Garmin NOW supports GALILEO

The Foretrex 601 and Foretrex 701 will be released in Q3.2017 and come with out-of-the-box support for GPS+GLONASS + GALILEO satellite constellations.

These are NOT endurance sports devices and they are not pretty. But they indicate that Garmin is actively supporting the high precision potential of the Galileo system. Galileo went ‘live’ in an early operation mode on 15 December 2016 with 18 out of the planned total of 30 satellites – full operation is not expected until 2019.

Galileo promises resolution down to 1m accuracy BUT it is not at all clear if that is available NOW even though Galileo is ‘live’.

These are wrist-mounted BLE & ANT+ compatible navigation devices but appear to be geared towards precision hiking AND military uses such as sniper’s range-finding over extreme distances.

The Foretrex 701 comes in initially at £530.

They have many of the features that existing Garmin sports users will be familiar with such as LIVETRACK, multiple sensor-type compatibility, Quickfit straps, Garmin Connect compatibility, and smart phone integration for notifications & alerts. They work on AAA batteries and the 2 days battery life can be extended to 1 week in ULTRATRAC mode.

GALILEO will EVENTUALLY find its way into sports devices and may be the non-footpod holy grail to finally, accurately tell us how fast we are really running RIGHT NOW. Maybe. Perhaps. Could it find its way into the Fenix 5X this year (I’d say no) or into an updated high-end running watch like the expected Forerunner 635/645 in 2017? (I’d say no). My guess would be the Fenix 6X in 2019.

BUT all the existing ‘GPS’ chips used by recent Garmin, Suunto, Polar and TomTom ALREADY support GALILEO (Edit: That might not be true for ALL of them but I think it is…I’ve not checked ALL of their details)