59% of 110 verified owners recommend the Fenix 8, based on real owner verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
4 owners report specific problemsin troubleshooting threads (setup, firmware, or hardware faults). These are capped in the score above so a problem-report thread can't dominate it — read them under the Doesn't recommend filter below.
Affiliate blogs here say 71% recommend, while the owner-based score is 59%. They earn a commission on every sale — so we show them for transparency but never let them move the score.
The headline score reflects owners (Reddit, enthusiast forums), independent lab tests, blogs with no affiliate links, and YouTube owner-comments when they line up with owners. YouTube and Affiliate blogs are shown for perspective but kept out here — hover the i for why.
Synthesized from what Fenix 8 owners say — not a spec sheet.
“Its amazing especially because it is an extremely dangerous sport when being a type 1 diabetic”
“Price is ridiculous and the features do not justify it.”
“Although I like the new display, it is too expensive to update.”
“might be good enough reason to upgrade. But maybe I will wait a year before I do...”
“I came from Apple Watch to the Fenix 8 about 2 months ago, love it. Zero issues, zero bugs.”
“For a thousand bucks you'd think Garmin would do better”
“I DO recommend this watch if you have the money for it.”
“I can see the Pro version of the Fenix 8 is not for me.”
“I still love my Fenix7 Pro very, very much and will continue to do so for a long time to come”
“if you can afford the Fenix 8 go get it”
“I'm truly mad at them for crippling one of the most iconic watches on the market”
“due to the horrible bugs when it came out”
“There isn’t an extra $500 worth of stuff compared to my 965, not even close.”
“Will I swap my 6x for the 8? Will no... because I'm not willing to spend $1,200 when mine is still so good”
“I bought the Fenix 8 and I love it 🙂 There were some bugs at the beginning, but nothing terrible.”
“Oof, the loss of the "S" line sucks.”
“I'm a little disappointed in the speaker when it comes to making calls, but overall, I love it.”
“Love my Fenix 8 51mm Oled black saphire Great battery life, great display”
“and in 95% it's working”
“I really wish it did since this is one of the main drawback for me.”
“For this price, I'm much happy staying with my €350 FR955.”
“Ill just stick to having a seperate inReach device and a watch that connects to it. So far my Messenger and Fenix 6x Pro has done well there.”
“Very happy with it in these 2 weeks I've owned it.”
“What a madness the prices!!”
Practical notes owners raise — setup, quirks, and issues to watch for. They don't say whether the person likes the product, so they're not counted in the score, but they inform the pros, cons, and who it's for.
“That's a bug I noticed and reported a while ago. In the patch notes of last Forerunner release (23.XX) it shows that this is resolved. I haven't encountered it yet since yesterday”
“But I'm still not sure if it's a worthy purchase, even after 7 years of having it (it still works perfect, just sensor is worse than on the new, no music, no garmin pay, no maps)”
“So I’m a bit confused, as a fenix 7s user. IGNORING size (as it looks like 970 is a single size device?), why would anyone pick Fenix 8 over this? What are you actually gaining?”
“I was thinking of switching to 8 just so I can add the diving feature. Does it support all features a basic diving watch would? I'm not planning to do any technical diving”
“On mine it is not deleted, it is rather not shown on the watch and still seen in the app, even if I have not synced until it "disappeared". Just one of many of these small-ish bugs on the 7 SS”
“Hi, im considering the E2P vs. the F8 currently, could you share how you experienced the change in UI when going from the E2 to the F8? And did you Notice the increase in screen size (1.3" -> 1.4")?”
“Im happy people are liking it as a dive option. I plan to use it for when i dive as a backup and to track logs easier. But the for most part having it alone side my normal dedicated computer is nice.”
“I thought about creating a activity as well. Good to know. You’re saying that I can add a temperature sensor on the activity and track that on the watch itself?”
“The leather strap is made of leather on the outside with a silicone inner lining for sweat resistance. That said, for sweaty activities, Garmin recommends using a full silicone or nylon strap instead.”
“My Fenix 5X just bit the dirt about 2 weeks ago, and the new prices SHOCKED me. Like I went in completely okay with $400, but seeing the Fenix 8 for like $900 had me literally pause and laugh out loud.”
“So faced no problems at all. With to mention, I Used them with sauna to a contrast cold water plunge regularly. Now purchased Fenix 8 and will practice the same strategy with sauna/cold water and shower”
“sounds like you should rather be looking at a descent - don't think the F8 dive features would be enough to cover you as its only ssupposed to be used for recreational diving and what you are suggesting sounds like its more than that.”
“I use my garmin in the sauna, it always goes crazy with the alerts when my heart rate rises while sitting doing nothing.”
“MIP = memory in pixel. basically the screen is always on and consumes waaaaaaaay less battery, also is more visible in the sun, however it's far from being as fancy as OLED (way less colour and resolution. Think ebook readers but in color).”
“Is that the leather strap? If so, does it retain moisture and get quite smelly ? Considering putting on a leather strap…”
“Can you give us an update? Is it still fine or have you faced issues? Would you recommend it for recreational diving?”
“When you say your watch lasts 28 days - what are your screen settings roughly? On all the time or motion activated?”
“With their biggy software you will probably hurt yourself if you want to count on F8 while diving.”
“Perhaps theres a difference in the code between brackets 13.35, I've now (DFU-ebba8d), anyone remember what was it before? One of the bugs I had was the Sleep mode, once waking up the touch didn't work, and some apps ( WhatsApp etc) the pictures weren't displayed”
“You probably just won the random defect lottery. It's also possible it just died for some reason unrelated to water/diving, and it was just a fluke that it happened while diving. Who knows. In any case, hopefully the replacement is good to go, I'd imagine it should be.”
“Mine gets delivered tomorrow, coming from a Fenix 5x so I am super excited for the upgrades”
“I'm in the same boat, Fenix 8 or FR 970. I'm trying to look all over for a " This feature is on this with no inklings of it coming out on this" and I just can't find it. Even the new metric dashboards I read in this very thread stated they would be coming to the Fenix 8.”
“WIFI on, bluetooth on, screen to 1/3 brightness on gesture, HR 24/7, Pulse Ox with sleep.”
“Yeah I’ll be on to them tomorrow, this one was brand new in box and not refurbed 🫤”
