I spend a lot of time outside, but I’m not a real outdoors person. Real outdoors people are competent and resourceful. They pay attention to their surroundings. They don’t get lost while trail running because they started crying when Taylor Swift’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” came on.
Wearing Garmin’s Fenix 6S Pro is like borrowing a real outdoors person’s brain. Recently, I went on a hike with my family on the Washington coast, trying to find a deserted beach. We meandered down one trail and another, trying to bypass a wilderness preserve where dogs aren’t allowed.
At one intersection, I stopped and pointed. “This way, right?” I said, starting down a trail that I believed headed west. My husband gave me a tired look, and walked off in a different direction without saying anything. I opened the onboard topographic map on the Garmin Fenix 6S Pro, panned on it to check where we were in relation to the coastline, and scrolled to check our compass bearings. Darn it. He was right. I followed after him.
WIRED writers Brent Rose, Lauren Goode, and I are all in unanimous agreement: Garmin’s Fenix series is the best multisport watch you can own. This year’s update, the Fenix 6 series, is even better. The most exciting version is probably the Fenix 6X Pro Solar, which starts at $1,000 and has a solar panel in the 1.4-inch face that can recharge the watch with the power of the sun.
But I have a small wrist, and big watches are of no use to me if they’re too uncomfortable to wear and won’t fit under my jacket sleeves. Instead, Garmin sent me the more manageable Fenix 6S Pro, which has a smaller 42-mm case than the 51-mm 6X Pro.
It has a 1.2-inch color display that’s noticeably larger than the one on the Fenix 5S, while still remaining comfortable to wear. It’s also $300 cheaper than the Fenix 6X Pro, although I would hardly say that $700 is a bargain.
One of the biggest differences between the Fenix 5S and the 6S is a new battery manager. Even the biggest, fanciest multisport watch is useless if it dies halfway through a long run. Now, you can see how much battery life is left on the watch. Garmin touts up to 9 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, but it’s highly variable—I got four days between charges with one or two GPS-tracked activities per day and automatic all-day pulse oximeter tracking.
If you need your battery to last longer, you can select Expedition Mode for extended GPS tracking, which will disable Bluetooth connections, turn off the screen, and ping GPS every hour. When I started a hike with only 15 percent battery life, I turned on Expedition Mode and found that I had an extra 20 hours left to get out and back.