Tracking almost every metric imaginable, the Garmin Enduro 2 is the most comprehensive fitness watch on test – and its hefty price tag reflects that…
Check out our full roundup of the best fitness watches in 2023
BEST WATCH FOR ENDURANCE SPORTS
Garmin Enduro 2
BUY IT NOW:
$1099.99 / £929.99 / garmin.com
Design: 4.5/5
Battery life: 5/5
Smart features: 4/5
Fitness insights: 5/5
OVERALL: 5/5
PROS:
- Best-in-class battery life
- Complete training feature set
CONS:
- High price will put most off
- Bulky styling won’t appeal to all
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The Garmin Enduro 2 combines long-lasting battery life with top-tier fitness watch features. Designed with endurance trainers in mind, with its solar charging this thing can keep on keeping on for over a month in standard mode and delivers up to 150 hours of GPS battery life – which is incredibly good.
With Garmin’s built-in mapping taking the brand’s heritage sat nav technology and tuning it for fitness, and Garmin’s smart UI, complete with wireless payment solution and app support, the Enduro 2 is a powerful fitness watch on paper, with plenty of smarts to boot.
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When you first look at the Enduro 2, its Kindle-style display tech looks novel, but it helps the watch hit best-in-class battery life. The 1.4-inch display is touch sensitive and was extremely responsive in our time with it, and we loved the UltraFit band, which is a velcro strap that’s lightweight and comfortable – offsetting the watch’s bulk nicely.
Unique interface
The large touchscreen isn’t like a traditional smartwatch: it doesn’t flash on and off. It’s always-on, always displaying the time, but isn’t always backlit. Tap the light button on the left to activate the backlight so you can see it in any environment.
Smarts come in the form of the Garmin Connect app, which supplements Garmin’s robust fitness experience with a healthy ecosystem of third-party apps. Music apps like Amazon Music, Deezer and Spotify, training apps, meditation apps and plenty of watch faces all come together to flesh out the smartwatch capabilities, as well as mobile payment. That said, the Enduro 2’s smarts won’t beat those of the Apple Watch.
The watch’s fitness features are the reason you’d pick up the Garmin Enduro 2. Runners will love the Trail VO2 Max feature, along with ultrarun activity and Adventure Training. Garmin’s PacePro and Grade-adjusted Pace are perfect for long-distance athletes, and performance metrics are accessible both in the watch and the Garmin Connect app.
Accurate wrist-based heart-rate tracking, Pulse Ox5, sleep tracking, breathing monitoring and more also help boost the experience, but it’s the Enduro 2’s battery life that helps it stand tall as the fitness watch to beat.
While we did run into one bump in the road – the custom watch faces wouldn’t upload to our review unit – the watch generally did a great job in our time with it. So while it’s pricey, the Garmin Enduro 2 is a powerful choice for serious athletes and fitness enthusiasts.
