Garmin Fenix 8 Pro LTE – is this the first image?
In an image handed to Gadgets & Wareables, a watch resembling a Fenix 8 boasts a mysterious LTE connectivity option. Does this make sense?
A: Yes. It might.
We’ve already had leaks for the next generation of Fenix 8 – variously rumoured to be either a Fenix 8 Pro or a Fenix 8 microled. These are ironclad rumours, emanating from materials certainly created by Garmin. With the microled screenshot images, I sourced the one I used from my version of Connect on my iPhone. The photos are real.
However, like the image above, these could be elaborate hoaxes from Garmin, simple errors or deliberate hoaxes from someone on the internet. As you saw with my April Fool’s post on Garmin’s withdrawal of the Connect+ subscription, the best hoaxes are ones we want to believe in, are technically realistic, and are created in a style commensurate with the source.
What exactly is the image?
G&W’s image is watermarked as from Pinterest and is a screenshot from Garmin Connect showing Connect unable to find a Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED 51mm. This image is not shown on the app today when pairing fails, nor is it one that I would expect to appear in the setup process. However, the word LTE appears plausibly placed in a connectivity menu.
Why LTE
4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) is a well-used technology found on Garmin 945LTE and the LTE/stainless steel versions of Apple Watch, amongst others. The emergent standard designed explicitly for wearables is 5G Reduced Capacity (5G Redcap). I expect to see 5G Redcap on Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 in a few months. Samsung will use the latest snapDragon W5 chipset with 5G Redcap. However, I believe there are no other wearables yet using 5G, although several are rumoured to use chips in advanced stages of production.
Perhaps Garmin needs to move forward with its high-end connectivity option and doesn’t want to take the 5G risk this year? It has experience with LTE, and that is the least risky option.
Other factors going against 5G Redcap and toward 4G LTE are network readiness, chip readiness, power consumption and market demand..
When
I’ve said previously that CIQ 8 had connectivity-related features. It’s also apparent that Garmin’s safety and group features would benefit from an LTE option. Furthermore, the company must surely want to move its watches as much towards being Apple Watch/smartwatch contenders as possible. So many factors suggest that Garmin will move forward with 4G LTE or 5G Redcap.
LTE could appear on a Fenix 8 Pro because it is classed as ‘Pro’. It’s unlikely it will appear on the Fenix 8 microled watch – if that even sees the light of day this year.
In this image, we see a feature that might be pretty close to launch. A new Fenix 8 LTE option could be available to us within weeks. Or not! There will be a LOT of fireworks from Garmin from May to June. This could just be one of them, pushing a Fenix 8 Pro launch back to January 2026.
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For Garmin’s LTE to ever be a real contender against apple watch, it really needs to have eSIM that can be attached to your existing phone number, so it can send and receive SMS messages at the very least, ideally even phone calls. Anything short of that, it’s not going to really pull away any market share from apple. The extremely limited “safety features” their previous LTE products have had just aren’t enough to pique many people’s interest. I don’t know how many 945 LTE watches they sold, but it was few enough that they abandoned the idea of adding it to any other watches for years afterward.
I owned the 945LTE for a while after buying it on ebay for half the price and I have to say, it was a sobering experience because it was quite useless for me as I barely used the LTE features and so I canceled the subscription after a few weeks, even though I know other user liked the connectivity. I just hope that if LTE is back on the menu, they will use an eSim that can be activated with certain providers as C.Sco already stated, otherwise it will be probably be DoA.
But if LTE comes, it will give Garmin the opportunity to raise prices again without adding any other new features, so we can finally see a 1500$ Fenix or a 1999$ Tactix 8 ProPlus LTE….