Garmin built the first microLED smartwatch on the wrong backplane, and the microLED industry’s trade body has now confirmed it. The $1,999 Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED paired a new AUO panel with an older LTPS backplane that eats about 70% of the display’s power. The low-power LTPO alternative was already inside Apple and Samsung watches when the Fenix launched in September 2025.
The result was the best-looking watch screen yet, and a worse watch on several key measures.
| Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED | Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED | |
|---|---|---|
| Smartwatch mode | 27 days | 10 days |
| Always-on display | 15 days | 4 days |
| GPS, all systems and multi-band, 1s recording | 53 hours (41h always-on) | 34 hours (15h always-on) |
| Case | Standard | About 3mm thicker |
| Display power | 1x | About 3x |
| Price | $1,199 | $1,999, now $1,699 |
Why the backplane matters more than the LEDs
The backplane is the layer of transistors behind a screen that switches each pixel on and off. OLED watches used LTPS until Apple moved to LTPO for the always-on Apple Watch Series 5 in 2019, because LTPO can hold a static image at 1Hz with very little power. Samsung followed.
MicroLED needs that change even more. Its LEDs want a precise, steady current, which LTPS handles badly. An LTPO or hybrid-oxide backplane is the single biggest efficiency gain available to microLED watches today. The LEDs themselves use only about 30% of the Fenix display’s power, so even perfect emitters would not have rescued its battery life.
Our estimate: with the right backplane, the microLED Fenix would have managed roughly 15 to 20 days in smartwatch mode and 7 to 9 days always-on. Still short of AMOLED, because red LEDs lose much of their efficiency at watch pixel sizes, and red sets most of the power on a typical watch face.
| Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED | Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED | MicroLED with LTPO
(our estimate) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Smartwatch mode | 27 days | 10 days | 15 to 20 days |
| Always-on display | 15 days | 4 days | 7 to 9 days |
| GPS, all systems and multi-band, 1s recording | 53 hours (41h always-on) | 34 hours (15h always-on) | 42 to 47 hours (21 to 26h always-on) |
| Case | Standard | About 3mm thicker | – |
| Display power | 1x | About 3x | – |
| Price | $1,199 | $1,999, now $1,699 | Similar |
If our estimate with LTPO is correct, that materially changes the market might have reacted. Although disappointing that the battery performance isn’t as good as the F8 Pro, it’s still OK by industry standards. As it was, the microLED version shipped with bad battery life by today’s standards
What Garmin’s choice means
- The first microLED watch failed in both integration and technology. That is why AUO is still developing microLED watch displays for other customers after Garmin stepped back.
- Garmin has a record of shipping older components in expensive watches. This is the costliest example yet, and low demand has already cut the price by $300.
- OLED did not stand still. Samsung Display’s panel in the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 reaches 5,000 nits, more than the 4,500-nit microLED, in a 12% slimmer case and at lower cost. Peak brightness is no longer microLED’s selling point.
- Garmin says its MIP screens are on borrowed time once OLED matches them. Its roadmap now runs through OLED, leaving microLED for others to solve.
The 2028 comeback
MicroLED is regrouping rather than retreating, and the supply chain points to a second wave of watches from 2028.
| Supplier | Status |
|---|---|
| AUO | Shipping the Fenix panel; developing displays with several customers |
| PlayNitride | Scaling to about 10,000 six-inch wafers a month |
| Samsung Display | Building a 5.5-generation pilot line at Asan for mass production in late 2027 |
| VueReal | Commercialising a low-power, cartridge-printed wearable platform |
| Apple | Shelved its own watch project in 2024; still an obvious customer |
The roadmap runs in three phases: consolidate the first generation in 2026, fix backplanes and reach OLED parity between 2027 and 2029, then pull ahead from 2030. Volume production is credible from late 2027, so new models arrive as early as 2028.
The pitch changes too. The lasting advantages are screens that never burn in, hold full brightness for hours and cope with heat and cold, measured in brightness per watt and lifespan rather than peak nits. A Samsung Display panel in a Galaxy Watch is the likeliest first product of that second wave, with Garmin a buyer rather than a pioneer next time.
Quick answers
Why does the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED have shorter battery life?
About 70% of the display’s power goes to its LTPS backplane rather than the LEDs. It lasts 10 days in smartwatch mode, compared with 27 for the AMOLED version.
When will more microLED smartwatches arrive?
Volume production for watches starts in late 2027, so new models are unlikely before 2028.
Source and original research by: the5krunner and MicroLED Industry Association.
Last Updated on 9 November 2026 by tfk the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. See the gear tfk uses. ID
