Fenix 4, Alphabet

When i was writing about the Fenix Descent, i noticed with the other Fenix 3 models in my mind many of them had an unique name.
I looked at the variants of the Fenix 3 released and came to a nice ABC of the Fenix 4 models Garmin could launch during the product live-cycle of the Fenix 4.

Approach – The Golf series currently exists of series G & ? (handheld) and  S & X (wearable/wrist)

Bravo – Bravo series, current models are the Tactix Bravo and D2 Bravo pilot watch

Chronos – The first one in the Fenix 4 series, a “premium” watch

Descent – A diving watch

Epix -a relaunch of the buggy classic “first-of-its-kind” Epix mapping watch with maps and touch?

Fenix 4 – The classic

Quatix – Designed for Water

While most of them would just need a different or more rugged housing (Descent). One of the units didn’t fit in the row.

The Epix!

I don’t know the sales of the current Epix but they could have been higher if Garmin stood behind the product. Better marketing and real firmware support with bug fixes would lead to more sales. The Fenix has a real good toolkit so using this for the Epix would give much easier maintenance and much better support.

Two big differences between the current Epix and a Fenix:

1. Touchscreen

   While a touchscreen is no new feature for a Garmin watch, no version of the Fenix has received one, adding one is a relative easy job (see FR230 vs FR630).

2. Memory

   Second is the memory, maps on a device need a fair amount of memory (Epix 8GB), semiconductors are getting smaller and smaller every year and with the current reduction of other components Garmin might squeeze in one of the latest ultra small eMMC memory IC’s which are available at much smaller sizes than the type used in the current Epix.
   A updated version of the current Chronos PCB is needed but this is a not a thing that would stop Garmin from doing so. They could save this for the major update planned after a year (like Fenix 3 vs Fenix 3HR) but it would no problem using the new same PCB in all the Fenix 4 versions, just with minimal or no hardware mounting changes (FR230 vs FR 630 and FR235 vs FR735)

Fenix M (Music Maestro)

When writing about the Fenix Epix i realized that once a Fenix with a large amount of flash would exist, it had tot sell.
Garmin would not be Garmin if they wouldn’t use the same hardware in a “different” product. A nice use for the gigabytes of space would be music storage, so to increase sales they would release the Fenix M. Add the audio player part (MP3 decoder) and let it stream to your Bluetooth headset.