Why You Can Trust CNET Garmin Epix Review: Finally, a Sports Watch With an Amazing Screen
The Epix is easy to recommend if you want a watch with a great-looking screen and extensive activity tracking features. But it doesn't come cheap.
- Webby Award honoree, 2x Gold Telly Award winner
The Garmin Epix breaks the mold for sports watches with its bright AMOLED screen -- and its price. Rather than a transflective display like many of Garmin's earlier outdoor watches, the screen on the $900 (£899, AU$1,399) Epix enhances the overall experience, making it feel more like a true smartwatch. Even better news is this display doesn't come at the sacrifice of battery life, unlike some of its competitors such as the Apple Watch Series 7 or Galaxy Watch 4.
The Epix shares most of its core features with the Fenix 7 series that starts at $700 including extensive sports modes, onboard navigation and blood oxygen tracking, but it has a vastly superior screen.
Like
- 6-day battery life with always-on display
- Comprehensive fitness tracking
- Extensive mapping and routing support
- Android and iPhone compatibility
Don't like
- No heart health features like ECG
- No LTE variant, microphone for taking quick calls
- 47mm size is too big for some wrists
If you're looking for a watch to help you train and recover, the Epix does that to a tee. There's also suggestions for workouts you can do to complement your existing routine. I found it helpful that the watch would give me nudges to help up the intensity of my workouts to boost my VO2 Max -- which, admittedly, isn't as high as it used to be as I've been enjoying easier workouts during the pandemic.
I've been wearing the Epix for a month and although it's missing some features like solar charging and a speaker and mic for taking quick calls on your wrist, it really does feel like the best high-end Garmin watch if you're tossing up between the Fenix 7 and Epix -- especially if $900 for the best fitness tracking sounds worth the investment.
It's all about that screen
Without a doubt the standout design feature of the Epix is its 1.3-inch AMOLED display. It's bright and easy to see in direct sun. There's also the option to leave the display always on so the time or your workout stats stay visible.
The Epix only comes in 47mm size. I have small wrists and while the Epix admittedly does look a bit big on me, it doesn't feel too overwhelming. For those with even smaller wrists than mine, you might want to try the Epix or look at the smaller Fenix 7S before buying.
The Epix on a small wrist.
Garmin has really built this watch to withstand the elements. You get the choice of two versions, either a stainless steel version that comes with a Gorilla Glass DX screen, or a titanium version for $100 more with a sapphire crystal face. These metallic finishes may lead to some of the watch's heft, which I found too heavy for me to wear at night despite sleep tracking being offered as a feature on the Epix. I'm an active sleeper, so I was always concerned I'd accidentally knock my teeth out with the watch if I wore it to bed on the regular.
Like the Fenix, you can use both the touchscreen and physical buttons to interact with the watch. By default, the touchscreen is disabled during a workout to avoid accidental presses. All five buttons have a satisfying click to them and the interface is pretty responsive overall to touch, although some screens have a split-second lag that I've learned to live with.
You swipe up or down from the main watch face to access glances, which is a summary screen of metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen, step count, notifications and training status or VO2 Max. This is all customizable, so you can easily swap in metrics like respiration rate instead of the weather if you like.
The Epix also uses Garmin's quick fit watch bands so you can switch them out with the press of a button. There are third-party watch faces available through the ConnectIQ store, a separate app to the Garmin Connect app you need to download on your phone to sync the watch. I ended up sticking to the watch's first-party options as they had enough complications and widgets I could change to show my favorite metrics at a glance.
The Epix has more sports tracking modes than you could ever want
The Epix has so many health and fitness options, it can feel overwhelming if you're a more casual athlete like myself. Fortunately you can customize the interface and workout types to only surface the activity types you want to track and the data that actually matters to you. If you're a serious athlete, there's more than enough to sink your teeth into with over 30 different activities, plus a multisport mode so you can seamlessly transition between workout types.
For runners, PacePro calculates when you should increase or decrease your pace depending on the course you're running. There's also real-time stamina that helps you work out how much you have left to give in the tank when running or cycling. I like the idea of seeing my stamina levels on my wrist, but it's better for long-distance or endurance runners who want to avoid burning out rather than more casual runners like me.
You can also get general guidance with daily workout suggestions for runs and rides that take your training status into account. Like the Venu 2 and Venu 2 Plus, the Epix has animated workouts for cardio, weights, yoga and Pilates. Skiers will appreciate a dedicated activity type for backcountry ski and a ski power metric to show the load of your cross-country workouts, though you do need a separate chest strap for this feature to work. Surfers also can see tides, wave height and winds on the Epix too, while golfers will appreciate being able to track scores and see courses on their wrist.
A strength workout animation on the Epix.
Post-workout screens show metrics like pace, distance, a map if it was an outdoor GPS activity, as well as aerobic and anaerobic load, plus recovery time.
Heart rate accuracy is good on the Epix when compared to a chest strap, but results varied depending on the workout type and how tight I fastened the watch. Cycling, for instance, caused some big variances in readings particularly during the first few minutes of my ride. Because the Epix is so big on me, it did bounce around more than smaller watches, even when tightened securely, which affected some readings.
The Epix (purple line) matches up well to a chest strap for the most part, with a little variance at the start of my run. Heart rate accuracy will vary across individuals too due to other factors like fit and activity type.
The Epix also has other health and fitness features found on more recent Garmin watches:
- Body battery: An indicator that takes activity level, heart rate variability and stress into account to indicate if you're ready to take on a workout or take it easy.
- High and low heart rate alerts.
- VO2 Max that also adjusts for trail running and heat or altitude.
- Blood oxygen sensor for spot, all-day background and sleep readings.
- Sleep tracking with sleep stages and score.
All of this information is surfaced on the watch itself, or you can look through the Garmin Connect app on iOS or Android to see all your metrics. There is a lot of detail in this app and for first-time users it can feel overwhelming, but fortunately you can pare it down to just the essential fields you want to see if you spend some time customizing the app.
All of the data you see in the Connect app is reflected on the watch too.
For sleep tracking, similar to other Garmin watches I've tested, the Epix does tend to overestimate my total time in bed as well as underestimate my awake time during the night.
It is a shame to see the Epix lacks an electrocardiogram or ECG app given its price. While this might not be a dealbreaker for some, it does feel like a big omission considering the Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch and Fitbit all have this option, and all are hundreds of dollars less than the Garmin.
Maps to get you anywhere you need to go
The Epix also offers extensive onboard mapping and navigation tools. It has turn-by-turn navigation, golf and ski maps, round-trip routing and multiband GNSS support. Overall GPS performance has been great, with the signal locking on within seconds after starting a workout. Accuracy matched up to route and distance data captured from a control phone.
My favorite mapping feature that makes the most of the bright AMOLED display is round-trip routing. It suggests a couple different routes for riding or running based on distance and routes back to your starting point. It's been on Garmin's Fenix line for a couple generations now, but I've found it's helped me find a couple new routes to try.
Maps look great on the AMOLED display.
Garmin offers Live Track which broadcasts your location so friends or family can know your location during an outdoor workout like a run. This does require you to take your phone with you for all activities where you want Live Track, as the Epix does not come with an LTE variant like the Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch, or Garmin's own Forerunner 945 LTE. While cellular would cause more battery drain during a workout, again for the price of this watch, it feels like an omission to not have that option.
There's also incident detection onboard that can alert your emergency contacts during certain activities if the watch senses you have had an accident. Over the past month, the Epix has given me two false positive incident detection warnings, including after I vigorously brushed sand off my dog at the beach. All of a sudden, I felt lots of buzzing and a loud sound coming from the watch and I had to cancel the incident detection before it sent a text. So it does seem to be a little sensitive to particular motions it associates with an incident.
It's a sports watch, but has some smart features too
There are just enough smart features on the Epix to help it keep up with the competition, but unfortunately it's missing a speaker and mic for taking quick calls on your wrist, or interacting with a voice assistant. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus, also released in 2022, has this onboard if that's a dealbreaker for you.
The screen makes reviewing notifications a breeze, although you won't be able to respond to any notifications or text messages from the watch if you're paired with an iPhone. Quick replies are only an option on Android. The Epix uses Garmin's own operating system and there are a couple third-party apps available on the Connect IQ store, but not as extensive as those offered on other watches like from Apple or Samsung.
Music apps on the Epix. Bluetooth headphones and earbuds connect seamlessly as well.
But the Epix supports multiple music apps including Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer. You can store music offline from these services or transfer songs to the watch. The stainless steel variant has 16GB of storage while the sapphire version comes with 32GB. All versions come with Garmin Pay for contactless payments from your wrist.
The Garmin Epix battery life goes on and on… and on
Garmin has somehow managed to get six days of battery life from this AMOLED watch, with the always-on display active. That's way more than Apple and Samsung watches under the same parameters. If you don't use your watch to track sleep and turn it off overnight as I have been doing, you can even get up to one week before you need to charge.
If you turn off the always-on display and just use raise-to-wake, that extends to 16 days battery life in smartwatch mode. Of course if you're doing a lot of GPS activities you might not meet these numbers, but even with a 60-minute outdoor walk each day, I still met the Garmin claims for battery life.
Sure, this isn't as long as the Fenix 7 series -- which can last several weeks between charges -- but for the display and capabilities of this watch, I was impressed.
The Epix (left) side-by-side with the Fenix 7X (right).
I also really like how some of the watch faces show battery life remaining in a time format rather than as a percentage. For example, it says something like two days or 14 hours. The watch uses Garmin's standard 4-pin charger.
The Garmin Epix checks almost all the boxes you could want in a sports watch. But if you need more flexibility with a smaller watch face, built-in flashlight or a solar charging option, take a look at the Fenix 7 series. You'll really notice the difference in screens between the two watches side by side, though. If you like the sound of the Garmin Epix and are looking for more of a hybrid smartwatch but can't stomach the price, the Venu 2 or Venu 2 Plus is a great alternative for hundreds less.