Walking Equipment and Accessories

Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Watch | Review

The Fenix series sits at the top of Garmin's GPS smartwatch lineup and is packed full of features that are ideal for outdoor users

Why We Chose It: outdoors-focused features, high-pixel watch face, battery life

GPS watches have become an incredibly powerful tool in recent years. This increase in wrist top performance has been led, largely, by one company; Garmin. The Fenix series sits at the top of their GPS smartwatch lineup and is packed full of features that are ideal for outdoor users.

This, the Fenix 6X Pro, is a great example of that outdoors-focused feature set, with a load of technology within this timepiece. All of the features are designed to streamline your life on the trail; there for your navigation or for keeping tabs on your health and physical wellbeing.

Design And Materials

The first thing you’ll notice about this watch is that huge watch face. The ‘X’ in the name ‘6X’ signifies the large 51 mm case size – the largest in the whole Fenix lineup. It’s made up of a large titanium bezel to protect the 280 x 280 pixel watch face.

You’ve got the choice of a silicone, leather, fabric or metal band to tie the watch together. This whole package comes in at a weight of 82g. Yes, this might sound like a lot for a watch, but it all makes sense once you consider the whopping 21 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, with the option to squeeze much more out of it with specific battery saving modes. Speaking of which…

Expedition Mode

Expedition Mode is a feature that gives you up to 56 days of GPS tracking. This is achieved by putting the watch into an ultra low ‘sleep’ mode, only waking up every hour to take a new GPS fix. This essentially means that you’re able to get an astonishingly long battery life out of your Fenix – ideal for those times where you find yourself on the trail for long periods without a power source.

SATs Monitoring

Previously only available on the top spec Fenix 5 Plus, the Pulse Ox Acclimation keeps tabs on your blood oxygen saturation (SATs) levels for when you’re spending prolonged time hiking or climbing up at altitude.

“You’re able to get an astonishingly long battery life out of your Fenix.”

Keeping an eye on your SATs can be essential when in the high mountains as it can help determine how well your body’s acclimatising to higher altitudes. For example, if your SATs drop to a dangerous level while you’re ascending, the Fenix 6X Pro can warn you before you push your body to a potentially dangerous limit.

Mapping

The Fenix 6X Pro comes with an impressive range of mapping already built into its 32GB internal storage. We’ve always found that Garmin nails things in the mapping department, and this is certainly true with this timekeeper.

It’s comes with full-colour Topo Maps that cover the whole of Europe (with more maps available to buy for other continents) – super handy stuff. OK we do stress the importance of proper map reading and navigational skills when out in the hills here at Outdoors Magic, there’s nothing more reassuring than being able to have a wrist top computer that can give you fast location information on a zoomable map.

Battery Life

On top of the Expedition Mode, Garmin have also created a Battery Saver mode that gives up to 80 days of battery life, with only extremely basic functions enabled and GPS tracking switched off. We’d see this mode suitable for time spent off the hill.

Battery life within Garmin’s UltraTrac GPS tracking mode has also been increased, giving up to 72 hours of GPS tracking.

Heart Rate Monitor

The Fenix 6X Pro is packing an optical heart rate monitor on the back of the watch face. This is Garmin’s refined Elevate optical heart rate tech. While this form of heart rate monitoring isn’t as accurate as that of a chest-based monitor, we always find it useful to gather heart rate information on the fly while hiking or hillwalking (without the need for any further equipment).

InReach Capabilities

We’re big fans of Garmin satellite communicators – the InReach series – and we’re glad to see Garmin build InReach capabilities into the Fenix 6X Pro. What this means is that you could link your InReach Mini to your Fenix to piggyback on the superior navigational capabilities, and the satellite communication, of the InReach.

“All of the features are designed to streamline your life on the trail.”

Garmin has also made it possible to send SOS messages, from your watch via the satellite communicator.

Music

Behind the watchface is 32GB of internal storage. This storage gives you the option to store up to 2,000 songs, or an equally large amount of podcasts and audiobooks. And, if you’re a subscriber to the streaming service, you’ll be able to pre-load your Fenix 6X Pro with your favourite Spotify playlists.

Garmin also offers full connection to Bluetooth headphones, such as the Jaybird Vista, with the Fenix 6X Pro – ideal if you’re heading out for a short run.

Garmin Connect

All these features and handy statistics that the Fenix 6X Pro is able to collect have all been pulled into the Garmin Connect app. Garmin has long been known for their app usability and we’re happy to report back that this is still the case with the Garmin Connect app, which is available for both smartphone and desktop use.

Tester’s Verdict

Jamie Barnes, outdoor photographer and filmmaker

“As someone that was never really big on using hi-tech watches, I’ve actually used this way more than I thought I would. It’s been extremely useful for keeping track of my daily exercise and making sure I reach my targets. The built-in GPS feature has also been extremely handy for quickly checking my location when I’ve been out in the hills.

“Its rugged design and durability means I’ve been able to use it during all my regular outdoors activities with no fear of it being damaged by the elements.

“It’s a pricey bit of kit, but worth the investment if you can see yourself using all of its features.”