GoKawiilI’ve been reviewing Garmin watches for well over a decade now, and the company has never made that big a deal about software updates. Now we get an update every few months. What's changed in the past few years? The competition has.
For a long time, Garmin needed only to keep an eye on what a few other fitness trackers were up to. Now it has Apple, Samsung, and a whole host of other smartwatch brands offering premium outdoor features like satellite communications and more.
It’s no longer enough to be great at capturing accurate GPS running and cycling routes or filling your watch screen with detailed maps. Garmin decided it was time to step up its update game. The likes of the Apple Watch Ultra-esque Venu X1 ($700), Fenix 8 Pro ($1,889), and Forerunner 970 ($750) were among the watches to receive a pretty significant software boost.
I’ve been spending a few weeks getting to know those new features to see if Garmin has added value to some of its best watches.
Nutrition Tracking
Garmin introduced nutrition tracking to its Connect platform at the start of the year, though unfortunately it's behind the paywalled Connect+ subscription. That means you can now log your food, as well as see a breakdown of macronutrients both on and off compatible Garmin watches. Nutrition tracking is a complex feature, and Garmin’s approach to it proves there’s still some work to be done.