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Garmin Fenix 7 vs Garmin Forerunner 35

Garmin Fenix 7

39 reviews

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Garmin Forerunner 35

Best for Most

in Fitness Tracker

Garmin Forerunner 35

145 reviews

View Product Details

Best Overall GPS Watch

OutdoorGearLab · Best GPS Watch of 2022

#14 most mentioned

Reddit · r/trailrunning

Best Backcountry-Ready Sports Watch

Switchback Travel · Best Sports Watches of 2022

Consumer Reports · Best Tech Gifts Under $150

Fitness Tracker

Consumer Reports · Best Fitness Tech Gifts Under $200

#42 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

Great tracking capabilities

Transflective screen looks like a normal watch indoors

Impressive battery life

Customizable watch faces

Supports Asian languages

Great choice for runners who want to track their runs and get more serious about running

Built-in GPS and heart rate monitoring in a waterproof design

Long battery life

Push notifications

Option to control music from your phone

Not easy to start and stop activities

Maps cannot be zoomed in on

Navigating the device can be unintuitive

Not as feature-rich as other sports watches such as Strava

No built-in music storage

No sleep tracking

Verdict

The Garmin Fenix 7 is a great watch with excellent tracking capabilities and a transflective screen that looks like a normal watch indoors. It has an impressive battery life, customizable watch faces, and supports Asian languages. However, it can be difficult to start and stop activities, the maps cannot be zoomed in on, and navigating the device can be unintuitive.

Verdict

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is a great choice for runners who want to track their runs and get more serious about running. It offers built-in GPS and heart rate monitoring in a waterproof design, long battery life, push notifications, and the option to control music from your phone. The watch is also cost-effective and provides accurate GPS readings with fast acquisition and no dropouts. However, it does not offer features that are available on other sports watches such as Strava.

Reviews by Topic

Our analysis shows how reviewers feel about different topics. Please note these are not full reviews.

Software Updates

Amazing watch with nothing missed from older models

Before with the F6x, it would take a few steps to lock out in the open. Out of the box, my F7x was on the 7.20 firmware. Earlier this week while sitting at my desk, I received a vibrate alert and the message onscreen said it was upgrading to new 7

Good running watch with a few disappointing shortcomings

SUMMARY As disappointed as I am in the Apple Watch as a running watch, I'm not switching to the Garmin until they address at least the first two items under CONS above. I feel certain the CONS I mention above are purely in the software, so hopefully they'll enhance some of those capabilities in a future update. If not, maybe Garmin needs to release a Forerunner 40 that handles those features better. The higher end Garmins may already cover those complaints, but they're too expensive for a running watch and not sufficiently capable for a smart watch

Battery Life

Perfect, except the music player

Battery life is great, tracking is excellent, and I'm really impressed by everything it does and how well. Also a huge fan of the transflective screen vs AMOLED. Indoors, it looks like a normal watch and not my phone. In bed, I can check it without being blinded

Great activity tracker, average smartwatch

While I have found getting these alerts on my wrist pretty useful, this particular feature falls short of what the Pebble offered. There's no queue or timeline for reviewing notifications as there is on the Pebble and I find I miss the ability to simply scroll back through previous alerts. BATTERY LIFE The Forerunner 35's battery life is outstanding. I get between 8 and 10 days between charges, and a full charge takes only a few hours

Activity Tracking

Probably Deserves 5, But...

I really want to give this 5 stars. THE ONLY ISSUE is the fitness tracker/recommendations. I have been working out A TON ever since I got this, which was sort of the point. This watch wants me to slow down and do more "low aerobic" activities

youtube

Garmin Forerunner 35 Review 2018 | Is it Worth it

Well, we're pretty much all my workout gear. The risk based heart monitor to me was a major selling feature. I want to be able to learn the maximum I ...

Positive

Fit

Fenix 7 vs Fenix 6 To be honest, there's not much of difference between two generations other than 1. 7 has touch screen and 6 doesn't 2. 7 supports most languages and 6 doesn't 3. 7 has a bit more solar charging area than 6 So, if you don't need other language support and don't use map often, go ahead and grab a Fenix 6 instead

Not a good option for runners in training

Are you a runner looking to take training to the next level, but can't afford a really pricey device? Wondering why in the world you'd even need one? I was in your shoes! As an activity tracker, the Forerunner 35 is very nice. I give it 3 stars because many of the features that a runner would use don't work, and I feel it's deceptive to sell a device with these features when they're not really usable for training. Essentially, this is a good activity tracker posing (ineffectively) as a training tool. Many reviewers mention that the Forerunner 35 isn't for "serious runners", and I took that to mean that they believe "serious runners" need all the complexity of a very expensive watch

Connectivity

I have a Sony phone now, so I guess I will have to look elsewhere for a decend smart watch to pair it with.

Garmin Forerunner 35 Review

95 at Fitbit)(Opens in a new window) , which gives you the option to send a canned response, emoji, or voice-to-text reply.

Positive

Price

very overpriced for the quality

it does a lot of things but...$800 are really not worth it, especially when a lot of those things are done at half the price from other smartwatches - even from the same manufacturer! after a few days I have returned it

Solid no-frills running watch from Garmin

Garmin won't be able to sell the Forerunner 35 for $200 for too long. $150 seems like a better price point. I'm sure a Forerunner 35-level watch will be selling for only $100 or so in a couple more years. The Forerunner 35 wears pretty nicely

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