release from Garmin, the standard non-Sapphire glass display 42mm model starts at $899.99. Compare that to the Apple Watch Ultra's starting MSRP of $799. The biggest 51mm epix Pro with a Sapphire glass display will set you back $1,099. Whether or not that price tag is worth it, is yet to be seen. Judging by the features list and battery life, Garmin is not targeting a casual smartwatch wearer who plays tennis on the weekends and wants something to track their heart rate and step count for the day, although it would certainly accomplish the task.
Garmin is touting it as the best possible smartwatch on the market and crammed every possible feature into it, and the price absolutely reflects that. According to Garmin's site, the watches are already to order in three separate sizes: 42mm, 47mm, and 51 mm. For comparison's sake, the Apple Watch Ultra only comes in 47mm.