The Garmin Fenix 9 has launched at the same £1,000 price point as its predecessor, the Fenix 8, yet brings meaningful upgrades that may justify an upgrade for serious athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. Whilst the Fenix 8 remains a capable all-rounder for various sports and adventures, the new model offers improvements that particularly benefit those training in harsh sunlight and those who want expanded storage for maps and music.

The most significant upgrade is the AMOLED display, which Garmin claims is twice as bright as the Fenix 8, reaching 3,000 nits—matching the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Pixel Watch 5. Storage capacity has doubled to 64GB (allowing up to 7,000 songs to be stored), RAM increased by 50%, and map panning is 30% faster. The Fenix 9 maintains the same rugged construction with titanium bezel and sapphire lens, is tested to military standards, and retains shared features like ECG capability, Garmin Pay and music streaming, whilst introducing new functionality such as Garmin Epic for grouping multi-day activities into shareable stories.