Smartwatches are a big deal at the moment.

Anyone who recently discovered that their TomTom watch was no longer helping them to accumulate Discovery Vitality points will tell you, at great length, about their relationship with the device.

And I use ‘relationship’ deliberately, here. Words like ‘devastated’, ‘love’ and  ‘betrayal’ don’t usually crop up when we’re talking about technology.

The TomTom is geared more towards fitness fundis. If you’re an ‘outdoor sports’ person, you might be interested in Garmin’s attempts to make their product more attractive.

Engadget has the latest:

Garmin continues to upgrade its Fenix line of GPS watches, making them more useful for outdoor sports enthusiasts. With the new Fenix 6 series, Garmin is also trying to give its fans more options by offering variants in prettier styles and more premium builds.

The Fenix 6, 6S and 6X come in Sapphire editions featuring scratch-resistant, you guessed it, sapphire faces. There are also new rose gold, champagne and gray cases, as well as nylon bands and a variety of colors for a wide range of designs. Garmin has added new power management and coaching features to the series as well, but the update that really stands out is solar charging.

Apple Watches have been available in a range of colours and styles (including rose gold) for ages now. Check it out.

Plus, the solar charging option on the Garmin is only available on the super pricey $999 (around R15 200) Fenix 6X Pro Solar.

The hefty price tag might have something to do with what Garmin is calling “Power Glass”.

…a transparent solar charging lens that sits on top of the watch face. This converts the sun’s rays into energy to extend battery life by up to three days. Without solar charging enabled, the 6X Pro Solar still lasts an impressive 21 days. Garmin isn’t the first to offer a sport watch with solar-charging built in — the Casio G-Shock Rangeman comes to mind as an example — but it’s nice to see more companies adopt the feature.

It also has all the usual trappings of a fitness watch, like a PacePro feature that will coach you in real-time so you can speed up or slow down during your run, rather than try to remember what to do the next time you work out.

Garmin is also adding maps from ski resorts worldwide that you can download to your watch from the companion app for free. The existing maps for golf courses will also be upgraded to full color and will now show you the distance to the front, middle and back of each hole.

In addition to all the updates, the Fenix 6 series will come with features its predecessors already packed. You’ll get Garmin Pay for contactless payments, the company’s powerful fitness-tracking tools, smartphone alerts on your wrist and Amazon Music support (along with Spotify, Deezer and iHeartRadio).

It’s basically a very serious GPS watch.

Cool, but I’ll be sticking to my Apple Watch, thanks.

[source:engadget]