Key Tech & Abilities that Garmin Lacks in 2025

OK, we’re halfway through the year, and it’s pretty apparent that someone in the Garmin canteen has recently doubled the dose of caffeine in each coffee. Products are coming out like crazy! With more to come.

It might be worth taking a half-step back to consider what Garmin appears to be trying to achieve with its technology, in terms of how its features are presented to the market. Also, consider what is missing.

 

4G LTE/5G Redcap – the missing feature

Solves: Can I leave my phone at home and go for a workout and still be connected?

Many of Garmin’s new smart features seem to be building blocks to support the eventual usefulness of adding LTE, which I hope we will see in the coming months. Then again, I could be wrong. Garmin may have pinned its short-term development around its current connected feature set – ie, features that require a connected smartphone to work, such as taking a call.

The fundamental direction Garmin is taking here is towards an autonomous watch. One which doesn’t need a smartphone nearby. Whether it’s uploading a completed workout (WiFi), sending a race location to friends or a race system (LTE) or sending an emergency response (LTE/Satellite), Garmin wants to do all of that. It’s not easy to move the entire ecosystem there in one go, as there are many kinds of technical and competitive restrictions, but that is the direction of travel.

Always-Listening Voice Control, Other Novel Interaction Mechanisms

Solves: Can I efficiently interact with my Garmin in my preferred way? or a more efficient way.

Voice

Many/most of the smart systems we use have always-on voice control. i.e., we can say “Hey, Google” or simply “Siri,” and the tech will hear us and respond as appropriate.

There is an “OK Garmin” feature, but it only works on externally powered Garmin devices, such as car SatNavs. Currently, Garmin watches require a manually activated voice command, which can be initiated by pressing a button. I suspect Garmin has done this, for now, simply to save the battery draw required by an always-listening feature. This may seem like a relatively minor omission, but in my opinion, it is a fundamental oversight for an aspiring Apple Watch competitor.

“OK Garmin” – Why hasn’t Garmin used that phrase in its latest voice commands?

Garmin has other options for voice control. Whilst ‘OK Garmin, take a lap’ might be an appealing feature to some, it doesn’t add much value, especially when a haptic gesture, such as a watch face slap, tap, or flick of the wrist, might be a more appropriate control mechanism during a vigorous workout.

But consider also strength training. I see no one in my relatively busy gym properly following strength workouts and correcting the number of reps and actual weights used. Your gym may be different, with a different demographic. I’m sure few people do this because it’s too cumbersome and complicated to do through a watch’s interaction mechanisms – buttons require multiple presses. Still, even a touchscreen becomes tiresome to use in this context after a while. Maybe it’s me, but I will never do that. If there were a free-form strength activity profile with voice commands, I’d use that. If I could say the muscle group or exercise, correct Garmin’s estimate of my reps, and add the weight all by voice, I’d probably do that. With this data set of exercises and velocity-based information from the watch, Garmin would have a pretty awesome strength feature, which could provide market-leading estimates of muscular strain, feeding into all its various algorithms.

I hope Garmin is doing this. It fills a big gap in its feature set.

Haptic (Vibrations)

Will Garmin introduce new haptic controls and feedback?

A: I suspect it will give this very low priority. Which is probably the right call for now.

Audio

Garmin has introduced supposedly audio-quality speakers to its latest watches. Let’s give Garmin the benefit of the doubt that the tech is in place; how the system uses it needs refinement.

Recalling that “audio” covers wider applications where the device can do other things, we could ask:

Q: Will Garmin introduce hearables?

A: Some of its competitors entered the audio products market (Suunto), and there has been a long but chequered history of sports earbuds dating back a decade, which are also a source of heart rate data. I suspect it is challenging for Garmin to produce a quality product in this area that differentiates itself from the competition. Garmin would likely struggle to win if it made audiophile-quality earbuds, and it would not be easy to obtain accurate HR/HRV data coupled with a decent-quality pair of earbuds. The novel technical difficulty is the optical sensing, not the radio playback.

I suspect Garmin has looked at this in some detail, but it will likely steer clear of a tricky but promising product area.

Visual

Apple, Meta and others are moving in a big but now subdued way towards Visual interactions with the environment. There are obvious overlaps with sports and wellness uses, but I don’t think the overlaps amount to much more than gimmicks at this stage in the technologies’ lives.

Engo has shown that there is still scope for a next-gen Varia vision – some sports goggles incorporating a high-quality microLED display or projection. I’m pretty sure Garmin has this planned for this year or next. We can expect better quality imagery with richer data types than the company made available in this way in previous years.

The key issue to overcome is practical: incorporating the technology with your preferred sports eyewear. If Garmin chooses a specific eyewear format, it must be sufficiently universal to fit many different head shapes and appeal to various aesthetic tastes. That’s tricky. Alternatively, having a bolt-on module to attach to every pair of glasses is also tricky…or even impossible.

Garmin Intelligence / AI

Q: How will this tech transform our experinces when meshed with a sports-centric wearable?

Many sports tech companies are considering how best to incorporate AI, but only today Coros announced its move into AI. Garmin has already made baby steps in this direction, much to the derision of those who have tried it and taken to the airways.

Q: What exactly does Garmin want or need to do with AI? AI has a broad scope.

Garmin’s existing training features, such as Daily Workout Suggestions, seem more than good enough. Why get AI to reinvent them? Garmin’s reporting and feedback features are also quite good; for example, the Training Readiness is relatively easy to find and understand.

Garmin AI – It’s FAKE

In my opinion, Garmin appears to be heading in the wrong direction, for example, by seemingly trying to add relatively simplistic and valueless feedback after workouts. Even if significant numbers of Garmin customers want motivational feedback like “Yay, you nailed that one”, significant numbers don’t. AI addressing relatively low-level informational needs may need a tone we can choose and tailor to best suit our desired experience.

I would suggest the best use of AI would be to

1. Provide a completely different verbal interface for interacting with Garmin Connect. Either that or something similar to Whoop Coach, where Garmin would answer detailed questions about your data in light of its sports science knowledge.
2. A new Connect-wide alerting mechanism that continually looks for exceptions and correlations in your data and occasionally brings your attention to key ones. For example, you might be following a 12-week Garmin running plan, and Garmin could highlight that your weekly training volume is 5% below what it should be. Alternatively, it could highlight emerging trends in your wellness data, indicating that you may be at risk of illness.

 

Integrations with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) / Electronic Health Records (EHR)

The openness of Garmin’s Connect ecosystem is almost perfect. However, one strategic omission at present is how it links to medical and health record platforms – ie ones your doctor can see rather than simply connecting to Apple Health.

It is safe to assume that Garmin is strategically pivoting to some degree toward becoming a smartwatch and is an ecosystem that provides a source of wellness information. Obtaining medical-grade data and sharing it with doctors is crucial to this process.

I don’t doubt that Garmin is already moving in this direction.

 

Emerging Technologies

One of the most talked-about areas of emerging wearable tech is microLED displays. Well, I talk about them. Still, there are other candidates for new tech and emerging abilities, including Solar AMOLED, Satellite connectivity, ECG, solid-state battery technology, and other novel battery chemistries, as well as new NIRS sensing capabilities (sweat, lactate, creatinine, blood pressure, maybe 2025)

With the possible exception of Solar AMOLED, these technologies will happen; it’s simply a case of when.

Garmin Solar OLED AMOLED Display with Touch – A Patent signal it Draws Closer to reality

microLED Displays

We know for a fact that Garmin is considering microLED displays. These may be on the Fenix 8 Pro (Fenix 8 Pro microLED) or its subsequent iteration.

This technology already exists and is being mass-produced. At the start of 2025, the issue remained that panel failure rates were too high. This meant the remaining components for Garmin became prohibitive, approximately $20-$30 per panel. This is quite a significant cost that notably bumps up the bill of materials, so you would think that only a high-end, high-value product like Fenix could accommodate it. Not so. The issue with Fenix is that Garmin sells too many of them. The failure rates of components in manufacturing mean that the volumes required by companies like Apple or Garmin are probably unattainable. So, while we might see a lower volume, microLED TAG Heuer this year, similar tech on the Apple Watch Ultra or Garmin Fenix 8 Pro is less likely (but possible).

Garmin’s lack of a watch with this tech is not an omission yet, as the competitors do not have a solution.

The key point is that this technology is undoubtedly on the near-horizon.

New Battery chemistry

A vast array of novel battery chemistries is being researched and improved.

Samsung and TDK both have solid-state (SS) battery technology coming to market at scale in 2026; the precise chemistry is not always disclosed, but it is likely to be LLZO (Lithium Lanthanum Zirconate Oxide) or LATP (Lithium Aluminium Titanium Phosphate). These companies are targeting wearable-specific models and batteries in other industries like EVs.

Garmin’s current Li-ion batteries have an energy density up to or around 270 Wh/L. The current SS batteries are similar to that. However, the ones coming on stream in 2026 might be around 300–400 Wh/L, thus leading to a modest step change in battery life (all other things being equal). Currently, however, costs are about four times higher for the new chemistry, and perhaps even in 2028, they will still be about 25% more expensive than they are now; thus, we will only see them in lower volume, more expensive watch models.

I would expect that Garmin has only recently started looking at the new batteries in more detail. I would be surprised to see these big improvements in battery density before 2027. Garmin doesn’t need to lead in this particular area of wearable tech as its battery life is already market-leading. I expect Apple to be more keenly investigating how quickly it can be incorporated.

That said, Garmin has already produced an Instinct watch with a ‘forever battery’ mode. OK, it’s not quite ‘forever’ but you get the point that it’s ‘a long time’. There must be a significant marketing and reputational premium for any watch brand that can introduce ‘forever battery’ on several models.

Apple Watch microLED – battery savings examined

NIRS to SWIR

Garmin and the wearable industry use LEDs in their near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors to detect HR and other physiological parameters. Recent patent filings confirm that Garmin is actively looking to increase the accuracy (1)  and scope (2) of the sports and wellness metrics it senses.

Breakthrough – Hilo Band – First cuffless and FDA-approved continuous blood pressure monitor

New technologies from Rockley Photonics and ams-OSRAM will introduce ‘laser-based’ Short-Wave Infrared, a wavelength range. These use lower power, penetrate the skin more deeply and can sense new molecules.

Below is my table outlining an approximate timeline for the likes of Garmin and Apple to adopt SWIR-based optical biosensing in watches, detecting sweat electrolytes, lactate, creatinine, and other body chemicals (glucose, alcohol, urea, potassium/sodium, cortisol, amino acids, ketones) from 2025 to 2030. The timeline considers Rockley Photonics, ams-OSRAM, and other competitors’ readiness, financial stability, regulatory hurdles, and other factors.

 

Year	Body Chemicals Detected
2025	None new (current: heart rate, SpO2 via LED-based PPG).
2026	Sweat electrolytes (Na⁺, K⁺), lactate.
2027	Sweat electrolytes, lactate, glucose (early), and alcohol.
2028	Sweat electrolytes, lactate, glucose, alcohol, urea, potassium/sodium.
2029	Sweat electrolytes, lactate, glucose, alcohol, urea, potassium/sodium, cortisol, amino acids (early).
2030	Sweat electrolytes, lactate, glucose, alcohol, urea, potassium/sodium, cortisol, amino acids, ketones. Creatinine (medical-grade only).

Note: The table distils about 3 hours of research into two columns! It gives an idea of the timeframes we could be talking about, and the chemicals to be detected that are further away in time reflect the difficulty of measuring them.

Take Out

Technology keeps on giving. Whether you want, like, or need these potential developments, the likelihood is that most will happen in the coming years, and they offer genuine new capabilities for specific demographics.

None will make the average athlete any faster, but some might support the training of high-level, tech-savvy athletes and their coaches.

The developments in store seem to improve sensory interactions, provide new safety and connectivity capabilities, and generally make the stuff we have ‘work a bit better’. In some ways, that’s a disappointing take-out for many, but I’m excited by many of these from the pure tech and novelty standpoints.

Once again, the final word goes to AI. AI will most likely make a material difference to sports and smart tech. Some of what it appears capable of is already apparent, but there could be a different paradigm in two years. I have concerns that Garmin isn’t taking AI seriously. Garmin’s foray into AI must be impactful rather than a gimmicky excuse to charge a subscription.

Last Updated on 29 January 2026 by the5krunner