The best Garmin watches: Fenix, Forerunner, Venu, and more compared

Garmin Fenix 7X: Solar Edition features:  Battery life: Solar charging yields up to 14 days | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Garmin's full performance metric suite: Yes 

The Garmin Fenix 7X Solar offers the latest in Garmin GPS watch technology, packing in just about everything Garmin wearables have to offer. The Fenix 7X includes a broader array of supported sports than any other series of Garmin, including in its repertoire skiing, climbing, mountain biking, and surfing, all in addition to the more "traditional" sports and exercises like running and biking.

Review: Garmin Fenix 7X Solar

Solar charging features add a layer of suave functionality to the already robust lineup within this sporty smartwatch. The Fenix 7X Solar Edition allows for some solar charging while out and about, making this watch last longer for those who prefer to do their sports and exercise in the great outdoors. The Fenix also includes the whole suite of Garmin's extensive health monitoring features, such as heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, pulse ox reading, women's health features, and more. 

Ultimately, ZDNET's reviewer was "[V]ery pleased with GPS performance, heart rate performance [accuracy], crystal clear playback, long battery life, vast assortment of sports and activities, and the quality materials." 

Garmin Vívoactive 4 features:  Battery life: Up to eight days | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Garmin's full performance metric suite: Yes 

This sleek GPS watch is oriented more towards health and fitness than traditional smartwatch features. While this is generally true for most Garmin GPS watches, it's a more pronounced reality with the Vívoactive 4. Still, that doesn't mean this isn't a smartwatch, only that it is a highly specialized one. This watch can pair with smartphones and uses multiple smartphone apps to achieve many functions beyond its primary health and fitness purpose.

The Vívoactive 4 specializes in sports, exercise, and health monitoring. The watch and bands are built for durability and exposure to the outdoors. On top of numerous other health metrics, this watch has both respiration and pulse oximeter tracking.

Review: Garmin Vívoactive 4 watch

I selected the Vívoactive 4 for "best value overall" due to its extensive sport and health features, long battery life, and relatively low price point. While $350 may still be expensive, it's a fairly middle-range for the smartwatch industry and low for Garmin.

Garmin Vívomove Trend features:  Battery life: Five days | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Garmin's full performance metric suite: Yes 

Garmin's Vívomove line is notorious for blending the natural mechanics of a traditional analog watch with its latest digital features. This makes models like the Vívomove Trend ideal for users who prefer a subtle and timeless smartwatch design. 

ZDNET tested the latest Vívomove Trend and found it to strike a good balance of in-app health and fitness features, battery life, and charging tech. Speaking of which, the Trend is the first Garmin watch in general to support wireless charging. That means you can plop the wearable on any Qi-enabled charging pad and it'll power up nicely. (There's also a wired option included in the box if that's more of your cup of tea.)

Also: Garmin's Vívomove Trend fixes my biggest issue with its smartwatches

With a hybrid design, the Vívomove Trend's motorized hands will adaptively rotate around the watch face as you interact with it, from swiping through fitness metrics to changing sound and vibration settings to starting a workout. Auto workout detection is still a thing, as is Garmin Pay and the slew of data that the companion app provides for any other model, so you won't miss out on every Garmin feature by going with more style here.

Also: The best fitness apps with live and on-demand workout classes

ZDNET's June Wan, who contributed to this article, put it best when talking about this hybrid option, "In ways, I appreciated the focus on digital well-being here, with the lack of bright, distracting, and colorful screen animations, alongside my daily health metrics."

Garmin Venu 2 Plus features: Battery life: Up to nine days | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Performance metric suite: Houses activity-tracking metrics, Body Battery, sleep score, hiking and climbing modes, and Health Snapshot

Garmin included more traditional smartwatch features in the Venu 2 Plus than in most other Garmin watch series. This smartwatch can pair with your smartphone, which by itself isn't unique even for a Garmin. What sets this watch apart from other Garmins is that it allows for wireless calls and text messages when paired with a smartphone. While not uncommon for the smartwatch industry as a whole, it is a newer function on Garmin watches. The Venu 2 Plus also includes a broad array of health monitoring technology and sports-based apps and hardware.

Review: Garmin Venu 2 Plus

Its features make the Venu 2 Plus uniquely suited to people who combine their sports and exercise with work, writing, or digital socializing. Wireless notifications on the watch screen from your smartphone are also supported, as is using the voiceless assistant from your phone. With this technology, you can observe important health metrics while exercising and dictate a reminder or memo through your watch at the same time.

We chose the Venu 2 Plus as the "best for business-focused athletes" due to its combination of sport, health, and clerical functions. While its cost is higher than some alternatives, the host of features can more than balance this out. That holds especially true for people who want a top-of-the-line, fitness-focused smartwatch that will still allow them to keep track of work.

Garmin Forerunner 745 features: Battery life: Up to 24 hours | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Performance metric suite: Analyzes pace, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV), and asses performance ability compared to average fitness level stats

Garmin designed the Forerunner 745 with triathlete workouts and competitions in mind. This watch has a remarkable lineup of features specifically geared towards this exercise style. And while it doesn't support onboard map features, the Forerunner 745 does utilize multiple GPS protocols for higher accuracy and greater spread of usable terrain.

Also: The best sports watches

The Forerunner 745 has an extensive list of measurement tools and systems, including intensity minutes, running dynamics, heart rate, cycling power, training status, training load, performance condition, race predictor, V02 Max, recovery time, and training effect. This watch is the lightest Garmin model, with the sleekest form factor, to include all these features. Additionally, the watch has Garmin coach training features, a recovery meter that accounts for your body and previous workouts, and preloaded activity workouts specific to triathletes. 

While the cost puts this Garmin into the upper-middle range of smartwatches, it offers the greatest array of triathlon-focused features in the slightest form of any Garmin watch. On top of its other Garmin features, its heavy focus on bicycling, running, and swimming are why we chose the Forerunner 745 as the "best for triathletes."

Garmin Instinct 2: Solar Edition features: Battery life: Up to 28 days on a single charge; unlimited with solar charging | Heart rate monitoring: Yes | Performance metric suite: Houses activity-tracking metrics, stress tracking capabilities, sleep score and sleep monitoring functions, Body Battery energy monitoring, Pulse Ox, and the fitness age feature

Not every Garmin GPS watch is built with the intense athlete in mind. The Instinct 2: Solar Edition can fill that role, yet it's designed to have outdoor adventures and hobbies as its specialty. This watch includes many of the health monitoring features, such as sleep and stress tracking and women's health capabilities. It also includes outdoor-specific activity functions like ABC sensors to help you better navigate trails, trackback routing to help you get back to your starting point, and multi-GNSS support. 

With solar charging built-in, the Solar Edition of the Instinct 2 has the potential to run near-limitless on outdoor adventures without needing to stop back by cavillation. Although power banks are a common resource for modern hikers and explorers, having a GPS smartwatch that essentially charges itself is a boon that can't be understated.  

Review: Instinct 2: Solar Edition

The Instinct 2: Solar Edition was selected as "best for outdoor adventures" due to its solar charging capabilities, health monitoring tools, and hobby tracking features. With a middle-range price point, this watch could appeal to many outdoor enthusiasts who might not care for the more extensive exercise focus in other Garmin watches.