This summer, Garmin released its new Fenix 8 watches along with the Garmin Enduro 3. It’s only been about two years since the Garmin Enduro 2 was released.
If your running watch of choice is the Garmin Enduro, you’re probably wondering what’s changed. Is the Enduro 2 outdated – and should you be upgrading to the Enduro 3?
Or is the Garmin Enduro 2 a good deal for someone who’s looking to upgrade an even older watch?
Let me run down the key things you need to know, including what features the Enduro is known for, what’s new with the Enduro 3, and whether you should be looking at the latest model in this line up.
Ultimately, different watches are more appropriate for different people. So you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and choose for yourself.
The short version is that if you’re really into solar charging and maximal battery life – you should spring for the Garmin Enduro 3. Otherwise, the Garmin Enduro 2 gets you just about all the same features for less.
Keep reading for the longer version.
What Is the Garmin Enduro Known For?
The Enduro is a lesser known option in Garmin’s line up. I took a look at the search volume for seven of Garmin’s major watch models – the Forerunner, epix, fenix, vivoactive, Lily, Instinct, and the Enduro – and the Garmin Enduro had the least number of monthly searches. By a lot.
It’s a bit of a niche product, but the people that know about it … love it. It fulfills a specific corner of the market, and it does it well.
Like all Garmins, it’s a GPS running watch. It does the basics. Distance, pace, heart rate, steps, all that.
But the Enduro is specifically marketed at people who participate in ultras or otherwise spend excessive amounts of time outside engaged in activities.
Among other things, it’s prioritizes battery life and durability. It has some of the best battery life available on a Garmin watch, it’s lighter than most similar watches, and it has all the fancy navigation capabilities. It also comes standard with sapphire glass and a titanium bezel.
It doesn’t have a fancy, shiny AMOLED screen, but it is good looking, and it’s a nice balance between form and function.
This watch also only comes in the large 51mm diameter size. That’s important for battery life, and you don’t have the option of sizing down for style and comfort. So hopefully you like a big watch face.
If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, into hours-long runs, hikes, and other activities, this is the watch for you.
What’s the Price Difference Between the Garmin Enduro 2 and 3?
If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’re interested in the Enduro. The real question is whether you should stick with – or purchase – an Enduro 2 or move up to the Enduro 3.
So the first question is, what’s the price difference?
The Garmin Enduro 3 retails for $899.99. It’s brand new, so you’re unlikely to find it cheaper than that.
The Garmin Enduro 2 technically retails for more than that. It’s original list price was $1099.99, although Garmin’s website now lists it at $999.99. But if you still find one in the wild, chances are it’s going to be $800 or less. So it’s slightly cheaper today than a new Enduro 3.
But the other potential benefit of looking at an older model is that there are used watches out there. A used Garmin Enduro 2 is currently $700 on Amazon, and if you shop around you might be able to find a better deal.
Is the Enduro 3 worth the extra $1-200? Let’s review the key differences and see.
What’s New With the Garmin Enduro 3?
There are two significant hardware features that are different with the Enduro 3: solar charging and the heart rate monitor.
There are also a handful of smaller software features that you won’t have access to on the Enduro 2, like endurance score, a race specific race predictor, and some golf features.
The Upgraded Solar Capabilities
The first key upgrade is its solar charging capabilities. The core battery life specs are pretty similar between the Enduro 2 and 3, but the advertised battery life with solar charging is much higher.
For example, in smartwatch mode it goes from 46 days up to 90 days. In GPS mode, it goes from 150 hours up to 320 hours. And expedition mode now advertises unlimited days.
As usual, I’ll add the caveat that Garmin’s solar charging never quite lives up to their promise. To get the advertised levels of battery life, you need to be outside and expose the watch to 50,000 lux three hours per day. If you’re on a day long hike, and you’re not in the shade of the forest canopy, that’s pretty likely. But many people will fail to consistently get this kind of exposure.
But even if it doesn’t get you all the way there, these improvements are significant. And as long as you get a decent amount of solar exposure, you’ll like see a fairly significant boost to your battery life.
If you get enough sun exposure, it’s conceivable that you’d only need to charge this watch once a month or so. That’s a big improvement.
The Elevate 5 Heart Rate Sensor
The Enduro 2 shipped with the older Elevate 4 heart rate sensor, while the Enduro 3 has Garmin’s latest Elevate 5 heart rate sensor.
On the one hand, the newer heart rate monitor is allegedly more accurate. It’s always hard to quantify these things in a rigorous way, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence of people testing it out with their heart rate straps and getting better results than the old Elevate 4.
Of course, if you’re really into heart rate training, it’s always a good idea to consider a heart rate strap like the HRM Dual. But the Elevate 5 is plenty good for most use cases. And frankly, the Elevate 4 is plenty good for most use cases, as well.
The other advantage of the newer heart rate monitor is that it enables the Garmin ECG app.
You can open the app, put your fingers on the bezel of your watch, and you’ll see your heart rate in real time. It’s designed to analyze your heart rate pattern and alert you if there’s a potential problem (like atrial fibrillation). The recording also gets saved to Garmin Connect, in the same way that you could record an activity or your weight.
The one problem with this is that if your heart rate is under 50, it won’t give you a result. My resting heart rate is consistently in the 40’s, and I’m sure many other endurance athletes have a similar experience. So this doesn’t do anything for me.
But I guess if you’re the kind of person that worries about your heart – you might not be in quite the same shape. So maybe there’s a correlation between the kind of people who would be interested in the ECG app and the kind of people who have a resting heart rate above 50.
Regardless, the Elevate 5 heart rate sensor is newer – and with technology, new typically means “better.” It’s not as big of an improvement as the solar charging, but it is something to consider.
The New Software Features
Then, there are a handful of software upgrades.
One of these is the Endurance score.
This metric tracks your overall endurance by combining multiple activity types and looking back over your activity for the past two or three months. It’s an interesting graph to watch if you’re engaging in long-term training for an ultra or a marathon.
But personally, I’m not sure whether it gives me any actionable information – other than, “Up is good.”
Another is the course and weather specific race predictor.
If you plug your goal race into Garmin Connect, you’ll get a widget that shows your upcoming races. When you get closer, that widget will show you the weather forecast, and it will also show you a specific race prediction for that race.
I like adding the race to Garmin Connect, because I like seeing the reminders about upcoming races. But the actual race prediction, I don’t find all that helpful.
In my experience, it’s never been very accurate. It started out wildly overestimating my fitness, and now it wildly underestimates it. A recent update improved the accuracy somewhat, but my watch is currently predicting a 3:11 for me at Chicago next week. And all signs point to 3:00 being a better guess.
Finally, the golf features now include swing tempo and tempo training.
If you’re a golfer, I’m sure these features would be useful. It tracks the speed of your swing, and you can also get audio prompts to help you practice better timing your swing.
I don’t golf, so this feature is meaningless to me. But it might make a difference for someone out there.
What’s the Same Between the Garmin Enduro 3 and 2?
And then there are all the things that are still the same.
The watch comes in the same 51mm size, with the same MIP display, and the same Power Sapphire Glass. It’s rated at 10 ATM for the water, and the battery life is superb.
It has access to fully featured maps, and it has the same amount of memory (32gb). It’s got a built in compass and altimeter, and it’s got multi-band GPS to ensure maximum accuracy.
The little things in life are also important – and both the Enduro 2 and Enduro 3 come with the built in LED flashlight. This is one of the coolest new features on my Garmin Fenix 7S Pro, and I don’t know how I lived without it. It seems like a silly reason to pay more for an upgraded watch, but I don’t think I could go back to a Garmin without this flashlight anymore.
And it’s got all of the same activity profiles, the ability to get map coordinates, multisport activities for triathletes, and golf features for golfers.
It’s a well rounded watch for the outdoor enthusiast – whether you’re an ultra runner, a marathon runner, a cross country skier, or just an avid golfer.
So Should You Splurge For the New Watch?
Considering the handful of differences between the Garmin Enduro 3 and the Garmin Enduro 2, I think the biggest question is how much you value the solar charging.
If you actually get a lot of sun exposure and you’ll be able to maximize the value of this new feature, it’s a game changer. I charge my Fenix 7S Pro on a weekly basis, and an Enduro 2 should last 2 weeks, give or take. Meanwhile, the Enduro 3 could conceivably go a month or more without needing a charge.
Is this necessary? No. But it’s cool. Plus charging your watch less frequently could help extend the battery’s overall lifespan.
Other than that, the Elevate 5 heart rate sensor is a nifty upgrade, and the ECG app is a nice gimmick. But for most people, I don’t think there’s an added value here. The minor software upgrades don’t add much, either. Definitely not an added $100 to $200 in value.
No, I’d make my decision based solely on the importance of solar charging.
If you can utilize it well and you want really long battery life – spend a little extra and get the Garmin Enduro 3.
If you’re not going to maximize the solar charging, you might as well save yourself a little money and stick with a Garmin Enduro 2. And think about picking up a used one, and saving a little extra cash.