Garmin Epix 2 and Fenix 7 both come with a metal build, advanced health tracking, a bright and colourful display, and much more, so it will be difficult to decide which one to choose.
But don’t worry; you are in the right place. In this comprehensive comparison, we will be comparing both these smartwatches on pricing, design, display, health tracking, smartwatch features, and battery life to help you make an informed decision.
Quick Overview
At first glance, you can’t spot much difference between the Garmin Epix 2 and Garmin Fenix 7, as they both look quite similar.
Both have visible screw rugs on the front with a stainless steel build and Corning Gorilla Glass on top. Both offer bright and colourful displays, but the Epix 2 boasts an AMOLED display, providing more vibrant colour and visible fonts even in direct sunlight.
Both come with a quick fit and a silicone band as standard, but you can choose between a fabric, metal, or leather band according to your mood and preference. Plus, both have 10 ATM water ratings with 100 meters of depth capacity.
Comparison
| Device name | Garmin Epix 2 | Garmin Fenix 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Device type | Smartwatch | Smartwatch |
| Gender | Unisex | Unisex |
| Release date | February, 2022 | January, 2022 |
| Versions | Standard edition | Standard edition |
| Body | ||
| Dimension | 47 x 47 x 14.5 mm | 47 x 47 x 14.5 mm |
| Weight | 76 grams | 79 grams |
| Shape | Circular | Circular |
| Case material | Fiber-Reinforced Polymer | Fiber-Reinforced Polymer |
| Strap material | Silicone | Silicone |
| Bezel material | Stainless Steel | Stainless Steel |
| Strap size | 22 mm | 22 mm |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass | Corning Gorilla Glass |
| Water resistance | 10 ATM | 10 ATM |
| Swim-proof | Yes, recommended | Yes, recommended |
| Display | ||
| Display size | 1.3 inch | 1.3 inch |
| Display type | AMOLED | Transflective Memory-In-Pixel (MIP) |
| Display resolution | 416 x 416 pixels | 260 x 260 pixels |
| Pixel density | 350 PPI | 200 PPI |
| Always on | Yes | Yes |
| Custom watch face | Yes | Yes |
| Touchscreen | Yes | Yes |
| Connectivity | ||
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth calling | No | No |
| GPS | Yes | Yes |
| NFC | Garmin Pay | Garmin Pay |
| Wi-Fi | Yes | Yes |
| Memory | ||
| RAM | — | — |
| Internal Storage | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| Memory card slot | No | No |
| Cellular Connectivity | ||
| Technology | None | None |
| SIM type | None | None |
| Band | — | — |
| Sensors | ||
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Altimeter | Yes | Yes |
| Ambient light | No | No |
| Barometer | Yes | Yes |
| Compass | Yes | Yes |
| ECG | No | No |
| Gyroscope | Yes | Yes |
| HRM | No | No |
| Pulse oximeter (SpO2) | Yes | Yes |
| Thermometer | Yes | Yes |
| Battery | ||
| Battery type | non-removable Lithium-polymer | non-removable Lithium-polymer |
| Battery capacity | — | — |
| Battery life | 16 days | 18 days |
| Charging type | Plug Charger | Plug Charger |
| Charging time | 1-2 hours | 1-2 hours |
| Solar charging | No | No |
Do they differ in look?
If we talk about their looks, both the Garmin Epix 2 and Garmin Fenix 7 look identical with the same metallic build and screen size. Both come in three sizes — 42mm, 47mm, and 51mm with the Standard, Sapphire, and Pro editions for the Epix 2 and the Standard, Sapphire Solar, and Pro Solar editions for the Fenix 7.
The Garmin Epix 2 boasts a rugged, sporty look designed for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. The 1.3-inch, 350 PPI, 416 x 416 pixels AMOLED display is surrounded by a passivated stainless steel bezel with fiber-reinforced polymer casing. The screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass, ensuring durability and scratch resistance in extreme conditions.
At 47 x 47 x 14.5 mm and weighing 76 grams, the Epix 2 comes in multiple colours and a silicone band as standard, but you can choose between Leather, Fabric, and metal bands. The straps are 22 mm in length.
When it comes to battery life, the watch can go for up to 16 days in smartwatch mode and 6 days with always-on display (AOD) enabled. In GPS mode, it has enough juice to survive for more than a day without needing to charge it again, or approximately 42 hours and 30 hours with AOD. With all satellite systems, it can still last for around 32 hours and 24 hours with AOD.
The Garmin Fenix 7, on the other hand, comes with the same round, sporty design with visible screw lugs on the front. The 1.3-inch, 200 PPI, 260 x 260 pixels, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display is surrounded by a stainless steel bezel and fiber-reinforced polymer casing with Corning Gorilla Glass on top.
Measuring at 47 x 47 x 14.5 mm and weighing 79 grams, the Fenix 7 comes in multiple colours with a silicone band as standard, but you can choose from Leather, Fabric, and Metal bands according to your style and mood. The straps are 22 mm in length.
In terms of battery life, the watch can last for around 18 days in between charges. Even in GPS mode, the device can survive for up to 57 hours and 40 hours with all satellite systems. With all satellite systems and music, the battery drops to 10 hours, but who listens to music on a smartwatch anyway?
Both have a rating of 10 ATM and can withstand being submerged underwater up to 100 metres, meaning you can use them while deep diving and swimming.
Health, Fitness, and Sports Activities
When it comes to health and fitness activities, both smartwatches offer advanced features and come with a Garmin Elevate V4 sensor with 2 LEDs and 4 photodiodes, providing faster and more accurate readings. However, the latest sensor is Elevate V5, which you get on the pro version of both of these smartwatches.
Both can track heart rate, resting heart rate, abnormal HR, blood oxygen, respiration rate, stress, hydration, and women’s health. They also offer a body battery and health snapshot, which you get on almost all Garmin devices.
Both added two additional features: the skin temperature monitor and the jet lag advisor. The watch monitors your skin temperature during sleep, and it can help you detect any changes in your skin temperature that can be related to activity, illness, or other factors. Plus, the jet lag advisor, which provides personalised advice and automatically dims the watch light, turns on grayscale mode, and more, helps you feel better.
One feature that you get on the Pro version of both of these smartwatches is Garmin’s ECG app, which can help you detect irregular heart rhythms, which can be a sign of atrial fibrillation, or AFib.
Both devices can also track basic activities like steps, distance travelled, calories burned, floor climbed, intensity minutes, and more.
In terms of sports tracking, both smartwatches offer multiple sports modes for fitness enthusiasts and adventure seekers. Both offer customisable training plans, on-screen workout animations, virtual partners, and much more.
One of the best things is that both of these watches are highly focused on sports activities and provide various features for athletes. Both have VO2 max, real-time stamina (which helps you track and manage exertion during activities), training load, load ratio (which can help you track your training loads), and much more. The Garmin Fenix 7 also features an endurance score, which can help you measure how well your body is maintaining physical activity over a longer period of time.
Both devices also offer various features for ultrarunners and adventure seekers, like back-to-start, which can help you get back to where you started, a handy feature for those who love to explore new places. The Up Ahead, which provides information about upcoming aid stations, course points, turns, distance, water counters, and much more.
They also added a few safety features like incident detection, alerts, assistance, live tracking, ground live tracking, and live event sharing.
Sleep Tracking
When it comes to sleep tracking, both devices excel at it. Both can track sleep in multiple stages, including deep, light, and REM stages. Plus, they also provide sleep patterns such as when you went to bed, how long you were in bed, and nuances in your sleep. They collect all this data and sync it into the Garmin Connect app, which you can also use to track all your health data in one place.
They also added a nap detection feature that detects naps and provides insights and personalised recommendations to help you get the most out of your naps. They also sync them into the app, which also reflects your overall sleep score, which is a metric to help you detect your sleep quality. The higher score means good sleep, and the lower score means you need to work on your sleep schedule.
What else can they do?
Apart from health and fitness tracking, these devices also offer various smartwatch features such as smart notifications, view images from notifications, calendar, weather forecasts, find my phone, find my watch, smartphone music control, and more.
They also have morning reports that show multiple metrics, including body battery, calendar, step goal, step streak, weather, women’s health (if enabled), and upcoming race day information one hour before your actual wakeup time, so you can get all your important data first right after you wake up. You can also customise it if you want to see the time of day, holidays, or view the morning report before or after sunrise.
Both have Garmin Pay to pay contactlessly while on the go and 16GB of storage to store music, maps, and data on the watch. While the Pro version has 32GB of storage,.
Neither of these smartwatches offers multi-band GPS and built-in mapping in the standard version; only the Pro version has, which costs an additional $100–$150. Both have GPS tracking, but multi-band GPS uses multiple frequencies to provide more accurate and faster readings in challenging situations with buildings and trees, which can interfere with the GPS readings.
In terms of connectivity, both have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ANT+, and they are compatible with a wide range of iOS and Android devices.
Which should you choose?
Which should you choose between the Garmin Epix 2 and Garmin Fenix 7? It comes down to your personal preference, budget, and the features you want in your smartwatch. They have various similarities and differences that can easily help you determine which smartwatch you need.
If you want a watch with a bright and colourful AMOLED display, excellent battery life, advanced health and fitness tracking, and a metallic build, the Garmin Epix 2 might be a better choice for you.
But if you want a watch that can survive longer in GPS mode, has excellent health tracking, and has a few budget restrictions, then the Garmin Fenix 7 might be more appealing to you.
Both of these watches also offer Pro versions, which offer additional features such as built-in GPS, an ECG app, a flashlight, and longer battery life. But if you are an ultrarunner and hiker who loves to go on a long adventure, then you might find the Fenix 7 Pro Solar version can give you additional battery life to go for longer without worrying about carrying a charger or charging dock to charge your smartwatch.
If you might want to check out more Garmin Fenix 7 or Epix 2 comparisons, check them out below: