Garmin Fenix 6 Solar smartwatch review

With solar charging added to its armoury, does this top spec Garmin smartwatch light up your training?

Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Fenix 6 Solar does everything you might want and more, making it tricky to familiarise yourself with everything it’s capable of. Once you’ve zeroed in on what you want to track it’s easy to use though. The Garmin Connect app’s interface is nice and it too can be adjusted to your interests. But unless you’re outdoors a lot, the solar charging doesn’t add a lot to battery life.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Lots of functionality for different sports and fitness tracking

  • +

    Basemaps included

  • +

    Good computer and mobile app ecosystem

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    No touchscreen

  • -

    Solar doesn’t add much charge unless you’re outdoors a lot

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Alongside its Edge cycling computer line-up Garmin has an extensive range of multisport GPS watches. Top of the tree is the Garmin Fenix 6, which packs a lot of functionality into a watch-sized package.

That includes not just GPS tracking, but Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, optical heart rate measurement and pulse oximetry (measuring the oxygen level in your blood). That’s a lot of power hungry functions to keep running - a drain on your battery. 

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