I not too long ago printed an article on why GPS watches are superior for thru-hiking. I’ve actually come to understand this piece of tech after choosing one up for my final 13 months and thousand miles of thru-hiking. I realized within the course of was that for my wants, battery life is king.
Enter the Enduro 3, Garmin’s battery-life monster.
Garmin Enduro 3 At-A-Look
MSRP: $900
Weight:
- System solely: 2.0 oz
- With included hook-and-loop wrist strap: 2.2 oz
- Included knowledge/charging cable: 0.4 oz
Supplies:
- Glass: “Energy Sapphire” (presumably a proprietary lab-grown sapphire)
- Bezel (the highest rim across the glass): Titanium
- Remaining case: Fiber-reinforced polymer (a hearty plastic)
- Strap: Nylon
Dimensions:
- System: 2″ x 2″ x 0.6″
- Strap: 1” huge x 12.25” lengthy (efficient size is shorter resulting from overlapping sections)
- Charging Cable: 22”
- Digital Show: 1.4” (diameter, the display is spherical)
- Show decision: 280 pixels x 280 pixels
- Inside reminiscence: 32GB
- My wrist is ~6.25” above the wrist bone
Marketed Battery Life (not factoring in photo voltaic):
- Smartwatch mode (no monitoring): 36 days
- GPS-only monitoring: 120 hours
- All GNSS methods: 80 hours*
- Multi-band, all GNSS Methods: 60 hours
- All GNSS methods + music: 22 hours
For in depth battery life estimates, together with the theoretical extensions with solar energy, see their web site.
*GPS monitoring actions appear to default to the All GNSS mode, however in follow, my gadget gives a 72-hour estimate fairly than the printed 80 hours. This can be resulting from different components like coronary heart price monitoring.
What Is GNSS?
GNSS = World Navigation Satellite tv for pc System. GPS (World Positioning System, owned and operated by the US) is a GNSS, however the Enduro can be able to choosing up different satellite tv for pc constellations like Galileo (EU) and BeiDou (China).
The default “all GNSS methods” setting means the gadget will simply use one GNSS to navigate however might swap between constellations relying on sign energy. “GPS-only” means you’ll be locked into simply the GPS satellite tv for pc system. Multi-band means the watch will decide up a number of GNSS networks concurrently; this setting consumes essentially the most battery however ought to present essentially the most accuracy.
Utilizing the Enduro 3 as my major navigation gadget for 25 miles of off-trail desert mountain climbing.
Meant Use
The Enduro 3 is a high-end, endurance sports-focused smartwatch. It’s best fitted to analytical, performance-oriented thru-hikers. It additionally has useful options for these coaching to hike and for monitoring normal well being and health.
Circumstance of Evaluate
I rang within the new yr with the Enduro 3 and have been utilizing it every day since. With a fast-paced hike of the Tremendous Sierra Excessive Route and an ultramarathon on the summer season schedule, it’s been a trustworthy companion within the gymnasium, on the paths, and through different actions like climbing and snowboarding.
Garmin Enduro 3 Options
Elevate V5 Coronary heart Charge Sensor
The Enduro 3 options Garmin’s newest and most correct optical coronary heart price sensor, the Elevate V5. I checked its accuracy a number of occasions in opposition to my gymnasium tools’s capacitive sensors and located them to match inside two beats per minute constantly. It does an excellent job of measuring regular, consistent-effort actions like mountain climbing.
Throughout some extra intense actions, I noticed the “cadence lock” difficulty, the place the guts price measurement lags or errors your steps as heartbeats. This could trigger unnaturally constant coronary heart price readings that don’t match your precise effort. I usually discovered this to be a minor difficulty, although.
Sadly, like many wrist-based, optical coronary heart price sensors, it doesn’t fairly catch the short adjustments that “dash” sample actions have. I by no means discovered this to be a difficulty for typical operating and mountain climbing actions, however it misplaced the sharp peaks of some others, like downhill snowboarding and climbing.
If catching sharp peaks and avoiding cadence lock is an enormous concern, pairing a chest-based sensor will present rather more correct outcomes.
Preloaded TopoActive Maps
This watch is able to maps and navigation options, together with exhibiting a loaded course on a shaded, topographic map. The map set on your buy area comes preloaded on the gadget. It’s a minor however noticeable comfort to not need to undergo the wifi or USB connection obtain course of, which might take just a few hours.
If you need a special map set (equivalent to satellite tv for pc, larger decision, or a special area), there’s a course of to obtain and set them because the default. Be ready to do that at residence; it’s neither simple nor quick for the tech-challenged.
In the sort of terrain, figuring out the place you’re going is essential. The off-route alert helped me establish a missed flip earlier than I obtained too far up the (tougher) flawed fork of this canyon.
Massive Display screen & Massive Battery
The show is available in at a hefty 1.4″ and 280px decision. That is the higher finish of a sensible watch measurement. The smaller watch sizes often measure in at nearer to 1.2” (such because the Fenix 7S Professional Photo voltaic). On paper, 1 / 4 inch might appear to be a vanishingly small distinction. In follow, it’s fairly noticeable. Whereas I discover textual content fields to be pretty comparable in legibility, the large variations emerge in graphic fields, equivalent to elevation profiles and maps.
The massive display measurement is paired with an total giant gadget, leaving numerous room behind the scenes for the battery. For some purpose, the precise battery measurement is taken into account proprietary by Garmin. Utilizing a USB multimeter, I pulled 3.7Wh of energy to take the gadget from 0% to 99%. With cable and voltage transformation inefficiencies, I’d guess the precise battery measurement is about 3.2Wh.
Sapphire Glass & Photo voltaic Energy
Defending the digital show is a “glass” lens product of, I child you not, manufactured sapphire. The uninitiated might discover this an odd alternative in a world powered by Gorilla Glass and its facsimiles. Sapphire is a good alternative, nevertheless: this can be very scratch- and smash-resistant whereas being extremely environment friendly at getting power by to the photo voltaic panel beneath.
Talking of photo voltaic, the gadget has an built-in photo voltaic “ring” panel that fills the hole between the digital show and the bezel. This function is supposed to gradual the speed of energy consumption. Garmin gives in depth estimates on how a lot this might prolong your time between recharges, however learn on to seek out out my precise expertise with it.
In contrast to earlier Garmin photo voltaic shows, there is no such thing as a longer a translucent photo voltaic movie on high of the pixel show. All the ability era is across the edges of the gadget, growing display readability. Developments in photo voltaic panel effectivity imply the photo voltaic truly generates extra energy than the Enduro 2, regardless of the diminished photo voltaic space.
5 Button Navigation
This watch has two gadget navigation methods: a touchscreen and a sequence of 5 bodily buttons. Every system can be utilized to get to just about any function of the watch, though in follow, having each is sweet. I usually desire the button-based interface except I’m making an attempt to pan throughout a map.
The five-button format appears excellent to me: any extra and it could get onerous to recollect what they do and never bump them. Any fewer and it’s important to begin repeat-pressing buttons to do the identical issues.
Garmin Join and Discover
The Enduro 3 has two foremost companion apps on your smartphone: Garmin Join and Garmin Discover.
Garmin Join is the “health monitoring” aspect of the duo. It should present you stats associated to coronary heart price, sleep, coaching standing, and extra. Whenever you document an exercise, that is the place you go to see its impression on you and to share it with mates (if desired). It additionally permits you to configure the overwhelming majority of the watch’s settings from an easier-to-use gadget. A lot of the features are web-dependent and subsequently not usable on path, away from cell reception.
Garmin Discover is the mapping and journey aspect. Right here you can see a topographic map, the recorded line of all of your GPS actions,* and the flexibility to add deliberate routes to your watch. This app works whether or not you might be on-line or not, aiding in on-trail navigation and re-routes.
*Some actions that use GPS for distance monitoring, equivalent to “out of doors strolling,” don’t save the observe to Discover, to restrict the quantity of muddle.
Garmin Join (left) and Garmin Discover (Proper). I Use Garmin Join fairly a bit to verify my well being stats. Garmin Discover is of restricted use however is the primary middleman of tracks between the gadget and different software program like CalTopo.
ABC
The ABCs are a fundamental set of options that first popularized smartwatches for backpacking. The “A” is an altimeter, or a digital readout of your present elevation. This function is powered by the “B,” or barometer. The barometer can be used to verify atmospheric strain adjustments which may point out a storm. Lastly is the Compass (“C”), which hopefully wants no additional rationalization.
Utilizing the ABCs is a little bit of a misplaced artwork within the age of FarOut. I personally use them fairly incessantly to verify progress on an extended climb or maintain a bearing throughout cross-country journey.
Garmin Enduro 3 Execs
Monster Battery Life
Even with out factoring in solar energy, the Enduro 3 has a few of the finest battery life within the enterprise. The estimated non-activity (or “smartwatch” mode) battery life is a staggering 36 days, whereas the default GNSS monitoring mode is a hefty 72 hours. If you’re prepared to sacrifice some accuracy in your monitoring, the single-band, GPS-only monitoring battery life is 120 hours.
In sensible phrases, somebody mountain climbing 12 hours a day with all of the default configurations goes to get ~5.5 days and not using a recharge. That’s longer than the typical resupply on the AT. Dialing it in for GPS-only will give 8.8 days of precise use, in regards to the longest meals carry most hikers will do.
I discovered the no-solar battery estimates to be extraordinarily correct. Calculating my first battery burn after unboxing, I obtained 100.06% of the anticipated battery life. This was in January, so the gadget obtained a negligible quantity of solar publicity.
As the times obtained longer and I used to be in a position to hike with fewer layers, the photo voltaic issue got here extra into play. I discovered Garmin’s solar-factored battery estimates a bit beneficiant since they assume 50,000 lux of daylight will likely be hitting the show always. 50k lux isn’t truly all that vivid (the gadget can acknowledge as much as 250,000 lux, 5 occasions their assumed situations), however the daylight has to immediately hit the show to generate electrical energy. Whether it is partially shaded or receiving oblique mild, don’t count on it to do a lot better than 7500 lux, or 15% of the 50k benchmark.
On one significantly sunny day of desert backpacking, I had my gadget uncovered on my wrist for 10 hours and picked up 320k lux-hours of solar, or a mean depth of 32k lux. This did curb the ability consumption throughout my 8.75 hours of GPS monitoring, however not fairly as a lot as I hoped for. Take into account that clouds, bushes, and physique course can all reduce energy era considerably. Ethical of the story: I wouldn’t depend on the photo voltaic show for something important, particularly on east coast trails just like the AT.
The ~3.2Wh battery might be recharged off a 10k mAh battery financial institution about 10 occasions, making a top-up no huge deal within the discipline. It’s good to think about that it may possibly function a backup navigation gadget with out factoring in different, extra delicate electronics, although.
Intensive and Versatile Knowledge Screens
My use of a smartwatch like this facilities on activity-based features. I prefer to maintain shut tabs on my numerous path stats throughout and after a hike. Fortunately, Garmin has as many actions accessible as you possibly can probably want, and you may organize them as you want.
I attempt to maintain the variety of totally different knowledge screens on my watch restricted to keep away from having to change pages incessantly. I often maintain two pages of stats (distance, vertical achieve/loss, time, velocity, coronary heart price, and so on) and two pages of navigation (map and compass/elevation). Whereas following a course, I additionally enable Climb Professional to show elevation profiles.
If you wish to rearrange, you are able to do in order you please. The stat pages can have as little as one knowledge discipline and as many as 8, all configurable to your liking.
My go-to knowledge screens for mountain climbing actions.
MIPS Show Good for Outside Use
Within the smartwatch world, there are two main show applied sciences: MIPS and AMOLED. You’ll be able to learn extra in regards to the variations in this text. I desire MIPS shows as they require no self-illumination to learn in vivid situations and are very battery environment friendly whereas remaining at all times on. For an outdoorsy person, these are all wins in my e book. The Enduro makes use of MIPS.
Helpful Alerts
The Enduro 3 has all of Garmin’s normal alerts. I stick to three core ones: Sundown, Lap, and Off Course.
Sundown alerts are fairly self-explanatory: the watch will provide you with a warning at or a sure period of time earlier than sundown on your present location. I prefer to set mine to 45 minutes forward. This lets me know I have to search for camp within the subsequent 1-2 miles whereas I can nonetheless see.
As a knowledge nerd, I’ve my mountain climbing actions to routinely lap and alert in one-mile intervals. This lets me shortly see how briskly my final mile was and the way far I’ve truly made it through the day.
Lastly is Off Course Alerts. This function buzzes your wrist if you stray too far (~0.1 mile) out of your loaded course. This requires that you just truly load a route and observe it carefully. For thru-hikers cruising trails, that is tremendous helpful for getting your consideration if you miss an indication or veer off on a social path. This alert may even let you realize if you end up headed in the appropriate course again on the course. Be warned that if you happen to cross your loaded course however maintain going within the flawed course, it is not going to provide you with a warning. This can be a good time to change to the map view so you’ll be able to level your self the appropriate approach as soon as again on the road.
One different alert that I don’t use however see worth in is Coronary heart Charge alert. This is usually a useful coaching and power conservation instrument. An alert for top (zone 4 or 5) coronary heart charges can maintain you from burning the candle too shortly, both throughout an extended day of mountain climbing or a fastidiously moderated coaching interval.
Fast Navigation Instruments
The map show with no route lively. The topography is detailed sufficient for normal use however doesn’t seize all the things a smartphone show can.
The ABC options talked about above are core navigation instruments within the backcountry and a considerable assist throughout backpacking. Add in maps, elevation profiles, off-route alerts, and the Enduro 3 turns into a navigational powerhouse.
Having a feature-rich GPS watch has in all probability diminished my telephone navigation time by 80%. I nonetheless want to tug up Farout or Caltopo for a bigger show of context or getting excessive res topography. However as a fast reference, the watch is difficult to beat.
Flashlight
A pleasant little bundled function is the included LED flashlight. Capturing out the entrance of the watch is a reasonably vivid pink and white flashlight. It has 4 ranges of white brightness for various contexts, whereas the pink will get one fastened stage. The flashlight can both be accessed by inside menus or by double-tapping the top-left “backlight” button.
Improved Shutdown Habits
When you run out of battery mid-activity, the Enduro 3 will save and “pause” your exercise, making it resumable when energy is restored. That is a lot improved from my earlier watch, the Fenix 7 Professional SS, which corrupted and nearly misplaced a recording throughout an sudden shutdown. Be warned that if you happen to see “1 hour” of remaining battery, you possibly can be anyplace in that 1 hour and will both cost or cease recording to keep away from a shutdown.
Garmin Enduro 3 Cons
A sunny day doesn’t matter if the gadget itself remains to be shaded. Right here you’ll be able to see how my very own physique’s shadow reduces the photo voltaic consumption to about 15%.
Cellphone Dependence
The Enduro 3 can do so much by itself: the sensors and a lot of the calculations they energy are largely executed on board, and the reminiscence is giant sufficient to retailer all of it for prolonged durations of time.
That being stated, a smartphone remains to be virtually required to be used. The Enduro 3 doesn’t have a mobile modem, that means it wants your telephone to verify the climate, sync new tracks, push notifications, and add knowledge to the net. There’s additionally loads of information that’s merely simpler to learn on a bigger display, equivalent to dashboard overviews, coaching plans, and exercise historical past.
That is true of just about any smartwatch, however it’s value preserving in thoughts earlier than you attempt to head out the door in your subsequent journey with out your telephone.
Solely One (Massive) Dimension
Garmin solely sells one SKU of the Enduro 3. Which means no measurement, shade, or show choices. In comparison with the 15 choices of the Fenix 8 line, the distinction is noticeable. The case measurement is immediately associated to battery measurement, so the shortage of choices there may be comprehensible, however I’d have actually most well-liked a lighter shade physique or absolutely anything apart from lime inexperienced accents.
Photo voltaic Orientation Is Delicate
As talked about above within the battery life part, the photo voltaic panel is a bit much less helpful than marketed. Even in supreme sunny and treeless situations, having steady 50k lux situations is difficult to attain on path. Realistically, a northbound hiker sporting the watch on their left hand goes to have very minimal solar publicity within the mornings (when the solar is to the east and the highest of the wrist is dealing with west).
I often take into account the photo voltaic charging to be a pleasant however unreliable function. It’s best to at all times be ready to cost your gadget on longer journeys.
Cumbersome Velcro Strap
The Enduro 3 ships with a easy nylon hook-and-loop (“velcro”) strap. That is truly my most well-liked strap sort for lively use — much better than the silicone choices that ship with most of Garmin’s fashions.
What I don’t like in regards to the specific strap that ships with the Enduro 3 is that it’s overly lengthy for my skinny chook wrists. The consequence is that the part on the underside of my wrist is tripled over, making a cumbersome part that’s uncomfortable and tends to snag garments. This might simply be solved with a shorter strap (which they don’t promote) or not having the fastened finish of the strap loop again to itself, and as a substitute mount immediately onto the bar (like how Coros does it).
Becoming the watch band to a smaller wrist means the fabric will likely be tripled up at one finish, creating annoying bulk.
Coach Doesn’t Perceive Mountain climbing
I used to be curious how Garmin’s algorithmic teaching service would deal with a thru-hike, so I plugged within the related stats for my upcoming thru-hike of the Tremendous Sierra Excessive Route.
It shortly turned evident that Garmin Coach is constructed for 2 functions: operating and biking races. It merely didn’t have the enter vary and adaptability to grasp one thing executed slowly (<3mph) or over a number of days. It didn’t even ask about vertical achieve, which on a excessive route is maybe crucial stat. Working flat isn’t the identical as mountain climbing +83,000ft.
That is evident within the exercises it prompt to me: all operating at a minimal 6mph tempo, with none longer than 45 minutes. Through the course of the evaluate interval, Garmin Coach was additionally incapable of suggesting energy exercises, though that has modified since.
If you need steerage on thru-hiking coaching, you’ll nonetheless be higher off consulting professionals or listening to some podcasts.
Company Woes
Longtime Garmin customers see pink flags within the current course of Garmin gadgets.
Over my final yr of Garmin use, I’ve seen a troubling sequence of firmware points which are comparatively unprecedented for the corporate. Some examples are a widespread boot loop difficulty, a bug that crashed some gadgets once they have been uncovered to chilly water, and a sticky battery drain on the premium Fenix 8 gadgets.
Fortunately, the Enduro 3 appears to have prevented all of those specific points, and I by no means skilled instability throughout my testing interval.
What’s much more troubling, although, is the current introduction of Join +, a paid subscription that’s supposed to reinforce the analytics and capabilities of the Garmin Join app. Proper now, they’re promising all of your beforehand free options and analytics will stay free, and solely new, superior options equivalent to AI teaching will likely be paywalled. But there are dozens of examples of corporations transferring to “premium” subscription fashions and reneging on such guarantees. It’s additionally regarding that they may cease vital growth of any free options and paywall something new or up to date.
Name it SaaS-ification, enshittification, or Hire Searching for, I merely discover it ridiculous to pay a subscription to entry the total options of a tool that prices $900 (or over a thousand for some suitable fashions).
General Worth
The Enduro 3 brings so much to the desk for performance-oriented through hikers: plentiful metrics, navigational aids, monster battery life, and the most effective photo voltaic shows available on the market. It faces few rivals for individuals who worth the mix of options and endurance. It sits just a few hundred {dollars} above the rival’s comparable fashions, however for a tool that may final years and has sturdy resale worth, I wouldn’t take into account it a deal breaker.
Store the Garmin Enduro 3
Comparable Watches
Coros Vertix 2S: $700
Suunto Vertical Titanium Photo voltaic: $700
The Garmin Enduro 3 was donated for the aim of evaluate
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