Review: Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar

Through a series of unlikely events, I managed to snare a Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar at an excellent price. Given that I had also gotten a Garmin Edge 840 recently, I no longer felt obliged to get the biggest screen possible, so I went for the 47mm version of the watch, which is smaller while not being as small as the S. It fits perfectly and is lighter. Unlike in the past, where the X series usually has additional features not on the other sizes of watch, for the 7 Pro series all watches have the same feature. The difference is in size, weight and battery life. I did not opt for the Epix series because there were reports that in cycling mode the display would turn itself dim.

The number of new metrics available on the Fenix 7 Pro that didn't exist on the 5X is substantial. First, you get a training readiness metric that you didn't use to get. Unlike in the past Fenixes, this seems actually accurate. I had a stressful trip and it told me that my body was strained and that i should back off from serious activities.

The sleep section is vastly enhanced, now including breath detection, SpO2 (which by default only turns on during sleep to detect sleep apnea), and a body battery metric that does a relatively good job of detecting how much left you are (though you probably shouldn't need an app to tell you that!)

There's a new wrist mounted flashlight on the watch, which works really well, and I've used it often enough that it doesn't feel like a gimmick, which surprised me. What's better about it than using your smartphone as a flashlight is that being mounted on your wrist effectively makes the flashlight hands free, which is a much bigger deal than you might imagine.

Even the heart rate monitor is improved, giving much more accurate than what was on the Fenix 5X, which I considered science fictional. For instance, my HR never rose about 100 during strength training on the Fenix 5X, but with the 7 Pro it regularly registers 140 when lifting. That makes way more sense. One interesting thing is that if you choose to use a separate heart rate monitor and take off your Fenix, the Fenix doesn't carry that data over from your Edge, and instead treats that segment of the day as blank. On the other hand, for road riding using the device as a HRM doesn't seem to burn substantial battery life, so I'm OK with that. In fact, on a bike tour that means the watch substitutes as a HRM and you no longer have to bring a separate one.

What does feel gimmicky is the sapphire solar screen. Over the course of a 10-day sail trip, it felt like it added at most 4 hours of battery life, not substantial enough to make a huge difference. On the other hand, if I was going on a multi-day backpacking trip with no access to charging my suspicion is that this might let me eke out one more day of battery life. Of course, my CPAP battery would probably run out long before this happened.

Unlike the Edge series, the Fenix doesn't store elevation data on maps. This lets me load it up with both European and US maps and still have substantial storage left. As a backup for the Edge 840 I think this is a good device to have.

There's now a snorkel mode but I didn't find out about it until after my trip. I'll remember to use it next time! There's also jet lag advisory and altitude acclimation data and advise that will be substantially useful in the alps or on mountain trips. I've done enough of those trips that I don't really need this, but if you're new to big mountains I think this will be very useful!

There's a "good morning" screen that summarizes how ready you are to train, how well you slept (which might give you anxiety if you're the anxious type), and some encouragement to start your day off with. It was surprisingly good to have on my sailing trip!

All in all, I'm surprised at how much the Fenix 7 Pro has improved over the 5X. Then again, that's 4 generations of devices. I probably should have upgraded earlier but waiting for a lower price is never something I will regret.